Not Seeing Enough Back Hyperextension

Workout date: 5/25/16

Wednesday's WOD was completely strength-based and for that reason it seemed appealing to me.  I had beaten myself up pretty good over the last three days and the last thing I wanted was some long-ish metcon, especially now that it had become consistently hot in the gym.  Didn't matter whether I showed up early in the morning or late at night.  Summer had officially arrived at KOP and I was going to have to deal with the heat as best as I could.

How did I know it was warm there both early in the morning and late at night?  Because I made two trips to the gym on Wednesday.  I got up early to attend Open Strength at 6:30.  It was my first visit to this class since my front squat program ended.  My main purpose for being there was to practice a bunch of different movements.  When I was doing the front squat program, I had a very specific routine to do each time I went to Open Strength.  Now it was more like "let me do a little bit of this and some of those as well".  I started off by working on shoulder press again.  I hate doing these, but I've been told that it is the strength exercise that is most likely to help me with my handstand push-up woes.  I had done 4 sets of 5 reps the last time I did shoulder press, so I tried to do that again, but with 5 pounds more added to each set.  I got through the initial sets at 80 and 100 pounds, but the jump up to 120 was much tougher.  Having barely gotten all 5 reps at that weight, I wasn't exactly brimming with optimism as I got ready for my final set at 130.  I made it through 3 reps, but couldn't press out rep #4.  So I probably should go back to 125 for my last set the next time I do this, although I am likely to bump up the weights in the earlier sets so that the jumps in weight to get to 125 are smaller.

When that was done, I moved on to pull-up practice.  Pull-ups are never going to disappear from WODs, so I might as well settle in and get better at them.  A good set for me during a WOD is usually 3 in a row, so I wanted to practice getting sets of 4 while there was no time pressure on me.  The key wasn't getting 4 reps, per se.  I could get 4 reps if I dropped into a dead hang between reps.  I could even get 4 strict pull-ups on most days.  But in most workouts, 20-30 pull-ups (sometimes more) are required.  And if I'm not doing pull-ups efficiently, it takes forever to get through that amount.  So for these sets of 4, I needed to practice doing an efficient kip to get through each set.  Perhaps it was in my head, but it seemed like I'd get through 3 reps just fine, before needing to really pull hard to get the last rep.  I did 5 sets (with a good amount of rest in between) and they all played out the same way.  Between getting more comfortable with the hand pain from staying on the bar and improving my technique in general, I think this process is going to be a real grind.  Probably will be stuck at sets of 4-5 for quite a while, although if I could manage that while decreasing my rest time between sets, I'd be a happy camper.

Last but not least was some handstand work.  Once again I got on the wall and spent time with one foot off of the wall at a time.  At one point, I was able to bring each of my legs quite a bit off of the wall.  It felt very unstable and I began shaking like I do after 20 seconds of holding a plank, but I was able to hold it, at least for a short time.

For the remainder of Open Strength, I listened to Clay as he gave JP and Mike Sim some tips on doing cleans.  Clay really knows his stuff when it comes to the Olympic lifts and he's very good about giving different cues to different athletes.  If a cue isn't working for someone, he doesn't just keep repeating it.  Instead, he tries to find a different way of getting the message across.  Eavesdropping on this session was almost as valuable as the strength work I did.

That was it for the morning session.  I came back at 6:30 for the WOD.  Typically I go to Coach Jenna's 7:30 class, but there was no one signed up for it online and I wasn't looking forward to lifting by myself.  The 6:30 class was likely to be well-attended and I wasn't disappointed when 14 other people showed up to work on their cleans.  Here was the Wednesday WOD:

4-4-4 Power Cleans
3-3-3 Hang Power Cleans
2-2-2 Hang Squat Cleans
1-1-1 Squat Cleans

30 cleans didn't sound too bad.  Certainly sounded better than running around for 20 minutes.  I mean, there was no chance I'd have to continually dry sweat off of me during this workout...right?

Wrong!  I should know better now after doing some heavy squat sessions in the heat.  Even though you're not running around, lifting heavy weights will get you sweating like crazy at our gym where the humid air doesn't circulate very well.  In fact, we were only going through a light warmup when I started wiping off my head with my shirt.  By the time we got going with actual weight on our barbells, I was making regular visits to the paper towel rolls.  (Note: I had strategically placed myself near the paper towels, so it wasn't much of a hardship to go over and dry off between lifts.)

I was set up near the front of the class alongside of Matt E.  I had ended up on the magic platform, something I'm never very fond of, but with 15 people in class, three of us had to work there (Giulz and Steph C were behind me on the platform).  We were given more than half an hour to complete all of our sets, which sounded like plenty of time to me.  Of course, that was based on the idea that I chose my weights properly for each of the sets.  (I think you know what the likelihood of that is.)  Here's what I had in mind for my sets:

Power Cleans: 135-165-185
Hang Power Cleans: 165-185-205
Hang Squat Cleans: 185-205-215
Squat Cleans: 215-225-235

In general, I thought the middle set from the previous movement would be a good starting point for the next movement.  At the end, I was only doing single reps of squat cleans, so I thought I could be more aggressive there.  And I wanted to try and get a PR.  (I know...greedy!)

