Tweaked, Again

Betting getting a lot more sleep this week, though it’s not easy to stay comfortable on a tiny bed. Went to the Bay Athletic Club this morning to get in some squats. Nice facility in the hospital in Alpena.

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×215#
  • 1×255#

Fuck! Tweaked my back on the next rep with 255#. Not even heavy weight. Pissed me off. I’ve been doing 5×5 with more than 255# and no belt either. The bar was a larger diameter than I’m used to but I doubt that really made a difference. I’d been so careful over the last few months too and then to tweak it with something like this doesn’t make sense. Injuries rarely do though. Guess I’ll be putting the squat program on hold.

Accessory

6 Sets

  • 8/8 Kroc Rows (45-55-60-65-70-70#)
  • 10 DB Shoulder Press (35-45-50-50-50-50#)

Had these planned and was still able to do them. Shoulder press with two 50s got tough.

Goblet Squats

  • 10×50#
  • 10×60#
  • 10×70#
  • 10×80#
  • 10×90#
  • 10×95#

Still wanted to get some leg work in if I could. With the weight out in front it took the load off my back and I didn’t feel it when I made sure to be very precise with my technique.

Gymnastics

5 Sets

  • 5 Strict Pull-ups
  • 8 Strict Bar Dips

Don’t do those enough.

I went out and walked 9 on the golf course going to loosen things up. The back definitely affected my swing.

After going to a movie theater with my 4-year-old niece, I needed to blow of some steam.

Pushing Death

  • Death by Chest to Deck Push-ups.

Got 18+18 and barely got in that 18th rep, so didn’t game it to skip out on the 20th round. 2 rep PR from over 2.5 years ago at a much lighter bodyweight. Racking up the push-ups this week. That’s 189 more.

Oh yeah, done with a drink at my side.

  

Too Much Sun

We took a cart for 18 yesterday since we had to be off the front quick for an event they were running. Good thing though since I started getting a sun headache on the back 9 from being outside all day.

Should have warmed up with a jog or something but dove right in.

4 Rounds

  • 400m Run
  • 50 Air Squats

Too slow on the runs. Finished in 13:41.

Tabata Pushups

Started out doing sets of 6 with a few seconds rest between. Made it through 3 rounds like that and then a round of 4-4-4.  Think I went 4-4-2 on the next two rounds. Then managed 8 and 9 reps in the final two rounds for 85 total.

Did four 2:00 planks with 1:00 rest in the afternoon.

I Guess

Wasn’t even sure I was going to do anything today but Heather wanted to after waking up. Ok, twist my arm. We jogged about 600m to warm-up.

6:00 AMRAP

  • 20 Walking Lunges
  • 5 HSPU

Got 5+23.

6 Rounds

  • 20s V-ups
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Hollow Hold
  • 10s Rest

Much harder than expected. Abs are sore from the 90 GHDs I did yesterday. I tallied 54 v-ups and held the holds throughout.

Will probably walk 18 on the golf course with Dad later.

Did a max set of push-ups in the afternoon and set a 6 rep PR with 60.

In vs Out

Stayed up too late. Only drank a Mountain Dew Live Wire this morning before heading to the gym. Not a good idea. I felt like shit until I started working up a sweat.

I warmed up my push press with 10×45, 5×95, and 5×135#. Only did 6 deads with 155# to warm-up the lower body.

Strength

12:00 EMOM (alternating)

  • 5 Push Press + 10s OH Hold (155#)
  • 6 Deadlifts (245#)

Class was doing front squats but I did some yesterday and squat heavy tomorrow. Substituted the deadlifts instead.

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 4 Pendlay Rows (155-155-165-165-165#)
  • 4 Good Mornings (135-155-175-175-175#)

Felt good. Didn’t push it.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

  • 60 Russian KBS (70#)
  • 50 Air Squats
  • 40 Burpees
  • 30 Ball Slams (25#)
  • 20 OH Walking Lunges (45#)
  • 10 Push-ups

I did the swings 40-20, unbroken on air squats, burpees, and ball slams. Then 10-10 on the lunges and unbroken push-ups. Second time through went 20-20-20 on the swings, unbroken air squats, and got through 21 burpees. Morgan pushed me to go harder than I really wanted to at the end to stay ahead of her. Good workout when I came in feeling like garbage.

Feeling it a Bit

Tired from a late night at Greek Fest. Legs are fatigued and I’m sore in my upper back from the muscle cleans. Adjusted the Super Sunday workout because the Hero WOD that was planned would not have gone well. Didn’t do much to warm-up other than a bottom squat hold.

