Fitness - Skinning The Cat & HUGE "Nancy" PR - 2/17

Damn, my legs are still super stiff from Monday. I stretched out a lot last night and rolled out for another 15 minutes on top of that and they're still tight.

I have been getting at least 8.5 hours of sleep a night for the past 2 weeks, which has been feeling AMAZING!

Focus: Skinning The Cat

This felt incredible on my shoulders and really helped to loosen them up. I realized a few minutes later why we were trying to get our shoulders loose and warmed up. "Nancy" was on the docket which meant lots of over head squats and lots of running.

WOD: "Nancy" is 5 rounds AFAP for time of:
400m run
15 over head squats - 43 Kg (95#)

Score/Time: 12:39
Calories burned (focus & WOD): 594

BOOYA! This is a PR 3:28! Last time I did "Nancy" (which was a while ago) my time was 16:07. This morning I got every set of over head squats unbroken and hardly any rest between runs and getting back in the gym and on the bar. I remember last time I was breaking my OHS's into mini sets and having to snatch/clean & press the weight back over head. Not this time baby!

But holy hell, my quads were pretty worked after this. I had to work hard for this time. I was sucking wind on the last 2 400's. It did not feel good to run with my legs still being so sore but I fought through it. Although I killed the OHS's, the running took a lot out of me.

My goal for next time I take on "Nancy" will be 12:07. Two-a-days today so I've got another workout this evening. I'm hoping it won't include running or rowing.

Fitness - Two-A-Days - OHS/Sprint Couplet WOD #2 - 1/21

Got to the gym for me second WOD and spent some time talking with Dave about nutrition and our next hard cycle.

WOD: 8 rounds for time
8 over head squats - 62 Kg (136.7#)
200m sprint

Score/Time: 11:26
Calories burned (including longish warm up & WOD): 628

I feel really good about my time. A little redemption from this morning's performance. I got all the sets of over head squats unbroken, which was my main focus. I knew that if I had to drop the bar during a round, that snatching back up would take too much energy. It was a fight in the second half of the WOD, but saved a lot of time I'm sure.

My legs started to feel pretty heavy early on. The last 2 or 3 200m sprints were more of a run/jog, which is fine. I was able to keep my legs and lungs and sprint hard until then.

Where I was having the most trouble was pressing through with my shoulders/upper back and holding a solid lock out. And my core was getting super tired as well. Both of these I attribute to this morning's workout. The SDLHP's wrecked my upper back and the v-ups worked my core pretty good.

But as I said, despite that stuff I was able to bear down and get through each set unbroken. I'm for sure taking tomorrow as a rest day. I need some rest.

Fitness - Back Squat & Oly Bar Progression WOD - 12/31

Focus: Back squats, 5x5
1x5 - 125 Kg (275#)
1x5 - 150 Kg (330.7#)
2x5 - 160 Kg (352.7#)
1x5 - 164 Kg (361.5#)

Felt pretty good here. On the last set at 164 it felt like it was going to fold me in half. Lots of fatigue in the legs today but it felt good to power through. Just focused on getting full range of motion and keeping the core pressurized.

WOD: Olympic bar progression, bar only (20 Kg - 45#)
50 hang power snatches
50 overhead squats
50 push presses
50 front squats
50 back squats
50 hang power cleans
50 thrusters

Score/Time: 10:50
Calories burned (focus & WOD): 707

This was tough. Holy cow, it's crazy how pushing just the bar around can feel so heavy. The catch behind this WOD was that you had to move down the list in order and had to finish all 50 reps of one movement before starting on the next. And, you weren't allowed to put the bar down, which was the true test.

If the bar hit the ground it was 10 burpees. The only way to rest was to squat down and rest the bar across your lap and shake out your grip. But if you lost your balance and the end of the bar hit the ground, 10 burpees were waiting for you. This actually happened to a few people, bummer.

Have an incredible and incredibly safe New Years!

