Tag: Hand Release Push-up

2013 CrossFit Games Open Workout 13.5

Yesterday my body was absolutely wrecked after training for a total of about 6 hours Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I took the day off and even took an hour nap around 4pm. After 13.5 was announced last night I figured I’d give it a go today as long as I didn’t feel like shit. At 4 minutes, how bad can it be? So I went in around 4:30 to warm-up and hit it at 5pm.

Warm-up

  • 750m Row
  • 10/10 Leg Swings (F-B, S-S)
  • Light thrusters

Open Workout 13.5

4:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Thrusters (100#)
  • 15 C2B Pull-ups

* If 90 reps (3 rounds) are completed in under 4 minutes, time extends to 8 minutes.
* If 180 reps (6 rounds) are completed in under 8 minutes, time extends to 12 minutes.
* If 270 reps (9 rounds) are completed in under 12 minutes, time extends to 16 minutes.
* Etc.

After getting 82 reps Monday on the 12.5 Fran ladder with 95#, I figured 60 was a realistic number to shoot for in this 4 minute WOD. With all sets being 15 reps there is a lot less transition time so pacing should overall be faster.

I planned to do 8-7 or 9-6 on the first 15 thrusters but felt good, so went unbroken. I stuck with my plan to go 5-5-5 on the first round of C2B and it worked well, keeping me away from the point of failure. I think my first round was done in around 1:20. In round number 2 I planned to go 5-5-5 on the thrusters, but again felt good so went 9-6. I didn’t have a plan for the C2B because I knew I’d be feeling the burn at this point. I did 5-4-3-3. I hit my goal! Then back to thrusters to go 5-6 and that last rep was a struggle. I don’t think I could have done a 7th if I had time left, so I think I attacked it pretty well. 71 reps in total, 11 more than my goal!

When I hit that point of muscle failure I’m pretty much dead from there on out, so I’m not sure trying to stretch out my sets would have helped me at all. Probably would have caused me to be hitting singles in that second round of C2B and wasting a lot of time dropping off and jumping back on the bar. I’m thinking I won’t hit this one again, but may give it a go on Sunday just for fun and try to push closer to failure to see what happens since it’s only 4 minutes.

The did some work with Kevin…

Warmed up bench press with 10 @ 45#, 5 @ 135#, and 5 @ 165#.

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Odd minutes: 5 Bench Press (165#)
  • Even minutes: 5 Weighted Pull-ups (15# DB)

I was a little fatigued from the WOD, so went easy on the weights to make sure I could get all of the reps in.

Conditioning

5 Rounds each

  • 20 cal Air Dyne
  • DUs until partner completes their 20 cal

Boy that Air Dyne is a bitch.

Finisher

10-8-6-4-2

  • HR Push-ups
  • Pistols
  • American KBS (71# KB)

Went unbroken on everything and finished in 4:06. Nice little WOD and some more good conditioning.

Float Like a Butterfly

I’m feeling pretty good today, considering how wrecked I was last night. I’m a little sore in a bunch of different areas, but nothing too bad. Went in for the 4:15.

Warm-up

  • 2m Jump Rope
  • 2 Rounds
    • 40 Mountain Climbers
    • 20 Russian Twists (35# KB)
    • 20 Air Squats

WOD

  • 800-600-400-200m Run
  • 15 Pull-ups
  • 15 HR Push-ups
  • 15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target

This was a lot tougher than I expected. I went out hard on the 800m run to work on my conditioning and then really tried to work on my butterfly for the pull-ups. First set was a little rough, but I went 9-6, 10-5, and 10-5 in the last three sets. Had never done more than 7 in a row before today and I only stopped each time because of fatigue, not because of rhythm. I focused on keeping my kick going, kept a tighter kick, and kept my feet together. Tried to just power through the push-ups, but they were the slowest part for me. Did each round of wall balls unbroken. Finished in 18:39.

That was a nice recovery WOD after a tough workout for 13.2 yesterday. Back to hitting it hard tomorrow for 2 hours of work.

