It didn't click in my head that Sunday was May 1 and that because it was the first Sunday of the month, that Open Gym would be scheduled that day. There really isn't that much difference between Open Strength on Sunday and Open Gym, other than having an extra half-hour to work on whatever you want. The other difference with Open Gym is who shows up. Open Strength is typically attended by a handful of people, most of whom are there to work on their Olympic lifts or to squat. Open Gym tends to have more people that I see during the week when I come in for WODs. There were close to a dozen people at this Open Gym, with many people working together to practice events in the upcoming 3rd edition of Brawl In The Burbs.
My intention wasn't to do anything metcon-related. First and foremost, I was there to complete my 3x3 front squat session. Having done a set of 3 reps at 255 previously, I felt confident that I could get through this session unscathed. I probably put more pressure on myself than I should at this point in the program, but when you come this far, you don't want to mess things up at the end. All I needed to do was go through my routine, stay focused during the reps, and I'd be fine.
As I got ready to warm up, I looked over and saw Danielle, Kris, and EJ testing out a Brawl event. This was the WOD I had done with Giulz at a recent Competitors Class. That day, I did the event as it is written for the RX teams. Danielle, Kris, and EJ were practicing the Scaled version. They were one guy short and I wasn't sure how they planned on doing the event with only 3 people. Since I didn't think it would take me very long to get through my squats, I offered to join them once I was done. So much for not doing any metcons!
If I was going to take part in that workout with them, I needed to get going with my front squats. I did my set of 5 reps at 135, followed by my set of 4 reps at 185. Everything felt fine through those sets. I was going to use 215 for my next set like usual, but I was going to add in an additional set at 235 rather than making some huge jump to 255 for my working sets. I thought about only doing one set at 225 in between the warmup set at 185 and the first working set at 255, but I wasn't doing a lot of volume on this day and I figured doing an extra set in the progression wasn't going to kill me, especially since it was only two more reps. The set of 2 reps at 215 was just like the ones I had grown accustomed to on my light days and the set of 2 reps at 235 wasn't bad either. I was ready for the 3 sets at 255.
There isn't too much detail to go into about those 3 sets, which is always a positive sign for me. If I can go into detail about why set #2 was different than set #1, then I probably lost my focus along the way or I simply had lousy form. If I can't differentiate between the sets, then I probably did it right. For each of the three sets, I took my time and if I hit my sticking point along the way, the time I spent there was extremely brief. Never ended up on my toes or stumbled forward. It was just a nice, solid session. The only negative was that my right palm continued to hurt due to the hyperextension of my hand as I held the barbell. Keeping your elbows up during heavy front squats is crucial and this was the only way I could make that happen. My right hand will be very pleased with me when this program is done!
As I put my weights away, I looked over and saw that Danielle and Kris were already in the middle of their Brawl practice. EJ was not. I went over and asked what had happened and he said that he injured his back while doing the wall balls portion of the event. I don't think I had taken a long time with my squats, but they were probably ready to go and decided to move forward with three people. I felt bad for EJ because I know how annoying tweaking your back can be, but hopefully he will heal quickly (Brawl is still more than 2 months away).
Having been liberated from doing a metcon, I decided that I would next work on my clean and jerks. That was a short-lived experiment. I did a few reps at 135 pounds and almost immediately felt pain in my right hand each time I cleaned the barbell. At first, I thought that I could ignore the pain and keep going. Part of me was hoping that the pain might go away as I progressed higher in weight (don't ask me how that logic makes any sense). I added 30 pounds to the barbell and did a clean with 165 pounds. I didn't even bother attempting the jerk when I got it to my shoulders. I dumped the barbell and shook out my right hand, finally realizing what a bad idea doing cleans was with a tender hand. I put my plates and barbell away and scanned the gym for something else to work on.
The pain in my hand eliminated pull-up and toes-to-bar practice from consideration. Eventually I settled on doing heavy KB swings and double unders to finish off the day. The last time I did KB swings was in the "27's" workout two weeks prior. I tend to struggle with KB swings (having timid hips and all), but I actually did well with them in that workout, even though they appeared about midway through it. Those KB swings were done using 53 pounds. I wanted some practice with a heavier KB as the 70 pound variety often appears in workouts. On a good day, I can string together 10-12 in a workout. If I'm tired and sweaty, it ends up being more like 6-8 reps. Being relatively fresh, the goal for this day was sets of 15 reps, with the thought being that if I could do 12 reps, I could hang on for 3 more reps even if I wanted to stop. And it worked out. In the first set, I got to 15 reps without grunting or hurting too much. For my second set, I needed to push a little more towards the end in order to get through all 15 reps. For my third and final set, some grunting was required as I got to about 11 reps before my body lost interest in swinging the 70 pounder. But knowing this was my last set helped and I held on for the final 4 reps.
The plan after that was to work on double unders, but I got to talk to Rachel for the first time in a long time and ended up skipping them. I see Rachel at Dudes After Dark, but I rarely work out with her any more because she does a lot of programming outside of Crossfit and I greatly prefer sleep to Competitors Class on Saturday mornings. Yes, I could use all the double under practice I can get, but catching up with a friend seemed like a better use of my time.
Monday preview: Fight Gone Bad. A workout I always look forward to. Until I actually do it.
The pain in my hand eliminated pull-up and toes-to-bar practice from consideration. Eventually I settled on doing heavy KB swings and double unders to finish off the day. The last time I did KB swings was in the "27's" workout two weeks prior. I tend to struggle with KB swings (having timid hips and all), but I actually did well with them in that workout, even though they appeared about midway through it. Those KB swings were done using 53 pounds. I wanted some practice with a heavier KB as the 70 pound variety often appears in workouts. On a good day, I can string together 10-12 in a workout. If I'm tired and sweaty, it ends up being more like 6-8 reps. Being relatively fresh, the goal for this day was sets of 15 reps, with the thought being that if I could do 12 reps, I could hang on for 3 more reps even if I wanted to stop. And it worked out. In the first set, I got to 15 reps without grunting or hurting too much. For my second set, I needed to push a little more towards the end in order to get through all 15 reps. For my third and final set, some grunting was required as I got to about 11 reps before my body lost interest in swinging the 70 pounder. But knowing this was my last set helped and I held on for the final 4 reps.
The plan after that was to work on double unders, but I got to talk to Rachel for the first time in a long time and ended up skipping them. I see Rachel at Dudes After Dark, but I rarely work out with her any more because she does a lot of programming outside of Crossfit and I greatly prefer sleep to Competitors Class on Saturday mornings. Yes, I could use all the double under practice I can get, but catching up with a friend seemed like a better use of my time.
Monday preview: Fight Gone Bad. A workout I always look forward to. Until I actually do it.
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