First of all, let’s start that I was supposed to have my rest day on Sunday and I ended up going to climbing gym for some bouldering. Bouldering is never associated with resting as it is short interval high effort activity, but I just needed to do that, plus, of course, going for 5km walk with my doggie which is kind of obligatory every 2-3 days. Having that in mind, there is no wonder that my body today is sore everywhere…back, legs, arm, shoulders, you name it 🙂 But….no pain, no gain, right? Today is my rest day and they now coincide with outlaw rest days as I have started following outlaw programming and even after a week, I already see progress. Yes, that fast, because outlaw does lots of oly and this is where I aim to get stronger, I mean, much stronger that I am now. Regarding my regular crossfit classes that I have 3 times a week, I try to choose the ones that have skill training, because now I am all about technique, technique and once more technique. I know that I am strong, I know that I have good stamina, but to grow I need to learn to be as effective as possible. So, let’s go through my 3 days of training:
MONDAY
OUTLAW training (I went to the gym for that):
BB Gymnastics
1) 7X3 Hi-Hang Snatch (knee extension only)- medium/heavy but VERY fast unbroken reps, rest 60 sec. Weights: 75#, 2×85#, 90#, 3×95#. Started really low, because was not sure about high hang snatch and my capacities, but even 95# wasn’t very hard to make, felt really good.
2) 7X3 Hi-Hang Clean (knee extension only) + 1 Jerk – medium/heavy but VERY fast, unbroken, rest 60 sec. Weights: 95#, 2×105#, 4×110#.
Strength
1a) 3X8 Weighted Strict Pullups – heavier than last week, rest 60 sec.
I have never done weighted pull ups in my life, but well, it’s never too late. Grabbed a vest that was in a gym, asked how much it weights, appeared to be 15#, so not too heavy. Managed to make max. 4 pull ups unbroken. The biggest struggle was with last pull up, it took me 3 tries to finally make it.
1b) 3X8 Shoulder Press. Last week I used 65#, tried to go 75#, but after 3 reps, realized that there is no way I am gonna make 24reps in total, so lowered down to 70#. Still felt heavy, have to work more on technique, as I felt my back bending a bit too much back.
Conditioning
4 rounds for total reps of:
- In 90 seconds Row 250m then with the remaining time perform AMRAP of OHS @ 115/75#.
- *Rest 90 seconds after each round (including the final round).
- -THEN-
- 400m Run for time (absolutely all out effort).
That was a killer 🙂 first round made 3 OHS, second just one as dropped the bar and it took too long to snatch it back 🙂 3rd round 3 OHS and 4th round I concentrated and made 5 OHS. I think my run of 400m. was fastest that I have ever run 400m., but did not took time, just concentrated on pushing to max.limit. Calves were burning afterwards, which I suppose is a good sign 🙂
Overall, felt really good after training, very high spirits and energized.
TUESDAY
Crossfit Class
Skill: double unders (max. unbroken made in 8mins). Managed to make 37, that is vast improvement from ~20 that I had last week. Still, need to work on that.
20-15-10 for time:
- Back Squats 95#.
- Back Push Press 95#
- Wallballs 16#
- Slamballs 15kg
- RESULT: 15:07min.
Actually I started workout with 115#, because I always take the highest weight prescribed for girls, made back squats, tried to make back push press and failed 3 times in a row. It is just such a weird position to have barbell on the back and obviously I still managed to hurt my neck bone while I learned proper way to land the bar on the back that was a good lesson, but I am still scared of all these back push presses.
Ah…yeah…here comes my bitchy side. There was a couple that came to the class that I haven’t seen before and I assume it was their first time on our box, but obviously not for crossfit. So, here they come, all dressed up from head to toes with Reebok Crossfit, literally: headband, shirt, short, shoes, socks. I even got a bit intimidated by their appearance, as you would think that they would be super good and strong. But the moment when the girl started putting the protection that is usually important when you do bog amount on pull ups and toes to bar so that you would not destroy totally your hands, I began doubting. Why a hell in the world you would need that for back squats and back push press. There is no big friction involved that would tear of you calluses. Not mentioning that calluses actually are good to have as it makes your skin harder, you just have to make sure that they are not too thick 🙂
I was happy when I beat the girl, especially having in mind that I took time to change weights and reset again, it just shows that having all the clothing and equipment does not make you better athlete. And I obviously had a little evil laugh inside me, simply because I don’t like the show off of any sort.
I took like 30min. break just hanging around in a gym and having some snack before I hit the second workout. I am not sure if it is the best idea to put that much at the same time, however, I hope that CF classes usually are higher intensity and Outlaw more concentrated on strength that it will actually work fine. I will see in a month or so how it will affect my overall performance as now it is hard to say.
BB Gymnastics
1) 5X2 Vertical Snatch off High Boxes (at hip) – heavy but perfect—not maximal, rest 60 sec. I took 77lbs, tried 95#, but could not snatch, it felt much more hard than Mondays hang snatch. Maybe because I have never done oly from high boxes.
2) 5X2 Vertical Clean off High Boxes (at hip) – heavy but perfect—not maximal, rest 60 sec. I took 95# and last set went really hard, could not get first time.
Strength
*The Back Squats are based off of YOUR THREE REP MAX.