Front Squats

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 3×185#
  • 6x3x215#

Light day from the Rippletoe program. Felt really good to squat. Focused on speed and driving up with my back.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 20 Russian KBS (70#)
  • 25 Push-ups
  • 30 Air Squats

Wanted something that wasn’t brutal and we could keep moving. I purposely went kind of slow for the first 3 rounds, not wanting to kill myself today. I did my first 4 rounds of push-ups in 10-9-6 and then 10-6-5-4 in the final round with shorter rest. Busted ass in the last round and a half and flew those air squats. Took me 11:54. Considering it was over 5:00 when I finished round 2, that’s more push than I planned on giving today.

Accessory

8x

  • 20s L-sit
  • 30s Rest

Went pretty well today. Got tough in the last 2 rounds but I was keeping my knees high throughout.

2x

  • MAX HS Hold (facing wall)

I did a 2:40 (40s PR!) and a 1:30 with about 3 minutes of rest between.

Run Every Day

I was doing a bunch of yard work today and honestly almost forgot about getting in a run. If I can get up and run the morning of a competition I can run late on the day after. Too close to the end of the month to miss a day. Ran 2.68 miles in 27:40. Didn’t wear any headphones and was a nice night for a run.

Even Pace

Between the run and walking the golf course, I went almost 10 miles on foot yesterday. My hips are feeling a little weird today. Didn’t want to run this morning so that I could save my legs for squatting at the 9am class. Didn’t warm up with much, which may have been part of my problem today. Did some bottom squat hold and that’s about it.

Strength

2 Front Squats + 3 Back Squats

  • 45#
  • 135#
  • 225#
  • 255#
  • 275#
  • 295#

Fuck! The bar felt heavy today. How did I do 2+5 with 315#? Oh yeah, I got hurt.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10 OH Walking Lunges (45#)

Paced myself early. Broke the 4th (?) round of lunges in half with a short breather. Pushed hard in the last round plus. Finished with 6+10.

We rested 3:00 and right into…

10 Rounds

  • 15 American KBS (44#)
  • 5 Push-ups

I knew I didn’t want 150 swings with a 53 pounder. I managed to go unbroken the entire way even though my hands kept wanted to slip off the bell in the last half. I had to push hard in the last 3 rounds to get them done in about 2:30, finishing at 9:54.

That was a tough one!

Run Every Day

Around 5 I headed out for a run. Went 3.12 miles in 30:46. Pacing was pretty even through the run, never over 10:00/mile.

7 Weeks of Squats

Had everyone warm-up with 100 walking lunges today since it’s been so beneficial for me.

Squat Every Day

2 Front Squats + 5 Back Squats

  • 45#
  • 135#
  • 205#
  • 245#
  • 275#
  • 295#
  • 315# (PR)

That ends 7 complete weeks of squatting every day. 49 days! Planned to go 310# for 5# over last week but bumped to 315# and I don’t think it was a great idea. Tweaked my SI joint on the very last rep. Fuck! Made it all the way through 7 weeks with the back feeling great and on the last rep gets me. Hopefully won’t be anything serious. Chiro Dan was just to roll it out a bunch and get some movement in there. The 315# is 20# more than I had done for this complex when I started this “program” or whatever you want to call it, since I was making things up as I went. 315# used to be my max front squat too.

Squatting every day sure was interesting and I think it paid off for me big time. Lifting more than 300,000 pounds over the 7 weeks. These last two weeks were fucking heavy with PRs on 14 of the last 15 days and a Murph PR on that other day. More than ready for a deload!

Gymnastics

I was planning to do some muscle-ups but not with the way my back was feeling. I did 4 sets of 5 strict ring dips every 30 seconds. Then thought that was dumb with 100 push-ups coming up. So I did a 1:30 plank, rested 30 seconds, and did a 1 minute plank.

Conditioning

  • 1,000m Run
  • 100 Push-ups
  • 10 Snatches (135#)

Went hard on the running, finishing at 3:38. Caught my breath a little and then starting doing sets of 5 push-ups at a time. Somewhere around 60-70 I had to cut back to 3s and 4s. Did all singles on the snatches but was pretty quick to get back on the bar. Finished in 9:29.

2015 Murph

After dropping to an orange HRV of 89 yesterday I’m back in the green at 98 this morning. The low intensity workout did it’s job. Out in the garage at 7:30 and warmed up with 5:00 Air Dyne (2.25 km).

Coffee Squats

Back Squats

  • 15×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 4x5x225#

Can’t break the streak, even with 300 squats today for the hero WOD. Kept it light to save my legs. Wore Nanos today too, which felt odd. Tried to be explosive on the reps since it wasn’t heavy. After 7 days of some type of squat PRs probably good to have a “rest” day. A lot of PRs are planned for this final week.

