Coffee and Squats

Legs are still sore as fuck. Won’t stop me from squatting though. So happy to be under a bar again! Quad seems to be fine with it so far. Out in the garage shortly after waking up.

IMG_5815

Jumped on the Air Dyne (AD2) for 5:00 and went 2.25 kilometers.

Back Squats

  • 20×45#
  • 8×135#
  • 8×145#
  • 8×165#
  • 8×185#
  • 8×195#
  • 8×205#

Oh my, those first couple of reps felt terrible with the empty bar. Everything loosened up by the end of the 20 though. Put a focus on driving through with the hips today. I took a 2 minute rest between sets. Did a round of back stretches after finishing up. I’m enjoying these morning squats to get the day going.

Had a chiropractor appointment and then went to the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3×15 Reverse Hypers (210#)
  • Bottom Squat Holds
  • Jump Rope & DU practice
  • Banded Walks (red band, monster, side shuffle)

A strand of the cable came loose on my RPM rope again. 😦 Guess I’ll have to switch to their coated cables. So I had to use my backup Rx rope.

Conditioning

25-20-15-10-5

  • DU (unbroken)
  • Sit-ups

Holy shit did I screw up a lot. I missed 3 times trying to get the 5! Took me 3:41. Terrible.

15:00 AMRAP
2-4-6-8…

  • Deadlift (75#)
  • OHS (75#)
  • Burpee

Kept it light and just used the one bar. It was enough. Got through the round of 16 plus 18 deadlifts and 11 overhead squats. I broke up the 14 OHS 8-6 and the 16 as 9-7. Everything else unbroken.

No B.S. Bench

  • 10×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 2×185#
  • 2×205#
  • 2×225#
  • 2×235#
  • 2×240#
  • 2×245# (PR)
  • 2×250# (PR)

Last week before testing a max. With doubles and heavier weight it was perfect to get an idea going into next week. That 250# is my previous max and I didn’t struggle hitting it for a double. BOOM!

Knocked out Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before heading home and will hit some stretches tonight. I may start doing some other stuff on the days I stretch twice to mix it up.

Back To It

Worked on the garage all weekend with my Dad. It’s a long day standing on the concrete for so long. I did do a round of back stretches last night though. Back to the grind today after 2 weeks away from CFi classes. Looking forward to it. I got up and had my coffee at the squat rack instead of sitting down for a half hour. Warmed up with 3:00 on the Air Dyne (1.24km) and then got right to it.

Back Squats

  • 20×45#
  • 10×135#
  • 10×145#
  • 10×155#
  • 10×165#
  • 10×175#
  • 10×185#

I haven’t had a bar on my back in over 2 months, trying to rest the right quad. Wanted to keep it light but get in some volume. I don’t plan to get too heavy for a few weeks and see how it all feels.

Went to the 9am class. After taking a break from creatine for the last couple of weeks, I mixed it in my workout drink again today.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Pass-thrus

Strength

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 7×75#
  • 7×95#
  • 7×105#
  • 3x7x115#
  • 7×120#

Conditioning

  • 2:00 AMRAP
    • Jump Squats
  • Rest 1:00
  • 8:00 AMRAP
    • 6 Push-ups
    • 8 Sit-ups
    • 10 MB Cleans (20#)

I did 63 jump squats at a pretty decent pace. Then I got 7 rounds plus 6 push-ups. Everything unbroken but the cleans got slow because it was such a burn in the legs.

Midline

4 Rounds

  • 20s Hollow Hold
  • 10s Rest
  • 20s Superman Hold
  • 10s Rest

Was sweating more than during the AMRAP. Can’t remember ever doing a superman hold; those are tough!

It felt good to be back at it. Knocked out Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before I left the gym. Will do some back stretches tonight.

15.4 + Super Sunday

Feeling good after not beating up my body since tweaking my back on Wednesday. We had some people coming in from another local gym to do 15.4, so got in at 11 to get it done before Super Sunday started.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Roll back
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Cleans
    • 5×45#
    • 5×95#
    • 3×135#
    • 3×185#

2015 CrossFit Games Open Workout 15.4

8:00 AMRAP

  • 3 HSPU
  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 6 HSPU
  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 9 HSPU
  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 12 HSPU
  • 6 Cleans (185#)
  • 15 HSPU
  • 6 Cleans (185#)
  • 18 HSPU
  • 6 Cleans (185#)
  • 21 HSPU
  • 9 Cleans (185#)
  • Etc., adding 3 reps to the handstand push-up each round, and 3 reps to the clean every 3 rounds.

