Hostages On A TV Show

Workout date: 2/2/16

Michal has been trying to get a muscle-up for a long time.  It was bound to happen eventually because she flies around on both the bar and the rings.  She's developed butterfly pull-ups and even a bar muscle-up.  On the rings, the only thing that was holding her back from getting a muscle-up was the fact that she had refused to pull hard enough, despite having this information relayed to her over and over again by a muscle-up expert like myself.  While I was in Vegas, I received a text message from her.  The text message contained a video clip.  There was Michal, swinging on the rings, but something different happened.  She pulled!!!  And by pulling, she transitioned up over the rings and then dipped out to get her first muscle-up.  (Note: Technically it may have not been the pulling that led to her success, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

On Monday, not only did Michal get her second muscle-up, but Sarah S kept the trend going by getting her first ever muscle-up.  Hmmm...starting to feel just a little bit of peer pressure to get my first muscle-up.  So I went to the muscle-up clinic on Tuesday night being led by Giulz and Keithie.  Also at the clinic was my partner on Team Rhythmless, Queen Pam.  Rachel and Michal were in attendance, as was Zak.  Zak is a very in-shape guy in his early twenties who makes me wish I had found Crossfit 15 years earlier.  Make that 20 years earlier.  It definitely would have taken twig-like high school Dave a solid 5 years to be in the shape that Zak is currently in.  Aside from Michal, the other four of us were looking to get our first muscle-up.  Any guesses on who would get their first?

Giulz walked us through some transition work on low rings while using Keithie as her demo guy for most of the first half of the clinic.  In a muscle-up, you swing below the rings, then transition to a position above the rings (or perhaps, more accurately, at the level of the rings) where you then dip out to a position where your body is vertical and your arms are no longer bent.  It requires coordination and upper body strength, both of which I have in short supply.  When doing the transitions on the low rings, your feet are on the ground.  You are simply trying to get used to the motion you will be doing when hanging from the rings later on.

After going through transitions on the low rings, we raised the rings and tried to do that same transition hanging from the rings without fully extended arms (with fully extended arms would be the last step).  Zak stepped up and, on his first try, not only managed to nail the transition, but was in such complete control that he easily dipped out of the transition.  And so he had his first muscle-up.  That didn't take long!  Rachel, Pam, and I were all thinking about what ditch we could throw his body into...I mean, we were all super excited to see him get a muscle-up so quickly.  (Why can't we get one?!?!)

We spent most of the clinic at this "transition using bent arms" stage.  It looked like Zak might not be the only one to lose his muscle-up purity this night as both Rachel and Pam nearly got a muscle-up.  Rachel has been close for a while.  Her legs come way up in the air during her swing, but she hasn't quite pulled off the transition yet.  Pam kept getting closer and closer to executing the transition as the hour went on, but she's just a little below where she needs to be in order to get her muscle-up.  As for me...well, I need a lot of work.  I probably learned more than everyone else there, but that's because I'm so much further behind in my muscle-up development.  I spent a lot of time learning not only the false grip itself, but also how I should hold my elbows when doing it.  I learned that my elbows flare out during my swing and I need to keep them in close.  I learned that I need to look at the ceiling when I'm on my way back in the swing and I need to aggressively look towards the floor when I attempt the transition (sticker!).  It's going to take time, but the clinic at least gave me a better foundation to work with.

So to summarize, Michal has them, Zak has them, Pam and Rachel are very close and I need considerable practice.

Rachel transitioned over to her coaching duties for the 7:30 class where I joined Cline and Abby to do a hero WOD that I had never done before.  The WOD was called Sisson:

"Sisson"
AMRAP in 20 Minutes
1 rope climb (15')
5 burpees
200 meter run

That didn't sound so terrible.  Oh wait, did I not mention the weight vest?  Silly me.  To do this workout RX, guys had to wear a 20 pound weight vest while ladies were required to wear a 10 pound weight vest.  I love climbing the rope, but I wasn't sure how that would go with a 20 pound weight vest on.  The burpees and the 200 meter run were going to be that much more tiring with the extra weight as well.  At least the vest was bright yellow and would keep me from getting hit by a car as I ran out across the street over and over again in the dark.

Before we got into that though, we tried some handstand walk practice.  Zak had joined us for this part of the WOD, although he would pass on Sisson later.  We got next to the wall and did kick-ups, trying to slowly move away from the wall with each attempt in the hopes of relying on the wall only to catch us if we couldn't hold a handstand.  Then we attempted walking while having another person hold our legs upright.  Being the holder is always a bit awkward, but if you could keep the upside-down person vertical, they were usually able to walk for a while.

