I don't think this blog post will be all that long, so this seemed like a good place to post a few updates on the Open, which begins late next week:
- KOP managed to sign up 89 people for the Open. And I thought it was crowded when New Year, New You was in session!
- The draft for the team competition has been held and I am on the blue team. I have slightly more blue clothing than orange clothing, so dressing up for the workouts will be easier this year.
- I submitted a proposal to change the way scoring is handled for the team competition, but it was found wanting. I have updated the spreadsheet I used last year and it is just about ready to go for this year's competition. There may be a couple of minor updates that need to be incorporated into it. And as I learned last year, the spreadsheet can never truly be ready until I hear what new wrinkle Dave Castro has put into the workouts.
With Monday being a holiday, a lot of people attended class earlier in the day, meaning the 6:30 class was not as well-attended as it usually is. There were only 6 of us in class ready to take on bar muscle-ups and push jerks.
Monday WOD:
9 bar muscle-ups
21 push jerks (115/75)
7 bar muscle-ups
15 push jerks (115/75)
5 bar muscle-ups
9 push jerks (115/75)
This struck me as a WOD that would be completed very quickly. When I saw times in the 8-10 minute range amongst the early crowd, I figured this was yet another sucker WOD that I had initially misjudged. Perhaps it depended on what kind of scale you used for bar muscle-ups. My expectation was that I would be doing more chest-to-bar pull-ups (not the worst thing in the world for me to continue practicing), as that is essentially the next level down in the progression of bar movements we do (pull-ups, chest-to-bar pull-ups, bar muscle-ups). And as is usually the case, I was wrong. Scales among the early crowd included banded bar muscle-ups and jumping bar muscle-ups.
Doctor Coach Sommelier VP Giulz walked us through some progressions in the warm-up and then had us try out both the banded bar muscle-up and the jumping bar muscle-up. I got close a couple of times with my attempts at a banded bar muscle-up, but I don't think the band gives me as much support as it might give to some of the lighter members of the gym. Would it have been worthwhile to use a thicker band? My guess would be no. I think I just need to get a little stronger and then the band I practiced with would probably be enough. The other difficulty I have with the band is that I'm used to doing strict pull-ups with it. In order to do the bar muscle-up, you need a big kip and that means throwing your body into the band at the bottom. Still getting used to that.
Sounds like we're going with option #2! Jumping bar muscle-ups are one of my favorite things to do in the gym, at least in moderation. They definitely get tiring, so I needed to keep that in mind with 21 of them needing to be completed in this workout. In the past, I have been able to do jumping bar muscle-ups with a 17" box. I've only gotten 2 or 3 with the 13" box, so it seemed unwise to try and use that box for this workout. My sweet spot has been a 13" box with a plate on it, making the height about 15". But I had never done 21 reps at that height, nor was that factoring in the 45 push jerks we were doing. All things considered, I felt like the 17" box was the right choice for the workout. I was probably wrong, yet again.
I was not worried about the push jerks at 115 pounds, so maybe this was where my downfall would be. Maybe the bar muscle-ups were going to wear me out and leave me struggling on the push jerks. For some reason, I just couldn't see it. I had done a partner WOD with Matt E not too long ago that included deadlifts and push jerks with a 21-15-9 rep scheme. We had used 115 pounds for the push jerks and I think I strung the reps the entire way. So I expected this part of the workout to go very fast. Could I string them all again? I thought about it, but there was something telling me that breaking up the sets would be wiser. I would just need to make sure that I didn't break up the sets too much and that my rest was limited when the barbell was on the floor.
We got ready to go with Michal being the only brave soul to do banded bar muscle-ups. Nate, Borden, "Megs", and I were all using boxes. Sarmad was...doing something different. "Megs" and I were right next to each other and we weren't sure whether we'd bump into each other, so we did a quick test run to make sure we'd be alright. No bumping during the test run. That meant it was 3-2-1-go time!
Having been repelled by the bar on previous jumping bar muscle-up attempts when I didn't jump high enough, I made sure that I got a strong jump on every attempt that I did in this workout. If that meant slowing down or taking a short break, I did so. After doing three fast reps, I slowed my pace over the next 4 reps. With two reps to go, I stopped and shook out my arms before completing the initial set of jumping bar muscle-ups. Only bumped into "Megs" twice. I saw Nate finishing his set at about the same time, so it didn't seem like I was going super fast (unless we both were). The best times of the day were in the high 5-minute, low 6-minute range. If I could move through the push jerks efficiently, I thought I could end up around there as well.
My concerns about the push jerks being hampered by the earlier jumping bar muscle-ups went away almost as soon as I cleaned the bar. It felt like a weight I could move quickly with. That being said, as I knocked out one rep after another, I came to the conclusion that stringing all 21 reps was a bad idea. When I got to 12 reps, I dropped my barbell. I don't think any of the other guys had dropped yet, but I didn't care. This plan felt right to me and I was sticking with it. After a brief break, I completed the final 9 push jerks.
