CrossFit log for Friday, October 28th

Thankfully lower volume today, but it looked way easier on the board than in real life.

Warm-up:  2-4-6-8-10
Squats, push-ups, kettle bell swing.

I kicked up into s handstand against the wall again leading with my right and it was okay again.  Still afraid to lead with my left.   Held it longer than usual.

First part was hang power clean + power clean, for 1 rep max. 135# was easy, so was 155#. 165# was less easy and 175# was hard.

First attempt at 185# failed. Second attempt i caught the hang power clean, but didn't have enough from the floor. Oh well, I'll take the 175#

The WOD was 3 rounds for time:
- 30 ab mat sit-ups
- 10 clean& jerks 185#/135#

Did women's Rx and even that was brutal.
13:14.

Crossfit log for Thursday, October 27th

Another successful workout, no back issues, which is pretty good if you consider my injury was 3 days ago.

Partner WOD and partner warm-up.

While partner if rowing 250m do burpees, switch, then switch and do lunges, switch again.

Dynamic stretching. I kick up to a handstand against the wall, leading with my right foot instead of left, no problem, the wall may have helped. Did 2 holds for 10ish seconds.

Worked with new guy Ralph.

For time, share the work:
-150 cal row
-125 burpees
-100 power snatch 75#/55#
-75 toes to bar

We split the row by time 1:00 each, bring a bit taller and more experienced, had we dive equal calories, he would have gotten way less break, do tune made now sense, and we weren't that far off calorie-wise.

Burpees with did 80, 4 sets of 10 each, except the last one i did 12, leaving him 8. He was starting to hurt. His 2 first rounds were to fast and he was paying the price. Lesson learned.

Power snatch at 55#, i did 12 he did 8, third set, I was starting to hurt, and we had only 6 or 7 minutes before the cap, so we decided 80 troops would be enough.

We finished off with the 75 knees to chest with less than 2 minutes left.

It was good. Ralph worked really hard.

28:12

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.

Crossfit log for Thursday, June 30th

Well that didn't go so well.

Between work, Clarisse, the kids and this injury, I just felt like I had nothing in the tank today.

Strength work went okay

Back Squat 1x8 at 75% of med
Rest as needed between sets.

Did 225#

Back Squat 4x5, using same weight per set
Rest 1 min
Romanian Deadlift 4x8, using same weight per set
Rest 1 min

Did 185# on the back squats and 135# on the RDLs.

This was hard on my upper back. But my position was pretty good, or so it felt.

The WOD was no fun.

4 rounds for time of:
21 Box Jumps
15 Rows
9 Sumo Deadlift High-pulls, 135/95 lbs

Too demanding on the posterior chain after all the strength work I guess.

Bailed before the end of round 2.

Meh. They can't all be great.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, June 29th

Well at least i made it this morning. 

No strength work. Started with max height box jump. Wasn't sure how my spine would appreciate the activity, but there's no harm in trying.

Didn't seem to be an issue. Made it to 39.5". Not far off my PR.

The WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP triplet, low reps, so you got back to each station quickly whether you looked forward to it or not.

-2 rope climbs
-7 thrusters 135#/95#
-12 abmat sit-ups

Scale to women's Rx. And apparently the tape on my rope was lower than 15', so I apparently scaled that too.

Whatever.

I literally did twice the amount of work in the first 10 minutes as the second.  At 10 minutes I was finishing my 4th round. At the buzzer I was at 6 round plus 2 rope climbs. 

Fell apart real quick after the half.

It'll do. Back feels pretty good.

Crossfire log for Monday, June 27th

So it's true, the hardest part of strength training is putting the weights away.

Last Tuesday, while picking up a 70# dumbbell after the workout I sprained my L5-S1 joint.

Once again, thank my lucky stars for Rob Crispo, he needled the surrounding muscles, but couldn't get the joint to crack, so he mobilized it with a variety of techniques and got me functional again.

He gave me some drills, which I've done daily since, and told me not to go heavy on squats or deadlifts for 7 to 10 days.  Except when I wake up, until it's warmed up, it has been fine, since Friday.

