Fitness - Strict Press - Modified "Karen" - 11/10

After being out for 7 days with the flu today was my first day back in the gym. Obviously I felt weak and my body was a little out of tune, but it felt so good to get back in and train.

Today we started off with some strict press work and then got into our WOD. It was a relatively short blast of Karen, with a partner.

Focus: strict press, 4x8, 1xmax reps
1x8 - 60 Kg (132.3#)
3x8 - 70 Kg (154.3#)
1x11 (max reps set) - 70 Kg (154.3#)

I felt really good about my press work today. I was expecting a weaker output but i jumped right back into it from where I left off. My last set of 8 was a grind from rep 4 to the end. I didn't expect to get past 8 reps on my max rep set. But I rested a little longer than between the sets of 8 then went for it. I cranked out 6 reps before my pace started to slow down. Reps 9, 10 and 11 were done as singles where I rested the bar on my shoulders to get a quick breath before pressing out the rep.

WOD: Modified "Karen" with a partner. 150 wall balls each, alternating.
1x150 wall balls - 20# med ball/10' mark

Team score: 11:17
Calories burned (focus & WOD): 469

This broke down as follows: One person would start (I started today) into their 150 wall balls and go for as long as they could. Once I set the medicine ball down, it was my partners turn to go at his 150 reps. We alternated like this until each of us had gotten to 150.

Time ended as soon as we had finished 150 wall balls each.

The ole' familiar wall ball. I actually really like wall balls. Just you, the wall, the medicine ball and your thoughts. This is one exercise where it's easy for me to block out the pain for some reason. My first two turns I banged out 40 wall balls which quickly got me over the halfway mark. After that they were all sets of 20, except for the last set which was my final 10 wall balls.

My partner had a little tougher of a time with these then I did. But, that's because yesterday's WOD (which he took part in) was 10 rounds of dumbbell squat cleans. Something I didn't have to endure so my legs were a little more fresh than his.

I could hardly walk to my car after all those wall balls. It was a pretty tough one for my first WOD back after 7 days of the flu. Although, I'm sure that after 7 days of no training and the flu, anything would have been rough first WOD back. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be feeling pretty beat up by the end of this week.