Muscle Ups

I only do conditioning twice a week so when I do, I like to work on things I neglect in my strength training. This consists of oly lifts and a lot of gymnastic techniques. Although my met-cons typically have similar movements in them I try to mix a unique flavor together every time.

5 rounds:
3 muscle ups
20 sit ups (with Ab-Mat)
30 double unders

11:43

Well, I will be honest and tell you that this was a very frustrating WOD for me, not because of the WOD itself but because of the condition I was in. I performed this WOD in the "performance room" (I use parenthesis because it is a pretty low grade room, but, it has rings, prowlers and some other cool stuff), I am not sure why, but I had trouble breathing. I used to get asthma daily when I was younger, every once and a while it comes back. Secondly, my stupid/beautiful hair kept coming out of my pony-tail during the double unders. With both of these factors I ended up wasting some time fixing my wig and gasping for a deep breath. Either way, I was able to get the muscle ups (at a comfy 212#) and sit ups unbroken while successfully getting the first and last set of double unders unbroken. The middle three sets had one break early. Definitely could have done this under ten minutes if my mind was right.

Its Amazing.....

....how much of a difference an extra 1000 calories makes. After my embarrassing display of fitness, or lack thereof, last Friday, I upped my calorie intake and I was a new man yesterday. I felt great.

Backsquat
3x1 @ 365#

Shoulder Press
3x5 @ 146#

Deadlift
2x1 @ 475#

The squats felt better then ever with this much weight. My back angle stayed stationary and my hips rose in good timing with the rest of my body. Although the lift was slow out of the bottom, I was steadily rising the whole time, even on the 3rd rep.

I chose to do light presses in order to keep my shoulders fresh for benching on Friday. A friend from the gym, a former Crossfitter turned power lifter like yours truly and one of the few patrons who doesn't humiliate themselves with their training regimen, showed me how to keep a good arch in my back during bench press. Considering I SUCK at bench press, partially do to the lack of knowledge I have for it, partially because I am not strong (yet), I am looking for any advice I can get. I have tried to arch my back before and only found it becoming flat during my set. I am hoping, if I can figure out how to get this arching down that not only will my bench improve but I will be able to wear a belt (I have tried a belt before and it adds no help to my makeshift bench form) and further progress my lift.

I am going to say that I was not fully healed from my previous 3x1 with 475# on the deadlift. Although the weight went up fairly routinely, I felt my back slightly rounded and my fatigue set in more then last Tuesday. This is why I chose to only do 2 reps instead of 3. That is going to be my last heavy set before the competition.

Weekend Update With JMo

Lots of s*#t went down since Friday. With this competition looming, I have been satisfied with my lifts even while cutting weight. This was not the case on Friday. I died, had no energy, only completed 4 reps on my first set of 5 for the first time in my life. 350# felt way too heavy, that was all I needed, I am done cutting weight. It is kind of disappointing because part of me feels like I am letting myself down. However, this feeling of remorse is strongly outweighed by my feeling of relief. My goal for the competition now is to try and PR in all my lifts and not worry about actually "competing."

Friday
Backsquat
1x5 @ 340# (failed on fifth rep)
1x1 @ 350# (felt terrible)

Pause Bench Press
1x1 @ 275# (fail)
1x1 @ 275# (fail)
1x1 @ 265# (PR)

Saturday
5 rounds:
5 cleans @ 155#
10 pull ups
20 kettlebell swings @ 1.5 pood

12:30

The WOD on Saturday was pretty tough! I was able to do everything unbroken but I took my fair share of rest between the sets. To my surprise, the part of my body (and Louis's because he did this WOD after me) to lose all strength and gain all pain, were our forearms! By round three they were on fire! At the end of the workout I couldn't even get the top of my water bottle unscrewed.

Back to high calorie intake with hope of being strong again someday. My goal is to look like Vince Wilfork before the year is over.