I don’t really like to warm-up much for something like this since the first mile loosens me up and no need to waste energy when I’ll need it all. Did a bit of bottom squat holding, but that’s about it.

Murph

“Murph”

* Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats any way you like.

  • 1 Mile Run
  • 100 Pull-ups
  • 200 Push-ups
  • 300 Air Squats
  • 1 Mile Run

Last year I went with 25 rounds of 4-8-12 to save on the push-ups. It did it’s job in that way, but I think all of the extra transitions cost me from setting a PR. I was about 36 seconds slower than the previous year. This year back to doing it like “Cindy” with 20 rounds of 5-10-15 since it worked well for me in the recent PR doing her.

Time to beat was 39:41 from 2013. Ran the first mile in about 8 minutes which is exactly what I wanted. Started out with less than a minute per round and slowed in the second half, but averaged right at that minute/round pace I figured would be good. Pretty slow on the first half of the second mile and picked up the pace on the way in. Wanted to break 38 and did it with ease. Big PR with 37:18 for a PR of 2:23.

2015-murph-cfi

Came across a picture of me running last year in Timehop. I’ve put on a lot of muscle since then.

2014-to-2015-murph

Almost Back

Third night in a row I was in bed by 10. That’s some kind of record. My HRV shot up from 85 to 111 though; that’s how you recover! In for the 9am class at CFi.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 100 Walking Lunges
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Zombie Kicks
  • Squat Broad Jumps

Strength

Back Squat

  • 20×45#
  • 8×135#
  • 6×185#
  • 4×225#
  • 3×265#
  • 2×295#
  • 2×315#
  • 2×325#
  • 2×335#

We did 5 push-ups after each set of squats, though I forgot to do them after the empty bar set, so it was 40 total. I’ve done 340# for a triple, so nearly back to normal loads. Positioning felt solid through every lift. I’d say I’m actually in a better place with my squats than I ever have been before. I’m paying a lot of attention to quality reps and it’s paying off. That was day 23 of squatting every day.

2014-05-05-back-squat-potentials

Conditioning

  • Buy-in: 40 Sit-ups
  • 5 Rounds
    • 8 Thrusters (95#)
    • 16 American KBS (53#)
  • Cash-out: 40 Sit-ups

We did this one exactly 3 months ago when it took me 9:34. Today I shortened up my rest between movements and pushed through. Everything unbroken with a steady pace. Sit-ups still pretty slow. Finished in 9:05 for a 29 second improvement.

Midline

Weighted Planks

  • 4 sets 45s (55#)
  • 1 set 1:00 (55#)

So much sweat!

Lunge University

  • 150 Weighted Lunges (33#)

Threw an empty women’s bar on my back and knocked them out without stopping. Finished in 6:50.

Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap and called it a day.

Two Wheel Super

Tired this morning. Probably because I knew what was coming. Thursday is not my favorite morning. Warmed up with 3:00 Air Dyne (1.48km).

Coffee Squats

Back Squat

  • 20×45#
  • 10×135#
  • 5×165#
  • 5×195#
  • 20×225#

Wore the belt. Wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but it’s always a fight no matter what is on the bar. I thought I was taking a video, but evidently I set the GoPro for pictures instead of video so didn’t get anything. Did all the work in about 20 minutes this morning since I got a late start.

I was regretting those Super Squats after Kevin posted the CrossFit Intuition WOD.

cfi-04-30-2015-wod

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10 Air Squats
  • Hamstring Stretching

Strength

Deadlift

  • 10×45# (slow reps)
  • 5×155#
  • 5×245#
  • 4x5x295#
  • AMRAP 295# (15)

Nice back bump and started to feel a burn in my hamstrings with that max rep set.

Skill

Everyone else rushed through the strength work, so I only did 2 sets of dubs, getting 95 and 43.

Conditioning

“Cindy”
20:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Air Squats

Yeah…was not looking forward to all the squats after super squatting this morning. I haven’t done a full Cindy in 2.5 years. Had a nice steady pace, making sure not to go out too hot and red line in the first 5 minutes. Push-ups were solid until the last 4-5 rounds when I had to pause once in each set. The air squats actually felt pretty good, but did start to burn pretty bad at the end. I set a PR by almost 2 full rounds and I’m 20+ pounds heavier now. Got through 22 rounds plus 5 pull-ups. Should have dropped for a few push-ups but I had enough.

Walked 200m and then did Crossover Symmetry Plyometric.