brikis98's crossfit journal

[brikis98]

Power clean: 128x3, 178x3, 218x3, 228x3, 238x3, 248x2, 258x5x1, 218x5
Split jerk: 128x3, 178x2, 198x1, 218x1, 238x1

My power clean technique was pristine until I got to the 258lb singles. At that point, my feet started splaying out, I was catching it too low or asymmetrically and various other issues. I repeated a bunch of singles at the weight to try to fix things, with limited success. Next, I tried out the split jerk to see if my shoulder could handle it. I worked up to 238 without issues and decided not to push it any further.

Complete as many rounds as possible 20 minutes of:
30 Double-unders
15 GHD Sit-ups
15 Back extensions

Round completed: 7 + 30 double-unders and 3 GHD sit-ups

I did all the double-unders and back extensions unbroken, but the GHD sit-ups totally smoked me. My quads and abs were burning like crazy on them and I had to break them up start with round 3. First 8/7, then 5/5/5, then 5/4/3/3. Brutal.

Injury update

* Shoulder: feels 100% when doing overhead presses, jerks and HSPU's. Feels 90% when doing push-ups. Pinches noticeably when I try to do OH squats or a snatch motion, even with the bare bar. Mobility has noticeably improved since I started doing wall extensions several times per day.
* Upper back: small amount of soreness in the morning, but feels 100% during the day and when I workout.
* Adductor: sore all day long. Worse yet, I keep tweaking it doing everyday things, like sliding a door open with my foot when my hands are full. Haven't found a good way to foam roll the exact spot yet. This is the most worrisome of the injuries as I'm not seeing much progress.

 

[brikis98]

Squat: 135x5, 225x8, 275x2x8, 275x10
OH press: 95x5, 135x5, 155x3x5

Rehab work all around. Did lighter weight, higher rep squats, which the adductor didn't object to too much. After the set of 10, I seriously began considering doing 20 rep squats again. Last time I did, my strength went up sharply across the board, as did my mental toughness. I'll obviously wait for my adductor to heal, but I'm going to start thinking of how I could fit the widow makers into my schedule once every week or two. OH press was also supposed to be lighter weight, but sadly, my bar speed was pitifully slow and I barely got the last rep on the last two sets. I guess the bad news is that my pressing strength has dropped off noticeably after the back to back shoulder issues; the good news is that my shoulder felt 100% the entire workout, so I'll start increasing the weight next week.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Row 250 meters
Sumo deadlift highpull 95 pounds, 21 reps
Pull-ups 15 reps

Rounds completed: 4 + 250m rowing + 6 SDHP

Yay pulling. I taped up my hands again, so it wasn't long until my forearms felt jacked up. Looking back through my journal, it has been almost 6 months since I last did SDHP's and my form was very rusty. I didn't get a nice rhythm on them until the 3rd round, by which point they had done a number on my biceps and shoulders - too much arm pulling, not enough pop from the hips. Definitely a tough workout that I'd like another shot at.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 4x400m, 4 minutes rest between rounds

Ran on a high school track, lane 1, in VFFs

Round 1: 1:15
Round 2: 1:18
Round 3: 1:24
Round 4: 1:22

The goal today was to get my body used to shorter distances and higher speed after the hamstring injury. I didn't push too hard, going ~90% on each round. I'm pretty happy with the 1:15 on the first round, as it felt pretty damn easy. Later rounds got more uncomfortable due to both of my adductors being sore from yesterday's high rep squats. I didn't know adductors were used that much in running, but mine were burning like crazy during rounds 3 and 4 and made my legs feel very heavy.

In between rounds, I struck up a conversation with another guy on the track. Apparently, he and his buddy were training a 3rd guy for a sub 5 minute mile and were nice enough to let me pick their brain a little about running. The two main things I learned:

1. I've been using the track markings wrong. Stanford's track usually blocks off lanes 1-3 (reserved for their athletes only), so when I'm there, I usually run in lane 4 or 5. While I was using the proper markings for a staggered start, apparently on races longer than 400m, you are supposed to collapse down to lane 1 after the first curve. Not realizing this, I always stayed in my designated lane for 800m, 1 mile, 5k, 10k, etc runs. I feel kind of dumb, as I've watched the Olympics and seen the athletes do this, but somehow it never registered. Oh well, I guess the good news is that on the longer distances, I'm slightly faster than I thought.

