Have I really progressed to the point where I want to do a workout because it has pull-ups in it? The answer: sort of. As long as the number of pull-ups involved is very low and I can feel all proud of myself for getting through it. I'm pretty sure that was thought process as I headed to the gym on Tuesday night. However, before we examine my mental state for the 286th time this year, let's put the back squat program to bed. Or at the very least, tuck it in and begin reading it a bedtime story.
I headed to the annex for Open Strength at 5:30 with only one task in mind: to do my 6x2 set at 235 pounds, the last set before I take on the 300+ back squat on Thursday. I got to face-off with Christine while she was doing her back squats. Christine loves to bust on me at the gym and Tuesday night was no different. As I warmed up with a set of 5 reps at 135, she got on me about needing to put some weight on the bar. I'm sure she felt the same way when I did 4 reps at 185 as well. But 235 was the max for yesterday's session. Having moved up in weight over the past 2 months, 235 simply doesn't feel that heavy, especially not for 2 reps. I took care of the 6 sets in quick fashion. As I headed over to the main gym for the 6:30 WOD, Christine told me I was going to do fine on Thursday. I'll take all the encouragement I can get!
It was closer to 6:15 when I got over to the main gym, so I had some time to kill. The final Boot Camp class of the year was in progress and seemed to be a form of Cargo Net Roulette, where teammates took turns climbing the cargo net for 40 minutes, or until someone's grip strength gave out and they plummeted to their death from the top of the cargo net. Luckily, everyone in that class has better grip strength than me, so I do not have to report any fatalities.
I also had some time to speak with Flounder, who was not pleased that the Endurance blog post I made him read from last week was so much about me. So in fairness, a recap of Flounder's workout at 5:30:
- Jason put Flounder and crew through a horrendous warmup that involved squatting through a song called "Bring Sally Up". In the song, the vocalist repeats the phrases "Bring Sally Up" and "Bring Sally Down" an obscene amount of times. The song is a favorite among Crossfit coaches, as it has become an anthem for games where the athletes must go up (with Sally) or down (with Sally) as instructed by the singer. In the warmup, athletes had to wrap a band around their legs and do air squats alongside the mythical Sally until the song ended.
- Flounder did 7 sets of front squats in search of his 3RM. The first few sets were warmup sets, before he really began adding weight to his barbell in the middle sets. The last few sets were rough, but he capped off the strength part of the WOD by doing 3 reps at 185 pounds.
- For the cash out, Flounder ripped through fast singles on the low bar, showing off the pull-up form he has used to consistently beat me in the Open. He had some issues with his depth during the wall balls segment as he tossed his 14 pound ball to the 10 foot mark. His time would put me to shame (as you shall soon see), as Flounder wrapped up his day by finishing in 3:04.
The good news about the Flounder recap is now you have to hear less about me. The 6:30 class had the same warmup, so let's jump into the front squats. My plan for the 7 sets was to go 135-165-195-225-240-255-265. My 3RM was 245, but I was hoping that all of the back squat work would pay off with my front squat as well. 255 seemed like a realistic number to shoot for. And with these workouts, I always like to go after my PR in the second to last round. 265 was dreaming (mainly because my 1RM was 260), but if I got 255, it was worth a shot.
135, 165, and 195 went smoothly enough that Jason joked that I would be front squatting 300 pounds by the end of the night. I wish! I came back to reality in the fourth set, as 225 pounds felt heavier than it should have. I was still 30 pounds away from my goal, so I shouldn't have been struggling quite yet. I told myself that it was simply a fluke, as I had experienced tough sets at lower weights during the back squat program, only to rebound in the next set at a higher weight. The fifth set at 240 pounds felt like the set at 225, which was a positive sign (I think). There may just be a point where that much weight on your Adam's Apple doesn't feel good. I didn't get stuck on any of the reps, but I could feel my elbows beginning to drop. And when your elbows drop in the front squat, you can be certain that the barbell won't be too far behind.
