Tag: Muscle-up

I’m Exhausted

I should have taken a day off somewhere during the week. I just got home from Survival Fitness where I attended the 4:15p class and stayed another hour for open gym. I’m exhausted and could really tell towards the end of the 2 hours. Finally I forced myself to leave. At least I’m out-of-town for the weekend so I can’t get in any WODs. I think all of the squatting we did this week really took a toll on my body too. I’ve never gone 6 days in a row before and now I know why.

Warm-up

100 V-ups
Every minute on the minute, do 5 box jumps (24″), except to start the first minute.

We didn’t do many box jumps this week, so I was glad to see them here, even if it didn’t end up being very many. I think I finished in the 6th(?) minute, but don’t remember for sure.

As we were waiting for everyone to finish, I jumped on the bar and got my first muscle-up! Did it again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Next up, the rings. I actually just got a set of the wood rings from Rogue Fitness to use while I’m vacationing for 10 days and then I can hang them in my garage when I get back.

WOD

EMOM: 4 Burpees (start with 4 right away)

  • 50 PVC Front Squats
  • 30 SDLHP (88# KB)
  • 50 PVC OHS
  • 30 1-arm Push Presses (each arm) (45# DB)
  • 50 PVC Back Squats
  • 30 Ring Rows

 

I finished in 17:28, so I did 68 burpees. Front squats with a PVC pipe were kind of weird because there was no weight there to keep the wrists in place and help the elbows get up. Oh yeah, 150 more squats for the week! I wanted to get in some heavy front or back squats at open gym, but not with how much squatting we had already done for the week.

Finisher

5 rounds

  • 150m Sprint (rectangle in the parking lot)
  • 2m Rest

My sprints were all 21-22 seconds, which is pretty good considering the corners are pretty scary running in the parking lot. I felt really good doing the sprints.

Open Gym

I did some deadlifting to start. The plan was to do a 5×5 after the light warm-up set.

  • 10x 135#
  • 5x 225#
  • 5x 275#
  • 5x 305#
  • 1x 325#

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I increased the weight so much there. I had to set the bar down after the 3rd rep at 305# before knocking out the last two. Then at 325# I had to shut it down after one. I was starting to feel it in my back and got light-headed after I walked away from the bar. At least I got in some heavy deadlifting, but I should have been smarter about it.

Then Casey A. was doing some snatch balances, so I jumped in with him. We did some with the 45# bar and some with 65#. After that we did some squat snatches with 65# and 85#. I think I was doing 3-5 reps for a couple sets at each weight for both the snatch balance and the squat snatch.

Working Off That Pizza

As promised, I ordered pizza today. I also ordered a Cinnapie, which I don’t think was my best idea.

Pizza, Cinnapie, and Mountain Dew

Today’s benchmark WOD for the Paleo Challenge was a good test, but I didn’t feel overworked due to all of the rest time. Since I took a rest day yesterday and will be out-of-town all weekend, I went back to the gym at 8pm for some extra work.

I warmed up with an easy 500m run and some shoulder stretching with the bands. Then I did 3 Cleans + Push Presses on the minute, every minute, for 10 minutes with 135#. I worked on DUs here and there a bit, getting one streak of 37 in a row. I did 3 sets of 15 KBS with the 62# KB. The first two sets were on the top of consecutive minutes and the 3rd set was after taking an extra minute off. I jumped on the bar and attempted some MUs, sort of getting up there once, but with a bit of help from my leg on the support 4×4. Doesn’t count.

It’s time to finish the last 3 pieces of pizza and the last 3rd of the Mountain Dew. The Cinnapie was gone hours ago. 🙂

2 Hours of CrossFit

Was up early this morning to play a practice round in preparation for the Saginaw District Golf Tournament Qualifier, which is this Sunday. Yes, I knocked out the Armstrong push-ups bright and early to start my day.

My pair of Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0 arrived today in time to use them for my workout. I’m very pleased with them as a CrossFit shoe.

I attended the 4:15 class and planned on staying after for open gym to work on a bunch of stuff and beat up my body.

Warm-up

  • 100-75-50-25 Squats
  • 50-40-30-20 HR Push-ups

I’m not sure you can really call this a warm-up, because it took longer than the WOD. I finished in 17:22.

