Tag: Plank

If Grace and Cindy Paired Up…

Feeling pretty good today, especially by waiting until 5:30pm to WOD.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Supermans
  • 15s Left Side Plank
  • 15s Right Side Plank

Strength

5×5 Floor Press

I did 115#, 145#, 165#, 185#, and 205#. That’s up from 195 I did last time and equal to what I did a couple of weeks ago for bench press. But the 205# was easier on the floor press, which doesn’t make much sense.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 10 C&J (115#)
  • 5 Rounds of “Cindy”
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

Great WOD! I figured I could break under 20 minutes due to the fact that my “Grace” time with 125# is in the low 4s and I can do “Cindy” rounds in less than a minute. Finished in 17:46, but screwed up in the 2nd round through. I messed up my sticks and was a round of “Cindy” short, so I had to do 6 at the end. Clean and jerks felt good and I didn’t even really jerk them, mostly push presses. Rounds of “Cindy” aren’t too bad, except the push-ups start to get hard and had to break them up a bit. Very solid WOD though, which tested both my improved strength and my conditioning. Both felt solid.

Finisher

DU Practice

I got several streaks of 25-30 and called it a day.

Thrusters Suck

After working out yesterday morning I felt pretty good, until I did the rowing intervals before dinner. After that everything seemed to hurt. Sort of “meh” today, with definite soreness in my hamstrings. I heard about the workout this morning and thought about skipping out because I hate thrusters and knew how bad the WOD would suck. But you can’t improve on a movement if you skip out on it, so I forced myself to go in for the 5:30pm class.

I was there pretty early so had a chance to do a bunch of PVC pass-thrus and around the worlds to warm up my shoulders.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

4 Rounds

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Supermans
  • 15s Right Side Plank
  • 15s Left Side Plank

Strength

Find 1RM Shoulder Press

  • 10 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 75#
  • 2 @ 95#
  • 1 @ 115#
  • 1 @ 135#
  • 1 @ 145#
  • 1 @ 155#
  • Fail at 165#
  • 1 @ 155#

Looking back, I probably did too many warm-up reps. I never do it like that. 160# is my previous PR, so went for a new one even though 155# was pretty damn hard. I’ll take hitting 155# twice for the day though. Sounded like most people were doing pretty bad as well because of other work we’d done this week.

WOD

20:00 EMOM

  • 8 Thrusters (65#)
  • 3 Burpees

The Rx weights for the thrusters were 95/65, which is nearly impossible to do. I used 65# and couldn’t even do it all. After the 14th minute, I had to drop down to only 6 thrusters each minute so I could keep doing 3 burpees. Did all 8 and 3 reps in the final minute though because getting 30 seconds of rest no longer mattered.

55 thrusters and 55 back squat thrusters with 115# on Monday, 140 wall balls yesterday, and 150 thrusters with 65# today. I fucking hope we’re done with that movement for the week! 🙂

Gun Show Finisher

5 Sets

  • 20 DB Curls (10 each arm)
  • MAX Diamond Push-ups
  • 60s Rest

For the curls I used 15#, 20#, 25#, 30#, and 35#. The last set was a struggle to finish. I got 16, 15, 16, 15, and 12 reps on the push-ups. After this and all of the shoulder work, I can barely move my arms.

Definitely not doing a WOD tomorrow, but will most likely go in for the OLY class to work on the clean & jerk.

What a Bear!

Kind of tired this morning, but went to 9am to get it done.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

4 Rounds

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Supermans
  • 15s Right Side Plank
  • 15s Left Side Plank

Strength

Find 1RM Front Squat

After hitting my previous 1 rep max (235#) for 3 reps last week, I was looking for a nice PR today. Warmed up with 6 reps at 135# and then went 185#, 215#, 235#, 245#, and 255# for a 20# PR. It was pretty easy too.

WOD

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

  • Modified Bear Complex (Clean Thruster + Back Squat Thruster)
  • 2x DU

I went Rx with 115# and finished just under the time limit with 25:45. Pretty happy with that because a long barbell complex in far from my strength and I held my own. I’ll be feeling that one in my legs for a few days.

Tabata WOD

I felt like shit all day yesterday after the workout. I’m not sure what’s going on with me lately. Either my cardio is that bad that the workouts are killing me or I’m learning to push myself harder and that’s draining everything I have. Went to the 9am today.

Warm-up

  • 50 Butt Kicks
  • 50 Jumping Jacks
  • 50 High Knees
  • 50 Zombie Kicks
  • 50 Lateral Hops
  • 50s Plank
  • 50 Bicycles
  • 50 Hip Thrusts

Really felt the hip thrusts in my ass and hamstrings.

