I spent the entire weekend at KOP! No, not working out. That would make way too much sense. Actually, before I get into the time I spent at KOP over the weekend, I should finish off my story from Friday. A good buddy of mine was leaving RSL (my former place of employment in Philly) after 18 years, so we put together a farewell happy hour for him. We even got him a cookie cake for the occasion, complete with a warm message that showed how much we would miss him...
Bye Lu!
Needless to say, the farewell happy hour turned into many hours of drinking, leaving me pretty banged up when I got to KOP at 11am for the muscle-up clinic. Is that the reason I didn't get my first muscle-up (of any variety)? No, of course not. I could have been dead sober for an entire month leading up to this clinic and I wouldn't have gotten a muscle-up. That being said, my bar muscle-up attempts were not my finest. At one point, Keithie was giving each of us a push as we kipped in an attempt to get up over the bar. When it was my turn, he let me know he'd be giving me a "big push". Apparently I needed to be hurled or catapulted to get over the bar because I didn't come close despite the "big push". It was cool getting to see people like Kevin B and Mike C get their first bar muscle-ups though.
On Sunday, I was in the gym to tally up the final results for the Nutrition Challenge. Almost everyone who participated saw major improvements in their weight, their body fat percentage, their front squat, or their performance on the baseline workout. The three dozen or so people that embraced this five-week challenge seemed very happy that they signed up, although they all seemed to be ready to eat an entire pizza once their final measurements were taken.
Despite showing up to the gym on Saturday and Sunday, my next workout wouldn't take place until Monday. I showed up for the 6:30 class as did 17 other people. Coach Giulz had her hands full with a class this size, but she made it work. First up, we were starting over at the rings. We'd be kicking things off with a small EMOM, one that didn't make me want to punch a wall when it was done. There are eight sets of rings over at the rig, so we ended up partnering up to get through this 5 minute cash-in. (Note: There are other rings available away from the rig, but they have much more swing to them and it can be difficult to perform dips on them. Most of us stayed away from those rings.) The 5 minute EMOM required us to do 5 dips each minute with Giulz challenging us to do the toughest type of dip we were able to do. If we could do strict dips the whole time, that was great. If not, we could kip. The final option was using a band. Giulz explained that there were two ways to use the band, which was news to me. The first one involved putting your knee into the band (this was the way I knew of). She pointed out that this can sometimes make dips too easy because the band provides a lot of bounce when you hit the bottom of the dip. This was exactly the position I was in. I couldn't perform kipping dips for an entire workout, but using a band with my knee in it seemed too easy. What was this other option that Giulz had alluded to?
For those of us who were between options, Giulz recommended doing dips with your torso in the band instead of your knee. You wouldn't get as much bounce as you would with your knee in the band, but you'd still get some assistance from it. Hearing of this new method for the first time made me think back to a workout from January where Aimee gave us new instructions on how to do the shoulder press. Where were these new techniques coming from? And why was I just hearing about them now? I guess I should have simply been happy to find out that there was a way to bridge the gap from the "knee in the band" dips to the kipping dips. It seemed like some serious improvement was necessary to overcome that gap.
Borden, Ryan A, and I were sharing two sets of rings for this EMOM. Because everyone was sharing rings, we all couldn't go at the start of each minute, so we rotated around taking turns doing sets of five reps, making sure that we weren't taking more than a minute between sets. I instantly took a liking to this new method for dips. The band didn't feel like it was fully supporting my weight, but I was definitely getting a little extra push up out of the bottom of each dip. I didn't struggle getting through 5 reps in any of my sets, but I wouldn't describe any of the sets as easy either. I had a nice burn in my triceps when I was finished. It was a good feeling then. About 15 minutes later, it was going to be a problem.