WOD

21-15-9

  • Goblet Squats (88# KB)
  • Burpees
  • Pull-ups
  • Sit-ups

I went as heavy as I could for the goblet squats by using the largest KB in the gym and for each round I broke them up into 2 sets. They completely wiped me out for burpees, which I did extremely slow compared to my normal pace. My time was 12:45.

Finisher

Death by Box Jumps

  • 1st minute: 2 box jumps
  • 2nd minute: 4 box jumps
  • … increas by 2 each minute

Go big or go home right? I used the 32″ box for the first time, which wasn’t too bad. I just had to take my time a little more and make sure I got a good jump in. I made it up to the round of 14, which I finished a few seconds before the minute was over. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make 16 with such a short rest, so I shut it down there. Using the bigger boxes more often will make the 24″ box seem so easy.

After class I rested for a bit as some people started showing up for open gym.

WOD #2

Mini “Diane”
12-9-6

  • Deadlifts (225#)
  • HSPUs

I did strict HSPUs as long as I could, then added a kip, then added an AbMat, then added a kip with the AbMat. My time was 4:49. When I think how fast the elite men and women are doing a “Diane” compared to my mini, it’s sick. They’re in a different solar system.

Strength

Back Squats

  • 3x 175#
  • 3x 195#
  • 3x 195#
  • 3x 195#

I was feeling pretty beat after 250 air squats and the goblet squats, but it was nice to get in some moderate weight squatting for the week.

After that I decided to knock out my Armstrong Pull-ups for the day. It was 3 sets with a normal grip, 3 sets with a close (hands 0-4 inches apart) chin-up grip, and 3 sets with a wide grip. Each set was 3 reps with 60 seconds of rest in between sets. The pull-ups felt really good today.

Then I pulled out the jump rope and did some DUs. With the new rope it was nothing to knock out 10+ in a row on each attempt. It spins so effortlessly. Somehow somebody brought up muscle ups, so I tried a few on the bar. I almost had it a couple of times and I’m confident I can get it next time when I haven’t worked out for 2 hours already. 🙂

I’m fucking beat, but it was all worth it. Time to relax for the night. Tomorrow is CrossFit for Hope, which looks like a killer WOD. I’m looking forward to the snatches, which I haven’t done in quite some time.

2012 CrossFit Games Open Workout 12.4

After the third workout of the Open I was 1,526th out of 1,930 in the South West region and 21,310th out of 28,234. My goal is to finish ahead of 10% of the men and I’m in the 20-25% range (I don’t feel like doing exact calculations right now). I’m really happy with that so far. Since I’m heading out of town for the weekend I needed to hit the next workout this morning.

Open Workout 12.4

12m AMRAP

  • 150 Wall balls (20lbs to 10′ target)
  • 90 DUs
  • 30 Muscle-ups

That’s a full “Karen” WOD followed by DUs and muscle-ups!

I guess it’s a good thing I got a band-assisted muscle-up yesterday since I’ve never done any muscle-up before. My goal was to finish the wall balls and DUs and get at least one muscle-up. I was close to getting a strict one yesterday before class started. I knew a key for this workout was going to be limiting no-reps with the wall balls. Make every rep count or else it’s just wasted energy and time.

I warmed up with a 400m row and got into it. The first minute went well and I got through 30 wall balls. Ahead of the 20-25 pace I was shooting for. Somewhere in the next minute or two things really slowed down though. I finished wall balls around 9:00, leaving me 3:00 to get through DUs and maybe a muscle-up. One week ago there would have been no chance of getting through the DUs, but practicing 5-10 minutes each day has paid off. I was a little worried when I only had 25 DUs after the 10:00 mark, but I picked up the pace towards the end and finished them with 10-15 seconds on the clock. Time for one hurried muscle-up attempt. Haha! Nothing left in the gas tank. Shoulders and arms were fried from the wall balls.

Final tally was 240 reps, which I think it going to a pretty common score in this workout. I’ll take it. I’m happy I at least had time to make an attempt at a muscle-up. I rowed a slow 1k as a cool down.

I’m on vacation for the next week and hitting the road to Las Vegas in a bit. I’m looking forward to a few days of rest and relaxation before coming back on Sunday night. I’ll be back to the box on Monday morning to work off what I gain in Sin City.

Always Something New

I’ve been working out at CrossFit Full Strength for two and a half months now and I still end up doing some movement or new stretch I’ve never done at least once or twice a week. “Constantly varied” is exactly right when it comes to CrossFit. My legs are sore from back squats and particularly my inner thighs. Feels so good though!

