Working out at home

So I had missed a couple of days and knew I had some making up to do - but I didn't have a gym available. I had spent the last couple of days working on my hand stand push-up, including moving from head to floor to a raised 5" or so platform.

Today, I decided I needed a metcon workout - so I put together what bodyweight exercises I could and came up with the following:

50 HSPU (head to floor)
100 push-ups
150 air squats

I then cleared out a spot on the wall and started my HSPUs. These are tough - especially after 25 or so. Toward the end, I was doing these in increments of 3, 2 or even 1 - but my ability to get on the wall as well as push them out has greatly improved.

I finished the set of 50 in 11:09 and then moved into the push-ups. As I had hoped, the HSPUs were harmful enough to those general muscles that it made the push-ups more difficult than normal - knocking out only 40 in the first set and 20 in subsequent sets. I finished these at 15:40 - 4:31 total for the push-ups. I then moved into the air squats, which were harder than I expected, since I hadn't done much leg or abs, etc. to have an adverse affect - but I was very fatigued and winded from the HSPUs and PUs - so I finished these in 5:10 at 20:50.

This was more work than I had originally expected, which I am glad about!

2 mile run

Decided on an easy day - just wanted each 1/2 mile in a 2 mile run to be faster than the last.
I ran my first 1/2 mile in 4:00 flat. The next was dropped down to 3:50 for 7:50 first mile. The next half was 3:45 - still speeding up. I ended up finishing at 15:25 - making the last 1/2 3:40. The pacing worked - so next time I'll just start faster and do the same thing.

Fran + Official Warmup

I'm a little behind on posting my workouts - but I have still been doing them.
On 12/11 I got my revenge on my last failed attempt at improving my Fran time - and this time I did much better - though I'm thinking that until my metcon is improved more, it may be a good idea to bring some strategy to the table, even in such a short WOD.

I started out with my usual warm-up:
1/2 mile - 4:21
5 pull-ups
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

Depending on the day, this is basically my "official warm-up", which is how I will refer to this warm-up routine from now on - with varying 800m times, or even with a 1000m row instead.

I then moved on to Fran which was last completed on November 21 with a time of 7:48, with a previous PR of 7:37. My goal was to beat that. Again, Fran is a progression of 21-15-9 of alternating 95# thrusters and pull-ups.

So I got my stop-watch started with 20 seconds to go before the hand on the wall clock reached the minute mark - this way I could get the bar racked and ready to start and subtract a known time from my time.

I started fast - real fast, finishing the first round in 1:28 with no rests. I paid for this a little bit in the second round, which I finished at the 4:38 mark - with 3:10 for the 2nd round - I needed to beat that time for the 3rd round - I needed a 2:59 to match my PR. Luckily this was a short round which helped mentally as well as physically. I pushed through the thrusters and then the pull-ups and finished in 6:17 - the last 9 reps were completed in 1:39 - slower than my first round, but much better than the second. I still have some work to do, but that was an improvement.

I cooled down with a 500m row.

Bench Press Day

Decided to give my back a rest today and lay on the flat bench with a series of heavy benches, in hopes of reaching a 1RM PR.

I started off with the warm-up as usual - skipping the pull-ups because someone was using the pulley devices at the pull-up station. So my warm-up went as follows:

1/2 mile run: 4:31
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
10x135# bench press

I then moved into the main event - starting at 205#. I decided to start here and do an amount of reps that didn't bring me to failure, but gave me a good workout on each weight that I completed.

At 205# I did 5 repetitions.
I followed this by hanging off the chin-up bar to stretch my back muscles and decided to do a pull-up. I decided after each set on the bench I would do pull-ups - more than the previous set, but certainly not to failure.

I moved the bar to 225# and completed 3 repetitions, followed by 2 pull-ups.

I moved up to 245# - unsure whether I would be able to do 2 repetitions, as I had never done 2 reps at this weight before. But I pushed it out, feeling pretty confident after the first rep. I followed this with 3 pull-ups.

I decided to make a daring jump to above my 1RM PR of 260 and jumped to 265#. Of course, I didn't have a spotter, as usual and I was using a free weight bar, so I knew I had to be careful.

I pushed the bar off the rack and extended my arms all the way. I could tell pushing it off the rack that this would be a challenge. I brought the weight down and must admit that I changed my mind before getting all the way down - I probably had between 1-2 inches of clearance on my chest before I started pushing the bar up. Other than the less than full range of motion, I did get this repetition out. Next time around I'll working on getting my chest before pushing off. Until then, I think I will start doing some supplemental bench work after the WOD - perhaps in the 185-225 range, depending on how drained the WOD has made me.

After my 265, I did 5 pull-ups and then un-racked all but 135# and did 10 thrusters to finish off the workout.

Max Dead Lift

I decided to go with 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Dead Lifts today after having taken the weekend off. Go big or go home.

