Shoulder Press

Very Welcoming at CrossFit Swell

I was back at CrossFit Swell in Dorado, Puerto Rico at 7:30 this morning. We are switching over to another island for the rest of the week so it was my last chance to hit the box. Maybe I’ll go for a run or something on Thursday and/or Friday.

Warm-up

Tabata Mash-up (3 Rounds)
- Jumping Jacks
- Dips on Ground
- Chest to Deck Push-ups
20 PVC Pass-thrus
10 PVC Reverse Grip Pass-thrus
Arm Swings & Pot Stirrers
Wrist Stretch on Ground

WOD

Run 200m
30 Ring Dips
30 Burpees
Run 400m
20 Ring Dips
20 Burpees
Run 800 m
10 Ring Dips
10 Burpees

Finished in 16:28. Soaked in sweat again. I did all of the burpees unbroken, and mostly sets of 4 or 5 on the ring dips.

Since class was broken into two groups to do the WOD, I jumped on a rack after the workout to get in some strength work.

Shoulder Presses

10 @ 45#
5 @ 95#
5 @ 105#
5 @ 115#
5 @ 125#

It has been great visiting a box in another country. Awesome people. Wouldn’t even take any money for a drop-in from me and told me multiple times “this is your house.”

All Over the Place

In at 10am with Matt and Alex.

Warm-up

3-4:00 of Jump Rope & DU
45# Snatch Positions and some Klokov Presses

Power Snatches

Positions and some doubles with 95#
2×2 @ 115#
E30S 5:00 1 @ 135#

Back Squats

5 @ 135#
5 @ 185#
3 @ 225#
3 @ 255#
2 @ 275#
2 @ 295#
1 @ 305#
1 @ 315#
1 @ 325#

Matt and Alex were doing some 7 rep TnG Bear Complex, so I jumped in at 145# for a go. That’s a 20# PR. I actually forgot to do a front squat (power clean right to jerk) on the 2nd or 3rd one, so did an 8th for it to be legit.

I grabbed an empty bar and did a set of 20 shoulder presses.

10 Rounds

30s Row
30s Rest

Felt pretty rough today on this, but looking back, that’s 5m more than October 4th, which isn’t all that easy to do when you’re sprinting anyway.

nov-4-2013-row-1

nov-4-2013-row-2

Grabbed an empty bar for 20 more shoulder presses.

Came back at 8pm to do a little more with Matt.

3 Rounds NFT

100m Sled Drag (25# sled + 270#, 50 down and back)
30s Battling Ropes waves
30s Battling Ropes slams
30s Battling Ropes circles

Holy fuck! Tried to do big steps and full foot on the ground for all of the sled dragging. We’ve done 5 plates before, but never 6. Really burned the ass. Those battling ropes are no fucking joke either.

Row for Recovery

Another 10am session. My hands are feeling the most from all of those KBS yesterday. Legs are still sore too.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne
45# Power Clean Positions

OLY

2 Power Cleans + 5 Front Squats (95#)
2 Power Cleans + 5 Front Squats (125#)
2 Power Cleans + 5 Front Squats (155#)
2 Power Cleans + 5 Front Squats (175#)
2 Power Cleans + 3 Front Squats (195#)

Cleans were not feeling the best and the bar slipped out of my hands twice because it was humid in the gym and the bar was a little slick.

Strength

Shoulder Presses

5 @ 95#
5 @ 100#
5 @ 105#
5 @ 110#
5 @ 115#
5 @ 120#
5 @ 125#
5 @ 130#
1 @ 135#

I worked on short rest for the first 5 sets or so. Caught up to me at the end there with 135# when I could only manage 1 rep and was shooting for 3.

Pendlay Rows

5 @ 135#
5 @ 150#
5 @ 165#
5 @ 180#
5 @ 195#

Heaviest I’ve done with these.

Conditioning

Easy 20 minute Row

I tried to keep my pace in the 2:08-2:10 range and 15-17 spm seemed to be a good stroke rate. The final numbers on the rower were 20:05 for 4,686m with an average pace of 2:08.6.

A Main Site WOD

In at 10 with Matt again. Walking up/down stairs is feeling better today.

Warm-up

500m Row

Strength

3 Shoulder Presses at 30X1 tempo
10/10 KB Rows on Bench

45-95-115-120-125-130-135 for the shoulder presses and 48-48-53-62-62-71 for the rows.