WOD

  • Tabata – Lateral Over the Bar Burpees
  • 1m Rest
  • Tabata AbMat Sit-ups
  • 1m Rest
  • Tabata Pistols
  • 1m Rest
  • Tabata Ring Dips
  • 1m Rest
  • Tabata Ring Rows

Much harder than it looks on the board. I listed them here in the order I did the WOD. I think it was good to start with the burpees and then sit-ups because I was freshest at that point. Managed 49 over the bar burpees and 91 sit-ups. Tried to do strict pistols but just wasn’t happening, so after a couple of reps I started holding a post for balance and support. Alternated legs each round and ended up with 60 reps. I went strict for the first 4 rounds of ring dips and then used a purple band the rest of the way to get a total of 49 reps. Started with straight leg ring rows and moved my feet in as they got harder. 55 reps there for a total of 304 in all.

Finisher

12:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Side Bends on each side (53# KB)
  • 10 V-ups

Once again, the WOD killed me and I was ready to be sick. Went kind of slow, but managed to get 7 rounds in.

Kevin’s First Class

Went out to the Michigan Tap Room at Stardust last night with some of the Survival Fitness crew. Not feeling the greatest today because of the beer, but I hoped a workout would fix that. Kevin was doing the programming and teaching, so wanted to support him as well. Went in for the 11am.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 50 Russian Twists (30# KB)
  • 40 Bicycles
  • 30s Plank
  • 20 AbMat Sit-ups
  • 10 Inch Worms

Took between 14 and 15 minutes for me to finish this off. Good work for the midline.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 1m Russian KBS (53#)
  • 1m Over the Shoulder Sandbags
  • 1m Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 1m Thrusters (75#)
  • 1m Jingle Jangles
  • 1m Rest

This was a good Fight Gone Bad style WOD. My rep counts for each round were 107, 111, and 107 for a 325 total. Staying consistent is a key in a WOD like this. The bulk of my reps came in the KBS and jingle jangles, with thrusters definitely having the lowest counts.

Finisher

Death by Pull-ups (by 2s)

I finished the round of 16 and then got 17 of 18. Total of 89 pull-ups. Last time doing a “death by” for pull-ups was back in May by 3s and I got through the round of 15, which was a total of 45, so that’s quite an improvement. Really happy with how far my pull-ups have come.

Friday Morning Partners

My quads are still sore from Monday! Better each day though. Went to the 9am class, which had 18 people so Matt had to switch it up to a partner workout.

Warm-up

  • Tabata Air Squats
  • Tabata High Knees
  • Tabata Bear Crawl

WOD

30:00 AMRAP with a partner

    • 50 Burpees
    • * Partner holds Bar OH (95#)
    • 75 OHS (95#)
    • * Partner holds Plank
    • 100 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
    • * Partner holds chin over bar

I paired up with Casey A. The Rx for men was 135# on this. At first we were going to try 115#, but as we were loading the bar had second thoughts. Good thing we switched to 95# because that was plenty hard enough. We got through one full round and then up to 31 wall balls in round 2.

Recovering

I wasn’t going to go in today, but Matt posted the workout on Facebook and it wasn’t a super intense WOD, so I went in at noon. Really helped to loosen me up a bit after yesterday’s competition. Helps to recover from the hangover of last night’s Halloween party as well.

Warm-up

  • 100 Butt Kicks
  • 100 High Knees
  • 100 Jumping Jacks
  • 100 Arm Circles (50 forward, 50 backward)
  • 30s Bottom Squat Hold
  • 30s Side Plank (each side)
  • 30s Zombie Kicks
  • 30s Lateral Hops (15s each side)

Strength WOD

3 Rounds

  • 1-2-3-4-5
    • Strict Pull-ups
    • Broad Jumps for max distance
  • 100m Farmer’s Carry

We didn’t time this because the goal was for good quality reps. I concentrated on the hollow body position and active shoulders on all of my pull-ups. Did them all strict too, which is 45 in total. The broad jumps were slow and one at a time, but a sneaky form of cardio because it’s such an explosive movement. I wont over 8 feet on every one of the jumps. For the farmer’s carry I used a 39# and 40# KB is round 1, then a 62# and 71# KB in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, switching hands at 50m each time.

WOD

  • 6 x 150m Sprint

You may rest between each sprint, but only in the plank position. As soon as you can no longer hold a plank, start running…

I liked the plank as rest here. Really tried to max out my plank each round and give my lungs as much rest as possible so that I could run hard on each sprint. It was tough getting the legs going at the start of each sprint due to all of the broad jumps taking a toll on the hips.

Finisher

Mobility WOD

I did some couch stretches on the wall and then tried a shoulder capsule movement to help with my overhead position. You lay on the ground with a band attached to something out from the top of your heard. The band then goes under your arm pit and you hold a KB straight up while fighting for a good position. It doesn’t look or sound that tough, but it really works your shoulder.