Fitness - Two-A-Day - WOD #2 - 12/12

I was really tired early in the afternoon. That's how I know I gave it all I had this morning. I don't really get sore anymore, I just get really tired sometimes.

I was pretty stoked for Today's second WOD. Except for the rowing of course.

WOD:
3000m row
Then 21-15-9 of
over head squats - 52 Kg (115#)
push ups
v-ups

Score/Time: 15:58
Calories burned (WOD only, my HR was racing the entire time): 671

I forgot to check the clock when I finished the row so I'm not exactly sure how long it took me. I know that I was working at about a 1:50-2:00/500m pace the whole time. My shoulders were worked from this morning's work so the OHS's proved to be pretty tough. And my legs were shot from the rowing so the squats sucked as well.

I got through the first set (21 reps) of everything unbroken, then my work capacity shut down and I hit a wall, I did recover though. The set of 15 was awful. I broke each exercise down to a few sets. Way too much rest here. But I fought through the set of 9, only because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I really didn't want to have to snatch the bar back up if I set it down on a set of 9. I was happy to get everything done unbroken on the set of nine. That was a good mental victory after the brutal set of 15 just before.

I'm pretty spent which means I'm going to bed early and I'm going to sleep like a little infant child.

Fitness - Two-a-day's - Level 2 WOD's #1 & #2 - 12/05

Today's Level 2 skills/gymnastics class was different, which I was pleased to see. All we did was technique and strength work for overhead squats and snatches. It felt really good to get under some heavy weight with these movements and get some one-on-one instruction from Dave, Scott and Andy.

WOD #1: Strength/technique work
Overhead squat, working up to heavy set of 6
1x10 - 50 Kg
2x6 - 60 Kg
1x6 - 70 Kg
1x6 - 80 Kg

Snatches, 5x3
1x3 - 60 Kg
1x3 - 70 Kg
1x3 - 75 Kg
1x3 - 75 Kg
1x3 - 85 Kg

I was extremely stoked on both my OHS and snatch effort. With just a few tweaks in my form and technique I was able to put up more weight than I was expecting. I had a lot of good coaching from Dave, Scott (our olympic lift expert), and Andy. Today's strength work felt really good. And not to mention, OHS's and snatches are just plain old, down and dirty bad ass lifts. It was fun.


WOD #2: 3 rounds AFAP of:
300m row
7 push press - 43 Kg (95#)
7 front squats - 43 Kg (95#)
7 thrusters - 43 Kg (95#)

Time/Score: 7:04

Finisher:
Max reps of strict floor press in 60 seconds - 20Kg (mens bar), 42 reps
25 ball slams - 20# med ball

Calories burned (over both WOD's and finisher): 1110

The past two WOD's we've done have been long, hard and heavy grinders. Today's Level 2 met-con class was completely different.

I don't know where to begin with my second WOD of the day. This was, without a doubt, the hardest short blast of work I've done to date. Anybody that says, "you can't get a good workout in 10 minutes (or less)," should be subjected to this beast.

I was pushing hard on the rowing in all out sprint mode, Your legs feel it right when you pick up the bar to start the push presses. My quads were screaming for mercy after just the first round. Having to do push presses, then front squats, then thrusters (front squat - push press, a combo of both) was ridiculous.

When I finished I hit the deck and it felt like I had lactic acid coursing through my veins instead of blood.

The part I'm most proud of in doing this WOD is that I beat Matt. One of our trainers who is the CrossFit Seattle equivalent of Jer over at Kirkland CrossFit. Matt is about 155-160 pounds of lean muscle. He's absolutely ripped and one of the most fit people I've ever met. I beat him by 4 seconds (2 thrusters).

It was great to have him there to push me. It was between him and I, a race to post the fasted time amongst the Level 2er's. Had he not been there next to me I doubt I would have posted as fast of a time. But afterward, he said the same thing to me and thanked me for the push.

