Michael - the "no hands" workout

So - Ynez invited me to go with her to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival on Sunday, but that meant that we would have to miss the regularly scheduled CF classes, so we agreed to meet at the gym a little earlier to get our own workout in. Since my hands were completely wrecked from Saturday's workout, I suggested we do Michael - no hands required.

I knew Evelyn was looking to do something earlier in the day, too, so we invited her to join us, and posted a general message on Facebook, and a few other folks with torn up hands, or later commitments or other injuries decided to join us. There were 6 of us in all: And before you say - but there are only 5 of you, Maeve was there too, but she got done super fast and left before this pic was taken.



Warmup: Mobility Exercises, Some Pushups, some squats ... probably shoulda done more, but we were slow getting started and folks were antsy just to get underway with the WOD.

WOD:

"Michael"

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

Results:
37:20 RX! and PR :-D

Round	800m	Situps	Back Extensions	Total
1	5:00.9 162	2:12.7 146	(1:52)3:17.3 135	(10:30.9)12:29.9 148
2	5:24.9 178	3:10.6 148	4:03.3 139	12:38.8 155
3	5:29.7 171	3:28.1 152	3:25.4 149	(35:32.9)12:23.2 157

I am fairly pleased with the results of this workout. It's a good 5 minutes off my last time, though it's not a direct 1-1 comparison due to different situp and back extension substitutes.

This time, for the situps, I did a variation of GHD situps using one of the big ole tractor tires there. They are definitely harder than normal situps.

I also did real back extensions - not hip extensions (video) which is what i think i've done in the past when using the GHD thing, and not supermans which is what i did last time. Back extensions are a lot harder (for me) than hip extensions. But they definitely work that series of muscles in my lower back that gets quickly fatigued when I'm trying to squat correctly, so this is probably a good exercise for me to work on.

I had a really interesting experience on run # 2. Using the flat GHD apparatus puts a lot of pressure on my calves and hamstrings, so when i am done, my legs are all wobbly, and for the first 100-200 meters of my run I was being very careful with my stride and mostly just focusing on not tripping over my own feet, and also on my breath, and then when i was about 2/3 through the 800m, i realized that I was just running, pretty strongly, without a threatening cramp or anything. That was pretty cool. I usually have to fight my way through the runs. The last run was much more of a struggle - but it had nothing to do with cramping up, i just couldn't quite get enough oxygen - but i didn't ever have to stop and walk - which in my book is a total victory.

Now, of course, my abs are quite unhappy with me - it hurts to laugh! Ow. But it was a good workout.