Managing with the Back

Didn’t sleep worth a shit last night, so got out of bed and did some work early. Went in for the 9am class again. Back feels better today, but can still get some solid pain if I move in the wrong positions.

Warm-up

Did some leg swings and back stretching before class started.

“Sally Up/Down” doing squats with PVC as a bar.

Strength

5×5 Front Squats @ 70-80%

  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×235#
  • 5×245#
  • 5×255#

BOOM! Squats are back! My form felt pretty good too. Didn’t even really start leaning forward much even on the last set. I’m fucking excited about this, especially with my back in less than ideal shape.

Accessory

12:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 8 Good Mornings (135#)
  • Evens: 30s Hollow Rocks

Felt some pulling in the back with the good mornings, but I think it helped to stretch it out too.

Conditioning

  • 4:00 AMRAP
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 3:00 AMRAP
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 2:00 AMRAP
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 1:00 AMRAP

A round consists of:

  • 5 DB Deadlifts (45# DBs)
  • 5 DB Hang Power Cleans
  • 5 DB Push Presses

I did 6+8, 4+8, 3+3, and 1+13. Rough, but I felt better in this than yesterday’s workout.

Headed back in at 8pm for some rowing. Another workout from NCLab

  • 1000m Row
  • 100s Rest
  • 900m Row
  • 90s Rest
  • 800m Row
  • 80s Rest
  • 700m Row
  • 70s Rest
  • 600m Row
  • 60s Rest
  • 500m Row
  • 50s Rest
  • 400m Row
  • 40s Rest
  • 300m Row
  • 30s Rest
  • 200m Row
  • 20s Rest
  • 100m Row

Kept under or at a 1:52 / 500m pace through everything. My splits were 3:44, 3:24, 3:01, 2:38, 2:17, 1:54, 1:31, 1:10, 0:48, and 0:24. I almost fell over when I got off the rower and was a little light-headed for 10-15 minutes.

Fuck, My Back

Moving a little slow this morning, but in for the 9am class.

Warm-up

  • 20 Zombie Kicks
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 15/15 Standing Hurdles (forward and backward)
  • 10 Burpees

Strength

5×5 Deadlifts @ 70-80%

  • 10×135#
  • 5×225#
  • 5×315#
  • 5×335#
  • 5×355#
  • 5×375#
  • 4×385#

What a fucking idiot. Tried to push it and now that low back area on the right side is worse than it was 2 weeks ago. It was starting to feel pretty good too. I want to slap myself. Pisses me off even more that it was already the most volume I’d done for a 5×5 before trying that last set.

2014-02-19-5x5-deadlifts

Accessory

Kroc Rows

  • 10/10 x 60#
  • 10/10 x 71#
  • 10/10 x 71#

Conditioning

  • 20 Thrusters (95#)
  • 20 Power Cleans (95#)
  • 20 Shoulder to OH (95#)
  • 20 OHS (95#)
  • 20 Front Squats (95#)

* Do 5 burpees EMOM starting at 1:00

I felt pretty terrible in the workout and didn’t push it on my burpees because I could feel my back there. Not to mention I couldn’t breathe and felt like shit. Took me 4 minutes to do the OHS, only able to get 5 reps each time! Not good. Total time of 10:57. I think I was the last one done.

Rested a bit when I got home, finished shoveling the end of the driveway, and then made a pit stop in the garage on the way in.

Accessory

  • 5×10 Reverse Hyper using GHD with green band

Sleepy Monday

Got really tired last night and was in bed at 11. Slept over 8 hours, but still feeling tired this morning before heading in to the 9am class. My low back is still tweaked, even with the rest day yesterday.

Warm-up

Strength

Back squat 5×1 @ 90%+

  • 10×45#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×225#
  • 2×275#
  • 1×295#
  • 1×300#
  • 1×305#
  • 1×310#
  • 1×315#

No misses today! Stayed in a better comfort zone and felt pretty good. Just Nanos again; no lifting shoes.

Olympic Lifting

Backwards MB throws overhead to work on hip extension. Then work up to a heavy power clean.

The throwing drill was messing up my timing, so I quit doing it. Did some cleans aw 135# and 155#, then went 185#, 205#, 220#, and 235# to match my power clean PR. I landed with really wide feet so decided not to go higher after that. My dropping under the bar kind of sucks.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 7 T2B
  • 14 HR Push-ups

Used the new stuff we learned in the gymnastics class to keep my legs as straight as possible in the T2B and my hip flexors didn’t fatigue like they normally do. I broke one round down to 5-2, but every other round was 7 unbroken, even the last round. I finished 5 full rounds plus 7 T2B and 6 push-ups. We had the option of doing hand release if we wanted and I figure if they are going to be in the Open they’ll definitely require the hand-release, so might as well work on it.

