Barry Badrinath

Workout date: 1/3/17

Tuesday marked the first Dudes After Dark of 2017 and there was a special guest coach as LC had not returned from a New Years Eve trip out of town.  Coach Steph was filling in and I believe this was her first time coaching this class.  The Dudes class (2/7 non-dude this week) always makes a good first impression and this group was no exception.  Here's a conversation I had with Steph the next day:

Steph: I went to enter in the athletes for the 7:30 class last night and everyone had already signed in.  I was impressed.

Me: We're a high-quality group!

It's true.  The crew that shows up at 7:30 on Tuesday each week isn't always the same, but there is something about that class that feels a little bit different than the rest of the classes I go to during the week.

If you didn't enjoy back squatting, then the Tuesday WOD was not for you.  The main component of the WOD was finding a 5RM back squat.  This would be our first benchmark workout for 2017.  There were also not one, but two cash-outs following the strength work.  Cash out #1 was one minute of back squats using 70% of the 5RM you just found.  Cash out #2 was a sprint through 15 KB swings (53/35), 20 KB snatches (same weight, 10 on the right arm, 10 on the left arm), and 30 burpees.  That didn't sound too awful.  I mean, I completely changed my mind after I had destroyed my legs and then had to do that.  But prior to the workout?  Not so bad really.

Steph was getting us started with a team warmup.  There were four stations for each team.  Every 30 seconds, athletes rotated from one station to the next.  At the first station, athletes did burpees.  After rotating, they would have 30 seconds of goblet squats.  When the buzzer sounded, they would rotate to the rower.  Finally, they would wind up at a box with two plastic red cups on top of it.

Wait!  Was this the first ever Dudes After Dark kegger?  Sadly it was not, even though we were playing Flip Cup at that last station.  With seven of us in class, Steph recruited Lindsey to line up across from me at the Flip Cup station.  This was the scoring station in this warmup, as the teams were competing to have the most successful flips of the cup while their teammates did various physical activities at the other stations.  It didn't feel right doing this without beer, but there's a very strong possibility that none of us would have been up for back squatting if we chugged brewskis during the warmup.  Steph started the clock and both Lindsey and I were successful on our first two flips.  Then sober Dave hit the wall.  I couldn't get my cup to flip properly.  I was Barry Badrinath.

Meanwhile, Lindsey looked like some Flip Cup cyborg from a futuristic frat party that was sent back in time to destroy me.  The girl just did not miss.  When it was time to rotate, the score was 13 to 3 in favor of Lindsey's team.  After a few rounds, we tallied up the score and my team lost badly.  The blame fell squarely on my shoulders as I had far fewer points than anyone else on my team.  In true Barry Badrinath form, I was a shell of myself without some adult beverages in play.  If they had given me a six-pack in advance, it could have went down like this:

I'd have to salvage the evening by putting up some big back squat numbers.  Well, big numbers for me.  I was using the rack next to Ryan A, who has the record for the heaviest back squat in the gym at 480 pounds.  That made my recent 1RM of 335 pounds look puny.  My goal for the 5RM was 285 pounds.  During the last back squat program I did (the one I never finished), I had to do 6 sets of 5 reps at 282.5 pounds.  That made 282.5 my 5RM.  The fact that I did 6 sets would suggest that I should be able to handle 1 set at 285, but things don't always work out the way you expect them to.

Steph told us that we should start out with a set at around 50% of our 1RM, then increase the weight by about 10% for the sets after that.  That was about 165 for me, and with increases of 30 pounds from there, I could land squarely on 285.  Perfect!  I expected the sets of five at 165 and 195 to be easy and they were.  I didn't pause at all as I moved through the five reps in each of those sets.  What was surprising was how easy the set at 225 ended up being.  I did 3 quick reps, took a pause before rep #4, then finished off the last two reps.  That definitely got me feeling confident about my chances of hitting the PR set at 285.

While I was taking a break between my sets, I would look over and admire the ease with which Ryan was moving through his sets.  He did a set at 225 like he had nothing on his back.  His version of the 10% increase after that set was slapping another pair of 45 pound plates on his barbell.  315 was no problem for him and he didn't appear to break a sweat while doing his next set at 365.  I stood to the side in awe.  It took everything I had to get that 1 rep the other day with 335 pounds.  He moved through 5 reps at 365 like he was doing air squats with a weight vest on.  Craziness.

