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Workout date: 5/22/16

With KOP's second annual Prom in the books as of Friday night, I returned to the gym two days later for some Sunday school.  By the time I came in for some cardio work on Sunday morning, I had gotten almost three days of rest since showing up for the noon class on Thursday.  The WOD was all tabata-based.  In fact, had there been one more movement included (a four-movement rotation rather than a three-movement rotation), the structure of the WOD would have been tabata-like as well.  I think I'm happy there wasn't a fourth movement as I could barely walk after doing this workout anyways.  Here's what the Sunday WOD looked like:

Tabata Row (calories)
Tabata Air Squats
Tabata Assault Bike (calories)
Tabata Row
Tabata Air Squats
Tabata Assault Bike
*A tabata is 8 rounds long with 20 seconds of work each round followed by 10 seconds of rest
**One minute rest between each station

The main reason I came in for this workout is because I'm trying to improve my cardio as much as possible and this was definitely a WOD where my lungs were going to be tested.  I knew this would do a number on my legs as well, but I underestimated how much pain I would be in during this workout.  I didn't even make it all of the way through the rotation the first time before I was hunched over in agony.

Coach Rachel had 12 attendees in her 10am class and because this workout involved the use of bikes, we had to stagger the start.  Even with the staggered start (6 people per group), not everyone could use an assault bike as we only have 5 of them at the gym.  There are 2 airdyne bikes though and I didn't hear anyone complain about having to use the assault bike's gentler cousin instead.  Before beginning the workout, we partnered up on a bike and I agreed to share one with Matt E.  He was going first and I was beginning once the first tabata had ended as part of the second wave.  Next to me in the second wave was Ben and he ended up being my partner during this workout more than Matt simply because we went through this beatdown side-by-side.  (We also spent the one minute rest periods sharing a marker and slowly writing the number of reps from the previous movement on our whiteboards.)

There were only three people in the 9am class, but based on their scores, I figured that 400 reps was a reasonable goal.  The key would be pushing through the air squat tabata as that would certainly pad your score more than the rowing and the assault bike would.  After the first wave had completed their first tabata on the rower, it was time for Ben, myself, and the rest of the second group to begin our workout.  Since we were only doing 20 second bursts, I decided to put the damper higher than I normally would put it when rowing for calories and it seemed to pay dividends.  For the first few rounds of that initial tabata, I was getting about 10 calories every 20 seconds, which was a lot for me.  That number decreased as the rounds wore on, but I was happy with my final score at the end of the first tabata.  With the one minute break upon us, I scrawled 62 on my whiteboard.

"Sandbagger!"  That's what Ben said to me as I handed him the marker to write down his score.  Even though I thought I had done well on the row, I was evidently mistaken as Ben scribbled down 69 for his score.  He thought I was saving energy for the remaining tabatas, not knowing that I am incredibly average when it comes to rowing.  I let him know that 62 was a good score for me and that there was no way I could keep up with guys like him, Cline, and Matt on the rower.  Where could I keep up with them?  On the air squats.  The second tabata began and I started cranking out rep after rep, hoping to do one per second early on.  At the first 10 second rest, I had 18 reps, so I adjusted my expectations.  I tried to hold that pace of 18 every twenty seconds, but soon it began dropping down to the 15 range.  My legs were burning as I hit the end of this tabata, but this was the section where I needed to go all out, even if it meant a worse performance on the assault bike.  My score for the first air squat tabata was 125.

I paid the price when I got to the assault bike.  I needed 30 seconds of my minute break just to stand up after all of those rapid-fire air squats.  When I crawled on to my bike, I had less than 10 seconds before we were starting again.  I tried to pedal hard, but my calorie counter was still on zero halfway through the first round of the tabata.  I did get it moving eventually, but when the 10 second break hit, I only had 2 calories.  Oh boy.  The good thing about the assault bike though is that it keeps counting calories as the wheel spins, even if you're no longer pedaling.  So I had 3 calories on my monitor when I began the next 20 second sprint.  I got 3 calories the first few rounds, then 4 calories in the middle rounds as my legs loosened up, before getting 5 calories per round near the end of the tabata.  I finished with 32 calories on the bike and 219 reps for my first pass through the three stations.

That was about where I hoped to be as I knew there would be a drop off the second time through.  A drop off of 38 reps would be 181 and that would give me a total of 400 for the workout.  Seemed reasonable enough.  Only I gave back most of those 38 reps right off the bat in my second go round on the rower.  If Ben thought I was sandbagging with a score of 62, he must have thought I was really taking it easy when I finished the second rowing tabata with a score of 36.  Welp.  And it wasn't like I got my legs back in preparation for the all-important air squat station coming up.  I managed one strong round at the beginning of the air squat tabata, then tried to fight through the pain of the remaining seven rounds.  After the fourth 20 second burst of air squats, I decided to lay on the ground for most of my 10 second break in order to let my legs relax, if only briefly.  I repeated this routine the rest of the way, but could only manage 10-12 air squats per round.  I gave it everything I had in the final 20 seconds, finally managing to get back to 15 air squats.  I had lost 22 more reps as my score was 103 for the second air squat tabata, matching Ben exactly.

