Strength and mobility log for Tuesday, November 1st

Had a rushed visit to the Y today to work on mobility and a bit of strength work.


I should have done my full gamut of shoulder/thoracic mob work but short on time and wanting to do some strict press, I mostly worked my my hips and hams with a bit of work on my shoulders/thorax.

Then I did my presses.   5 sets of 3 at 85%  115#,  I toyed with the idea of 120#, but my last "warm-up" set at 115# was clearly going to be my first working set.

I used 135# as my max, which I'm not even sure I could hit if I tried.  I've lost quite a bit since my year of strength ended 20 months ago.

Once I get my mobility worked out I'll have to find a balanced program to keep everything progressing, if more slowly, but not moving backwards.

So set 3 was rough, like, I-don't-if-I'll-get-through-set-4 rough. But I attacked it, really braced my core and it was easier than any of the previous sets.

Same for set 5. Pretty happy.  I didn't think I'd make set 5 let alone get through it.

Yay.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, November 1st

Grace.


Way back on April 14th 2014 I wrote:

Then it was time for the WOD: Grace. 30 clean and jerks for time. Rx is 135#, I've been doing 115# (I may be due to go up to 125# perhaps).

Going in I decide to use the 1 lift every 10 seconds strategy.  It worked really well, I was on pace at 2:30 with 15 reps done.  Took a break for 30 seconds hoping to repeat that, but I was getting winded, I did 1 every 10 seconds for another minute, taking me to 4:00, and another 30 second rest, leaving 9 reps to go.  I just hammered them as fast as I could and finished and finished in 6:01.

PR by 2 minutes, plus 2 reps!  Gotta be happy with that, especially given the amount of work we did before.

After the warm up of 5 push ups, 10 wall balls and 15 ring rows for 5 minutes and the dynamic stretching, which we substituted the figure 4 sit for a some gorilla walk nonsense we started warming up our clean and jerk.

In my mind I had done Grace at Rx, using the 1 lift per minutes, and it went well, so I vocally decided to try Men's Rx at 1 lift every 7 seconds.  Yeah, mistake.

I wish I had read the above beforehand.  I legit attempt at Rx on 0:10 would have been a good test.

Two downsides with 7 seconds, the obvious, not enough rest, but also time math. After 7 or 8 reps, figuring out the next split time is impossible.  Next time 10 seconds.  then if anything left hammer the last reps to get in under 5:00.

First 20 reps were okay, but I was already over 4:00. Slugged away at the last 10 and finished in 6:29.

6:29 @ 135#  compared to 6:01 at 115#, I'd call that a win.

The good thing about my vocal aggressive strategy is I think I pushed a couple of people to some pretty good times. 

Crossfit log for Friday, October 21st

What a week.

Arms were still sore from Mondays push-ups. Hammies were still tight from Tuesdays today and RDLs, and I didn't get to the gym since.

Finally made it this morning despite the drinks and pub food and the late appointment with the social worker.

After the 5 minute warm-up of burpees and wall balls, the dynamic stretch was okay, but the handstand work was a bit scary the way my stomach felt. But I survived

Part 1 find 1 rep max thruster, 12 minutes

3 minutes rest/out you extra weights away.

3 rounds for time
- 80-60-40 double-unders
- 20-15-10 thrusters 115#/75#

Hit 165# no problem, jumped to 185#. No go. Clean was off and didn't have good position for the push press. Still front racked, tried to square and go again, but no.

Tried again. Better position but still no. With time running out i peeled back to 175#. Couldn't lock it out

Meh.

WOD went well.

For the double-unders, which I've been struggling with I abandoned the numbers, I planned to go to failure 4 times in the first round, 3 in the second and 2 in the last wherever that got me.

First round I got like 19, then 18, not even half way of well. Third attempt I made it to like 67, then made it to 80. Sweet. 

Used women's weight, 75#, did 10 and 10

Round 2 Dane deal. Third attempt took me to 60 double-unders.  Thrusters were 10 and 5.

Round three again, made 40 in two tries.  And 10 unbroken.

I'll take it.

Mobility and strength at the Y log for Thursday, October 13th

Quick session at the Y.

Did my physio homework, tomorrow's my appointment, so gotta cram.

