Tag: Handstand Push-up

Call Me Julie

I don’t think the leg burning workout from Tuesday night had hit me yet, so I went in for the 9am figuring I could then go in at night on Thursday and enjoy the longer rest.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 2 Rounds
    • 20/20 Band walks
    • 15 Band Presses
    • 10/10 Hitchhikers
    • 10/10 T-stabilizations

Strength

5×5 Push Presses with 2-1-X-2 Tempo

The tempo work on for pressing doesn’t seem quite as taxing as it does for squats. I did a set with the bar to get the feel for it, then went 95#, 115#, 135#, 150#, and 165#. Couldn’t have gone any higher. Got really unstable at the top in the last two reps, but got it done.

WOD

7 Rounds

  • 7 HSPU
  • 7 K2E
  • 21 DU (unbroken)

I knew the limiter would be the HSPU, but didn’t think they would get as hard as they did. I guess I didn’t realize how little rest there really was between sets. I was solid for the first 3 rounds going unbroken and right around 1 minute per round. Even the 4th and 5th rounds weren’t too bad, but 6 and 7 were brutal for HSPU. And then I get all the way to my last rep and I failed half way up. Felt a little like Julie Foucher trying to do her deficit HSPU last year at the Games. All of my K2E were unbroken and I didn’t miss a single DU. Finished in 10:48.

Home WOD

Needed to do something at night sitting at home. I’ve been meaning to do a little burpee testing to see where I’m at, so game on.

  • 50 Burpees (Touch 6″ target above reach)

I can touch the ceiling with my fingertips standing up, so I slapped the ceiling with both hands making it 6-8 inches. Might have started out a little too fast because the last 20 reps were brutal. Took me 2:39 to finish, which nearly beats my normal PR for 50 burpees in 2:33. Jumping up to the target is a lot tougher and I could really feel the burn in my quads right around 25-30 reps. Yesterday’s big leg workout is probably starting to hit me as well.

In last years Open WOD 12.1 I did 92 of these in 7 minutes. I’d say I’ve improved some since then. I’m kind of curious to know if by starting out slower I would have been able to keep a steadier pace and get done quicker. Might have to play around with pacing once or twice in the next couple of weeks before the Open. I’ll bet they are going to have a burpee WOD again since it was a pretty good way to kick of the Games season in 2012.

Double Trouble

I was itching for a WOD all day yesterday since I’d taken Wednesday off and won’t be doing a WOD tomorrow since we are doing a 4.7 mile Spartan Race. The hike helped, but it’s not the same as being in the box. In at 8am this morning for the competitors WOD and stayed for the regular class as well.

Warm-up

  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • 500m Row
  • Thrusters

Strength

Find 1 RM Thruster with 1 attempt EMOM. No rack, so must do a power clean and a thruster or a squat clean thruster. Keep increasing weight each minute until failure.

I started at 115# and added 10# every minute. Got 195# and then failed at 205# because I was too slow coming out of the squat clean and couldn’t get any momentum on the bar. That’s a 30# PR for my thruster when I last did it back in April. Having to go every minute is pretty tough once the weight gets heavy. I did power cleans up through 175# and then switched to squat cleans. So that ended up being 10 attempts in total.

Competitors WOD

This was WOD #6 of the 2011 Regionals.

  • 20 cal Row
  • 30 Burpees
  • 40 Two-arm DB ground-to-overhead (45/35# DBs)
  • 50 T2B
  • 100′ Overhead walking lunge (45/25# plate)
  • 150′ Sprint

I used 40# DBs for the ground-to-overhead and I’m glad I did. I still had to split them up into sets of 5 (pretty much doing a clean and jerk) and it took the most time by far. I should have worn some wrist sweat bands because I could barely hold the bar for the T2B making those take a lot longer than they should have since I had to do 2 or 3 at a time most of the way. Everything else was kind of easy. Took me 15:52 to finish.

Stuck around and let my heart rate come down while the 9am class did a warm-up.

Regular WOD

25:00 AMRAP with a partner

  • Partner 1 – 400m Run
  • Partner 2 – AMRAP:
    • 5 HSPU
    • 10 KBS (53/35)
    • 15 Goblet Squats (53/35)

* Both partners work the entire time, but keep switching off and continuing where the last guy left off in the AMRAP so total rounds can be counted.

