Shoulder Press

Struggle with the Shoulder Press

In at 10am again. Feeling good and getting a lot of great work lately without getting too sore anywhere.

Warm-up

500m Row
PVC Pass-thrus

Strength

1 RM Shoulder Press

I haven’t tested it since November so I was looking for a PR. It’s hard to increase this damn lift though.

5 @ 45#
3 @ 95#
2 @ 115
1 @ 150
FAIL @ 165#
1 @ 165# (PR)
1 @ 155#
4 @ 135#
4 @ 135#

On my first attempt at 165#, my right arm just wouldn’t go and I think I was flaring out the elbow similar to my bench press problems. I struggled for it on my 2nd attempt, but got it. Didn’t even try for more, but dropped down to get in some volume.

WOD

20:00 EMOM

Evens: 15 cal Air Dyne
Odds: 7 HSPU

Rough! Most HSPU I’ve ever done in a day though and I did them all unbroken except for one round where my foot got caught on the wall after the first rep and I had to get back up on the wall.

Finisher

11 Rounds of 10 GHD Sit-ups (Rotating through 4 of us)

I have a feeling I’m going to be feeling these in my abs and my lower back for a couple of days.

Squats & Presses

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.

Training for the 2013 CrossFit Games Open

Worked out at 10:30 this morning with Cora, Matt, and Kevin. First day of training for the 2014 CrossFit Games Open. 🙂 I’ll have a post up in the next couple of days detailing how I did in the 2013 Open and what I learned about myself.

I warmed up with 20 cal on the Air Dyne and then worked up with some lighter weights on the back squat and shoulder press.

I’m starting a 6 week squat program where I’ll be doing back squats once a week and front squats once a week. It’s a volume program I got off of Burgener’s site. They all did 5×5 Back Squats at 80%, but I had 3 sets of 10, so my timing wasn’t exactly every minute on the minute since I had the 2nd and 4th round of back squats off, but my rounds were longer too because of higher reps.

Strength

10:00 EMOTM

Back Squats: 10 @ 60% (185#), 10 @ 65% (205#), 10 @ 70% (220#)
5×5 Shoulder Press @ 80% of 1RM (125#)

Really tough work with those reps at the percentages. I was out of breath after 10 reps of 220# and 125# was perfect for the shoulder presses.

WOD #1

5:00 Partner AMRAP

21 cal Air Dyne
Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target) until partner is done

I worked with Matt. We got 95 calories and 114 wall balls.

WOD #2

5:00 AMRAP

Box Jumps (24″) with 5 unbroken C2B EMOTM starting at 1:00 (so 4 sets of them)

I didn’t rebound my box jumps until the last 20 seconds or so because I figured I’d be smoked after the previous work and with a long 5 minutes. I think I went 20-13-14-14-19 during each minute for a total of 80. I should have rebounded from the beginning.

Core

10:00 EMOTM

20s MAX OHS (95#)
20s Ring L-sit

I got 8-9-8-9-9 on my OHS. Lost balance with 4 or 5 seconds left in that third round and had to bump the bar, so missed out on another rep or two there. The OHS felt really good today though.

Hit Them Shoulders Hard

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.

Burning the Shoulders

Glutes and low back are a bit sore from yesterday’s thrashing of them. Went in at 9am today.

Warm-up

500m Row
30 Sit-ups
30 Supermans
5×2 Turkish Get-ups (1 each side)

I went up in weight for each set of Turkish Get-ups, using 25#, 35#, 40#, 44#, and 50#. The first 4 were using a KB and the last using a DB.

Strength

5×5 Shoulder Press, 2m Rest between sets

10 @ 45#
5 @ 95#
5 @ 115#
5 @ 125#
5 @ 135#
4 @ 140#
3 @ 140#

I was able to do 140# for 5 reps back at Survival Fitness when we last did a 5×5, so I bumped up my 2nd and 3rd sets to 115# and 125# today. I had the 5th rep on my first attempt at 140#, but lost concentration and stopped at the bottom, so I lost all momentum. Took a short rest and came back at it again for 3 reps.

WOD

21-15-9 C2B Pull-ups
21-15-9 HSPU
100 DUs

The WOD actually called for deficit HSPUs on 35# plates, but there’s no way I could handle that for 45 reps, so I went with standard ones and those were hard enough. My time was 16:58. Not great, but I kept plugging away at all the reps. I need to improve my DUs when I’m tired. Shoulders are fried after this 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.

Thrusters Suck

After working out yesterday morning I felt pretty good, until I did the rowing intervals before dinner. After that everything seemed to hurt. Sort of “meh” today, with definite soreness in my hamstrings. I heard about the workout this morning and thought about skipping out because I hate thrusters and knew how bad the WOD would suck. But you can’t improve on a movement if you skip out on it, so I forced myself to go in for the 5:30pm class.

