OLY and Solo Garage

My lower back is a bit sore from the RDLs yesterday so maybe since we were doing them fast I wasn’t doing them quite right. This is the first Tuesday in a long time where my legs aren’t killing me in some way from squat Monday.

Went to the OLY class at 6pm and worked on snatches for the entire hour by doing a full snatch and then a hang snatch. Hang snatches are so much harder, but really force you to be explosive. I worked up to 145# and couldn’t get the hang snatch, so dropped back down to 95 and worked back up again. Didn’t even attempt the hang snatch at 145# the second time around, but did bump up to 155# and tried a couple of full snatches. I’ve hit a 155# power snatch in competition, but never really tried to drop under one in the snatch. Missed both tries, but was pretty close on the second one. Not too disappointed though especially after doing an hour of snatches already.

I got home and did a WOD in the garage because I didn’t want to do a full hour-long class.

5 Rounds

  • 2m Work
    • 200m Row
    • 5 HSPU
    • MAX Hang Power Cleans (135#)
  • 2m Rest

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That was a fun one. Kept up a fast pace on the rows with consistent times through every round. Got all of the handstand push-ups, but struggled with #5 in the fourth round because I stopped when my head hit the ground for some reason and then it was a little tough to get going. I got done with the HSPU right around 1 minute each time, so once I setup on the bar had 50 or 55 seconds for the cleans. The last few reps of each round were a real struggle.

I really like coming up with new combinations and structures for WODs. Keeps things interesting and fun.

Jill’s 29th

I was planning to take a rest day. Kevin asked if I wanted to help come up with WOD, so he made up the warm-up and I did the WOD. After coming up with it, I knew it looked like fun and I had to give it a try. Matt came in and partnered up with me in the 11am class.

Warm-up

10-20-30-20-10

  • Russian Twists (30# KB)
  • AbMat Sit-ups
  • Weighted V-ups (20# DB)

This sucked! My midline got a good workout last night with the GHD sit-ups and pullovers, so finishing these was a struggle. Took 13 or 14 minutes.

WOD

Since it was Jill’s birthday, everything was based on her age and birthdate.

1983s (33:03) AMRAP
* Partners with one person working at a time

  • 29 Hollow Rocks
  • 29 Pull-ups
  • 29 DB Snatches (45# DB)
  • 29 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 12 Curb Runs (100m)
  • 1 High Five

We split things up pretty evenly and kept a great pace. This was the best I’ve ever done on pull-ups. I did 14-14-14-15-16 of the pull-ups and all rounds I did unbroken. The most kipping pull-ups I’d done in a row was 15 before today. We ended up with the best score of the day by getting 4 full rounds and all the way through to 21 of the wall balls. When I made up the WOD I wasn’t thinking the run would be such a big portion of it, but it was probably about half of our time for each round.

Early Present To Myself

My legs aren’t as sore as I expected from squat day and 2 hours of playing soccer.

Went to the Olympic Lifting class at 6pm and worked on snatches for the entire hour. After warming up with the PVC pipe and bar, I started adding weight. I think I went 75#, 95#, 115#, 125#, 135#, and 145# with a lot of reps on the lighter weights and a few as they got heavier. Never missed the entire hour. I did screw up a little on some of them and caught them in a power snatch instead of a squat snatch. Receiving the bar felt better than it ever has and I nailed 145# more times tonight than I have combined in all previous attempts.

Maybe I should have tried to go for 155# which I have only done once and it was an ugly power snatch in competition, but I didn’t want to get greedy. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the reps tonight. I’m still fighting to keep my shoulders back as I setup and get that big chest. Kevin gave me a tip about my feet that seemed to really help too. I was getting too close to the bar in my setup and he told me that I should get to the point where I would only see the base of my big toe in front of the bar looking down. Felt weird, but I think it really helped out.

I hurried home to check for a package that was scheduled to arrive from Rogue and it was waiting on the front porch.

She is a thing of beauty. My buddy Brent came over and we broke her in. I rowed a couple 500s before he showed up.