Then did strict press  3 sets of 5 at 115#  Rough.  Just like in October 2014 in the middle of strength development.

So good.  Feel like I'm on track

Did some door stretch on my hammies,  progress being made there too.

Crossfit log for Monday, October 3rd

Really didn't want to get out of bed this morning.

Got to bed late, had a couple of beers in the evening, woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep.

But with Kiza away this might be my only workout this week so I couldn't miss it.

Warm up was 5 pull ups, 10 wall balls, 15 air squats.  for 5 minutes.

The usual dynamic stretching

WOD was
3 rounds for time:
- 35 sit ups
- 30 box jump overs
- 25 pull ups.


Finished round 1 in 4:54, could have gone faster on the box jumps, but it would have been too expensive.  Did the pull ups in 10-10-5

Round 2 finished at 11:35 so 6:40ish.  Sit ups were slower, box jumps were slower and pull ups were 10-8-7

Round 3 took me to 18:58 so 7:23.  Yeah.  Sit ups were a grind, box jumps were sad.  And pull ups were 10-5-2-5-3. 

At least it was Rx. 

18:58.  Done.

After that we did 4 sets of 10 bench.

Did 95#, 115#, 125# and 130#(6)

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 lug for Friday, September 2nd

Thursday off might have been a good thing.  Felt pretty good this morning going in, once i got out of bed that is.

Warm up was partner route 400m vs 5 squats and 5 burpees, which i did 8 squats and 4 burpees. Twice through.

WOD was two parts
4 rounds of
- 18 bench press 135#/95#
- 18 toes to bar

Rest 5 minutes

21-15-12-9
- power snatch 95#/65#
- abmat sit-ups

Women's Rx for weight, between Kamil, Dave and I, we shared 2 benches.

1st round unbroken, then, 10,8, and 9,6,3 and 8,5,5

Tires to base were 8,5 then 7,5 hanging singles, then 4,4,4 and finally 5,4,3

Finished in 12:15

Started up at 17:15

Snatchers went 11, 10 then 9,6 then 7,5 and 9

Sit-ups were no fun.

Post two took 10:11 for s total of 27:26 including the 5 min rest.

Crossfit log for Thursday, July 28th

That was hard.

So the schedule had a 10 minute EMOM of 2 pause squats at 70% of max followed by a heavy set of 8 reps. 

Planned 215# for the EMOM and 245# for set of 8.  We just did 8 rep max and I hit 255# so 10# less should be fine right.

Wrong.  After 10 sets of pause squats my legs were smoked.  I was lucky to make 8 with the 215# from the pause squats.  Even walking it back to the rack was dicey!

Which didn't help the WOD at all.

Partner WOD with Vero.  Women's Rx all the way!

3 round for time of:
- 60 partner wall balls  14#
- 20 partner dead lifts 235#
- 200m partner run with tether.

She ran me into the ground.

First round was actually okay.  We went unbroken.   Decided to break the deadlifts in 2 sets of 10 for round two.

My hams were smoked at this point and I had to drop the second set of 10 at 5. So we did 10, 5, 5.

Revised plan for deadlifts 4 sets of 5.  Run sucked.  No legs left.

Wall balls were unbroken, last round of dead lifts, breaking up didn't help ended up being 5, 5, 5, 3, 2.  Without hams, my back started picking up the slack and that's never good.

Run was the worst,  Vero wouldn't let me stop. 

We were 14:30ish  not sure.  I must have writhed around on the floor for 10 minutes!  The next class was looking a bit worried. 

Glad that's over. 

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 Thursday, July 6th

That was my kind of workout.

For the warm up we did downward dog into plank for 8 reps. Coach Nikki gave us some variations and suggested I bend my knee a bit more and lift my heels to get my head through my arms and lock my back straight. Felt really good. I may add this to my regimen.

We started with my favorite, back squats, 1 heavy set of 8, 10# more than last week.

I did 235#. Coach Nikki asked if my squat came naturally. Ha!  So she asked is it was just volume or what. So i told her a bit about my adventures in physiotherapy. She was impressed at my dedication be and that my squat looked really good, especially at 185#, where she said my back was straight as a board. 

Then we did 4 sets of 6 deadlifts at 75%,  rounded down to 255#.  So hard to keep my lower back straight in the bottom. Grrr

Stopped after 3 sets.