3 Rounds

10 Back Squats w/ empty 45# bar
30s Plank

Just a little something to get the knee moving.

WOD

This gem is today’s crossfit.com WOD. Might be the first time I’ve ever used one on the scheduled day.

15:00 AMRAP

250m Row
25 C2D Push-ups

Lost about 10-15 seconds in the middle due to weird bump noises from the rower, which I think just ended up being dirt on the track. Did 6 rounds plus 126m. All sets of push-ups were 5 or more.

Finisher

Tabata

6 rounds of Hollow Rocks
2 rounds of Supermans

I was already having to break in the 5th and 6th rounds of hollow rocks, so switched to supermans to finish it out. The hollow rocks were horrible!

Dropping Dime Squats

Went up to Rogers City for a couple of days, so yesterday was a rest day. Out in the garage for a solo workout today.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne
45# Snatch Position Work
2×2 95# Power Snatch
3×1 135# Power Snatch

Starting to do power snatches when I don’t have to drop all the way down into a full squat. A few thoughts on this:

Should help to teach the timing of receiving the bar at different positions instead of just trying to drop ass to grass all the time. Dropping to far causes the bar to come crashing down on me and sometimes is the reason for a miss.
More powerful because it forces me to be explosive in the 2nd pull in order to get the bar high enough.

OLY

20:00 EMOM

1 Power Snatch (155#)

20/20! Naturally started to drop a little lower as I fatigued towards the end, but was still well above parallel.

Strength

Back Squats

10 x 45#
10 x 135#
10 x 185#
10 x 225#
10 x 255#
10 x 215#
10 x 175#
10 x 125#

Pretty rough.

E2M 14:00

10 GHD Sit-ups
10 DB Shoulder Presses (35# DBs)

Did the movements back to back and then rested the remainder of the two minutes. Finished in about 45 seconds each round.

Loving the Squats

Chest, shoulders and back are sore from yesterday. In at 10am again though.

Warm-up

5:00 Air Dyne
PVC Pass-thrus

OLY

Snatch day!

Did a few passes through the positions with an empty bar to warm-up.

E2M

Snatch
Hang Snatch
High Hang Snatch

95-105-115-125-135-140

Didn’t miss any, but the high hang snatch with 140# was pretty sketchy and required a few steps to save. PR for the high hang in this complex!

EMOM

1 Snatch

145-150-155-160-165, all makes.

E2M

1 Snatch

Started to run into trouble here. 170 – F, 170, 175 – F, 175 – F, 175. I wasn’t pulling the bar back enough and locking out good.

Strength

Back Squats

10 x 45#
5 x 135#
5 x 225#
5 x 255#
5 x 275#
5 x 295#
10 x 185#

Got into that happy place of almost passing out with 275 and 295#, bit that’s a 5RM PR.

5 x 45#
5 x 95#
5 x 105#
5 x 115#
5 x 125#
5 x 130#
3 x 135#

So weak up top.

WOD

3 Rounds

10 Burpees
20 Wall Balls (10′ target, 20# MB)

Everything unbroken for a time of 4:18. Last round of wall balls sucked after back squats.

Finisher

6 Rounds

45m Sled “Sprint” (225# load + 25# sled)
Rest 1-2m

Fun! Good way to finish off the long session, going into a rest day.

Making Use of the Hotel Dumbbells

Up early again. Usually works better for me not completely changing over to the 3 hour time difference as long as I can get to bed at a reasonable time.

Warm-up

4:00 of fast walking and slow running on the treadmill

Strength

3 Sets

10/10 Curls
10 Shoulder Presses
10 Front Squats

I used 30s, 35s, and 40s.

3 Sets

10/10 Kroc Rows
10 Incline Bench Press
10 Weighted Lunges (holding each DB at sides)

Used 45s, 50s, and 50s.

WOD

5 Rounds

20s Sprint on treadmill @ 3.0 incline & 8.5 speed
10 Goblet Squats (50# DB)

Probably could have pushed the pace up on the treadmill. Good little WOD though. I was going to head outside for some hill sprints on the little hill in front of the hotel but then I realized I could use the incline on the treadmill and get it done sooner.

Light Garage Work

Rest day, but wanted to get moving a bit and do some active recovery as well. Went out to the garage around 5-ish.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne

Strength

5 Rounds NFT

10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Back Extensions
10 Back Squats (45#)
10 Shoulder Presses (45#)

Tried to be as explosive as possible on the GHD sit-ups and was hitting the foot pad with my feed and even had the front of the GHD come off the ground a little on some reps.

