It Moved...A Little

Workout date: 1/20/16

Perhaps the Crossfit gods take mercy on me and I'm completely oblivious to it.  Because as was the case a week ago with Chelsea, a strength/skill workout was scheduled the day after a traumatic WOD.  Fran-Su (© DN Enterprises) had kicked my ass, but I didn't have to worry about back-to-back met-cons destroying my spirit.  The Wednesday WOD involved another attempt at a 3RM deadlift along with a sprint cash-out of 50 pistols for time.

The 3RM deadlift is yet another lift that has made the rotation as part of the yearlong gym benchmark series.  I've been spinning my wheels for over a year when it comes to the deadlift.  Any gains I have made via my squat have not transferred over to my deadlift.  My 1RM remains at 385 pounds, close enough to 400 pounds that it makes me want to attempt 405 every time we deadlift.  My 3RM has been stuck at 365 pounds for quite a while as well.  The goal on this night was to break through and get 375 pounds for my 3RM.  If I was able to pull that off, I'd make another attempt at lifting 405 pounds off the ground.

Joining me in the 7:30 class with Coach Jenna were Julie, Cline, Luis, and Ashley M.  There was going to be plenty of time for all of us in this class because deadlift instruction doesn't take very long and the pistol cash-out at the end was going to be fast.  That meant we would get a solid amount of rest in between sets.  As is generally the case with most strength sessions, everyone tends to go at their own pace until the very end, when people start going one at a time as the rest of the class cheers them on to what will hopefully be a PR.

My plan was to do 5 sets: 225-275-315-345-375.  I've never been a huge fan of deadlift workouts that include a lot of volume, so I wanted to keep the number of sets I did as low as possible without making gargantuan jumps in weight to get to 375 pounds at the end.  The increase in weight in that sequence was 50-40-30-30 which felt like a reasonable progression to me.

The first two sets were not much trouble at all.  I think I've done 20 reps at 225 before and 10 reps at 275 before, so if I struggled with 3 here, I'd be very concerned.  Once I got to 315, the weight became an issue.  Crossing that 300 mark on the deadlift seems to elicit the same reaction from my brain as getting 40 double unders in a row: we're still good, but the end is near.  I was able to do my 3 reps at 315, but I knew I'd have to be completely locked in from this point forward.

My serious face was on when I attempted 345 pounds.  Getting the bar moving is always the toughest part, so once I had 345 in motion, I felt relieved.  Grip strength was becoming an issue, but I was able to hold on through 3 reps.  That set was a little tougher than I had hoped, so I didn't have a ton of confidence going into the PR try at 375 pounds.  After getting some rest and watching a few of my classmates take on their PR attempts, I stepped up to try 375 pounds.  As had been the case with the previous set, I wasn't entirely sure that I'd get the barbell off of the floor, but once I got it moving, I was able to bring it up to my waist fairly quickly.  I didn't want to sacrifice my form, yet I knew speed  was of the essence.  I pounded the barbell off the floor and pushed my hips forward as I brought the barbell up to my waist, completing rep #2.  I could sense my grip was weakening as I hit the barbell against the floor a final time, so I tried to stand back up as quickly as possible.  In typical Dave fashion, it wasn't pretty, but it got the job done.  I had finally gotten a new 3RM for my deadlift!

I wasn't the only one to PR in class.  As a matter of fact, had I failed at 375, I would have been the only one not to PR in class.  Here's a list of the other PRs achieved in class:

Luis - 365
Cline - 325
Julie - 235
Ashley - 195

As my classmates began to strip the plates off their barbells, I added some weight to mine.  30 pounds to be specific.  It was time to give 405 a go once again.  The chart on the wall in the gym said that if I could do 3 reps at 375, then I should be able to do 1 rep at 405.  I hadn't reached the point mentally where I believed that to be true, but I was going to try and lift it anyway.  I chalked up, got a firm grip of my barbell, pinched my shoulders back, and tried to stand up.  And for the first time ever, I felt the barbell move.  It came off the ground only a little bit, but it definitely lost contact with the floor.  Was I able to get it to my waist?  Sadly no.  But getting the barbell off the floor is the hardest part, giving me confidence that the day I crack 400 isn't too far in the distant future.

I put my plates and barbell away, then scrambled over to my bag to get my lifting shoes.  It was pistol time!  People sometimes ask me "how did you get so good at pistols?"  I understand their confusion.  Pistols are supposed to be a relatively advanced movement.  How could someone who messes up the basics so often be good at a movement that is more advanced?  Today I divulge the answer.  The secret is that pistols are in my blood.  It is part of my Russian heritage.  Don't believe me?  Here is some never before seen footage of my early training as a young souka:

That training would be tested in the cash-out as we were doing 50 pistols for time.  During the Advent challenge in December, I had done 37 pistols in a minute while falling over once.  Based on that, I figured I could finish in about 1:15 if I didn't have any stumbles along the way.  The alternative was that I could fall five times during the cash-out, which is exactly what I did.  I still kept a pretty solid pace though despite my balance issues.  Final time: 1:32.

Thursday preview: Wall climbs aren't what I think they are.  And wall balls are much more painful than I remember.