2. Apparently, I was leaning back quite a bit when running today, and should instead try to lean/fall forward more (similar to POSE recommendations). I had thought I was leaning forward, but I guess my proprioception when running is way off, so it was very helpful to get feedback. I'm going to focus more on this and see if I can get my gf to record some of my runs so I can fix this issue.

 

[brikis98]

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, 365x2, 405x1, 435x1, 450x6x1

Following up on the technique work from last week's deload, I focused on keeping my knees out. This definitely made it easier to keep my back totally locked so that I could just drive my legs hard into the ground. The result was solid bar speed for all reps, even though I was keeping rest short (< 2 min) between the singles. Back to 455 next time.

Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Hang squat clean, 15 reps
30 Push-ups

Subbed did 8 HSPU's instead of regular push-ups each round.

Time: 19:25

This workout was tough. The squat cleans had me gasping for air by round 3 and were pure agony for the two rounds after that. I subbed HSPU's because (a) my shoulder is not healed enough for that many regular push-ups and (b) I need more practice on them anyway. Even though the number of reps was way lower, I always struggle with HSPU's and today was no exception: the last round of HSPU's took me a full 3 minutes! That's a blazing pace of 1 HSPU every ~23 seconds (or, more accurately, a set of 2 every ~45 seconds). Must go faster.

 

[cirrrocco]

wow, that was one super dedicated thread

 

[brikis98]

Run: 2.5 mile time trial

Ran on a treadmill in VFFs.

Speed: 8.7 mph

Pretty happy with the run. This is the pace I'd need to cut more than a minute off my 5k time. Today's run was ~0.6 miles short of that, but felt easy enough that I'm pretty sure I could've maintained the pace for the full 3.1 miles. Only issue was a side stitch from having eaten to much during the company hackday presentations earlier in the day. I seriously cannot eat food within 3 hours of running without getting side stitches.

 

[MrMatt]

Tried the death by pullups thing...wow

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Tried the death by pullups thing...wow

It's bad times, right? How many rounds were you able to get?

 

[MrMatt]

It's bad times, right? How many rounds were you able to get?

I got into round 8. I was doing them dead-hang though, forgot it's usually done kipping as Brikis reminded me

 

[brikis98]

Clean and Jerk: 128x3, 178x2, 198x2, 218x2, 218x2, 228x2x1, 238x4x1, 243x1, 248x1 (PR)

Got to the gym very late today, so I had to rush through a workout. I warmed up with a bunch of doubles, worked up to singles with 238 and stayed there for a while as my technique on the split jerk was pretty crappy. It started to get better towards the end, so I bumped up the weight a few times and set a small (3lb) PR with the 248 C&J. Not a great accomplishment - separately, I've cleaned 40lbs more and jerked 10lbs more - but not bad considering how quickly I rushed through the sets. On a side note: full clean & jerks are pretty exhausting. I was breathing pretty hard and my heart was pounding the entire workout.

Row: 500m time trial

Time: 1:30 (PR)

Yay, one more goal for this year down. The best part is that I still had some left in the tank at the end, so I can probably cut this down by another 1-2 seconds. One thing I noticed today is that I get a better stroke when rowing in squat shoes than VFFs. Not sure why, but the heel must somehow get me in a better position.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 4x400, 4 minutes rest between rounds

Ran on a high school track, lane 1, in VFFs.

Round 1: 1:12
Round 2: 1:18
Round 3: 1:28
Round 4: 1:26

Went a bit harder today on the 400's, probably 95&#37;. The 1:12 on the first round was pretty tough, but I think if I went all out I could get 1:10. Unfortunately, it seems like 4 minutes rest between rounds isn't enough for my legs to get anywhere close to 100% recovery, so my times slowed down enormously after that. Not sure if I just suck at recovering from even mildly fast running or if a ~3:1 rest:work ratio is not enough when running hard on 400's. At any rate, I'll toss this workout in a few more times over the next few weeks as I really want to get better at it.

