J-Sit Pull-Ups

Workout date: 5/13/16

Jill A has become the newest member of the Crossfit KOP coaching family and I wanted to be there for her first set of classes.  Unfortunately, a very busy weekend caused me to miss out on her coaching debut the previous Friday.  I couldn't miss out two weeks in a row though, so I made sure to pencil in a class the following Friday to support Coach Jill.  What would the workout include?  Well, based on my Carnac-like ability to practice a movement at Open Strength the night before it appears in a WOD, I should have known there would be a lot of shoulder presses in this workout.  And so there were...

Friday's WOD:
Max set of shoulder press (115/75)
Max set of L-sit pull-ups
Max set of shoulder press
Max set of strict pull-ups
Max set of shoulder press
Max set of kipping pull-ups
*90 seconds of rest in between sets

Part of the reason I had practiced the shoulder press after Endurance on Thursday was because I had not done it in a while.  And part of the reason was because I generally suck at the shoulder press.  So this WOD was a combination of one movement that I suck at and three variations of my worst movement at the gym.  Definitely set my expectations low for this one.

Jill put us through our warmup and then explained scaling options to us as it seemed unlikely there would be a lot of people in the gym who could do large sets of the shoulder press at that weight and all three variations of the pull-up that were programmed in the workout.  The main scaling option was to do ring rows.  I wasn't too keen on that option as I've never been a big fan of that movement (probably because it is a cousin of the pull-up) and it also seemed like something that would be much easier than what we were supposed to be testing in this workout.  L-sit pull-ups require holding your body in an L-shape (legs held straight in front of you) as you pulled your body up so that your chin got over the bar.  Simply holding an L-sit without doing anything else is tough enough.  For someone like me, maintaining that position while doing a pull-up is impossible.  A ring row (hanging in a somewhat horizontal position below the rings with your feet on the ground and pulling your body up to the rings while keeping your core tight) was something that got tiring after a while, but pretty much everyone could put together a decent set of those.  I was hoping for another scaling option.

Jill then described a scaling option specifically for the L-sit pull-up (ring rows could be used as a scale for all three varieties of pull-ups).  You could tie a band to one of the low pull-up bars, hang on to another low pull-up bar, and place your feet in the band that was across from you, artificially creating that L-sit position.  The band would help keep your legs up as you worked to do pull-ups.  You would need someone to assist you in getting your feet in the band, but that seemed to be the only drawback.  I had found my L-sit pull-up substitute!  As for the strict pull-ups and kipping pull-ups, I could do those, but my sets were likely to be on the smaller side.

Okay, I had figured out how I was going to handle the pull-ups, now it was time to figure out how much weight I should use for the shoulder press.  Could I use 115 pounds?  Sure, but that seemed like a bad idea since it would wear out my shoulders very quickly, leading to the likelihood that my pull-up sets would be more inept than they typically are.  Before I could figure out what weight would be best for me, Jill informed the class that we should choose a weight where we felt confident we could do 8-11 reps for the three rounds.  Perhaps I'm just the type who likes very precise instructions, but those directions gave me an immediate answer as to how much weight I should use: 95 pounds.  Awesome, I was all set to go.  Let's do this incredibly unpleasant sounding workout!

The first round kicked off and I was able to press out 17 reps before needing to drop the barbell.  The toughest part was not bending my knees later on in the set as it gets really annoying keeping your legs straight while trying to pump through reps as quickly as you can.  As my 90 second rest period came to a close, I asked Jill to help me get my feet into the band I set up.  I tried my hardest to keep my core tight as I had done a poor job of that during the warmup.  Erika R had pointed out that my feet were pulling down the band as I went to do each of my pull-ups.  Basically I was doing J-sit pull-ups instead of L-sit pull-ups.  Not surprisingly, those were much easier.  As I got going with the banded L-sit pull-ups, I kept an eye on my feet as I pulled my chin up to the bar.  I'm sure I wasn't keeping my body in a perfect L-shape, but there was no droopy J-shape either.  I got 7 reps before hopping out of the band.

My shoulders weren't feeling too worn out just yet, so my goal was to get another 17 reps in round two.  As I got to the 10-12 rep range, I started to struggle.  My reps slowed down and I had to work very hard to get the last couple.  I fell short of 17, but 15 was a respectable second round for me.  The bigger issue was that my shoulders were feeling it now.  I had 90 seconds to recover for strict pull-ups and I started to wonder how small that set was going to be.  I've gotten 5 consecutive strict pull-ups once in my life.  A good set for me when I was feeling fresh was 3-4.  Getting only one would be embarrassing.  So I was determined to get two and kept my fingers crossed for three reps.  I hopped up on the high bar and got through two reps easier than I had expected.  Did a third rep.  Then I hung there and tried to talk myself into getting one more.  Usually things end in failure at the gym when I need to give myself a pep talk in advance, but somehow I squeezed out a 4th strict pull-up before dropping from the bar.

I had no idea how many reps were in store for me in my upcoming final set of shoulder presses, but I knew it wasn't gonna be 15.  I think I made it through 5 reps before I had to transition into the slower pace I had at the end of my second round.  From there, I got to 10 reps before needing to drop the barbell.  Just one more set of kipping pull-ups to go.  I did two in a row before dropping into a dead hang.  Then I did two single reps interrupted by another hang.  My grip was starting to go, but I managed to re-grip before getting a 5th pull-up.  My fingers were starting to unwind, but I was able to re-grip a second time.  I got a 6th pull-up in before my grip failed.  Final score: 59.

Most of the scores for the day were in the 50-65 range, so I was very pleased with 59 reps.  This turned out to be the rare workout where I chose the perfect scaling options for myself.  My shoulders were smoked, but I left the gym happy that I performed well on a workout that looked like trouble for me.

Monday preview: After a weekend away from the gym, it's time for a test day as we take on the benchmark workout Jackie.  And I try my luck again with the split jerk at Open Strength afterwards.