How else could I finish my first week back to the barbell?
Deadlift
275 x 1
315 x 1
355 x 1
335 x 1
295 x 1
Those sets in the middle were tough, but the bar kept coming up. Granted, I topped out at less than 90% of my max, but hey: first week back.
I went upstairs after for some rowing: knocked out 1k in 4:33. Not by best time, but it’s in keeping with my time from July. So, respectable.
Another day of doing things differently.
Watching some of the videos the US Olympic team put out about weightlifting, I got to thinking that I do strength work (frequently), and I do skill work (rarely), but I never combine the two. So I changed that up today: I set a time for ten minutes, put 95lbs on the bar, and did all kinds of clean variations: squat cleans, power cleans, hang cleans, hang power cleans, clean and jerks, you name it. I really focused on my form, throwing myself under the bard, bringing the bar straight up my body, etc. I think my form at the end was much, much stronger.
Now, I only went ten minutes for two reasons: one, I know when I don’t force myself to rest, I do a lotta reps, and that was definitely the case today. Two, I wanted to give myself time for this Crossfit Virtuosity joint:
Row 500m
Rest 1 minute
30 KB Snatches (5olb dumbbell)
Rest 1 minute
Row 1000m
Rest 1 minute
50 KB Snatches (5olb dumbbell)
Finished that in 15:12, and it blasted me. I confess that I was a bit out of it at the end, so I may have only done 44 snatch reps the second time around. But I’m 75% sure I did ‘em all, and either way I’m glad I did this one.
Because I honestly spent a lot of time trying to talk myself out of doing it. But I did it anyway, and I haven’t done that in a little while.
Posted in Metcon, Mid-range, Skill work, Strength
Tagged 1k row, 500m row, clean, kettlebell snatch, rowing
One key step closer.
Decided to get some heavy deadlifts done today, and after some encouragement from Judd I made my current PR the peak weight in my off-kilter pyramid.
Deadlifts
305 x 1
355 x 1
405 x 1
380 x 1
330 x 1
It wasn’t an easy rep, but the bar came up. Maybe I will get that new PR this summer. (I also thought increasing the load difference between sets worked well. I need to codify when I use a 20lb difference as a base, or a 30, or 40, etc. But 50 was the right choice with loads this heavy.)
Then I went upstairs and did some rowing.
1k row – 4:31
Not awesome, but it’s the fastest time I’ve gotten in a year. It’s been a crappy year for my 1k rows, but still. Good day.
Had to get into the gym early today, which meant I needed to warm up in the upstairs gym at Teagle. And seeing as I finished that five minutes before the downstairs gym opened, I did the rowing part of my workout first.
1km row – 4:55
Wow, I manged to be slower than my slowest time by ten seconds. I don’t know what’s going on with my old-school cardio, but it’s getting worse even as my other conditioning stuff seems to get better.
Finally, the gym downstairs opened and I got my overhead squat on.
85 x 1
105 x 1
125 x 1
115 x 1
95 x 1
That, at least, seemed to go nicely.
Posted in Metcon, Old school cardio, Strength
Tagged 1k row, overhead squats, rowing, squats
Found out today that Teagle’s locker rooms will be closed from December 5 through January 20. While there are always a few weeks in that stretch when the Teagle gym is closed anyway, it’s still kind of annoying. I need to finish making those sandbags.
Power clean
115 x 1
130 x 1
145 x 1
160 x 1
175 x 1
That lest rep is a new PR for this exercise. Wasn’t sure I was gonna get it, but I’m glad I went for it.
1k row - 4:45
That, on the other hand, is my slowest 1k row since I started keeping this blog. Kind of frustrating, really.
Posted in Metcon, Old school cardio, Strength, WODs
Tagged 1k row, clean, Olympic lifts, power clean, rowing
Yeah, these are the loads I should be working with.
Bench press
195 x 3
175 x 4
155 x 6
I had to work to get the allotted reps on those first two sets, which does indicate that this is where I need to be on the bench press right now. Set 3# will get bumped to 160, though.
Finished up with a 1k row, which took me 4:32. A slightly below-average showing, there, as I discovered by actually plugging my times for the last couple of years into a spreadsheet.
Of course, the other discovery I made was that I actually set a PR for the 1k row back in July, which I characterized then as “not a great time”. Not sure what I was thinking.
EDIT: I believe this is a 3RM for me. I’m noting it here so that I can find it more easily when I search this blog.
So, I’d been feeling like my deadlifts had plateaued a bit, so I decided that I would just bump the weight up on the first set of my reverse pyramid, go for at least a 2-3-4, and see if I could get any more than that.
Turns out, I could.
Deadlift
365 x 3
330 x 4
290 x 5
That’s a new 3RM, right there.
I finished the workout by doing a 1K row in 4:34, which is an average kind of time for me. But the question I left with was, if I go light next week, can I nail a 400 deadlift the week after?
Went to PT, and got a solid diagnosis: it’s as much an issue with the connection between my spine and my trap muscle as it is an issue with the muscle itself, if not more. Why is that solid? Because the exercises the therapist gave me made an immediate difference.
So, back squats:
215 x 3
195 x 4
170 x 5
This was my first attempt to do a reverse pyramid with the back squat, and it went well: I used my 5RM to start, and I feel like I could go higher across the board.
I finished up with a 1k row in 4:14. Again, not a great time, but my shoulder didn’t hurt at any point.
Had to change things up a bit, today. My schedule forced me to hit the gym early, before Teagle Downstairs was open. So I did my warmup in Teagle Upstairs, and did my rowing before my deadlifts.
1k row – 4:26
Not my best time by a damn sight. Then the Downstairs opened, so I got my deadlift on:
345 x 3
310 x 4
275 x 5
I pulled back a bit on the loads for three reasons: 1) I’d just finished a 1k row, 2) I haven’t done deadlifts in a month, and 3) I decided to start using 50kg plates as a base, so that first set was technically 345.4622 lbs.
OK, that third reason isn’t serious.
But overall I was glad I started a bit light; next week I’ll give my old numbers a go. Also, those 50kg plates are heavy. I know: unsurprising.
Good day, just what I wanted before I start traveling.
Deadlift
345 x 3
310 x 5
275 x 5
That’s a new 3RM, which isn’t surprising after establishing 325 as my5RM last week. It should be fun pushing that one even higher when I get back.
After the deadlifts, I went upstairs and did a 1k row, finishing in 4:16. That’s a new PR by 11 seconds. I still want to get that time below four minutes, but you can only complain so much after a workout like this one. And it ain’t that much at all.
