brikis98's crossfit journal

[brikis98]

Saturday, December 27

Workout of the Day

"Ryan"
Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
21 Burpees

My numbers

Did muscle-ups on a pull-up bar.

Time: 22:04

Man, what a killer combo. It is damn hard to do a muscle-up when you feel like your heart will explode, which is exactly what burpees always do to me. Still, it was a good workout and I'm happy that I was able to slowly grind through it.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, December 28

Rest day. Very sore and tired and just needed a break.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, December 29

Workout of the Day

"Mr. Joshua"

Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps

My numbers

Ran on a treadmill and, as I have no GHD, just did regular sit-ups instead of glute-ham sit-ups. During round 3, I tore my shin open a bit during deadlifts and began to bleed on the barbell a bit, so I lost a couple of minutes as I paused to clean the cut up a bit.

Time: 32:15

Damn good workout. I think it should be nicknamed "a f*ckload of deadlift". 250lbs isn't that heavy, but when you do 5 rounds of 15 reps, it adds up to 18750lbs. The result: torn up hands, shins, and me feeling very dizzy for a while after I was done.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, December 30

Workout of the Day

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps

My numbers

7 rounds + 5 thrusters + 7 hang powercleans

This was a rough workout after yesterday's 75 deadlifts. The thrusters and hang powercleans were no problem, but the SDHP's were a nightmare. I seemed to be fatigued from them on rep 1 and it only got worse. Now, a few hours later, my glutes and hamstrings are so sore, it actually kind of hurts to sit down. It even kind of hurt to get a massage from my gf tonight as my whole back is really tender too. I hope I get to do this one again in the future under better conditions.

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, December 31

Rest day for the holiday. Happy New Years everyone!

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, January 1

Workout of the Day

Run 5k

My numbers

DNF

My previous PR on the 5K was 22 minutes, so I decided to try to do an 8.6mph pace and cut the time down to about 21 minutes. One mile in I thought I was going to throw up and had to stop. I have no clue what was wrong, as I've run a mile at 9mph easily before, but I ended up very dizzy and had to lie down. Maybe I'm getting sick, or maybe my body isn't dealing well with all the eating/drinking I did yesterday for new year's, but I just wasn't myself today. An hour later, I was still feeling pretty crappy, so I just took it easy for the rest of the night. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, January 2

Workout of the Day

Squat
OH Press
Turkish get-ups

My numbers

Squat: 225x5, 265x5, 305x2xmissed, 225x8
OH Press: 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 115x8
Turkish get-ups (dumbbell weight x reps with each hand): 30x3, 40x3, 50x1

Pretty fun workout today. The third rep of 305 continues to elude me on the squat, but I felt good overall and I think I'll get it next time. Today was my first day of a hard deload on OH press. For some reason, I've lost a lot of strength on that lift, and am hoping that by starting all the way back at 135, I can work my way back up. Overall, it felt pretty good and I'll go for 140x5 next time. Finally, after the abuse my hamstrings and glutes have taken this past week, I didn't want to deadlift today, so I just tossed in some turkish get-ups for fun.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, January 3

Workout of the Day

"Filthy Fifty"
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

My numbers

Made the usual substitutions due to available equipment: 35lbs dumbell swing instead of kettlebell swing, back extensions on a 45 degree back extension machine, thrusters with two 20lbs dumbbells instead of wall ball.

Time: 28:00 (PR)

Really good workout today. I felt great and kept pushing my body harder and harder and found that it responded very well. The result was a nearly 4 minute improvement over my old Filthy Fifty PR of 31:50 back on December 6.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, January 4

Workout of the Day

"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

My numbers

22 rounds + 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 14 squats (PR)

Despite 4 straight days of CF, I had another great workout today. I shattered my previous PR on Cindy of 15 rounds back on July 22 and it's nice to finally be improving on bodyweight exercises. I may have started a bit too fast, as I really slowed down towards the end and missed getting 23 rounds by a single squat, but I'm still pretty pleased.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, January 5

Rest day. After many interruptions, including the holidays (which forced me into 4 straight days of CF this past week), I'll finally be back on my 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off schedule.

