12-02-01: Floor press, plank holds, and rope climbs

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Floor press. Surprising how much these can tend to suck...

They still suck.

Googling "plank exercise" will come up with lots of people doing them on their elbows. While still a good core exercise, it doesn't translate over to functional fitness nearly as well, as part of the point is to be able to translate that core strength out to the extremities. Just sayin'.

Tell me there's a single muscle she's not using. Seriously.

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• WoD: 10-8-6-4-2
  
  • Floor Press @ 70% of Max (145#)
  • 60sec Plank Hold
• Sellout:
  
  • 2 x 3 Rope Climbs

Heeeeeey, more upper body destruction! Awesometastic! (As a middle-aged former soccer player, I actually kinda like knocking the ever living crap out of my weak upper-body!) 70% of a one rep max should be good for 12 reps, so 10 is easy enough. And it was... it was the first 60 second plank that truly kicked the ever-living crap out of me. Then, to immediately turn around and start banging out more reps of the floor press... argh. Argh argh argh....

Total time: 7:47

For the sell-out, it was time to hit the ropes a few times. Twice, we had to make 3 ascents in a row, or at least try. I am now more or less proficient at making it all the way up to the ceiling, pretty awesome. The first set, I ended up crapping out halfway up the rope on my third ascent, so call it 2.5 ascents. For the second set, I couldn't even get the third attempt going. Call that one two and the thought did NOT count!

11-11-23: Bench press and double-unders

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Bench press. 15-20 reps in, the smile has usually disappeared. Usually.

Floor presses. See notes below...

Double-Unders. Nothing I haven't already said about them before....

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• Buy-in: 5 x 4
  
  • Bench @ 87% 185#
• WoD: 6min AMRAP
  
  • 5 Floor Presses 155# 135#
  • 7 Double Unders

This was my first time NOT working out with the 5:30 a.m. crew. Turns out, I suck at setting my alarm clock at 11 p.m. at night. Rather than setting the MWF early morning alarm, I set the slightly later Tuesday alarm. That'll be handy next week when it finally goes off! Happily, there were plenty of friendly faces. (Yes, I was worried about not knowing anyone... pretty lame, but seriously.)

First up was bench presses, 5 sets of 4 reps, at about 5 rep max weights. Basically, the first several sets of 4 should be easy enough, but in terms of total volume, the chances are that the final set would be hard. In a good sign, the first 4 sets were increasingly difficult, but I finished all of them, only to fail on the final rep of the final set. Essentially, perfect weigh selection! After that, it was fun with a couplet involving floor presses and double-unders.

 Happily, the weight for this was lighter than for the bench presses, and floor presses automatically have a reduced range of motion. Easy, right? Heh. Tonight, I experimented with using a much lighter jump-rope on the double-unders. It was arguably easier to turn fast enough, but I had a lot of trouble stringing them together. Probably just a practice thing, because the actual individual double-unders themselves seemed a bit easier.

I ended up informally competing against Tom, one of our better endurance *and* strength athletes, who had also been my spotter (and I spotted him) on the bench presses. As it turns out, he was keeping tabs on me, too. Having already hit my limit on bench presses earlier, it was only a matter of time before the floor presses caught up with me. However, I was having better luck with the double-unders than Tom. At the end of 6 minutes, we were completely tied: 5 rounds + 5 floor presses.

11-09-26:Hang Power Cleans, Floor Presses and Tire Jumps

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Monday, September 26th, 2011

The hang power clean. Bar starts at mid-thigh, with ankles, knees and hips all partially closed .All three joints fire open, arms staying straight like chains dragging the bar up. Having accelerated the bar upwards, there will be a minute when it is temporarily floating in the air before accelerating just as quickly downwards. In that instant, the body's momentum needs to be reversed to get under the bar and make the catch. (CrossFit Camp Eggers)

Floor press. Like the bench press, but WAY less fancy. (Body Armor CrossFit)

Box jumping, but with a tire. w00t! (Stoneway CrossFit)

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WoD: 7RFT

• 3 Hang Power Clean 115#
• 5 Floor Press
• 7 Tire Jump 24"

After a weekend filled by emptying our house on Long Island into PODS, including the piano, two sofas, two loveseats, and a whole bunch of other heavy crap, bookended by some nice long drives, it was time to do some real work again. Tired and sore, I was again reminded how awesome SMR can be at revitalizing me. Some stretching and active warming-up later, it was time to review the hang power clean.

The simplest of variations, the weight doesn't have to come from the floor, and it doesn't require catching it in a full squat. Easy! Not necessarily simple, however. It still involves loading up the three main joints of the posterior chain (hips, knees and ankles), unfolding them powerfully in the correct order, then immediately reversing the flow as the weight goes weightless for a moment, and getting under it for the catch. As a power clean, we don't want to go far down to catch it, but a little dip is still required.

Ultimately, I still need a lot of work. I *think* my initial lift is pretty good... I'm sure it needs a ton of finessing, but I can get the weight moving if nothing else. However, I just can NOT time the drop back under the bar. Even hang power cleaning, I was catching the bar in a full standing position. If nothing else, the ability to drop a few inches into the slightest of squats would let me NOT have to lift the bar those extra few inches. Greater skill = greater efficiency = less overall work.

The floor presses were easy enough, though I stupidly put myself in an area where every set required me to the pre-plan how I was going to ditch the bar. Ideally, after a lift to full extension, you would just (with arms still fully extended) dump the bar over your head, with it hitting the floor with a good foot of clearance over the top of your head. At least one set had me dumping the bar back down to my hips, as there was no overhead clearance, and one where I nearly scalped myself when the bar hit the pull-up structure behind me. Totally my fault in every possible way.

