9am Sunday morning. A fine way to start the day…even if you’ve been up for 3 hours. Started with warmup 1:
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 10 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x
Press:
- 3 x 135lb
- 3 x 145lb
- 3 x 155lb
Had to battle a bit on the last set, but not too bad.
The accessory WOD was 21, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3:
- Strict Knees-to-Elbows
- KB Swings (53lb)
Time: 5:23. This was a low intensity grip burner since I had to go really slow on both the KTE (to avoid any momentum) and the KBS (since I’m still going easy on my back).
Private sessions with coach Fox today. I tweaked my back from yesterday’s RDLs or something, so wasn’t sure how much I’d be able to do. Warmed up with 3 min on the rower, then:
- 3 Strict Muscle Ups (assisted)
- 10 Hollow Rocks
- 20 Hand-to-Hand KB Swings (1 pood)
Repeat 3x
Started to warm up for some deadlifting, but my back was not having it. We tried doing some squat cleans into thrusters instead, but once we hit 135lb, my back vetoed that too. We spent the rest of the session doing some active recovery type stuff: foam rolling, PNF hamstring stretching with a band, some regular old stretching. Frustrated, but it definitely helped my back and wasn’t smart to try anything intense today. Also worked on some self-assisted muscle ups using the rings in the cage, which I’ll incorporate into my warmups.
Nice early 6am class with the morning crew. Started with warmup 2 today:
- 16 Reverse Weighted Lunges (30lb)
- 12 Single Arm DB Press (30lb)
- 12 Ring Rows
Repeat 3x
Back Squats:
I borrowed some weightlifting shoes and felt really solid today. Didn’t have to worry about my feet at all, so the only cue I had to focus on was knees out. Will pick up a pair for sure.
The accessory WOD was the same as last week. 3 rounds, NFT:
- 10 Romanian Deadlifts (135lb)
- 10 Paloff Press each side w/band
Out on the turf field on this crisp autumn evening:
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1:
- Burpees
- Sprint 50m
- V-ups
- Backwards jog 50m
Time: 11:32. Funny how the backwards running always gets tough when it seems like it should be active rest. This took way too long.
In the basement to squeeze in a quickie:
- 5 Handstand Pushups
- 10 V-ups
- 15 Squats
- 20 Jumping Jacks
AMRAP 10 minutes.
Finished 6 rounds + 5 squats. Also finished out that 7th round for good measure. I was pleased with the HSPUs tonight - many sets were unbroken. I think I really need to focus on positioning of my hands (fingers angled out slightly and wider than shoulder width) to keep these from falling apart.
Made it in for open gym today. Started with a little mobility work and then warmup 1:
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 10 Strict Pullups
Repeat 3x
WOD - AMRAP 7 minutes:
- 2 Deadlifts (335lb)
- 2 Muscle Ups
Score: 3 rounds + 1 MU. Bloody hell. I finished two rounds inside of a minute but I lost my muscle ups in the fourth round. I probably had about 10 failed attempts. If all went well I should have finished about 8-10 rounds. I was planning on doing a lot more deadlifting, so I did another 5 sets of 2 reps after the clock ran out.
Wanted to test my short distance rowing after that, so I hopped on an erg and pulled 500m in 1:32.5, averaging 26 s/m. I was gunning for sub 1:30. Next time.
Early morning class again. Pre-warmup was 21, 15, 9 wall balls with a 130m med ball carry run after each round. Then, warmup 1:
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 10 Strict Pullups
Repeat 2x (short on time)
Back Squats:
Tougher than I expected today. I need more squatting in my life.
The accessory WOD was 3 rounds, NFT:
- 10 Romanian Deadlifts (135lb)
- 10 Paloff Press each side w/band
RDLs felt good, the band presses are some sort of anti-rotational training and were harder than they looked. Nice accessory work to close out the morning.
Kicked things off this morning with warmup 2:
- 16 Reverse Weighted Lunges (30lb)
- 12 Single Arm DB Press (30lb)
- 12 Ring Rows
Repeat 3x
The, we spent 10 minutes working up to a heavyish single for thrusters. I worked up to 185lb, all in prep for the WOD.
Fight Gone Fran:
- Thrusters (135lb) x 60 sec (10, 9, 8)
- Weighted Pullups (45lb) x 60 sec (11, 8, 6)
Repeat 3x, resting 60 sec between rounds. This is pretty heavy weight for high reps, so things go tough pretty quick.
