Shoulder Press

Grace-Off

Last day of our group’s golf tournament this morning, so I walked 18 holes. With the humidity lately this has been fatiguing me more than expected. Went in around 7:30 for open gym.

Warm-up

3-4:00 of DU practice

I reeled off a nice streak of 71 right off the bat and then got a bunch in the 30s. I need to get better at being able to do long streaks when I lose some breath and I want to hit that 100 so bad!

Strength

5/3/1 Shoulder Press – Cycle 2 Week 3

5 @ 60# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 75# (50% – warm)
3 @ 90# (60% – warm)
3 @ 115# (75%)
3 @ 130# (85%)
1+ @ 145# (95%)

I went for it and couldn’t even get one rep. Wow. Took a minute to regroup but was only able to get 2 reps. What the fuck is going on with some of my lifts? Last week I did 6 @ 140# and now this bullshit? Puts my estimated max at 154.5#, well below my 165# PR.

Snatch Press

10 @ 45#
10 @ 75#
10 @ 85#

WOD

Warmed up clean and jerks with 45# x 3, 95# x 3, 115# x 3, and 135# for one.

“Grace”

30 C&J (135#)

I’ve been wanting to Rx this bitch for a long time. Brent came in to throwdown with me. My last “Grace” attempt was 125# back in November, which I did in 4:16. Only took me 3:03 today and I probably lost 10-15 seconds with the damn collars. Somewhere between 15 and 20 I was wondering why it was so hard to get my right arm up. I finally looked at the bar and the 45# bumper was nearly off the bar. Ugh!

Felt pretty good though, I stupidly dropped the bar after 3 reps because something just didn’t feel right and then I started doing singles after 9. I wasn’t resting between reps though, I was actually catching the bar on the bounce and resetting right away. Hanging on and controlling to the ground was just taking too much energy out of me and I knew I couldn’t sustain it. I was predicting a time around 3:00 the other day talking to Matt, so I’m pretty happy with that.

Finisher

3 Rounds NFT

5 Strict Deficit HSPU (15# Bumpers)
5 Strict Chin-ups
1:00 Air Dyne

The HSPU were a struggle to complete, but not surprising seeing how my shoulder press sucked today.

Quads on Fire

Yesterday I walked 18 holes of golf and then got one of those massive headaches from the sun and heat. It was in the 90s and I guess I didn’t drink enough water out there. So my garage gym still isn’t all set back up with the GHD yet. In at 10am this morning and feeling great after 9.5 hours of sleep.

Warm-up

1000m Row

Strength

5/3/1 Shoulder Press – Cycle 2 Week 2

5 @ 60# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 75# (50% – warm)
3 @ 90# (60% – warm)
3 @ 105# (70%)
3 @ 120# (80%)
3+ @ 140# (90%)

I have a bit of the right elbow problem on shoulder presses too and that right elbow is also the one that gets sore after snatches or OHS most of the time. Hmmm. I got 6 reps @ 140# for an estimated max of 167.5#.

Deadlift – 5/3/1 Cycle 2 Week 2

5 @ 165# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 210# (50% – warm)
3 @ 250# (60% – warm)
3 @ 295# (70%)
3 @ 335# (80%)
3+ @ 375# (90%)

Crushed the deadlifts today with the day off yesterday. 10 reps for an estimated max of 499. BOOM!!

3 Rounds NFT

8 Front Rack Walking Lunges (135#, forward)
8 Front Rack Walking Lunges (135#, backward)
8 Chin-ups

I didn’t put the bar down on the lunges and my heart was racing after all 16 lunges.

WOD

5 4:00 Rounds

6 T2B
1:30 Air Dyne
Rest

I made a point not to go out too fast on the first round. Went 31-33-34-34-32 calories. I focused on keeping the speed at over 22mph. This is much worse than Air Dyne Hell because you hurt for longer.