Sliced Open

This morning I went to the Doctor to get a couple of sebaceous cysts removed. My head is pretty sore and I’m on some Vicodin for the pain. I can’t use any water on the 2 stitched areas for 3 days and no soap/shampoo until I go back next week to get the stitches removed. Should be interesting with working out. I already sweated a ton today. I could get pretty rank in a few days.

After resting a bit at home I went to the first Olympic Lifting class at Survival Fitness held at 6pm and then stayed after for the 7pm class. In the OLY class we worked on drilling the snatch. I’ve really been looking forward to this because I know I can use a lot of work on my technique, which is holding me back from making big gains in my numbers.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Bottom Squat Hold
  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Jumping Jacks

Some of us were already pretty warm from the OLY class.

Strength

5×5 Clean High Pull

I assumed it was a 5×3 because we just did 5×5 last week. Didn’t actually read the board until before my last round. So my first 4 rounds were all 3 reps. I did 135#, 155#, 165#, 175#, and 185#.

WOD

  • 50 Russian KBS (53# KB)
  • 21-15-9
    • Dead Hang Pull-ups
    • Turkish Get-ups (30# DB)
  • 50 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)

I didn’t think this would work up so much of a sweat, but I was soaked at the end. I finished in 17:30, which was the best time of the day. I’m glad my head didn’t really hold me back. The pull-ups were the worst part of this. I was pretty much doing one at a time the entire way so that I didn’t have to tax my arms on the descending portion of the pull-up. As soon as I got my chin over the bar I let go and dropped to the ground.

Approaching Four Hundy

My lats and shoulders are pretty wore out from this week. Have been working every day since the competition on Sunday, but knew this weekend was going to be off, so wanted to push it. Went in for the 9am because I have the day off work and I’m heading up to my parents for the weekend.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 30s Russian KBS (35#)
  • 30s Rest
  • 30s Plank
  • 30s Rest

Light on the KBS to just get the body moving and warmed up.

Strength

5×1 Deadlift

I wasn’t expecting us to do this today, but was happy to see it. It had been about 2 months since I did a 1RM. Warmed up with 5 reps at 135# and 3 reps at 225#. Then I went 295#, 345#, and 365# which tied my PR. For the 4th set I was able to grind out 385# for a 20# PR. Made a few attempts at 395# but couldn’t get the bar moving. I’m only 15 pounds away from the 400 club!

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 250m Run
  • 12 Pull-ups
  • 21 KBS (53#)

This was supposed to be “Helen” which calls for a 400m run, but we did a shorter route, so I’m not counting it as the official benchmark. I felt really good today and finished in 7:19. This has been my best week ever on pull-ups. I did the first round unbroken, then 7+5 in round 2 and 8+4 in the last round. All of the KBS were unbroken. My best “Helen” time is
9:30, so I would have beaten that easily, probably in the high 8 minute range if we had done the extra 150m run each round.

We had about 10 minutes to work on a weakness, but it’s been a long week, so I worked on some hip mobility.

Other than Monday I felt really good all week in both my strength numbers and the WODs. In fact, I’m happy to say I crushed the WODs all week. That doesn’t usually happen, especially when pull-ups are involved. Now I’m resting for the weekend. Well, at least until Sunday at 2pm when we’re going back to Gym Jesters for some gymnastics. That’s going to be fun. Hopefully I can land a back flip this time.

Dumbbell Thrusters Suck!

Woke up feeling good and refreshed. Still a little tight in my ass from Friday’s lunges, but not enough to affect any movement.

Warm-up

  • Tabata Bottom Squat Hold
  • Tabata Plank

Strength

5×1 Front Squat

Warmed up with 6 reps using the 45# bar and 3 reps at 135#. For my working sets I used 185#, 205#, 215# (previous PR), 225#, and 235#. Lifts felt great. I remembered to keep a deep breath and keep a tight midline on the way down. Then on the way up I really concentrated on keeping my elbows up so the weight wouldn’t drop forward. It’s been a long time since I did even a back squat PR, which is still at 240# from back in March. Next time I test thought I should see a big jump as well. Really happy with the 235# today.

WOD

12:00 AMRAP of 3-6-9-12-15-18-21…

  • DB Thrusters (35# DBs)
  • Jumping C2B Pull-ups

Since the beginner competition on Sunday is with jumping chest to bar pull-ups I figured today would be a good time to try them out. They really send your heart rate sky-high because it’s pretty much a constant jumping. I had to start breaking them down into sets of 6 or 8. The bar I was using was probably a little higher than it should have been for me, but it was a good test. I got through the round of 18 and then did 14 of the 21 thrusters. Doing thrusters with DBs is so much harder than it is with the bar.

Finisher

Death by Ring Dips (by 2s)

I did 10 + 9.