1) 5X5 Back Squats @ 75% – rest 2 minutes. Used 135#, as I did not know what is my max, so just assumed that it should be around 180# if I can front squat 145#.
2) 3X5 Front Squats @ 77.5% (3 second pause on the 1st & 5th rep) – rest 90 seconds. Front squat max. I tested last week and it was 145# having myself all the way down, so the weight that I used for training was 113#. That was really hard to make 5th squat up after having 3sec. pause at the bottom. Now I can see why it is called strength training 🙂
Conditioning (this I made much later at night at home, because I felt too tired to do conditioning, especially conditioning that involves burpees, so I made it after coming back from a walk with Nora)
1 minute AMRAP of Jerks @ 225/150#. haha…Obviously there is no way that I could jerk 150#, maybe I could, but I haven’t tried yet, anyways, I would never do that at home, as max. weight that I have is 115# and also because I would need rack for that instead of having to clean in that minute. So, I used 95# and wasn’t even sure if I would be able to jerk that as I felt damn tired after training before and long long walk. Still made 10 jerks, which I felt proud about.
-then (no break)-
100 Burpees for time. Time cap: 10mins.
*Perform 1 Rope Climb @ 15′ EMOM beginning AFTER the first minute. Obviously no Rope climb as I don’t have it at home, just made burpees. It took me 7:28min, to complete. Last week when I tested my burpees for time, I made 77reps. in 7mins., this time it was 95reps. It all summed up in mot taking rests, because I counted that even if I take 10sec. break each minute, I already loose minimum 1min. of my performance. That is a lot to loose. However, it was really a psychological struggle each time after jump to go back down and make it again. And I do them according to Open of 2012 games requirements, with 6″ jump above your max. reach.
-then (no break)-
1 minute AMRAP of Jerks. Are you kidding me? After devastating burpees to make jerks again. I was just trying to catch my breath. Then make a clean. And before 1min. was over managed to make 2 jerks. Still, I made them, I though I would not be able. This is what I call pushing to the maximum. A month ago I could not make 95# overhead without great effort and now I do it without any big effort even being fatigued.
WEDNESDAY
Crossfit Class:
I called this WOD “BLACKBOX POWER”
For Time. Time cap: 40mins. My time: 36:52mins.
- 100 box jumps 20″
- 10 front squats 135#
- 90 release push ups
- 20 KB push press 35#
- 80 v-sits
- 30 toes to bar
- 70 OH walking lunges 25#
- 40 Cousins 16#
- 60 KB swing 35#
- 50 Deadlift 135#
That was a long long workout with loads of different stuff. I reached my PR on clean. I was sure that I can make 135# front squats and deadlifts, just not sure if I will be able to bring bar to the shoulders. Did it, it was hard, but did not feel like maximum that I could clean. I remember that a month ago I tried to clean 135# and it felt really hard that I though that it would take me at least 3 month to be able to clean that weight, and here you go…it took me a month and starting following Outlaw, at least I believe so 🙂 Most devastating part: making 40 cousins. That is when I started planning how I deal with numbers, because I felt super tired after 15 that I made, so I just decided to break into 5reps and take rest, 5 reps, take rest. That helped a lot, because I could make 5 reps really fast and then having even 10sec. break would bring my power back. Did breaking into parts with KB swings as well:15reps. break, and deadlifts: 10reps. break. I was one of very few that did finish this workout in time cap as most people did not manage to finish it. I assume, lack of stamina.
After this workout, took short break, ate my paleo crunches to get dose of proteins and fats and made Outlaw workout.
Strength
1) 10X1 Deadlifts @ 75-80% – rest 45 sec. Last time when I tested my deadlift it was 255lbs, so I just started from there and took 75% of weight that was 190#.
2) Bench Press: 2X5 @ 75%, 2X3 @ 80%, 3X2 @ 85% – rest 60 sec. Had no idea what I can bench press, so just assumed that it would be 100#, therefore I bench pressed 75#, 80# and 85#.
Strength/Conditioning
1a) 3XME UB + 3 Muscle-Ups – rest 30 sec. Muscle-Ups should be performed as a max effort unbroken set, then perform 3 more reps as fast as possible after finishing the UB set. If you cannot string together more than 3 reps UB, then perform another UB set before performing the extra 3 reps. If you cannot string reps together perform 7 reps as fast as possible. Obviously I was not able to make more that 3 reps unbroken, max. that I could do was 2 reps and even that using band (smallest one though). However, in the third round I wanted to cry when I had to lock out my elbows to count the rep. Was all swimming in sweat.
1b) 3X3 Snatch Grip Behind the Neck Press – much heavier than last week, rest 30 sec. 95#, hurt my neck boke again, have to learn to land it all the time on shoulder blades.
1c) 3X20 UB KB Snatches (each arm) – heaviest possible (not lighter than last week), rest 30 sec. Used 26lbs. First took 35lbs, but then changed my mind as I really wanted to make them unbroken.
1d) 3X10 Reverse Hypers – heavy, rest 30 sec. Used 45lbs plate. Felt really heavy after first 4 reps, but doable with little break.
So, that was my training, pretty intense, but nice. I enjoyed a lot. Can’t wait to see what I will do tomorrow and I know that for Crossfit class on Saturday there will be max. weight for OHS, I hope to make at least 95#, or better cross 100# mark 🙂
Follow Myself 