Did the tire jumps using a slow jump-up, jump-down pace, as compared to my usual jump-up, step-down approach. It picked up the pace a little, and didn't feel too bad on my knees. Its an odd mental thing: jumping onto the slightly pliable tire made me less concerned about the impact of jumping back down to the floor... when in reality the surface of the jump up should have little or nothing to do with the impact jumping back down to the same surface as always. Still, I totally felt more comfortable jumping down from the tire. Weird.

I spent the entire WoD chasing/pacing Woody, one of our Ironman triathletes, and though I think I was out in front when we first hit the tire, he quickly passed me on the tire jumps. After that, I just tried to stay within a rep or two of him, making up some time on the hang power cleans, losing some on the box jumps. I don't honestly know how I would have done without him to chase. My total time (6:25) is well outside of my sprint comfort zone of 60-90 seconds before my lungs implode, but for a medium burner like this workout, I think I actually held my own very well. 

Total Time: 6:25

11-07-07: Pull-Ups, Floor Presses and Burpees

Elm City Crossfit Wod for July 7th, 2011

Pull-ups. If I could kip, this might not have sucked as much. I can't. It did. (crossfit.com)

Floor presses. Bench presses, but without the bench. Pretty straight-forward. Watch you don't destroy your forearm by pinning your elbow into the floor on the way down... just sayin'. (worldsstrongestlibrarian.com)

Burpees. Cardio-strength devastating perfection. Stand, squat, plank with chest to floor (ie, do a push-up), hop back to the squat, jump with hands overhead. The MOST range of motion you can get while staying in place. Awful. Awesome. Terrifying. Terrific. (leanprimalfit.com)

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10 down: 10 up

• Pull-ups
• Floor Press 95#

after each pair down/up complete:

• 2 Burpees

This results in the following:

• 10 pull-ups
• 1 floor presses
• 2 burpees
• 9 pull-ups
• 2 floor presses
• 2 burpees
• 8 pull-ups
• 3 floor presses
• 2 burpees
• . . .
• 2 pull-ups
• 9 floor presses
• 2 burpees
• 1 pull-up
• 10 floor presses
• 2 burpees

If you think that looks like fun, I just have NOTHING to say to you.  Honestly, I wasn't too worried about the burpees or the floor presses. 55 pull-ups in a single workout seemed a bit optimistic, though. Remembering how poorly I did on the AMRAP 5 minute pull-ups from last week (which really screwed up my elbows, due to poor form on my part), I made sure to use a much stronger band for my assistance. While I didn't need it as much early on, its the only thing that let me finish this beast.

Though I started out hoping for a few unbroken sets of pull-ups, 6 reps in it was revealed to me just how very overly optimistic I truly was. After that, I was lucky as hell to string 3 pull-ups together, much less finish a set unbroken (the 9th and 10 sets I managed it... when I had to do 2 and 1 rep, respectively. Ooohhh...). On the other hand, I was able to crank through the floor presses until about the 8th round, when massively depleted arm-strength started making that bar feel really freaking heavy.  While I didn't put the bar down, I did allow it to rest with my elbows on the floor towards the end of the final few sets.

The burpees were easy, though I was freaking done with them by the 9th and 10th sets of them. One thing that made today's workout extra difficult/awesome was that I was the only person there for the 5:30 am WoD.  There's an overlapping Crossfit Endurance class that most of them went to instead, leaving me one on one with Vin, who watched me like a hawk, both coaching and cheerleading whenever I needed one or the other.

Though I felt pretty good the whole way through, my inability to do pull-ups in volume really destroyed my time. Especially on those high middle sets (7-5) when I could barely do 2 in a row, and often ended up expending extra energy on attempts that just barely failed to get my chin above the bar. Those really cut into my time, so though I felt like I moved pretty quickly the first 2 rounds, and really tried to cook through the final three rounds or so, I still ended up with a pretty slow time. Still, its actually doing it that will make me faster and stronger, so I'm thankful for the slow times that will eventually be the fuel for my faster times to come. I hope. :S

11-06-17: Floor press, supine K2Es, reverse wall-balls

Elm City Crossfit WoD for June 17th, 2011

Floor press. Form alert in the pic above. Knees should be bent more, feet flat on the ground. This will help prevent any bar motion from translating into rotational torque in the midsection. That is, its safer. Arguments *can* be made that its therefor better to keep the legs straight, to increase the workout for the mid-line. Depends on your weight, rep scheme, and focus. (Crossfit North Miami Beach)

Eva T. demonstrates a perfect normal knees-to-elbow. For the supine variant, after the floor presses, put the barbell down on the floor behind your head (careful not to squash your melon!), then grip it with your hands to anchor your self, and do the same full-body crunch that brings your knees to your elbows. This variant removes some of the sticking points of the full hanging version, namely the grip and dealing with swinging as you get tired. (crossfit.com)

Backwards wallball. Somewhat easier on the throw, somewhat harder on the catch. (foothillscrossfit.com)

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6 Rounds for Time:

• 5 Floor Presses 115#
• 10 Supine KTE
• 15 Backward Wallball 20#

This was my first workout at Elm City Crossfit where I truly felt comfortable. Maybe just because everyone seemed a little wrong-footed by the novel variations on old standbys. Though my time wasn't smoking, I felt like I managed to keep moving through the entire workout pretty well.

Total time: 7:xx