I could not have gone harder, I know I left it all on the mat today. And that's an awesome feeling.

Fitness - Windmill's - Over Head Squats - KB Swings - 10/28

My shoulders were rocking this morning when I woke up and gave a little stretch. The dumbbell snatches took their tole for sure. I was shocked when I saw more shoulder work on the white board today.

We started with kettle bell windmill's to get the shoulders warmed up and to stretch the hamstrings. I worked up in weight to a 32 Kg bell (70.5#). It felt good to warm up this way and get some active stretching with some heavy resistance.

Our Focus today was over head squats, which also takes an enormous amount of shoulder and lat engagement. The goal was to work up to a max weight, low reps.

Focus: Over Head Squats
1x8 - 40 Kg (88.2#)
1x6 - 60 Kg (132.3#)
1x4 - 80 Kg (176.4#)
1x2 - 85 Kg (187.4#)
1x2 - 90 Kg (198.4#)
1xfail - 92Kg (202.8#)

I'm pretty happy with this effort. It's the heaviest I've ever gone with OHS's and I need a lot of work on these, mainly with stability and/or balance. My depth and flexibility was great. It was weird, 85 Kg felt pretty light and it felt like I could have gotten about 8-10 reps. But just the 5 Kg increase was my ceiling. My shoulders, lats and wrists just couldn't support any more than 2 reps.

I tried 92 Kg but it was too much. I had a good lock out but coming out of the bottom of the squat my lock out collapsed.

We spent a majority of today's class time with the squats and with a few minutes left in the class we hit a short burner of kettle bell swings.

WOD: 150 American Kettle Bell swings for time
1x150 - Kettle Bell swings - 24 Kg (53#)

Time: 3:57
Calories burned (warm up, focus & WOD): 476

This was a pretty brutal 4 minutes. I was going to go with the 32 Kg bell but my shoulders and legs were already pretty wrecked, so I went down to the 24 and i'm glad I did so. My grip and forearms were on fire for the last 20-30 reps or so. I was holding on just by my fingertips.

I was pretty stoked on my time/effort because I got all 150 reps unbroken. Not one breath of rest. I didn't set the bell down once, and I didn't stop swinging until I hit 150. I was also the first to post a sub 4 minute time.

We've had enough shoulder work in the past 2 days to last a while. I'd be happy to not see any shoulder/press work until next week and let my shoulders recover.

Fitness - Turkish get ups - WOD - Strength Work - 10/19

My legs and back are still killing me from Saturday's Level 2 class so I was glad to see that our focus wasn't on squats or dead lifts or any sort of leg intensive movement. Our focus today was Turkish Get-Ups with a kettle bell. The goal was to work up in weight until you can't go any heavier.

Focus: Turkish Get-Ups
Worked up in weight to a 32Kg kettle bell.

These are really fun and take a lot of engagement from almost every muscle group in the body. I'm always happy to see these on the white board.

WOD: AMRAP in 15 minutes of
3 squat cleans - 60Kg
3 ring dips

Score: 17 rounds
Calories burned (including focus, WOD, strength work): 915

Today's WOD was done with partners. One partner would go through the cleans and the dips, then rest while the the other partner would do both movements. It was nice to have a little built in rest as you waited for your partner. One time through by each person equalled one round.

60Kg's on the squat cleans was really light for me and I never really got slowed down by them. Same with the ring dips. 3 reps is so little that I didn't really start feeling this one until the very end. So, I really tried to make sure my form was absolutely perfect, both on the the clean and the front squat. Same with the ring dips, I tried to make sure I went super deep and got full extension at the top.

I don't have to go into work today so I stayed after and did some strength work on my own with this little routine.

4 rounds un-timed of:
5 over head squats - 60Kg
10 rind dips
5 power snatches (ground to over head) - 60Kg
10 pull ups

A productive day at the gym for sure. The extra work at the end really felt good.