Today, 3 days later, 6 days since the injury, we had 1 rep max pause back squat. 5 seconds in the bottom.  I felt or each rep, and figured uninjured I would have gone for 275#.

225# felt fine so I put on 255# and that went up well, but it was heavy, so I hummed and I hawed for a few minutes and then called it my 1 rep max.

The the WOD.

10 min AMRAP
- 5 deadlifts  255#/195#
- 7 chest to bar pull ups
- 9 burpee box jumps.

I did women's Rx, at that weight the deadlifts didn't worry me, but the burpee box jumps did. For those I stepped down from the box and stepped down into the burpee.  Switched to regular pull ups after round 1.

Managed 3 rounds plus 10 reps at a fairly pedestrian pace.


Post WOD was 3 sets of 10 good mornings vs ARMAP of anchored sit ups. on 1:00 rest

DId 15 sit ups per round and went light on the Good Morning, 45#-75#-75#

Crossfit log for Thursday, June 9th

Wow, that sucked.

Managed to get up this morning. That's getting harder these days for some reason.

Coach Nikki was late, so we didn't get started until 6:00

We did the back squat EMOM for 8 minutes.  Goal was 70% of max.

I did 185#, 205#, 205#, 225#, 225#, 225#, 225#, 225#

We skipped the front squat / Chinese plank part and jumped right in to the WOD.

100 Thrusters for time
EMOM 5 burpees.

Sucked beyond belief.  Started out hard.  20 thrusters, 5 burpees, 5 thrusters, 5 burpees, 8 thrusters, 5 burpees.  1/3 done.

Then if fell apart.

At 50 thrusters I dropped to 3 burpees, otherwise I would never have finished.

Took me 20 minutes,  last set of thrusters was 10 with 4 seconds left, there was no way I was doing more burpees at that point.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, June 7th

You'd think more test makes for better performance. 

Did some accessory work at the Y yesterday, and mobility work on Sunday (I've really got to log those workouts)

I did 120 alternating rows on the outlet machine, in sets of 20 each arm for 3 sets. Decreasing weight each set, 60, 45, 30 (I assume it's in pounds) but that doesn't seem to justify how smoked my shoulders felt today.

So today. First day for Coach Nikki. The warm up was 6 min of 10 kettle bell swing. 10 push ups, 10 air squats.

Strength work was push press, 4 sets of 8 @ 60%-65%-70%-75% of max. I did 5# more for each, because barbell math.  115#-125#-135#-145#(6).

Got really hard at 135# and wasn't able to finish the last set at 145#

Then was close grip bench vs. landmine rows. 4 sets of 8 bench and 10 rows.

I used 135# on the bench for the first 2 sets, then whatever Joee had on her bar (around 95#) for the third and didn't make the fourth for lack of time.

I did all the rows, using 20kg of smaller plates, for better range of motion. Dropped to 15kg for the last 3 sets.  Lats were smoked from yesterday.

WOD sucked so bad.

For time:

- 1000m row

4 rounds of:

- 10 power cleans  115#/85#

- 10 handstand push ups

Used 95# on the bar and did bear straddle hspu.  Sucked. So much. 13:29.  

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.

Crossfit log for Thursday, May 12th

Well whatever I did Monday, even with physio, I'm still feeling it.

I hope it's not soft tissue damage. I'll try and book with Rob asap.

Despite that, I made it to the gym, figured I'd do what I could

It was in two parts, both 4 rounds of e minute AMRAP with 2 minute rest with 5 minutes in between.

Part 1
3 min AMRAP + 2 min rest X 4
- 30 double unders
- 20 abmat sit ups
- 10 push press 75#

Rest 5 min

Part 2
3 min AMRAP + 2 min rest X 4
- 12 med ball cleans
- 10 slam balls
- 8 alternating pistols

Try as I might, I couldn't get past the second set of sit ups in 3 minutes. Even the times i got through the DUs unbroken. Mixing sit ups and double unders is cruel.