My goal was to get through the 15 HSPU and 6 cleans. Didn’t want to do more than 3 handstand push-ups in a row and all singles in the cleans. I was feeling good on the set of 6 so went 4-2 which was dumb because it doesn’t save any time. Reminded myself after that to stick to 3s, but that even got pretty hard in the round of 12. My tiebreak time after the 9-3 round was 2:20, way ahead of schedule. My HSPU started to die in that set of 12. Got a few no reps over that next part of the workout and was down to doubles and singles. Just couldn’t press out anymore. Cleans were no problem. I didn’t have much time at the end, but just enough to bust through the 6 cleans to hit my goal with 1 second to spare. 66 reps and I’ll take it. Not hard at all on the lungs until the end when I had to bust through the cleans. All about managing the muscle fatigue in this workout for me.

Was a little crazy in the gym this morning so got a later than normal start for the regular workout.

20:00 AMRAP

  • 20 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 20 Burpees
  • 20 Sit-ups
  • 20 Walking Lunges
  • 20 Push-ups

With a lot of people, we set up stations and shared equipment, so some time was spent walking from one area to the next. Tried to keep a pretty casual pace and just keep moving. Did my first round in about 4:40, then it got a little slower the next two rounds. Picked up the pace in the fourth round and managed to get it done with a few seconds left, but was too far away from the boxes. My push-ups even felt good after all the HSPU. I did all sets of 10 until the last round when I did 14-6.

6 Sets

  • 30s Bottom Ring Dip Holds
  • 100′ Farmer’s Carry (62# + 70# KBs)

Didn’t really know how the holds would go since it was the first time trying them. My lift arm started to go numb actually from the ring hold in the last 2 sets. I was able to strict press out of the dip on the first 5, but just didn’t have enough left on the last one.

5x

  • 250m Row
  • ~2:00 Rest

My times were 45.1, 45.4, 46.2, 45.1, and 44.4.

A lot of work overall, but nothing that really destroys you.

Pothole Season

Rotating the strength movements at CFi, so Tuesday is squat day now, but still no squats for me with this right quad. I warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Strength

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×75#
  • 5×95#
  • 4x5x125#
  • 5×130#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×140#

Had planned to do all sets with 125#, but it was feeling so good I started bumping up. Still wanted the reps to be explosive without a grind and they were. Kind of surprised since my shoulders are still feeling pretty smoked from the 15.2 attempts.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 3 C&J (135#)
  • 6 Push-ups
  • 9 Box Jumps (24″)

Dropped every C&J, but quick back on it. Probably should have tried to do them touch-n-go since it was only 3 at a time. Everything else unbroken the whole way. First round was done in 40 seconds and the rest were all just under a minute. Finished 8 rounds plus 3 clean and jerks, 6 push-ups, and 4 box jumps.

Midline

5 Rounds

  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 30s Plank

Did the planks on my hands today. Took me 4:39.

More Conditioning

  • 2,000m Row

Thought about going for a PR, so I started out with a 1:45 pace, but just didn’t have the legs after the class workout. Still a decent time of 7:13.8.

Felt like doing something later so hit this in the garage around 5pm.

8 Rounds

  • 200m Ski
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 40 DU
  • 10 Back Extensions

Had to walk around the Jeep to get to and from the Ski Erg, which ate up some time or else I think I would have been under 20 minutes. Only did one unbroken set of double unders and all the rest had one miss I think. Not very good as far as my dubs go. Finished in 20:27.

Limit Your Burpees

Took a complete rest day yesterday. First one since February 6th. Drove me nuts, but I needed it. Shoulders were pretty wrecked from Sunday.

Strength

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 6×75#
  • 6×95#
  • 6x6x115#

Recommended at 65%. Fast quality reps. Felt good not to struggle.

Conditioning

Wall Ball “Kalsu”

  • EMOM: 5 burpees (including @ 0:00)
  • Accumulate 100 wall balls (20#, 10′)

My goal was sub 6 and I made it. It’s a little fuzzy, but I think I was at 22-38-53-68-83 for my minutes, so I had 17 to go at the end. Knew I didn’t want to do another 5 burpees for a rep or two, so went a little faster through that 5th minute of burpees and sped up the wall balls to finish with time to spare in 5:54. Good mental battle with this one.

Midline

5 Rounds

  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 20 Russian Twists (53# KB)
  • 30s Plank

Went all unbroken. Took me 8:25.

Something I’ve realized in the last few days is that after cutting back my volume leading up to the Open, I’ve been feeling great during workouts.

15.1 Eve

Had a chiropractor appointment in the afternoon, so went to the 5:30 class. Was there early so started early. I did Crossover Symmetry Activation to get started.

