Strength and mobility log for Thursday, October 27th

Went to the Y at lunch and did my mobility as usual.

I don't log those, but since I also did some squats, it warrants a blog post.

I did my archer post with the band and weighted bretzel then the two variations of the "triangle pose" with a kettle bell.  One kneeling and one standing.

Kinda like this:

Then I did some back squats.

3 sets of 5 at 245# 

After a warm up with empty bar, 135#, 185# and 225#

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 26th

So Monday I did go to Crossfit, but I didn't make it past the warm up.

Kicking up into a handstand after the dynamic stretching, i tweaked my back.

Seems that going for flexion to extension can jam my L5-S1.

Luckily I got in to see Rob the same day, before my back got site from compensating, mobilized the joint and got me upright again. Took Tuesday off and was back at it today.

It was a good workout to come back to. Low volume, hardly any flexion except the pull ups (which gravity is not compressing the spine) and no load.

Warm-up was squats, box step ups and kettle bell settings for 5 minutes, and dynamic stretching, which went okay. Didn't even try a handstand.

Did some great pull up drills. Started with Hollie hold then arch hold, then alternating then killing.

After that we did the 1 pull up 1 kip drill. For this I tried doing 1 butterfly/1 kip and it went really well. Even coach Alex said so.

The wood was a15 minute AMRAP
- 10 pull ups
- 10 wall balls 20#/14#
- 10 box jumps 24"/20"

I decided to make it about the pull ups, did women's Rx, for the med ball and the box. Still used the 10' target though.

Did the same as the drills at first 1 butterfly/1 kip until I got 10 butterfly, and it went remarkably well. This may be my new goto.

Went unbroken the first 4 round, round 5 had to break them in two, the switched to regular kip do I could resume unbroken, last round had to break the regular kip. Getting tired.

Wall balls were all unbroken, box jumps were mostly step down with a few jump down. Some were step up. I was a bit nervous for my back on these.

Did 6 full rounds, plus pull ups and 5 wall balls.

Very happy with that.

No issues with my back.

Yoga and strength at the Y for Tuesday, October 18th

Forgot my gym clothes again.  Gah.

So I left early, went to Winners and bought some lame capris, they had no shorts (WTF) and a t-shirt.

Arrived earlier than expected at the Y had half an hour before the yoga class, so I did my physio homework and mobilized my hips and stretched my hamstrings in anticipation of the class.

Went way better than last time.  For one I wasn't rushing to catch up, as I arrived on time.  I was limber, thanks to the early arrival.  I used a block to improve my position on the trickier poses.

All added up to better mobilization of hips/thorax/shoulders.

Afterwards I did some side sits to mobilize my hips, a couple of minutes each side.

Then I did some RDL's to further murder my hammies.  Next couple of days may suck.

Yoga, mobility and Strength at the Y log for Tuesday, October 11th

A yoga instructor at the Y has been pestering my to try her class, so today I finally did, a bit late, but I went in.

It was okay,  maybe once this round of mobility is done and I spend a bit of time on my hamstrings it'll be better.

Some of the poses I did really well at, thanks to all the thoracic rotation I've been doing no doubt.  Others weren't so great, most thanks to my tight hammies and what's left of my shoulder/thoracic end range limitations.

After words I did some of my physio homework and enjoy 5 glorious sets of 5 back squats at 225#.

I think, I'm back at it.

Strength and mobility log for Thursday, October 6th

I may be starting my strength cycle. 

I've done two sessions of strict press, last week and this week, but I didn't log either.  First one was 5 sets of 5 at 95# and Tuesday was 4 sets of 5 at 105# and one set of 5 at 95#


Today, after doing my physio homework, I did 5 sets of 5 front squats at 185#.

Thought that was closer to 75% of my 1 rep max, but I guess my current max isn't 285#.  So I'll take what I can get for now and see how things shake out in a couple of weeks.   Because I sure wasn't easy.

CrossFit log for Tuesday, September 27th

That was my kind of workout.

Warm up was air squats, pull ups and burpees.

I did the fascial release on my hip, using the voodoo band, that made the dynamic stretching way better, and i still hijacked the inch worm for my physio homework

We worked on false grip kipping and L-sits

Skill work was 7x 3 squat cleans plus 1 every 90 seconds. Did 135#.  Last 4 sets were touch and go.

WOD was short, 6 minute cap
5,4,3 squat clean 225#/155#
Vs.
3,2,1 rope climb

Did women's Rx. Wise choice. Spilled my first clean, and spilled my next to last, with like 30 second left, got capped half way up the rope on the last climb.