Last night I did a bit of DU practice and I’m able to string together streaks consistently now. I don’t even start with singles first, which I think has helped. Start spinning that rope, but don’t jump for the first time until the rope is about to reach your feet and then start the fast wrist action and get right into doubles. Once again though, the headache came on while doing them. I’ve been doing some neck mobility a couple of times a day to try and loosen things up.

Warm-up

  • 2x
    • PVC Shoulder Mobility
    • 10 PVC OHS
    • 3 Groiners (each leg)
  • 400m Run

Strength

5 Sets

  • 8-10 DB Russian Step-ups (each leg)
  • 15s Rest
  • 30-45s Side Planks (each side)
  • 45s Rest

Russian step-ups are something new to me. I used a 24 inch box and 30# DBs, while doing 10 per leg in each set. I’m going to be feeling those for a few days. For the side planks I went a full 45 seconds on each side. You wouldn’t think it, but this work got me dripping with sweat.

Update: An hour and a half later I can barely walk. The Russian step-ups really worked the hamstrings.

WOD

12m AMRAP

  • 6 HSPUs
  • 9 Ring Dips
  • 12 HR Push-ups

Push, push, and push some more. This WOD was all about fatigue in the push motion. After the first round there wasn’t much left in the tank. More time was spending resting than working, but I was still out of breath at the end. For the HSPU sI used 2 AbMats because I die quickly using 1 and I knew it was going to be an issue with 2. The ring dips and HR push-ups were Rx. After round 1 I had to do a lot of kipping on the HSPUs. At the end I managed to get through 3 rounds plus 3 HSPUs.

Open workout 12.4 gets announced later today and I’m going to do it tomorrow morning because I’m driving up to Las Vegas for the weekend right after. My prediction is that we’ll see deadlifts, DUs, and a body weight movement such as HSPUs, HR Push-ups, or muscle-ups. But… I’m hoping I’m wrong on those last 3 because of today’s WOD.

Speaking of muscle-ups… I’ve been toying around with them a bit before and after classes this week. Today we set a rack with a band around the dip bars right under the rings. I stood on the band, got my false grip on the rings and completed an assisted muscle-up on my second attempt! I was done there though because of how dead my shoulders were from the WOD. I’m going to have these down before I head back to Michigan.

Kipping Pull-ups Without a Hand Rip

My shoulders and wrists are pretty sore from doing OH squats yesterday. Everything else is feeling good though. My hand is healing faster than the last time I ripped, but this one wasn’t as deep either.

Warm-up

2 Rounds

  • 20 Band walks (each direction)
  • 15 Band Presses
  • 15s Rhomboid Stretch
  • 15s Samson Stretch
  • 3 Hand Walks

Strength

4 Sets

  • 4-6 Shoulder Presses, 1-1-X-1 tempo
  • 90s Rest
  • 20 DB Walking Lunges
  • 90s Rest

I wasn’t sure how the shoulder presses would go since I just did a bunch of OHS yesterday. Warmed up with the bar and then did 6 reps each at 95#, 105#, and 115#. I had previously done 123# twice, but got 3 reps in today. The sets really felt good. For the walking lunges I used 40# DBs.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • MAX Pull-ups
  • TBD Broad Jumps

Complete 30 total reps each round. So, if you do 20 pull-ups on your first set, you must do 10 broad jumps before returning to the pull-up bar.If you can easily perform more than 30 consecutive pull-ups, drop on 29 and do your 1 broad jump before returning to the bar for your second round of max reps pull-ups.

I used tape grips on my hands and tried to grip the bar more in my fingers instead of my palms. It worked because I don’t have any new rips. I do have a little blister that formed under the knuckle on my left ring finger. My rounds of pull-ups came out to be 11, 9, 7, 8, and 8. Eleven is a new kipping PR! If I don’t kick my legs back so far when I get tired I think I could string together more. After the first round of pull-ups I’m 95% sure I started counting broad jumps from 0 so I did 30 of them. I was wondering why everyone finished so far ahead of me on that set. My total time for the WOD was 6:22.

After class I started to get an understanding of how to do a muscle-up, but I was dead from the pull-ups so there was no chance of it happening. When I got back home I pulled out the jump rope for a few quick attempts at DUs. Easily was stringing together some small streaks. Just wanted to make sure I don’t lose it.