Monday was my only real rest day after the Brawl because I played in my annual football game (sponsored by the Dirty6Vegas fantasy football league) up in Albany on Sunday. Driving to and from Albany wasn't the ideal way to get my back to feel better (it was a little sore after the competition), but I made sure to indulge in an epsom salt bath once I made it back home. That helped out. While I might not have worked out on Monday, I did jump on the scale as has become my ritual every Monday morning. I had mixed feelings as to whether my weight would be lower as I stepped on the scale. On one hand, I had done a lot of exercising over the weekend with the Brawl and the football game. On the other hand, any time I have to spend a lot of time on the road, I end up eating terribly because fast food is really my only option if I'm going to get to my destination at a semi-decent hour. Throw in the fact that hanging out with my buddies from home means lots of beer consumption and I could envision the scale telling me I had gained weight this week. The verdict?
Original weigh-in: 213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in: 209.4 pounds
This week's weigh-in: 209.2 pounds
That's not too bad. I had nothing planned for the upcoming weekend, so I figured the next weigh-in would be more telling of how things were truly going on the weight loss front.
It was Tuesday, so that meant another edition of Dudes After Dark! Or not. This was the rare occasion when I would be skipping that class. Giulz had set up a happy hour at Taphouse 23 to celebrate Josh M's new job. The plan was to head over there at 6:30, so I showed up to the gym for 5:30 class instead. That meant no LC this evening, but it did give me a chance to have class with Keithie. I definitely miss attending Coach Keithie's classes, but nowadays he only coaches a class or two during the week. My best chance at seeing Keithie is on Saturday mornings when he coaches all of the classes, but Saturday has become a regular rest day for me. Guess I'd better enjoy this class with him since it could be a while before I had him as a coach again!
Tuesday's WOD was a KOP-created strength workout (at least I'm assuming that's the case based on it's name). It is called the Lyons Press Medley. I've done this WOD once before, but I couldn't find it in any of my spreadsheets, so I had no idea what my scores were last time. Here's how the Lyons Press Medley works:
"Lyons Press Medley"
3 shoulder presses
3 push presses
3 push jerks
*You must continue on from one movement to the next without putting the barbell down. So once you have completed the shoulder presses, you move on to the push presses, and from there to the push jerks.
**Should you fail at any point in the sequence, you don't get credit for any part of the round. So if you fail on the push jerks, you don't get credit for completing the shoulder presses and push presses at that weight.
***Once you fail on the shoulder presses at a given weight, you trim your sets down to just push presses and push jerks. Once the push presses go, your remaining sets are simply push jerks.
****You record a score for each of the three lifts.
I'm all out of asterisks, so that's as many details as I can give on this workout.
I knew from the start that there would be a large gap between my shoulder press and push press numbers because I suck at the shoulder press. The shoulder press is one of the few movements at the gym where I struggle yet seem to have no desire to put in the effort to fix my deficiency. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe fixing my double unders and pull-ups seems more interesting than standing upright and raising a barbell over my head repeatedly without using my legs. At some point, I will need to devote time to fixing this weakness of mine. For now though, I was going to try and put up a semi-decent score for the shoulder press before focusing on big numbers with the push press and the push jerk.
With 10 of us in class and 8 racks along the pull-up rig, I figured there was a good chance that I'd be splitting a rack with someone. That changed when Giulz, Maggie, and Josh M pulled out the portable racks. The three of them wanted the experience of doing this WOD on the "magic platform" (the wooden floor in the gym where the lifters practice their Olympic lifts). Giulz and Maggie shared a rack, while Josh had his own. Josh and I were originally discussing sharing a rack, but I wasn't interested in working on the platform while Josh definitely wanted to. No biggie. There were now enough open racks along the pull-up rig that I could work on my own.
I spent most of the WOD talking with Tia, who was taking her lifts from the rack to my left. She became a good resource for me to stay on schedule, as I tried to do my lifts right after she went. I have a bad tendency of falling behind schedule during WODs like this one where we essentially have the entire class to do as many sets as we'd like. Then I get to the end of class and have to rush through the tougher lifts. That doesn't end well very often. So I got my chatting in with Tia, but after she went to work, I made sure that I followed suit.
I did a quick warmup set of the medley with just the barbell before I threw on some 25 pound plates for a total of 95 pounds. I didn't expect this to be much of a problem and it wasn't. If I had any faith in my ability to shoulder press, I would have gone to 115 for my next set as that was a reasonable increase in weight. Instead, I jumped straight to 125. Why did I go higher if I lacked faith? Because I expected 125 to be the highest weight that I could complete the 3 shoulder presses with. And if I was going to go big on the push presses and the push jerks, there was no point in wasting a lot of energy on sets at lighter weights. I would be happy getting 125, failing on the next set, and moving on to the lifts where I could use my legs.
I removed 125 from the rack and slowly got the first rep over my head. I wasn't very fast on returning the barbell to my shoulders, but I made sure not to stop when I got there. The first rep is always the most difficult because you have no momentum to work with, whereas the second and third reps tended to not be so bad because you already had the barbell moving. I pressed out reps two and three, moved through the push presses and push jerks, and placed the barbell back on the rack. I got my number. Anything beyond 125 was gravy.
