Starting the week with a strength day just feels right, somehow. Today’s workout was the back squat, five sets of three.
155 x 3
185 x 3
205 x 3
225 x 3
225 x 3
225 really feels like my “heavy three” right now, which is good to remember for the next time I do a CrossFit Total.
The joy of home workouts is that you get to lie on the ground and pant afterwards with some degree of privacy.
“Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 12 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
I got though 12 full rounds, plus another set of pull-ups and push-ups. I did another 400m run, this time as a “buy-in” as part of my warm-up. Could get to be a decent habit.
The war of attrition continues with another 5×5 day.
95 x 5
100 x 5
105 x 5
100 x 5
100 x 5
Definite improvement. I think next time, though, I’ll do a 5×3 day to shake things up and move some heavier loads. I also did a 400m run at the tail end as something of a “cash-out”, and it felt good. Something to work in regularly, maybe.
Well, dumbbell swings anyway: Cornell won’t buy kettlebells.
3 rounds for time:
Run 400 m
21 dumbbell swings, 45lbs
12 handstand push-ups (or progressions)
I’m still doing the “feet on bench” version of HSPUs, and Judd was watching to make sure my head touched the ground (or at least got real close) on each rep. My time was 10:40.
Today was supposed to be a 7×1 hang power snatch day. I started off slow, with the mindset that I was still working on my form. Three sets in, though, two things occurred to me: first, I keep falling back on the notion that my natch form “needs work”; second, if I’m gonna work on the form, single reps is not a great way to go. So I dropped back to my starting weight, and did three reps for each of the last four sets.
65 x 1
75 x 1
75 x 1
65 x 3
65 x 3
65 x 3
65 x 3
After really nailing the form throughout those last four sets, I’m confident going forward that I can start treating the snatch like I do the clean, the deadlift, or anything else: just do it when it comes up in a WOD, with minimal hemming and/or hawing.
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I’m also going to try a more regular workout schedule. The Cornell gym with the nice Olympic lifting racks is closed over the weekends during the summer, and this is making it tougher for me to do WODs outside of the work week. The fact that it’s summer and I’d rather spend my weekend time doing active things outdoors than driving to the gym isn’t helping either.
So for the next few months I’m going to try working out Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. That way, if I get in a WOd on the weekend, it won’t screw up my schedule. If I’m just active — hiking, running, etc. — that’s still a solid level of exercise. And if I’m a complete couch potato… well, at least I got in four workouts that week.
We’ll see how it goes.
Few things are more frustrating than having your timer fail, especially when you’re trying to do your first timed 5k run. My best guess is it took me between 30-35 minutes. In hindsight, I should’ve noted the time when I started, just in case.
Gah. At least I finished it without stopping or walking.
Some workouts just leave me feeling like my lungs have been scoured with steel wool, and this was one of them. I decided to use the Pack weight for the hang power cleans, because I’d only need to do 30 total reps, as opposed to the 96 I ended up doing on Friday.
“Nasty Girls”
3 rounds for time of:
50 Squats
10 Squat Muscle-ups
95lb. Hang power cleans, 10 reps
Finished in 8:49. I attempted some seated muscle-ups — the next stop on the muscle-up progression — during my warm-ups, and I almost got one. I may start trying to do those more, just to push to the next level. On the other hand, maybe I should conquer my shoulder press albatross first.
Posted in WODs
Tagged "Nasty Girls", clean, hang power clean, muscle-ups, Olympic lifts, squats
Since the gym in Teagle Hall bans the walking lunge, this one became a home workout, to be tackled in the morning before work. While this generally involves getting up earlier than usual and working out alone, having my exercise behind me when I get to work can be a very nice feeling.
Walking lunge 100 ft.
21 Pull-ups
21 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
18 Pull-ups
18 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
15 Pull-ups
15 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
12 Pull-ups
12 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
9 Pull-ups
9 Sit-ups
Walking Lunge 100 ft.
6 Pull-ups
6 Sit-ups
I knocked this one out in 13:06. Then I succumbed to the semi-gentle ministrations of the earth’s gravitational pull for a few minutes. Then I got ready for work.
I am still sore from Wednesday. Enough said about that.
Today was an AMRAP workout: As Many Rounds As Possible within a given time. The economist within me dislikes the incentive structure of AMRAPs: with “rounds for time” workouts, the faster you go, the quicker you’re done. With AMRAPs, moving faster just means more work. On the other hand, the more I do CrossFit the more I realize that there’s a definite utility in knowing you did more, so I may need to re-adjust my model.
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
75 lb hang cleans x 12
ring dips x 9
sit-ups x 21
The Pack scaling for this called for 95lbs, but I did a couple and realized that it wasn’t a metcon weight for me today. (CrossFit Ithaca‘s Clea Weiss wrote a great article that really got me thinking about such things.) I finished seven full rounds, plus an eighth round of hang cleans. I was especially pleased that I was consistently able to knock out nine ring dips without stopping, though I can definitely afford to work on my range of motion there.
Today’s WOD was supposed to combine thrusters with double-unders; however, since I can’t actually do double-unders, I took BrandX’s substitution suggestion nad did tuck jumps instead.
Five rounds for time:
55lb thrusters x 21
Tuck jumps x 21
This one demolished me in stages and left me a damn ruin. After three rounds, I had to drop the thruster weight to 45lbs. After four rounds, I almost gave up and actually stopped the clock briefly before getting back up to tough out the final round. And on top of that, my tuck jump discipline deteriorated mightily over the course of the workout.
My time was 12:16, plus another 20-60 seconds for my clock-stopped rest. This was my first real metcon in a while, and it handed me my ass. I’m glad I’ve got a rest day tomorrow.
