11-06-29: Max Reps Dead-Hang Pull-ups, Reverse Lunge-Wall Ball Couplet

Elm City Crossfit WoD for June 29th, 2011

Pull-ups. And judging by the clarity of the picture, grindingly slow dead-hang pull-ups.  All upper body and massive core support. Fun fun fun. (crossfit.com)

Barbell lunges. For added pain, do them by stepping back. I didn't realize how much more that would make this movement suck. It really, REALLY did. (magazine.stack.com)

Wall-balls. Usually, I've pretty good at these. Doing them after smoking my legs on the reverse lunges? Not so much. I was in the position on the right far more than I was the one on the left. When I wasn't on all fours on the ground, that is. (games2010.crossfit.com)

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Strength: Max Reps Weighted band-assisted dead-hang Pull-ups / 5 minutes

WoD: 10-15-20 for time
OH Reverse Lunge 95/65
Wallball 20#

Oh, this was miserable. Though I had been pretty good about practicing dead hang pull-ups a few months ago, when I was still walking across Central Park 2x a day, and stopping by the pull-up bars northwest of the great oval on most of those trips, that WAS a few months ago. After practicing a few reps, I decided to go with the band assist variety. If it were a one minute AMRAP, I'd have gone without, but as it was, I apparently should have picked a stronger band! Dead hang means at the bottom, arms are *completely* extended, arm pits completely opened. None of this quarter depth horsecrap so many guys and gals pull out when challenged to do pull-ups. No kipping (not that I even can), just pure grinding upper body strength. I kept working the entire time, and didn't count any reps where my chin didn't clearly make it over the bar (4-5 of those wastes of energy, I think).

Total reps dead-hang band-assist pull-ups: 24

After smoking our arms and traps a bit, we prepped for the reverse lunges. Though Rx'ed as overhead reverse lunges (weight held overhead, obviously), we had it demoed with the bar across the shoulders, instead. Still nervous about lingering numbness in my left thumb and forearm from the previous Friday's workout, I wasn't about to complain about not having to support the weight overhead again. After warming up with the empty bar (45#) and 65#, I opted to go all the way up to the Rx'ed weight. It wasn't necessarily the smartest decision, but the weight itself didn't feel like it would be my main problem. I opted to stick with the 20# medicine ball as well.

The reverse lunge numbers were per leg, so when it says 10, it means 20 total, 10 left, 10 right, in whatever order makes you happy. I opted to just keep it alternating. The first set was awful, but also easy enough. I went unbroken for those 20 lunges, then hit the wall-balls. I screamed through those 10, and thought my lungs would explode. Tried to hop right back under the bar, knocked out 5 reps each leg, and had to drop the bar. I felt like I was seriously suffocating with the weight on my back and my arms up to keep it there.  Things went downhill from there.

Much sweating, gasping for breath, clenching of legs to keep the blood near my brain, and a little bit of nearly hugging the medicine ball on the floor trying to extract the strength to stand up again from it, I finished dead last, with a time of 15:xx. I didn't hear the seconds, and was busy making a pretty awesome sweat angel on the floor. 

All in all, it was a pretty good workout. I'm not entirely sure how to address my metabolic conditioning, other than to just keep running at it as hard as possible, hoping my body adapts to the increased workload as soon as possible. I could have done a lighter weight to finish faster, but I don't need to finish first... I need to get stronger and increase my conditioning, and heavier weights will hopefully do both... used correctly.