Keithie had watched this set and told me that I needed to move faster on the shoulder press, especially that first rep. Much like a deadlift, the key with the shoulder press was to get the barbell moving. The faster I had it moving, the easier the reps were going to be for me. I added 10 pounds to the barbell for an attempt at 135. My 3RM for the shoulder press was 135 and typically I won't attempt to tie a PR. But going to 130 seemed like a waste and 140 was out of the question since I didn't really believe that I could get 135. When it was time to go, I took the barbell from the rack and got right into the first rep. I expected to fail right then and there, but somehow I was able to press it over my head. Wow! If I got the first rep, then getting all three was definitely a possibility. Reps two and three were difficult, but I squeezed each of them out. I was so excited about tying my PR that I had to take a moment before continuing on with the push presses and push jerks.
Technically, I was supposed to continue on with another set of shoulder presses, push presses, and push jerks. If I failed, then my score for the shoulder press would be 135. But I was very fortunate to get through 135 and I knew 140 wasn't happening. Why even bother with that? I was moving on to the push press/push jerk sets. Rather than adding 5 pounds to my barbell, I put on 30, moving me up to 165 pounds. Yes, that was another large jump, but I didn't want this to become a workout where I did a ton of volume and then failed at the higher weights. This next set felt weird because I had to remind myself that I could use my legs right from the beginning, but once I got going, it was fine. I felt comfortable going up to 185 on my next set.
While I wasn't thinking of it this way at the time, I was treating the push press the same way I treated the shoulder press. Getting a score of 185 would make me happy and I didn't expect success beyond that weight, even though my PR was 10 pounds higher. (Note: I actually didn't know what my 3RM push press was as I did this WOD. I looked it up later and saw it was 195.) The set at 185 wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The push presses were hard, but I definitely had the sense I could handle a bit more. The push jerks were not so bad as I generally feel comfortable with those and I hadn't reached a weight that worried me yet. Sweet! I hit my number again. If I went heavier, it was my second bonus of the day.
I moved up to 195 expecting to fail during the set of push presses. This wasn't like the shoulder press where the first rep would give me a solid idea of whether I could get all three. There was just as much chance of me failing on the third rep as there was of failing on the first rep. I needed to be totally focused to get through this set. The first push press went well, but the second rep introduced some doubt into my mind. I pressed it out, but I wasn't certain I had another press out in me for rep three. I dipped, drove, and got the barbell mostly over my head. I thought I might get stuck here and have to bail, but I kept the barbell moving. I locked out rep #3. Another tied PR. Another giant sense of relief and happiness. I still had three push jerks to finish the set, but with all of the positive energy in my body at that point, there was no doubt I'd get through those.
With the shoulder press, I moved on when I felt like there was no shot I could go any higher. With the push press, I toyed with the idea that I could get 5 more pounds. I'm sure I was seduced by the idea of writing 200 next to my name on the board. (Be honest: 200 sounds much cooler than 195, right?) I added the 2.5 pound plates to my barbell and took it from the rack. And as I stood there, I realized that the weight felt much heavier than it had in my last set. Conserve your energy for the push jerks, Dave! Without attempting a rep, I put the barbell back on the rack. 200 wasn't happening. 195 was plenty. I was moving on to the push jerks.
My first set of push jerks was at 205. The weight was now heavy enough that I was concerned about failing. I also needed to remind myself that I couldn't split jerk the weight, something I would typically do when I was trying to get this much weight overhead. The first rep of the set was all about building the belief that I could push jerk the weight. Once I got that one overhead, I knew I could do the last two reps without resorting to a split jerk. The other difficulty at this point was bringing this much weight back down to my shoulders "gently" between reps. The reality of the situation is that you end up using your frame to catch the weight as it crashes back down on you. Not the greatest feeling in the world, but it's a temporary pain. I made it through the set at 205 and added 10 more pounds for the next set.
215 was going to be tough, but I was still feeling relatively confident at this point. I grabbed my barbell, dipped, drove upwards, and...failed. Had I run out of juice? It felt like I didn't pop the barbell off of my body as well as I had done in earlier sets. Keithie called me over and explained that I didn't keep my elbows up as I went to do the rep. As I dipped, my body leaned forward and the barbell started to slide away from me. That was why I couldn't pop it up like I had done with my lighter sets. I took a few minutes to recover before coming back to the barbell. My entire focus was on keeping my elbows up. I dipped, drove upwards, and...the barbell was overhead. It worked! As the barbell came crashing down on my body for rep #2, I remained focused on my elbow positioning. I got rep #2, then followed it with rep #3. I have no idea what my 3RM is for push jerks, but for the sake of consistency, I'm going to imagine that I tied it with this set at 215.
I could have dropped the barbell to the floor and asked for help returning it to the rack, but I decided to let it crash on to my body one more time, before walking it into the rack. Except I missed the right side of the rack. Keithie had to rush over and grab the side of the barbell that missed as the other side began to catapult off of the rack. I'm not sure how much more proof you need to believe that I'm lopsided, but you can add this incident to the already long list of evidence. Once the barbell was safely back in the rack, Keithie congratulated me on the set at 215 and told me that he enjoyed seeing that for two reasons:
- He always likes seeing people do lifts with proper form
- "Because now I get to say I told you so"
Gotta love Keithie.
I decided that a set at 225 was worth a shot, even though I couldn't remember ever doing a push jerk with that much weight. Once again, my main focus was on keeping my elbows up. It felt very heavy, but somehow I got the first rep overhead. The second rep was not as successful. I tapped out at that point. Maybe a 3RM push jerk of 225 is in my future, but it wasn't happening after all of the lifting that I did in this hour. 215 would end up as my push jerk score.
Wednesday preview: A partner WOD with John McHugh at the Wednesday nooner! You know it's going to be intense. But there's no level of intensity that would make us move as fast as Rich did in this workout.
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