Tag: Double Under

Double Tabata

Don’t feel anything after yesterday’s workout.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets
    • 5 Burpees
    • 20 Mountain Climbers
    • 1:00 Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10 Shoulder Press (45#)
  • 5/5 Bulgarian Split Squats
  • 10 Shoulder Press (75#)
  • 5/5 Split Squats (75#)

Strength

E3M – 6 Sets

  • 12 Shoulder Press (95#)
  • 6/6 Bulgarian Split Squats (95#)

Yuck! Close to failure on the last 3 sets of shoulder press. Did the split squats with the bar on my back again. Glad we are done with this cycle!

Conditioning

  • 8 Rounds (Tabata)
    • 20s Air Squats
    • 10s Rest
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 8 Rounds (Tabata)
    • 20s Double Unders
    • 10s Rest

My goal was sets of 17 air squats and I managed, though had to speed up the last few on some rounds. 136 total squats. Thought the dubs were going to be horrible after the squats but I think it actually helped to relax my legs, which sounds kind of stupid to say. I only had one miss and it was to start round 2 or 3. Got 284 reps, just 2 shy of my 286 best. If I don’t have any misses and get an extra rep or two per round, that 300 might be possible. It’s hard to speed up dubs though because then you have a higher risk of missing.

8:00 AMRAP

  • 5 One-Arm Deadlifts Right
  • 50′ Suitcase Carry Right
  • 5 One-Arm Deadlifts Left
  • 50′ Suitcase Carry Left

Used a 70 pound kettlebell. We were outside and I have no idea how many rounds I did. Not speedy, but kept moving the entire time.

Went for a run before dinner. Hot out! Ran 2 miles in 16:17, which is 30 seconds faster than Saturday. Slowly speeding up. Started out way too fast or I think I would have been able to hold a better pace.

Will have time for ROMWOD yet later.

Fuel

My hips, legs, and lower body in general is tight from yesterday. Put in a lot of work yesterday and a lot of loaded squats. Tough one today that I know is a long grind, but I was actually excited for the chance to redeem myself after what I felt like was a pretty poor time last year. Much cooler day today, with the temperature around 40-45°, compared to last year (May 3) being one of the hottest days of the year.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 3 Sets
    • 5 ATYs (5#)
    • 10 Shotguns
    • 50 DU

Got every round of dubs unbroken.

Strength & Midline

E2M – 6 Sets

  • 4 Pendlay Rows (165#, supinated)
  • 30s Hollow Hold

Did 10×45# and 4×135# to warm-up. Second week in a row I went with the underhand grip since I had gone two in a row pronated. I feel these rows just a bit on my left shoulder.

Conditioning

kelly“Kelly” – 5 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 30 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

There were some complications with the music last year so it wasn’t even a true time for me, but I called it 29:59, which I thought was actually shortchanging myself for how long it took me to fix the tunes. Could I push harder on the runs this year?

The first run started out a little faster, but that’s to be expected fresh. Tried to keep a steady pace on the other 4 runs. I did all step up/down on the box since that many jumps will lock up my back. They were 8 right, 8 left, 7 right, and 7 left every round. Wall balls were 4 rounds of 18-12 with a quick 5-10 second breather and unbroken to finish.

Wore my watch so I could see some of the heart rate data and get an idea of my round times. Unfortunately the HR data had a bunch of drops down near or under 100 bpm so the average is pretty useless. Does show a max HR of 166 for the workout, which should be pretty accurate.

Not easy to tell because the GPS data jumps all over the place while inside the gym doing the reps, but looks like my splits were 4:35, 4:48 (9:23), 4:57 (14:20), 5:02 (19:22), and 4:44 (24:06). During the workout when I checked my watch on each run I kept waiting to hit a wall but it never happened. I felt much better throughout than I was expecting. Really happy with how consistent those round times stayed for a long workout. The last round time came down because I did the wall balls unbroken.

I thought if I was able to PR by 3 or maybe 4 minutes that would be great. I thought a 5 round average of 5:00 was a pipe dream, but I was well under that. Improved by almost 6 minutes! I think I could almost walk fast and get that 30 minute time from last year. haha The heat could have been a big factor too.

Definitely looking forward to ROMWOD tonight!

Diet

I’m not sure if I’ve written about it, but I’ve been counting macros for about 4.5 months now. I used to absolutely hate all of the counting and keeping track, so was never able to stick with it for more than a week or two. Something shifted this time around and I’ve actually enjoyed it. My previous “diets” worked, but usually ended up with me falling off the wagon and I’d gain back the weight. My “go to” was always low carb and try to stay cleaner. Doesn’t really work in the long run for me though because I enjoy food too much.