Part 2 was murder on the hips.  Never made it past the med ball cleans second time through.

Scaled the pistols by draping my foot over the front of my working foot.

Glad that's over.

Olympic lifting log for Thursday, February 25th

Slept in. Missed Crossfit. Went to the Y for some work.  They did power snatch and burpees with kettle bell swings. So I worked on snatch. Screw the burpees.

Started with power snatch, doubles, at 65# for a few sets, 95# for 2 sets and 115# for two sets.  Felt good.

The pull was strong, no pain in my lower back at all.

Moved on to snatch balance.  Had trouble balancing in the bottom at first.  But it worked out as I worked up to 135#.

Finally moved on to snatch. Did a couple of really solid reps at 95# and 115#.  Caught them right in the slot.  It really feels effortless when you catch it right.

Bumped it up to 135# and caught one ugly one and one really nice one. So I decide to try 145#.

First attempt my knee hit the ground. So I didn't even bother standing it up.

Tried again and bam! Caught it a touch forward, but I was locked out and no knee touch! Stood it up legit 145#.  Now I can claim my PR at 145# for realz!

Tried 150# twice, and just couldn't get under it.  Same deal as 145#, knee on ground on the first and caught forward on second but couldn't recover this time.

I was starting to tire as well.  Soon. 

New(old) snatch 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: 155# September 22, 2015 (up from 145#) 

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 Wednesday, February 24th

Quick trip to the Y and it was a good one.

Started with landmine rows but had overhead carries with suspended kettle bells version 2.0 on my mind.

I did on set each side of the land mine rows with empty bar then jumpe right into a working set with 60#, might have been a big jump.  But I got through 6 reps each side.  Felt a bit anti-climactic so I did another set of 8 each side with just the 35# plate.   Felt a bit better after that.

Then I go the bands and a weighted bar I assume they use for bootcamp classes or something.  (I'll next time what they are actually for) 

It weighs about 10#, not quite a long as a barbell, so my hands were a bit closer together, but not too much. Started with 12kg kettle bells, since the 16kg ones last time were so heavy. 

With the lower weight of the bar and possibly because my grip was closer, the 12kg wasn't enough.  Bumped it up to 16kg ~35# per side plus the 10# bar makes for 80#.  That was challenging.

The other thing I changed up was not doubling up the bands, so the the kettle bells hung almost to the floor instead of around my waist. 

This made is easier to drop, and with the lighter bar made the swinging less violent.

So I did 4 sets of carries the width of the gym and back.  1 trip with 60# ish and 3 trips with 80# ish.  Really challenging. Obliques were fire, traps and shoulders too. 

The guy from last time showed up after my second trip, so I got to give him the "I worked out the kinks" jab. 

All is well.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, February 24th

Woke up at around 2:30 and had a hard time falling back to sleep. When my alarm finally rang at quarter to five, I was torn, and took a long time to decide.

Since this log entry exists, it's clear the my decision was to get up and get going.

It was an interesting day at the box.  Improvised warm up of push ups, air squats and shuttle runs before jumping right into WOD #1:

3 rounds for time 15-12-9
- power clean  115#/75#
- jerks 115#/75#

Split the difference at 95#, tried to see how far I could get without putting the bar down.

Turns out the answer to that is 30 reps.  I got through the first round completely unbroken, but going back to power cleans after the jerks (technically push press, but I digress) was just too rough apparently.

Even once I started, I got to 9 and put it down before the last 3, and tried to go straight into the jerks, but after only 1, I had to put it down.  Regrouped and hammered out the 12.  For the 9s at least I had the wisdom to stop at 8, and use the 9th to go into the jerks when I was ready.

So hammering the first round cost me, but I'm glad I did it.  Finished in 5:55ish.  Happy with that.

The second WOD which we started only after an extended break was a 20 minute EMOM:
- odd minutes 5 deadlifts, start light and add weight as you went.
- even minutes 10 box jumps

Worked with Kamil and Justin,  they shared a bar and Justin started on the box jumps.

