8/3 – Saturday Sports Class – Backsquats and Hard ‘Cindy’

Strength

10x3 backsquats at 85% 1RM

10x3 @68kg

WOD

Harder ‘Cindy’

5 c2b pull-ups

10 hand release push-ups

15 air squats

2-4-6-8-10 Clean and Jerks (70/50kg)

15:09 (9 CJ’s left)

As Coach Jono wrote on the board for the strength – Squat Mother F*cker… and that it was.  Especially back to back days.  We had about 50 minutes to work through it though so solid amount of rest which was necessary.  Definitely glad it was only sets of 3.  Worked with Steph which was fun as it was a chance to gossip.

Harder ‘Cindy’ was hard.  Fun though it a twisted way.  Essentially it’s 5 rounds of ‘Cindy’ with c2b and HR push-ups though in between each round you do heavy CJ’s in ascending reps (2-4-6-8-10).  There was also a 15 minute cut-off.

I didn’t do c2b as my hands are still pretty torn from doing ‘Nate’ and they just hurt.  I had plenty of height for each rep but my chest wasn’t hitting – probably a good thing given the size of the bruise that I already have.

The HR push-ups felt fairly good given that I haven’t been doing many push-ups at all lately.  And the air squats were just steady – almost great without weight and the amount of backsquatting we’ve been doing.

The CJ’s was the equalizer.  It’s where it slowed down a lot.  50kg is quite heavy though thankfully Coach Jono let us power clean if we wanted (that rarely is an option).  My power cleans were ugly, feet wide ugly however my legs were completely against dropping under the bar so that’s how it went.  I had some solid jerks though, they felt good and I only lost one of them over my head without locking it out so I was happy.

I didn’t finish – I managed to get one rep done on the last round of 10 CJ’s before the cut off.  And that left me pretty shattered.  Glad to have gotten through it though.

11/19 – (Half) Cindy with a Twist

Been a bit of a delay in posting as there was a lot to write about the Affiliate and it’s been a crazy busy week so there is a lot to catch up on.

Monday it was back to the box and though my legs were still a little cranky my shoulder felt no worse than it did going into the weekend so that was a bonus – still hurting but on track to getting right.

Strength
60 sec bench press

I skipped this portion of the workout as I knew that it wouldn’t be good for my shoulder – baby steps easing back into things.  I know better than to let my ego get in the way.  I did a bit of shoulder work instead and cheered on Kayla when she went.

WOD
10 min AMRAP
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups (knees)
15 squats
Run 100m every 2 mins

6/19

I enjoyed this one though I mentally blocked out the fact that I was doing push-ups on my knees again.  Though it wasn’t that long ago that I was (still) doing push-ups on my knees it feels like a huge step back to go back there BUT… it’s for the best and I know this too.

Stimo was the smart one on this WOD and parked himself nearest to the door.  I should have done that as well but was in the middle of the room.  This was a bit awkward when I was trying to sprint out the door as I had to weave my way around people. Essentially it made me start off the run faster than I would have liked to get ahead and then chase Stimo into the box (where he’d instantly stop right in the way – ha!).  I managed to beat him in on the first run when we started evenly but on the next three he came in one or two steps in front of me and all I could hear was Coach Match’s – good work Stimo and this fueled me even more.  On the last run there was no way I was letting him come in first so I really pushed the 100m and beat him. It was satisfying. (um, why yes, I *am* competitive… haha).

The pull-ups, push-ups and squats were all fine.  I didn’t push as hard as I did on the last go of Cindy and I think mostly did sets of 3-2 on the pull-ups, wasn’t too bad through the push-ups as I was on my knees and then had full reps on the squats.  Kayla called me out (which is good) on the squats saying that I wasn’t always getting full depth.  From then on I really tried to and thought I was though afterward she told me that I would be good for a few rounds and then not get deep enough again.  She recommended that I video myself doing a WOD with a lot of squats so I can actually see if for myself.  I need to do this.

When we can back from each run we started wherever we had left off in the round – a couple of times I had to come back in and start into push-ups and this was probably the hardest since all the blood was flowing to my legs on the run.  The sudden transition was a bit of a shock. 

Murph is this weekend and I’m (still) planning to do it but I need to be prepared to scale back as the WOD progresses if I feel my shoulder acting up.  I’ve avoided push-ups again this week, subbing them out because that is the ‘crunchy’ feeling for my bicep/ shoulder so it will be interesting to see how it goes.  Must not let ego win.  That’s a hard lesson.

11/5 - 'Cindy' Rx!