Cool down: 3 rounds of 400m barefoot runs and handstand practice. Untimed.

I'm finally getting a good feel for handstands and rather than depending on luck for getting into the right position, I'm starting to understand how to balance myself. By driving my fingers or palms into the ground, I can counteract tipping forwards or backwards, respectively. Fun times.

 

[brikis98]

Squat: 135x8, 225x8, 275x8, 285x8, 295x10
Ring dips: 3, 5, 10
Ring muscle-ups: 5x3

More high rep, low weight work on the squat. Adductor tolerated the workout reasonably well, but I'm not sure it's actually healing all that much; I may need to get some ART work done on it to speed things along. I then tried out some ring dips and found that I could do them completely pain free, even though my shoulder is still not 100% for push-ups. I don't think I've used my chest for anything since the shoulder injury, so I suspect it'll be sore tomorrow. I then moved onto muscle-ups, which were fairly easy, though the lack of practice (since August) means my hands were not used to false grip again. If I can stay injury free, I can hopefully get some consistency at practicing these gymnastics movements and actually see some serious improvement.

For time:
21 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
18 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
15 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
12 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
9 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
6 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters
3 Hip-Back Extensions
Run 400 meters

Ran in the parking lot outside the gym, ~440m per lap according to Google Maps.

Time: 19:15

Fun workout. Running was tough with the back & hamstrings fatigued, but it was a good mental challenge to push through it.

 

[brikis98]

The 30's
Row for 3 rounds with 2 minutes rest between rounds of: 30sec on 30 off, 30 sec on 25 off, 30 sec on 20 off, 30 sec on 15 off, 30 sec on 10 off 30 sec on 5 off, 30 sec on Rest!

Round 1: 156, 151, 150, 149, 147, 144, 140 = 1037m (PR)
Round 2: 162, 150, 148, 145, 137, 135, 135 = 1012m
Round 3: 158, 148, 148, 143, 140, 134, 136 = 1007m

Total: 3056m (PR)

Pretty good rowing session. Beat my old total on this workout by 89m and probably could've done better if I paced myself better in rounds 2 and 3 instead of going all out on the first set. However, I was feeling good, and pulling in the low 1:30's was fun, so I just went for it. Anyways, glad to see my rowing continuously improve.

 

[brikis98]

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, 365x2, 405x2, 425x1, 445x1, 455x6x1

Good deadlift day. I tore through the singles with 455 without any real issues: good bar speed and no back rounding.

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Push-jerk, 15 reps
15 L pull-up

Time: 13:55

Yea, I suck at gymnastics/bodyweight movements. I did all the push jerks unbroken, but had to break up even the first set of L pull-ups 8/7. After that it was 8/4/3, 5/5/5, 4/4/4/3, and 4/4/4/3. Definitely going to have to prioritize gymnastics stuff more next year.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 4 rounds of 5 minutes on, 3 minutes off.

Ran on a treadmill @ 9mph for all 4 rounds. Was barefoot the first two rounds, in VFFs the last two rounds.

 

[brikis98]

Clean & Jerk: 128x3, 178x2, 198x1, 218x1, 228x1, 238x1, 243x1, 248x1, 253xF, 253xF

Could barely get myself out of bed this morning and was exhausted all day. Not sure why, as I felt fine yesterday, but perhaps the heavy deadlifts from Wednesday caught up with me. Anyways, I was dragging ass through this workout, and with ugly technique, still somehow made it all the way through 248. I wasn't even close on the jerks for 253, so I called it a day.

Tyler
Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
95 pound Sumo-deadlift high-pull, 21 reps

Substitution: did 4 muscle-ups per round instead of 7.