5 Rounds

  • 500m Row
  • 30s DUs
  • 2:30 Rest

Jumping right from the rower to DUs was tough shit. My last round was actually my best at DUs and I knocked out 23 in a row right off the bat. Overall I did ok with my DUs, but they need a lot of work when I’m that tired because I was missing way too many. Each round or the rower was a bit slower too, but I tried to push it with everything I had on the last 500m and finished it in 1:47. I don’t remember what any of my other splits were because I kept looking at the pace clock which is bigger. Either I’ll have to figure out how to configure the display better or get used to what numbers are which.

I’m glad I made the purchase. She’s going to get a lot of use!

More Box Jump Stupidity

My abs are sore from the massive number of back squats yesterday and probably the finisher as well. My legs aren’t really sore at all though. A bit fatigued.

Went to the 6pm Olympic lifting class and worked on snatches.

  • Snatch
  • Hang Snatch
  • Snatch Balance

Worked on these one round at a time without putting the bar down. Took a rest after each time through and added some weight. I started with the bar for a few rounds, then went 75#, 95#, 105#, and 115#. I missed the snatch balance on my first attempt at 105# so I did that one again. I’ve never done a hang snatch before. It’s a lot tougher than starting from the floor.

  • Snatch Grip Deadlift
  • Snatch Pull

I started with 125# for a couple of sets, then went 145# for a couple of sets, and finally some at 165#. Not sure how many sets I did at each but it was probably 2 or 3.

After class I headed over to Kevin’s for some garage work.

5×5 Weighted Chin-ups

We almost always do pull-ups weighted at the gym so we figured we’d switch it up a little. I used 10# for the first 2 sets and then 15# for the last 3 sets.

5×3 Weighted Dips

I went 10#, 15#, 20#, 25#, and 35#. Had a few more pounds left in the gas tank too.

Then, the geniuses that we are, we decided to do some high box jumps. After each doing 1-2 jumps at 34″ and 40″, we decided on the 44″. This was a bad idea after so many back squats yesterday. I landed my first jump, but the second one was bad news. My right foot got up, by my left nailed the box and it tumbled off to the right. Scraped up my leg in two places and got a nice bruise that instantly swelled up. Ouch! At least I didn’t get scraped up a ton with this spill.

Finally, did some ab work.

8 Rounds

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 10 Pullovers (40# DB)

Skip the Intensity

I haven’t been this sore in a long time. My quads, hamstrings, IT bands, and glutes all feel like they’re getting stuck with needles as I walk and especially going up or down stairs.

Had Olympic lifting at 6pm. Worked on snatch triples tonight. Worked up to 115# and then did a lot of sets there. Really concentrated on keeping my shoulders back and lats engaged. Felt more comfortable with it as I kept repping. Then did some snatch grip deadlifts, again concentrating on keeping those shoulders back. Settled in at 215# to work on the form.

My legs felt better after warming up and getting them moving. I bet tomorrow isn’t going to be very fun though. Day 2 always seems to be worse.

After class, I went over to Kevin’s and we did some work in his garage.

5 Rounds

  • 10s Ring L-hang
  • 20s Rest

Sort of a reverse Tabata.

8 Rounds

  • 10 Pullovers (40# DB)
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups

Pullovers are a new movement for me and I could definitely feel them working. Was good to get in a bunch of GHD sit-ups since we don’t have a real GHD at Survival Fitness.

I just bought a weight belt, so took that over with me and did some strength work.

Weighted Pull-ups (with belt)

  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 20#
  • 3 @ 25#

I’ve always done these with a DB or KB in my feet, which is supposed to be harder because the weight is farther away from the center of mass. The first set didn’t feel good, but later sets felt ok. Shoulders were a bit fried from all of the snatch work though.

Weighted Dips

  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 20#

First time doing weighted dips of any kind, so had no idea what I could do. The first 4 sets felt good, but that last set at 20# was a little rough.

Needed a break from intensity after doing a WOD 4 days in a row, but got in a lot of good work.

Froning Style

My hamstrings and glutes are a good sore from the RDLs. Need to do those more often.

