Tuesdays are all about Dudes After Dark and there typically isn't anything to write about until I get to the gym at around 7:30pm. This was a rare Tuesday where that was not the case. In the middle of the afternoon, I received a text message. It was from Danielle. She had signed up for a co-ed competition that KOP is hosting in November. Her boyfriend, EJ, was supposed to be her partner, but he was not going to be able to make it now. She wanted to know if I would be willing to take EJ's place.
Now I'm not sure if the gym has me on speed dial as the guy to call if your team needs a last minute fill-in for your team, but I have been asked a couple times this year to join a team that has ended up one short. And I'm really bad at saying no. I'm sure I've written ad nauseum about how poorly I've done in competitions and how I don't have much interest in participating in them going forward. At the same time, it's pretty rare that someone asks me for a favor (especially at the gym) and I decline. So as much as I wanted to make up some excuse that November 12th was booked on my calendar, the truth was that it was empty. Or it was until I told Danielle that I would be her partner for the Brawl In The Fall.
If I was going to take part in a competition in November, then there was no time like the present to start getting serious about my workouts. Monday was the first time I've pushed the envelope in a WOD since I returned to the gym. I couldn't have that be a one-time thing. I needed to push it every day that I was at the gym. Here is what I'd be attempting to plow through on Tuesday evening:
Tuesday's WOD:
3 rounds
10 DB snatches left arm (70/55)
3 bar muscle-ups
10 DB snatches right arm (70/55)
3 bar muscle-ups
The bar muscle-ups were definitely not happening, but I've been wanting to do an entire workout attempting jumping bar muscle-ups from the 13" box. 18 successful reps would be a lot, but it was a solid challenge for me. I penciled that in as my scale for the bar muscle-ups. The DB snatches were a little trickier to figure out. I had done two workouts earlier this year that included DB snatches. Here is what I used for the respective workouts:
- January 22nd: A five-round WOD that included 10 DB snatches per round, so 50 DB snatches total. DB weight chosen - 65 pounds.
- July 7th: A three-round WOD that included 50 DB snatches in round one, 35 in round two, and 20 in round three, so 105 DB snatches total. DB weight chosen - 45 pounds.
This was 60 DB snatches total, which made me lean towards the 65 pound end of the spectrum more than the 45 pound end. And when I drove to the gym, I was pretty set on using either 60 or 65 pounds. Then I got out of the car and walked to the entrance. As I neared the door, Matt E was departing the gym. He looked exhausted and when he saw me, he gave me a warning: "It's so much worse than it looks." Now to be fair, Matt had used the RX weight of 70 pounds during the 6:30 class, something I wasn't even considering. But no matter how difficult the workout is, it's rare that Matt says something along the lines of "don't go as heavy as I did". So I knew it would be wise to heed this warning. 65 pounds was off the table. I might still use 60 pounds, but I was beginning to lean towards 55 instead.
It's Dudes After Dark! It's me, Cline, Chris D, and Neil! There was also a guest appearance from Rob C, who is typically a regular at the noon express. Coach Rachel had an all-male revue for her Tuesday 7:30 class yet again. We had a warmup that consisted of a merry-go-round through a series of five movements that concluded with Cline telling us a funny story about his grandfather's funeral (you had to be there). We then grabbed some light DBs to practice the snatch. Most of us took a 25 pound DB and I have to admit, even a weight that light was tiring when you did as many practice reps as we did. Bye-bye 60 pound DB, hello 55 pound DB.
With DB snatch practice over, we came over to the pull-up rig to practice bar muscle-ups. To my dismay, Rachel informed us that jumping bar muscle-ups were not a scaling option for this evening. If we couldn't handle bar muscle-ups, we could do chest-to-bar pull-ups (or regular pull-ups if we didn't have chest-to-bar pull-ups) as a replacement, with 6 chest-to-bar pull-ups required in lieu of 3 bar muscle-ups. There was one other option that Rachel recommended for me: attempted bar muscle-ups with a band. She was still convinced from last week's class that I could do bar muscle-ups with a band. I was less convinced. She had me set up a band and then told me that all she wanted me to focus on was trying to get my hips to the bar. She was going to stand next to me and do something that was once known in the gym as a KAMU (short for Keith-assisted muscle-up). This typically was done on the rings, but Keith would stand next to someone who was close to getting a muscle-up and give them a little shove from below in order to try and help them get high enough for the transition. (Crossfit term: The transition is the point in a muscle-up where you go from looking at the ceiling and pulling yourself up to flipping over, looking at the floor, and pressing out of a dip.)
Rachel gave me a boost on several attempts and my hips hit the bar a few times. I didn't attempt the transition at all, but I didn't have a whole lot of faith that I could make that miracle happen, even with assistance. The key thing I did pick up on was that I needed to point my toes and squeeze my butt a lot more. When I did those things, my hips naturally came closer to the bar. I'm still a long way (in my head) from getting a bar muscle-up with the band, but this session gave me some new things to work on.