Back to the gym at 8 for open gym. Another rowing workout from the NCLab.

  • 5:00 mod, 3:00 rest
  • 5:00 hard, 3:00 rest
  • 4:00 mod, 2:00 rest
  • 4:00 hard, 2:00 rest
  • 3:00 mod, 1:30 rest
  • 3:00 hard, 1:30 rest
  • 2:00 mod, 1:00 rest
  • 2:00 hard, 1:00 rest
  • 1:00 mod, 0:30 rest
  • 1:00 hard, 0:30 rest
  • 0:30 mod, 0:15 rest
  • 0:30 hard

Row Pacing Template

  • Hard: 2000m PR pace + 0-5 sec (1:47-1:52 per 500m)
  • Mod: 2000m PR pace + 5-15 sec (1:52-2:02)

Oh my! What a fight just to stay on the slow end of the pace ranges. I think I messed up and only took 30 second rest after the hard 2 minutes, but it wasn’t so bad at that point. Going for 5 and 4 minutes hard was the worst. Racked up over 8,200 meters!

Saturday Hangover

Woke up with a little headache this morning from having a few beers with my brother last night. Went to the 10am class.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • Band stretching

We warmed up on our own today.

Olympic Lifting

Work up to a heavy squat clean.

  • Did a little position work with 45#
  • 2×135#
  • 165#
  • 185#
  • 205#
  • 225#
  • 235#
  • 245#
  • F 255#
  • 255#

Was in nanos, which felt different. Didn’t commit to the first try at 255#, but got it on the 2nd try to match my PR. Was up on my toes a bit but hung on. Need to get the confidence up with these weights. I’ll take it today with the tweaked low back from deadlifts.

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP w/ partner (each does an entire round and then switch)

  • 6 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 6 Thrusters (95#)
  • 6 Burpees

Cora and I were together. We used the same box and she had a bar with 65# for thrusters. Our game plan was to keep a nice steady pace and keep working, then kick it in high gear in the last 20% of the workout. Worked well for us. We each finished 12 rounds and she got a few box jumps in at the end. Every other team came out of the gates hot and I think we were the last team to finish a round each. But by the end of the workout, we’d passed every team but 1, maybe 2.

That’s 233 burpees for me in the last 3 days!

Back to the box at 1 for some gymnastics work taught by Joe.

He took us through the two basic shapes of the hollow and reverse hollow (superman) that translate into pretty much everything. Then we worked on handstands, kipping, bar stuff, and some ring MU stuff. I felt better doing the straight leg T2B than I did the last time I tried. Worked a bit on keeping the legs tight and in good position for my butterfly pull-ups. Joe helped me to get 2 unbroken bar muscle-ups for the first time. One of the biggest take-aways for me was understanding how to come down from the top and get into that hollow position in order to transition into the next rep. Need to put some time into working on it now.

Better Already

Day 2 doing the 9am.

Warm-up

  • 10 HR Push-ups
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 20 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 10/10 Leg Swings (S-S, F-B)
  • 10 Burpees

Strength

5×5 Bench Press @ 70-80%

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×170#
  • 5×180#
  • 5×185#
  • 5×190#
  • 5×195#

Little struggle with the last set. Not sure I could have done 200#.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 4×3 C2B Pull-ups
  • 3×3 Deadlifts (165#)
  • 3×2 Hang Power Cleans (165#)
  • 3 Shoulder to Overhead (165#)

Interesting twist with the sets. We could hang on to the bar from movement to movement, but couldn’t do more than the assigned number of reps per exercise at a time. I felt better in this workout than yesterday. Did all push jerks and strung them together in the last two round instead of stopping in the rack after each rep. Finished in 12:32.

Extra

  • 2×5/5 Turkish Get-ups (35# KB)

Went in for open gym around 5:30 for a row workout from NCLab.

  • 500m Moderate
  • Rest 1:00
  • 4 rounds
    • 300m Hard
    • 200m Easy
    • 100m Sprint
    • Rest 1:30
  • 500m Moderate
  • 4 rounds
    • 300m Hard
    • 200m Easy
    • 100m Sprint
    • Rest 1:30
  • 500m Moderate

That adds up to 6,300m. The most I’ve ever rowed was 5,000m in a day, which is pretty terrible when doing it for time. I reset the computer on the rower a bunch of times so I didn’t have to keep track of the rollover meters going into a new round.