So I read about Renaissance Periodization and figured I’d give it a shot. It’s been working brilliantly so far and I feel much better mentally and physically. I give almost no care to the quality of what I’m fueling my body with as long as the quantity lines up with my macro number goals. The fancy term for it these days seems to be “flexible dieting” or what a lot of people call IIYFM (If It Fits Your Macros). Another popular company besides RP that will help you is Working Against Gravity. While I can see the value in paying RP or WAG for help, it’s really not that hard to do on your own if you have some discipline. If I can do it, so can you. 😉

Progress was steady for the first 2 months. It leveled out during the Open, when I was having a massive 36 hours way over my macros after doing each week’s workout. I didn’t track food on a week vacation so gained a little bit there, but quickly lost that and have been stable at 203# since. The trend lines are still heading in the right direction and body fat % seems to be decreasing. We’re getting towards the end of an 8 week hypertrophy cycle at the gym so this means the muscle building has been working and muscle gain + fat loss are leveling each other out. Will be interesting to see what happens when we switch back to lifting heavy shit during our strength work. I’d like to drop closer to 195# and get the body fat down to 10-11%.

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A Lot of Dubs

Really didn’t want to get up after being out late for drinks, but wanted to get in my workout with a bunch of stuff to take care of at work the rest of the day. Made it to 9am though.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets
    • 10 PVC pass thrus
    • 10 Russian KBS (44#)
    • 10 Hollow Rocks
    • 10 Supermans

Strength

5 Sets

  • 12 DB Bench Press (40#)
  • 5 Strict HSPU

Could tell I haven’t done handstand push-ups in a few weeks.

Conditioning

  • Buy-in: 200 DU
  • 10 Rounds
    • 15 Air squats
    • 10 Push-ups
  • Cash-out: 200 DU

Started with 91 unbroken I think. Took me just under 2:30 for that first set of dubs. All air squat sets were controlled and unbroken, making sure to hit full range of motion. I 8 sets of quick 5-5 push-ups and then finished with 2 unbroken sets. Moved on to double unders before the 10 minute mark and finished at 12:37. I know I started with a set of 50 and finished with 4 sets of 20, with whatever else sprinkled in the middle. Shoulders were really burning at that point so sets of 20 was all I could handle. We were going to run 600m but adjusted with the rain.

Midline

  • 60 Side Bends (44#)

I did 10 per side and swapped sides without stopping until I was done. Little extra oblique work while a few people finished up the workout.

I’ll do some ROMWOD tonight.

Landmines

Yesterday I got out on the course for the first time and walked 9 holes. Did a 47 minute ROMWOD during a work townhall and a short shoulder one at night. Coached the 9am so went in early to do my warm-up and strength work.

Warm-up

  • 2 Sets
    • StrongFit Tricep Openers (10#)
    • 20 Russian KBS (44#)
    • 8/8 Landmine Rows (45#)
    • 10/10 Donkey Kicks
  • Back Squat
    • 9×45#
    • 9×135#

Strength

E3M – 5 Sets

  • 9 Back Squats (185#)
  • 8/8 Landmine Rows (10# on 45# bar)

I worked up a hell of a sweat with this. I few years ago I didn’t see the value in a landmine attachment, but am now finding some neat uses. You can prop the bar into a corner (I had a box up against the wall) and it works just as well, for free. I really liked the different line of action you get compared to a Kroc row. Supposed to give some more oblique work too.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

  • 40 DU
  • 20 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10 Deadlifts (225#)
  • 5 Burpees

Was a good one. My goal was to go unbroken on the wall balls and deadlifts and was able to. I did the first 2 sets of dubs unbroken, then missed once in each of the other rounds. Finished 5 full rounds plus the double unders and 5 wall balls. Finished up with Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap. Should be able to get in a ROMWOD tonight.

Gettin’ Flexy

My hamstrings are a little more sore today. Shortly after waking up I did the 2nd video in the ROMWOD welcome path, which focused on hamstrings, hips, and low back. I’m so inflexible! Feels better than other yoga stuff I’ve done and you can definitely feel things opening up as you hold the poses for several minutes. Went to the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets
    • 10 Toe Touches
    • 20 Hollow Rocks
    • 30s Bottom Squat Hold
  • 200m Run
  • Back Squat
    • 8×45#
    • 8×135#

Strength

E3M – 5 Sets

  • 8 Back Squats (185#)
  • 8/8 Kroc Rows (53#)

I used a controlled descent on the squats and put some focus into driving my knees out. Really tried to pull the rows with my lats and started each one from a dead stop at the ground. Worked up a nice sweat.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Push Press (75#)
  • 30 DU
  • 10 Hang Snatch (75#)
  • 30 DU

Bryan based this off a recent Outlaw workout he did. I really liked it. Missed 1 double under in the middle somewhere and then missed right at the end with 2 seconds left as I was trying to speed them up to finish the set of 30 I was on. Ended up with 4 rounds plus the push press and 24 dubs. Snatches started to burn at the end of rounds 3 and 4.

