T2B Cindy; Turning the corner on muscle-ups

I arrived at CrossFit Regina way early for the 7pm WOD last night, so I spent some time doing muscle-ups.  Five, to be precise, which brings my lifetime total to 14. I'm averaging 2 MUs per year, for each year I've been doing CrossFit. Yay, Tyler!  

The muscle-ups in question were ugly as hell.  I'm barely getting the bottom of the ring armpit height, so there's always a brief, mini-struggle to bring my right elbow closer to my body so I can lock it out.  Shae gave me some advice on gripping the ring that I'm going to try out.

Still, I think I've almost reached the point where I can go up to a set of rings and be totally confident that I could do a muscle-up.  Almost.

WOD of the day

"T2B Cindy":
-5 toes-to-bar
-10 push-ups
-15 squats

I did 16 rounds plus 5 T2B.



Beforehand, I was a little unsure about this because the last time I did Cindy, I developed that hamstring injury that still lingers to this day.  I'm not sure if the injury was a result of Cindy or the sprints I had done two days earlier in Edmonton, but I sure as hell didn't want it to flare up again.  I was also unsure how good the T2B would be for my shoulder.

14.4 was announced yesterday right before I got to the gym.  I thought maybe I'd to that instead.  Then I found out it was a chipper with 50 consecutive T2B, which sounded like a recipe for hand tearing or shoulder fuckage.  Screw that, I thought.  T2B Cindy it is.

Sure I ended up doing more T2B with the Cindy WOD, but they're done in smaller sets, and separated by however long it takes to do the push-ups and squats.

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I may end up doing 14.4 at some point.  There's a fine line between injury avoidance and just being a pussy.    

Overhead Squats and 10 Minute Cindy

A. Overhead Squats 5-5-5-3-3-3

135-145-155(PR)-160-165(FAIL)-165(PR)


B. 10 Minute Cindy
As many rounds as you can in 10 minutes of:
5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Squats

I got 10 rounds, plus five pull-ups and three push-ups.

Push-ups continue to slow me down.

"Power Cindy"

AMRAP in 15 minutes

1 Power Clean – 135 lbs
1 Round of Cindy
2 Power Cleans
1 Round of Cindy
and so it goes for 15 minutes, adding one Power Clean each round.

I actually prefer this WOD to regular Cindy. Power cleans may be my favourite lift, and the fact that you have to do them in this WOD slows things down enough that it somewhat hides my true weakness when it comes to Cindy: push-ups.

This time out, I got 9 rounds + 2 power cleans.

I desperately wanted to beat my score of 9 rounds even from last time, but wondered if I'd even be able to come close. At the end, I had about 10 seconds left after finishing the 9th round, so I hustled over to the bar and got it up. I looked at the clock and still had 4 seconds left, so I did it again.

And then it was time to lie down.

.

Power Cindy

AMRAP in 15 min:

1 power clean (135lbs)
1 round of Cindy

Each round, you add another power clean. (Round 2, do two PC then a round of Cindy, Round 3, do three PC and a round of Cindy, etc.)


I got nine rounds even.


Overheard at the Gym:

Ang(3&4)Desj: "My favourite is a skin sandwich dipped in gravy. And I'm not even talking about KFC."

Chelsea "DAMMIT!!"

Benchmark Girl “Chelsea”:
“Cindy” on the minute for up to 30 minutes
Cindy = 5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Squats


Start a round of Cindy on the minute and keep going until you can’t complete the round within the minute. Continue doing rounds of “Cindy” until 30 minutes is up.

The problem with Cindy has always been the push-ups. They burn out your arms FAST. I didn't participate in the push-up challenge that CFR is doing this month, but I may do one on my own starting April 1.


I only got 7 rounds on the minute. The "DAMMIT!!" in the blog post title quotes my reaction upon falling two squats short of eight rounds. It was really ignorant of me to do, because there were CrossFit Kids in the gym. I was extremely pissed off and disappointed in myself, but that's no excuse. I've reigned in my swearing at home and at the gym a fair bit, but I still have work to do.

Then, I wallowed in self-pity for a good minute and ended up with 14 rounds at 20 minutes, which I don't regard as a real Cindy score because of so much resting during the early part, when you're fresh. For example, BrianB did Cindy on the minute for the entire 30 minutes, but his real Cindy score would be higher than 20 if he didn't spend 30 seconds of every minute resting.

After 30 minutes, I got 19 rounds, plus 5 pull-ups, plus 4 push-ups.

The Other Cancun Workouts

I kinda lost track of which days I did these, and while I did go on the internet briefly each day while in Mexico, it was mostly to check for messages from my Mom about how things were going, as my parents were looking after the Boy.

Thursday

Back on the roof for another metcon. The gym at the facility had some dumbbells, but it was pretty small for any kind of weight work, so I went back up to the unused rooftop terrace for another workout. I forgot to bring my stopwatch this time, so I don't know how fast I did it. Not really fast. But I was breathing pretty hard by the end.

