Back to Back Squats

Coming down with the sniffles today, probably due to the cold nights because the heating situation where I’m staying sucks. It started warming back up today though, so that should be the end of the freezing temperatures. Shoulders were really looking forward to resting today after a few days of hitting them hard. Went in for the 5:15pm class.

Warm-up

  • Run 800m
  • 10 Air Squats
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 10 Burpees

Strength

5 Sets of 5-7 Back Squats, 2-3 minutes of rest between sets

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 7 @ 135#
  • 7 @ 165#
  • 7 @ 195#
  • 5 @ 225#
  • 5 @ 250#

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve done a lot of heavy back squats like this. Back at Survival Fitness we pretty much switched away from them to box squats a few months back. Nice to hit them hard again. Based on my previous 1RM, my goal was to hit 250 for 5 reps, which is supposed to put me at around 290 for a 1RM (and those calculators are usually a little low in my experience). I didn’t think I was going to get it after the set at 225#. It was a fight, but I got all 5 reps.

WOD

21-15-9

  • Deadlifts (255#)
  • Box Jumps (30″)

The Rx was 295# on the deadlifts and after getting light-headed on Saturday with 3 sets of 7 at 315# I knew scaling it would be smart for me. I broke the deadlifts down into 7-7-7, 5-5-5, and 5-4. My box jumps were pretty much unbroken, just getting set if I lost balance coming down off the box, but no rebounding since it was a high box. Finished in 6:43 and felt good about it.

Finisher

Core MB Complex, alternating with a partner
2 Rounds each

  • 10 Chest passes
  • 10 Overhead passes
  • 10 Side Tosses R
  • 10 Side Tosses L
  • 10 Straight up

I paired up with Zach and we used a 20# MB. Wow, what a burn that was!

More Shoulders

When I saw the WOD for today I planned to skip out. More shoulder work and I’ve already had a lot the last few days. But, my upper body strength is my weakest so I could use the work. Went in for 9am.

Warm-up

  • 50′ Burpee Broad Jump
  • 50′ World’s Greatest Stretch
  • 2 Rounds
    • 10 PVC Pass-thrus
    • 10 Leg Swings (side-to-side, front-to-back, each leg)
    • 10 KBS (35# KB)

WOD

  • 500m Row
  • 40 Pull-ups
  • 30 Shoulder to OH (115#)
  • 500m Row
  • 40 Pull-ups
  • 30 Shoulder to OH (85#)
  • 500m Row
  • 40 Pull-ups
  • 30 Shoulder to OH (65#)

On the first set of shoulder to OH the RX weight was 135#, which is heavy! Using 115# was heavy enough as it was for me. I went Rx the rest of the way though. Started off with 10 pull-ups, and then went 5s the rest of the way in round 1. Rounds 2 and 3 were pretty much 3 at-a-time the whole way, which short breaks to shake out the arms. For the presses I pretty much went push presses the entire way and I think I broke it down to 10-8-7-5, 15-10-5, and 18-12. Finished in 25:43.

Meet “Nancy”

It’s been a cold few days here in Phoenix, with freezing temperatures every night. Since today’s WOD had running, I was not going at 9am! Went in for the noon, which was good running weather.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 3 Pull-ups
    • 6 Push-ups
    • 9 Air Squats
  • 30 AbMat Sit-ups
  • 30 Supermans
  • Bergener Warm-up (45#)

Strength

10:00 EMOM, increasing weights

  • Power Snatch
  • OHS

I started with 75# and went up 10# each minute until I hit 135#, where I did a few sets before going to 140# for the last set. I did all arm pull on the first attempt and then hit it with an ugly attempt. My snatch needs work!

WOD

“Nancy”
5 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 15 OHS (85#)

I could have done it Rx with 95#, but I would have had to break up the OHS. By using 85# I was forced to fight for my reps and was able to keep it unbroken. Finished in exactly 15:00. Hitting all 15 in-a-row on the last two rounds was a fight and the bar was swaying all over the place. First shot at “Nancy” was a good one.

Sunday’s Triple WODs and OLY

Up and at ’em early for the 9am. Lower back is a little tight from the deadlifts yesterday, but feeling good otherwise.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 2 Rounds
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 10 Pull-ups
    • 10 AbMat Sit-ups

Each of the following 3 WODs have a 10 minute time cap with a continuous running clock. So if you get done with a WOD early, you rest until the next 10 minute chunk comes up.

WOD #1

3 Rounds

  • 10 Ring Dips
  • 50 DUs

Busted through this one in 3:37, hitting the last 50 DUs unbroken. Broke up the ring dips a bit in the 2nd and 3rd rounds

WOD #2

3 Rounds

  • 14 HSPU
  • 40 AbMat Sit-ups

I knew this one would be the toughest because that’s 42 HSPU and the sit-ups are never fast. I did the first round of HSPU unbroken, which is my best streak to date. Was really forced to get the kip down earlier in the week, which helped a lot here. I think I went 8-6 and then 6-4-4 in the last two rounds. Finished in 7:42.