Time: 21:21

I was really struggling with the muscle-ups today, missing lots of reps and basically doing them as singles. Only in round 4 did I realize that I had been forgetting to drive my head forward after the pull, which, of course, makes the turnover very difficult. Once I started driving forward aggressively, I was able to bang out the reps much faster, but my final time still sucked. Hopefully, prioritizing gymnastics next year will help me get through this type of WoD much faster.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 6x400, 5 minutes rest between rounds.

Ran on a high school track, lanes 1-3*, first two rounds in VFFs, last 4 barefoot.

Round 1: 1:12
Round 2: 1:21
Round 3: 1:23
Round 4: 1:21
Round 5: 1:21
Round 6: 1:20

Today was supposed to be a rest day, but I decided to do a workout because (a) I won't have time tomorrow, (b) it was a gorgeous day outside and (c) I slept 12 hours and felt like a king. Except on the first round, where I went moderately hard, the goal today was to go a bit slower, but be much more consistent on lap times. It worked out reasonably well and I definitely have a better "feel" of my pace. My body is getting more used to the 400m distance and I felt like I was recovering better. I especially enjoyed the barefoot running as it seemed to relax me and make for more efficient running.

* Lanes 1 and 2 were blocked on the straightaways, but open on the turns, so I'd switch from lane 1 to lane 3 and back during the run.

 

[brikis98]

Bar muscle-ups: 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 3
Squat: 135x5, 225x5, 275x8, 295x8, 305x10
Overhead press: 95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 165x3, 175x2, 185x1, 190x1, 195xF

Very long day at work, so I didn't get to the gym until very late. To add to this, a CF class was taking up all the barbells and the rings, so I had to wait even longer before my workout. To kill time, I did some muscle-ups on the pull-up bars for the first time in a while. It felt really strange for the first few sets, but smoothed out towards the end. I then moved onto more low weight, high rep squats. My adductor tolerated it fairly well, but I can tell it's still not 100%. I guess I'll keep going with these higher volume workouts. If I get 315 for a set of 10, the 1RM calculators put my 1RM at 410-420, which would be rather surprising. Finally, I moved onto OH press, which felt pretty good. I decided to max out and see where I was; 185 was easy, 190 was slow but solid, 195 got stuck at the top of my forehead. Not too shabby. If my shoulder still feels good next week, I might do some more heavy singles.

 

[brikis98]

Row: 12 rounds of 1 minute on, 30 seconds off

Round 1: 310m
Round 2: 286m
Round 3: 264m
Round 4: 276m
Round 5: 262m
Round 6: 275m
Round 7: 275m
Round 8: 275m
Round 9: 269m
Round 10: 272m
Round 11: 271m
Round 12: 284m

Total: 3319m

 

[brikis98]

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, 365x2, 405x2, 425x1, 445x1, 460x6x1
Rope climbs using legs: 6 ascents
Jump practice: broad jumps, high jumps

Good deadlift session. The first 5 singles with 460 were very solid. The 6th one had more back rounding than I would've liked, but I'm still happy with the performance. I then practiced rope climbing technique and actually used my legs, instead of scrambling up with just my arms like I usually do. It took a few tries to get it right, but the last 3 climbs took just 3 "pulls" each: that is, 3 repetitions of bring knees up high, clamp the rope with my feet, stand up straight. It felt fairly effortless and I'll definitely be using this in future WoDs. I then finished up with some jumping for the fun of it.

Tabata double-unders: 8 rounds of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off

Reps completed: 200 (PR)

Burpees: 50, for time

Time: 2:48

I still can't quite do push-ups due to the shoulder injury, but I really wanted to do burpees, so each rep was essentially a belly flop and then me peeling myself of the floor and jumping to standing. In other words, same ROM, but much slower turn-over. The slower pace meant that I could keep going without any rest the entire workout. The final time is far from my PR, but perfectly acceptable with a bum shoulder.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 6x400m, 4 minutes rest between rounds

Ran on a HS track, lane 1, barefoot

Round 1: 1:11
Round 2: 1:20
Round 3: 1:32
Round 4: 1:28
Round 5: 1:26
Round 6: 1:28

The first 400m felt pretty easy, but for some reason, I got very tight after that. I did a pretty thorough warm-up, but perhaps it wasn't enough, and the result was that my hamstrings, glutes and adductors all felt heavy & stiff for the rest of the workout. At any rate, my original goal here was to start running fast, so I need to keep decreasing the distance. I think I'm going to switch to 200m repeats next time.