Olympic Lifting Class

Went in at 6pm for the OLY class. We worked on snatches by doing progressions with the empty bar. Then we loaded up to a moderate weight and did:

5 Rounds

  • 1 Snatch
  • 2 Snatch Balances
  • 3 Snatch Grip Deadlifts

I started with 95# for the first three rounds and then 105# for the next two rounds. After that we worked on full squat snatch singles. I loaded 115# and tried to work on my technique. Then to finish the class we worked up to a heavy snatch grip deadlift triple. Wow is that a bitch on your thumbs! I did 3 sets, 2 @ 205# and 1 at 235# (I think). I don’t remember all of the weights exactly for any of the lifts.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s PVC Pass-thrus
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s PVC Ground to OH
  • 15s Zombie Kicks

Was already pretty warmed up from the OLY work.

Strength

5 Sets of Kroc Rows – 10 each arm for 4 sets and then max reps in the 5th set.

Used KBs for each round and went 53#, 62#, 71#, 80#, and 88#. I got 17 reps with my right arm and 22 with my left if I remember right.

WOD

No extra rest in between each 10 minute block; the minutes keep going.

10:00 EMOTM

  • Evens: 7 Power Cleans (115#)
  • Odds: 15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)

10:00 EMOTM

  • Evens: 5 Power Cleans (135#)
  • Odds: 10 Burpees

10:00 EMOTM

  • Evens: 3 Power Cleans (155#)
  • Odds: 10 T2B

A Rich Froning style workout and I loved it. The EMOTM stuff really allows you to go all out balls to the wall when it’s work time and the rest period is just short enough to recover.

The weight was almost perfect for me. Maybe could have gone 5 or 10# heavier because I flew through the 7 reps in those first 10 minutes, getting them done in about 12 or 13 seconds each time. After 2 rounds of burpees, I figured out why I’ve been so slow lately. I’ve been standing all the way up before jumping. It was taking me 30-31 seconds to get my 10 reps done, which is extremely slow compared to how I’ve done them before when doing 10 at a time. Well, I switched back to jumping as soon as my feet snap up to my hands and shaved 6 seconds of my 10 rep split, right back into my 24 second wheel house. Did all of the T2B unbroken and concentrated on a short kip at the bottom to cycle them faster.

Battle of the Boxes

Went down to Sterling Height for the Battle of the Boxes, put on by CrossFit Transformation. There were 32 teams and I haven’t seen the official results yet, but I heard we took 18th place. We were 25th going into the last event, which we rocked!

WOD 1

20:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Thrusters (95/65#)
  • 20 KB Swings (53/35#)
  • 50 Double Unders

# of Athletes – 4 (2 men / 2 women)

All 4 athletes will cycle thru this AMRAP for 20 minutes. 3 athletes max will be working at a time, with the 4th resting/waiting to start their next round. Team members cannot move to the next station until the team member in front of them has left that station.
Each team will be given a female bar loaded to 65# and mens bar loaded to 95#, a 53# KB and a 35# KB. BRING YOUR OWN ROPE!!

*Dropping the KB constitutes a 10 burpee penalty to be done immediately before continuing KB swings.

*The 2 athletes that do not compete in this WOD, must compete in WOD 4.

WOD 2

Tug-o-War

# of Athletes – 6 (3 men / 3 women)

This WOD will be scored bracket style, like playoffs or March Madness. It will start with all teams and it will be one game knock out until we crown a champion. Cleats nor gloves are allowed.

The teams that get knocked out round one, will then enter a ball toss event. Each athlete will get 3 attempts to throw as far as possible and the team score will be measured by total distance of each of the athletes furthest throw.

WOD 3

OLY Event

# of Athletes – 6 (3 men / 3 women)

The women will start this event off. They will have 8 minutes to do the following:
Find a 1RM Snatch. *The load on the bar can not decrease.
Find a 1RM Clean & Jerk. *The load on the bar can not decrease.
*The only time the load can decrease is when all athletes complete the snatch and show they are moving to clean & jerk.

Once the girls 8 minutes are up, the guys 8 minutes begin. They will perform the same WOD.

*You don’t have to spend 4 minutes on each, you can spend 7 on one movement and 1 on the other. It’s up to you.

