This week's edition of Dudes After Dark featured two things I can't do: deadlifts and bar muscle-ups. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration. I can deadlift, but the amount I can deadlift hasn't changed in nearly two years. So now when I see deadlifts programmed for the WOD, my immediate reaction tends to include an eye roll. The whole thing is my own fault though. I never practice deadlifts. If you don't practice something, you can't expect to magically get better at it one day. There was a part of me that thought as I got stronger overall that my deadlift would improve incrementally, but that has not been the case. 385 pounds has been my ceiling and there are no signs that I'll be breaking through it any time soon. Similar deal with bar muscle-ups. I keep hitting the bottom of my rib cage on the bar when I make my attempts. I'm supposed to make my hips meet the bar, but they seem reluctant to make that union happen. So when this benchmark test day comes up every 3 months, the one where we find a 3RM deadlift before practicing bar muscle-ups, it ends up being a lot of "close, but no cigar". And that's very frustrating.
Want another sure sign that you haven't been practicing something? Your coach will come over and repeatedly tell you that you're doing things wrong. Coach Rachel would point out something I was doing wrong, I'd make an adjustment, and then she'd point out something else I was doing wrong. This was without any weight on the barbell. The deadlift might be the simplest lift we do, yet somehow I've found 3-4 ways to screw it up. (Again, if I practiced the deadlift at all, I might not have these issues.)
Wanna know who's not screwing up their deadlifts? Everyone else in my class! Mike Rothschild? 3RM PR. Anne Bohen? 3RM PR. Ashley and Tia? Check the box next to 3RM PR. Ryan A? The man lifted so much that we had to put mats underneath his barbell so he didn't damage the floor. Not only did he get a new 3RM PR, he bested his previous 1RM PR as he lifted a whopping 455 pounds three times. The entire Dudes After Dark class was killing it this week! Well, except for that little guy...
Dead on all morning!
Yes, my adventures in deadlifting were the equivalent of Thorny's errant neck-shot. I started off at 225 because I knew we were going to be spending a decent amount of the class on the bar muscle-ups and I didn't want to run out of time if (miracle of miracles) I actually set a PR and had a shot at breaking 400 this day. 225 was fine, as was my next set at 275. The next move was to 315 and I knew when doing that set that the chances of me writing PR next to my name at the end of class were pretty much zilch. I got through it, but it felt heavier than it normally does. Same was true of the set at 345.
My next set would be at 365. If I could handle that, then there would be a PR try at 385. If somehow that was a success, I would slap on 405 and try to get 1 rep. How about just getting through that set at 365, Dave? That would be much more problematic than anticipated. On my first attempt, I went to pick up the barbell and couldn't complete one rep. I handled this setback with grace, muttering just a few expletives and finding the restraint not to punch the wall. As I went to make a second attempt at 365, I saw Luke walking towards me. He was in the 6:30 class and had just come from the men's locker room after showering and changing. I got into my setup, began to pull the barbell, and only managed to get it a few inches off of the floor before having to drop it. It was definitely starting to look like 345 would be my score for the day. Luke (who is significantly better at deadlifting than I am) stopped as he was walking by me to give me a brief but effective pep talk. "What are you doing? I've seen you lift that," he said to me.
Luke's positivity helped me out in a moment when I thought I was finished. Maybe I went into this workout with a negative mindset and sabotaged myself without knowing it. That was not going to be the case during my third attempt at 365. Luke's words rang in my head. You've lifted that before, lift it again. I walked up to the barbell and began to pull. It felt extremely heavy, but I got the barbell up to my hips. Now it was all about momentum. I slowly brought the barbell down to the floor, but only to tap it before doing the second rep. It wasn't easy, but I stood up with it a second time. I had one more to go and I was determined not to fail after two successful reps. I tapped the floor one last time and pulled with everything I had. I slowly dragged the barbell up along my quads until I was standing upright. It took three tries, but I got through 365.
With all the energy it took to get through 365, getting 385 was a total longshot. I ended up taking three attempts at it and I guess you could say it went better than expected. Each time I was able to get the barbell off of the floor, but I couldn't muster the strength to get it up to my waist. I had thought about trying 380 (since 375 is my best), but I doubt it would have made that much of a difference. I was the only person in class without the letters "PR" next to their name, but getting 365 made me feel like I had done respectably.
It was on to bar muscle-up practice. Rachel had us try out the real deal to start and once again I hit the bottom of my rib cage on the bar repeatedly. My hips just have no love for the bar. No one in our class could do a bar muscle-up, so Rachel discussed the scaling options. She had most of the class attempt to do bar muscle-ups with a band, but I chose not to go this route. Whenever I try to use the band, it kills the momentum of my kip. As a result, I don't come any closer to getting a bar muscle-up. When I've watched other people use the band, I've seen a mix of results. Some people can use the extra spring of the band to get up over the bar, while others run into the same exact problem that I have encountered.
Personally, I prefer doing jumping bar muscle-ups. Am I guilty of gravitating towards those because I find them to be fun? Yes. But I honestly think I'm getting more out of doing jumping bar muscle-ups than I am from attempts with the band. I still need to generate momentum to get over the bar. I still need to dive forward as I'm going over the bar. And I still need to press out once I've gotten my body over the bar. The cash out was 5 minutes of bar muscle-ups (or scales). I could either frustrate myself with the band and likely complete 0 reps. Or I could get a solid 5 minutes of cardio in by doing a bunch of reps of jumping pull-ups. Option B clearly seemed like the way to go.
I set up my 13" box with a 25 pound plate on it to give me a 15" starting height to jump from. 17" is too easy and 13" has proven difficult for me, so this 15" height has become the norm for me when doing jumping pull-ups. Although that may have changed by the end of this cash out. Rachel got us started on our final 5 minutes of work and I began knocking out reps of jumping bar muscle-ups. I think I did about 5 or 6 before needing to take a break. The movement itself will elevate your heart rate, but hitting your mid-section against the bar over and over again has a real effect on your breathing. After that initial rush, I went on to do sets of 2-3 at a time. There was one point where my hand slipped as I jumped up (even my grips couldn't hold off the deluge of sweat coming from my arms and hands). That's a scary feeling because you don't want to go flying into the wall or into the pull-up rig. Luckily I was able to control my fall and didn't injure myself. I had one other failed rep along the way, but the rest of my attempts during those 5 minutes were successful. Final score: 21.
Afterwards, I tried to convince Ashley and Anne to try the jumping version and I may have gotten a convert in Ashley. As for me, I decided that it may be time to try the 13" box on its own again. I managed two successful reps in a row with the 13" box before my moist hands betrayed me on my third attempt. My right hand went sliding away and I almost fell from the bar again, but I was able to get some control before coming back down on to the box. I think I'll try out the 13" box the next time we do this in a WOD.
Wednesday preview: Possibly my best performance in a Crossfit WOD since I've been at KOP. If it counted.
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