So it seems ‘birthday week’ kick-ass wods continues.  I walked in to the box and saw ‘Cindy’ on the board and as captivated by her charms – or at least her benchmark-ness.  Going in the plan was to limit any use of my shoulder (still recovering from ‘Grace’) but I just couldn’t resist going all out in ‘Cindy’.  It’s been a very long time since we’ve done ‘Cindy’, since January actually and I wasn’t Rx-ing it back then (15/18 with orange band and knee push-ups).  We did ‘Half Cindy’ in early April and I scored 6/1 Rx and then again in August we did ‘Cindy’ with a twist – 4 rounds of 5 minute AMRAP ‘Cindy’ with 2 minutes of tabata plank holds in between each round.  I scored 13/19 then Rx. 

Spoiler Alert… I went Rx and beat all those scores.  I am also paying the price for it now.  I know better but we’ll get to that part. 

WOD Benchmark “Cindy” 
20 min AMRAP
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats 
16/2 Rx 

Honestly, with how my (left) shoulder felt going in I really shouldn’t have done it – both pull-ups and push-ups only aggravate my chronic bicep tendonitis but I couldn’t help myself.  I really wanted to see where I was at and so I did.  I figured I’d maybe get 5 rounds in and have to back off in some form but figured that even 5 rounds would be a PR.

From the start the pull-ups felt solid.  I made myself some grips from tape before we’d started which were a major reason why I didn’t rip my hands and/or slow down enough to not rip my hands.  I just went for it – with enough chalk too that would have Angie proud.  Probably the first 10 rounds or thereabouts I stayed on the bar for all 5 reps.  They really did feel good.  Thereafter as I was starting to get tired I stuck with my plan of doing 3-2 each round and not dropping down to singles at any point.  I wanted to force myself to bang out the extra reps when I would have rather come off the bar as it’s going to help me get more going forward.  There were times where I’d lose my momentum for the third rep but I was strong enough to reset my kip or just muscle it up a bit more and sneak by.

These saved me...

The push-ups truly are the hardest part of this WOD.  The first few rounds I did them unbroken then quickly was down to two sets of 5.  The back half I was doing 5-3-2 and not letting myself do anything else – I was determined to get those first 5 and then take a quick shake out of my arms before pushing onwards.  I think that they did feel a little easier at times (especially early on) because I have been doing a lot more handstand push-ups lately (and as Coach Match pointed out – a lot of presses which are a similar movement – thanks ‘Grace’).  Although they slowed me down a bit I didn’t stop too much which was good.  Before I knew it I was back onto the squats.

I couldn’t figure out this morning why my legs were so sore as I always equate ‘Cindy’ to an upper body workout but then I thought about it and I actually did 240 squats so it only makes sense my legs are also tired.  I did every round unbroken.  Apparently at times I need to get a tiny bit lower to achieve full depth (though no one mentioned this until the WOD was over).  Something to work on – though on the plus side I was using my glutes and my knees were staying out – so many things to think about but it was good.

I was happy with this one and it’s a good warm-up for ‘Murph’ that we’re doing in a few weeks for Cooee’s second birthday.  I’m excited to (finally) Rx this one.  Hopefully I can finish it somewhere around the 45 minute mark which would also beat my previous time of 53:57 (with red band and knee push-ups).

I didn’t mobilize or stretch after ‘Cindy’ which was a big mistake.  I’m sore all over today, especially my shoulder.  I have recurring bicep tendonitis in my left shoulder from years of paddling (dragonboat especially) that has damaged me.  When I overuse my shoulder then tendon gets inflamed and because there is so much built up scar tissue the problem only propagates without proper rest (to let the inflammation go down).  There are no magic stretches or strengthening I can do to help I just need to rest (and get needled and massaged and heat it).  Rest.  It’s a killer word for a crossfitter but I need to heed my own advice here and listen to my body even if there’s another sexy girl staring me down later this week.  Don’t let me do it.

I know people often post in advance about work-outs they are going to do so the interwebs can hold them accountable well this is my plea to hold me accountable to NOT using my shoulder this week.  No pull-ups or push-ups or burpees, no cleans or presses or snatching.  I’ll limit my lifting to squats and deadlifts and any body weight movement will not require my arms.  I need to rest.

8/13 - Shoulder Killer!

This WOD was a killer.  The only reason I can actually type at the moment is because my arms are fully resting on the desk in front of me.  Last night post WOD my arms literally did not work – I needed to use both hands to drink from my water bottle and even that was a challenge, even just holding them by my sides was work.  Ouch.  I really hope I don’t have to lift anything tonight when I’m back at it as I’m not sure that’ll be possible.

WOD

4 Rounds

5 minutes of ‘Cindy’

-5 pull-ups

-10 push-ups

-15 squats

30 seconds rest

Then 2 rounds of tabata planks (2x 20second on/ 10 second rest)

13/19 Rx

Score was the total rounds of ‘Cindy’ completed over the entire workout.

