Jim vs. Shoulder Press, Jump Rope, Box Jumps

Looks like shoulder press is coming back into the mix for a while, and I can’t say as I’ve missed it.

85 x 5
95 x 5
105 x 5
110 x 5
115 x 4

Not a bad outing, though I’d have dearly loved to get that fifth rep in at 115. But we do what we do, and then we do a metcon.

Four rounds of:
1 minute max jump rope (since I can’t do double-unders yet — maybe I’ll try next week? — I did single-unders)
1 minute max box jumps (18″)
1 minute rest

My jump rope results were 82-102-75-100, and that third set might’ve been 85; I honestly lost count. The box jumps were more consistent: 21-16-17-16.  It’s amazing how hard the box jumps were after the jump rope, but I got through it. I really need to do a longer metcon next week; I like focusing on strength, but you’ve gotta change it up from time to time.

Jim vs. Push-ups, Deadlifts

Whole lotta strength work today. Started out with some push-ups: 14-19-14-14, then maxing out at 13 before restarting and shoving my way to 19 in one go. I maxed out at 12 last week with those numbers, and it took me a second and third attempt to hit 19. So, slight improvement.

And then, 5×3 deadlifts.

225 x 3
245 x 3
265 x 3
285 x 3
305 x 3

That last set’s a new 3RM, and It honestly felt a lot better than the two previous sets. It really felt like everything came together for those last three lifts, and that just rocked.

Jim vs. Push-ups, Overhead Squats, Rowing

I almost forgot to do my push-up work today, but I remembered in time to squeeze it in before the overhead squats. I’m gonna do the same numbers this week as last week, so today was 12-17-13-13, then maxing out at 13 before pushing through to bring the final round’s count up to 17. Since last week’s effort only got me 9 reps on the corresponding final  set, that’s improvement. Unfortunately, between that work and yesterday’s run-in with the Bear, my arms were blasted before I started the overhead squats, and it took me until the third or fourth set to work through it.

75 x 1
85 x 1
95 x 1
95 x 1
110 x 1
120 x 1

What’s that you say? I did 6×1, when 5×1 or 7×1 would be the more traditional workout? Well, I’ll have you know I meant to do 7×1, but managed to not only do one set too few but not even notice it until I started writing this part of the post. (Apparently it wasn’t just my arms that were blasted.) But, hey, it’s too late to go back to the gym, and 120 is a new PR. Let’s take the win and speak no more of my inability to count.

Finally, I did two rounds of the 500m row. The first round was 1:57, which I believe is a new (if kinda sad) PR; the second was 2:17 and much more the time I tend to expect. Rowing fast is tough for me, less in the sense of “my body can’t handle it” and more like “I can’t figure out how to make my body do it.” It’s definitely something I should seek some coaching on.

Jim vs. The Bear Complex

Oof.

Here’s the description of this one from CF Ithaca:

5 rounds of the Bear Complex at ascending weight with as much rest between rounds as necessary. There is no time component to this workout.

Each round is 7 reps of the complex:

Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press

The bar will touch the floor on each power clean, but resting the bar on the floor constitutes failure. You can rest and regrip with the bar on your shoulders or at your hip. You can combine the movements (thruster), but you cannot do a full squat clean and skip the front squat. You can jerk the weight overhead if necessary.

I pushed too fast on the weight increases, and it really hit home the last two rounds. I didn’t get through all seven reps on either one, and I’ll note the exact breakdown below:

65 x 7
75 x 7
85 x 7
90 x 4, 3
95 x 4, 2, 1

These kinds of movements really mess me up; for whatever reason, workouts like this bring me closer to nausea than any others, even the long metcons. I was glad to get through it, if frustrated that I let my eyes get bigger than my muscles this go-round. Still, a lot of it felt solid, and playing around with doing thrusters vs. separate squats and push presses vs. squats and push jerks was interesting in a “getting to know my body” kinda way. I’ll do this one again.

Jim vs. Greasing The Groove, More Push-ups

Another weekend spent greasing the groove with pull-ups: I did twenty sets of 5 reps over the course of the day, and am really loving that as a bit of exercise on the weekend. I also took 15-20 minutes to knock off Day 3 of Week 3 of the hundred push-ups plan. The rep counts of my first four sets were 16-21-15-15, and then I maxed out at 16 in the final set, rested briefly, then knocked out five more. I think I’ll do the same numbers next week, see how I’ve improved.