Midline

  • 4:00 Plank (hands)

While the class did them in a tabata I just kept going. The last 2 was a mental struggle after the shoulder focused metcon and I was really shaking. Finished up with Crossover Symmetry Recovery.

Did another ROMWOD while watching TV later.

Grinding 20

Went in for the 4:30 class. Did 2 sets of my own warm-up first.

Warm-up

  • 2 Sets
    • Tricep Openers (10#)
    • 20 Shoulder Taps
  • Bar Hang/Stretching
  • 3 Sets
    • 10 PVC Pass-thrus
    • 20 Push-ups
    • 10 Band Pull-aparts (green)
    • 20 Mountain Climbers
  • Romanian Deadlift
    • 8×45#
    • 8×135#

Unbroken push-ups each round.

Strength

E2M – 5 Sets

  • 8 RDL (165#)

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 50 DU
  • 40 Russian KBS (70#)
  • 30 Ball Slams (25#)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 10 Goblet Squats (70#)

Grinder. I did 3 rounds plus the dubs and 4 kettlebell swings. I did the first round of dubs unbroken, then 3-47, and a lot of misses in the next 2 sets. Swings were 24-16 for 2 rounds and then 26-14. Ball slams were 18-12 for 2 rounds and then unbroken in round 3. Tried to keep a slow and steady pace on the burpees. Unbroken on the goblets each time. First round was done in about 5:20, so slowed considerably after that.

3 Strikes for Annie

I can feel my back is a little aggravated from the shoulder press over-extension yesterday. Would be great if Castro doesn’t give us a max lift or heavy deadlifts this week.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • 15 PVC Good Mornings
  • Zombie Kicks
  • Walking Lunges
  • 20 Jumping Jacks
  • 16 Mountain Climbers
  • 5 Burpees

Strength – Deadlift

  • 5×135#
  • 5×205
  • 5×255
  • 5×275
  • 5×305

Easy does it with the back.

Conditioning

“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10

  • Double Unders
  • Sit-ups

Set everything up for success with dumbbells for feet and my AbMat pad. Missed 3 times in the set of 40 double unders though. Can’t miss if I’m going to PR. Sit-ups felt really good, but too bad. Managed a 6:07, which is only 8 seconds slower than my best.

Accessory

6 Sets

  • 10 Russian Kettlebell Swings (70#)
  • 20 Shoulder Taps
  • 5 Ring Swings

I threw one muscle-up in there to show Weston something and I flew up on to the rings! This swing work is going to pay off. Coming down was pretty terrible on my shoulder so no more of that.

After class got into a little extra with Bryan and Michelle…

5 Rounds

  • 300m Row
  • 5 Overhead Squat (135#)

I really wanted to snatch into that first OHS every round but I only did that on the first 2 (maybe the third?) because I was almost losing them. Probably should have put on the lifters for this, since they work well on the rower too. This got pretty nasty on the quads. Finished in 8:50.

Rest up tomorrow for 16.4.

Double Down

Stupid time change. I was very confused for a few seconds this morning when I woke up after 9, before I remembered the hour shift. Messed up my entire morning before the gym.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Snatch
    • 5×45#
    • 3×95#
    • 3×115#

Conditioning

“Isabel”

  • 30 Snatch (135#)

Started with 5 doubles before switching to singles. Finished in 2:26 for an 11 second PR! At 1:00 I had exactly 15 reps done, compared to 17 when I did Grace. I really like this new strategy I mentioned in my last Grace post. Here’s more detail I just shared on Facebook…

For the last year, I’ve been thinking about a strategy for Grace/Isabel that I never really see. Just about everyone comes out of the gate hot, trying to get as many unbroken reps as they can. I think this is a mistake for the majority of us and with my recent attempts at both Isabel and Grace, I did a little testing. Let me explain…

My previous Grace was 2:17, done with 10 unbroken and 20 singles. I got the PR of 2:04 by doing 3×5, 1×2, and 13 singles. For Isabel I went from doing 2×2 and 26 singles to 5×2 and 20 singles. Ok, but what’s the difference?

Dropping the bar, getting (or waiting for) the bounce to settle, and grabbing it again takes the most time in workouts like these. In the first Grace, I dropped the bar and had to reset 20 times, but in the retest there were only 16 bar drops, resulting in a gain of 13 seconds. Isabel bar drops went from 27 to 24, for an 11 second improvement.