Row Pacing Template

  • Sprint: sub-2000m PR pace (Faster than 1:47/500m)
  • Hard: 2000m PR pace + 0-5sec (1:47-1:52)
  • Moderate: 2000m PR pace + 10-15sec (1:57-2:02)
  • Easy: 2000m PR pace + 25-30sec (2:12-2:17)

The hardest part might have been going slow enough during the easy pace. I was under 1:40 for all of the sprints I think and really went close to 100% on some of them. Fun little workout.

Jumped on the Air Dyne (AD6) to do a 1:00 test, but fucked it up because we started with the timers at 0:06 and I forgot to keep going up to 1:06. Still managed to rack up 34 calories even though I slowed down a ton even before stopping early at 1:00. Will try it again next week and should be able to get over 40. I was still shaking from the row actually before doing this.

60 Day Lifting Challenge – Week 7 Day 5

I’m doing the 60 Day Lifting Challenge from Columbus Weightlifting.

Woke up feeling really beat up. Could it have been simple from moving the heavier day 5 up? Lifted solo just after 11. I work Nano 3.0s for the entire session today since the lifts were not squat variants. Could really tell the difference in setup positioning.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets of MAX Unbroken DU
  • 10×45# Shoulder Press

Went 62, 50, and 73 on the double unders.

Split Press

  • 2×95#
  • 2×105#
  • 2×115#
  • 2×125#
  • 2x2x130#
  • 2×135#
  • 2×140#

Power Snatch from Below Knee

  • 2×100#
  • 2×120#
  • 2×140#
  • 4x1x150#

Power Clean from Below Knee

  • 2×135#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×180#
  • 4x1x190#

Lifts felt good today even though I wasn’t feeling so great this morning.

Snatch Deadlift

  • 6x2x185

Hooked gripped them all for once. Hard on my thumbs!

Skill

Three more sets of MAX unbroken DU. I went 82, 75, and 67 this time. Really happy with those 6 sets today. All sets at least of at least 50 and no stupid early trip ups. Had some really nice saves too, wanting to hit at least 50 every time.

Skill/Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 10 Pistols
  • 20s Handstand Hold
  • 10 T2B
  • 90s Rest

I counted slow up to 21 during my handstand holds since I couldn’t see the clock. Timed out my counting while typing this up and it should have been pretty damn close to 20 seconds. My rounds were 1:08, 1:05, 1:03, 1:03, and 1:01 with everything unbroken. Really liked that one!

2014-01-18-wod

Ended with Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap.

I wonder what they have in store for us in week 8. Tomorrow will be day 49, so not much time left.

60 Day Lifting Challenge – Week 7 Day 2

I’m doing the 60 Day Lifting Challenge from Columbus Weightlifting. Since it’s a light week and it looks like next week might be MAX test week, I’m making a lot of adjustments to the program this week to prepare for some solid rest heading into Monday. Lifted by myself around 10:45.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 rounds
    • 10s L-sit on parallettes
    • 4 Turkish Get-ups (alternating, 53# KB)

Not sure I’ve ever done TGU that heavy and surely not for that many reps.

Snatch from Below Knee

  • 2×100#
  • 2×120#
  • 2×140#
  • 1×150#
  • 5x1x160#

Went 2/5 with 160#. Ugh! It was too far forward or I wasn’t dropping under enough for the force I was putting on the bar. They were all plenty high enough, that’s for sure. I definitely rush more and concentrate less when I snatch alone. Need to fix that. I focused on the last rep and it was solid.

Clean from Below Knee

  • 2×135#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×180#
  • 1×190#
  • 5x1x205#

Cleans felt good. I never really am in risk of missing, but for a few attempts in the program where I tried something new and was thinking too much. Goes to show much more I should be able to clean I hope.

Clean Deadlift

  • 2x2x230#

Kind of odd to only do 2 sets of 2. Must be a reason for it though.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 30s Air Dyne (~80%, AD2)
  • 30s Rest

I kept the RPM around 90. Went a full 1:00 on the last round and finished with 256 calories.

Did the Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap to end the session.

60 Day Lifting Challenge – Week 6 Day 2

I’m doing the 60 Day Lifting Challenge from Columbus Weightlifting. Lifted with Alex at 4:30 again. Feel pretty good today after the first 90% day based on new PRs yesterday.

Warm-up

  • Band stretching
  • 45# Snatch Position Work

Muscle Snatch

  • 2×75#
  • 2×85#
  • 2×95#
  • 2x2x105#

Power Snatch Below the Knee

  • 2×105#
  • 2×120#
  • 2×140#
  • 1×150#
  • 5x1x160#

Power Clean Below the Knee

  • 2×135#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×180#
  • 1×190#
  • 5x1x205#

GHR

  • 2x5x15#
  • 3x5x25#

Conditioning

10:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 15s Air Dyne (AD2)
  • Evens: 30 DU

60 Day Lifting Challenge – Week 5 Day 4

I’m doing the 60 Day Lifting Challenge from Columbus Weightlifting.

