More Shoulders

When I saw the WOD for today I planned to skip out. More shoulder work and I’ve already had a lot the last few days. But, my upper body strength is my weakest so I could use the work. Went in for 9am.

Warm-up

  • 50′ Burpee Broad Jump
  • 50′ World’s Greatest Stretch
  • 2 Rounds
    • 10 PVC Pass-thrus
    • 10 Leg Swings (side-to-side, front-to-back, each leg)
    • 10 KBS (35# KB)

WOD

  • 500m Row
  • 40 Pull-ups
  • 30 Shoulder to OH (115#)
  • 500m Row
  • 40 Pull-ups
  • 30 Shoulder to OH (85#)
  • 500m Row
  • 40 Pull-ups
  • 30 Shoulder to OH (65#)

On the first set of shoulder to OH the RX weight was 135#, which is heavy! Using 115# was heavy enough as it was for me. I went Rx the rest of the way though. Started off with 10 pull-ups, and then went 5s the rest of the way in round 1. Rounds 2 and 3 were pretty much 3 at-a-time the whole way, which short breaks to shake out the arms. For the presses I pretty much went push presses the entire way and I think I broke it down to 10-8-7-5, 15-10-5, and 18-12. Finished in 25:43.

Meet “Nancy”

It’s been a cold few days here in Phoenix, with freezing temperatures every night. Since today’s WOD had running, I was not going at 9am! Went in for the noon, which was good running weather.

Warm-up

  • 3 Rounds
    • 3 Pull-ups
    • 6 Push-ups
    • 9 Air Squats
  • 30 AbMat Sit-ups
  • 30 Supermans
  • Bergener Warm-up (45#)

Strength

10:00 EMOM, increasing weights

  • Power Snatch
  • OHS

I started with 75# and went up 10# each minute until I hit 135#, where I did a few sets before going to 140# for the last set. I did all arm pull on the first attempt and then hit it with an ugly attempt. My snatch needs work!

WOD

“Nancy”
5 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 15 OHS (85#)

I could have done it Rx with 95#, but I would have had to break up the OHS. By using 85# I was forced to fight for my reps and was able to keep it unbroken. Finished in exactly 15:00. Hitting all 15 in-a-row on the last two rounds was a fight and the bar was swaying all over the place. First shot at “Nancy” was a good one.

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.

54 Inches

I had a massage from Cora earlier today, which usually translates into good deadlifting and today was no exception. Went to open gym.

Warm-up

Did a bunch of jump roping and double unders.

Strength

5×3 Deadlift

Warmed up with 10 at 135# and then hit 3 reps at 225#, 315#, 345#, 365#, and 385#. My goal for the day was to hit 385# which is supposed to translate into about a 425# 1RM, which is 10# over my current max. The reps at 385# were pretty easy so Matt convinced me to go for 405#. Once I got it moving it wasn’t much of a problem. But I started to lose the grip on the way up in my second rep and just couldn’t hang on through the 3rd one, so I had to bail on it. The strength was there though, so that’s good.

My low back didn’t feel very good on the set at 345#, so I was kind of worried, but the rest of the way it felt fine. 405# for 2 reps is supposed to come out to 430# for a 1RM and 3 reps to 445#, so I should be able to make a nice jump the next time around. Not sure I’ll be able to get it done next week since I leave for Arizona.

Explosion Training

Casey and I rigged up a box with mats and started doing max height jumps over a PVC pipe. I made it over 54″ without much trouble, but then my footwork got all messed up and my head got in the way. Was fun to do and a lot safer than jumping that high on to boxes.

WOD

14:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 4 Power Cleans (165#)
  • Evens: 10 Pull-ups

I wanted to get in some Olympic lifting work since we hadn’t done any all week. Was only planning on going for 10 minutes, but it felt good, so I added 4 more minutes. The cleans started to get tough, but overall this wasn’t that taxing on the cardio, which is fine since those heavy deadlifts and high jumps took a lot out of me. I’m sure tomorrow will be a nice long met-con anyway.

Closing in on 100

Went in to open gym tonight.

WOD

30 Rounds

  • Power Snatch (95#)
  • 2 OHS (95#)

This was tough, but not in the way I expected. The OHS added up and really worked my legs and hips. I finished in 8:26.

Strength

Find 1RM Bench Press

Did 10 reps at 95# and 3 @ 135#. Then went 185#, 205#, 225#, and failed at 245#. Maybe could have got 240# if I had tried it.

Skills

Worked some on butterfly pull-ups and started to get the feel for them. I was getting a few in a row, but then I’d still bottom out on kill my shoulders. Getting better though.

Did a bunch of DUs and knocked out 5 streaks over 50! Last set of the day was 85, a new PR. So close to the century mark!

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.

Jill’s 29th

I was planning to take a rest day. Kevin asked if I wanted to help come up with WOD, so he made up the warm-up and I did the WOD. After coming up with it, I knew it looked like fun and I had to give it a try. Matt came in and partnered up with me in the 11am class.

Warm-up

10-20-30-20-10

  • Russian Twists (30# KB)
  • AbMat Sit-ups
  • Weighted V-ups (20# DB)

This sucked! My midline got a good workout last night with the GHD sit-ups and pullovers, so finishing these was a struggle. Took 13 or 14 minutes.

WOD

Since it was Jill’s birthday, everything was based on her age and birthdate.

1983s (33:03) AMRAP
* Partners with one person working at a time

  • 29 Hollow Rocks
  • 29 Pull-ups
  • 29 DB Snatches (45# DB)
  • 29 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 12 Curb Runs (100m)
  • 1 High Five

We split things up pretty evenly and kept a great pace. This was the best I’ve ever done on pull-ups. I did 14-14-14-15-16 of the pull-ups and all rounds I did unbroken. The most kipping pull-ups I’d done in a row was 15 before today. We ended up with the best score of the day by getting 4 full rounds and all the way through to 21 of the wall balls. When I made up the WOD I wasn’t thinking the run would be such a big portion of it, but it was probably about half of our time for each round.

Working on Upper Body Strength

My legs needed a day off today. Did 20 minutes on the rower at a nice pace and went 4,395m. At each of my 5 minute splits I went faster and faster. Felt good.

Then went over to Kevin’s tonight for some strength work.

Shoulder Press

  • 10 @ 65#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 105#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 140#

Both of the last two sets were higher than the 130# I did a few weeks ago. The reps at 140# were kind of ugly with some upper back in there to help out.

Weighted Chin-ups

  • 3 @ 10#
  • 3 @ 15#
  • 3 @ 20#
  • 3 @ 25#
  • 3 @ 35#

These were so much easier than when I did 5×5 a couple of weeks ago and had to struggle for 15# on the last set. Quite a jump this time around.

Weighted Dips

  • 1 @ 25#
  • 1 @ 35#
  • 1 @ 45#
  • 1 @ 50#
  • 1 @ 60#
  • 1 @ 70#

Jumping up into support and then the negative portion of the dip are the hardest part. Pushing out of the bottom felt just fine and none were too difficult.

Weighted Push-ups

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 8 @ 55#
  • 8 @ 60#
  • 8 @ 70#

First set was easy, but not so easy after that. Also knocked out a set of 10 strict pull-ups, which is still my unbroken PR from this summer, so felt good to be able to do that many after so much work. Then did 4 strict chest to bar pull-ups on this fat bar thing where your hands are in close with the palms facing each other.

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.