12-07-31: Manmaker or man-breaker

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Tuesday, July 31st

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WoD: 3 Rounds For Time

• 10 Dumbell Man-Makers @ 35#
• 20 Toes to Bar
• 1 Gym Loop of Crab Walk

3 Minutes after completion of the above, athletes will complete:
2 Rounds For Time

• 20 Wallball with Pushup
• GHD Hip and Back Extension 

Notes:

• Dumbell Man-Maker is initiated from the standing position. Athlete hits the deck with dumbells in hand, similar to a strict burpee. Athlete performs a pushup on the dumbells, dumbell row with each arm, another pushup on the dumbells, then returns to the standing position. Dumbells are then cleaned to shoulders and pressed or push pressed overhead. This cycle counts as 1 rep.
• Wallball with Pushup is initiated with a standard Wallball shot. After athletes receive rebound, they will put ball on the ground, and perform a pushup on the unstable ball. After the pushup, athlete will reset and initiate the next rep with a Wallball shot.
• Setup for GHD Hip and Back Extension is with athletes hips in front of the GHD pad. Athletes will then complete a standard Back Extension ["cat back"], with the movement finishing in full extension of the spine.

This one ended up being a war of attrition. I came into the workout with insanely sore and tight triceps, which were making my elbows and upper forearms ache too. I tried to roll and SMR some life back into them, but it didn't really seem to do too much. Then it was time to work.

The man-makers were ok for the first few, then became awful (picture burpees with even more work...), the toes to bar were bad when I was on the bar, but tolerable once I went over to pike sit-ups to avoid tears on my hands, and the crab walks were absolute torture. The worst part? Even after slowly slogging through all of that, there was MORE work to do. 

This was my first time attempting wallball push-ups. Because of the size of the ball, they end up being very tricep-centric. Seeing as how I was already 60 push-ups into the workout as a result of the first couplet, this just became slow and painful. After grinding through 20 reps, it was time for the GHD machine Hip/Back extensions. Comparatively, these were pretty easy, though as usual, I ended up feeling like my head was going to explode about 10 reps in, so I had to break these up, too.  Then it was back to the wallball push-ups, as the next class was coming in and starting to get warmed up. This set took longer than ever... but eventually... finally... it was done. Just a few more hip/back extensions more I would finally be done. 

I seriously thought I was going to DNF on this one, and it turns out the Coach nearly offered to cap me at 30 minutes, but because I just kept gutting through, he let me keep going. I think that's a good thing. I think. :S I ended up taking nearly a week off after this workout, because the additional stress on my triceps led to my elbows and forearms becoming even more sore.

12-02-17: Deadlifts

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday, February 17th, 2012

Deadlift. Why I love this picture: Note the abs and core working overtime to stabilize the massive load hanging from the arms.

Heather Bergeron rocking deadlifts in the 2011 CrossFit Games.

Jolie Gentry banging out deadlifts at the 2008 CrossFit Games (I think...)

The Terminator lifts more weight in one lift than I've probably lifted in my entire life combined. Jerk.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, either deadlifting or setting up for a clean of some kind. All I know is that every time I include a picture and reference to Camille, my traffic quadruples. So, thanks for being awesome, Camille, and thanks to everyone googling for pics of you!

Back extensions. They seem easy until they start sucking. Usually on the 3rd or 4th rep.

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• Strength: 3-3-3-3-3
  • Deadlift @ 90% = 325#
• Sellout: 3x10
• GHD Back & Hip Extensions
• Kettlebell Calf Raise (2x 70# kbs)

I'm not going to lie... warming up to work weight on the deadlift was an almost depressing experience. Having recently increased my 1 rep max substantially, all of my scaled work is a lot harder than it used to be. Obviously, this is good in almost every regard except for the one where one of my warm-up sets just feels so freaking heavy... because it used to BE my one-rep max. So hooray progress, booo stupid heavy bar! 