Brian was the only other person in at 8am and stuck around too, so we paired up for this WOD. We finished 14 rounds of the AMRAP doing everything Rx. I picked up a nice little tip from the CrossFit Journal to make the HSPU easier and didn’t really have any issues until my last 5 when they started to get a little tough. My arms were shaky after the first WOD today so I’m thrilled I was able to hold on that long. The goblet squats were by far the roughest part of the circuit, but I pushed myself to always do 15 unbroken because squat stamina is one of my weaknesses.

Great 2 hours of work! Think I’ll try to get out for some golf this afternoon.

2 Hour Saturday

I had a great rest day yesterday and went in for the 8am Competitors WOD and stayed to do the regular WOD as well.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • PVC OHS

Strength

Work up to a heavy snatch single.

I started out with a few at 75# and a few at 95#, then started going up by 10# after one or two reps at each weight. Focus was on keeping the bar close and getting hip extension instead of looping the bar out, which I have a problem with. I got up to 155# and got under it for the first time, but it was a little too far forward and I couldn’t steady it before standing up. Took another shot and wasn’t committed to it. Nailed it on the 3rd try, which is a 10# squat snatch PR. I’ve hit 155# with an ugly power snatch in competition before, so this felt good to finally get out-of-the-way. Took the personal win and stopped there for the day.

WOD #1

This one comes from event #5 of the 2010 CrossFit Games.

7 Rounds

  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 4 Deficit HSPU (10# bumpers)

I scaled of course because it calls for 205# cleans and ring HSPU. I did power cleans the whole way through and reset for each rep. It was heavy, so I picked a good weight. My neck and collarbone are already showing some bruising. I can’t believe how much my HSPU have improved in the last few weeks. We’ve been doing them once or twice a week, so I’ve had plenty of work on them and it’s really paying off. I did each set unbroken. Final time was 8:36.

Since I was already warmed up, I skipped out on the warm-up the regular class was doing so I could cool down a bit.

WOD #2

3 Rounds

  • 5 Wall Walks
  • 20 cal Row
  • 15 K2E
  • 25 Wall Balls (20#, 10′ target)
  • 15 Ring Dips
  • 50 DUs

This was a non-stop suck fest! It was the first time I’ve ever done wall walks and after the 28 deficit HSPU they were not easy. Finished in 22:57.

I’m actually not feeling too bad after all that, but I suspect tonight I’ll be exhausted, especially if I head out for a round of golf this afternoon. Felt good to get really heavy in a WOD with the 185# cleans.

I jumped on the scale after everything and was at 191.5 with my shoes and clothes on, so I’d say the diet changes are working. I certainly am feeling good with the healthy food changes and getting a lot of sleep.

Burning the Shoulders

Glutes and low back are a bit sore from yesterday’s thrashing of them. Went in at 9am today.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 30 Sit-ups
  • 30 Supermans
  • 5×2 Turkish Get-ups (1 each side)

I went up in weight for each set of Turkish Get-ups, using 25#, 35#, 40#, 44#, and 50#. The first 4 were using a KB and the last using a DB.

Strength

5×5 Shoulder Press, 2m Rest between sets

  • 10 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 125#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 4 @ 140#
  • 3 @ 140#

I was able to do 140# for 5 reps back at Survival Fitness when we last did a 5×5, so I bumped up my 2nd and 3rd sets to 115# and 125# today. I had the 5th rep on my first attempt at 140#, but lost concentration and stopped at the bottom, so I lost all momentum. Took a short rest and came back at it again for 3 reps.

WOD

  • 21-15-9 C2B Pull-ups
  • 21-15-9 HSPU
  • 100 DUs

The WOD actually called for deficit HSPUs on 35# plates, but there’s no way I could handle that for 45 reps, so I went with standard ones and those were hard enough. My time was 16:58. Not great, but I kept plugging away at all the reps. I need to improve my DUs when I’m tired. Shoulders are fried after this one.

The Seven

Feeling better today. Went in for the 9am class instead of the 8am Competitors WOD because the Hero WOD sounded like fun and I could get another hour of sleep.