I went immediately after Kamil on the deadlifts, but somehow they both had a box and the box jumps were taking more time than the deadlifts, so if I wanted to finish in time, I did my box jumps at the same time as Kamil.  This gave me a bit longer break before the deadlifts but a shorter one before the box jumps.  Worked out.

We started with only 115# on the bar, then round 2 went to 135#, then 155#, 185# and 205# where we stayed until the last round where Kamil went up to 225#, so I followed suit.

The last 5 minutes were getting rough as fatigue set in.

My back actually feels better now than it has in a while.  So I guess it was a good call to go today.  Yay.

Strength and accessory log for Wednesday, February 3rd

My trip to the Y had to not involve my back.  I wanted to stretch it and roll it out but not tax it so I could work out the tightness.

I wanted to do some accessory work too, so I decided on some strict press/push press work (despite the hspu stuff from this morning), and some supinated barbell rows.

It wasn't a great workout, but I got it done.  I stretched my back in a feet together squat, holding a post, breathing into my lower back between sets.  I rolled it out a bit with the peanut.

Maxed out the strict presses at 125# and the push press at 155#.  Did a warm up set of rows at 145#, 3 sets of 3 at 175#, wasn't great. Then peeled back to 155# to failure at 6 reps.

I tried some straight arm pull downs on the pulley machine, I'd like to work these in as accessory work. We'll see.  Did a set of 8 at 75# and tried a working set  at I think 105#, the labels are gone on the stack, but that was too much so I dropped it what I can only guess was 90# (I may be totally wrong on these numbers except the 75#)  and managed 5 reps. 

Meh.

Rolled out my back some more with the peanut and then rolled my glutes too.  Back feels way better now.  So there's that.

Olympic lifting log for Tuesday, December 1st

My appointment with Rob is Wednesday, so I didn't go to Crossfit today, as they had deadlifts on the menu and I don't want to make matters worse until I see Rob.

But doing nothing all day isn't an option. I went to the Y and did some overhead work from the rack.

Started with strict press, until I maxed out at 135# then switched to push press, going up to 175#, which was a real fight.

At that point I switch to jerks.  Every time I unracked it, I was thinking man this feels heavy and yet I jerked it each time without issue.  185#, 195#, 205#... bam, bam, bam.

So I had to go for 215# to match my recent clean PR, but I couldn't do it.  Soon.

Happy with that.  Then I did some grip strength work with bar and dumbbells and my "all fours breathing"

Looking forward to tomorrow's physio visit.

Olympic lifting log for Monday, November 30th

Went to the Y to do something.

Decided on a clean complex: 1 power clean+1 hang clean+1 clean

Worked up to 185# where I did only the power clean.  at 175# it was fine, but my back was still out of sorts so I called it a day.

Before leaving I did some supinated rows on the pulley machine at 120# for 8 and 165# for 5.  Not easy. Couldn't get full range to the chest, I may drop a bit of weight next time.

Then I did my "all fours breathing" drill and headed back to work.

Crossfit log for Monday, November 30th

Wow, that was a whole lotta volume for a Monday morning. Saved by the time cap.

After a 4 minute warm up of 5 kettle bell swings, 7 wall balls and 1 shuttle run, we got set up for the WOD:

4 rounds for time with a 16 minute time cap (thank goodness):
- 21 box jumps
- 18 wall balls
- 15 kettle bell swings
- 12 burpees.

Could've done without the burpees, or 3 rounds instead of 4. 

Thankfully the time cap stopped me at exactly 3 rounds.

After that we did 14 minute EOMOM (every other minute, or on 2 mintues):
- 1 snatch from the hang, 1 snatch from the floor.

I had a hard time getting all the pieces together,  either the pull wasn't to full extension, or I failed to commit to get low and the catch was more power snatch than snatch, or I wouldn't keep it close to the body and it would arc out.  It just seem that with the exception of 2 or 3 of the 14 lifts, at least one element was off.

Oh well, at least there were a couple of good ones.

