12-07-26: Running, box jumps and pull-ups

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet makes running look easy. (CrossFir Games)

The box jump. Make that box twice as tall and you're onto something...

Heather Bergeron shows exactly why non-strong people struggle with pull-ups: They really do require almost every muscle in your body to be working. (crossfit.com)

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WoD: 8 Rounds For Time

• 200 Meter Run
• 3 Box Jumps 30"
• 3 Dead Hang Pullups

Another workout that looked sort of easy on paper, but quickly degraded into a battle to the finish. We had the option of rowing 100m rather than running, and started out the session with a nice tutorial and quick coaching from Coach Larry, a varsity crew rower during his days at Syracuse U. (Can I say "our days" if I was somewhere on campus at the same time, even though I didn't know him then?) As always, for someone like me who taught himself for a few years before finally joining a gym and getting real coaching, there were plenty of cues and pointers to pick up, and the brief coaching/trouble-shooting he provided definitely highlighted and fixed a few problems I hadn't yet sorted out... or realized were problems. Tight shoulders? Who'd have thought?

After that, we set-up our boxes and pull-up stations, and then got to work. For the first few rounds, I felt pretty good, but it was definitely warm and muggy out, and I started having trouble controlling my breathing on the runs, meaning I was gasping by the time I got back for the box jumps, and 30" is a pretty tall jump to try to hit completely fatigued out. I tried to keep all the jumps more or less chained together (the standard was to stand up tall on top of the box, then step/hop down.), which I was fairly successful at. Then came the pull-ups. Each round, I alternated between pull-ups (palms facing away) and chin-ups (palms facing me), for the dual benefits of giving different muscles a break, and helping me keep track of what round I was on (pull-ups on the odd rounds, chins on the even ones).

As the rounds wore on, my prep time before the pull-ups/chins started to get longer, and after only a few rounds, I was down to grinding out singles anyways. The average time per round, which had started at a little over a minute, started to creep up, and by the final few rounds, the pull-ups alone were taking me that long. Still, drenched in sweat, I finally finished somewhere around the 13 minute mark, having done the entire workout RX'ed, even to the point of not using any bands for the pull-ups (though perhaps I should have.)  I had figured that it was just three at a time with enough time in between sets to rest... forgetting that between the running and pull-ups, there would be no rest. Silly dumbass.

11-10-05: Bench press and triplet

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, October 5th

Coach Rip works bench press form with Eva Twardokens. If Rip tells you something, chances are he's right. Period. (crossfit.com)

Wallballs. Hip crease goes below top of the kneecap in the bottom position, and all the joints explode open at the top to drive the ball up to the 10' target. This is NOT an upper body exercise! (CrossFit 2L2Q)

Push-ups. Good enough for the military, good enough for you and me. Body is kept rigid the entire time, chest to ground all the way up to fully extended arms. (TideTheory.blogspot.com)

Eva T. again, this time demonstrating chin-ups. Of course, olympic show-off that she is, she's doing them with a 70# weight between her ankles. Some people... are just awesome! (crossfit.com)

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Strength: 3 x 8

• Bench @ 65%

Sellout: On the minute: 5x 10x

• 4 Wallball 20#
• 3 Push-ups (strict)
• 2 Deadhang Chin-ups (supine grip only)

According to my PRs, my bench is at 175#, so 65% of that is 115#. After warming up with the empty bar and 95#, I was ready to rock. 8 reps at 115# was EASY. Understanding that the workout was not designed to be uber-tough, I only went up 10#, but I wanted to do a little more work. I feel I could have safely gone up to 135# and been ok, but I didn't want to push it so that I was really outside the design of the workout. All sets were completed, fairly easily.

Since the class got done benching with time to spare, Coach Vin was able to make good on his threat to increase the number of minutes for the sellout. Instead of the 5 originally on the board, we upped it to 10 minutes of work, on the minute. I felt pretty good for this triplet. The wallballs were no problem, I can do three push-ups at a time no sweat, and I can do two unbanded chins at a time pretty easily, too. It felt good to do a pull-up/chin-up workout as Rx'ed, rather than having to scale with a band or something. If nothing else, it sped up how fast I could transition onto the bar, maximizing rest time for the rest of the minute.

I was lucky to be working alongside Greg, with whom I had just shared the bench. Greg is about my size, but MUCH stronger. Basically, I was benching 125#, and he was putting two 45# plates on the end of MY weights for his reps. My only goal for the triplet was to keep up with him. He's (obviously) got some upper body strength on me, so while we stayed pretty close for every round of wallballs, EVERY round of push-ups he smoked me and was onto the bar as I was still finishing the 2nd or 3rd push-up. Usually, I would be jumping onto the bar as he was finishing up. Still, for 10 minutes, I maintained about that same split, and I felt pretty good about that. 8-9 minutes in, a little kip started showing up in my chin-ups, but other than that, I know I held the form tight for the entire time, and the difference between my best round (@19 seconds) and my worst (@22 seconds, when I missed my grip the first time I got on the bar), is a testament to the fact that I wasn't having as much of a problem recovering as I used to. By Jove, I do believe this CrossFit stuff might actually be working!