Pistols and HSPU's

Since I'm still taking it easy on the heavy lifting, and since Mondays are usually my squat day, I really felt like doing some pistols.  I was originally looking at doing a kind of variation of "Mary,"  but Jeremy and I kind of changed things up and decided to just do a couplet of HSPU's and pistols.  Our original thought of a 20 minute AMRAP would have been absolutely brutal.  I think we made the right decision as far as time domains go.  Probably would have been good to change the rep scheme a bit or maybe add one more exercise, but it still kicked my ass so all good.

AMRAP in 15 min. of:

3 HSPU
12 Pistols

14 rounds.

The HSPU's felt pretty good throughout this one.  I even did a couple freestanding HSPU's on accident.  The pistols felt strong, even towards the final rounds.  All in all, a good little WOD, and with a little tweaking, it would be great.

"Lynne"

Felt pretty good yesterday, that is until Tom and I started "Lynne."  I remember when I used to really like this WOD.  Yesterday it was rough!  I felt dead after the first round!  My bench press really sucks, definitely need to work on that.  I think I'm going to ease back into the heavy weights this coming week, and then hopefully start up Wendler again the following week.

"Lynne"

5 rounds for max reps:
Bench press, bodyweight
Pull-ups

*there is no time component

15/34, 11/32, 8/25, 7/20, 5/16

46/127 = 173

So after taking several days off, I felt like I had to do something today.  When I finally got up to SnoRidge, I decided to do some rowing while Tom hit up a WOD.  Things were feeling pretty good during the row so I kept going.  Ended up doing a 5k on the erg.  I know some of you might think I'm crazy for doing a 5k, but rest assured it was an "easy" 5k.  I was around 2:00/500m splits the whole way.  Dipped into the 1:50 range a couple times to test things out, but didn't stay there for too long.

So now several hours after the 5k, everything is feeling good.  Maybe I'll do a couple more rows over the next few days, and then start hitting the weights again next week.

On Hold

So Thursday I was feeling a bit better, and decided to do a WOD that I figured wouldn't really cause any back issues or anything.

AMRAP in 12 min. of:
9 DB thrusters, 35#
1 Rope climb, 15ft.

13 rds.

This was a real gasser.  Felt pretty good afterwards though.  Saturday after my test in Tacoma, I went to hit up a WOD with Tom and Jeremy.  Jeremy came up with the idea of HSPU's on parallettes and then some back squats.

3 Rounds:
5 HSPU on parallettes
15 BW back squats

First round I reached my 1 week goal of 4 consecutive hspu's on parallettes, and actually did all 5 in a row!  First round of back squats went easy.  Second round the hspu's were horrible, I ended up doing them one at a time.  Then I was making up some time on the back squats, and then all of a sudden on rep 7 tweaked my back again.  Stopped right then as to not make anything worse.  It's feeling slightly better today after some heating patches and some rolling out on the lacrosse ball.

So in light of this I will be taking a little time off to not strain it any further.  So, for the time being, all of my current goals are on hold.  Time to rest up and work out the kinks, and work on some gymnastic skills.

So Tuesday, I just wasn't feeling it after work.  I just had zero energy.  I decided to at least get in and get my Wendler squats done. 

Back Squat:
125/160/190
5x205
5x240
5+x270 x8 reps

I called it a day after that, so I could get some rest and maybe do a double today.  When I was doing some mobility wods this morning, my back kind of got tweaked, and so I decided to not hit up "Nancy" like I was originally planning.  Probably a very good idea, as my back is pretty sore sitting here typing this.  Not sure what's up with it, but hopefully a few days off will get it back feeling good.  Since I felt like I needed to do something, I did a Tucker skill set.

100 Ice cream makers
100 shoot-thrus

I used the green band for the ice cream makers, and they started to get real tough real quick.  Same thing with the shoot-thrus.  I was down to sets of 5 pretty fast.  Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up and my back will feel better.  I'll probably just hit my Wendler bench and then maybe do something bodyweight for a WOD. 

Some Experimenting

Time to get back to Wendler, and some more oly work.  I'm mixing things up a bit for this cycle of Wendler and doing a little experiment.  Since my deadlift is not really a weak area for me, I'm taking it out of this cycle.  Instead, I'm going to deadlift heavy at least once a week now.  With my new 1 month goal of completing "King Kong," I'm going to try something a little different.  I'm going to try a Wendler cycle with squat cleans.  We'll see how this works...I'm betting it's going to be tough!  In addition to getting back to the Wendler cycles, I'm going to start focusing again on the Snatch, and also some Jerks. 

Monday:

Press, working load of 145#
60/75/90
5x95
5x110
5+x125  x9 reps

Snatch Push Press: 5x3

95/105/115.  These are a little weird to get used to.  Still going with lighter weights to work on them and get used to the movement.

Barski Snatch:  work up to 75% x3x5  (no straps, no setting the bar down.  All reps from the hang)

125#.  These were tough.  I really tried to focus on being fast under the bar.  These definitely build a little confidence in jumping under the bar.  The last few sets got tough on the third reps.

WOD:

3 Rounds
1 min. max rep pull-ups
1 min. max rep ring dips
1 min. rest

*45# vest

19/13, 18/11, 18/10.  I forgot how tough weighted dips are!  The pull-ups felt pretty good yesterday.  First set was 9 reps with standard overhand grip.  Quickly switched to a mix grip and then most of the reps in the second and third round were "chin-up" grip.

Now off to today's training!

Saturday Fun

Jeremy, Michelle and I came up with a nasty little WOD.  It was short and heavy.

AMRAP in 10 min. of
3 Front Squats (bodyweight)
10 Box jumps (24"/20")

rest 2 min., then:

Max muscle-ups in 4 min.

9 rounds + 15 muscle-ups (205#)

I decided to up the weight a bit and went with 205#.   This was a good choice for me.  Also, rather than use the rack, I decided to squat clean all of the first reps.  My legs were still sore from the 200 squats I did on Thursday, so the front squats felt plenty heavy.  The two minute rest seemed to disappear rather quickly, and the muscle-ups were pretty tough after this AMRAP.  I tried to do as many muscle-ups as I could without a false grip.  I got 3 in a row to start things off, then went for another 3 and failed the third.  Did one more to get a total of 6 regular grip muscle-ups, then switched to the false grip and hit a total of 15.  It's pretty fun doing something like max muscle-ups after wearing yourself out in a WOD.