Warm-up

  • 600m Run
  • 2 Rounds
    • 5 Push-ups
    • 10 Air Squats
    • 10 Leg Swings (Front to back, Side-to-Side, each leg)
    • 10 PVC Pass-thrus

WOD

“The Seven”
7 Rounds

  • 7 K2E
  • 7 Deadlifts (245#)
  • 7 Burpees
  • 7 KBS (70#)
  • 7 Pull-ups
  • 7 HSPU
  • 7 Thrusters (115#)

When it’s a Hero WOD you know you’re in for a suck fest. The first round wasn’t bad, but after that it was brutal. This WOD actually starts off with the HSPU and then thrusters but because of a big class size we paired up to share bars, so I started with the K2E. Rx for thrusters was 135#, so I scaled it down to 115#. I did all of my K2E, deadlifts, burpees, and KBS unbroken. Pull-ups were usually 4-3, but I think I got all 7 in round 1. HSPU were unbroken except for my 6th round where I went 5-2. Thrusters unbroken until round 6 where I wont 4-3. We had to stop at 33:53 because the next class was starting. At that point I had completed 6 full rounds and 3 of the pull-ups, so I only had 18 more reps to finish. Great WOD, but brutal. I think I did the first round in 3:11, but slowed down a ton after that.

Hike

Went out to Piestewa Peak and did the Summit Trail wearing the 20# weight vest. Going up while wearing that thing is horrible. The last 10-15 minutes with the vest is absolutely brutal, but I kept chugging along without stopping. Overall went 2.05 miles in 58:59 with 1,024 feet of climb.

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.

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.

Casey’s Birthday WOD

In at 10am for my last Survival Fitness class for a few days. Heading up to Rogers City for x-mas.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Butt Kicks
  • 15s High Knees
  • 15s Air Squats

WOD

28:00 AMRAP Partners (Each partner does a round of their own to make a complete team round)

  • 1 HSPU
  • 9 Burpee Clean Thrusters (95#)
  • 8 Double Squat Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target
  • 5 C2B Pull-ups

I partnered up with Casey and we did well. I started off first and got through 6 full rounds, then Casey got through 3 of his burpees clean thrusters before time ran out, so we had 5 + 27 to top the board. Having those thrusters and wall balls back to back was pretty brutal. Each round I’d start out fast on the burpee clean thrusters, but that would only last for 3 or 4 reps and then it was just a grind.

Finisher

8:00 Death by AbMat Sit-ups (by 3s)

I was able to get through mine all the way, for a total of 108. Not sure why, but it felt worse than doing 100 in a row the other day. Maybe it’s because of the other day!

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.

OLY and Solo Garage

My lower back is a bit sore from the RDLs yesterday so maybe since we were doing them fast I wasn’t doing them quite right. This is the first Tuesday in a long time where my legs aren’t killing me in some way from squat Monday.

Went to the OLY class at 6pm and worked on snatches for the entire hour by doing a full snatch and then a hang snatch. Hang snatches are so much harder, but really force you to be explosive. I worked up to 145# and couldn’t get the hang snatch, so dropped back down to 95 and worked back up again. Didn’t even attempt the hang snatch at 145# the second time around, but did bump up to 155# and tried a couple of full snatches. I’ve hit a 155# power snatch in competition, but never really tried to drop under one in the snatch. Missed both tries, but was pretty close on the second one. Not too disappointed though especially after doing an hour of snatches already.

I got home and did a WOD in the garage because I didn’t want to do a full hour-long class.

5 Rounds

  • 2m Work
    • 200m Row
    • 5 HSPU
    • MAX Hang Power Cleans (135#)
  • 2m Rest

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That was a fun one. Kept up a fast pace on the rows with consistent times through every round. Got all of the handstand push-ups, but struggled with #5 in the fourth round because I stopped when my head hit the ground for some reason and then it was a little tough to get going. I got done with the HSPU right around 1 minute each time, so once I setup on the bar had 50 or 55 seconds for the cleans. The last few reps of each round were a real struggle.

I really like coming up with new combinations and structures for WODs. Keeps things interesting and fun.