With that over with, I strapped on a 20 pound vest, Cline strapped on a 10 pound vest, and Abby threw on the Ronald McDonald socks I let her borrow.  For those that haven't seen these vests, they look like crossing guard vests with tons of tiny pockets on the front and the back.  Those pockets are to hold 1 pound weights, so you can adjust how heavy the vest will be.  To me, we looked like hostages on a TV show.  If the kidnappers' ransom demands were not met, they were going to blow up me and Cline.  Or the timer would tick down to 1 second and we'd be saved.  Probably the latter.

Rachel told us to get set to go and then started the clock.  I jumped on my rope, took three pulls, slapped the 15' mark, and slid down my rope.  I did this exact same thing every time I got to the rope in this workout.  Okay, there was one round where I came back in from a run and tripped over the end of the rope as I went to make my initial jump.  But other than that blooper, it was a big jump, three pulls, slap the mark, slide back down.  I started my burpees just before Cline and we employed two different techniques.  I had chosen a spot to do my burpees and I was staying in that spot until I finished all 5 burpees.  Cline's approach was to do a burpee, then move a little closer to the door before doing the next burpee.  He would be much closer to the door when he finished his 5th burpee, but he would also be doing the burpees slower than me.  As a result, I was the first one out the door for the run, with Cline and Abby close behind.

As I ran out the door the first time, I noted that the clock read 30 seconds.  I wanted to see how long each round took, but I didn't want to turn around and look at the end of each round.  I wanted to use the momentum of the run to help me get a good leap on to the rope every time.  So I would look at the clock after I finished my burpees each round.  After another quick climb and five more burpees, I looked up to see 2:30.  Perfect.  Two minute rounds would equal 10 rounds.  I knew my pace would slow down as we went along, so my goal was to finish 9 rounds.

There isn't too much to write about in terms of different things that happened in various rounds.  My rope climb was exactly the same each time.  This was where I was gaining the most time on Cline and Abby.  Never stopped on the burpees.  Never crawled through any of the burpees.  I'm sure my run time got progressively worse round by round, but each time I went on a run, I was a little further ahead of Cline than I had been the round before.

I finished up my 5th round just beyond the 10 minute mark.  I was on pace to finish 9 rounds, but I couldn't fall apart.  The weight vest wasn't having too much of an effect on me.  It wasn't impairing me on the rope climbs.  The burpees weren't overly cumbersome.  And I needed the 200 meter run to catch my breath a little anyways, so I didn't care that the vest may have been slowing me down a bit.

There was no point during these 20 minutes that I felt in trouble.  I was calm on the rope climb.  I've never loved doing burpees, but doing them 5 at a time helps.  And I was able to control my breathing during the run.  Two minute rounds were slowly becoming two minute and 15 second rounds.  I knew that when I got to round 9, I was going need to really push on the run to make sure I didn't come in after time had elapsed.  That had happened a couple weeks ago during the cash-out with wall balls and 200 meter runs.  It sucked not having that final run count.

As I jumped on the rope to begin round 8, Cline was coming down from his 7th rope climb.  I tapped the 15' mark and slid back down.  I went through my burpees as quick as I could then ran out the door after him.  I caught up to him near the turnaround point for the 200 meters.  We came back into the gym at about the same time, but I once again ran to my rope and jumped as high as I could.  Three pulls, hit the 15' mark, then take on some burpees.  When I finished those 5, I looked at the clock.  I had about 1:45 to get back.  That would be a lot of time for a 200 meter run when fresh and not wearing a weight vest.  But at that point in time, I was less than certain I'd make it back before the WOD ended.  So I picked up the pace as much as I could during the run.  As I passed the annex on my way back to the gym, Rachel yelled "45 seconds!"  I was going to complete round 9.

When I crossed through the door, Rachel told me to quickly get another rope climb in.  I did just that. I couldn't see the timer from where I was standing, so I went right into burpees, intending to go until I heard the buzzer.  After three burpees, time was finally called.  Final score: 9+4.

This was a really rewarding workout for me.  I didn't get extremely fatigued despite the weight vest.  I kept a good pace from start to finish.  I got a better score than I could have imagined.  And I've been known to have quite the imagination when I plan out how a workout is going to go.

Wednesday preview: Rachel destroys yet another WOD.  I keep up with her for the first 10 seconds.