Pack It In

Upper legs are really sore from yesterday. I did a heavy sled drag at night that I’ve updated yesterday’s post with, but Louie Simmons says they don’t make you sore, so I guess it has to be from the squats and snatches I did. It was over a week since my last squatting session so maybe it was all from squats. Went in at 10am this morning and trained with Kevin. We really packed everything in and finished in well under 90 minutes.

Warm-up

5:00 Air Dyne

Strength

5/3/1 Shoulder Press (Cycle 2 Week 1)

5 @ 60# (40% of training max – warm)
5 @ 75# (50% – warm)
3 @ 90# (60% – warm)
5 @ 100# (65%)
5 @ 115# (75%)
5+ @ 130# (85%)

Felt good today and I was able to get 10 reps for an estimated max of 173#. I was only able to get 8 @ 125# in the first cycle, so that’s a big step up.

3 Sets

20 Pullovers (45# DB)
10/10 Side Bends (62# KB)

WOD #1

10:00 EMOM

10 Burpees

Did the first round in 20 seconds and got a little slower each round until about round 5 and then was able to keep pace at 25 seconds per round. We definitely don’t do enough burpees. They are great for conditioning and this is a fun little interval workout.

WOD #2

100 DU
50 T2B
30 HSPU
30 Over the Box Jumps (24″)
50 Sit-ups
100 DU

My hips held me back after 37 reps on the T2B, having to go to sets of 3s and 2s or I would start failing to get my feet up to the bar. I hit the wall on HSPU even though I never did a set of more than 4. Had to do singles for the last 4 reps, which was super slow. Box jumps and sit-ups were unbroken. Double unders weren’t my greatest today. Took me 18:10 to finish.

Really solid training session.

Heading to Vancouver

My abs are still a little sore, which tells me I’m not doing enough sit-ups. Next week I’m in Vancouver for work and it’ll be all running and body weight stuff, so I’ll make sure to get in a bunch. Trained at 3pm for a couple of hours. Hit the barbell hard since it’ll be a week without it.

Warm-up

1,000m Row

Strength

5/3/1 Shoulder Press – Cycle 1 Week 3

5 @ 60# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 75# (50% – warm)
3 @ 90# (60% – warm)
3 @ 110# (75%)
3 @ 125# (85%)
1+ @ 140# (95%)

Knocked out 5 reps on the last set for an estimated max of 163#, which is just under my 165# PR.

5/3/1 Front Squats – Cycle 1 Week 2

I wanted to get in an extra squat session for the week so decided to just pick this even though I hadn’t done week 1.

5 @ 105# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 135# (50% – warm)
3 @ 160# (60% – warm)
3 @ 185# (70%)
3 @ 210# (80%)
3+ @ 240# (90%)

Trying to do a big set of front squats isn’t the easiest because it get’s really hard to breathe with the bar there for so long. I managed 6 reps, putting my estimated max at 287.5#, shy of my 295# PR. Felt good to get in some more squats for the week though.

Olympic Lifting

Trying to put a lot of time into snatches. Kevin’s help with some position stuff to work on meeting the bar with my hips and it’s really paying off.

Did about 10 minutes of position work with 45# on the training bar.

5:00 EMOM

3 Snatches (95#)

Rested for 5:00.

5:00 EMOM

2 Snatches (115#)

Felt great at 95#, so I wanted to see if I could keep it going with more weight. I was able to! I was getting such explosion behind some of them the bar got so high that I didn’t even have to drop under it and I ended up doing a power snatch. I did have one miss on the 2nd set, but stepped right up and ripped off two makes. I think I hit the hips on every rep in both EMOMs, which is probably more times hitting my hips than total before today. Need to keep doing this. Here’s one of the 115# lifts…

WOD

3 Rounds

150m Run
20 Pull-ups
5 Curtis P (95#)

Wore the gymnastics grips to protect my hand. Felt pretty good. I split pull-ups down to 14-6, 10-6-4, and 10-6-4. Definitely need to add in more high rep pull-up sets. Finished in 9:06.