Made a quick trip up to Rogers City yesterday to meet my new niece. Jumped on Dad’s Air Dyne before hitting the road back home.

Conditioning

  • 20:00 Air Dyne at 50-60% effort

Kept my RPM just below 60 on the AD2 and finished with 330 calories, which is pretty close since I’ve done 340 in 10 minutes before. Good way to start the day.

Lifted at 3:30 with Alex in the garage.

Warm-up

  • Band pass-thrus
  • 45# Snatch Position Work
  • 75# Muscle Snatches and Snatch Presses

Power Snatch from below knee

  • 2×100#
  • 2×120#
  • 2×140#
  • 1×150#
  • 5x1x160#

Felt a little slow and missed the 4th rep at 160#.

Power Clean from below knee & Push Jerk

  • 2×130#
  • 2×155#
  • 2×180#
  • 1×190#
  • 5x1x205#

Alex told me to be faster with the push jerks and it really helped.

Front Squat

  • 2×185#
  • 2×225#
  • 6x2x250#

Added in those couple of extra warm-up sets since all of the lifts were power variations. Still took a couple of the 250# sets to start feeling ok with the weight.

Snatch Deadlift

  • 5x2x185#

Even these felt heavy! I hope the extra conditioning I’ve added this week isn’t the cause for my sluggish feel. Maybe it was the quick trip with 5 hours of driving.

60 Day Lifting Challenge – Week 4 Day 5

I’m doing the 60 Day Lifting Challenge from Columbus Weightlifting.

Work continues on the garage gym. I put a Phillips screwdriver bit through my thumb today and made a nice canyon. Won’t be hook gripping anytime soon, so it’s good this last week was max week. All that’s left to do is hang up the dry erase board and some poster type things and then clean the garage because the dust from cutting is everywhere.

A lot of stuff to get done in the programming today so I split it up into two sessions. First session started out in the garage by myself before 2 and was done just after 3.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 DU Practice
  • 45# Clean Positions

Muscle Clean

  • 3×105#
  • 2x3x115#
  • 2x3x125#

Snatch

  • 2×95#
  • 2×115#
  • 2×135#
  • 1×145#
  • 1×150#
  • 1×160#
  • 3x1x170#

I made the first 170# with a save in the hole, but couldn’t pull out the last two. Shoulder area is pretty beat from building ladder storage last night. Hours of work overhead!

Clean

  • 2×125#
  • 2×150#
  • 2×175#
  • 1×190#
  • 1×200#
  • 1×215#
  • 3x1x225#

Felt pretty good considering I couldn’t hook grip. The programming had clean & jerks, but since I screwed up yesterday and with beat shoulders I made an executive decision to just go with cleans today.

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM

  • 5 C2B Pull-ups

Did them on the rack and it wasn’t too bad. Had to adjust my kip so that I wouldn’t hit the ground with my feet. Did all rounds unbroken though. Still need to figure out butterfly chest to bar pull-ups before the Open.

Back out in the garage at 6pm for part 2.

I’m doing the 60 Day Lifting Challenge from Columbus Weightlifting.

Back Squat

  • 20×45#
  • 2×205#
  • 2×240#
  • 2×270#
  • 2×290#
  • 2x2x305#

5 Rounds

  • 5 Reverse Hypers (green band on GHD)
  • 5 GHD Sit-ups

Had to improvise since I don’t have a Reverse Hyper machine (I might make a ghetto one to fit on the rack). They were kind of cool with the band. You could hold a bit at the top and squeeze more.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Air Dyne (AD2)
  • 10 HR Push-ups
  • 5/5 One-arm KBS (not alternating, 53# KB)
  • 90s Rest

The AD wrecked me to the point where I couldn’t breathe enough to knock out the push-ups. Had to take a breathing break at 5 or 6 reps and they were slow reps. My rounds were 1:54, 2:08, 1:55. I went all out on the first round of AD, which killed me. Quads were burning early in the 2nd and 3rd round. It was programmed to be 250m rows, but all I have is an AD. 1:00 is longer than 250m rows would take, but I could use the extra work. Found out from this that my conditioning isn’t the greatest, so might have to mess around with adding some more here and there over the second half of the program.

Week 4 is done! Added 15# to my total so far, with a lot of room for improvement in the C&J.