13.2 Test & New Push-up Strategy

I was excited with the announcement of Workout 13.2 for the CrossFit Games Open. Box jumps are probably my best movement so to see them count for half of the reps per round made me happy. I however didn’t realize right away that the standards are allowing a step up this year, where last year they only allowed a step down. The step up is a completely different movement and eliminates most of the advantage rebounding box jumpers have in this workout. It’s confusing why they would allow this for everyone instead of just the oldest Masters division like last year.

So I’ve been hearing conflicting reports on whether or not step ups are the better choice, depending on your level of fitness and ability to rebound. I agree that for the less than average CrossFitter, step ups make perfect sense because they won’t kill your lungs like box jumps will. For the average and slightly above CrossFitter, I’m not sure though. For the elite that won’t have to slow down in a 10 minute workout, rebounding box jumps are clearly the correct choice.

So I had to do some testing of my own in order to feel confident going into the WOD on Sunday. Adam opened up the box for me and I headed in at noon to do a little test of my own. I warmed up a bit, but kept it short so Adam could get out of there since I found out he wasn’t going to do anything. Super nice of him to open up the gym for me so I didn’t want to take up more of his day than I had to. I did 4 rounds of the AMRAP without trying to do any certain pacing or anything. Pretty much going all out.

Pretty shitty camera setup for these videos. I should have done them vertically.

I timed out the splits to see where I was losing ground and it definitely wasn’t the box jumps, which were consistent. I need to get faster on the push presses by not over extending so much and getting on that bar and into the first rep sooner. I took a long time setting my hands and then sat in the rack before the first rep. I should be able to rep out the deadlifts faster too, but have to be careful that I get my shoulders behind the bar. It was getting close on some of those reps, which is good for timing, but at the same time you don’t want any no reps on a workout like this.

13.4 Test: Split Times

I’m glad I did this little test because it gave me a feel for the burn and showed a couple of weak areas where I can knock off valuable seconds. If I clean some of those things up and can keep a steady pace through the middle of the 10 minutes, I should be able to put up a pretty good score.

After a few minutes of rest I tried doing some step ups to see how they felt and how slow they were. With just one round of them (alternating legs) I could feel a burn in my legs before I even got to the 15th rep. I didn’t go crazy fast on them and it took about 32 seconds.

Since this alone took 32 seconds and my transition plus the box jumps were taking 30 seconds, I don’t see this as being a go to for me. I may do one or two rounds of step ups (or maybe 5 or 10 reps of the 15) after the 5 minute mark to catch some air, but it has to be worth it for how much longer it’s going to take. I need to take full advantage of my box jump rebounding in this WOD to have a good score.

When I got home, I did a 100 HR Push-up test since it’s been a couple of months and I wanted to test out a new push-up strategy for high reps with resting sooner and never doing more than 10 unbroken. It seems to have worked out because I did them in 5:04, beating my old PR of 5:42 by 38 seconds!

Unbroken or Else

I was feeling ok after the Open WOD today and saw that tomorrow’s WOD doesn’t have strength work, so I figured I could get in a quick home WOD. I’m trying to work my push-up endurance and squats (strength and speed) always need work, so I came up with the following.

WOD

Unbroken AMRAP

  • 10 HR Push-ups
  • 3/3 Pistols (alternating)

What’s the time domain you ask? Keep going until you have to break the 10 or 6, moving from one movement right to the other.

I finished 8 rounds and 7 more push-ups, all barefoot. Some of the pistols were pretty ugly and I fell back while standing up a few times, but I’m counting them without having any shoes on. When I failed the push-up, time was 6:12 for 87 push-ups and 64 pistols. My best time for 100 hand release push-ups is 5:42, so I’ve either improved a ton since January or found a new strategy for doing high-rep push-ups.

Pacing Burpees

Back of my thighs are sore from all those back squats still. The box is closed since it’s Friday and I’m going to rest tomorrow to do Open WOD 13.1 on Sunday. Figured I would get in a little home work.