I could have gone harder, but we haven't done workouts like this in ages so it was hard to gauge.

It was good.

Crossfit and physio log for Monday, September 19th

Well I got some positive news at physio on Friday.   After mobilizing my upper thorax for a bit and doing a couple of drill I got my range to 45 degrees, only 5 to go to achieve "normal" range.

But the big motivator was that I shouldn't be using my workout time to do mobility work, I should be working out, and using the mobility work between sets to help the lifting.  Best to do work that requires thoracic mobility and use the drills to warm up and in between sets. 

That will help with my feelings of insufficient workouts.  Maybe I'll start my strength cycle now.   That would certainly make me feel better.

Today I took advantage of the dynamic stretching to do the piece I hate the moste, the inch worm, and co-opt it to to mobility work.

On of the drill Rob gave me was inch worm but with a rounded back and shoulders pressed forward.  Which I did today, and instead of the push up I just let my shoulders sag when I was in the plank and then pressed them out again before resuming.  Gave me a reason not to hate it so much.

Then we did 6 power snatch singles at 85% every 75 seconds.  I did 115# for the first two and wasn't landing them nicely, so I dropped to 105# and that was a lot better.   I need focus on consistent quality of my lifts, worry about weight later.

The WOD was horrible again. 

I thought it was 5 rounds but when I saw the 20 minute cap I knew something was off.  Looked again it was 10 rounds of:
- 10 cal row
- 15 push ups
- 15 sit ups

Should have scaled the push ups to 10, but whatever, everything else was good.

Finished round 7 with 5 seconds left.   That was a lot of push ups.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, September 13th

A day late with this post, I think I was too bummed about the workout to want to post about it, but you can't just post about the good ones.

Warm up was 15 kettle bell swings + 300m run  x 2

Dynamic stretching and handstand work.

Then this shoulder activation drill.  Sit on floor, bend one knee, rest elbow on knee, pull shoulder back and down rotated forearm in front of chest with small weight.

Couldn't acheive the postion.  Hips/hams/lumbar wouldnn't allow me to even get my elbow on to my knee. 

Was not happy. With last physio being zero progress and then a new (known but not often exposed)  weakness was a slap in the face.

I need Friday's physio to be good news, I've been doing the homework like crazy and I've been hating it.  Usually I don't mind but this round is not fun for some reason.

And the WOD, another long grinder that I had to ask for a time cap so I could have an out.  So they capped it at 30 minutes.

30 wall balls 20#/14#
30 box jump overs  24"/20"
30 cal row  30cal/20cal
30 shoulder to overhead 95#/65#
30 burpees to plate
30 toes to bar
30 burpees to plate
30 shoulder to overhead 95#/65#
30 cal row  30cal/20cal
30 box jump overs  24"/20"
30 wall balls 20#/14#

60 burpees.  Great.

Used women's Rx for everything except split the differnce on the calories, I did 25.

Used a 14# ball, 20" box, 65# bar.

Didn't help.

Hit the cap part way through the wall balls, so they said just keep going and finish it.  At that point, I didn't care either way.

I guess 31:11 dead last is still better than DNF.  

Meh.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 10th

Well that was a longer break than I had wanted. 

Yesterday I went to the Y to do my physio homework (negelected while on vacation) and found with the break I was a bit more mobile than usual. Bonus.

I also need to lift something, so I did 3 sets of 8 back squats at 185# (after a couple of warm up sets at 45#, 95# and 135#). Felt it a bit in my quads this morning.

Naturally, we had back squats today.

Warm up was 50 double unders + 5 strict pull ups. Tried a drill for the DU with a band around my arms at the elbows to keep my arms from going wide, which may explain my constant missing at around rep 9 or 10.

After about 10 attempts at stringing 2 together I took the damn thing off and threw it across the room and pumped out 50 unbroken. Then 41 + 9 and another 50 unbroken.

So I guess technically it worked.

Then we did the new dynamic stretching drill that have been added in my absence.  (yay, welcome back, not).

Frankenstein walk, straight legs, straight arms overhead, touch opposite hand to toes each step for 25' and back. Then squeeze knee to chest, and drop it down into a lunch with hands overhead stretch. Then inchworm, hand walk to extend, do a push up, feet walk to flex, legs straight, repeat 25'.  Then pistol walk: cross legged sit to parallel with foot on opposite knee, alternate for 25'.   Finally shoulder stretch on wall.

Then the work started.

10 minute EMOM of 6 power snatch. Might have succeeded at 75#, but hedged my bets and stuck with 65#.  Form held, heart was racing.  So good I guess.