I was there pretty early so had a chance to do a bunch of PVC pass-thrus and around the worlds to warm up my shoulders.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

15s Jumping Jacks
15s Air Squats
15s Mountain Climbers
15s Jump Squats

4 Rounds

15s Plank
15s Supermans
15s Right Side Plank
15s Left Side Plank

Strength

Find 1RM Shoulder Press

10 @ 45#
5 @ 75#
2 @ 95#
1 @ 115#
1 @ 135#
1 @ 145#
1 @ 155#
Fail at 165#
1 @ 155#

Looking back, I probably did too many warm-up reps. I never do it like that. 160# is my previous PR, so went for a new one even though 155# was pretty damn hard. I’ll take hitting 155# twice for the day though. Sounded like most people were doing pretty bad as well because of other work we’d done this week.

WOD

20:00 EMOM

8 Thrusters (65#)
3 Burpees

The Rx weights for the thrusters were 95/65, which is nearly impossible to do. I used 65# and couldn’t even do it all. After the 14th minute, I had to drop down to only 6 thrusters each minute so I could keep doing 3 burpees. Did all 8 and 3 reps in the final minute though because getting 30 seconds of rest no longer mattered.

55 thrusters and 55 back squat thrusters with 115# on Monday, 140 wall balls yesterday, and 150 thrusters with 65# today. I fucking hope we’re done with that movement for the week! 🙂

Gun Show Finisher

5 Sets

20 DB Curls (10 each arm)
MAX Diamond Push-ups
60s Rest

For the curls I used 15#, 20#, 25#, 30#, and 35#. The last set was a struggle to finish. I got 16, 15, 16, 15, and 12 reps on the push-ups. After this and all of the shoulder work, I can barely move my arms.

Definitely not doing a WOD tomorrow, but will most likely go in for the OLY class to work on the clean & jerk.

DB WOD

In for the 9am because I have a massage at noon and want to rest after that. Back is tight from the last couple of days.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

20 PVC Pass-thrus
15 Jump Squats
10 Zombie Kicks
5 Burpees

Strength

5×3 Shoulder Press

10 @ 45#
3 @ 95#
3 @ 115#
3 @ 125#
3 @ 135#
3 @ 145#

I did 3 reps at 145# a couple of months ago, but I’ll take it after doing HSPU last night. Some days you have to just take what you can get because it’s better than going for 150# and not getting any reps. It took me a long time to realize this.

Accessory

3 Sets

MAX Ring Dips
90s Rest

These felt good today. The weighted dips Kevin and I have been doing really helped out I think. I did 16, 12, and 10 in my sets. All reps were strict with no kipping.

WOD

21-15-9

Modified DB Curtis P’s (hang clean, lunge, lunge, push press)
Manmakers (DB push-up, row, row)

It was a good change of pace to do a WOD dominated by DBs. The push presses were easily the worst part of this for me. I had to take my breaks mostly because I couldn’t press out any more reps. Finished in 19:44, using 40# DBs.

Update
Decided to try my first 2k row at night. Didn’t quite know what to expect and started too fast. It pretty much sucked after the first 500m. Final time was 7:38 so I’ll have something to shoot for next time.

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.

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.

Shoulders!

Up for the 9am today. My hamstrings started to get sore last night. I think from back squat Monday. My abs are still sore and the GHD sit-ups last night are probably contributing to that.

Warm-up

30 PVC Pass-thrus
10 HR Push-ups
20 PVC Pass-thrus
10 HR Push-ups
10 PVC Pass-thrus
10 HR Push-ups

Great warm-up for the shoulders. I mixed in some around-the-worlds with the PVC too.

Strength

Find 1RM Shoulder Press

10 @ 45#
4 @ 95#
1 @ 125#
1 @ 135#
1 @ 145#
1 @ 155#
1 @ 160#

Just over a month ago, on October 3rd, I missed 150# once and then barely squeezed it out on the 2nd attempt. Going into today I was shooting to match that PR and see if I had anything left in the tank. I was feeling good, so didn’t even make at attempt at it and went right for a PR at 155#. Got it without much trouble so went for 160# and had to fight hard for it.

WOD

2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20

Push Presses (40# DBs)
Burpees

Went unbroken with the push presses through the set of 12 and then broke the last 4 sets up, always getting just over half in the first go and then finishing off the rest after a break. Tried not to stop at all during the burpees and just keep going no matter how slow they felt. It was a struggle to push up off the ground for the last 5 reps. Finished in 16:15.

Finisher

5 Sets

MAX L-Sit
60s Rest

I did these with my knees up, using the rings and got right around 30 seconds each round except for the 4th, where it was closer to 20 seconds. Good way to finish off the shoulders and get in the abs as well.