The set with 255 pounds was everything I expected it to be. The first rep was tough, but once I stood up with it, it gave me faith I could handle two more. The second rep was even tougher, and not surprisingly, some cracks developed in my newfound faith. I needed a few extra seconds to compose myself before taking on the final rep. Once I was ready, I dropped down into the squat and began to stand up. My initial reaction was "got it!" Except as I got about halfway up, my elbows decided they wanted to point down instead of up. The barbell began to slide off of my front rack down towards my chest. I was almost upright, but the barbell was getting away from me. By the time I was standing, the barbell had slid to the nipple region. I re-adjusted it up to where it should have been and then placed the barbell back on the rack. Did that count? Jason said it did and that was good enough for me.
One more set to go, but how was I going to get myself in the right frame of mind to attempt 265 when 255 was that much of an adventure? By giving up! (It's partially true.) Knowing I had never done more than 260, I psyched myself up with the thought of getting a new 1RM. And it worked! My first rep at 265 was a struggle (think 2nd rep of 255 set), but I managed to stand up with it. It was at that point I began to give myself "you can do two more" speech, but it was far too late for that. I got stuck on the way up from my 2nd rep and had to bail the barbell. I wasn't disappointed, but I also know that I needed to believe in my ability to do three reps at that weight long before I took the weight off the rack if I was going to be successful, and I did not do that. Still, I'll take a 3RM and a 1RM any day. Who's ready to do some pull-ups?
The answer: not me. Once again, my failure was of my own doing. Here was the cash-out:
3 Rounds:
7 pull-ups
14 wall balls (20 lbs to 10 ft/14 lbs to 9 ft)
Having managed 8 kipping pull-ups less than a week ago, this seemed like a nice challenge for me. Specifically, I wanted to get all 7 pull-ups in round one. If I could do something like 4 and 3 for the other two rounds, that would be a huge accomplishment for me. The only problem was that this cash-out was supposed to be fast. As in completed in 3 minutes. Some folks were finishing in two minutes. So the pressure was on. We got started and I grabbed a hold of the high bar. I got through 5 reps before my grip started to fail. When I dropped, I was keenly aware of how far behind I was already. Michal and Rachel were on their first round of wall balls, as was Ashley B, who was directly to my right. Ashley M and Lindsey were likely done with their pull-ups as well.
Feeling the need to stay with the group, I dropped to the low bar and did two fast singles. On to the wall balls. Again, 14 reps was a low enough amount that stringing all of them felt feasible. And that's what I did for the first round. Back to the pull-ups and this was where it all fell apart. I should have jumped up on the high bar again, but I panicked and tried to go fast on the low bar. Except I don't feel comfortable on the low bar. I can't kip properly because I'm concerned about my feet hitting the floor. I can't string reps. And I end up needing to use a wider grip. That would haunt me as the old "slide your hand wildly to the left" thing started happening. Seven very slow singles later and I was back to the wall balls. Everyone else was on round three already, except for Ashley B, who was finished. Great.
Having mentally checked out at this point, I didn't even string all 14 wall balls, doing a set of 8 and 6. By the time I got back to pull-ups, we had reached the dreaded "everyone stand around and cheer Dave on like he hasn't completely botched this cash out" stage. Seven more slow pull-ups and I got back to my wall ball. At least this time I was focused enough to do all 14 reps. Final time: 4:27. So much for keeping it under 3 minutes.
I was rolling out afterwards when Michal came over and asked me what I was doing next. I wasn't sure if the answer was supposed to be "putting on a new shirt" or "going to eat dinner". Thankfully I didn't give one of those answers since neither one would have been correct. Michal followed up her question with her own answer: "working on pull-ups". Apparently my form was so putrid that she wanted me to put in more practice, even though I was a sweaty mess and very tired. I went and put my grips back on while she put on a weight vest (approx. 20 pounds). We would both be practicing the same thing, but Michal was practicing with the weight vest to get stronger as she gets ready to knock out her first muscle-up in the very near future.
