Challenge Accepted

Workout date: 6/11/15

Yesterday marked the end of the mobility challenge at the gym.  I signed up for the nutrition challenge earlier in the year for the same reason that I entered this competition: gambling.  Everyone puts $5 into the pot and the winner gets the cash (including Jill C.'s change collection).  I fully expected my wallet to be lighter at the end of these challenges.  I had no chance of winning the nutrition challenge unless my metabolism magically sped up to about 5x as fast as it normally is.  My chances were slightly better in the mobility challenge, although I suspected I had decent mobility already, leaving my window for improvement smaller.

I did not win the mobility challenge.

My chances for winning did significantly improve when only 7 people showed up for final measurements and another crack at the baseline workout.  But despite having only 6 competitors to defeat, I managed to finish outside the top 3.  The good news?  Well, my mobility is pretty good.  Dr. Turner explained that for the Apley Scratch test (imagine you're trying to scratch the middle of your back taking the over your shoulder route with one hand and the around the side route with the other hand) the ideal score is a positive 2.  Yesterday I got a positive 3 with my right side and a positive 2 with my left side.  Not too shabby.  For the internal rotation part of the challenge, I scored a 66 on my right side and a 68 on my left side, based on a scale that goes from 0 to 90, with 90 being the best score.  So my upper body mobility is decent and oddly similar on both sides (the other participants tended to have a noticeable difference between their right and left scores).

When it came to the WOD...well...what did you expect?  I had a very good workout on Wednesday, so there was approximately a 100% chance that Thursday's workout would end up a disaster.  After watching Keith, Aimee, and Samson crush the baseline test even more than they crushed it a month ago, I got my turn.  My time last month was 7:24, but I wanted to get that time closer to 6:00.  I was using the two bands attached to the rack again, which should have helped me get through the pull-ups much easier, while my overhead squat weight was 95 pounds, 20 pounds lighter than I used in a workout earlier this week.  Let's do this!

I'll start with possibly the only positive from the workout: I didn't look at the clock.  My mission was to move fast and then find out at the end how I did.  Looking at the clock during a sprint workout is simply wasting time.  Beyond that, there wasn't much positive to report.  To review, the baseline test went like so:

10-1 Pull-ups
1-10 Overhead Squats

That meant 10 pull-ups and 1 overhead squat in round 1, then 9 pull-ups and 2 overhead squats in round 2, and on and on.  I got through all of the pull-ups in rounds 1 and 2, but had to start breaking them up in round 3.  Did I mention I wasn't doing real pull-ups like everyone else, yet I still had to take breaks?  Awesome self-esteem boost right there.  I had to break up the pull-ups into sets of 2 and 3 as time went on.  As for the overheads, I was squat snatching the initial rep like always.  For some strange reason, I dropped the barbell at the end of one of the rounds and hit the top of my head, something I did once during the initial baseline test as well.  Guess I was just trying to be consistent.

I was having a tough time staying in place during the overheads as I rushed to get through them in later rounds.  Finally, I got to the last round, did my 1 pull-up and tried to squat snatch the bar, which I failed.  The weight was light enough that there was no point in attempting multiple snatches, so I did a clean and jerk to get it overhead and got moving on my last 10 squats.  When the 10th rep was complete, I dropped my barbell, looked at the clock and saw...7:37.  Yes, once again I had made my mark in a challenge.  In the nutrition challenge, I was the only person to not change categories from start to finish.  In the mobility challenge, I was the only person whose final workout time was worse than their original workout time.  Thanks body, way to let me down yet again.

That sealed the deal on whether I would win the mobility challenge, but congrats to everyone else who showed improvements in all facets of their mobility.  I can't disclose who won yet, but I'm always impressed when I see people's hard work paying off.

Friday and Saturday are planned rest days, so the next blog will probably show up on Sunday night.  Gotta make sure people have something to read while they are enjoying their Monday morning breakfast.  Enjoy the weekend and stay cool!