Then 6 rounds of snatch balance.  4-4-2-2-2-2

This is the second time I've done these, since I've been able to actually do them.  It went well until the last set. 

Did 45#, 55#, 65#, 75#, 85#, 95#(x)

75# was the best set.  85# was okay, 95# ran out of shoulders. 

After that came the back squats.  3 sets of 15 reps at 60%, I did 155#, should have done 165#, but was glad for my maths error.  We alternated these with 3 sets of 12 dumbbell bench press (of which I only did 2 sets with 30# dumbbells).

Legs will be toast tomorrow and Friday.

Crossfit at the Y log for Tuesday, July 26th

Slept in today, so when I saw the that the WOD was  Y friendly, I decided to do it at lunch.

I did the 4x6 strict press after my physio homework and the bicep and tricep openers from Strongfit. 

Did 95# and failed on the last rep of the last set. 

Position overhead felt good though. Maybe the physio and openers helped.

Didn't to the rows from the program.

The WOD was

-150 double unders
3 rounds of:
- 10 power cleans  135#/105#
- 10 ring dips
then
- 150 double unders

I had my rings, so I brought them, but my rope was at home.  I knew the Y has some decent ropes, but once I got there nobody knew where they were.  As luck would have it one of the Daves has a few, and today he had a good one with him.  He graciously lent me one and I was able to do the WOD.

Ugh, be careful what you wish for.  The double unders were rough, the cleans were rougher, the dips were okay, but harder than I would have liked, and the last set of double unders were brutal, those alone took 6 minutes!

18:28 

Brutal.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, June 15th

Somehow managed to get out of bed this morning and made it to Crossfit.

It was a fun workout.

For time: 6 rounds of: 

- 1 Overhead Squat 

- 5 Seated Box Jumps, 34"/30"  

- Run, 200 m 

-- then --  5min rest

5 rounds of

-Row, 300m - 300m - 300m - 300m - 300m

-Clean & Jerk Touch And Go 5-4-3-2-1

part 1:
-build to a heavy OHS from the rack
-increase weight each round
-learn to recover on running

part 2:
-clean and jerk must be tng unbroken
-increase weight each round
-score is weight of last rep.

Had to choose shoes, wanted lifters, but with box jumps and running, I opted for nanoes, I'd just do the best I could for the OHS.

So I did OHS at the Y yesterday  (yeah, yeah, I know, I didn't log it, whatever). Also in my Nanos.  I did a bunch of reps at 95# and 115# and with time running out I threw on 25# plates for 165# and failed.  Not surprising, my PR was 160#.

Was.

So today I did 75# for the first round, 95#, 115#,  125# and 145#. As I'm running my 200m before the last round, I debating.  Do I go 155# (which I though was my current PR) or do I try that 165# from yesterday.

Finally I decided, I was happy with 145#, so if I didn't make my 165# it wouldn't break my heart, so I decided to go for it.

Well I'm glad I did.  Beautifully executed, deep and stable bottom position.  Standing it up was a snap.  New OHS PR. In my freaking Nanos!

Then I worked up to 175# on the clean and jerk with the rowing.  Meh.  Too happy about the OHS to worry.

Fun day.   Next stop Physio.

New Overhead squat PR.  

Strength:
Bench: 230# November 19, 2014 (up from 225#)
Dead Lift: 365# September 17, 2014 (up from 355#)
Press: 145# September 9, 2014 (up from 140#)
Back Squat: 315# March 2, 2015 (up from 305#)
Front Squat: 280# September 29, 2015 (up from 275#)
Overhead squat: 165# June 17, 2016 (up from 160#) 

Power:
Power Clean: 205# July 4, 2015 (up from 195#)
Power snatch:  140# Dec 5, 2014 (up from 125#)
Push Press: 185# Sept 15, 2014 (up from 175#)
Clean: 225# Dec 31, 2015 (up from 215#)
Jerk: 220#  Jan 5th, 2016 (up from 205#)
Snatch: 145# Feb 25, 2015 (up from 145# but not really)
Clean and Jerk: 205# Dec 13, 2014 (up from 175#)

Crossfit log for Monday, May 9th

Kiza is out of town yet again. But with Clarisse home, i was able to get to Crossfit this morning.

Felt like strongman day.

Started with sumo deadlifts vs one arm dumbbell presses for 4 sets
7-7-5-5 for the deadlifts and sets of 8, each arm for the presses. 1 minute rest between each

Did 225#-245#-275#-295#(2) 295#Mar be a PR, I'll have to look it up.
And 20#-35#-45#-45#. Got heavy at the end.