Rachel told me I only needed to do 3 bar muscle-up attempts as a replacement in the workout for actual bar muscle-ups, but I thought that seemed generous. The guys who were doing pull-ups as a scale were required to double the number of reps. If I wasn't even doing real reps, shouldn't I be held to the same standard? Rachel looked at me like I was crazy, but told me I could do 6 per round if I really wanted to. My logic: it's really easy for me to fail 3 times, so I'd be going much faster than the rest of the class on that part of the workout. Thankfully, I realized how faulty this logic was before the workout began. Rachel gave us a couple of minutes to go to the bathroom or otherwise get ready. I spent that time making more attempts at the banded bar muscle-up. I think I did 3 or 4 attempts. And I was starting to get very sweaty. The thought crossed my mind that I should probably prove I can do 18 of these in a workout before I volunteer to do 36. I relayed that message on to the coach, who gave me a knowing "yeah, those aren't as easy as you thought they were" nod, complete with raised eyebrow.
I had my 55 pound DB sitting at my feet as Rachel gave us the 3, 2, 1 countdown. We got started and I prayed that I chose the proper weight. Once I started snatching the DB with my left arm, I knew I had. I felt like the left arm was the real test because that was the arm that had begun to weaken during the final two rounds of yesterday's push jerk WOD. But in that first round I had no such problems. Did 10 snatches in a row without much hesitation and I was quickly over to my band for bar muscle-up attempts. I had to pause between each attempt, otherwise each successive attempt would have been worse. I made three attempts that were similar to the ones I had done during the warmup. Back to my DB.
To show how mentally fragile I am, I present to the court "Exhibit A", my first round of DB snatches with my right arm. I was trying to go fast, but I didn't want to tire out. So I did 5 DB snatches and then put the DB down. Did I need to do that? Probably not. But I had it in my head as soon as I left my band that the next set needed to be broken up. Wimp! After a short break, I did the remaining 5 snatches and returned to my band. After 3 more attempts there, I was done with round 1. The clock hadn't reached 3 minutes yet. Most of the times on the board were in the 10-12 minute range, so I was setting a solid pace. The key was whether I could hold on to it for 2 more rounds.
Because you went back and forth from the DB to the pull-up rig multiple times in a round, it became hard to tell where everyone was in the workout as it progressed, but I felt pretty certain that I was the first one in the group to begin round two. I split up the DB snatches on my left arm, but this wasn't an unwarranted break that I randomly threw in the middle of the set. My left arm is definitely weaker than my right one and the second round of snatches was more difficult. I made it to 6 reps before putting the DB down. Short break, then time to go again. Finished off the last four and then I was off to visit my band.
My first bar muscle-up attempt to begin round two was pathetic. It was a tired rep if there ever was one. Since these attempts were counting like legitimate reps, I felt that they needed to be "best effort" reps rather than "hop in the band and swing like an idiot" reps. I wanted to keep up my speed, but I didn't want to diminish the quality of my attempts. So from here on out, I took more time between attempts and I did my best to swing my hips up to the bar.
It was during my next round of DB snatches that the magic happened. I was still mad at myself for breaking up the first round I did with my right arm. I knew my right arm was stronger than my left one and I had just done a set of 6 reps with that arm. I should be able to do more with my right arm. And if I could handle, say, 8 reps, then I could push through to 10. I began my snatches and as was the case with my left arm, I could feel myself getting tired as I neared the halfway point of the round. I got to 7 and wanted to take a break, but that felt wimpy too. As I yanked the 8th rep over my head and stood up with it, an old friend of mine made an appearance. I'm speaking of the "female tennis player grunt" that usually comes out when I do KB swings. It was completely involuntary when it escaped my lips, but as soon as it happened, I realized that it was the first time it had happened in 3 weeks. Like an addict, I immediately took two more hits of the grunt to get me through the remainder of the round. I was finally bringing some fight back into my workouts.
I was deliberate once again during my next 3 bar muscle-up attempts, making sure I swung my hips as high as they would go each time. The clock was a few seconds under 6 minutes as I got to round three. I looked over and saw Cline and Rob heading back to their DBs just as I was. It felt like the Alona situation all over again. I needed to get going. I went 6 and 4 on my left arm snatches like I did during the second round. Three bar muscle-up attempts later, I was back for one more round with the DB. I was breathing heavily, but I knew I was close to being done. And I was not going to be happy if I had to break up this last set on my right arm. They didn't feel wonderful, but I got through all 10. Part of me wanted to do 3 sloppy bar muscle-up attempts just to ensure I was the first one done, but I resisted the urge. I had made solid attempts (for the most part) up to this point. I was going to make 3 more solid attempts to wrap things up. After I did, I looked at the clock. Final time: 9:10.
I was really happy with that time. As I sat on the floor, I saw that everyone else was still working, meaning I didn't have to sacrifice the integrity of my bar muscle-up attempts to finish first. Cline finished soon after me, but Rob, Neil, and Chris still had another half-round to go. When I realized that was the case, I definitely felt proud of my time.
We wrapped up Dudes After Dark with an abs tabata that consisted of evil wheels, planks, and sit-ups. Then we hung around and chatted for a bit. A couple of the guys echoed Rachel's sentiment that I was getting really high on the banded bar muscle-up attempts (Chris said it looked like my knees were reaching the bar) and that I should be able to get a banded bar muscle-up soon. Looks like I need to practice that some more and make it a reality.
Wednesday preview: Finding a 3RM thruster followed by a very unpleasant partner cash-out.
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