WOD

20:00 on the Air Dyne for 439 calories and 10.52km.

180 Pounds of Snatch

In at 10am by myself this morning. Everyone else bailed.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne
Behind the Neck Band Pull Aparts (purple)

Olympic Lifting

Did 5:00 of snatch position work with 45# on the training bar, a couple of quick snatch singles with 95#, and then started doing a snatch single EMOM. Not a big fan of snatching heavy without anyone around, but oh well.

115#
125#
130#
135#
140#
145#
150#
155#
160#
165# (Fail)
165#
170#
175#
180# (PR)
185# (Fail)

Had 185# up over me but was too soft and too far forward. Rested 3:00 and gave it another shot with a similar result, but the first attempt was better. I’ll get it next time.

Strength

Shoulder Presses & Chin-ups

5 x 85#
10 Strict Chin-ups
5 x 105#
10 Strict Chin-ups
5 x 115#
10 Strict Chin-ups
5 x 130#
10 Strict Chin-ups

Pendlay Rows

5 x 115#
5 x 135#
5 x 155#
5 x 165#

I should have went for more here, but haven’t done them in weeks.

WOD

4 Rounds

200m Row
30s Rest

Felt solid on the rower. Didn’t want to over do it, with plans to go to class at night.

Went to the 7pm class.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

1:00 Bottom Squat Hold
15 PVC Pass-thrus

Strength

Back Squats

Warmed up with 10 @ 45#, 5 @ 95#, and 5 @ 135#.

5 @ 185#
5 @ 225#
5 @ 225#
5 @ 265#
5 @ 265#

Ass To Grass! Back using the weightlifting shoes today to help me out with my squats and stuff. Squats are feeling better finally.

WOD

15-12-9

Deadlifts (225#)
HSPU

Finished in 4:10. This was just 9 reps of each short of being “Diane” but 9 reps of each more than the 12-9-6 I did in 5:18 back in November. Over a minute faster with 18 total reps extra. I’ll take that improvement! I can probably finally knock out the real “Diane” in a respectable time now.

Rest 4:00

15-12-9

One-arm Snatches (45# DB, alternating)
Burpees

Did this one in 3:41. Liked these WODs!

Core

3 Rounds

5/5 Turkish Get-ups (increasing each round, 30#/35#/40# KB)
90s Rest

Good work to improve shoulder strength and stability.

Snatchin’ Sunday

Trained out in the garage tonight for a couple of hours. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish by yourself without talking to anyone. Solid night of work.

Warm-up

0.45 Mile Sled Drag (115#) around the block

Olympic Lifting

Thacker Warm-up

After hearing them talk about a better snatch warm-up on the Barbell Shrugged Podcast, I had to check out the Thacker snatch progressions. Let me tell you, they are no fucking joke. I was sweating my ass off and breathing hard halfway through each part. I’m going to try to do this once or twice a week.

Snatches

3:00 EMOM

2 Snatches (95# 115# 125#)

Rest 4:00

10:00 EMOM

1 Snatch (135# 135# 145# 145# 155# and then repeated)

I completed every snatch today. Feeling more and more comfortable with the improved technique.

Snatch Deadlifts

2 @ 165#
2 @ 165#
2 @ 175#
2 @ 175#
2 @ 185#

Figured it was time to start feeling the correct positioning with higher weights. Felt good, but hard on the thumbs. Might use straps next time.

Strength

Back Squats

5 @ 135#
5 @ 165#
5 @ 195#
5 @ 195#

Light squat day. Key thoughts for were to lead with the hips back first, push knees out, and keep a vertical torso.

Shoulder Press

5 @ 85#
5 @ 105#
5 @ 115#
5 @ 125#

These felt really tough.

4 Rounds NFT

20 GHD Sit-ups
20 Back Extensions
5 GHR
5 Snatch Press 95#

Took a short rest after 14 sit-ups in the first 3 rounds and then did all 20 unbroken in the last round. Mid back had something going on in those last 6 reps which didn’t feel very good. Trying to not lead up with my ass on the GHR but it’s really tough. Maybe I should try static holds in the straight out position. I have a hard time getting 95# moving but then it’s not that bad. My neck gets sore from these from having to push it forward so I don’t bang my head with the bar.

Cool Down

Walked 0.53 miles around the neighborhood.