I warmed up as follows:

800m Run - 4:29
10 pull-ups
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
15 30# KB
5 x 135# Dead Lift

Today, the goal was to get a PR and also to increase my PR for the pronated grip as well as mixed grip - using my lifting hooks only when I didn't think I could lift any more otherwise.

So, using pronated grip on both hands (working on the hook grip) I did the following:

225-275-305-330

My previous record before going to mixed grip was 305 - so this was a new record there by 25#. The success didn't stop there, as the new PR here was already a tied PR for my mixed grip.

I only did 1 lift mixed, using my left arm for the supine grip - 365#. When I finished my left and paused at the full up position, I felt that the bar was starting to slip out of my hands - but still a PR by 35#. I then switched to my lifting hooks and continued on.

I went to top my previous PR next, which was 390# and loaded 395# on. This went up quite a bit easier than I expected, considering how slowly 390 had gone up when I set that PR. Since it was so much easier than last time around, I decided to go for a big jump and loaded all weights 25+ that were available -

45# bar + 6 45# plates + 2 35# plates + 2 25# plates.
So (7*45)+(2*35)+2*25)=435#

This was an extremely tough lift. I only got the bar 4 or so inches off the floor before it tried to stop going up. The rest of the trip up was more of a series of stop and start again than a good lift - kind of like a slow chatter to the top. However, letting out a groan, I managed to lock out at the top of the lift.

So my new PR, up 45# from 390 on October 26 is 435#.

I finished off the workout with 225x10 so I could stress my grip a little more and as more or less of a cool down. Then I did a little light KB work - overhead presses, a few swings - 2 & 1 handed, and then just some back and forth swings to stretch the muscles in my back.

I can tell my back will be sore and tired tomorrow. I'm thinking I may go for a max bench, so as to do something that won't cause me to over strain my back and lead to an injury.

Found this site:
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/weight.htm

He has a 1RM calculator at the bottom of the page which I used to look at the standards for my weight (now down to about 180) I used it to calculate the following standards:

Exercise: Novice: Experienced: Advanced:
Military Press: 110 137 163
Bench Press: 163 200 274
Squat: 219 268 366
Dead Lift: 273 314 436
Clean: 157 193 263

I can easily do the Experienced weight on any of these exercises. I can almost get the advanced on all of them as well - Dead Lift, I'm 1# short. Clean I have a little ways to go - 60# or so. Bench press I have 15-20# to make up.

Not feeling it

I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't feeling it today. I went down to do the WOD from yesterday:
Complete three rounds for time of:
Run 800m
155 pound Power cleans, 21 reps

However, when I got down there, there were 2 people on the treadmill and the third was out of service.
Instead of my 800m warm-up jog, I decided to do the row - which I sometimes end up going overboard on. This was just the case today:

1000m row - 3:43.4 - way too fast for a warm-up, which I should probably slow down to as much as 4 minutes or more. After this I did:
5 very wide grip dead-hang full range of motion pull-ups, coming to a complete 2-5 seconds stop at the bottom
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
3x 135# power cleans to get the feel of the exercise of the day.

I had planned on doing something else - perhaps some heavy lifts today, but by the time I got to my dips, one of the treadmills was clearing out - so I had a spot to do my 800m run - so I decided to proceed with the WOD.

So I set up 155# on the bar and jumped on the treadmill and started my watch. I could feel at the beginning of the workout that I was less than 100%. It could have been the row being too much, or the fact that it was 3:45 and I had only had a small bowl of cereal, an english muffin, an activia yogurt, a banana and a protein shake for nutrients so far today causing low blood sugar - but either way, I just wasn't feeling it.

I kicked the treadmill up to 10.1 MPH for a just-under-3-minute 800 - of course, with the treadmill getting up to speed, it ended up taking me 3:04. Perhaps this was my second mistake (or third, if you count barely eating any calories) - as when I finished, I had to take a short break before starting the power cleans - and when I did, I only knocked out 5 before stopping. It didn't get any better from there either. Going on 10 minutes after finishing my 800 - and perhaps another 5-6 sets of power cleans, I was finally finishing set 1 at 13:10. I knew I had done something wrong, as other people on the forums had posted between 15 and 30 minutes - at this pace I was looking at not possibly finishing before 40.

I decided to stop - not completely, I ended up racking the bar and doing another 21 reps of bench press at 155# (this only took me 2 sets - 1 of 15 and 1 of 6).

This isn't the only time recently I just "haven't felt it" and had a hard time getting through the workouts. I'm wonder if it really is because of my eating schedule, or if I'm hitting a proverbial wall. Perhaps a change in diet?

Granted, my regular schedule was knocked out of whack - going to bed at the same time as usual (perhaps even a little later), I was up at least an hour earlier than usual - eating a full 1-1.5 hours earlier than usual (at 6:30 AM I had my small cereal) - started the day with a large coffee instead of a large glass of water, had little to drink throughout the day and also little food. I'm also coming off the holiday binge which isn't good - so who knows, perhaps I'll bounce back. Either way, I'll make note of what I am eating/drinking and what kind of sleep I'm getting as I post my near future workouts.