WOD #3

3 Rounds

  • 10 Hang Power Cleans (135#)
  • 15 Burpees

Good way to finish it out. For the cleans I went 10 unbroken in round 1, 5-5, and then 6-4. Just tried to keep a nice steady pace with the burpees so I could keep going. Total time of 5:29.

That was a fun workout and a nice one for a Sunday.

Olympic Lifting

I headed back to eat something and then was back to CrossFit Full Strength at noon for the OLY class.

We started out doing a type of bear complex.

  • Deadlift and power up to shrug.
  • Hang Power Clean
  • Front Squat
  • Push Press
  • Back Squat
  • Push Jerk (from the back)

I did a few of those with 95# and then we did one EMOM for 10:00. I stuck with 95# for the first 5 and then jumped up to 115#. After a bit of rest we started doing:

  • Power Clean
  • Squat Clean
  • Push Jerk

I did one at 115#, one at 145#, and then three at 165# I think. From there we went to push presses, working from some warm-up sets of 5, to triples, doubles, and singles. I’m not exactly sure what weights I used, but I think it was something like:

  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 105#
  • 3 @ 115#
  • 3 @ 145#
  • 2 @ 155#
  • 1 @ 165#

I wasn’t keeping track and really don’t remember. Next up we did sets of 5 strict shoulder presses.

  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 105#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 4 @ 125#

There was a lot of good work in that hour+ of work. It’s good to be back for the Olympic lifting work for sure. Johnny knows his stuff and was picking out a few little things in both my clean and my jerk. I tend to sit forward a bit when receiving the cleans and not enough back on my heels. My stance was starting with my feet too far apart in the clean, not allowing enough room for my knees to push out and get out-of-the-way of the bar. I need to get my front foot out forward more in the jerk. Good stuff!

After the HSPU and all of that pressing, my shoulders are feeling it.

First Competitors WOD at CrossFit Full Strength

Got up bright and early to head in for the 8am competitors WOD. Everyone who goes tries to Rx as much as possible and the quality of the athletes pushes everyone to train harder. Wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since the WOD wasn’t posted ahead of time.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 5 Deadlifts (225#)
  • 4 Deadlifts (315#)

WOD

This is event #6 from the 2012 Regionals

  • 3 Rounds
    • 7 Deadlifts (345#/225#)
    • 7 MU
  • 3 Rounds
    • 21 Wall Balls (10′, 20#/14# MB)
    • 21 T2B
  • 100′ Farmer’s Carry (100#/70# x2)
  • 28 Burpee Over the Box Jumps (24″/20″)
  • 100′ Farmer’s Carry (100#/70# x2)
  • 3 MU

2012-regional-events

WOW! As Chayet was writing the WOD on the board we all were getting scared. Yes, that’s all one workout. No rest times in there.

I decided to only use 315# for the deadlifts and did jumping bar muscle-ups, but went Rx on everything else. We used loaded up barbells for the farmer’s carry, which was quite the challenge because you had to find a good balance point in each bar.

I got pretty light-headed in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the deadlifts, so I’m glad I didn’t go the extra 30#. My low back was tight as soon as the WOD was over. Even doing the jumping bar muscle-ups wasn’t easy, but got through them. I broke the wall balls down into 11-10 each round and the T2B went 11-5-5, 11-5-5, 8-5-3-2-2-1 I think. Hips were kind of shot for that last round. The farmer’s carry was a lot easier than I expected as far as picking up the weight and carrying it, but the balance made it a challenge. Suffered through the burpee box jumps slow and steady without stopping. Forgot about the 3 more reps at the end, but rushed over and knocked them out on the bar. Finished in 21:29. Compare that to Rich’s top time of 12:22, which was obviously Rx.

Hiking

In the afternoon I went out for a hike and did 4.71 miles in 1:40:49.

All Cardio, All WOD

Last night I went for a nice 3+ mile walk to recover from Tuesday’s brutality. Went in at noon today.

Warm-up

  • 3m Jump Rope
  • 2m Plank
  • 2 Rounds
    • 12 Ring Pulldowns
    • 12 Ring Bicep Curls
    • 12 Bent Ys
    • 12 Bent Ts
    • 12 Single Leg Reach (each leg)
    • 1-2m Rest

Haven’t done a plank that long in quite some time, but was able to hold it without too much trouble. Nice burn in this stuff. I used 10# DBs for the Ys, Ts, and Reaches.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 500m Row
  • 100 DU

Kind of what I needed to ease back in. Straight up GO type of WOD. I tried to keep everything right around 2 minutes and finished in 19:19. Last round of DUs kind of sucked and were hard to get going. Felt good overall though.