After going over the movements, standards, and safety, we started warming up to our work weights. 135# is officially my starting weight, followed by 225# and 275#. As I said, even 275# felt heavy (of course it is... it just didn't need to FEEL it.), and moving up to 315# felt like I was going to be seriously in trouble to complete the workout. In the moment, it actually kind of felt like a victory just slapping on the additional 5# plates on each side to get me up to my working weight of 325#. 1.5x bodyweight for the workout. Neat! From 275# on, I used the alternating grip (most obviously in the Ahnold picture up there), changing which hand was supine on each set.

For the most part, the deadlifts ended up being pretty uneventful. Having gotten caught starting one of my warm-ups with a stripper pole move (start the lift by raising the butt without moving the bar off the floor at all...), I tried to keep my form in check. The only  issue came at the start of the 4th round, when the bar completely failed to come off the floor. After taking a quick breath, I swapped my grip to supinate the right hand (which has always felt a little stronger) and whoo-pah! that bar came right off the floor. I finished out the fifth round with the same grip, no problems.

The sell-out was ok, though targeting the lower back with the hip & back extensions right after deadlifts meant that the extensions were kind of a pain in the ass... well, in the back, I guess. The kettlebell calf raises were very uneventful... after a career of doing super-heavy machine squats and calf raises, doing them with two kettlebells was downright easy. Of course, since it worked my grip some more, all the muscles used to support the weight hanging off the frame, and involved the core to maintain balance and whatnot, the reduced weights are more than made up for by the massively increased music demand across the entire body.

Ooh yeah, feel the burn, baby!

11-08-10: Running, Toes-to-Bars and Kettlebell Swings

Elm City CrossFit WoD for August 10th, 2011

Rule 1: Cardio. In a zombie apocalypse, I'm the first one dead. Well, maybe second or third. I do NOT live into the sequel, I tell you that much. (crossfit.com)

Knees to elbows. Showing the difference between "ok" form (top, knees coming to triceps instead of elbows, torso less horizontal) vs. "awesome" form (bottom, all issues resolved.) (crossfit.com)

Kettlebell swings. Though she's a bit *too* cut (eat a burger, dammit!), it does highlight all the core muscles needed to get the kettlebell overhead. Its NOT a shoulder raise, its a full body movement to put the momentum into the kettlebell to get it overhead, starting from the hip pop to get it moving in the first place. (Forever CrossFit)

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WoD: 3 Rounds for Time

• 10 Dumpster 2 Dumpster runs
• 20 T2B Knees to Elbows
• 10 Kettlebell Swings 55#

Sellout: 2x20
GHD hip & back extensions

Yup, totally thought I was going to die on this one.  While the running focused pretty heavily on my massive cardio weakness, the following movements didn't give me a chance to catch my breath at all. My guess is that the total distance per round was about 500m, but I'm not really sure. If it was in that range, I think I would have preferred to hit the road and just do it all in one longer run than broken into shorter distances. Not that I ever broke into a sprint, but it felt like I *should* have.

Though I was worried about doubling up on knees-to-elbows AND kettlebell swings, I just tried to keep my grip stable on both, and only had a few times where I felt the kettlebell moving in my hands. I also tried to keep my hands dry with chalk, without overdoing it and actually increasing the risk of tears. Longtime CrossFit contributor (as well as several other websites) Becca Borawski has a great article on hand care.

All in all, it was the running that killed me. I really tried to crank through the K2Es, and the kettlebells weren't *that* bad, but I was the last one back out the door going into the third round. I don't think I had a single complete run, either stopping early to walk, or walking after the turnaround to try to catch my breath. By the time I got back in to the bars to do the last round of K2Es, some people were already finishing up the kettlebell swings. I got through the last K2Es ok, but imploded on the final kettlebell swings. While I wanted to go unbroken for at least 15 reps, I crapped out at 11. 7 more got me to 18, but I had a pretty bad grip slip on that final one, so I ended up dropping and resetting. It took a few moments for me to finally stop greying out enough to grab the kettlebell and bang out the final 12 reps.