*Highest successful lift from each athlete for each lift will be added together for scoring. It will be scored in 3 ways. Team with the highest snatch, highest clean & jerk, and highest total.

WOD 4

For time and reps:
1) Sand Bag Shuttle Relay (75#, 50#, 25#), MR Front Squats (135/95#), MR Deadlifts (185/115#)

# of Athletes – 4
*The 2 athletes that did not compete in WOD 1, must compete in this event.

The 2 women will start this event off.

Athlete 1 must shuttle sprint each sand bag one length of the field and place the sandbag down. Athletes must show control when putting the sandbag down. No body slamming or throwing it past the line. If your judge feels you weren’t in control, you will perform 10 burpees before you sprint back to start line empty-handed. While Athlete 1 is doing the sandbag shuttle, Athlete 2 is performing max rep front squats (95#). Once Athlete 1 completes the 3 sandbag shuttles they will then start their max rep front squats while Athlete 2 sprints down the field to retrieve all the sandbags. When Athlete 2 returns from the sandbag shuttle the two girls will add 20# to the barbell (making it 115#) and Athlete 2 will then begin max reps deadlifts while Athlete 1 completes the sandbag shuttle for a second time. When Athlete 1 returns she will complete max reps deadlifts while Athlete 2 completes the shuttle run. When Athlete 2 returns from the shuttle run the women are done and then men jump in strip the bar and load it up to 135# then complete the same WOD as the women. Men will increase the bar as a team to 185# to complete the deadlift portion.

WOD will be scored in 3 ways. Shuttle sprint total time, MR deadlifts, and MR front squats.

How did we do?

Event 1 was tough for us because we got caught up on the DUs. I felt good during this WOD and did American KBS with the more of a straight up and down swing for the first time. Made things easier to knock out 20 in a row. My DUs were pretty good but I only got through 2 rounds and the thrusters in my 3rd round. I was actually surprised that we beat 5 other teams is this workout, so their DUs must have been terrible because ours were pretty bad.

The Tug-o-war was a lot of fun. We smoked our first match, but then got it handed right back to us in our second match.

The Olympic lifting event was intense! All 6 of our team members matched or hit now PRs in both the snatch and clean & jerk, which is pretty amazing for such a fast paced event.

For the snatch, I hit 135, missed 145, hit 145, and hit 155. That’s a 10 pound PR. I had every intention of doing squat snatches but when you’re ripping off reps so fast, you lose you heard. I power snatched that bitch. It was not pretty but I got it. In the clean and jerk, I hit 185# with a squat clean, then hit 205# with a power clean and kind of an ugly jerk. Made a quick attempt at 215 but didn’t give it the power I needed to. We were running low on time, so I gave the rest to Casey and he nailed 225. Best clean I’d ever done was 205, but best clean and jerk was 185, so that’s a 20# PR for the combination that is the OLY lift. I’d never attempted a jerk of more than 185, so was also a 20# PR on a jerk. It’s hard to explain how intense this WOD was because you had to make quick lifts and when you weren’t lifting you had to be ready to increase the weights on the bar or jump in for your next rep.

We did really well in the sandbag sprint and think we finished 2nd or 3rd. Should have done pretty well in the max reps lifts for that even too due to our women. I can’t wait to see the results for this event because we jumped up a lot from it.

It was a long day, but a lot of fun. I did mess up my back again, so not too happy about that.

Match PR Snatch

Olympic lifting class at 6pm and then regular at 7pm. We worked up to heavy snatches and I got up to 145#, matching the PR I set on Sunday. Nailed it on the first try though, compared to 4 attempts, just 2 days ago. Went for 155# but didn’t have the confidence in it and bailed on the pull. Did some clean and jerk work as well and stopped at 185#, doing a few singles there. I’m really enjoying the drilling and can feel a difference already in my technique.

Warm-up

Tabata Mash-up

  • Side Plank
  • Mountain Climbers

Strength

5×5 Weighted Pull-ups

Today was the best I’ve ever done at these. Maybe because it’s been a few weeks and my pull-ups have felt really good lately. I used a 8# DB, 10# DB, 12# DB, 15# DB, and 20# KB without missing any reps. I don’t think I’ve gotten through all 5 reps on the last set using a 15# DB for the last two sets before, so getting all 5 at 20# was a big improvement.