Five rounds of:

10 burpees
10 squats
10 boxjumps (the terrace had a 20 inch stone bench surrounding it that was perfect for box jumps)
10 bench dips (kind of lame, but I wanted to do something for arms/shoulders other than push-ups)
10 double unders.

I was originally going to do it as a chipper (50 of each) , but it was getting dark and windy and I didn't want to be up there all night. Plus, I was a little self-conscious and was doing this in full view of about half the hotel rooms in the place.


Saturday

The previous day, I was killing some time wandering around the resort when I had a brainstorm. I went to the gym and took a look at the pull-down machine (not sure if that's the official name). I figured out that if I set it at its heaviest settings, I could use it for pull-ups. I was really happy and made mental plans to do 10 rounds of "Cindy" the next day. Then I got there in the morning and some guy with a moustache was using the cables on the machine to do bicep curls (kill me now). I could have hopped in with the three people who were taking part in the spinning class, but I really had no desire to do that (I don't like biking, running or walking in one place and not getting anywhere, which is probably why I'm not a big fan of rowing). So I thought I'd follow the credo of "regularly learn and play new sports" and spend a little while goofing around in the racquetball court. I actually worked up a pretty good sweat, but was surprised at how bad I was at sustaining any kind of a rally. I guess, when you play by yourself, you have to hit the ball twice as often. My parents have a court in their building complex and I think I'm going to drag my Dad in there to give it a try.

After what seemed like forever, Moustache was done pumping up his biceps, so it was time to do 10 rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats).

Except, that the pull-ups weren't coming so easy. I couldn't really kip without rocking the machine (and I didn't want it to fall over or to even make noise and get a warning from staff) so the pull-ups had to be mostly deadhang. So I switched it to five rounds of Cindy and I didn't time it. Then I went back to the hotel room and did 100 double-unders on the balcony.

The rest of the trip, I tried to make up for the insane amounts of non-paleo food and blended alcoholic drinks I was consuming by being as active as possible. I played a lot volleyball (beach, pool, tequila) and went on a bike tour, and fought the ocean at least once a day. I still gained a couple of pounds on the trip, but nowhere near what I would have otherwise.

"Cindy" makes Tyler forget how to count, again

"Cindy"
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats

I didn't see what the workout was going to be before coming in this morning. I think I'm going to do that more often.

I did all the pull-ups uninterrupted and almost all of squats that way, as well. I started partitioning the push-ups (FIXED; thanks, Kurt!)in the third round.

So, as I usually do for this, I set up one of the portable whiteboards near my station and put 20 notches on it. It makes for quicker marking if I just rub out (heh, I said "rub out") a notch with my finger when I complete a round, rather than un-cap a marker and write one.

But, like happened the last time I did this, there was a point in the workout where I wasn't sure if I marked a round down. I wasn't sure, but didn't rub out another notch, so I decided to go with the lesser result.

So, in the end, the whiteboard says I got 17 rounds, plus 5 pull-ups, plus 10 push-ups, plus 4 squats.

If you compare it to my previous Cindy result, I improved by only four squats. But I may have shortchanged myself this time by one round, so I might have improved by one round and four squats. And, if I double-counted a round the last time I did Cindy, I may have improved by as much as two rounds and four squats. I'm going to not give myself the benefit of the doubt here, and just go with the result above.

Back Squats and half-"Cindy"

5-5-5 80 per cent max back squats.

I did 175. Probably could have gone 10 or 20 heavier. Then again, I didn't, so maybe I should just shut the fuck up and stop talking big.

Then 10 minutes of "Cindy":

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats.

I did 9 rounds plus 5 PLU, 10 PU and 8 SQ. Push-ups slowed me down bad, and my hands were a little raw from Wednesday, so I wasn't eager to get back on the bar for pull-ups. That could have cost me the full ten rounds I was aiming for. Or maybe I just suck.

"Cindy"

Number of rounds in 20 minutes:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

The push-ups are what get me on this one. I tried to partition them more, even before I had to.

My previous best on this one came back in March, when I got 15 rounds, plus 5 PLU, 10 PU and 6 squats.

Today, I believe I got 17 rounds, plus 5 PLU and 10 PU. I say "believe" because there was one point where I thought I forgot to mark a round, so I did it in the middle of the next round. It's possible that I had already marked it, so I may have unintentionally given myself an extra round. Oh well, that's just a slightly loftier mark to try to beat next time.

Here's a video of some CrossFit Regina Chicks doing this workout last November, before we moved into the newer, bigger gym.



Oh, and I did 115 f**king wall balls. Add that to the 50 salt bag thrusters from yesterday, and I'm paid up in the Wall Ball Challenge until Thursday.