As I got back to my bar, I saw that "Megs" and Michal were still working on their initial set of bar muscle-ups. During my first 9 jumping bar muscle-ups, I could hear "Megs" behind me and she did not sound like she was enjoying herself. As for Michal, she had already worked out earlier in the day, getting a PR on her snatch and doing some squatting, so she might have been a little more tired than she realized. They both finished right as I was about to start my set of 7 jumping bar muscle-ups, so I ended up having the rig to myself. Like I did with my first set, I pushed through at a solid pace, making every attempt count. Towards the end of the set, the jumps were becoming tougher and I noticed that my hands were getting sweatier. Slipping off the bar or sliding over the bar was not something I wanted to experience, so I began wiping off my hands in between reps. With all 7 reps done, I headed back to my barbell.
Could I do all 15 push jerks in a row? Another maybe. But why fix what ain't broken? I did 9 quick reps, then dropped the barbell for a breather. Picked the barbell back up, took care of the last 6 reps and it was on to the final round of the workout. When I got back to my bar, my brain started working and I realized that if I faced my bar from the opposite direction, I would not run into "Megs" anymore. Apparently my mind is too consumed with bad planning for there to be any room for common sense during a workout. I got started with the last 5 jumping bar muscle-ups and immediately noticed that my jumps were barely getting me up over the bar. For the most part, I was slamming my ribs into the bar and pulling myself over into proper position for the dip out. After drying my hands upon completing my third rep, I became determined to do the last two back-to-back with no pause. I got them done and headed to the barbell to complete the WOD.
I didn't hesitate in cleaning the barbell as soon as I got over to it and there would be no breaking up the set this time around. I had done at least 9 reps to kick off the beginning of the first two rounds and I was getting all 9 now. They probably didn't look as good as the earlier ones and there was some of my trademark unfortunate grunting involved, but I did those last 9 reps as quickly as I could and looked at the clock. Final time: 5:26.
Did I scale too much? Possibly. The only way that people could have ended up with times in the 8-10 minute range was if they were failing on the bar muscle-ups a decent amount of times, so perhaps I should have done the 13" box with the plate. That might have left me in the 7-8 minute range for the workout. Live and learn, I guess.
As Nate and Borden were finishing their workouts, "Megs" and Michal were still having issues with the bar muscle-ups. "Megs" was tired out from all of the jumping she had done and I could tell she was sick of slamming her ribs into the bar over and over again. Michal reached the point where she couldn't get any more reps with the band, so she needed a box. She initially tried jumping bar muscle-ups with the 20" box, but it wasn't quite high enough for her, so we got her a plate. That did the trick. Both girls were troopers, plugging away at a workout they were not having fun with, eventually finishing within 25 seconds of one another.
The best part of Mondays at KOP? There is still a full 90 minutes of Open Strength available after the 6:30 class ends. I had a bunch of things that I wanted to work on and having done less than 6 minutes of work in the WOD, I should have had plenty of energy to get all of it done. Or perhaps not. I started with handstand push-up practice and it was my worst session yet. There are a lot of moving pieces in kipping the handstand push-up and once I get upside down, it's hard for me to keep everything straight. Maybe too much blood flows to my head and my brain begins drowning. Whatever it is, all I know is that I am very far away from getting a kipping handstand push-up.
From that disappointment, I decided I would try and get a new 1RM on my front squat. That would cheer me up. I had done 2 reps at my 1RM of 265 pounds and the chart on the wall said I should be able to handle 280 pounds for one rep. I would be perfectly satisfied with 275 this night. I did 5 reps at 135, 3 reps at 185, then began singles at 225. After a successful front squat at 225, I moved on to an attempt at 255, which Jess C described as easy. It was a little tougher than it looked, but it gave me confidence that 275 was going down. Instead, I failed three times. In my first attempt, I felt good, but got stuck in the bottom and couldn't get out of it. Something similar happened in attempt #2, but I felt as though I was slowly rising out of that sticking point. After fighting it for a bit, I finally had to bail the weight. Attempt #3 was not much of an attempt at all. It was clear as soon as I hit the bottom of the squat that I didn't have the push to stand back up with it. No front squat PR.
Ummm...what's next? Double unders! Not exactly thrilled with my performance the day before, I put in some more work with the jump rope. First two sets were solid (41 and 28 reps). From there it began to fall apart. I might have gotten one more set of more than 20 reps, but that was it. Giulz pointed out that my hands flick backwards when I do the second rotation of the rope, something that had been said to me on Sunday as well. I tried to practice flicking the rope without letting my hands go backwards, but I couldn't get more than 3 reps. Ugh...always something to work on.
Finally, I threw on my grips and attempted some chest-to-bar pull-ups. Part of me wanted to get an idea of how long the WOD might have taken if I needed to do chest-to-bar pull-ups rather than jumping bar muscle-ups. Not sure I got the answer I was seeking. My hands were really sore at this point in the evening, so I didn't do a whole lot of reps before calling it a night. My guess is that I would have gone quicker in the first round, but may have been slower later in the WOD,
Tuesday preview: Dudes After Dark - the birthday edition!
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