WOD

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • SDLHP (55# KB)
    • KBS (55# KB)
  • 2m Rest
  • 50 Ring Rows with 10 Star Jumps EMOTM

I finished the first part at 4:20, pretty much going unbroken except for some transition breaks as I adjusted my stance. The ring rows killed me as usual. I suck at them and resorted to pretty shitty technique to get them done. My total time including the rest period was 10:24, but I was 2# above Rx since all of the 53# KBs were in use.

Finisher

100 Quarter Get-ups (35# KB)

I switched sides doing 10 at a time. I think it took about 6 minutes.

Sunday Extras

I busted out the dynamic bench press work.

  • 2×3 @ 45#
  • 1×3 @ 95#
  • 1×3 @ 115#
  • 8×3 @ 135#

Then I grabbed the jump rope and knocked out 53 DUs in a row, which breaks my old PR of 44. I should do them with untied shoes more often! Oh, and then I went back out and tried them again a bit later and got 70 in a row!

Casey A, Michelle, and Kevin came over to do some OLY work in the garage. Casey, Michelle, and I are all doing a team competition on Saturday where we have to do a max snatch as well as a max clean and jerk.

Casey and I did a bunch of lifts at lighter weights and then started going heavy. I set a PR by hitting a 145# snatch. My technique is still pretty bad, but it’s not going to improve a lot in the next week. In the competition I think we’ll have to rush through our snatches and focus more of the C&J because we’re more likely to hit some big PRs there. The 3 guys have 8 minutes to do both sets of lifts and the women have the same amount of time. The weight can’t decrease during the snatch or C&J portions though, only in between. Should be fun.

Adult Gymnastics at Gym Jesters

Traveling home from San Diego made for a long day yesterday. I got up at 7am to have some breakfast, was picked up from the hotel at 8:30am (Pacific) and the plane landed in Saginaw just before 10pm. I was in bed by 11pm. Today I went to the 11am class and then at 2pm we had an adult class at Gym Jesters Gymnastics Center

Warm-up

4 rounds

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

WOD

Today was a long partner WOD. I was teamed up with Cora and Michelle, the two best women we have at Survival Fitness. We all pushed each other really hard in this one.

    • 30 Sandbag Over the Shoulder (40#)
    • 900m Weighted Run (35# Place)
    • 150m Burpee Broad Jump
    • 50 DB Snatches (40#)
    • 50 KBS (53#)
    • 100m Prowler Push (90# of the heavy sled, 50m high push, 50m low push)
    • 30 Deadlifts (225#)
    • 50 HR Push-ups
    • 100 Air Squats
    • 30 Pull-ups
    • 50 AbMat Sit-ups
    • 2m Plank

We had 40 minutes to do this. I was 8 squats short of getting through the 5th block (did all of the pull-ups). Everyone on the team had to complete both parts of a section before the team could move on to the next area. The team could break things up however they wanted, so in #5 I did rounds of 5 pull-ups followed by 10 air squats until I was all done with the pull-ups. Then I tried to finish off the rest of the squats and couldn’t make it even though I went all out for the last 30 seconds.

Gymnastics

Had a bit of time to rest at home and get some food before heading over to Gym Jesters. Scott and Brent from Gym Jesters started out by talking about the different positions of the back tuck flip and then started putting us through some progressions. First we started out by jumping into the air as well as sitting on the ground and rolling backwards. Next it was up to jumping up, tucking, and landing on our upper back on a high mat.

Some of us broke off to the trampoline, did some progressions, and worked up to doing a back flip while strapped in. After that I jumped into a foam pit from a hit bouncy thing, then into the foam pit just from the wall of the pit. Brent spotted me and I tried a few on just mats. At that point I was pretty good to work on my own. I came close a few times, but I have to work on jumping straight up, making sure to get a fast tuck, and then holding my tuck longer. My biggest problem was coming out of the tuck way too soon.

It was so much fun! I’ve wanted to do a back flip ever since I was a little kid. They just look so badass! Sounds like we might go back twice a month to try different things.