Clean practice

Complex: 1 squat clean, 1 front squat, 2 push-jerks

2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

75-75-85-85-95-95-105-105-115

Hot fun in the summertime

It's summer at long last - months after it started for the rest of the country. Today got into the 90's, and for whatever reason, I was craving a scorcher workout in the sun - like we did last summer in games training. So I took off work a little earlier and headed to GWPC to catch up with this metcon in the blazing sun:

Run 400 Meters
21 Press 95/65
Run 400 Meters
21 Push-Press 95/65
Run 400 Meters
21 Push-Jerk 95/65

14:40 RX

It was HOT, but it felt good. The first round along took nearly 8 minutes, and was a basic strength workout - 95 pounds is a lot for me to press. The next two rounds got more metconny, and my throat and lungs were burning by the end. Max put a 15 minute limit on this one when CFEB did it a few days ago, and it was nice to know that I got in under the wire.

2010-04-28

Warmup: 1000m row, ME

20 rep Front Squat 45#

this felt hard starting at rep 3.  but i gutted it out and made it all the way through.

DT 'Light'

5 Rounds
12 Deadlift
9 Hang Power Clean
6 Push-Jerk

Used 58#

23:20

3:45 5:43; 3:21; 5:36; 4:53

I had to take one of my shoes off to fix my sock  in round 2, so I might have been able to do this closer to 21 min.

65# is my current 1rm for cleans - but i also haven't tested it in a while - There's a good possibility it's a little bit higher, but this is still a pretty high percentage of my 1 RM

Bar Gone Bad

Three rounds of:
Hang Squat Clean 95/65 (Reps)
Hang Snatch 95/65 (Reps)
Burpees (Reps)
Kettlebell Swings 2.0P/1.5P
Push-Jerk 95/65 (Reps)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep.

117 nearly RX (I did the snatches from the ground)

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
HSC	8	9	8	25
Snatch	2	1	2	5
Burpees	13	12	12	37
KB Swing	13	10	10	33
Push-Jerk	5	6	6	17
TOTAL	41	38	38	117

One of those workouts that really served to highlight how far I still have to go in terms of strength and power. :(

What a jerk.

Two Rounds

6 HSPU
15 Old-School Pull-Ups (chin over bar)
21 Burpees
30 Double-unders
15 Push-Jerk 155#/105#

Go fast and hard. If you are not competent at a movement, sub in a progression. If you cannot do the push-jerks in sets of 3-5, scale back to 135#/95# or 95#/65.

24:16, Push-Jerks 125#

Man, I hate overhead stuff. I was cruising along with this one, keeping up with the pack, until the Jerks came along. I couldn't do them in more than sets of 3 with tons of rest. The second round was horrible.

Fast and Hard

Warmup: run 800m, ME, WOD skill drills

WOD:
Two Rounds

6 HSPU *Pike Pushup
15 Old-School Pull-Ups (chin over bar) *jumping pullup
21 Burpees
30 Double-unders *4x single unders
15 Push-Jerk 155#/105# *50#

Go fast and hard. If you are not competent at a movement, sub in a progression. If you cannot do the push-jerks in sets of 3-5, scale back.

Results:
18:22

Exercise	Round 1	Round 2
HSPU	0:17	1:02
Pull-ups	0:52	1:02
Burpees	1:58	2:05
Jump Rope	3:54	2:02
Push Jerks	2:38	2:32
Total	9:39	18:22

Comments:
Since Max said the goal of this workout was to go fast and hard, pretty much everything was subbed. I started off trying to do double unders, and just couldn't get them. (my rope was too long, and tying a knot in one side didn't help all that much.) After about 2 minutes I only had about 8. So I switched to 4 x single unders to keep my heart rate up. That's why round 2 went so much faster. my handle fell off at about rep 85 or so, or round 2 would have been faster still.