The set at 255 was the first one where I really had to take my time.  I got the first two reps before pausing, then I took a moment to reset after the third and fourth reps.  I had the briefest of struggles during the last rep, but I stood up with it.  I had left myself about 7-8 minutes for the set at 285, so in theory, I could try a heavier set after 285, assuming that I didn't fail.  Perhaps thinking that way led to what happened next as I almost made a serious mistake while chasing a new PR.

Steph had asked me to demo the back squat earlier in the class, referencing how I had gotten much better about staying in my heels during the lift.  Sure enough, I was bound to end up on my toes during this strength session.  I took the 285 pound barbell off of the rack and noticed that it felt considerably heavier than 255 did.  The first rep was fine and I continued my pattern of taking only the briefest of pauses in between reps.  As I did the second rep, I got stuck a little bit and had to work harder than I would have liked to get upright again.  Rather than use this as an opportunity to slow down and regroup, all I did was adjust my feet before moving into rep #3.  As I rose from the bottom, I came up on to my toes.  I started to stumble forward just when it looked like I might be able to save the rep.  Feeling like I had lost control of the weight, I was ready to bail it backwards like we are taught to do.  The problem was that the barbell rolled from my shoulder blades up on to the back of my neck.  Not good.  It took an extra second or two, but I regained control of the barbell and was finally able to bail it backwards.

I'm not sure if anyone else in class saw me do this set, but I heard Nicole and Christine gasp as I began to stumble forward with the weight.  Christine even came over afterwards and gave me a heart-to-heart about bailing the barbell backwards.  (I was trying, I swear!)  It was kind of a frightening experience, but I didn't panic.  It took a few extra seconds, but I did what I was taught to do in that situation.  The biggest problem now was getting my head right to attempt that weight again.  How much confidence could I truly have after that fiasco?

I waited a good five minutes before trying 285 again.  The biggest change I made was that this time I slowed everything down.  I did the first rep, came to the top, made sure my setup felt right and reset my breathing before doing rep #2.  No one was going to give me a medal for completing the set quickly, so I was very deliberate and took my time.  The first four reps went very smoothly.  I probably started thinking too much on the last rep as I ended up having to fight it a bit, but I stood up with it.  After a brief scare during the previous attempt, I now had a new 5RM PR of 285 pounds for my back squat.

(For a minute, I was really impressed with myself.  Then I watched Ryan do 5 easy reps with 405 pounds.  Dude totally put my accomplishment to shame.)

We were supposed to use 70% of our 5RM for the first cash out, which would put me at 200 pounds, but it was much simpler to load my barbell with 205, so I used that instead.  Steph said go and got the music blaring as we tried to do as many back squats as possible in one minute, with the idea being that we would not put the barbell down until the minute was up.  I felt like I was moving at a solid pace and had 12 reps done when Steph yelled out something that I couldn't decipher because of the music.  So I took a step back, craned my neck to the side and saw that there was less than 25 seconds to go.  I had seen earlier that 17 was a popular score for this cash out, so I pushed to try and get 6 more reps to finish with 18.  I squeezed out that 18th rep right before the buzzer went off and gladly returned the barbell to the rack.

Reached my goal on the 5RM.  Reached my goal on cash out #1.  There was no chance of me reaching my goal on cash out #2.  My legs were dead after all of those back squats and the second cash out would conclude with 30 burpees.  That wasn't going to be pleasant.  The 15 KB swings to begin the second cash out were fine.  KB snatches have always been awkward for me, so I followed a suggestion that Steph had made earlier of doing sets of 5 reps before switching arms.  With two sets finished on each arm, I moved on to the dreaded burpees.  This portion of the cash out went better than expected, as I got through 13 of them before needing to crawl through reps.  After crawling through several reps, I managed to do some reps with good form again.  Then I went back to crawling through a few more before wrapped things up with 5 or 6 the proper way.  My original goal was to stay under 4 minutes, but I'd have to be satisfied with a final time of 4:28.

I headed home to rest up after an exhausting class.  I knew I'd be back earlier than normal the next day.

Wednesday preview: My parents come in to town, so I hit up the nooner.  The WOD is another leg test and I opt for some extra fitness.