Long and Brutal

Legs still pretty sore. In at 9am to get lifts done before doing a long team WOD in class at 10.

I warmed up with a 500m row and some PVC pass-thrus.

5/3/1 Shoulder Press – Cycle 1 Week 2

5 @ 60# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 75# (50% – warm)
3 @ 90# (60% – warm)
3 @ 105# (70%)
3 @ 120# (80%)
3+ @ 135# (90%)

Felt better than the first “wee”. I managed to get 7 reps at 135#, which puts my estimated max at 166#, over my current PR.

5/3/1 Back Squat – Cycle 1 Week 2

5 @ 115# (40% of Training Max – warm)
5 @ 145# (50% – warm)
3 @ 175# (60% – warm)
3 @ 205# (70%)
3 @ 235# (80%)
3+ @ 265# (90%)

Oh boy! I felt horrible going down on that first warm-up set. Only managed to get 4 reps at 265# before dumping the bar. Too much leg work packed into 8 days to get in 2 5/3/1 cycles and it showed. Won’t be hitting strength again until Tuesday and only one strength lift per day, so it should be a better week next week for the 3rd week and then a deload after.

In class, we did a brutal teams WOD in honor of the CrossFit games going on. I teamed up with Brent and Kevin. The events were one right after the other, so keep moving.

Event 1: “Road Grater”

Barbell/Plate carry one mile (Guys: 45# bar, two 45# plates; Ladies 30# bar, two 35# plates)
One member must carry the bar and the other two must carry a plate. Members can switch implements at any time.

We took about 13:10 (forgot to look at the clock) and got smoked by Ron, Matt, and Ryan who did it in 10:35.

Event 2: “Hippie Hop”

Load weights on barbell. Each member must complete 50 lateral hops over the bar while the other two members hold the bar. The holders can hold the bar at any height but cannot set it down until the 50 hops are completed. Penalty for letting the bar touch the ground was 10 reps.

This was easy. We had 2 guys lay on their side on the ground and set the bar on our hips. The 50 hops were like a rest period for me and I knocked them out like nothing. We started our comeback here, crushing it in 2:42 to finish at an overall time of 15:52.

Event 3: “Rack of Ribs”

Unload the barbell and complete as a team: 200 Burpee plate jumps and 100 front rack empty bar lunges. Here’s how it works: Two members do the burpee plate jumps, while the 3rd member does the front rack lunges. Every member has to go rep for rep, so one lunge, two burpee plate jumps (one each member with the plate) at a time. Teams can switch out the lungers and the burpee plate jumpers whenever they feel like it with no penalty.

We switched out the lunger every 11 reps, which worked well because it still meant doing 22 burpees in a row. We almost complete caught up here, finishing in 8:46 for an overall time of 24:38.

Event 4: “Ron Morse Mile”

Stop at each turn and complete the following, every member must do this:

Turn 1: 50 Air Squats
Turn 2: 75 Air squats
Turn 3: 50 Push-ups (chest to deck)
Turn 4: 75 Push-ups

Suck fest, especially that many push-ups at the end of this WOD. We did 5 at a time with breaks and it worked well. Took us 20:17 to finish the mile for a total time of 44:55 to take down the best time in the last 3 events and the overall. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

I did a really slow 10:00 on the Air Dyne after for a cool down to flush things out.

Double 5/3/1 Day

Yesterday I walked 18 holes of golf in the morning and took the rest of the day off. Really needed it. In at 10am this morning to train with Kevin and Ellen.

Warm-up

Ran 450m and felt really good.

Strength

Doubling up on the 5/3/1. Going to try and squeeze 3 weeks into 2, since I’m heading out of town the next week and can use that as my deload.

5/3/1 Shoulder Press (cycle 1 week 1)

5 @ 60# (40% of training max – warm)
5 @ 75# (50% – warm)
3 @ 90# (60% – warm)
5 @ 95# (65%)
5 @ 110# (75%)
5+ @ 125# (85%)

I got 8 reps on the last set, which is kind of disappointing. It estimates my max at 158#, which is below my PR of 165#.