Even with my first set of 135 pound power cleans, my rhythm felt off.  I might have been trying to cycle the reps a little too fast, but I became off-balance and had to stop at one point before finishing off the 4 power cleans.  When I took on the set at 165, I was much more deliberate and had less trouble getting through the set.  I tried to do the same thing at 185, but that set was tougher simply because I had reached the point where the barbell was feeling heavy.

My streak of poorly thought out expectations continued with the hang power cleans.  I used to struggle with lifts from the hang position, but over time I have gotten better with them.  In fact, I might be able to lift more from the hang position than when I pull from the floor.  (That probably indicates that I am messing lifts up as I go from the floor to my knee.)  And since we were dropping from 4 reps to 3 reps for this movement, I thought I'd breeze through this section.  Wrong again.  During my first set at 165, I almost lost my grip on the barbell as I went for the third rep.  Probably trying to move too fast once again.  Like I had done with the power cleans, I had an improved performance with my second set despite the addition of weight to the barbell.

I knew the three hang power cleans at 205 were going to be difficult due to the weight, but I royally botched this set.  And because my timing is spectacular, I did this set right as Jenna was walking by.  The initial rep wasn't great, but I saved it.  The second rep was okay, I guess.  However, my grip was failing as I came back down to the hang position for rep #3.  I hate blowing it on the very last rep, so I pulled as hard as I could in an attempt to complete the set.  My elbows didn't get through all the way, so the only way I could catch it was by partially squatting and hyperextending my back.  For Crossfit purposes, it was a good rep.  For general health purposes, it was not.  Jenna tried to explain what I had done wrong as nicely as she could, but I knew that last lift was shitty before she had even said a word.

There weren't going to be any more unrealistic expectations from that point forward.  I was continuing on with my plan, but I knew that based on my form, failure was not only possible, but also probable.  I went back to 185 and started my hang squat cleans.  My 2RM for this movement was 215, so using that as my final set wasn't crazy, but I ended up not even making it to that weight.  The first set at 185 went fine.  Grip strength had contributed to my struggles on the earlier sets, but having to do only two reps meant grip strength wasn't going to play as big of a role on these sets.  I added 20 pounds and got ready to do 205.  It did not go well.  As I tried to catch the clean in the bottom of my squat, I could tell that I hadn't caught the barbell in the proper position.  This wasn't a situation where I could adjust on the fly.  I knew I needed to bail the barbell immediately.  I tried to push it forward off of me, but the barbell propelled me backwards more than I propelled it forward.  When I landed, I noticed some posterior pain and fully expected a large bruise to be visible the next time I hopped into the shower.  There was no point in moving up to 215.  I took a few minutes and then took on 205 once again.  The second attempt involved much less ass bruising.  I caught the first one right and stood up with it.  The transition to rep two was somewhat quick as I didn't want my weak grip strength to become a factor.  Then I did the second squat clean.  Not as good as the first one, but I had it under control as I sat in the bottom of my squat.  Cline began yelling at me to stand up and I complied.  At least I got 205.

I was relieved to get to the single squat clean reps as grip strength was no longer going to come into play.  I decided to start with 215 just like I had originally planned.  The decision to start there was helped by how well the first rep at 205 went in my last set.  As I took some time before my attempt at 215, I looked around at some of the other athletes in class.  Matt had told me earlier in the WOD that he didn't know what to use for his squat cleans because he always power cleans rather than going into a squat.  He must be a quick learner because I saw him squat clean 195 and 205 and both reps looked better than anything I did on this day.  I also looked at a bunch of the newer girls in class and none of them seemed to be having a problem with their squat cleans either.  I told Coach Jenna that I wasn't seeing enough back hyperextension in their lifts and that she should go over and fix their form.  Why wouldn't they want to model their clean form on mine?

With only a little over 5 minutes left in class, it was time to get my single reps in.  215 was heavy, but once again I caught it in good position and was able to stand it up.  I was supposed to do 225 next, but then I said the hell with it and put on 230 instead.  My next lift was supposed to be 225, but that would tie a PR.  I had a suspicion that I wasn't going to hit 225 and 235, so taking a couple of shots at 230 seemed like a better plan.  One attempt led to a second, and the failed follow-up made me try a third time.  Usually if I don't get a lift in three tries, I call it a day.  But when I failed a third time, I got ready for a fourth attempt.  I wasn't taking a lot of time in between those lifts at the end since class was wrapping up, but extra time wasn't going to help me out.  All four attempts failed for the same reason: slow elbows.  I kept wanting to try again because I got the barbell much higher than I have before using this much weight, but my inability to swing my elbows through quickly left me in a position where I could not catch the barbell correctly.  Four tries was enough for me.  Max weight lifted: 215.

I hung around after class to do a little more work on the pull-up bar before heading over to the Taphouse with some of the 6:30 group.  During the meal, there was discussion of the handstand group getting together post-WOD on Thursday, so I told them that I'd drop by after Endurance.

Thursday preview: There is no avoiding air squats.  Possibly the most painful Endurance workout I have ever done makes a re-appearance.  That is followed by handstand walk practice as Bridgeport comes out to watch the clean-up of a nearby car accident.