Sunday early birds class with coach Fox. Started with warmup 1, 3x:
- 5 Gillies
- 10 Leg Swings/leg
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 2 Muscle Ups
- 5 Strict Pullups
Then the WOD:
- Run 400m
- 35 Burpees
- Run 270m
- 25 Burpees
- Run 130m
- 15 Burpees
Time: 9:00. Took the runs very slow and the burpees slowed down way more than I anticipated. Should have finished in under 8 min. Glad I was able to run without any foot pain though.
I had a decent amount of time after this, so I did couch stretch on each leg for 2 min, then 2 muscle-ups every 30 seconds for 5 rounds (focusing on the transition), followed by 30 sec handstand holds for 3 rounds. Whenever I have time, I’ll do a few rounds of the 2 muscle-ups/30 seconds to get used to the volume.
I missed some of the pre-warm up, but then got a crack at the new standard warmup 2 for the first time:
- 16 Reverse Weighted Lunges (30lb)
- 12 Single Arm DB Press (30lb)
- 12 Ring Rows
Repeat 3x
WOD:
15 minute row for max distance. I went 3771m, 127m short of last time, but that’s ok since we were working with a stroke rate cap of 23 s/m. I stayed around 20 s/m and kept a pretty steady pace throughout. We spent the duration of class practicing skin-the-cats, which are always fun.
In the basement, since I couldn’t get to the gym:
- 100 Pullups
- 100 Pushups
- 100 Situps
- 100 Squats
Time: 19:38. Lots of room for improvement.
Finished the pullups in 7:12. I started with a set of 20, then hit 5s throughout until the last 2 sets, which were 3/2, 3/2. Got a small rip on one hand at around 85, but I think I just took too much rest between sets. Didn’t really hit muscular failure. Pushups took 5:51, in sets of 10 for the first 40, then 5s the rest of the way. Again, too much resting. Situps took 4:00 and were harder than I thought. Broke em up 50/15/10/10/15. Squats took 2:35, which is too slow. Lots of room for improvement for sure, especially on those pullups.
It’s officially back-off week and we’ve got a new standardized warmup. Here’s version 1, done 3x:
- 20 Hollow Rocks
- 15 Squats
- 10 Pushups
- 2 Muscle Ups
- 10 Strict Pullups
I added the MUs to get more exposure to these bastards on a regular basis. Today’s back-off WOD was 20 minutes, not for rounds:
- 8 Reverse Spiderman Lunges (each leg)
- 10 Prone Angels
- 12 Hollow Rocks
- 14 Calories on the Rower
Finished 5 rounds and the lunges. The goal on the rower was to hit the calories in the fewest pulls possible. I did it in 13 pulls, 12, 11, then 11. After that I did some Turkish Get Ups because I had time and I was bummed to miss them yesterday.
- 3 x 45lb
- 2 x 75lb
- 1 x 95lb
- 1 x 105lb *FAIL*
Just kinda gave up on the last attempt because I was cooked. Then I did some more muscle ups to practice them while I’m fatigued. I got 3 in a row and failed on number 4. Need a more explosive transition.
We ditched the standard warmup today in favor of some mobility work and partner medicine ball drills. I used to do a fair bit of these types of drills in kung fu class, so it was easy peasy for me (and not much of a warmup). After that, just prepped for some OHS and got to it.
WOD:
- 10 Overhead Squats (135lb)
- 50 Double Unders
Repeat 3x
Time: 12:54. The good news is that my foot felt fine. The bad news is that this should have been about a 5 minute workout for me. To put it in perspective, I finished the first round in 1 minute with everything unbroken. The second round I had to do 3 sets to complete the OHS, DUs were 25/25. Third set had 7 (seven!) failed attempts where I cleaned the bar up, got it behind my head, push pressed it overhead, only to fail to complete a single rep. My form just broke down and it was a real mess. Last set of DUs was unbroken.
I think the past few weeks of training has really exposed the main weaknesses in my crossfit game: muscle-ups, handstand pushups, and overhead squats. I’m formulating a plan to focus on these for the next 30 days.
My doctor recently told me that jogging could add years to my life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already.”
—Milton Berle
