Feeling pretty good today after a tough WOD and some good strength work last night. Trained at 10:30am with Matt, Cora, Kevin, and Steve. Kevin came up with the programming for the day and Matt ended up using it for the Survival Fitness classes too. Was a good one!
Warm-up
Did a 500m row, 3/3 Turkish Get-ups with a 35# KB, some PVC pass-thrus, and then worked up to heavy push presses.
Strength
10:00 EMOM
Evens: 3 Push Presses
Odds: 10 Pistols
I was planning on trying 185#, but it was really heavy warming up, so I dropped down to 175# and used it for the first four rounds and then bumped to 185# for the last round. Programming called for only 6 pistols, so I was going to try wearing my 20# vest but it was pretty awkward so I did 10 each round instead. I can fly through them pretty fast now and don’t run into many problems.
WOD
12:00 AMRAP with 1 Deadlift EMOM (285#)
5 HSPU
7 Pull-ups
9 Air Squats
The deadlift kind of served like a forced break in this. My first round was a little fast, but then I kept the same pace until the last 2 or 3 rounds when my HSPU got a little slower. I came up 2 squats shy of 12 full rounds for a score of 11+19. All of my HSPU were unbroken which was nice. Pull-ups and squats were only broken up due to coming on a minute and having to do the deadlift.
Finisher
10 Rounds
15s Air Dyne sprint at 100%
1:45 Rest
This felt easier than when we did it last Saturday. Didn’t have that sick feeling throughout, but it did hit us all about 5 minutes after. Kevin and I got 287 calories on our AD, which was up from 269.
My body is feeling a little beat up today, but planned to rest tomorrow anyway, so might as well hit it hard. Matt, Cora, Kevin, and I trained at 10:30am.
Warm-up
500m Row
PVC Pass-thrus
Back squat and shoulder press warm-up with light weights
Strength
Second week of the squat program, so while everyone did the 5 sets of 3 back squats around 90%, I did 4 sets of 8 with increasing weight.
10:00 EMOM MOFO
Evens: 3 Back Squats (90% of 1RM)
Odds: 3 Shoulder Presses (90% of 1RM)
I did my first 3 sets of back squats on time, took off the 4th round of back squats to rest for my heaviest set, and finished it on the 5th round. I had to do 8 reps each set, using 185, 205, 220, and 235. Pretty rough. On shoulder presses, 90% calls for 145#, but I don’t think that would be possible for me, so I used 135# for the first 4 sets and 140# for my final set.
Strength WOD
This one comes from some of the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff. They absolutely crushed it. I think Khalipa did it in 4:17.
For time:
10 Shoulder Presses
15 OHS
20 Push Presses
25 Front Squats
30 Push Jerks
35 Back Squats
Rx is 115/75 for this one. My time was 14:03. Great barbell work there.
Conditioning WOD
Just keep moving in this one.
12:00 AMRAP
10 Jingle Jangles
10 V-ups
10 HR Push-ups
10 OH Walking Lunges (45/25)
I completed 7 full rounds, 10 jingle jangles, 10 v-ups, and 1 push-up for 7+21.
Finisher
Tabata Mash-up
Ring L-sit
Ball Slams (15#)
I did knee tuck sits each round.
Took us about an hour and 40 minutes to complete everything today. I have a feeling the legs are going to be wrecked for a couple of days.
Earlier this week I came up with a great idea to combine the Bear Complex with a Curtis P and add an OHS. I decided to call it the Grizzly Bear Complex. It goes like this…
Perform 10 touch-n-go doubles of the following complex.
Clean
Front Squat
Lunge
Lunge
Shoulder to Overhead
Back Squat
Shoulder to Overhead
Overhead Squat
Notes:
Rest 90 seconds to 2 minutes between each set.
Start with a light load. Increase the weight each set. The last 3 sets should be hard!
Combining movements is allowed. For example you can do a squat clean and a back squat thruster.