Killer.  I was quite happy however with my performance overall but the push-ups were what killed me the most.  Every single round.  For the first three rounds I managed to stay on the bar for all 5 reps of the pull-ups before dropping.  This was my goal and it worked however when I was about to get back on the bar in round 4 I realized that my hand was stinging and when I looked down I had a huge tear (stupid!).  Ouch.  I’m pretty sure at this point I let out a bit of a curse because I find it very frustrating that on other bars I don’t have to worry about my hands but almost every single time we do large numbers of pull-ups at Cooee I find myself ripping or about to rip.  For instance last week we did 50 consecutive pull-ups in ‘Nutts’, all of which I did in sets of 5 and not once did I even worry about my hands.  I’m not sure why the bars are so different but it sucks.  I hate having tears.  So, after the hand tear I think most sets were broken into 3-2 reps except for the end where I was trying to get mine done before the girl beside me got on the bar so that we won’t bump each other so I did 5 and got it over with.

The push-ups, oh the push-ups.  Where to even begin.  I pushed through Rx the whole time but they were definitely what slowed me down.  My shoulders were screaming.  It’s funny that I actually found the pull-ups easy and cursed the push-ups every time.  For each round we started where we’d finished the previous rather than back on 5 pull-ups so it didn’t help that I found myself in the middle of push-ups every time we had to stop and do the plank.  Now I found the plank to be a nice ‘break’ in the WOD and though it wasn’t hard to hold for the full time it was tiring on my shoulders which made the push-ups that much harder when I got back into it.  I tried to squeeze out every rep I could before ‘rest’ was called just so there’d be fewer after the planks.

The squats were easy, did them all unbroken and focused on keeping my knees pushed out.  The planks, as mentioned seemed like a bit of a rest though taxing on the shoulders.  We had our feet on a stack of two 20kg plates which almost made it feel easier than a standard plank though I think technically this should have made it harder.  The last round we did a solid 50 seconds of planking (no rest on the 10 seconds) which was more a struggle mentally than physically though I was really happy when it was done.

It was definitely a tough WOD, especially for a Monday (I’m afraid what the rest of the week will hold) and I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of my arms when we were done, it was really weird – they just didn’t work, at.all.  Made it though and was super happy to Rx this one.  I can’t wait until we do regular ‘Cindy’ again just to compare my score from last time when I didn’t do it Rx.  I think I can probably match my score at least.  Should be good – guess I can add this to a park WOD too, easily done on my own.

My fingers are crossed for no heavy lifting tonight but I’m sure that’ll be in the cards, it’s how it always seems to go.  Ha!

Planking and Smiling...  Source

4/3 - Pull-ups!!! Rx-ed!!! (half) "Cindy"!!!

Gymnastic skills:
5 x 10 beat kicks
5 x 10 dips
5 x 10 L-holds

This was fun.  The L-holds are getting easier it seems and the beat kicks are fun (except the part where they hurt my hands).  Was fun to do more dips (muscle up practice) but I used a heavier band (orange) because I was SO SORE (caps required) from Monday's WOD.

WOD: “Half Cindy”
10 min AMRAP
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
6/1 Rx!!

This was a ton of fun mostly because I did it Rx and didn't die.  I was quite happy to be able to do unassisted pullups through out even if they were in sets of 2's and 1's (occasionally 3's).  This was the first time I've fully Rx-ed pullups throughout a WOD - usually it'd just be a few reps each round or whatnot so I was super stoked.  Like Coach Pete said... (paraphrased)... you'll get better doing less rounds unassisted than more rounds scaled.  So I did.  I was hoping for 5 so was quite pleased with the 6.

The push-ups (Rx!) were super tough after the pullups, I think because there were 10 to struggle through while the pullups with only being 5 were done quicker.  The squats were fine, steady all the way through.

I liked this.  Still glad today is a rest day since my chest and upper back (traps/lats) are tight from Monday.  I need a massage unfortunately not happening this week due to easter.

1/5 - The day 'Cindy' tried to stop me...

Mobility
Shoulder prep 

WOD “Cindy”
AMRAP 20 mins
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats
15/18 (orange band/ knee push-ups)

Cindy tried to stop me...

...but I wasn't having any of it... tore the first one about 10 rounds in but kept at it... other than my hands the pull-ups rocked... most of the rounds I was getting 5 consecutive as long as I focused on a big kip to make them fully count.  The push-ups were consecutive at first but then I tried to at least get the first 5 solid and the squats were just slow and steady really focusing on full depth.  It hurt but was good...  I'm glad to have conquered her (finally!)

Now I baby my hands so I can get back at it again on monday...  bring it!