I think I probably did a mixture of push-presses and push-jerks. Sometimes it just felt ... right. I think those were the times when i caught the bar properly overhead instead of slightly forward as I tend to do.

Round 2 HSPU time is long entirely due to the transition time of going back upstairs from outside, it probably only took me 20 seconds or so to actually do 6 piking pushups.

I'm very pleased with my Burpee times. They average out to 5.6 and 5.9 seconds/burpee in rounds 1 & 2 respectively, which is a really good time for me - I'm counting 5.6 as a PR. Burpees are frequently part of a round of other things, and I don't always get a time just specifically for the burpees, so it's the fastest time from the workouts where I can calculate it. I used to only be able to get about 7 burpees in a minute (about 8.6 sec per) so this is a definite improvement.

Strength Cycle Week 7, part 2

Deadlift x 5: 225 - 255 - 285 (pr)
Deadlift x 21: 215 (unbroken)
Press x 5: 75 - 85 - 97
Press x 21: 67 (failed rep 20)
Split jerk x 3: 95-115-120-125-130

I didn't have Rebecca there to yell at me for the deadlifts, so I think I had some degradation of form on the very heavy set. I really need to remember to bring chalk with me - my grip is failing even with mixed grip, just cause it's so damn heavy. The big set was not as unbroken as it's been previously - I had to stop a couple times to regrip and take a (single) breath.

I was pleased to get 97 on the presses, until I looked at last time and saw that's the weight I did then - damn! It was only hard on the last rep, so I think 100 is doable. I really didn't think I'd make it as far as I did on the big set - failing on the 20th rep just sucks.

The split jerks went well - they're much easier for me than regular push jerks. I got 3x130, which was my previous 1RM - and it was a very UGLY 1RM. I think I could definitely get 135 now, but I don't know about 140.

Cleans are my nemesis

Sleep:
12:15 - 7:30 - slept very soundly - only got up once.

Warmup:
ME, 1 round CF warmup

WOD:
155/105* pound Deadlift, 12 reps
155/105* pound Hang power clean, 9 reps
155/105* pound Push jerk, 6 reps
* subbed 55#

Results:
33:10

Round	Work	Rest
1	4:27	2:07
2	3:30	3:01
3	4:12	4:15
4	3:28	3:59
5	4:11

Comments:
I was sharing a bar, and we pretty much just switched off on rounds - which is why the rests are so hugely long. The first set is further skewed because I was having trouble with the cleans, so I let Ana jump in. In hindsight, it would have been interesting to wait until Ana was completely done to see how long it would have taken to go straight through. If I add up my work sets it comes out to 19:48. Obviously it would have come out something longer than that without the large rest breaks.

The hardest part of this workout for me (and it sounded like most people agreed with me) was the cleans. My best round was actually round 4, when i managed to get 7 before having to put the bar down. My form is truly funky with these, and there is just something in the mechanics that escapes me. Occasionally I get it right, and it just pops up - but most of the time, it's a real struggle. I think some serious work at either barbell SDHP or just practicing pull#2 of the clean - w/o worrying about getting my elbows around - might be helpful at drilling the order of operations into my body. My muscle memory is slow to pick things up, and needs lots of reinforement.

I was surprised that the push jerks were as hard as they were given that this is the weight I have been working my shoulder presses with - though since I haven't successfully gotten 5 in a row with them yet, i guess it shouldn't have been THAT shocking. Although I think I did fairly well with this weight in the FGB that we did not too long ago.

Food:
8:30 - 6oz black coffee
11:30 - cottage cheese, etc. Coffee with milk
1:30 - 2oz spicy cashews
3:30 - green curry
7:00 - 16oz milk
7:45 - Gordo's super carnitas burrito, 16oz milk
10:45 - 2 zma

DT, and hello Split Jerks

Max is convinced that the spooky amount of 155# overhead workouts lately is an indicator that they're going to feature in this year's games...but I don't know. I think we just find patterns in random groupings.