 

[brikis98]

Clean: 128x3, 178x2, 218x2, 238x2, 248x1, 258x1, 268x1, 278x1, 283xF, 283xF, 283xF

It has been a while since I went heavy on cleans and it was evident in my technique today. I generated plenty of power in the second pull and got lots of height on the bar, but something was off about how I got under the weight. The bar either landed too far forward on my shoulders or too far back towards my neck and I had lots of awkward reps. Once I got to 283, the awkwardness turned into missed reps. Still, I was within 10lbs of my PR, so with some practice, I should be able to smooth things out and creep a bit closer to 300.

"Nate"
Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 2-Pood Kettlebell swings

Sub: used a 70lb KB.

Rounds completed: 12 (PR)

Today was the first time I was really nailing the transition in the ring muscle-up. By focusing on driving my upper body through the rings, I was able to complete the reps MUCH more efficiently and didn't have to solely rely on a massive kip. That, combined with feeling pretty good on the HSPU's, got me a bit over-excited at the start of the workout and I went way too fast. I got the first 5 rounds done in 6 minutes; this cost me big time, as it took me twice as long for the next 5 rounds. I still managed to set a ~1 round PR, but with better pacing at the start, I should be able to do even better.

 

[brikis98]

"Badger"

Complete three rounds for time of:
95 pound Squat clean, 30 reps
30 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters

Time: 30:30

Tough workout.

 

[brikis98]

Squat: 135x5, 225x8, 275x8, 315x10
OH press: 95x5, 135x5, 155x3, 175x5x1

Adductor is still not 100%, so more high rep squatting. 315 didn't feel too bad, but my adductor definitely reminded me of what my hamstring injury used to feel like. ART helped tremendously back then, so I think I should stop putting it off and do the same for the current injury. For OH press, I just did some moderately heavy singles. No real issues, so I'll go up to 180 next time.

Row: 500m, for time

Time: 1:29.5 (PR)

0.5 second PR, but I'm happy to have it after high rep squatting.

Burpees: 50, for time

Time: 2:54

I can do push-ups now, but I was afraid to do them as part of the crash-to-the-ground motion of a burpee, so I repeated my belly-flop style burpees from last time. This meant a much slower turnover, but still a decent workout, especially with only a couple minutes of rest after the rowing.

 

[brikis98]

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, 365x2, 405x2, 425x1, 445x1, 465x3x1, 465xF, 465x1, 465xF, 465xF, 465xF

The goal today was to get through 6 singles with 465, but I only managed 4. The first 3 went up very smoothly/quickly, I got the fourth one on the second attempt, and then my glutes/hamstrings were pretty much toast. A bit disappointing, but then again, 465 ties my belt-less PR, so doing it for four singles today is still good in my book. Will try again next week.

"Tommy V"

For time:
115 pound Thruster, 21 reps
15 ft Rope Climb, 12 ascents
115 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 ft Rope Climb, 9 ascents
115 pound Thruster, 9 reps
15 ft Rope Climb, 6 ascents

Scaled the rope climbs down to 6, 3, 1.

Time: 16:02

I'm still learning to use my feet properly on rope climbs, so the original plan today was to do 9-6-3. Unfortunately, after the first 5 ascents, my forearms were absolutely jacked/pumped and it was getting very difficult to hold onto the rope and climb safely, so I scaled it even further to just 6-3-1. I was surprised my arms reacted this way, as I've done comparable numbers of rope climbs before, but I guess doing deadlifts just beforehand fatigued my hands quite a bit. I definitely want another shot at this one when my grip is a bit more fresh.