Not much to report

Didn't make it to the gym today due to lack of time. Decided to do the frog stand tonight before bed as a somewhat workout (static hold/gymnastic). I hit the 1 minute mark unassisted (hands on ground)!

I must say, that for such a seemingly simple exercise, this takes a lot out of you. I could feel the burn in my shoulders, my arms and surprisingly enough, my abs. In fact, I felt it quite a bit in my abs, just as I was trying to stand back up after. I enjoy doing this skill - I'll still work on my time on this a bit more and then I will move into the next movement of the planche progression - the tuck planche, which is essentially the frog stand, except that rather than supporting your knees on your elbows, your knees will go up and tuck into your chest so that you are only supporting yourself on your hands. From my understanding, once I move on to this, I will be back down to perhaps a 1-2 second hold before failing. I'll probably work towards 90 seconds in the frog stand before moving on - hoping that 1 minute will seem like a breeze by then.

The full planche progression I am following goes like this:

Frog Stand (90 sec)
- hands on ground
- knees supported on elbows

Tuck Planche (60 sec)
- hands on ground
- knees to chest, supported only by hands/arms

Advanced Tuck Planche
- hands on ground
- back straightened so that hips are around shoulder hight
- knees tucked under to keep center of mass closer to hands

Straddle Planche
- hands on ground
- legs straight, but spread to a straddle position - moves center of gravity away from arms, requiring a more rigid entire body.

Tuck planche push-up & advanced tuck planche push-up
- self explanatory

Straddle planche push-up
- self explanatory

Planche
- hands on ground
- feet straight back behind you - hardest position.

Another brutal workout

So today I did a workout from 11/21 on the main site:

For time:
21 Hand Stand Push-ups (HSPU)
400m run
21 weighted pull-ups - 20# (WPU)
15 HSPU
400m run
15 WPU
9 HSPU
400m run
9 WPU

I warmed up with a nice easy 800m run - 4:52 and did some other easy exercises:
5 pull-ups
15 sit-ups
15 push-ups
15 squats
10 dips

I then moved into the workout. I've only just started doing HSPU - having cleared out a wall in my bedroom to kick my feet onto - I did about 200 over the course of the weekend, so I felt pretty prepped for this, despite that my lats and triceps were still a little bit sore.

So I found a spot in the gym to kick up on the wall (note to self - next time I can do it on the nautilus machine in the middle of the room - less chance of kicking my feet through the wall, and there is nothing above it to obstruct me).

So I started off with 10 HSPUs, rested and then kicked up and did 6 more, another rest and 5 to finish out. I'm inconsistent still getting up on the wall, which I need to workout - at least twice in the first round I had trouble getting all the way vertical kicking up and had to try again - wasting precious energy.

I then jumped on the treadmill and cranked it up to 12MPH for the run - finishing the 400m in 1:22.
I then grabbed my 20# weight with my feet and proceeded into the weighted pull-ups, knocking out 10-6-5-5. I managed to figure out how to kip with the weight, which made things easier. I finished the first round at 6:37. This looked pretty promising, since the remaining rounds should be shorter. I was aiming for 15-20 minutes total.

However, then I got into the second set of HSPUs. These were brutal. I knocked out 8 - then had a bit of trouble getting up onto the wall, I eventually got 1 more out free standing, without ever hitting the wall, but hitting vertical before falling back over, I managed to squeeze one in. I then tried, fruitlessly to kick up at least 6-7 times before finally catching a break. This was brutal, as it killed my arms, legs, and abs - and kept me in a position (arms shoulder width apart in front of me, one knee to my chest and one leg out behind me) that kept me from adequately catching my breath - while simultaneously straining a large collection of muscles.

Once I did get up, I only got 3 more in - but had less trouble getting up the next 2 times to knock out 2 and then 1 last HSPU.

I moved to the treadmill and knew I had to go slower as I was breathing a lot harder than the first round. I ran at 10 MPH and finished in 1:35 - barely finishing that.

I moved back into the pull-ups knocking out 5 at a time for the first 2 rounds, then 4 and 1 - finishing at 17:50. Wow.

I dreaded getting back into the HSPU position and knew I had to do something smart to make it through. It took me again, 2-3 attempts to get on the wall. I tested my stamina at 5 reps, and kept going - knowing my best chance was to knock out all 9 - which I somehow managed to do.

I jumped on the treadmill at 11MPH - but kicked it up to 11.5 and half way through. I finished this in 1:31. It took me 3 more rounds of pull-ups to finish out at 22:41.

This workout was killer. Loved every second of it - and I am sore all over from it. The sprints certainly didn't help the leg pain from the burpees/squats the day before. I guess I'll need to work on getting into position on the HSPU!

Go hard or go home!