Then 3 sets of suitcase carried 150' vs strict barbell press 7-5-3

Did 32kg (70#) kettle bell, then 40kg(88#) kettle bell and finally the 100# dumbbell. Dumbbells stuck for carries, they roll into your fingers and grip become horrible. Next time we pull out the handled barbells.

Did 95#-115#-125#(X)-115# for the presses. Those carries destroyed my press.

The WOD was not fun.

15-12-9 of
- dumbbell hang squat clean thrusters
- burpees

Drudged through. Shoulders and core spent.

Last burpee last round, felt a twinge in my back

Luckily i was headed to physio a bit later.

All good now.

Finished in 9:25. Dead last, but i finished.

Crossfit log for Monday, April 25th

Revisited Open WOD 12.3

Complete as many rounds as possible in 18 mins of:
- 15 Box Jumps, 24"/20"
- 12 Push Press, 115#/75#
- 9 Toes To Bars

Last time I did this I used 95#.   My guiding principle is to do women's Rx, but I've said that I'll always do Open WODs Rx, to be able to compare.

My out for Rx is that I didn't do the Open in 2012, my desire to go women's Rx was trumped by Kamil doing 95# and 24" box.

Conveniently I've  done this workout 5 times and each time I used 95#. November 2014, March 2014, July 2014, August 2014 and January 2015.  March 2014 was my previous best at 5 rounds + 15.  My last attempt was a dismal 4 + 35 (one short of 5 rounds)


Today I made it thought 6 full rounds plus 8 box jumps. 

Gotta be happy with that.  Pretty big PR.

Afterwards I had a physio appointment and found the erector trigger point that was hurting my mid back during overhead work (or handstand work) that started at the Competition a couple of weeks ago. Very happy to have that taken care of.

Mobility and strength work for Friday, April 1st

Did a bit of a rush in my mobility work, but worked everything.

Breathing drills with a plate on my chest.  Hands locked out overhead holding a dumbbell.

Did my rotational thoracic spine work, focusing on my left which seems to be not quite as far along as my right.

Then I did some overhead squats. 

Worked up to 155# for a single.  Hit triples at 115# and 135#.

Felt my position was better than before, but overhead stability still needs work.

Baby steps.

After that I tried some overhead lunges with an empty barbell.  That felt pretty good.  Locked out.  May have had to over extend my lumbar a bit. But much better than 16.1.

I even tried a few steps at 95#.  That was heavy.  But much more stable.  I'll have to revisit that workout in the near future.

Progress is good.

Accessory log for Tuesday, March 29th

My Y visit was all about Strongfit and physio.

Did some of my drills for thoracic mobility and rolled out my glutes and hips.

Then did the Strongfit tricep opener (which is really a lat opener) and then some one-arm-overhead carries, one lap with a 16kg kettle bell and 2 laps with a 20kg kettle bell.

Then I did farmer dumbbell carries with 2 85# dumbbells, followed that up with suitcase carries with one 85# dumbbell.

Good hard work.

Mobility and Olympic Lifting log for Wednesday, March 23rd

Went to the Y with snatches on my mind.

Started with mobility and physio drills, for my intercostals, hips, thoracic spine and shoulders.

Did some overhead squats with light weights for reps, position was okay but not great.  Did a few sets with empty bar, 65# and one at 95#.  The last set at 65# was the best one, 95# wasn't great but I wasn't planning to go very heavy with the snatches so that was fine.

Started with empty bar from the hang and it was not pretty.  Took 5 or 6 tries before it started to gel.

Put 65# on and the first couple didn't go, but I just going no pause until I landed one.  And then another.  

I think I did 4 good reps and then I bumped it up to 85#.  PR was 75#, no sense wasting time there.

85# didn't get it.  Tried again, nothing.  Walked away, tried again, no go. Walked away again, tried and couldn't catch it.

Finally I power snatched it and held it there to get a feel for what I was looking for in the catch.

Tried one more time and nailed it.  PR.  Did it a couple more time just to be sure.  Once I caught it was easy to stabilize in the bottom and stand it up.  The trick is catching it right.

So then I had to try 95#.  I was getting tired but I had to know.  

Set it up and first attempt BAM!  Nailed it. Even better than any of the reps at 85#.

Was going to leave then but went to get my phone and asked Stephanie to film one last attempt. 

I got it but not as nice as the first one. 

As I posted on Facebook: Lots of room for improvement, need to catch way lower, and I'm sinking on the right side. But for something I was physically unable to do 3 weeks ago, and after nearly 4 years of physio and mobility work, it's a pretty good start.