The WOD was going to include some tall box jumps, some moderately heavy shoulder-to-overheads, and hand release push-ups. Here are the specifics:
Monday WOD:
21-15-9
Box jumps (30"/24")
Shoulder-to-overheads (135/95)
Hand release push-ups
This was going to be one of those workouts that was on the verge of being a sprint. The top folks in the gym were going to be able to blow through this in under 10 minutes. Someone like me? I was thinking that I might be able to complete this one somewhere in the neighborhood of 11-12 minutes. The part of the workout that was most concerning to me was the hand release push-ups. I don't tend to have a lot of stamina when it comes to push-ups and there was the small matter of how my arms felt having just completed 25 dips. I would have to go fast on the other two movements and hope for the best when it came to the push-ups.
It is tricky enough to rebound off of a 24" box when doing box jumps, but the thought of doing it off of a 30" box used to scare me considerably. I've gotten more comfortable with rebounding though, so when Giulz asked me to demo rebounding off of the 30" box, I wasn't all that worried. It went well in the demo, giving me the confidence to do it in the workout. As for the shoulder-to-overheads, 135 pounds was a weight I had the ability to do larger sets with, but I thought breaking up the sets might be wiser given that I'd need to save some arm strength for the push-ups. I could try for 12 and 9 during my first round, but 7-7-7 seemed like the safer bet. On the push-ups, the plan was to simply keep moving, shaking out my arms whenever necessary.
I got set up on the magic platform with Danielle close behind me. Kalen and Andrew were behind her. We were using up every bit of space in the gym to accommodate 18 athletes for this workout. Across from me was Actuary Mike. He would end up pushing me through all three rounds of this workout. We got started on the box jumps and I was able to rebound for a while before needing to stop for a break. It should come as no surprise to learn that I tripped along the way. Despite that setback, I maintained a fast pace and got to my barbell at around the same time as the fast guys I was sharing the platform with.
It didn't take long for me to settle on three sets of 7 reps for the shoulder-to-overheads. There wasn't a whole lotta room in front of me as I did these and I began to get claustraphobic when I started to hear Danielle's barbell hit the floor behind me. From this point forward, I would check behind me whenever I was taking a break to make sure that I wasn't backing up into her barbell while doing my reps. I didn't take long breaks in this first round of shoulder-to-overheads, so I was still well ahead of the pace I needed to finish in 11-12 minutes.
Checking the Jumbotron to see how close behind me Danielle is
And then I got to the push-ups. I did 2 push-ups and then my arms gave out. Wow. That was embarrassingly bad. This round of 21 was going to take a while. I shook out my arms, determined to get through sets of at least 3 reps for the rest of the round. For the most part I did, but needing 7 sets to get through this round (I did manage one set of 4 at the end!) translated to 6 breaks along the way. That very fast start was wasted. Pretty much everyone that I was ahead of had caught up to me.
When I started the round of 15, I got to my box at the same time that Mike was getting to his. I was a little faster than him in the round of 21 and I got through these 15 box jumps before he did (although I did trip over my box once again). I moved over to my barbell with a plan of doing two sets, likely 8 and 7, but maybe 9 and 6 if I could hold strong on that first set. Instead, my left tricep decided that it needed a break after 6 reps. I tried to push jerk the barbell overhead, but only my right arm fully extended. I dropped the barbell and came to terms with the fact that I'd need 3 sets (at least) to get through the round of 15. I finished off the rest of the round with a set of 5 and a set of 4.
I had the same issues with the hand release push-ups in the round of 15, so it's safe to assume that I required 5 sets to get through them. The breaks between sets were almost certainly longer. It was a helpless feeling kneeling on the floor, unable to get my arms to do what I wanted them to do. Eventually I got through the 15th rep and moved on to the final round.
As I stood up to walk over to my box, I saw that Mike was walking towards his. We had completed the round of 21 in about the same amount of time. Same deal on the round of 15. I needed to find another gear if I was going to beat him on the round of 9. Just one problem: Mike had gotten better at the box jumps. Neither of us were rebounding at this late stage of the workout, but Mike wasn't even taking a step away from the box when he came down from the previous rep. He was jumping right back up into the next rep. I was trying to go quickly, but the best I could do was stay a rep behind him the whole way. Our barbells were far from each other, so I wouldn't see Mike again until I came back to the push-ups.