After that, being short on time and still a bit sore, I rushed through the heavy double front squat (settle for 225#) and did 2 sets of 8 at 185#, which was hard enough. 

Glad that's over.  Booked another appointment with Physio Rob on Wednesday.  Can't wait.

Strength log for Friday, November 27th

Forgot to set my alarm and missed max back squat day at Crossfit.

So I went to the Y to make up for it.

Hit 305#, but couldn't get out of the hole at 315#. 

I didn't really fight for it, because my back isn't 100%.  I got about a quarter way up and stalled, contemplated fighting for a second or two, decided not to, dropped back down in to the bottom and sat there for another second or two deciding whether to try again, but I quickly realized if I didn't get it first try, the added fatigue and the fact that I'm essentially paused in the bottom, there would be no come back from this. 

So I let it roll of my back into the cage and called it quits.

Did some supinated rows with the pulley machine. 8 @ 120# and 5 @ 165#

It was pretty good on the pulley system.  I may alternate between the barbell and the pulley.  Maybe not. 

Meh. Another day.

Crossfit log for Thursday, November 26th

Yesterday I spent a very long time at the physiotherapist, I had pulled my quadratus lumborum, or QL on my right side, which is a lateral stabilizer, which was giving me grief when pulling from the floor.   That didn't take too long so he had time to work on my shoulders and hopefully help my overhead squat stabilization.

He said the the QL was the more likely culprit for the problems stabilizing overhead, but he did the work anyway, there were plenty of knots to needle.  Plus he did some compression and torsion on my rib cage to improve my thoracic mobility. 

It was an intense session and instead of hot packs, I went home and soaked in an epsom salt bath for half an hour.

So today, I went to morning Crossfit for the first time in nearly two weeks. 

Felt really good to be back, despite the dead lifts in the WOD.

Started with Pause Push press, deeper drive, pause at the bottom for a 3 count and then explode up into a push press for 4 doubles, I did 135#, and 3 sets at 155#.  Felt great.

Then close grip bench,  worked with Kamil and just did 115#, wasn't interested in push on this one.

The WOD was crafted by Coach Connor, a 21-15-9 triplet of my least favorite exercises:
- deadlift at 225#/155# 
- lateral burpees over bar
- box jumps 30"/24"

I scaled the dead lifts to 135#, no interest in hurting my recently fixed back. Burpees suck.  Did 3 box jumps at 30" nearly wrecked on the 4th.  24" from there on in.

Took me  15:13 to finish.  Meh.  First day back, wasn't out to impress anyone.

Crossfit log for Friday, November 20th at Crossfit Bytown

My back is way better midday than in the early morning.  Without Crossfit Bytown I would have had no workouts this week.  Mornings were a non-starter and no access to lunch time YMCA, these guys saved my sanity.

Second workout of the week was harder but I was alone in my class.  There were other athletes working out, but they were the competitive group doing their own thing.

I got to skip the 500m row since I'd already ran 1km to get there.

So after some targeted mobility work we did 5 sets of clean and jerk triples, touch and go, ascending weight.

Started at 135# after warming up with the empty bar and 95#.

Moved up to 145#, 155# and 165#, where I stayed for the last set.  I likely could have gone to 175#, but we still had the WOD to do. Back held out surprisingly well.

Coach Everett watched most of my lifts, and had very little to correct, so yay.  He even thought my jerk was way more than my clean, because it looked very solid at 135# and 145#, I said as it got heavier it was harder to commit to getting as low as I do at this weight.  But that was very motivating.

The WOD was Open WOD 14.1, 10 minute AMRAP of:
- 30 double unders
- 15 ground to overhead, 75#/55#

I had planned to split the difference on the weight at 65#, but I just realized that coach Everett loaded my bar while I changed shoes and he put 75#, the bastard!

So at least I can compare to when I did it during the 2014 Open.  I did 3 rounds + 37, this time I did 3 rounds + 38.  So there's that. 

Double unders when well,  snatches tanked me.

At least I got it done.