Heart rate isn’t all that important in a 2-4 minute workout, but I think it can help a little, at least from the point of how you perceive your level of fatigue. Smaller sets should keep HR down some. I think not starting with a huge set (to near failure) can help a lot with muscle endurance over those 30 reps though. The last 5 reps are going to suck no matter what, but they can feel just a bit easier.

Sure I could have gotten the same 16 bar drop Grace by doing 14 unbroken then 16 singles, but I would have been a lot more tired going into the singles, resulting in less motivation to pick up the bar with each rep. Starting off Isabel with 6 unbroken to make it 24 drops doesn’t sound very fun at this point in my fitness for the same reasons.

Would this work for you?

If either workout takes you more than 5:00, you should use a lighter weight. Check your ego.

If your time is 3:30 or longer, I’d recommend sticking to singles but speed up how long it takes you to pick up the bar. Anyone can get a time of 3:00-3:30 by doing all singles if you pick the bar up as soon as it stops bouncing. You can’t step away from the bar though, you have to be ready to go and pick it up every single time.

If your time is close to that 3:00 mark and maybe even all the way down to 1:40 (??), simply try to decrease the number of times you drop the bar, but keep your sets manageable. Switch to singles when you have to.

The tricky part is making sure you don’t pick something you can’t maintain. For example, I bet I would improve my Grace time if I did 15 sets of 2, getting me to 14 drops instead of 16. Probably wouldn’t be a very good strategy though, because I doubt I’d be able to maintain sets of 2 for the entire workout. I’d end up doing singles and then wouldn’t actually decrease bar drops.

Make sense? If you try it out or have any questions let me know.

On Your Hands

3 Sets

  • MAX Handstand Hold (facing wall)
  • ~2:00 Rest

I should have checked my PR before. Made it 2:36, just 4 seconds short of my best. Then 1:40 and 1:00. Not easy after Isabel.

Conditioning II

3 Rounds

  • 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 60 Double Unders
  • 1:1 Rest

Times were 1:36, 1:47, and 1:47. Unbroken wall balls each time with unbroken dubs in round 1, 2 misses in round 2, and 1 miss in round 3. Was fun to do some big sets of wall balls. If not for the shoulders being pretty wrecked from the earlier stuff, using 30# would have been a good challenge.

I tried the false grip bar muscle-up and it wasn’t great. I definitely was sliding off the bar on the swing and had to do kind of a chicken-wing attempt, which I never do. Going to start working on that false grip strength on the bar with some drills because I think it will eliminate the feeling I’m ripping off my entire palm with a full grip on the bar when linking them together.

Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before leaving.

Bring It Castro!

Went to the Chiropractor at 5 and then 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 10 Good Mornings (35# KB)
  • 10/10 Around the head (35# KB)
  • 5 Good Mornings (35# KB)
  • 5/5 Around the head (35# KB)

Strength – Deadlift

  • 5×45#
  • 5×155
  • 5×225
  • 5x5x275

Definitely wasn’t going to approach anything close to a max lift during the Open. This was really easy.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Deadlifts (115#)
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 20 Double Unders

Only tripped once in the 2nd round after 8 reps. I think I went 7 rounds plus 4 deadlifts. I was planning to stay after class to get in some GHDs, but with this being programmed with sit-ups, it was nice to be able to substitute and kill 2 birds with one stone. This felt really good. I would be pretty happy if Castro repeated 13.2 for this next Open workout (with step-ups allowed again).

Midline & Getting Inverted

4 Sets

  • 15 Ball Slams (30#)
  • 3 Wall Walks

Little challenging with how humid it is with the huge temperature shift to the 60s. It was like someone hosed down the walls. My shoes were even slipping all over on the matting in the gym. Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap and got out of there. Rest up and watch the 16.3 announcement tomorrow.

Every 80

Was at the gym early to judge a 16.2. Feeling rested.

Warm-up

  • Bottom squat hold
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Thrusters (45#)

Go Fast

Every 1:20 – 10 Sets

  • 6 Thrusters (95#)
  • 6 Burpees over the Bar

Didn’t look at the clock until the last set or two. At that point it was taking 24-25 seconds. Smacked myself in the head puling the bar down to the front rack in one of the early sets. No blood, but it is swollen with a little bump there.

Strength/Skill

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 8 Weighted Pistols (26# KB)
  • 12 T2B

The pistols weren’t easy after 60 thrusters. Did all 5 sets of toes to bar unbroken.

4 Rounds

  • 30s Pike HSPU (30″ box)
  • 30s Rest
  • 30s DU
  • 30s Rest

Those handstand push-ups were harder than I expected. Got 12 for 2 rounds and 10 for 2. Went unbroken on dubs each round for 53-55-55-56.

Gymnastics

5 Sets

  • 15 Stalder Leg Lifts (1×11″, 4×13″)
  • 5 Ring Swings

That extra increase really made the lifts a lot harder.