I returned to my barbell and didn't waste any time doing 5 reps. That was perfect. I was going to take a short break, pick the barbell up, do the last 4 reps, and I'd have a head start on Mike on the push-ups where he was certainly going to go faster than me. I picked up the barbell, did rep #6, rep #7, and half of rep #8. Half of rep #8? Once again, my left arm wouldn't fully extend, although this time it hardly extended at all. When I dropped the barbell, it came down almost vertically, something I'm not sure I've ever done before. I shook out my arms and told myself that last rep was a fluke. I got the barbell back up on to my shoulders and executed two push jerks, leaving me 9 push-ups from the finish.
As I went to the floor, I saw that Mike was still doing shoulder-to-overheads, so I got the head start I needed if I was going to finish before him. It was all about doing 3 sets of three with small breaks in between. I did the first set of three and while I was shaking out my arms, I saw that Mike was done with his barbell. Better get right into that second set of three. I got through that, shook out my arms, and squeezed out the last three reps. Final time: 12:30.
That was slower than I hoped and it was all due to the deadly combination of dips and lousy push-up form. I was able to finish just before Mike, who stopped the clock at 12:33. I sat on the floor and watched as Danielle was wrapping up her workout. Her workout partner/rival, Ashley, was down near the front of the gym. Danielle was starting her last round of hand release push-ups while Ashley still had the barbell on her shoulders. They had the same dynamic going that Mike and I did, with Danielle doing her best Dave impression. She was in the lead, but struggling with the push-ups. Suddenly Ashley was on to her push-ups and she was moving through them quicker than Danielle was. I was yelling to Danielle to hurry up and she finished one push-up ahead of Ashley. That led to this exchange:
Me: You got her by a push-up.
Danielle: <wide-eyed and angry> I DID NOT!
Me: <confused> You did, I was watching.
Danielle: I DID NOT FORGET A PUSH-UP!
Ahhh...now I get why she was angry. "You got her by" came across as "you forgot". She thought I was saying she shorted the end of the workout when I was really congratulating her on beating Ashley in that final sprint. We worked out the miscommunication and Danielle let me live.
After the workout was over, I joked with Mike about working on handstand push-ups like we had done the week before. Neither of us had the arm strength to practice handstand push-ups, but we both had some interest in working on something else during Open Strength. That's when Raj, Ashley, and Danielle brought out their jump ropes. We weren't the only ones interested in some extra exercise. I asked the girls what they were planning on doing and they told us they were going to do the following "cash-out":
4 rounds:
25 double unders
10 calories on the assault bike
25 double unders
*1 minute rest between rounds
This was similar to a post-workout cash-out that I had done with Ashley and Danielle in January, but this one involved less work on the assault bike. That meant I'd have to be more proficient on my double unders if I was going to keep up this time around. The five of us got our bikes set up and then chose an area to do our double unders. We waited for the running clock to hit a full minute and then got underway. I only had one hiccup along the way to getting those first 25 double unders, but that was enough to let Ashley get the lead on me. And I would never catch her from that point forward. Out of the 8 sets of 25 that we had to do, I did two of them unbroken and I still couldn't catch her. The closest I came was on the last round when I went all out on the assault bike. When I got off of my bike, Ashley hadn't started her double unders yet, so I guess we were tied for a moment. Then she rattled off 25 in a row while I rushed and messed up several times. I still didn't do too bad though. Raj finished after me, followed by Danielle. Mike had some issues with his jump rope and didn't finish. Final time: 10:56 (includes 3 minutes of rest).
That was enough fun for one night. There would be plenty more in store for me on Tuesday.
Tuesday preview: Love is in the air. And so is a heavy plate. For nearly a half-hour. There's a reason I skip the Valentine's Day Massacre workout every year. I wish I had remembered that reason prior to coming into the gym on Tuesday.
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