2014 MAR 22 Olympic Lifting

I was feeling kinda weak during Oly Lifting, and my ripped left hand was troublesome. Especially when doing cleans; the rapid rotating of hands on the knurled bar hurt like hell. I did not tape up my hand, but I should have. I noted later they had gobs of athletic tape in the office. I also managed to tweak my right knee. All in all, I should have done the normal workout as it looked fun and exhausting.

2014 MAR 23

EMTOM 15 minutes:
3x overheat squat (85#)
5x box jump 24″

2 minute maxes:
KB swing (91/35#)
slam ball (37/30#)

I wisely stopped by Walgreens to get some tape to tape up my left hand. My tape job worked out better than I thought it would.

I thought I would be able to to 95# on the overhead squats, but I was a little shaky getting them up. That might have been to the lack of real warm up, but I decided to go down since I figured I would start getting really tired after a few rounds. That turned out to be a wise choice. I did manage to get through all 15 minutes on time except for the last minute when I finished the last two box jumps after time ran out.

I tend to go heavy and slow on things, but for the KB swings I decided to go lighter to see how that would go (I was initially inclined to use a 54# or 44# KB). I blasted through the two minutes without dropping the KB and without really slowing down. My total might have been off a bit since my counting tends to fail at high numbers when stressed by exercise. I probably could have also not dropped a heavier KB, but I definitely would not have done as many reps. As for the second max, I’d been using a 40# slam ball during most workouts, but I dropped down because I figured I would be tired (which I was), although now I think that using a 40# ball wouldn’t have affected my final number that much.

A good workout, though. I’m a big fan of EMOTM workouts with a finisher at the end.

CGO 14.4

14 minute AMRAP:
60 cal row
50x toes-to-bar
40x wall ball 20#/14#
30x clean 135#/95#
20 muscle-up

117 reps

I hoped to get to the cleans, but I was only able to start the wall balls. The row took three minutes; I did not know what to expect, but the time required became obvious after 15 seconds or so. Toes-to-bar killed me. I had hoped that I could get through them ok, since I was able to do 50 knees-to-elbows last Monday in basically sets of five, but it took over ten minutes to finish them. Upon reflection, my technique caused me to gas too quickly. I tended to simply pike up by just swinging my legs up when I should have used my back more by “pulling down” on the bar. I also tried to do them in set sets of five, but that caused me to get to muscle failure too fast which made things even slower. I probably did the last 15 reps as singles. As it was, I finished with less than 25 seconds left and managed to crank out 7 wall balls before time was up.

It was a disappointing performance on my part. I think with better technique and strategy I could have gotten to the cleans. On the positive side, eight months ago, I think I could only do one toes-to-bar, so I am obviously much better now. This is the first open workout that I think I could significantly do better if I did it again, but I probably won’t as it is better just to keep doing normal workouts rather than maximize my open placement.

Toes-to-bar were easier than knees-to-elbows before, but evidently that is no longer true for me.

I also managed to rip the skin off my left hand. Oops.

Bear Complex
5 Rounds of 7 Sets of:
1x Power Clean
1x Front Squat
1x Push Press
1x Back Squat
1x Push Press
No dropping of bar between sets
5 minutes rest between sets

I last did the Bear Complex at the Cornucopia Cup, although that was in AMRAP form for the competition at 75 pounds. Today I maxed out at 100 pounds. The first three sets were always very easy no matter what the weight, but then last four were hell. I tended to rest in the back rack postion (S: is that cheating??) and tried to blow through the movements to rest again in the back rack.

During one of the rounds, the barbell bit me on the thumb and index finger and there was much blood, although I did not notice until I stopped. RB said we will never be hand models.

2014 MAR 15 : SATURDAY

I went to the gym as usual. I was still sore from doing 14.3 the day before, but decided to come in anyway, especially since eventually decided that I would not try to redo the workout again. After the workout, I felt like I was going to be pretty stiff, so 14.3 evidently took a lot out of me.

The rest of the family went out to eat at Geraldine’s.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was taken up by preparing for or dinner guests. JI and SP and family were coming over. Basically that meant buy groceries and cleaning and house. For dinner we had pizza for the kiddies and homemade pasta with various also homemade sauces available. It was fun.

2014 MAR 16 : SUNDAY

I was really really stiff in the morning, so I skipped the gym. Instead all of us went to the Seattle Center. ARK and J went to the Science Center while LK and I went to the EMP. LK primarily wanted to see the Lego architecture exhibit as opposed to the music and scifi sections. We did check out the scifi stuff for a bit before checking out the Legos. They basically had ten or so scale models (4-9 foot) of famous buildings, which was kinda neat. There was also a large area for kiddies to make their own lego creations.

We ended up spending practically all of our time with the Legos. I do not think it was worth the $27 or whatever admissions, but LK thought it was great, so for us it was worthwhile in the end.

I had my usual falafel and fries at the center. Although I ended up eating the falafel on the way home as we had to get J back before she passed out. She ended up eating most of my falafel patties.

PKF and family came over for dinner after LK and AF’s Mandarin class. This time everyone had pizza. We also had kale salad; I had told ARK that we should have some other salad because we always have kale salad when PKF comes over, but P said that she loves the salad, so I went out to MacPherson’s to get some kale. Dinner and company were fun.

2014 MAR 17 : MONDAY

It is match week for medical school, so there are sad pandas out there.

Filthy 50
50x Box jumps 24/20
50x Jumping pull-ups
50x DB swings 35/26
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50x Knees to elbows
50x Push press 45/33
50x Back extensions
50x Wall ball 20/14
50x Burpees
50x Double-under

35:08 Rx

First time doing this workout, and it went much better than expected. Possibly because I went in at 6am instead of 5am. I swapped the order of a couple of things (pull-ups and DB swings, back extensions and wall balls) because of conflicts with other people. That probably made it easier for me. Most things I broke up into either 10 rep or 5 rep sets, or in the case of the knees-to-elbows 5 reps, then 3 reps + 2 reps, then 1 reps. The knees-to-elbows were the hardest for me, and this workout might have been the first one I did all of them Rx as opposed to just knees-to-somewhere-higher-up. My counting might have been off for a few things too; anything over 10 reps and I can get confused.

At 6am, the time would be enough to get me on the leaderboard at #8. Dunno if it will hold up, though, as there are definitely eight people who should be able to beat me if they come in today. Best time at Rocket is like 21 minutes BTW.