The WOD was good and hard
-25 thrusters 95#/65#
-30 abmat sit-ups
-20 thrusters 95#/65#
-25 abmat sit-ups
-15 thrusters 95#/65#
-20 abmat sit-ups

Did women's Rx and was thankful. But 9:36. Not last.

Good and sweaty.

Accessory log for Monday, June 20th

Brought my new toy to the Y. One of my handled barbells or farmer carry barbell.

After doing my postal homework on my hips and thoracic extension i got to work batting up my obliques.

I did 6 rounds of
- 5 one arm deadlifts left hand
- 50' suitcase carry left hand
- 5 one arm deadlifts right hand
- 50' suitcase carry right hand
110#

Brutal. Next time 8 minute AMRAP.

Crossfit log for Monday, June 20th

Summer solstice.

Somehow got out of bed and made it to the box.

Started with a 1 rep max deadlift. 

Was eager to try this using the new technique from www.strongfit.com, of interanally rotating the femur on the deadlift, forcing the obliques to engage like you would a deadlift with a stone or a sandbag.


315# went up nicely, no discomfort in my lower back.  Jumped to 335#, got if off the floor but chickened out.  I've neglected deadlift work lately.  I'll build it more gradually in my next strength cycle, once my thoracic mobility is dealt with (or nearly dealt with).

Then we did some front rack barbell step ups.  Left leg is way stronger than right.  I'm liking these unilateral movements, really helps identify weaknesses.

Coupled that with Good mornings, also done with internal rotation of the femur, and went well.

The WOD was not fun.

For time:
Wall balls         50-40-30-20-10
Double unders 10-20-30-40-50  (unbroken)

Started hurting after round 1.

Took 2 tired to get to 10 DU, after 3 tries to get 20 on round 2 I gave up trying to go unbroken on the DUs

13:18    I think.  I can't remember.

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#)

Accessory log for Monday, June 13th

Went to the Y.  Yes I'm actually logging it for once.

Did one-armed deadlifts, 1 set of 8 each side at 135# and 1 set of 5 each side at 185#.

185# was rough.

Then I did some rows on the pulley machine, but to change it up I used a rope attachment to simulate a rope pull.  Not great.  Grip got slippery and made it harder than the handle way.  I felt it more in my hands than in my lats.

It was worth a shot.

Crossfit log for Saturday, June 11th

It has been a long time since I partnered with Nat Connors.

That certainly wasn't my plan going to Crossfit this morning, but there's always a risk.

I held my own, doing women's Rx, and she'd already done the workout at the 9am class without a partner, oh and she's recovering from a shoulder injury.

So yeah.  We still finished first. And beat her solo time from 9am

The WOD was
- 800m row, shared however you want
4 rounds of
- 30 pull ups
- 20 front squats 75#
- 30 abmat sit ups
- 20 push press 75#
Then
- 800m row

We split the row into 200m alternating, I rowed hard, pull 1:36-1:40 / 500m.

Because of her shoulder we split the pull ups 10-10-5-5, everything else was half each. I started.

It wasn't until round 4 that she started yelling at me to hurry and not pause or rest, to keep going, to not think about it, just do it.  So the 3 first rounds I was all good.

She also kicked off the second row at 160m, my second set on the rower was better, sub 1:45/500m

We did it in 19:36

Man, I work hard when partnered with her.

Strength log for Wednesday, June 8th

Went to the Y for some posterior chain work

 Was planning 5 sets of 5 deadlifts at 75%, but after 2 sets at 225# I realized I was using 75% of my squat not my deadlift. So bumped it up to 255# and did 4 sets at that.

Then I peeled back to 185# and did 5 sets of 5 RDLs

And that was it.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, May 25th

Couldn't not go this morning.  Friday and Monday will have no 5:30am classes due to regionals, so having missed yesterday, there was no way I wasn't going.

This was a retest of Nancy.  But it wasn't a legit retest, we moved the bars outside to where the run starts making it a legit Nancy, but last time we were at the front of the gym adding an extra 70m per round.

Nancy: 5 rounds for time
- Run 400m
- 15 overhead squats  95#/65#


I used the same bar as last time 75# between Men's and Women's Rx, but I wish I'd gone up to Men's Rx, since it wasn't really a retest, just to have an official Nancy time.  Oh well, spilled milk.