Weightlifting

Muscle Snatch

  • 5x20kg
  • 5x34kg
  • 3x40kg
  • 3x50kg

Power Snatch

  • 3x60kg
  • 3x70kg
  • 5x2x75kg
  • 5x1x80kg

I did the set of 60 as touch-n-go, but dropped the rest. For the doubles with 75 I was going about every minute and probably close to that for the singles with 80 too, but wasn’t paying as much attention to the clock.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 6 Evil Wheels
  • 7 Power Snatches (95#)
  • 8 Burpees

This was programmed with OHS, but still not squatting so I substituted the snatches and did them all unbroken. Finished in 7:56. Evil wheels are slow for me because of my length and reach.

10-20-30-20-10

  • DU
  • Sit-ups

My double unders are hot! Wasn’t close to missing any. Finished in 4:06. Probably would have been a good day for an “Annie” PR.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 4×95#
  • 4×135#
  • 4×165#
  • 4×185#
  • 6x4x205

Second week of the bench program. Stayed a little conservative with a 10#, when it said to do 10-15#. Felt good. May make a bigger jump next week.

Can’t wait for the big 15.1 announcement tomorrow! Will probably do an easy 20 minute row before watching it at the gym.

Strict Morning

Low back is still pretty spiced up from the back squats. That weight vest walk wiped me out yesterday. In bed by 10 and got over 9 hours of sleep. Out in the garage at 9am.

Conditioning

Air Dyne (AD2)

  • 17:00 @ 80% of 10:00 pace (68-70rpm)

Kept a consistent pace and went 9.34km.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds

  • 3 Strict HSPU
  • 3 Strict C2B Pull-ups
  • 3 Strict Ring Dips
  • 6 GHD Sit-ups (parallel)
  • 6 Back Extensions

Tried to pick rep counts that wouldn’t kill me and nailed them pretty well. The handstand push-ups were the only thing that were close to failing. Didn’t want to stress the back by touching the ground on the GHD sit-ups. Walked from station to station and kept moving. Finished in 13:09. Good way to get in some strict work with a decent heart rate pumping.

Had a chiropractor appointment at 4, so went to the 4:30 class after. We warmed up with some bottom squat hold, shoulder pass-thrus, PVC snatch progressions, etc.

Weightlifting

  • 5 Muscle Snatch (45#)
  • 5 Muscle Snatch (95#)
  • 3 Muscle Snatch (115#)
  • 2 Power Snatch (135#)
  • 2×2 Power Snatch (155#)

I was just not feeling it after the 135# kind of lit up my low back. Made me not commit to the lifts because I was a little scared.

6:00 EMOM

  • 3 Power Snatch

Coming to class, I planned to go with 155#, but because I felt off, I figured I’d use 135#. Started feeling good with TnG, so after 2 rounds I bumped up to 145# for the next 3 rounds, and then went 150# for the final round. All touch-n-go reps. Felt good too! Confidence can be such a weird thing with the lifts.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Sit-up
  • 1:00 Burpee
  • 1:00 Row (cal)
  • 1:00 Slam Ball (20#)
  • 1:00 Thruster (75#)
  • 1:00 Rest

I got 107-108-97 for reps. Not entirely sure that last round is correct because I kind of lost my thought process during the burpees. Felt like I might have made up some reps in the later movements, so if anything the count is low. No biggie.

Since missed out on most of the plank work, I got some it at night.

3 Rounds

  • MAX Plank Hold
  • 3:00 Rest

I did them on my hands with arms extended for a change of pace and so it would work the wrists. Went 3:15, 2:15, and 2:15. Damn, it’s a different ball game on your hand; wrists and shoulders really start to burn.

Dead is Right

Went to the 9am class.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 2×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • Speed Toe Touches
  • Hip Circles
  • 5 Inch Worms

Strength

Deadlift

  • 5×155#
  • 5×265#
  • 3×315#
  • 3×355#
  • 1×385#
  • 1×425#
  • 1×455#
  • 5x1x425#

I actually pussed out on my first pull at 455#. Wow, last week I pulled 465# for a triple. Could definitely feel fatigue in the back from all of the heavy deadlifts yesterday. Took a few seconds to gather my head and made 455, then lowered the weight to get in reps. Nowhere near the prescribed 95%, but I’m ok with that. I’m sure I’ll be feeling these lifts tomorrow because even the 425s were no piece of cake.

Conditioning

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

“Go unbroken. Go unbroken.” That’s what I kept telling myself even if I took a few extra breaths between movements. Finished in 9:34 and pushed the pace more in the last round. My sit-ups are so slow though. 😦

I was going to do a garage workout in the evening, but wasn’t feeling well. Body needed a rest I guess.

This was the 1,000th post on this blog!