Conditioning Wednesday

Wednesday and Sunday are my conditioning days. My only requirement is that I elevate my heart rate for an extended period of time. Obviously, Crossfit WODs are my go-to, but I also play on a hockey team so any time my games fall on a Wednesday (which has been the last two weeks) I count them as my conditioning. Unfortunately, the games this season (and many prior seasons) start at 10:00 PM (just imagine the numbers are in caps as well, I was shouting when I wrote that). At my old age of 26 and 5/6 years, when 9:00 pm rolls around I am ready for a beer and the couch. With these games starting an hour after my IPA-Time (its a play on Miller-Time because Miller is crap), its tough. But, if you read my post on VulcanFit.com, there are two different times to listen to your body, my body was feeling good and Training Is Training. To sum it up, yesterday my conditioning was skating for an hour and a half.

Here is what the best player in the world does to the biggest chump in the world on the worlds biggest stage, the Olympics.



Watch it again.

Tapering

I have started my taper for the meet on November 20th. My weight is currently 207# and dropping. I am constantly hungry and my precious belly is gone. I am looking for an excuse to stop cutting weight and just settle for gettting SMOKED in the 220# weight class. Yesterday was going to be a good measure to see if this weight cutting had any effect on my strength.

Backsquat
3x1 @ 365# (PR)

Shoulder Press
1x3 @ 155#
2x3 @ 175#

Deadlift
3x1 @ 475# (PR)

Well, crap. The damn lifts were not a struggle. In fact I could have thrown more weight on! The back squats went down and up with barely any slowing down. The 400# squat I am striving for is looking more and more to be in my grasp! The shoulder presses were fine, nothing special, wasn't entirely focused on these, the excitement in my stomach (and growling) for the deadlift (and food) were what was on my mind. I had pulled 475 once before during CFT when I was "90's Small", 185#. It was terribly ugly, I hitched the whole way, it took me about five minutes, I don't think I locked it fully out and I am pretty sure I shit myself. Today, wow, It felt like 405#. Up with relatively no sweat! All three reps! To try and fix my slightly rounded back I moved my shoulders even more in front of the bar, raising my butt another inch or two. This really felt good and I even got some props on my form from some veterans of powerlifting competitions. Yesterday was a good day.

Beautiful Sunday

This weather is so freaking great. I love it, nice breeze, green grass, sun shining, birds chirping.... want to recite me a poem, easy. Another thing I love to do in this weather is ride my bike! Since I have no where to go except, well, the gym (meathead), I have been riding my bike about 9 miles round trip to the gym on Sundays, conditioning day. The gym is especially awesome on Sundays because it is recently cleaned and there are very few patrons, meaning, I get all the damn space I need to swing from the pullup bar and throw barbells around. When the weather is as wonderful as it has been the last couple weeks, they have the doors open and it puts me in the mood to train! Yesterday Louis rode with me to the gym! A little apprehensive at first after not being on a bike in over a decade, I think he felt pretty comfortable towards the end, well accept for the whole ass pain thing from the seat.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Power snatch @ 75#
Pull ups
GHD sit ups

JMo: 10:33
Big Lou: 12:56

This was another good workout! I really wanted to get sub ten but completing all my sets unbroken was more important and garnered more rest from me between sets. My plan was successful but I feel like I took a little too much time before the pullups. Overall, and I can say this a million times, being stronger is such an advantage. I have dwindled my conditioning down from once or twice a day to twice a week to make room for strength training and adequate rest. Even with this drop in metabolic conditioning, my work capacity is relatively high and the weight doesn't fatigue me nearly as fast. My pullups are not as good as they used to be but banging 20 in a row is still not an issue. Louis was also successful in completing all the sets unbroken. Mad props.

Friday

Today was tough! I am still cutting weight, eating straight Paleo and I can tell that the lack of calories (compared to what I have been consuming for the past 6 months) is effecting my strength. However, I am not getting weaker, I just don't see myself setting 5 lb Pr's every time I squat. Today I tried to tie my 3x5 PR.

Backsquat
3x5 @ 340#

Bench Press
3x3 @ 260#

The squats were EXHAUSTING! I was about to lay on the floor and go to sleep after my first set. I also started to come forward (butt raising to fast) on rep 3-5 on my first set. I was able to correct this on set two and three. Although, I had serious doubts that I would succeed going into set three. That is definitely not the mindset I want beforehand. After rep three of set three, I again felt like laying on the floor and going to sleep. I was able to bang out the last two with fairly good form. All fifteen reps were below parallel. I can't wait until this competition is over and I move up to the 220# weight class. This dieting sucks.