Also, once again, I did the overhead squats in my Nanos!  Really pumped about that.

So my time last time was 21:39.   This time, the OHS were much slower because that 35m walk from the run to the barbell was missing along with the corresponding rest.

But with the time savings of not having to walk all that way, my time was way better, finished in 17:37.

Averaged 3:30 per round, exactly, left for round 5 at 14:00, and took 3:37 for the last one.

That run though.

Oh and we did 3 reps max Sumo deadlift beforehand.  Tried 315# after hitting 275# in warm up.  No go.  Peeled back to 295# and a triple wasn't a problem. 

I'll take it.

Crossfire log for Thursday, May 19th

My back was feeling a bit better so I went in to the box with enthusiasm.

I enjoyed the strength and skills work most.

 

Sumo deadlifts 4 sets of 5 vs Handstand Hold/Walk 

Rest 1 min between

I worked up to 275# on the deadlifts and did free standing holds the first two rounds, and tried some  walks the last two.  Got a few steps, but not much.  It was fun, and that was the point.

The we did thruster 3 sets of 4 vs Dumbbell Romanian deadlift 3 sets of 10

For the thrusters I did 135# and the RDL I used the 50# dumbbells the first set, and the 70# dumbbells the last two.  Really felt it in my hammies.

Didn't love the WOD.

Chipper for time:

- 50 Thrusters, empty bar

- 40 Step Down Box Jumps 

- 30 Toes-to-bars 

- 20 Handstand Push-ups

I knew I was scaling the HSPU, so decided to scale as much as I could. Used a 35# women's bar for the thrusters, 20" box and had planned on trying as many HSPU as I could before scaling it somehow.  Hoping for maybe 3 reps.

The first 15 thrusters I felt like I was cheating, or maybe I'd grabbed an even lighter training bar, it felt so light.  By 25 reps I was so glad I wasn't using a men's bar, my shoulders were burning. 

Box jumps were fine, I'd jump down, but not rebound (which is why they specify step down, to avoid achilles injuries people get from rebounding)

T2B were rough, no real viable scaling option, unless you drop the number of reps, didn't want to do that, or do knees to elbows, or knees to chest, didn't want to do that either, so I chipped away at them.

Had nothing left for the HSPU attempts, and everyone else was finished. So I went straight to straddle position "bear" hspu.  even that was rough, but I got it done.  Don't remember my time.  13 minutes and change rings a bell.

Accessory log for Tuesday, May 17th

Took the time to go to the Y at lunch.

I did a variety of accessory work.

Landline rows, 8 each side empty bar then 2 sets of 10 with 30#of plates on it.

Then i did the openers, lat/triceps, bicep, shoulders.

Then the thoracic opener with the dumbbell.

Had a very successful couple of sets of overhead squats, in my nanos! Booyah!

2 sets empty bar. 1 set 95#, 1 set 135#.

Getting better all the time.

Finished up with wrist roller, 3 sets at 30#

Might be sure tomorrow.

Crossfit log for Monday, May 16th

Hard time getting out of bed this morning.

As usual, glad I did

It was one of those bloody MAP workouts, a MAP 5 no less. Ugh.

Part 1
4 rounds 3:00 on, 3:00 off
- row

Rest 5 minutes

Part 2
AMRAP in 3 mins of:
- 5 Pull-ups
- 7 Hang Power Cleans, 95/65 lbs
- 9 Push Press, 95/65 lbs
- 15 Air Squats

Post 1 sucked. Kept getting slower. First one naturally went out too hard. Averaged 2:00/500m, then i tried to start at 2:00/500m and hold it, but that only lasted 500m, averaged a bit slower, rounds 3 and 4 were progressively slower.

Part 2 was my jam!
Split the difference on the bar with 75#and was able to keep the bar moving. All unbroken.

First time through was a bit of a warm up, did two full rounds plus 4 pull ups.

Seconds time felt way faster on round 1, but slowed down for round two, finished all 5 pull ups with time to spare but not enough to get to the bar.

Third one i made it back to hang power cleans on round 3 for 3 reps. 2 rounds plus 8.

The last round i finished all 7 cleans.

Pretty stoked. All unbroken, each round better than the last. Can't ask for better than that.