20 minutes to find max hang snatch – 105#
2x500m row – 4 minutes rest between – 1:43, 1:50
100 hollow body rocks

I always find doing Olympic lifts, or parts of Olympic lifts, during regular classes difficult as the there is usually not enough time for my creaky old body to warm up. Today, the technique lesson was part of the 20 minutes, so there was probably less than 15 minutes to actually lift. the 105# was a PR, tho.

The 1:43 was also a PR for a 500m row. I guess it was a successful workout, even though it didn’t feel like one. I did feel like I could’ve gone even faster on the first attempt.

I definitely tweaked my knee doing the overhead squats and box jumps a few workouts ago. My right one hurt all day.

400m run
100 double-unders
800m run
75 double-unders
1200m run
50 double-unders
1600m run
25 double-unders

39:20

Excluding standard lifts, I believe this is the first workout that I have repeated at the gym. I did it over five minutes faster than I did last September. It is always good to be improving. I think the main reason for my better time is that I am much better at the double-unders, although I am still far from proficient. While warming up, JD was giving us various tips and whatnot, and he commented that he always see people “start to panic” and start leaning forward, jumping too high, scrunching their shoulders, and then messing up. After a few warm-up attempts, R told me, “you look like you’re panicking!” Thanks, R. I also think my cardio is better, not much, but better. It was raining pretty hard, though, so that definitely slowed everyone down, and there were many puddles to dodge. And their was the sloshing socks which made running and jumping rope even more fun. So, given the conditions, I probably could have gone even faster.

I did notice that I could run faster than I do. I believe I ran each 400m split on the 1600m section I ran faster than any of the previous ones, simply because I tried to lengthen my stride and turn my legs over quicker. It was more tiring, but not all that much. I definitely should get out of my normal ambling run that I have been doing.

RP asked me today while we were squatting “Do you always wear cat t-shirts?” Me: “Well, I do like cats a lot”.

CGO 14.5

for time:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3
thrusters 95#/65#
burpees-over-bar

28:45

I knew beforehand that this one was going to suck. If this was a normal workout, I definitely would not have done the thrusters at 95#, but since I was registered for the Open, I did not really have the choice. The annoying thing about thrusters is that I find the front squat part rather trivial, but the overhead press part, even with the momentum coming out of the squat, is rough. At least, doing 80+ reps is rough. I tried to break up the rounds into three parts (e.g. 7×3, then 6×3, then 5×3, etc.) but I could not keep that up and eventually just did the thrusters in sets of three. The burpees themselves weren’t so bad, I really used them to get my heart rate down from the thrusters.

All in all, this was the hardest workout I have done in a while. My shoulders locked up maybe thirty minutes after I finished, and I could not raise my arms (right was much worse than left). I had an unpleasantly funny moment when I could not get my cold sweat filled shirt off when I got home. I had to use my left arm to move my right arm around.

Three hours later, my right shoulder is feeling better. At least I can raise it a bit. ARK is very concerned. “You only have catastrophic health insurance! It might cost $10000 if you get admitted to the hospital!” She is especially concerned with my kidneys since I am on an ACE inhibitor. I am not that concerned at the moment. ARK: “Well, what do I know? It’s not like I am a highly trained health professional, right?”

My time sucked. I did finish though. I basically kept a constant pace throughout, mainly because I wanted to be sure I did not completely exhaust my shoulders during the workout and then not be able to finish.

weighted strict pull-ups 6×3 (7.5# max)

3 rounds for time:
100m farmer’s carry 2×53#
15x DB shoulder-to-overhead 2×35#
15x DB lunges 2×35#

13:22

I have only done single rep weighted pull-ups recently, so the additional poundage was much less that previous efforts due to the 3x reps. I had to wrap my left hand because my palms are still ripped.

The metcon wasn’t that bad; in addition to the cardio, it was more of a forearm workout. The last time I did the farmer’s carry I used 2×70# kettlebells, but BC (RB wasn’t there for some reason) said that we should be able to go the distance without dropping it, so I went with the 53# ones. After the first round I still had to stop because my forearms were burning. In retrospect, I should’ve used 45#-55# on the DB stuff, as they were difficult only because my forearms hurt from the farmer’s carry. I probably would’ve finished those exercises in the same amount of time.

The workout didn’t thrill me all that much, but I definitely sweat a lot and it was apparent my forearms need work.

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.