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, January 6

Workout of the Day

Squat: 2x5, 1x3, 1x8
Bench: 2x5, 1x3, 1x8
Deadlift: 3x3

My numbers

Squat: 225x5, 265x5, 305x3, 225x8
Bench: 205x5, 245x5, 280x2, 225x8
Deadlift: 225x3, 315x3, 395x1xfail, 395x1xfail
Floor glute ham raise: 3x8

Well, I finally got the 3rd rep of 305 on the squat today. It took long enough, and it was still too slow, but at least I got it. I'll be trying for 5 reps the next time and once I have that... it's back to squatting 315 again. Can't wait. Bench felt great again, but I had no spotter, so I didn't risk the 3rd rep of 280. Not sure if I would've had it, so it's probably for the best.

With the deadlift, I had a total mental failure today. I did 385x3 last time, which wasn't too hard. The first rep of 395 today was a bit slow, but not that bad. However, once the weight was back on the ground, I could not budge it for a second rep. I even retried the last set with the same results. Each time, I seemed to mentally give up, almost like I was afraid of the weight. It was like a brief shudder went through my brain as I tried to do the second rep and my body would just give up. Man, weight lifting can be so mental.

Finally, I decided to start doing glute ham raises. I've always been very quad dominant and my posterior chain (glutes & hamstrings) desperately need to be strengthened. I don't have access to a GHD, so I rigged up a way to do floor glute ham raises and tried them out for the first time. They were incredibly hard. I could not resist the negative for very long at all and quickly ended up on the floor. I also had to give quite a hard push to get my body vertical enough where my hamstrings could take over. Granted, I was pretty spent from this workout, but it really just shows how much work I need to do in this area. I'm considering doing good mornings or romanian deadlifts as well, but both of those scare me as I've had back injuries before. Not rational, I know, but that's how fear is

 

[conorvansmack]

What did you rig up for floor glute-ham raises? All I've been able to figure out is wedging my feet under the couch, which hurts!

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: conorvansmack
What did you rig up for floor glute-ham raises? All I've been able to figure out is wedging my feet under the couch, which hurts!

There are a number of options: use a barbell, use a friend or use a smith machine. At home, I'm able to tuck my feet under a couch with a pillow resting on the back of my ankles, which works ok. At the gym in my workplace, we have a crappy exercise machine that looks a bit like this and I'm able to tuck my feet under the foam roller pads near the front/bottom. None of these options are as good as an actual GHR, of course, but you make do with what you have

 

[brikis98]

Wednesday, January 7

Workout of the Day

For time:
135 lb Squat clean, 10 reps
50 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 8 reps
40 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 6 reps
30 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 4 reps
20 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 2 reps
10 GHD Sit-ups

My numbers

I don't have a GHD, so I did regular sit-ups on the floor.

Time: 10:45 (PR)

The workout was so short, I decided to toss in some OH squat practice after: 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 155x3

I really wish I had a GHD available. This workout was fun, but I'm sure it wasn't even close to the real thing w/o GHD sit-ups. Anyways, I crushed my old time of 19 minutes from August 9 and felt pretty damn good through out. I still suck at sit-ups, but I finally saw some improvement today as I did the first 50 all in a row.

I really enjoyed the OH squats I did afterwords. My core/hips/posterior chain has gotten very good at balancing the weight and the only missing component at this point is my shoulders, which tend to wobble quite a bit. This is definitely from a lack of practice - after all, the snatch grip isn't exactly "natural" - so I just need to keep practicing to build up my shoulder stability and I should see the weight fly up on this lift. If I can find time to squeeze this lift in, I'll hopefully be OH squatting my bodyweight soon.