Well Rested

Needed that complete rest day yesterday, which was the first one in two weeks. I’d taken days with only some light cardio, but not any complete days off during that span. Was also in bed early last night for over 9 hours of sleep. 🙂 In for the 9am class.

Strength

Push Press

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×155#
  • 5×175#
  • 5×185#
  • 5×195# (PR)

My shoulders felt a little fatigued, which must be from Sunday. Pretty good speed through all of the reps, which felt good, especially for a 5# PR. Could have spent more time and gone heavier, but it would have been a struggle.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 10/10 Kroc Rows (62# KB)
  • 10 HR Push-ups

Easiest the rows have ever been. I think the muscle-up pulldowns are paying off in multiple ways. Tried to be explosive on my push-ups since 10 is no problem.

Conditioning

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

  • Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • Sit-ups

No reason to break anything up here. Sit-ups are essentially a rest period in this workout. I started going for a pipe on the wall, which is probably a little more than 10.5 feet. Finished in 6:31. I wish I could figure out how to speed up my sit-ups and not slide backwards through a set.

Was nice to get out early so I had more time and energy for a second session. Out to the garage later in the day. Warmed up with 3:00 on the Air Dyne for 1.36km.

Air Dyne

6 Rounds

  • 2:00 @ 120% of 10:00 max cals pace
  • 1:00 Rest

The way I’ve been calculating percentages for AD work is flawed. I knew it seemed really high when 120% came out to 96rpm and it didn’t take longer than a minute at that pace to realize it would be impossible for 6 rounds of double that length. I took some readings of speed (km per hour) to rpms and will try to come up with something more useful. So, needless to say, my pace how a lot slower after round 1. My distances were 1.48, 1.4, 1.32, 1.29, 1.27, and 1.33 kilometers.

Update: After doing some speed to rpm calculations and looking at the average speed for my 10:00 PR, I’m not sure where to go. It says I averaged 38.8km/hr and 120% would be 46.6 which is about what I was trying to hit with 96rpm. My guess is that if there was a calories per hour number it would not follow a progression that the speed or rpms do, but on this cheaper model of the Air Dyne, who knows. The percentages less than 100% I’ve used seem to work fine, so I guess I’ll continue as I have been and when it’s over 100% I’ll just have to adjust and play a little guessing.

squat-deload

Back Squats

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 4x5x135#
  • 5×165#
  • 5×205#

Started focusing on exploding out of the hole and really using my hamstrings. No lifting shoes or belt again, but will go back to them for heavy lifting later this week.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 20 MU Pulldowns
  • 15 Back Extensions (20# Vest)

Damn those last 5 pulldowns in each set were as struggle, even more so probably after having done the Kroc rows this morning. Good work though! Glad I bumped up from 15 per set for the challenge.

8 Below

I woke up and checked my phone to see what the temperature was like.

negative-8

Almost went back to sleep, but got moving and went to the gym. Only one there this morning so adjusted to suit my liking. 🙂 Did some bottom squat holding and then 10×45#, 5×75#, and 5×95# shoulder presses to warm-up.

10:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 5 Shoulder Press (115#)
  • Evens: 20s Row

Front squats were programmed but my legs are shot from Super Squats. Didn’t feel like going heavy so I kept the shoulder presses light. Went harder each round on the rower, getting 107-109-110-111-113 meters.

5 Rounds

  • 40 DU
  • 20 Sit-ups
  • 20 Russian Twists (45# plate)

Nice change of pace using a plate instead of a kettlebell. I had 2 stupid misses on dubs. After 1 rep in the first round and after 2 reps in the final round. I hate those kind of misses because it’s just a lack of concentration. Finished in 9:04. Was nice that this workout was pretty much just about moving. Was out of breath but didn’t really break a sweat.

Back in the evening to talk about the Open and then do some more work.

Row

  • 12:00 @ 5k pace (1:57)

Kept the average pace under and ended up around 1:56.4 I think for 3,099 meters.

Grabbed a bar and did 5 hang power clean and jerks (45#) and 5 power clean and jerks (95#).

7 Rounds

  • 5 C&J (115#)
  • 10 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 1:00 Rest

Finished at 9:40 with round times of 30, 34, 32, 31, 31, 31, and 31 seconds. Not sure why round 2 was so slow. The clean & jerks felt great and were all unbroken. I missed a box jump in the last round or I think it would have been the fastest round. Box jumps are quickly coming back, which makes me pumped. My calves are shot after super squats, double unders, jerks, and jumps.

4 Rounds NFT

  • 25 Back Extensions
  • 25 Shoulder Taps

Whoops, I had 20 back extensions per round written in my plan but never checked it. No wonder my low back was feeling so pumped at the end of each set.