11-03-15: Front squats, pull-ups, running, wallballs

CrossFit Garden City Wod for March 8, 2011
Warmup:

• Jump rope
• Active Stretching
• Burgener Warm-Up x2

Strength:

• A1. Front Squat (30X1) x 4-5 reps x 5 sets
  
• A2. Pullups (30X1) x 4-5 reps x 5 sets
  
• Rest 90 seconds b/w exercises
  

Conditioning:
3 sets: On a 3 minute interval:

• Run 400 meters
  
• AMRAP Wall Balls
  
• Rest 3 minutes
  

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Ah, the joy of a weight room all to myself. Crank up some metal, get all the equipment completely set up and ready to go. Lovely...I started out with sucking COMPLETELY at the jump-rope, failing to link ANY double-unders together. It was great fun, but it did warm me up!

Knowing that I would be doing sets of slow, heavy front squats, I opted to start fairly light (85#) and work up from there. I'm still working on my front-rack position, as well as wanting to be sure about my squat depth and hand position, and everything else. Lots to work on. No need to put a crap-ton of weight on the bar and learn bad habits instead of good ones! 

Front squat: 85# / 95# / 105# / 115# / 125#

I did still have some issues with my grip, resorting to the crossed-arm grip once or twice at the end of a set. Copious amounts of chalk, and a noticeably wider grip helped a lot... wider than was strictly comfortable, but it kept the bar in place, so who gives a crap if it was "comfy" or not?

Pull-ups were "as strict as possible," which means that usually the first 3-4 reps of 5 were strict, with the last 1-2 going into kipping territory. For the last two sets, I used a band for assistance, with the upshot being that I probably could have used a lighter band... not great scaling, but nice to know that my pull-ups are coming along.

For the conditioning part of the workout, my goal was two-fold: keep the treadmill at 10mph (running, NOT jogging), and try to do more wall-balls each round. I managed the first one, but failed the second one by one rep.  Still, better than having the reps decrease each time. I definitely felt like my heart was going to explode each and every round, especially at the end of each run, and midway through the wall-balls. I honestly thought I would never stop sweating...

Wall-balls: 30 / 31 / 31