Side Ass

Workout date: 1/15/16

Friday brought the type of workout I was looking for after having gone through the trauma of participating in Chelsea.  The WOD was your typical mix of strength and skill work.  The strength portion was a 3RM front squat.  This was one of the strength benchmarks from the yearlong gym benchmark series in 2015 and it has been kept in the rotation for 2016.  In my two previous attempts at this, I had gotten to 265 pounds (255 pounds is my current 3RM) only to fail after completing 1 rep.  Would this be the day I finally got 265 pounds three times?  Or would I switch it up and try something different?  I wasn't completely sure when I arrived at the gym.

Clay was our coach for the 5:30 class (yes, I'm still trying to avoid doing the WOD at the same time as the "New Year, New You" program) and he got us started by having us break up into teams of two.  While one partner rowed, the other would be doing exercises while wearing a Hip Circle.  What is a Hip Circle?  Think of it as a thick rubber band that you pull up your legs like you were putting on a pair of pants.  Only this pair of pants is way too small for you and you can barely get them above your knee.  The Hip Circle is meant to provide tension as you do slow side-to-side movements which work your hips and glutes.  Or as Coach Clay put it, "we're developing our side ass today".

After completing the warmup, it was on to the front squats.  The way the WOD was written indicated that we should be doing 7 sets of three reps, but my understanding has always been that these 7 sets are so-called "working sets", not warmup sets.  After getting some instruction on the front squat, we were told to do a set of 5 reps with just the barbell, then a set of three at a light weight before going after our 3RM.  I did that before running into the problem I always run into on strength day: balancing rest with the amount of time given for strength.  With the two warmup sets, we were doing 9 sets for this workout.  You need time to go back and forth grabbing plates and loading up your barbell.  And even if you have the plates you need on hand, you are supposed to take proper rest between sets.  But when I take the rest, I seem to run out of time.  And when I hurry, I generally hear that I need to take more rest between sets.  That would be the case yet again.

I did a set of 5 with the barbell, then grabbed some 25 pound plates to do a set of 3 at 95 pounds.  From there, I took off the 25 pound plates, left them by my barbell and grabbed 45 pound plates.  I then did my first "real" set at 135 pounds.  I went back and picked up some 15 pound plates to add to the bar for my second set at 165 pounds.  With that set finished, I removed the 15 pound plates and replaced them with the 25 pound plates to do a set at 185 pounds.  Still no struggles in terms of doing the squats up to this point.  I went back over to the plates and grabbed some 10 pound plates so that I could move up to 205 pounds.  Another set that went fairly smoothly.  Four sets down, three to go.

As I got ready to rest, Clay mentioned that we should be at the point where we were working on our second to last set.  Say what?  I was two sets behind.  I jogged over to the plates, grabbed some more 45 pound plates and got them on the bar after taking off the 25 and 10 pound plates.  I went right into the set at 225 and completed it.  Clay had just seen me do the set at 205, so he came over and told me that it was important to get the proper rest between sets, especially at the higher weights.  I'm so confused!  I knew what he was saying was accurate, but how was I going to finish in time if I took the rest I was supposed to take?  Nevertheless, I took a few minutes to recover, adding the 10 pound plates for my next set at 245 pounds.  I even used the rest time to grab additional 10 pound plates for my last set at 265 pounds.  As I walked up to my barbell, Clay mentioned that we should be working on our last set.  Now I wasn't sure if I was going to get my PR attempt in.  I had played around with the idea of going 245-260-270 at the end of my front squats before the class began, but I was glad I hadn't chosen that route now.  (Note: doing that progression would have required a bigger jump in weight earlier on, namely dropping the set at 165 from the progression to give myself two potential PR sets at the end.)

I went up to the barbell and focused only on doing 245 pounds correctly.  The set at 225 was where I first started getting concerned about the weight and this set definitely made me concerned about my chances of completing 265 pounds.  I completed all three reps, but there was some sticking at the bottom of the reps that I had to fight my way through.  With that set done, I added the 10 pound plates  I had gotten during my previous rest period and stepped back from the barbell.  During a strength session, people tend to go at their own pace in the early sets, but when you get to the end and may be taking on a PR, each athlete tends to go one at a time.  So while Clay had mentioned that we should be on our last set as I got ready to do 245, I did end up with a little extra time built in because our 7 person class was going to go once at a time for the final set.  In fact, since I went right after Clay made that announcement, it is very possible that none of the other 6 people in class had attempted their final set yet.  In essence, I was back on pace, although I would be the last one in our class to finish.  Minor victories.

After watching everyone else go, I felt as though I had enough rest to go after 265 pounds.  Mr. Intensity and Ms. January (aka Christine) were watching from the side, rooting me on.  I took the barbell off the rack, got my breathing right and went for the first rep.  Had to fight out of the bottom, but I made my way back up.  This was where it got tough.  265 pounds definitely feels heavy to me and the fight out of the bottom had me breathing rapidly.  I needed to get my breathing under control and prepare to fight once again.  I sucked in some air and lowered into a squat again.  Even more of a struggle then the first time, but somehow I was able to stand up with the weight.  Two down, one to go!  I couldn't fail now.  I was too close.  I prepared for this last rep, ready to push and scream with everything that I had left to set the PR that had eluded me for 9 months.  I dropped into a squat for the third time, struggled to get out of the bottom, fought the weight and...had to bail.  Sadly, not every story has a happy ending.  I'm right on the verge of getting 265, but it will have to wait another three months.

Time to move on and do some skill work.  I scrambled to put my plates away and change my shoes as Clay explained the finer points of the bar muscle-up.  One point that he emphasized that really hit home with me was the importance of closing the shoulder and keeping your arms straight rather than pulling early.  Whenever I do a movement where I'm concerned that I can't handle the weight (and my body weight is still in that 205-210 pound neighborhood), I rush pulling.  Happens on the clean and jerk.  Happens on the snatch.  And it sounds like it is happening when I do pull-ups.  Clay wanted us to focus on trying to hit our hips on the bar, and since I have nothing in the way of a bar muscle-up, I decided to attempt this over and over again.  We had a cash-out which was supposed to be a 5 minute EMOM of 3 bar muscle-ups, but I used that time to make 3 attempts at hitting my hips to the bar.  I got close a few times and on one attempt I hit the bottom of my rib cage on the bar.  But there is still a lot of work that needs to be done there before I get my first bar muscle-up.

No classes on Saturday as we hosted the Girls On Girls competition in the gym.  20 of KOP's best female athletes took on ladies from all around.  Giulz ran the competition extremely well.  We were so ahead of schedule that she was able to throw in a championship WOD for the top five scaled and RX teams.  Aimee and Cate finished 2nd in the RX division, with impressive performances from Ashley B and Jill A, Rachel and Michal, and Laura A and Regi.  On the scaled side, Queen Pam and Dana finished 5th, including a 2nd place finish in the championship WOD.  There was also some great work done by Alison and Diane (soukas!), Shawna and Jackie, Sarah S and Miranda, Fayth and Steph C, and Manisha and Theresa.  Really cool to watch the KOP ladies represent.

Monday preview: After passing on class on Sunday morning, it was time for another partner WOD on Monday night.  And there was much carnage at the box!  (Although very little of it had to do with the actual partner WOD.)