Total Time: 27:50

The back-hip extensions were just brutal, since I was already at the "lie down and let me die" stage. But I got it done in sets of 10. I'm waiting to feel those later today and tomorrow.

11-03-09: Hang Power Snatches and "Randy"

CrossFit Garden City WoD for March 4th, 2011
Warmup:
Jump-Rope
Burgener Warmup
Strength:
Hang Power Snatch3-3-3-3-3
Bar does not touch the ground until the completion of the third rep each set.
All reps should be fast and clean. NO FAILED REPS.
Conditioning:
"Randy"
- 75 Power Snatches for time (75#)
Accessory:
GHD Hip Extensions x 50
Break up reps into as many sets as needed

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Upshot to the various "full snatch" variants is that, at least up through this point, they are all identical. How he lands and receives the bar will define whether this is a squat snatch, split snatch, or power snatch. (CrossFit South West Sydney)

Seize the iron. Indeed! (Underground Shack)

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Knowing I would need my lungs soon enough, I went into this workout looking for a quick warm-up, so when I opted for jump-rope, I just wanted to do a bit of practice on double-unders. My goal was to get at least 5 in a row. Upon seeing that I was still back at square one or two, I ended up being happy with three in a row.

I went through the Burgener warm-up twice, once with the bar empty (35#), then with 10# put on, to mimic the warm-up with an Olympic bar. After taking the time to correct some freshmen on their 'concentration curl' technique (if you're going to waste your time with an exercise, at least do it correctly, I guess...), I got chalked up and prepped to do some hang power snatches. I quickly discovered a huge flaw in my technique: though I was starting the motion with the violent hip opening to get the bar moving, I wasn't really jumping with the bar all that hard, which definitely keeps it moving up. Instead, I would pop the hip open, and guide the bar up the rest of the way, rather than working to keep it from flying away. Basically, I was missing a lot of the explosive pop that will make it easier to lift heavier weights.

Hang Power Clean (for 3 reps): 85# / 105# / 115# / 125# / 135#

While the first few sets were pretty easy, by the last two, I could see that my speed was uneven from side to side. With each snatch at 125#, I could see that rather than firing the bar up from my hips, I was actually pressing it out to full extension, but only on my left side. For the final set, I focused much more on the hip drive and the jump with the bar to propel it, and while that made the overall move that much faster, I still had the same problem with the left hand being forced to drive the bar the rest of the way up, which is a press, NOT a snatch.

After unloading the bar for "Randy," I tried to focus on resetting myself completely, and not hopping back into the workout with resting substantially enough. Easier said than done, since the gym was crawling in students, all too unmotivated to bother really working out. In his book, Starting Strength, Coach Rippetoe takes such student "athletes" to task (as well as everyone else who does this):

No one should ever arrive to train not knowing exactly what to do. Wandering around the gym, deciding what looks like fun, doing it until the fun stops, and then doing something else is NOT training.

So, with kids milling around, some actually doing stuff, and my precious floor space under attack, I grabbed the bar and started carving out my zone of death. Despite the relatively light weight, I still ended up having to break the 75 power snatches into smaller sub-sets, as follows: 20 - 10 - 15 - 10 - 10 - 10. Between each subset, i tried to rest as little as possible, but each time, I could easily watch the timer continuing to count...

The upshot was that the final 20 reps or so, I started feeling the jump become a part of the overall power snatch technique. As all the bits that had been allowing me to complete each rep with less than ideal form became fatigued, the PROPER muscles had to take over. I definitely started to feel what the movement should feel like as the bar actually seemed to become lighter, always a nice trick 45-50 reps into a benchmark! Finally finished up at about 7:45.

"Randy" - Total Time: 7:45

Finished up with the prescribed 50 GHD hip extensions, done in sets of 10, followed by a few minutes cool-down on the exercise bike.

