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| The split squat. Infinitely easy until you slow the descent to the point where it takes 5 seconds. Then, they suddenly become infinitely HARD. (menshealth.com) |
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| Dumbbell swings. I've started holding them as on the right (by the bell), but with a rubber-coated hex dumbbell, it takes a slightly larger grip. (crossfit.com) |
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| The box jump. Ugh... (games2009.crossfit.com) |
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| Knees-to-elbows (and varations: toes-to-bar (harder) and knee lift (easier). All of them suck a bit, since you're hanging by your hands while contorting your body around. (crossfit.com) |
Warmup:
- Jump rope - double under practice
- Dynamic Stretches
- Split Squat Review/Practice
- A1. DB Split Squats @ 5010 tempo x 5-6 reps/leg x 4 sets
- A2. Pullups @ 50X0 x 5-6 reps x 4 sets
Conditioning:
AMRAP in 15 minutes:
- 10 KB Swings (32kg/24kg)
- 10 Box Jumps (24"/18#)
- 10 Knee to Elbows
Well, split squats were a new one for me, so after a bit of research on the interwebz, I settled on a technique to follow, and decided to start the weights fairly light, given the very slow speed dictated by the workout. After a good warm-up, with plenty of "on-purpose" runs of 10-12 double-unders, I got to work. As usual, the weight room was crawling with directionless kids showing off their extreme accomplishments of limited ROM and sketchy technique. Bah... metal was cranked and split squats were waiting.
Man, these suck pretty quickly. Every set, I would quickly come close to losing count, as I was counting the 5 second descent in my head, and promptly forgetting what actual rep I was on. Not fun, especially as my legs started to get tired. I jumped up in 5# increments at a time, and (not surprisingly) the issue actually became my grip more than my legs. Sure, my legs were shaky, and I swear I could feel old scar tissue in my quads (probably just new ickyness from doing "Karen" last week) popping on the third through sixth reps each round, but it was my forearms and grip that started making the last two sets nearly unbearable.
Dumbbell split squats: 25# / 30# / 35# / 40# (each hand)
The slow pull-ups were also murder, probably mostly for being even more grip-centric than the split squats. I was actually impressed with my ability to do a strict or slightly-kipped pull-up after dropping so slowly into the hole on each rep. While I was only able to do three reps at a time, and usually finished the rounds with a lightly jumped pull-up followed by a long negative, it was actually a better performance than I assumed. Since I was scaling the last few reps to jumping pull-ups and negatives, I opted to do six reps every round.
By the conditioning, I was pretty much bonked. I had eaten fairly well during the day, but had forgotten to have any fat with my lunch (I'm literally realizing this NOW, a good 6 hours later), and it probably had a bit too high of a carb/protein ratio, as well. Plus an iffy night's sleep... really NOT a recipe for success. I planned on making it to 8 rounds of the triplet. Little did I know how much time I would spend fighting off a foot cramp in my left leg, worrying about that same lunch repeating on me, with only the occasional twinge of fear that I might actually suffocate to death from not being able to breathe fast enough. The same grip issues plagued the dumbbell swings and knees to elbows. While I was able to keep all the swings unbroken, the knees to elbows were usually done in a 4-4-2 breakdown, swapping the grip (supine vs. prone) to try to save my forearms. I would have been ecstatic with 8 rounds, and satisfied with 6. I had to make do with 4.
Triplet: 4 rounds
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