Jim vs. Overhead Squat, Dumbbell Thrusters, Kettlebell Swings

Ah, the overhead squat. Any exercise in which it’s so difficult to get the bar both into and out of the proper position makes one wonder if it’s worth doing at all. But then your legs are sore the next day in muscles you didn’t know you had, and a small bit of enlightenment enters your soul.

65 x 3
85 x 3
95 x 2
105 x Jim dumping the weight halfway through the first rep
105 x 2
115 x 2

As you can tell, balance got tricky as the weights got higher. But that 115 is a new PR, and this exercise is starting to come together for me.  Followed it up with:

15-12-9 of:
dumbbell  thrusters, 35lb each hand
kettlebell (well, dumbbell) swings, 50 lbs

I finished in 5:09, mainly because the DB thrusters wrecked me. I hadn’t done that variant before, and it was just brutal.

Jim vs. Push-ups, Weighted Pull-ups

My second day of the one hundred push-ups plan meant higher reps, with longer rests between sets; 90 seconds, to be exact. I did 14-19-14-14 for my first four sets, and set five saw me max out at 12 and then fight my way to the required 19.  My inability to hit their “at least” number for the final sets two days running makes me wonder if I should knock it back to “Week 2″ next week. We’ll see; maybe I’ll just tough it out in Week 3 until I can get it, or dial back my numbers but stay within the Week 3 range.

Then it was on to weighted pull-ups. All weights below are in addition to my bodyweight, which including my sneakers and workout gear was around 180lbs. (I really should weigh that chain/belt combo at some point, but I doubt the folks at Teagle would be cool with me walking it out of the gym.)

25 x 1
35 x 1
45 x 1
55 x 1
60 x 1
65 x 1
70 x 1 (maybe)

The last one’s a “maybe” because I’m not sure I got my chin up over the bar; I didn’t have anyone watching me, and I was a bit distracted.  To err on the conservative side, I’d have to call 65lbs my PR on this one. But I’ll be back.

Jim vs. Deadlifts, Turkish Get-Ups

Deadlifts today, and since I finished watching Buffy S3 this weekend, so doing a 5×5 workout seemed extremely appropriate.

165 x 5
185 x 5
205 x 5
225 x 5
245 x 5

That last set was a 5RM for me, and it felt very solid; I could almost certainly do a bit more, but that’ll have to wait for another day. What didn’t have to wait were 30 Turkish get-ups, 15 each side. Word on the street was that 80% of max was the way to go for this, and since my max is sitting at 35lbs I used 27.5. I got my 30 in, and it was not the most fun I’ve had. Still, it makes me want to set a new PR on the exercise, so I couldn’t have hated them all that much.

Jim vs. The Groove, Push-ups, & Tyler

First off, I feel like this post’s title contains at least one, and maybe several, really great band names.

Before I talk about today’s workout, lemme cover yesterday. I decided to play around with the whole “greasing the groove” concept for pull-ups, doing 20 sets of five reps apiece, focusing on form, over the course of the day. It went reasonably well, though my palms hurt more than my arms or back.

Today, I led with another experiment,the “one hundred pushups” plan my friend Mike sent my way. I used my max push-ups number from a few weeks back as my “initial test,” which placed me in Week 3. This meant I did five sets of push-ups, resting a minute between sets, with the following number of reps:

12
17
13
13
max (at least 17)

Turns out my max on the last one was 9, but I kept pushing out reps until I hit 17. If I consistently have difficulty hitting their “at least” numbers in the final sets, I’ll back off a bit.

After that, I did a Pack-scaled Tyler:

“Tyler”
Three rounds for time of:
7 muscle-up progressions
21 sumo deadlift high-pulls (65lbs)

Got through it in 8:15. I also worked on my jump-rope again today, getting through 50 consecutive single-unders twice. Definite improvement, there.

Jim vs. Squat Variations

In a final burst of self-programming this week, I ended up doing a couple of sets from each of the barbell squat forms. My body just wasn’t feeling like digging deep into any one exercise, so this seemed like a good compromise for ending the week. In hindsight, I’m think I should’ve done sets of five, but hindsight’s like that.

Back squat:
185 x 3
185 x 3

Front squat:
155 x 3
135 x 3

Overhead squat:
95 x 3
95 x 3

My form really started to break down in my last set of overhead squat, but I kept it together well enough. Then I did some more jump rope, some KTEs, and called it a week.