Shoulder Press / Back Squats / Sled Drags that didn't suck

A. Max Shoulder Press (one-rep)

115-135-145(PR)-150 (PR)-155(F)

The 150 was a bit of a fight, but I got it up.  I could barely move the 155, though.  Funny how that works.



B. Max Back Squat (one-rep)

I'm still wary of my back, so when I was thinking about squats earlier in the day I thought I might stop at about 250 or so. 

I can't remember my exact progression, but I ended up at:

245-275-305

275 felt pretty good, so I was fairly confident with the 305, which is five pounds shy of my max.  I did ask for spotters, though. 



C. Partner sled drags 80m repeats


The deal here is that partners go back and forth on 40m sprints, dragging a 115m sled for ten minutes. 

I liked this a lot, actually.  I was able to go pretty hard for each of the 8 sprints I did, knowing that it would be over soon and I could stop.  My partner Jamieson apologized for not going faster, but I was happy to have a bit more of a breather. 

Press / Deadlift / Kodiak

A.  Shoulder Press - 3-3-3

95-115-120 


B. Deadlift 1x5

Warmed up with 95, 185 and 225. 

Then I lifted 300 for five reps, a PR of five pounds.

This breaks a PR I set earlier this month. 

One of these days, I have got to work toward a one-rep max.  I haven't done that for three years. 


C. "Kodiak"

With increasing the weight, do seven rounds of
3 snatch (touch and go)
6 overhead squat
9 back squat. 

You can't put the bar down in the middle of a round. 

The part I hated the least was the transition from OHS to back squat.  It did not feel great on the arm that's hurting.  I ended up going  into a squat as the weight came down across my shoulders

It was getting late, so I only did six rounds.

75-85-95-105-125  Another five-pound PR, although my previous best on Kodiak dates back to 2009.  

Note to future self reading this:  Tape your wrists when you do this. 

Press, Deadlifts, Rhiannon

A. Shoulder Press 3-3-3

 

Ended up with 135. 

 

 

B. Deadlift 1×5

275


C. “Rhiannon”
Max Double-Unders in 10 minutes

300.  Not my best.

Shoulder Press and Bell Swing Annie

A. Strength = Shoulder Press 3-2-1-1-1
115(3) 125(2) 135(1) 140(F) 140(BFFF~!)

B. “Bell Swing Annie”
50-40-30-20-10 reps of
Double-Unders
Kettlebell Swings to overhead – 55lb

13:54 My DUs weren’t on in the first round, but what really slowed me down was the bell swings and too-frequent breaks.

Strength - Workout A

You know that rotten smell that clothes get when you left them in the washer for too long before drying and then they get a little wet when you sweat in them? My T-shirt today had a faint whiff of that smell going on. I'm pretty proud of myself for doing all my lifts successfully, despite this adversity.

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 270 lbs

Effing heavy. This is the most I've ever successfully done for three sets of five. I did my best to warm up well at 6am, but I came pretty close to failing on the first set. Actually, I came close to failing on all of them, I'd say, but you could probably say that for any of the squats I've done since about 240 lbs.

On Monday, I'm going to set a PR when I get 5 x 275. Gravity can go fuck itself.


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 120b lbs

Small increases of two or three pounds for this reset. Perhaps I should have warmed up better, because I failed on my fifth rep of my first set. I decided to set that aside as a practice session, concentrate on my breathing and do three more sets, which I was able to do.

Power cleans - Five sets of 3 x 180 lbs

Coach Jeff noted that my feet tend to travel backwards as I lift, but the bar looks like it's going fairly straight vertical. He wasn't sure if that was a problem, seeing as the lifts have been successful.

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 240 lbs
Heavy. 'Nuff said.


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 130 lbs.

I went into this thinking that I would probably fail and, guess what? I was right. I got two reps in the first set, four in the second (had to take a step forward on the fourth, though), and two in the third set. Lame.


Power cleans - Five sets of 3 x 165 lbs.

This was okay. I'm getting more comfortable with the hook grip. I bashed my collarbone a couple of times.

Strength - Workout A

Back squat - Three sets of 5 x 230 lbs

Still heavy. The idea that I will one day be able to do 5 x 300 lbs seems almost absurd to me at this point.