 

[brikis98]

Thursday, January 8

Workout of the Day

Ten rounds for time of:
12 Burpees
12 Pull-ups

My numbers

Time: 19:00 (PR)

After the workout:
Turkish get-ups: 2 sets of 3 reps with each hand, the first with a 30lb dumbbell the second with a 40lb dumbbell
Step-ups: 2 sets of 5 reps with each leg, both sets with a 30lb dumbbell in each hand

Man, I absolutely hate the thick, slippery split handles I have to use for pull-ups on the power rack at work. Just about every time I use them, I destroy my hands, and today was no different. Worse yet, they fatigue my grip much quicker than a normal pull-up bar and really slow me down. Blah. On the positive side, I still managed to crush my old PR of 28:05 (back on 08/16) on this workout.

 

[brikis98]

Friday, January 9

Rest day.

 

[brikis98]

Saturday, January 10

Workout of the Day

OH Squat
Snatch
Clean
OH Press

Workout of the Day

OH Squat: 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 155x2xmissed, 165x1
Snatch: 95x5, 115x5, 135xmissed, 135xmissed, 135xmissed
Clean: 185x3, 205x3, 225x1, 245xmissed
OH Press: 105x5, 125x5, 145x5

Decided to practice my olympic lifts today, which was pretty fun. I tied my PR on the OH squat of 165 and will definitely try for 170 next time. I'm slooowly going to inch my way to a bodyweight OH squat.

Unfortunately, my suckage at the snatch continues. This time, it was unquestionably an issue of form as opposed to strength/power, as I'd get the weight high enough, but just not get myself under it well enough and always end up dumping. Until I get my technique issues resolved, it's dumb for me to try anything even remotely heavy on the snatch, so I've decided next time I'm going to snatch 95lbs for a TON of reps (probably 30). This will hopefully let me get a smooth and efficient motion down. If that works out, at the next workout I'll do another 30 reps with 115lbs, at which point I'll hopefully have the technique hammered into my head enough that I can try some real weight.

I was unexpectedly gassed by the time I got to cleans and when I got to 225, I didn't get a great second pull and caught the weight in an awkward front squat that tweaked my hip. I was a bit nervous about it and didn't give my all for the last set, so I missed at 245. I don't think the hip injury is serious at all - probably a minor strain - but I won't know for sure until tomorrow.

Finally, OH press went very well. I'm working my way up from a deload and felt very strong on all 3 sets, which is a relief as I've been struggling with OH press lately. 150x5 will be up next time and if I feel as good then, I should be able to do it.

 

[brikis98]

Sunday, January 11

Workout of the Day

Four rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
Rest 2 minutes

My numbers

It's winter, which means I have to do all my running on a treadmill. Since it takes a few seconds to punch in my desired speed and the treadmill is a bit slow to accelerate, I would usually run .27 miles instead of .25 miles. This also means the times are approximate.

12.0 mph: 1:15
13.0 mph: 1:10
13.2 mph: 1:08 (PR)
12.0 mph: 1:15

My right hip was pretty tender today from yesterday's screwed up squat clean. I still don't think it's anything major, but I can't say it felt great during today's workout. I was therefore a bit conservative on the first round of running to make sure it would hold up. On round 2, I repeated my previous best of 13.0 mph (from November 16) and on round 3 set a new PR with 13.2 mph. Clearly, this is a dumb way to set PR's, as the fatigue only increases from round to round, so next time, assuming I'm not injured in some wacky way, I'll go for a PR on the first round. 13.5 mph should definitely be in reach if I'm fresh, probably even 14.0 mph, but I'm really surprised how much more taxing each extra .5 mph is at these speeds. I had guessed that I'd be able to do a 1 minute 400m before, but shaving off these extra 8 seconds may turn out to be a lot tougher than I thought.

I also noticed that this workout wore me out much more than I expected today. My hamstrings and calves were completely shot, almost numb, when I was done. I guess it's good, as I'm trying to improve my posterior chain, but I wonder if a ton of olympic lifts yesterday + fast running today was too much.

 

[brikis98]

Monday, January 12

Rest day.

My hip is still tender although I think it's a little better than yesterday. I'm really hoping it heals up by tomorrow, as every workout this week includes squats.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98
Monday, January 12

Rest day.

