Getting My Crossfit Legs Back

Workout date: 9/27/16

Dudes After Dark became Giulz After Dark this Tuesday night as The Hammer was filling in for Coach Rachel.  She was overseeing six dudes (Cline, Ryan A, Neil, Ranjith, Ravi, and myself) as well as one lady (Genesis), who was breaking up the all-dude stranglehold on the Tuesday 7:30pm class.  The WOD was strength-based, but it was a very strange format.  To begin, each of us would work towards 75-90% of our 1RM.  That effectively served as an appetizer for the main course.

Tuesday WOD:
Do 50 back squats in 20 minutes
*Choose a challenging weight

I'm well aware that I tend to overthink workouts at the gym.  A bit too much planning/strategizing instead of clearing my mind and getting after it.  But for this workout, how could you not strategize?  Everyone knew what the WOD was before they showed up, but you could look around the room and see the wheels turning in everyone's heads as they warmed up.  What weight should I choose?  How should I split up the reps?  Do I attempt a huge set early?  Do I perform the same number of reps in each set, and if so, how many reps should I do per set?

I'm going to run through the three strategies that I know were used in my class because I was watching Cline and Ryan along the way.  (Note: There's a lot of down time in this type of workout.)

Strategy #1 - Cline
Weight used: 200 pounds
Plan of attack: 25 sets of 2 reps, meaning 1 set every 48 seconds

Cline was using 200 pounds because some asshole who writes a Crossfit blog talked him into it.  Okay, Giulz might have pressured him too.  Cline was originally going to use 195 and we felt he should go with the sexier sounding 200.  Take note: if Giulz and I are pressuring you to do something, just say no.

Strategy #2 - Ryan
Weight used: 315 pounds (you read that correctly)
Plan of attack: 10 sets of 5 reps, meaning 1 set every 2 minutes

Ryan also got some pressure from Giulz.  (To be fair, everyone received pressure from Giulz as she told us most people were finishing early and that we should go a little heavier than we might think.)  Keithie had put up the top score of the day using 305 pounds.  Giulz was challenging him to beat Keithie's score.  Ryan wasn't interested initially.  Eventually he caved and put 315 on his barbell.  Also worth noting: Ryan is really freaking strong!

Strategy #3 - Dave
Weight used: 245 pounds
Plan of attack: Do a big set to begin, but not a crushing set.  Use that set as a baseline for sets during the first 10 minutes.  Do smaller sets in the second 10 minutes.  I expected to do 8-9 sets, meaning 1 set every 2:15-2:30.

I didn't get any specific pressure from Giulz other than the message that she gave to our entire class.  When I showed up for the 7:30, I saw Matt B leaving the 6:30 class.  His face was red and he was very sweaty.  He told me that the back squat workout was very weird.  (He also told me that the cash out sucked.)  He said it was tough and he had used 225 pounds.  That made me lean towards using 225, but after hearing what Giulz told us, I decided to add 20 more pounds to my barbell.  What was the thought process behind my plan of attack?  Originally I was going to use Ryan's strategy, but I tend to get tired late in workouts and I didn't want to have things fall apart on my last few sets.  That would leave me scrambling to finish up before 20 minutes was up.  If I could bank some extra reps early on, then I could get away with some smaller sets toward the end.

Giulz started the clock and we all got working on our first set.  I was hoping that I could get through 7-8 reps in that first set, but that seemed like overkill once I began doing my back squats.  I've gotten so used to methodically doing my sets during back squat programs (where I do a max of 6 reps in a set) that I didn't realize how draining it was to slowly do reps and hold that barbell for a long time.  I almost stopped after 5 reps, but the concept of "banking" reps crept into my head.  I held on for a 6th rep before racking the barbell.  Six reps would be my baseline.

Only 30 seconds had elapsed on the clock.  I started to think about when I should do my next set.  Maybe somewhere around 1:30?  That seemed like enough recovery time.  It actually ended up being more time than I needed.  I started getting antsy at about 1:00 and decided that I'd begin my next set at 1:15.  The second set felt a bit easier than the first.  I hadn't done any larger sets in the warmup and I think that first set got my legs looser for later sets.  After 6 more reps, I placed the barbell back on the rack.  12 reps complete, so I was about a quarter of the way done.  Over 18 minutes remained. I could definitely finish this WOD!

My rest before the third set was pretty similar as I returned to my barbell at about 2:30.  Took care of six more reps and I was up to 18 already.  I began to wonder whether I should be spacing out these sets a little more.  I waited until about 4:45 to do my next set of 6.  Took a stroll outside, got some water, and (paper) toweled off before doing what I thought would be my last set of 6 at around 7:00.  That set would get me to 30.  From there I could do four sets of 5 (with 12 minutes left to do those sets) and I'd be done.  Piece of cake!  Sadly, things did not go as planned on that fifth set.  My third rep was very shaky.  I tried to keep going, but my next rep wasn't much better.  I had banked plenty of extra reps up to this point and time was not an issue.  The smart move was to put the barbell back on the rack.

That last set got the wheels turning again.  Was I only going to be able to do 4 reps (or less) in every set from here on out?  That would mean at least 6 more sets, so maybe I had less time to rest than I believed.  I made two decisions at this point:

1. I was going to take a longer rest before the next set.
2. I was going to attempt 6 reps again.  If it turned out the way the last set did, then I could start worrying.