It works well to switch to a wide snatch grip before the back squat so that you can do a thruster and go right into the OHS.
After the OHS on the first rep you may want to drop to the back so you can switch to a clean width grip. Then do a short press just to get the bar over your head and back to the front rack, ready to go into the TnG for rep 2
I was able to round-up Kevin and Jason to give it a go at 8pm. I warmed up with a 500m row and some DU.
My goal was to be able to hit for some heavy OHS, 175# or more. Boy was I underestimating how tough this would get. I started at 75# and went up 10# each set. When I got to 135# in the 7th set, it took everything I had to keep control of the OHS, especially on the 2nd rep. I stuck with 135# for the 8th and 9th and then managed to get 140# on my last set.
I wasn’t sure how the lunges would feel, but they weren’t really too bad. I felt like I got stuck on a couple towards the end, but I think it was more from not concentrating on them than it was from the weight. The OHS was definitely the limiting factor, especially after holding on to that bar for so long. Great complex though and I’ll definitely be willing to try it again some time.
Brent got held up with kids, but showed up as were just finishing our last few sets. Then we did some work with Kevin’s new wheelbarrow drive sled from Again Faster. First we did 5 sets of a 50′ rope pull followed by a 50′ high prowler push. I think we had it loaded with 135# for the first 3 or 4 sets and then added another 45#. After that we converted it into the “wheelbarrow” did 5 down and backs of close to 100m total. At the end of 5 trips I think we had about 400# stacked on it. To finish things off we loaded it with 180# of plates and did a 50′ high prowler push with a low push back. On the 5th set we added another 45#.
Then we ended with a beer. All in all, a fun Friday night.
So here we are, with week 2 of the Open. I was excited when workout 13.2 was announced because it involved 15 box jumps per round. The box jump is my best movement and I can keep rebounding for a long time. I was looking to make up some ground after my disappointing score on 13.1.
After 13.1, I’m in 18,893 (25.7%) out of 73,419 men in the world and 1,292 (28.25%) out of 4,573 men in the South West region. Both are really close to cracking that top 25% so with this probably being my worst workout, I’m revising my goal of being above average (top 50%) to being top 25% in the Open.
Then a day or so later we realized that step-ups were allowed. As the last few days progressed it has been determined that step-ups are the way to go for most people because they save your legs more and really save your lungs. Well, so much for any advantage I had over a lot of people. In the end, step-up with a jump/fall down turned out the way to go for the majority of folks.
I had done a 4 round test of this workout on Friday and finished in 3:52, which I felt was pretty good. Each round was getting a few seconds slower, but not too bad.
I went out flying and kept a sub 1:00 pace through the first 5 rounds. Then I hit the wall hard. It was a struggle to get up on the box for the last 3-4 minutes. I was pushing off my leg for help and resorted to step-downs instead of the jump/fall down. I finished with 8 full rounds plus 5 presses, 10 deadlifts, and 10 step-ups, for a 265 total. I’m happy with that because 20 minutes later I was still dying, so I know I had nothing more to give. This jumps me up nicely in the standings.
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.
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!
Went in with a few people at 3:15 to work on our Olympic lifting and then stayed after for the regular class.
Loaded one bar up with 185# for snatch pulls and then used another bar for snatches. Started off doing one snatch pull, one power snatch, and one hang full snatch. I started at 95# and worked my way up to 125# on the snatch work. Then I switched to single full snatches with 135# after the snatch pull for a handful of sets. Probably worked for a solid 40 minutes, taking a few minutes of rest in between each complex. The snatches didn’t feel very good today.
Strength
5×3 Push Presses with 21X2 Tempo
The goal was to hit the 5×5 max from 2 weeks ago in our second set. Since that was going to be 165# for me, I started at 135#. Then went 165#, 170#, 175#, and 185#. Shit that was tough, but I’m glad I jumped 10# on that last set. My old 1RM push press is 190#, but it’s been a long time, so I should obviously be able to beat it pretty good now.