After Michal knocked out her first set of five, I jumped up to the high bar and practiced. Somehow I managed to do 4 pull-ups in a row with good form. Where was that 15 minutes ago? The difference was that I was calm and focusing only on myself. 15 minutes ago, I was desperately trying to keep up with everyone else in the class. If I had minded my own business, maybe that cash out would not have gone so poorly. We each did a couple more sets before calling it a night.
Thursday preview: As promised, no working out for me on Wednesday in anticipation of the 1RM back squat test on Thursday. Can I finally handle 300 pounds? Was all of the work worth it? How badly will I overthink the shit out of simply going down and up? All those questions will be answered on Thursday night.
The answer: not me. Once again, my failure was of my own doing. Here was the cash-out:
3 Rounds:
7 pull-ups
14 wall balls (20 lbs to 10 ft/14 lbs to 9 ft)
Having managed 8 kipping pull-ups less than a week ago, this seemed like a nice challenge for me. Specifically, I wanted to get all 7 pull-ups in round one. If I could do something like 4 and 3 for the other two rounds, that would be a huge accomplishment for me. The only problem was that this cash-out was supposed to be fast. As in completed in 3 minutes. Some folks were finishing in two minutes. So the pressure was on. We got started and I grabbed a hold of the high bar. I got through 5 reps before my grip started to fail. When I dropped, I was keenly aware of how far behind I was already. Michal and Rachel were on their first round of wall balls, as was Ashley B, who was directly to my right. Ashley M and Lindsey were likely done with their pull-ups as well.
Feeling the need to stay with the group, I dropped to the low bar and did two fast singles. On to the wall balls. Again, 14 reps was a low enough amount that stringing all of them felt feasible. And that's what I did for the first round. Back to the pull-ups and this was where it all fell apart. I should have jumped up on the high bar again, but I panicked and tried to go fast on the low bar. Except I don't feel comfortable on the low bar. I can't kip properly because I'm concerned about my feet hitting the floor. I can't string reps. And I end up needing to use a wider grip. That would haunt me as the old "slide your hand wildly to the left" thing started happening. Seven very slow singles later and I was back to the wall balls. Everyone else was on round three already, except for Ashley B, who was finished. Great.
Having mentally checked out at this point, I didn't even string all 14 wall balls, doing a set of 8 and 6. By the time I got back to pull-ups, we had reached the dreaded "everyone stand around and cheer Dave on like he hasn't completely botched this cash out" stage. Seven more slow pull-ups and I got back to my wall ball. At least this time I was focused enough to do all 14 reps. Final time: 4:27. So much for keeping it under 3 minutes.
I was rolling out afterwards when Michal came over and asked me what I was doing next. I wasn't sure if the answer was supposed to be "putting on a new shirt" or "going to eat dinner". Thankfully I didn't give one of those answers since neither one would have been correct. Michal followed up her question with her own answer: "working on pull-ups". Apparently my form was so putrid that she wanted me to put in more practice, even though I was a sweaty mess and very tired. I went and put my grips back on while she put on a weight vest (approx. 20 pounds). We would both be practicing the same thing, but Michal was practicing with the weight vest to get stronger as she gets ready to knock out her first muscle-up in the very near future.
After Michal knocked out her first set of five, I jumped up to the high bar and practiced. Somehow I managed to do 4 pull-ups in a row with good form. Where was that 15 minutes ago? The difference was that I was calm and focusing only on myself. 15 minutes ago, I was desperately trying to keep up with everyone else in the class. If I had minded my own business, maybe that cash out would not have gone so poorly. We each did a couple more sets before calling it a night.
Thursday preview: As promised, no working out for me on Wednesday in anticipation of the 1RM back squat test on Thursday. Can I finally handle 300 pounds? Was all of the work worth it? How badly will I overthink the shit out of simply going down and up? All those questions will be answered on Thursday night.
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