5/3/1 Back Squats (cycle 1 week 1)

5 @ 115# (40% of training max – warm)
5 @ 145# (50% – warm)
3 @ 175# (60% – warm)
5 @ 190# (65#)
5 @ 220# (75%)
5+ @ 250# (85%)

I was thinking about trying to hit it as Super Squats and go for 20 reps since I’d done 245# for 20 before I got sick. Went by feel though and cut it off at 12 reps because I could feel my form getting ugly. It estimates my max at 349#, which I think is high since I haven’t put 25# on my back squat in the last 6-8 weeks. Once you get past 8 or so reps, the max rep calculators seem to be off. Happy with the work though.

Accessory

4 Rounds NFT

10 Front Rack Lunges (135#)
5 Strict T2B
10 Pullovers (60# DB)

I did everything unbroken and went from one lunge right into the next one without putting my feet together. Our T2B weren’t exactly strict, but we weren’t kipping was the key point I guess.

WOD

4 Rounds

10 Push Presses (35# DBs)
90s Air Dyne
2:00 Rest

I sped through the push presses each round. My calories were 35-30-30-33. The AD6 is so much different (harder) than the AD2 I have. World’s of difference. There is no way I could do 300 FY on the AD6 and it was easy on the AD2.

Vacation Monday

Does a vacation officially start before this first week day? I never work weekends anyway. Legs are feeling a little sluggish from yesterday. Went to bed at 10 because I was exhausted from all of the sun and 3 training sessions. Still have night sweats though.

Jumped on the AD2 just after 7am.

5:00 warmup
Reverse Tabata (8 rounds)
- 10s Sprint
- 20s Rest
5:00 cool down

My best calories for a regular Tabata was 77 and I got 107 here, which is another one in the books confirming the AD6 is much harder to rack up calories on. Nice workout for being so quick. I really like switching up interval periods. Hopefully it pays off.

Around noon I setup for the big training session of the day.

Warm-up

50m Run
50m Run backwards

20 Good Mornings (green)
20/20 band walk (red)
10 press band (red)
10 band pull aparts (red)

Strength

Shoulder Press

5 @ 75#
5 @ 85#
5 @ 95#
5 @ 105
5 @ 135
ME @ 145 (3)

WOD

A little max aerobic power (MAP) training in the hot sun. Object is to go at 80%. Three minutes of rest between each AMRAP.

3:00 AMRAP

135# Bear

3:00 AMRAP

10 Front Rack walking lunges 135#
8 OTB burpees

2 full rounds

3:00 AMRAP

10 HR push-ups
15 Russian KBS 53#

3 full rounds

3:00 AMRAP

6 OHS 95#
12 sit-ups

2+3

3:00 AMRAP

5 thruster 95#
10 sumo deadlift high pull 53#

2+12

Much harder than expected!

Monday Blues

These damn night sweats are killing me. Can’t get a decent night of sleep. Canceled golfing early this morning because of the lack of sleep, but went in at 10am to train. Kevin had to bail for work after the shoulder presses, but Ellen stuck around and did everything with me.

Warm-up

450m Run
PVC Pass-thrus

Strength

5 x 45% Training Max (1:00 Rest)
5 x 55% (1:00)
5 x 65% (1:00)
5 x 75% (2:00)
3 x 85% (3:00)
ME x 95%

* Training Max is 90% of 1RM.

I based my numbers off my 165# shoulder press. The percentages were a bit goofy, but I ended up using 75#, 85#, 95#, 110#, 125#, and then 140#. I managed to get 5 reps on that last set. Tried to get a 6th, but just didn’t have it.

HSPU

10:00 EMOM

5 Hard HSPU

I went with 25# plates for a deficit. Had to switch to kipping in the 5th round and then ran out of gas, only able to get 4-3-3 in the last 3 rounds. Shows how weak I am now because a few weeks ago I did all 10 rounds.

