Finding My 45 Rep Max

Workout date: 7/13/15

Confession time: I don't squat nearly as much as I should at the gym.  I have seen the benefits of a regular squat program.  The problem is that devoting myself to a regular squat program means sacrificing WODs and doing more strength sessions.  It means going from the group dynamic that I enjoy to a much more individualized dynamic that I don't like as much.  The group dynamic is one of the main reasons why I joined KOP.  Going to a normal gym and pushing myself through my own "program" was not that enticing to me, so even when I pushed myself to go do it, my interest in continuing it would wane very rapidly.  I'm not sure if you would classify me as a closet extrovert or a social introvert, but having that shared adversity with other people makes a big difference in how often I show up to work out.

Monday's WOD could be considered a squat program in and of itself:

400M run
45 back squats (135/95)
400M run
30 front squats (135/95)
400M run
15 overhead squats (135/95)

This workout was a bit reminiscent of one we did at the end of May which included shoulder presses, push presses, and push jerks in the place of the 400M runs.  In that workout, I used 115 pounds.  I also remember thinking I could handle the back squats easily, but then my feet started to hurt and I couldn't handle the 35 reps.  I thought that would make for a good challenge though.  With running being part of this workout, I would not be wearing the lifting shoes that caused the foot pain from that workout.  And the back squats were at the beginning this time.  I should be able to gut my way through 45 reps at 115 if that was the weight I chose to use.

But if you're a reader of this blog, you know scaling isn't my style.  135 wasn't a humungous amount of weight.  I could probably handle that for the back squats.  Front squats would need to be broken up, but they could be done.  And the overheads would be heavy, but overheads are my specialty.  I could get through 15 reps at 135.  So I set my mind to doing the workout RX.  And then I saw the morning times.  The morning crew usually puts up some of the best times of the day.  For this workout, I was expecting times in the low teens.  Instead I saw it took Rich 17 minutes to do this RX.  And it took Pete 21 minutes to do it RX!  Since those guys were much faster runners than me, I was now wondering whether this workout might take me 25-30 minutes if I used 135 pounds.

Over the course of the day, I saw plenty of people either use 95 or 115 pounds, or I saw them start with a certain weight and need to strip weight off as the workout progressed.  I talked with Dr. Coach Giulz about this and she encouraged us to keep the same weight on throughout the workout.  Add it all together and we were back to using 115 pounds for the workout.  That was fine, but I wanted a solid time for the workout then.  Something under 17 minutes was what I was shooting for.

The 6:30 class was pretty full.  It included Dr. Coach Giulz, Rachel, Laura A., Conn, and Borden.  It also included Jon P., who is typically one of the morning guys I mentioned earlier.  He was using 135 for the workout and, for a minute, I looked over at his bar and reconsidered going RX.  I talked myself out of it and reminded myself of my goals for the day: string 45 back squats and finish under 17 minutes.

We got going and it was no surprise to see Laura ahead of the pack, although Jon was doing a good job staying with her.  I was keeping a very measured pace as I believed the meat of the workout was the squatting and not the running.  Despite that, I was the third one back in the gym.  I cleaned my barbell, got it on my back, and began knocking out back squats.  I focused on staying in my heels.  I focused on using momentum and stringing more reps when I felt balanced.  But I did not focus on speed.  I kept in mind that 115 pounds on my back was not going to break me.  If I needed to stand with it to gather myself, I could do it.  But I was not dropping it.  I heard other barbells hit the floor and I ignored them.  I got to 25, 30, 35.  Holding the bar was uncomfortable, but not unbearable.  Got to 40, knocked out 3 reps, gathered my breath, then did 44 and 45.  Goal #1 complete.

My reps were on the slower side as both Rachel and Dr. Coach Giulz had already started their second run and Laura was way ahead of us.  I was also experiencing the rigid, uncomfortable run I was expecting after doing a bunch of squats.  I couldn't loosen up along the way and there was no way to pick up the pace.  I plodded along as fast as I could, but more than anything I thought of the run as my breather before getting to the front squats.

When I got back, I had thoughts of trying to string all 30 front squats.  That seemed a little ambitious.  And once I had squat cleaned the barbell and worked through a few reps, I figured out how inadvisable that was.  I decided to go with 3 sets of 10 reps.  I might have been able to do 2 sets of 15 reps, but I thought if I broke this up a little more, the final run might go a little smoother than the second one.  The order out the door did not change for run #3 and despite my best efforts to loosen up by doing smaller sets of front squats, I ran a very slow final 400 meters.

Dr. Coach Giulz and Laura were done when I got back in the door for overheads and Rachel was close to being finished.  I felt confident that I could make up some time on the overheads by doing all 15 in a row to finish the workout, but I felt very shaky as I worked through them.  After the 7th rep, I felt wobbly and decided to drop.  That's not good.  I didn't want to break the overheads into two sets and I certainly was not going to be happy breaking it up into 3 sets.  When I got the bar back overhead, I experienced the same shakiness, but I was finishing those 8 reps.  My solution was to simply go faster and hope for the best.  I managed to keep my balance and didn't have to drop the bar prior to completing the 15th rep.  Final time: 15:26.  Goal #2 complete.

Conn and Borden finished soon after and then it was time to cheer Jon home.  I admired the fact that he didn't strip the weight down even though 135 was clearly much harder than the 115 I used.  He did a set of 3 overheads, then a set of 4, then a set of 3, before finishing in style by knocking out the last 5 overheads.  He finished in 20:21, a very solid RX time.

Could I have done this workout RX?  I tend to think so.  As far as time goes, I know it wouldn't have taken 25-30 minutes.  My runs really could not have been any slower than they were.  The back squats and overheads would have been a bit slower.  The front squats most likely would have been much slower than they were with 115.  Does that add up to 5 minutes slower?  I dunno.  But if this workout ever pops up again, I'd like to give 135 a shot.

Afterwards, I worked on my cleans for a while using that same weight of 115.  It felt like a weight that was reasonable for working on my form.  The final event at King and Queen is a front squat ladder where you have to clean the weight to begin.  Since my 1RM for front squats is 45 pounds higher than my 1RM clean, this is really more of a clean ladder for me.  If I can clean it, I'll feel confident in my ability to front squat it.  But getting that bar on my shoulders will be tough, especially at the higher weights.  I worked on my breathing, where the barbell hits my thighs, getting a strong pull after the barbell pops off of me (no magic!), and fast elbows under the barbell.  I'll need to do it all correctly if I'm going to finally clean 225 on Saturday, but maybe the adrenaline of doing the event will be the extra nudge I need to get over that plateau.

Tuesday is a rest day.  Last WOD before King and Queen on Wednesday.