Clean and Push Press

I actually did this one a week ago now, but hadn't posted it. In fact, I have a few make-up days to get on here.

This was done on 11/12 - the main site WOD was 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 clean and jerk. I haven't done the jerk before, and didn't feel comfortable with steel plates/no bumper plate and unsupervised - so I swapped for Clean and Push Press. I stopped doing push press after failure, but continued doing cleans up to 7 sets of 1 rep.

I warmed up with:
1000m row - 3:39
10 overhead squats - 45#
10 pull-ups
115# clean and press x 5

I then moved into the exercise. My previous PR on clean was 175 and 165 on the push press.

I started out nice and light - 135.

I took, including swapping the weights around 2 minutes rest between attempts. I did 155 next pretty easily and moved to 185. This went up, but it was a good struggle - PR by 10# and 20# for clean and push press respectively.

I then moved to 195 - clean was no problem - but when I got to the push press, I didn't quite make a full lockout before I felt a severe discomfort, somewhere between a pop and a pinch in my left shoulder. A week later, this is still causing my neck to be stiff - not exactly sure what happened, but it didn't feel good.

So after that, I opted to just do cleans (yeah, yeah - I maybe should have stopped). I pulled off 205 fairly easily, so I thought - getting nice and low with the full squat. Afterwards, I got a little over-zealous and attempted 220. This didn't make it to the rack position after 2 attempts. The first attempt barely got beyond a dead lift position before I brought it back down - it didn't feel like it was going up, so I stopped and went back down.

I probably should have given my self some rest, but instead, just adjusted my footing and grip and went back in for another go. This time I almost got it all the way through, but just couldn't get under it.

I dropped the weight to 210 and tried again - again maybe a little too quick - and I failed again.

So my PR for clean stands at 205 and my push press at 185. Good improvement!

300 - Day 60 - Hello Glute Ham Developer Sit-ups

Glute Ham Developer (GHD) Sit-ups or "Romain Chair" sit-ups as they are more commonly known have kind of fell out of use in most gyms, because a lot of people suggested that (like the regular sit-up) it puts a lot of unnecessary tension on the spine. However, like most exercises in Crossfit - if done properly, this is not true. So the Crossfit community still uses this.

So basically the GHD sit-up consists of using a back extension or GHD station to do even more full range sit-ups than regular sit-ups. Almost kind of like the ab-lounge, except unsupported and much, much harder and more effective.

So the WOD for Day 60 as per the main site was:
For time:
135 lb Squat clean, 10 reps
50 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 8 reps
40 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 6 reps
30 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 4 reps
20 GHD Sit-ups
135 lb Squat clean, 2 reps
10 GHD Sit-ups

Of course, my gym doesn't have a GHD station but I wanted to try these, so I made a make-shift station. I took the bench that I was moving away from the Bench Press rack anyway (so I could do my squat cleans) and placed it perpendicular in front of the leg extension station. I then took the leg extension and put the foot pads in the upright-most position. I was able to place my legs over this with my feat tucked under the seat to do GHD sit-ups. I worked 10 of these into my warm-up to make sure the concept worked.

I warmed up as follows:
1000m row (nice and easy - 4:59.9)
20 push-ups
10 GHD sit-ups
10 pull-ups (strict)
20 squats

The improvised GHD station worked. However, I had been cautioned via the comments section on the main site to avoid doing too many GHD sit-ups your first time - so I heeded the advice and made a mat available in my usual sit-up spot for when the GHD sit-ups starting getting hard. It didn't take long.

The squat cleans (first 10) didn't take me too long, but I did have to rest for a second after 8 reps before I could get the last two in. This ended up being basically a theme for the rest of these.

I moved into my 50 GHD sit-ups and got 20 in before the burn kicked in and I had to rest. I realized these were tough. Real tough. I rested a few seconds and started off again getting 10 more in.. then 5 more... 5 more etc. until I finished. Those are tough - and I can see why people caution against them. These are the only 50 GHDs that I did. I did the last 100 as regular sit-ups.

My final posted time was 22:09. The only set I did in completion without rest were the two in the last round - 2 squat cleans and 10 regular sit-ups. Even before leaving the gym, my abs were already as sore as any day-after before now.