It was at this point that I began paying more attention to what Cline and Ryan were doing.  Ryan would power through his five reps looking very smooth the whole way, but once the barbell was back on the rack, he wanted to be as far away from it as possible.  I guess the weight was more difficult than he was making it look, but I'd kill to have my back squat look that easy.  Cline was also moving well, but I wasn't paying attention to how many reps he was doing per set.  All I knew was he was getting back to his barbell quicker than I was.  That was no surprise because Cline rarely needs more recovery time than I do.  I figured there was a good chance he had completed more reps than me up to this point.

I wanted to finish this next set right around the 10 minute mark, so I got back under the barbell around 9:45 or so.  The reps didn't go smoothly and I had to push very hard out of the bottom a few times to make sure I didn't get trapped in my sticking point, but I made it through 6 reps.  10 minutes to go and only 16 reps to complete.  I was feeling confident again.  I watched Ryan do another set.  I watched Cline do another set.  At about 12:00, I returned to my barbell.  Three more sets.  This one should be 6 reps.  Last two will be 5 reps.  Plenty of time remaining.  As was the case with the previous set, I had to really work hard to make it through six reps, but I powered through them even though my legs were beginning to get tired.  10 reps left, 8 minutes to do them.  I felt very relaxed.  I had plenty of time to spare.

Ryan was still on his schedule, but soon after this set, Cline dropped his barbell.  Since I wasn't in a hurry at this point, I went over and helped him get it back on the rack.  About a minute later, Cline tried again with the same results.  We took 5 pounds off the barbell before placing it back on to his rack.  There was no part of me that thought helping Cline with his barbell would have any adverse effects on my remaining back squats.  I may have been mistaken.

I watched Ryan do one more set before heading over to do a set of my own.  My first rep was fine.  My second rep was shaky, but I stood it up.  I took a deep breath and got ready to continue.  As I tried to stand up my third rep, I noticed that my legs were very wobbly.  That wasn't good.  I pushed my hips forward and was able to complete the rep, but it was time to rack the barbell.  So much for two rounds of 5 reps.  Seven reps remained and doubts were creeping into my head as to whether I could do that in two sets.  Five minutes to go.

While I rested, Cline attempted a set with 195 and ended up bailing the barbell.  I was no longer just worrying about whether I would finish.  I wasn't sure how many reps Cline had left, but time was starting to dwindle down and he had dropped the barbell three times in short order.  I went over and helped him get his barbell on the rack a third time.  I watched one more set of Ryan's (he was doing sets with 315 pounds, how could you not stop and watch that?) before getting back to my barbell.  We were nearly 17 minutes in.  I was determined to get 4 reps on this set.  If I could do that, then I knew I could handle 3 in the final set.  If I got less than 4 here, then I was probably going to need two mini-sets on short rest to hit 50.  I'm sure these were some tired looking reps, but I took my time and made it through reps 44, 45, 46, and 47.  Just three to go and two and a half minutes to do them in.

Cline had one more drop as I rested before my final set.  He decided after that one that he was done.  The squats were bothering his back and he didn't want to mess with it any more.  Smart man.  If only he had ignored that moron who kept chirping about using 200 pounds before the workout.  Ryan had one set left, as did I.  I was going to wait until he went so I could watch his final reps and then take care of my three, but he wasn't heading to his rack before 19 minutes.  Even though I only had three left, I wanted some cushion in case I couldn't get all three in one set.  So I got up to my barbell with 90 seconds left and began my final set.  My legs had that jello feeling to them, but I was able to get through three final squats.  Final score: 245.

Ryan would head up after me to do his final five reps and I swear he was moving just as fast during that final set as he was in the preceding sets that I watched.  Faby was standing behind him as a spotter in case of emergency, but that was totally unnecessary.  After placing the barbell back on his rack, Ryan ripped off his lifting belt and laid on the floor.  His back was bothering him (come to think of it, so was mine) and he was done for the night.  No cash out for him.

The rest of us were doing a 5 minute AMRAP of KB snatches.  The RX weight was 55/35, but I knew I wasn't good at these, so I grabbed a 44 pounder instead.  Giulz described the KB snatch as a one-armed KB swing and that is the way they should be done.  However, we had all recently done DB snatches in a workout and I think that was still in our heads when we did this cash out.  Giulz even said to me at one point that I could use a little more swing because I was simply going up and down with the KB.

The biggest issue for me was (surprise!) how sweaty I was.  I fear that I'll lose my grip and launch my KB at someone when I have two hands on it.  Flinging it around with just one sweaty hand?  That increased the chances of me injuring someone big time.  So as I did this cash out, I did as many reps as I could before I became worried about my grip.  At that point, I'd put the KB down and switch hands.  Wasn't my best showing in a cash out as I would end up with the lowest score of the group.  Final score: 55 KB snatches.

As I was packing up my bag and getting ready to head home, Cline asked me if I was getting my Crossfit legs back.  I think I am in a way.  There's always going to be more work that needs to be done, but mentally and physically I think I'm getting close to where I was before I needed the break.

Wednesday preview: A simple, but painful looking workout.  20 minutes of double unders and lunges.