11-01-05: Rowing, dumbbell thrusters, hip extensions and ring-work

CrossFit Garden City for Wednesday, January 5th, 2010
Conditioning:
5 sets:

• Row 250 meters
• 15 Dumbbell Thrusters 25#
• Rest 3 minutes

Goal is each round as fast as possible and maintaining consistent times across all 5 sets. Weight on thrusters should be scaled to allow for unbroken, but VERY challenging, sets of 15.
Accessory:

• GH Hip extensions x 30 reps in as few sets as possible

Skill:

• Work with gymnastic rings.

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Pat Sherwood showing awesome extension at the end of the pull. Straight legs, VERY opened hips, full arm flex. I bet he can get 3-4 more yards per pull than me. Jerk. (love you, Pat!)(crossfit.com)

Dumbbell thrusters just suck. (crossfit.com)

"Glute Ham Developer Hip Extension: Set up so that the pelvis is clear of the pads, and without any movement in the torso, extend and flex at the hip only." <-- pulled straight from crossfit.com (more so than usual). (crossfit.com)

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Active warm-up and stretching, especially focusing on calves and hamstrings, both of which were tight and crampy after the last two days' workouts. I tried out a few dumbbell weights for the thrusters, and settled on 25#. 45# is still beyond my ability to control the separate weights well enough, 35# seemed too heavy to plan on doing 75 reps. 25# it is!

Spent a few minutes setting up the C2 to track 250m rows, which meant I could easily re-row the same distance.  Yay technology.  Rowed the first round, felt pretty good. Did the first 15 thrusters... man they suck. I need to find some sort of video or pictures about where you rack the dumbbells during the squat bit of the thruster. My technique was to spin the dumbbells so that my palms were facing me, putting one head of the dumbbell on my shoulder, and "squeezing" the other heads together, stabilizing the whole thing. Which probably means it was some sort of cheat... but doing this with even lighter weights would make doing the thrusters more or less unweighted. So, 25#, dumbbells pressed together on the squats. 15 was difficult, but doable. 30# would have been too much in a round or two... 27.5# would have been perfect. Ah well...

Second round felt much the same as the first. Both came out to the exact same duration (2:15).  During the three minute rest before the third round, I figured out how to make the rower let me race against my previous times... which meant I immediately carved 10 seconds off my previous time. Which implies that I should have been rowing at that faster pace the whole time. Dammit.  Thrusters were a bit harder after the faster pace, but my time on the round was 10 seconds faster. Which, as with the rowing, is a good and bad thing. I failed to keep my time the same round to round. Doh.

Fourth and fifth rounds, I managed to beat the pace, then tie it in the final round. Thrusters continued sucking, but I managed to keep them more or less unbroken.  Well, not in the fifth round. That one ended up being 10 reps, weights dropped to thighs (but not to the floor!), then a final 5 reps. That rest botched my time on the round, which kind of sucks.


Round times: 2:15 / 2:15 / 2:05 / 2:10 / 2:20

After a few minutes to let the need to puke subside, on to the GHD hip extensions. Shockingly (at least to me), I managed to get it done in two sets of 15.  The original Rx was for 50 reps. Long after the fact, I probably should have shot for the full 50. Dammit! (again...)  However, for all the various failings in this workout, what follows makes me VERY happy...

Ring work: strapped the rings to the Smith machine frame (it feels good making that hunk of crap into something useful) and got to work trying to get the control position. Though still a bit shaky, I could already feel muscles firing in new and interesting ways. The most obvious feeling was the pinch in the center of the chest of my pecs working overtime to keep me up. Who would have guessed?

Progression work for the muscle-up. Reduced weight, grip work, body control. Groundwork. (crossfit.com)

After a few minute working on the progression for the muscle-up, I hopped back up into the rings in the control position. Quite a bit more stable...so I tried for a ring dip, full-depth. Surprisingly enough, I nailed it. Was it pretty? Not particularly. But was it a full-depth ring-dip? It sure was. Was I able to do another? No. But still, on the path to a ring muscle-up, which I am VERY keen on getting, this was a pretty awesome accomplishment. :D