Pretty stoked about this.

Crossfit log for Monday, March 21st: 16.4 take two

I'm starting to see a trend here.

After seeing everyone do the WOD on Saturday, I knew I wouldn't be happy with Friday's performance, I had to give it another go.

I wasn't looking forward to those deadlifts, so given how good I felt after rolling out my hip and glute on Friday, I rolled the crap out of everything Saturday and Sunday.

I followed Kiza's advice and did triples. Hoping to get to at least 36 before resorting to singles.

Well that worked, I braced for every rep and did triples right to the end.

Finished them in 6:48, got through the wall balls in, 10-10-10-5-8-7-5, and hopped on the rower.

Made it to 30 calories.

Man that was hard, but I'm really glad I did it.

Now I feel I can hold my head high.

Score: 140. I'll take it.

Went to physio afterwards and at the end he needled my back, hips and glutes and he was amazed, there was almost nothing there.  It was the best he'd ever seen my posterior chain in all the times he's seen me in nearly 4 years!

I must be doing something right!

Strength and mobility log for Tuesday, March 8th

Well, I should have known that two great workouts would be too much to ask.

I wanted to ride the snatch success from this morning with some overhead squats at lunch.

I spent a good half hour doing mobility: rolling my lats, pecks, upper back, ribs on both sides an front. I did my physio homework and worked my hips with the orb and rocking and swaying around in a deep squat.

Did the same as this morning.  10 reps empty bar for two sets. Then started loading the bar.

I did 6 reps at 65#, the dropped to sets of 3 at 95# and 115#.

The second set of 10 at 45# and the sets at 65# and 95#, my position felt awesome.  Just like this morning. 

115# though, I don't know, maybe fatigue form this morning and the mobility work, it just didn't feel right.   

Oh well.  At least my position was good at the beginning.   I'll take that as a win.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, March 8th: Snatch Day

Well that was epic and unexpected.

I arrived early at Crossift, and since it was Coach Connor the doors were open.  Knowing it was snatch day, I immediately started mobility work.

I used the orb on my pecks, I used a foam roller on my rib cage, intercostals, sat in a deep squat and shifted my weight from foot to foot stretching the hip.

The warm up was 10 empty bar overhead squats and 10 burpees and 2 shuttle runs for 4 minutes.


The first set of OHS was same as always, tough and tight, maybe a bit better the normal. But the second set felt really good.  My position felt really solid. Focused on spreading the bar and it really helped.

Part two was a 10 minute EMOM of snatches. Minutes 1-3, 3 touch and go, minutes 4-6, 2 touch and go, the last 4 minutes heavy singles.

During warm up I decided to try a squat snatch. I try every once in a while. First attempt was a typical fail, but I notices I wasn't spreading the bar when I was catching it.  So I tried again.

Bam. I totally landed a snatch in a squat with an empty bar from the hang.

After nearly 5 years of physio and mobility work, it finally happened.

Tried again, and got it again.

Well now, I went and got some plates to try from the ground.  At 65# I totally nailed it.  Twice.

Upped it to 75# missed one, nailed one.  I was pretty stoked.

As the EMOM was starting I put 95# on and reverted to split snatch, but I had to try one squat snatch at 95# but it was too much.   Baby steps.

So I did the EMOM split style at 95# for the first 3, 115# for the next 3 and 125#, 125#, 135# for minutes 7, 8 and 9.  The last round I bumped it to 155# which would have been a 10# PR, I was still high from the squat snatches. But it was too much.

I quickly peeled of 10# to 145# and had a great pull but just didn't commit to getting under it.  Meh.  Still feel great!

The WOD was a gasser,

3 rounds for time:
- 10 thrusters 115#/ 75#
- 15 calorie row
- 20 wall balls.

Holy hip extensions Batman!  Split the difference on the barbell and went with 95#.

Did the first round unbroken in 2:45. Then died.

Finished in 11:28.    That last row and the last 20 wall balls were torture.

Happy day.

Olympic lifting and mobility log for Monday, March 7th

Since my workout this morning amounted to only 4 minutes of work, I figured I should do something worthwhile at lunch.

So I worked on clean and jerk, hitting a couple of solid reps in the mid 100s (165#, 185#) then I decide to push it  a bit and see if I could hit over 205#.

205# itself was good.  215# wasn't a pretty clean and total failed jerk, but it was worth a try.  Focus more on that after the Open.

Then I did my physio homework and hit the steam room.  That'll do.