Destroyed

I didn’t get a chance to post this yesterday because the Internet wasn’t working at all in the place I’m staying…

My hamstrings and inner thighs are really feeling those 100 back squats.. Went in for the 9am.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 50 feet of Burpee Broad Jumps
  • 2 Rounds with 1 minute rest between
    • 10 Straight plate raises
    • 10 45 degree plate raises
    • 10 Bent plate raises (palms down)
    • 10 Bent 45 degree plate raises
    • 10 Bent plate raises and curl (palms up)
  • 3×3 Turkish Get-ups (35# KB, each side)

I used 5# plates for all of the raises, which doesn’t sound like much, but gives a great burn.

Strength

4 Rounds

  • 3 Dead Hang Pull-ups
  • 5 C2B Pull-ups
  • 7 Kipping Pull-ups
  • 2m Rest

The goal was not to come off the bar when doing it Rx, which I was able to do for the first two rounds. Then in the 3rd round I had to drop after the C2B pull-ups, and had to drop a few times in the last round. I was fried and it’s not worth a hand rip.

WOD

  • 10->1 HSPUs
  • 10->1 Ring Dips
  • 30 DUs

I kipped all of the HSPUs and had to split the sets up a lot, but never had to use an AbMat for depth assistance. All ring dips were kipping and broken up as well. Lot’s of breaks on both the HSPU and ring dips because my arms are weak and I didn’t want to hit the point of failure! Rx was unbroken for the DUs, but that would have taken me forever. I did get 30 unbroken in 2 of the rounds I believe, but other than that I just did 30 total each round. My time was 24:24.

Gayle, the owner and trainer who has qualified for Regionals the last two years, worked out next to me and crushed the WOD in 13 or 14 minutes, easily doing her DUs unbroken and only breaking up a few of the other sets. It just goes to show how much better someone elite is!

I felt terrible after the class. This had to be the toughest upper body CrossFit class I’ve completed. I was absolutely destroyed and didn’t feel well as soon as I got done with the workout. I’ve had times where I felt bad for an hour or two, but not the entire day. I wish I was exaggerating, but I felt so bad I was in bed all day and took a sick day from work. I was a little concerned I actually had Rhabdo, but I seem ok today.

Back in Phoenix

It was nice having a few days off while I drive out here to Phoenix. Yesterday I went for a hike and wore the 20# vest, which maybe wasn’t a great idea for my first hike of the year. I felt like I was going to keel over in the first 5 minutes, but only slowed down on the ascent to take drinks of water. Including the “hike” to and from the car, it ended up being 2.69 miles in 1:06:47, with over 1,000 feet of vertical climb. I also walked 18 holes of golf in the afternoon, so it was a great day!

This morning I got up and went in for the 9am class at CrossFit Full Strength. It was good to be back!

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 3 Rounds
    • 20 Band Walks (each direction)
    • 10 Band Presses
    • 20 Alternating Prone Hitchhikers

WOD

10 Rounds

  • 10 Back Squats (135#)
  • 10 KBS (53#)
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups

The Rx weights were body weight for the squats and 70# for the swings, but Emily said nobody in the earlier classes was anywhere near Rx. The weight for the back squats was pretty perfect because I had to start taking a rest after 5 or 6 reps in the later sets. Wouldn’t have wanted to go any heavier for the KBS either since I’m not used to American swings with us always doing Russian swings back in Saginaw. My GHD Sit-ups were slow! Finished in 21:19.

Off to Phoenix

Went in at 9am for my last Survival Fitness WOD for a couple of months. Starting the road trip to Phoenix this afternoon.

Warm-up

Tabata Mash-up

  • Burpees
  • Plank

I did 5 burpees each round.

Strength

1RM Floor Press

Started with 8 easy reps at 95# and 2 at 165#. Then went 1 at 195#, 215#, 235# (PR), and missed at 245#. After getting 3 at 225# last week I figured I had 245# in the bag, but I just didn’t have it after a tough WOD last night.

WOD

Since it was my last WOD at SF for a while, Matt made up the WOD in my honor using my age and first letters of Momrik. 33 reps of each.

“Momrik 33”

  • Man Makers (40# DBs – push-up, row, row)
  • OHS (95#)
  • Man Makers (yes, again!)
  • Ring Dips
  • Inchworms
  • K2E

No rest for the arms and shoulders in this one. I started off with 10 man makers and then tried to stick to 5 reps at a time for the rest of the way. For OHS I did 10-10-8-5. Kipped all of the ring dips and was able to stick to sets of 5 so I didn’t hit failure. Took a short water break after 10 inch worms and then yelled at myself for taking any break on what was the easiest part of this WOD, so did the rest unbroken. On K2E, I went 10-8-8-5-2 I think. Finished in 19:58, which should be a pretty good time. Rx for the man makers was 45# DBs, but I know my limits there and 40# was just right for me.

My arms and shoulders are fried. I’m looking forward to a few days off as I drive out to Arizona. I’ll probably go out for a hike on Sunday when I get to town and then hit up CrossFit Full Strength on Monday morning.