WOD

5 Rounds

20 DU
10 Pull-ups
10 KBS (62# KB)

Don’t have the gas I’m used to having. Way too much resting. Was only able to get the first round of pull-ups unbroken. Finished in 8:12.

Finisher

5 Bent Over Prowler Drags Between Legs, about 25m down and 25m back. I used 225#, 240#, 255#, 270#, and 300#.

Solid session. I can feel myself coming back each day, so hopefully I’m back to normal by the weekend when I’m heading on vacation, because I plan on doing 2-3 workouts a day and becoming a metcon monster for that week.

A Do Work Saturday

We partied at the box last night for Casey, who is going away to be a Navy diver in just over a week. Went in to the 10am this morning.

Warm-up

“Annie”
50-40-30-20-10

Sit-ups
DU

First time in a year I didn’t bring my bag to the gym, so didn’t have my good rope and had to use one that was hanging on the wall, with about a foot of extra cable hanging off the one end. There was a screw-up with the clock anyway, so wouldn’t have been able to set a PR. These movements are actually in the wrong order as well.

Strength

12:00 EMOM

Odds: 8 Ring Rows
Evens: 8 Ring Dips

I’ve always been pretty terrible at ring rows, but I was able to get 8 for all 6 sets. Did all of my ring dips strict too.

WOD

4 Rounds

20 Sandbag Clean and Toss over Shoulder
10/10 Sledgehammers
150m OH Run (45# bumper)

Finished in 13:44. Had to stop about 2/3 of the way through each run because my shoulders were on fire. Other than that, didn’t stop on anything.

Finisher

Tire flips

Back at 3pm for some lifting.

Cleans

Clean + Hang Clean + High Hang Clean, with about 2:00 rest between sets. I used 115#, 125#, 135#, 145#, 155#, 165#, 175#, and 185#. ~~Last set was a new high for this complex.~~ (I’ve actually done this up to 195#, but that started at 135#. Only have done 175# with power cleans) Still not using wrist wraps or lifting shoes, and it’s actually feeling pretty good.

5:00 EMOM

2 Cleans (205#)

Rest 5 minutes.

5:00 EMOM

1 Clean (225#)

Rest 3 minutes

3:00 EMOM

1 Clean (235#)

Up until a week ago, my max clean was 230#, so it felt really good to get those rep at 235# after already having done so much cleaning.

Without thinking about how many front squats I had already done, I was going to do a 5×3 of back squats with 275#, but I got 2 reps in and had nothing in my legs, so I called it quits before I hurt myself.

Shoulder Press

5 @ 135#
5 @ 135#
5 @ 135#
5/5 @ 45# DB
5/5 @ 45# DB

The issue I’m having with a weak right arm on bench press is following me along to overhead. I switched up to DBs after the 3rd set to try to make sure each arm got work. It was a struggle to get 5 reps on the right side with the 45, but not much of an issue on the left. Weird.

Still Recovering from “Murph”

My legs barely even work they’re so sore. Went it at 10:30 and then got a massage at 1.

Warm-up

Lots of stretching
2m Air Dyne

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM

5 Deficit HSPU (25# bumpers)

I got through them all! Was originally thinking to go every 2 minutes, but said what the hell and ended up surprising myself.

XWOD

7:00 EMOM

3 Broad Jumps (for distance)

Strength

12:00 E2MOM

1 Shoulder Press (145#)

Was supposed to be 95% of 1RM but after the HSPU there was no way that was happening. I barely got through them all with 145#, which is less than 90%.

Kroc Rows

10/10 62# KB
10/10 62# KB
10/10 62# KB
10/10 71# KB
7/7 80# KB

WOD

3 Rounds

30 DU
10 V-ups
10 Ring Dips

Finisher

Easy 10:00 Row, keeping around a 20s/m pace.