Five rounds for time of:
155/105 pound Deadlift, 12 reps
155/105 pound Hang power clean, 9 reps
155/105 pound Push jerk, 6 reps

20:44 at 105#

This one was a first for me, and I nearly took the AMRAP way out. My shoulder is feeling much better, but is still not at 100%, and I was worried about the push-jerks - so I was tempted to go with kettlebells and not do the jerks on the right side. But that's unbalanced, and I hate unbalanced workouts. So I went with the barbell and scaled it a bit low and took my time with it, which I think was the right call - at least my shoulder isn't angry with me now.

I started sharing the bar with James, which gave me ample rest while he did his rounds. But his back started tweaking in dangerous ways, so he pulled out after two rounds, leaving me with no excuse to not be working.

I experimented with split jerks today, which I've never really played with. I really like them. They feel far more stable, and shoulder flexibility on the drop doesn't really come into play. Alex told me I wasn't dropping very far after the first round, so I tried getting under the bar a bit more on subsequent rounds, with good results. They're a bit slower than regular jerks (you can't really chain them together so much), but I think I'm gonna stick with them for a little while to explore the possibilities.

Second PT session

So today was my second personal training session with Max (i think i failed to blog the first one :">)

We mostly worked on cleans and push jerks ... right before a WOD with ... cleans and push jerks .... more about that later. We were going to work on pullups, too, but my hands just weren't up to that yet. I tried just gloves - not so good - i tried tape and gloves - also not good - probably worse - tape without a protective bandaid HURTS - bare hands definitely not a go. Max said he'd work with me on pullups next week.

I think that the cleans are coming along nicely - though I haven't yet successfully cleaned a heavier weight than 45# - and the push jerks aren't too bad - the two main problems (as they always have been :-w) is getting my right side to do an equal amount of work as my left, and keeping my right knee from falling in/keeping even weight on both feet. Max got some good video of me doing 20 HPC and PJ for time with an empty 45# oly bar - i think the total was 6:25.

Today's WOD:

Five rounds for time of:
135/95 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
135/95 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
135/95 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
135/95 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

I did 3 rounds in 20:55. bleah.

Round 1 was with a 45 pound bar - 15# bar + 30# of weight
Rounds 2 & 3 were 35# - 15# bar + 20# of weight.

Round 1 went really long (9 minutes!) because i was trying to find a hex hey to get the collars off my bar, so i could take the weight down. I don't know whether it was fatigue from the PT session or what, but the 15# bar with 30# of weight felt a lot heavier than the 45# oly bar I had been using earlier. I failed my last front squat in the first round pretty awkwardly , and ended up on the ground with the bar bell on my lap. (Max said we were not allowed to drop the bars directly on the roof - so i tried really hard not to). But it was at that point that I decided i should be using less weight.

Round 2 & 3 were about 6 minutes each. I decided to call it a night when folks around me started finishing up, and my muscle strength started failing. I figured the work I'd done earlier + the three rounds I completed were plenty. I'm definitely going to be sore tomorrow. Heck - I'm sore now.


I'm sure i would have done a lot better starting fresh.

I think the front squats were actually the hardest exercise, followed by the cleans, and, interestingly, it was my wrists more than anything else that really gave out. I also think I really just need to learn to engage my back muscles ALL THE TIME. they're lazy. They don't work when I'm sitting, they don't work when I'm rowing or squatting, etc. - i always have to consciously 'activate' them. It's something I should work on when i'm just sitting at my desk @ work.

I could get used to this

OK, so remember how I was all bitching and moaning about having to do a recovery week and blah blah blah? Well, this evening as I watched all my classmates suffer through a horribly grueling heavy "bear" workout while I got to toss around 65 pounds, I couldn't help but feel...a little relieved. Even at half-weight, this was a lot harder than yesterday's walk in the park, and had I done it at FULL weight (I would have tried 95#), I'd probably be a wreck right now.