Did a trial run of 40 burpees to a 6″ target as a slow and steady pace, so I could get used to it for the 13.1. I couple of weeks ago I did 50 of these all out in 2:39 and was dead for like a half hour. I did the trial run in about 2:50, which I think turned out to be pretty solid. I was breathing heavy, but not dying. Started out at about 4 seconds per burpee, but slowed down in the half. Good overall rhythm.

5 Rounds

  • 15 HR Push-ups
  • 20s L-Sit
  • 20 Air Squats

I didn’t time it since my goal was quality movements and trying to do everything unbroken. I probably rested 2-3 minutes after each round, except for a quick turnover into round 5. Everything was done unbroken. For the l-sits I put two chairs together and help myself up, with knees bent and above parallel for all 20 seconds.

Aloha!

Arrived in Hawaii on the beautiful island of Kuaui yesterday for a work trip. 🙂 Yeah, I know it’s rough! Did a few things in my room this morning.

3 Rounds

  • 1m Air Squats
  • 1m Rest

I didn’t do anything else to warm-up before this, so was a little slow coming out of the gate. Got 57, 59, 59. Need to get that up to around 70.

100 HR Push-ups

Finished in 5:42, a new PR by 4 seconds! I actually thought my best time was in the 5:30s, so am really happy after looking at the history.

Tabata Sit-ups

Kept a steady pace during each working interval and was able to get exactly 10 each time for a total of 80.

Unfinished Business

Enjoying my vacation, so I lazed around all day. Didn’t even get dressed until 6, so went to the 8pm class.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 1m V-ups
  • 1m Plank
  • 1m Bicycles
  • 1m Flutter Kicks
  • 1m Russian Twists (35# KB)
  • 1m Rest

This was a doosey! It’s been awhile since it was this hard to hold a 1 minute plank, but I did it each round. I didn’t realize how sore my hamstrings were until those bicycles. I guess the abs got a good workout yesterday with the Zercher squats.

Strength

5×3 Floor Press

My shoulders are still feeling a little weird from the hour of Insanity with the weight vest and my back is still messed up, so I wasn’t sure how this would go. Went 135#, 155#, 175#, 195#, and 215# for 3 reps each. That was my goal for the day. Since we had plenty of time, Brent decided to go for one more set and hit his, so I said “what the hell” even though 215# was far from easy. Loaded up 225# (my previous 1RM) and squeezed out the 3rd rep. That’s even better than my bench press 3RM, so I’m convinced I have a distinct disadvantage in the bench because of my long arms.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 30 HR Push-ups
  • 20 Kroc Rows (60# DB, 10 each arm)
  • 10 Ring Dips

I can’t remember the last time I failed to finish a WOD. I wasn’t really expecting to have a 16 minute time cap either since some of the times on the board were over that. I’m going along thinking I might be able to get it done under 20:00 and Cari says we only have 1 minute left! I finished 5 rounds and 5 of the push-ups. Arms were just fried from doing 6 sets of floor press. I figured the push-ups would kill me, and they sure did. After round 1 I was struggling to do 5 at a time. I also know I was in trouble when I couldn’t even do the first 10 ring dips unbroken. But I didn’t have to resort to using a band at all, so that’s good. I think there were only 6 or 7 people all day that finished this one.

Hobbit Friday

Took the day off work to go see The Hobbit in IMAX 3D and I’m well rested after taking yesterday off. Went in to open gym tonight. All I did for a warm-up were some PVC pass-thrus.

Strength

Alternated sets between bench press and the deficit deadlifts.

5×3 Bench Press

  • 10 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 155#
  • 3 @ 175#
  • 3 @ 195#
  • 3 @ 215#

That’s a new high for 3 reps, up from only being able to hit 215# for 2 reps last cycle. These didn’t feel that great this week either, which is two weeks in a row it’s been a struggle.