WOD
3 Rounds
400m Run
25 Shoulder to OH (95#)
50 DU
10 Ring Dips
OMG, my upper body was destroyed already in the first round. I did 15 and 10, then 10-9-6, and then probably 6 or 7 sets in the 3rd round, where I was even doing some jerks to get them done. The ring dips were pretty tough too. Finished in 16:09.
Feeling good today. Pecs are still sore from the competition. Was up early so headed in to work on muscle-ups before the 9am class.
I started out with rings hanging low from a pull-up bar so I could get in some reps working the transition with my feet bent under me and on my toes. Then I moved over to a set of rings I could grab on to while standing flat-footed and worked the strict transition. I kept missing because I’d let the rings get too wide and I was too slow in the turn-over. I nailed a few of them though. Just from that bit of work, my wrists started to rub raw. Need to try to do this once or twice a week.
Warm-up
4/4 World’s Greatest Stretch
15 No Push-up Burpees
200m Run
100m Run Backwards
200m Carioca (100m each direction)
300m Run
3 Rounds:
10 Evil Wheels
5/5 Glute Bridge March
10s Glute Bridge Hold
I worked up quite a sweat with the evil wheels.
WOD
30 Box Jumps (30″)
20 Full Cleans (155#)
30 K2E
20 Single-arm Push Press (53# KB)
30 Sit-ups
20 Alt Pistols
30 Burpee Box Jumps (30″)
Damn those cleans sucked ass and then the burpee box jumps at the end were pretty killer as well. Everything else was smooth sailing for the most part. I did the box jumps unbroken, the K2E in 12-10-8, push presses in sets of 5 per arm, sit-ups unbroken, and pistols with 2 short breaks mainly to get back to balanced. Really had to concentrate on the box jumps at the end. Finished in 16:36.
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.
My low back and trips are pretty spicy from yesterday. Went in for the noon class.
Warm-up
2m Jump Rope
2 Rounds
2 Shoulder Press
2 Push Press
2 Push Jerk
2 Split Jerk
5 Pause Push Jerks
5 Pause Split Jerks
5 Jerk Footwork
Used an empty 45# bar for everything. Shoulders were nice and warmed up after this!
Strength
5 Sets
1 Shoulder Press
3 Push Press
Max Jerks
2m Rest
This is superset week. 🙂
Weight
Shoulder Press
Push Presses
Jerks
95#
1
3
16
105#
1
3
12
125#
1
3
6
135#
1
3
4
140#
1
3
5
Wow! Nowhere near my 1RM of 160# on the shoulder press, but that’s a lot of volume with the push presses and the jerks.
WOD
12:00
800m Run (buy-in)
AMRAP
5 Curtis Ps (95#)
30 DU (unbroken)
The run really gets you. I missed about 6 times in my 2nd round of double unders, twice in the 20s and one at 27 unbroken. Ugh!! That took a lot of time and winded me bad. I finished with 3 complete rounds plus 5 Curtis Ps.
Tomorrow I’m resting. It’s been a brutal few days.
Hawaii is really nice! 🙂 Needed to get my sweat on this morning though. Warmed up with about a 400m run up a hill, back down, and in a little loop.
WOD
“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10
DUs
Sit-ups
Started out shaky with my DUs so I was worried this would take ages. Found my groove in the round of 40 and then did 30-20-10 all unbroken. Total time was 7:41, a PR by 45 seconds.
Strength
10:00 EMOM
Odds: 15 Goblet Squats (40# DB)
Evens: 15 Push Presses (40# DBs)
Did this in the little fitness center they have here in the resort where we’re staying. Did everything unbroken and although neither was easy or completely difficult, it was a nice challenge. I tried to go for speed along with quality in the goblet squats because I really need that quickness for my air squats.
Short and sweet, but a nice little workout. Just what I needed.
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