Five rounds for time of:
135/95 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
135/95 pound Hang power clean, 12 reps
135/95 pound Front Squat, 9 reps
135/95 pound Push Jerk, 6 reps

~28:00, 65# barbell

I shared the bar with Elaine, so that time is a bit longer than it would otherwise have been. It'd be silly to keep serious track of these 50% workouts, so I'm pretty lax about the timing.

That said, it was still pretty rough - at least the cleans and front squats. The deadlifts were nothing, and the push-jerks (push-presses, really) were such low volume as to be over before they started. My shoulder gave me a little grief on the negatives bringing the bar back down at first, but I learned how to basically drop and catch the bar so there was minimal exertion in the pain-causing range.

Press-o-rama

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

SP: 87-92-95-100(PR)-105(f)-105(f)-100
PP: 92-92-95-100(PR)-107(PR)
PJ: 85-92(PR)-97(PR)-97(PR)-102(PR!)

It's been two months since I last did this workout (May 7), and I have clearly made strides in strength and confidence. I'm a bit sad that my 1RM for the shoulder press only went up 5 pounds, but I was close on those 105's, and the 100 felt pretty solid. I felt I could have gone even higher with the push-press and push-jerks muscularly, but my wrists were really killing me, and the negatives to bring the bar back down to my shoulders were really stressing my muscles out.

5/31/08

5/31/2008
WOD:

"Broomstick Mile"
25 Back Squats
25 Front Squats (video link includes Rob Miller Squatting)
25 Overhead Squats
Run 400 meters
25 Shoulder Press
25 Push Press
25 Push Jerk
Run 400 meters
50 Squat Cleans
Run 400 meters
50 Snatches
Run 400 meters


All of this work except for the runs is done with a PVC pipe. The moves are done in synchrony and the run is kept to pace of the slowest runner. Everyone stays together for every rep.


FINISHER: 21 Kettlebell Swings for Time

Men 2 Pood
Women 1.5 Pood

Mod:Kettle bell swings done w/ the green kettle bell ... 12kg/26.4#

Guess who the slowest runner was ... yeah Me. Made me work harder during my runs, but i was sucking air by the end, and it was an ego bruiser to have everyone stuck @ my slow pace.

Form on Kettlebell swings was terrible, but i did them all. ... Eventually.

I don't know if I have the strength of will to not do anything for a week, though.

Turns out I don't.

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

SP: 80-85-90-95(PR)-95(f)-90(f)
PP: 80-85-90-90-95
PJ: 85-85-na-na-na

PR on the press, which is nice, but overall a bad workout. I didn't like jumping on my knee with weight on the Push Jerks, and as I got more tired I got more nervous of screwing up and what that would mean, so I stopped. The Y has also rearranged its weight room in preparation for a remodel, and it's CROWDED and confined and they took out some of my favorite equipment, so that's another reason to think about ditching the Y membership.

In general, I'm fighting some bad fitness juju these days. I'm freaked out and frustrated about dislocating both knees in one weekend. This is leading to some feelings of depression and inadequacy, which leads to feeling old and weak and fears that the weight I'm gaining is just fat, etc.

It's silly, as I'm definitely improving on stuff across the board, especially climbing (which is, I have to keep reminding myself, why I'm doing all this in the first place). It's slow, but measurable. I've known for a long time that I'm fighting an uphill battle as a thirty-something tall skinny vegetarian, so I just have to suck it up and get over it.

If only my knees would stop breaking.

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Well, I misremembered and did 7 sets instead of 5. Oops.

SP: 60-65-70-75-80-85-90
PP: 70-75-80-85-90-95-90 (last 2 broken)
PJ: 70-75-80-80-80-80-90

Hurt like a SOB. Feeling a little more comfortable with the jerk. Also pretty bruised up from last night - feels like a sunburn, and is starting to discolor...could be pretty.