I used to have the ability to predict what the next day's WOD was. Well, to be fair, it was more of a subconscious ability. I would stay after a workout for Open Strength and, more often than not, whatever I worked on would somehow pop up in the next day's WOD. I don't have concrete statistical data to back this up, so you'll have to trust in the fact that I've never embellished any story that I've told on this blog simply for effect. (Note: If you ever see me writing down random numbers at Open Strength, you might want to buy a Powerball ticket. You'll thank me later. From your new private jet. Assuming it has Gogo In-Flight.)
By committing to a regular back squat routine, I likely have increased the chances of having my Open Strength workout conflict with scheduled WODs. After all, the back squat is probably the strength movement most likely to appear in a WOD. It had happened recently and I guess I figured I was safe for a while after it had happened, since it is pretty rare that the same workout pops up again in a short time period. We have had a lot of workouts show up 3 months apart at the gym this year, but that was because the owner of our gym (Aimee) had sent out a program at the beginning of the year stating this would be the case. It is not uncommon to go six months or even a year before seeing a workout pop up again. When we did Kalsu earlier this year, it was the first time I had seen it in about two years.
That being said, back squats are not a specific workout like Isabel is. Instead, back squats might show up as part of a WOD in many different varieties. Because back squats are usually taken from the rack, they tend not to appear in metcons very often, but they will appear as a 1RM, 3RM, 5RM, etc. And there's no chance that I'd be lucky enough to have 3RM day pop up when I'm doing 6x3 or 3x3 in my back squat program. That means when there's a conflict, I need to choose whether I really want to do the WOD. That was the case on Friday as the WOD consisted of finding your 10RM back squat and a 2,000 meter row for time.
The only reason this was a difficult decision was due to the row. I had little desire to find out what my 10RM back squat was. From all the squatting I have done recently, I would wager a lot of money it was in the 245-255 range. I had planned on doing my 6x2 session on Friday and there was no reason to mess with the plan. But I hadn't done a 2,000 meter row for time since May. Even that was a bit of an accident as I was really just looking to do a little cardio on the rower that day. Since I felt good halfway through the row, I pushed the rest of the way to PR with a time of 7:42.7. Now I was curious as to whether I could drop that under 7:30. I didn't need to do the WOD to find that out though. I could simply tack it on to whatever else I was working on.
In lieu of the WOD, I decided to do some box squats along with my 6x2 session. Coach Steph had a point the other day: I need stronger hamstrings. I've watched Leslie do these all the time, but I had never done them myself. I had asked Steph what weight I should use for the box squats, but the best answer she could give me was to feel it out as I worked through them. So I went very light for a variety of reasons:
- Never done these before
- Still doing my 6x2 work afterwards
- Didn't have a rack to use
With the back squat WOD going on at the same time as Open Strength, there were no racks available for me to use. That meant I would need to clean whatever weight I used (so anything above 225 wasn't happening). I grabbed a 13" box and made sure it was the proper height for my squat. I had read online that you didn't want to use a box that left you above parallel when you sat on it, but at the same time, it was also detrimental to use one that left you well below parallel. The 13" box felt right when I tested it out, so I'll know what to use going forward. From there, I tested out the movement with an empty barbell (45 pounds) to get the feel for it. Then I moved up to 95 pounds to see how different it felt with weight on the barbell. Still not bad.
Having felt comfortable with that, I moved up to 135 pounds and did a set of eight reps. Oh hello, hamstrings! The idea behind this movement is that you force yourself to use your hamstrings when coming up out of the bottom of the squat (as opposed to on your toes, like I normally do). Even at this lighter weight, I could feel my hamstrings being activated more than they typically are. I took a break before doing another set of 8 reps at this weight. I didn't want to burn myself out, but I did want to test my hamstrings with a little more weight on the bar, so I used 165 for my final set of 8 reps. I never struggled with the weight, but it was clear that this movement was forcing me to use different muscles than I was accustomed to using. Hopefully I will one day develop hamstrings, like that joyous day not too long ago when I finally developed a tricep (look, the bottom of my arm isn't completely flat anymore!).
With that completed, I did my 6x2 session of back squats at 265. I am still not feeling completely comfortable with that weight, but I also was never in danger of failing to get two reps during each set. My 6x6 day at this weight is on the horizon though, and I have major concerns about whether I can handle that. It will take tremendous focus and solid technique to get through it. Certainly not an impossible task, but not my strong suit either.
With all my squatting done for the night, it was time to play around on the bar. I have been consistent in doing pull-up work nearly every night I've been at the gym recently, so I wanted to test out my toes-to-bar instead. Like with pull-ups, it would test both my grip strength and my midline stability. Plus, it would be wise to work a little more regularly on efficiently stringing toes-to-bar reps (toes-to-bar doesn't come up nearly as often as the back squat does.). For my first round, I strung together 10 quick reps with good form, which ties my best effort. Like with kipping pull-ups, I could get more reps by coming to a dead hang and doing single reps, but that is much less efficient. I did two more sets after that, one of five reps and one of six reps. I still struggle with keeping my midline tight as I tire out (same issue with pull-ups), but if I could do a set of 21 reps during a workout in three sets like I did here, I'd be very pleased.
Finally, I worked on pull-ups once again. The newest thing to work on: keeping my feet together during the kip. I have gotten better at my swing, but it could improve more if I kept my feet together. Samson mentioned being called "a mermaid", which was a very helpful cue for me as I could visualize that while watching him and Michal do their pull-ups. I ended up doing three sets of 5 pull-ups. Hanging on longer than that will require practice, but as I said with the toes-to-bar, if I can duplicate sets like that in a workout, you'll hear no complaints from me.
As for the 2,000 meter row, I decided to put that off for another time. I'd love to take a crack at it fresh and it didn't seem worthwhile to do it having gone through the squats and the gymnastic work already. My goal is something in the 7:20-7:30 range. I think my rowing form has gotten better, but I'm not sure how well my cardio will hold up for a row of that distance.
Saturday preview: A return to Competitors Class featuring a themed workout from Coach Rachel. Rumor has it that the workout has a 45 minute time cap. Yay?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.