My hip is still tender although I think it's a little better than yesterday. I'm really hoping it heals up by tomorrow, as every workout this week includes squats.

Hey man, I wanted to mention to be REALLY careful with that. Obviously, I've had hip injuries. The problem with them is that they feel very minimal until you stress them. It's similar to or actually is tendinitis or bursitis often times and will flare up immensely compared to other body parts. I tried squatting on a 3x5 when I still had very minimal pain and it tore it up all over again. Stretch it, ice it tonight, ibuprofen it before you work out to help with swelling. You probably know all this, but I wanted just to stress it because of the personal experience. Feel better, dude.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Hey man, I wanted to mention to be REALLY careful with that. Obviously, I've had hip injuries. The problem with them is that they feel very minimal until you stress them. It's similar to or actually is tendinitis or bursitis often times and will flare up immensely compared to other body parts. I tried squatting on a 3x5 when I still had very minimal pain and it tore it up all over again. Stretch it, ice it tonight, ibuprofen it before you work out to help with swelling. You probably know all this, but I wanted just to stress it because of the personal experience. Feel better, dude.

Thanks for the info. I had a tendonitis-like hip injury before from back squatting (due to lack of flexibility) and they definitely suck. This current injury happened from one bad rep of a squat clean, so I'm pretty sure it's just a minor strain, but I'll still try to be careful this week.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Hey man, I wanted to mention to be REALLY careful with that. Obviously, I've had hip injuries. The problem with them is that they feel very minimal until you stress them. It's similar to or actually is tendinitis or bursitis often times and will flare up immensely compared to other body parts. I tried squatting on a 3x5 when I still had very minimal pain and it tore it up all over again. Stretch it, ice it tonight, ibuprofen it before you work out to help with swelling. You probably know all this, but I wanted just to stress it because of the personal experience. Feel better, dude.

Thanks for the info. I had a tendonitis-like hip injury before from back squatting (due to lack of flexibility) and they definitely suck. This current injury happened from one bad rep of a squat clean, so I'm pretty sure it's just a minor strain, but I'll still try to be careful this week.

Ah, gotcha. From a PT stand-point, I wanna tell you to try not to do all 3 squat WODs, but you'll know your limits. Just be sure to ice it after (15 on, 15 off, 15 on, 15 off) and take ibuprofen before you sleep if it's still aching. You know that as well, but I had to make sure it was said

 

[brikis98]

Tuesday, January 13

Workout of the Day

"Angie"

For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

My numbers

Time: 22:04 (PR)

Beat my previous PR of 23:01 from November 2nd by almost a minute.

I had gotten really sick of the split handles on the office gym's power rack tearing up my hands, so I tried to rig up a better pull-up bar. I took the pull-down bar and a chain from the crappy workout machine at the office gym and put the bar on top/across the split handles. I then did my best to secure it in place using the chain. It worked ok, but about 20 pull-ups into the workout the bar started to slide around, which made maintaining a nice kipping quite difficult. However, it wasn't moving too far (<5" back and forth) and I didn't want to pause the workout to fix it. Anyways, the bar was MUCH nicer on my hands than the split handles, so with a little more work, I'm sure I can make it perfect.

My hip held up pretty well today. It felt completely fine with the exception of 1 sit-up and 2 squats where I got sloppy with my form and was immediately punished with a twinge of pain from the hip. I stretched it after the workout and will take some ibuprofen tonight and am hoping it'll be ready for some heavy back squats tomorrow.

 

[conorvansmack]

Did you go straight through each exercise, or did you rotate your way through them on the way to 100 for each?

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: conorvansmack
Did you go straight through each exercise, or did you rotate your way through them on the way to 100 for each?

As far as I know, Angie is meant to be done in the exact order it's written. First you do 100 pull-ups, then 100 push-ups and so on. This means that, by design, you are limited by the muscular endurance of the muscles involved in each exercise. This is quite different than "Cindy" (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats) where the limiting factor is typically your lungs, as one muscle group rests while another is being worked, but your lungs are being taxed the entire time.