I wanted no part of the assault bike after the air squats were done.  I barely got to my bike in time to start the final tabata.  Making things worse was the fact that half the class was done.  I wanted to pay one of them to switch places with me.  During certain rounds, I would close my eyes, pedal like crazy, then open them to find that only 12 seconds had passed and I had 8 more seconds to go before the way-too-brief 10 second rest.  At least I didn't have a huge drop off here like I had at the other stations, although to be fair, when your initial score is 32, it is really hard to have a huge drop off.  I managed 31 calories on the assault bike in round two.  Final score for the WOD: 389.

That was a little below what I wanted, but definitely acceptable.  And honestly, I was in so much pain at the end of this WOD that my score could have been 137 and it wouldn't have bothered me.  The pain from this workout would linger in my legs for the better part of the next three days.  So what would I work on during Open Strength?  Anything that focused on the upper body.

With the front squat program over, it is time to focus on something non-squat related once again.  To me, the obvious choice is pull-ups.  I will certainly be putting more time into my double unders and my handstand push-up/walk progressions, but my performance on Jackie was the kick in the butt I needed to start focusing on pull-ups again.  Even if I'm exhausted, it shouldn't take me over 4 minutes to knock out 30 pull-ups.  There are people in the gym who can do that in 30 seconds.  A little more pull-up competency would go a long way in improving my workout times.  So what did I work on?  The infamous "push away at the top".  And what I've learned is that the push away at the top is impossible if you are not coming at the bar at the correct angle.  If you pull straight up, there is no way to push away at the top.  What you need to do is pull yourself into the bar when doing a kipping pull-up as that will allow you to almost spring-load your arms, making the push away a natural motion.  If you're pulling yourself in to the bar, you need to be away from the bar as you are swinging.  How do you get there?  Close that shoulder and lean back.  It is totally counterintuitive at first, but makes sense when you practice it.  It is the same motion that Clay was trying to teach me when he was helping me with my toes-to-bar.

In workouts, I tend to do sets of two if things are going well, with the occasional set of three near the beginning because I am still fresh.  My goal today was to do sets of four reps.  Not four reps with a dead hang in there somewhere.  I wanted four solid kipping reps with a push away from the top.  I also wanted to try a looser grip on the bar.  I think some of my grip issues come from having a death grip on the bar during my pull-ups.  But I've learned I don't need to hold on that hard in order to do gymnastic movements on the bar.  If my hands weren't throbbing in pain, I could probably hold on for longer sets.  One by one, I began doing sets of 4 reps.  I was happy with my form and my ability to push away at the top like I am always told.  The lighter grip helped a little, but at the end of every 4 reps, my hands still hurt.  Not sure how I'm going to get around that problem.  I did 5 sets before calling it a day on pull-ups.  Michal showed up during my later sets and only saw some of my practice, but my unofficial pull-up coach let me know that my form looked good.

After that, I went back to practicing handstand holds by doing more of the 10 second holds with one foot off of the wall.  The holds themselves aren't too bad, especially when you hold your foot only a few inches away from the wall.  I tried a couple of sets where I really extended one leg back from the wall and those were considerably tougher.  Several of those sets resulted in me looking like a chopped tree slowly falling to the earth, but I did successfully complete 1 set where I kept a leg extended quite a bit off the wall.

From there, I grabbed a couple of abmats and practiced handstand push-ups.  My reps with two abmats were going smoothly, so I wanted to try getting one with only one abmat.  This has been my plateau for a while now as my arms seem to give way before my dome can make contact with that singular abmat.  I never have a good sense of how close I am to the abmat, so I decided to take a video of myself attempting a handstand push-up with one abmat.  Then I'd have a much better idea of how close I truly was.  Plus I could then post it on here and give everyone a laugh.

The video ended up being worse than expected, so it won't be making an appearance in this blog post.  I got the video rolling and had my phone in a perfect spot to capture my head and the abmat.  Then I went to kick up on to the wall and failed.  Nothing like letting a rolling video screw with your mind.  I shook out my arms, took a second, then kicked up on to the wall properly.  I bent my arms and hoped to feel my head hit an abmat, but I had no such luck.  When I got to the point where I couldn't get any further, I pressed back up.  I was going to go for a second try, when Michal (who may not be  my unofficial handstand push-up coach) chimed in that I needed to go lower.  Ummm, yeah, I kinda knew I needed to go lower when my head didn't hit the abmat.  It struck me as such a silly thing to say that I went into a bit of a laughing fit as I hung upside-down.  There was no point in making a second attempt now.  And since most of the video was just me laughing upside-down, I erased it.  (Note: I did watch it to see how close my head was to the one abmat.  The answer?  Not very close.)  That was enough practice for me for the day.  I changed my shirt and gingerly walked to my car hoping that the next day's WOD wouldn't be leg-heavy.

Monday preview: Me and Matt B take on a difficult partner WOD together and the pity circle makes an appearance.