5×1 Deficit (3″) Deadlifts

  • 5 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 225#
  • 1 @ 315#
  • 1 @ 345#
  • 1 @ 385#
  • 1 @ 405#
  • 1 @ 415#

The 415# pull matches my 1RM for regular deadlifts. As I went for it, I didn’t think I was going to get it moving because it was really slow to start. Once it got above the deficit it felt smooth though.

WOD

This was a workout I made up and Matt used for the box today, so I had to give it a try even though I planned to do death by snatch.

10 Rounds

  • 3 Full Squat Cleans (115#)
  • 10 Lateral Bar Hops
  • 10 HR Push-ups

The goal of the cleans was to cycle them without dropping the bar, so I chose 115# instead of the Rx 135#. I also wanted to keep my time under 10:00 so felt I had a good shot by dropping down in weight. I finished in 8:50. Was able to do all of the cleans while holding the bar and the hops were a piece of cake for me. The push-ups on the other hand sucked. Got pretty tough around the middle of WOD. After getting done I’m kind of curious what my time would have been with 135#.

I’m really happy with how the design of this WOD turned out. I figured some of the top scores would be under 10 minutes and they were. A lot of people finished around 12-15 minutes from the scores on the whiteboard. The use of the barbell didn’t overpower the WOD, so you could still get out quality cleans even in the 10th round, but the push-ups were a great challenge. The lateral hops were just enough high intensity to string it all together.

Finisher

3 Sets

  • MAX Deficit HSPU (hands on 15# bumper plate, which is probably 1-2″)
  • 2m Rest

I was able to do 5, 6, and 4 reps. Tough! This was my first time trying HSPU like that.

I did a bunch of jump rope as kind of a cool down too.

How About Some Deadlifts?

Was thinking maybe I’d take the day off, but felt good when I woke up, so went to 9am.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 20 Russian KBS (30# KB)
  • 6 Burpees

The swings were so easy so I concentrated completely on the hip drive.

Strength

5×3 Deficit (3″) Deadlifts

Warmed up with 10 @ 135# and then used 225#, 295#, 325#, 345#, and 365# for my working sets. Solid.

WOD

12:00 EMOM

  • 5 Deadlifts (255# – use 70% of 3RM)
  • 7 V-ups

Holy shit did that 255# get heavy. It was hard to get the first rep going in the last 4 or 5 rounds. Powered through the v-ups without much trouble, but took my time on them in the final minute.

255lb-deadlifts

Finisher

30-20-10

  • Box Jumps (24″)
  • HR Push-ups

Didn’t take more than a minute or two of rest after the WOD and “jumped” right into this. Started out without rebounding, but then saw Cora rebounding so I had to step it up. Couldn’t let her beat me in my strength, especially since she probably has the upper hand in the push-ups.

Open Gym Friday

It’s been awhile since I did an open gym session at Survival Fitness. First I started with a WOD they did on Wednesday, which I had missed out on.

21-15-9

  • Box Jumps (24″)
  • HR Push-ups
  • T2B

The box jumps were easy and all done unbroken with rebounding off the ground. Hand release push-ups went better than expected, but I had to take some breaks in the rounds of 15 and 9. I set a new PR with 21 unbroken toes to bar, but that ended up hurting me. I couldn’t string them together very well for the next 2 rounds because my hips wouldn’t snap shut. They were one at a time in the round of 9. Finished in a time of 5:07, but was hoping to go sub 5. Great little WOD though.

8:00 AMRAP

  • 20 Push Presses (75#)
  • 20 OHS (75#)

I got 2 full rounds plus 20 push presses and 11 overhead squats, which is 3 reps shy of when I did it a couple of months ago in San Diego. I screwed up in round 2 though and for some reason started doing back squats, so lost valuable time and reps there. This is a great shoulder burner.

8 Rounds

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 10 Pullovers (45# DB)
  • 20 DUs

Didn’t do this for time, more to get in some midline work and some random DU practice.