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 125 lbs

I failed on the fifth rep of my first set. I'd like to say that I did it to make Kurt happy, but that would be untrue. It did make Kurt happy, though. He received an extremely warm and satisfying feeling from watching someone else struggle with shoulder press; I wish I could find an appropriate metaphor that would accurately describe how happy this made Kurt. I was just unable to get my head forward on the last rep. I but got all five up on the next two sets. So I did an extra set and got all five reps on that, too. While exhaling on the last rep of the third set, I accidentally hocked a loogie six feet in front of me, which was pretty funny.


Power clean - Five sets of 3 x 160 lbs

These felt pretty good, too. I'm getting more comfortable with the hook grip.

Strength - Workout A

Back Squats - Three sets of 5 x 220 lbs.
Still heavier than they should be. Perhaps it's time to start drinking milk again. But I just got some semblence of ABZZZ back! Dilemmma!


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 120 lbs.

On the last rep of the second set, I had to walk forward a bit. I think that would have disqualified me in competition. Not that I'm planning on completing, because I'm pretty sure there are 12-year-old girls who can press more than me. On the last rep of the third set, I also took a step forward, but I had already locked out.


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 235 lbs

Felt good, even with no DL warm-up. Jeff even complimented me on my technique, and he knows a thing or two about deadlifts. Of course, it's easy to look good when the weight isn't heavy. Talk to me 40 lbs from now.


Deadhand pull-ups (unweighted) - Three max sets

9, 7, 7. These have fallen off a bit, probably because I haven't been doing them. I will start adding weight next time and going for three sets of 5-8.

Strength - Workout A and training for an Isabel rematch

Back squat - Three sets of 5x 210 lbs

Why are these so heavy for me now? Oh, that's right, because I haven't been doing the fucking work.


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 115 lbs

The last time I did these, this was supposed to be my warm-up weight. Then I failed trying it. Time to work my way back up.


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 225 lbs

This was okay.


After not being confident in my ability to do Isabel as rx'd, I kept 135 lbs on the bar and did some snatches. Not for time, just to do them. I did about 15, maybe averaging about three a minute. I think I was helped by the fact that I was pretty warmed up from the strength work.

I want to do a little work on my snatches at least once a week.

Doing 15 tells me that I can definitely do Isabel rx'd, but my time will probably be closer to 10:00 than 5:00.

Shoulder Press / OPT WOD

Shoulder press 5-5-5:

115, 125 (old PR), 130 (PR)


Then, instead of the scheduled metcon, the sadistic deadlift and clean & jerk-filled “Heavy Duty,” I did the OPT WOD from 11am Saturday alongside Blair, because I believe it’s important to stay humble and there are few things more humbling than working out alonside Blair.

For time, three rounds of
12 115-lb power snatches
12 speed burpees (or "lazy burpees" as Robin likes to call them)
12 30-inch box jumps

Blair got 6:30-something, I think. I got 11:39.

Strength Club: The Total

First time at Strength Club, and the first time doing a CrossFit Total. I had previous one-rep for back squats and deadlifts, but nothing in recent memory for shoulder presses.

Back Squat x 1: 265lb
Previous max was 235 from a month ago. I'm pretty happy with this number. I actually probably go a bit too low on these, which makes it harder to come back up.


Shoulder Press x 1: 125lb
For my previous warm-up, I did 105, so I was going to start at 115. Then Kurt yells, "Ah, do 125." I think, "What the hell," and I put another 10lbs on the bar.

Then I fail, and yell an impolite thing at Kurt before the bar is even back in the rack.

I taped my wrists for the second try, get myself a little pissed off, and get it overhead. I tried at 130 and got it overhead, but had to walk forward a bit to get it so it doesn't count.


Deadlift x 1: 315lb
I need to work on my deadlift technique BAD. I got 315, but I should be able to lift more than that.


Total: 705

It's a start.

Fun with Press? Not exactly

Five rounds of:

1 shoulder press
3 push press
5 push jerk

We were supposed to start with 80 per cent of our maximum (I'm assuming maximum shoulder press) and increase the weight each of the five rounds. I'm not sure what my maximum is, so it went like this for me:

95lbs

115lbs

125lbs

After the shoulder press on the last one, I felt like I had a muscle pull or something on the left side of my neck, and I didn't think it was a good idea to fuck around. Three hours later, it's still painful to tilt or turn my head. I wish I could have finished the workout, but I doubt I could have pressed much, if any, more weight. The 125lbs was feeling pretty heavy.

I did one more cool-down set with just 95lbs and called it a day. Before the neck-thing happened, I got some good coaching from a visiting CrossFitter, Sean from DC.