By Saturday night, I thought I had made up my mind concerning a re-do of 17.2. I tend to be against doing Open workouts a second time and that was how I was leaning again. Experience has shown me that you don't tend to score much higher (if you even score higher at all) on the second try. And what was the point if I couldn't do a bar muscle-up anyway? To get a better tiebreaker time? The Open doesn't mean that much to me and moving from 95,000th place to 93,000 place wasn't worth the effort. I'd be happy with my score of 78 and my tiebreaker time of 6:01.
Then I made the mistake of looking at Facebook on Sunday. The Black Ninjas team has their own private page and several of my teammates had posted about 17.2. Mark Spak was going to do it for the first time on Monday night. Mooney was going to try it again on Monday night. Neil wanted another crack at completing all of the toes-to-bar in the workout. The Ninjas seemed like they were going all out to make a late surge at winning week 2 honors in the team competition. Shouldn't I be willing to step up to the plate and help out as well?
By Monday, I still hadn't made up my mind. Then I decided to leave it in the hands of the universe. I would get to the gym about 45 minutes before the 6:30 class began. I would spend that time before class attempting to get my first bar muscle-up. If I got a bar muscle-up before 6:30, then I'd skip class and do 17.2 all over again in the hopes of surpassing my previous score of 78. If I couldn't get a bar muscle-up by 6:30, then there was no point in doing 17.2 a second time as I was almost certainly going to get another 78. I would join the 6:30 class and do the Monday WOD instead.
Did I say I was going to give myself 45 minutes to get a bar muscle-up? Better make that 30 minutes. I did arrive at 5:45, but I spent about 15 minutes in the lobby talking with Maggie, Jill A, and LC. I didn't have a whole lot of faith that I was getting a bar muscle-up, so losing 15 minutes of time for attempts didn't seem like it would be that big of a deal. When I was done chatting, I went into the gym and put on my grips. The WOD focused on finding a 1RM snatch, so no one from class was on the pull-up rig. There were a couple of folks doing 17.2 who were on the rig though. Mark and Paul D were doing toes-to-bar while Becky was proving that she had bar muscle-ups in her arsenal. I waited for them to be done before claiming a pull-up bar. Time update: about 6:10.
As the last minute of 17.2 ticked by, I got talking to Justin R about the workout and how I needed to get a bar muscle-up before 6:30 if I was going to take on 17.2 for a second time. He told me something that I had never heard of before (or even thought of). He told me that the pull-up bars closer to the front of the gym had more grip on them. Who knew? I always assumed that all of the bars were about the same and that any slip that developed on them was the product of my gross, sweaty hands. Dana had been completing her workout in that area, so once she was done, I went over and set up shop there.
I had about 20 minutes to find a bar muscle-up. Piece of cake. On my first attempt, my hips got high, but my legs were flailing. My foot ricocheted off the column along the wall which separates segments of the pull-up rig. I was not allowed to parkour my way up over the bar, so even if this initial attempt was successful, it wouldn't have counted. I guess it was good that I wasn't very close or else I could have driven myself nuts right off the bat.
I decided to move back one bar after that attempt. I checked with Justin to make sure that I had hit the column and not the wall. He assured me that was the case. Moving back a bar meant there was no chance I'd kick that column again. A couple more people began watching me as I made my second attempt, including Samson. He saw my second failed attempt and had a look on his face that I knew well. It was the "ummm...you're plenty high enough, just rotate over the bar already" look. He had his camera in hand and suddenly I was reliving Friday night. Noel was convinced that I was getting my first bar muscle-up and had started snapping pictures. Samson was about to do the same exact thing.
Samson took pictures of my next attempt, but it was very similar to my second try. Seemed like I got high enough, but couldn't throw my body over the bar. Aimee was teaching the 5:30 class, but she took a moment to come over and give me some help. She told me I needed to shoot my feet down on the kip. I have a bad habit of not being aggressive, especially when it comes to gymnastics movements. Aimee was letting me know that if I shot my feet down aggressively, I'd get that little extra boost upwards which would allow me to rotate over the bar.
I got ready for my next attempt with a lot of stuff floating through my mind. Push the bar to your hips. Shoot your feet down. Dislocate your shoulder! It was not only a lot to remember, but all of those tips had to be performed at the proper time to make the bar muscle-up work. I jumped up swung on the bar and tried to do everything correctly. I threw the right side of my body forward as hard as I could and for the first time ever, I was over the bar. There was some momentary shock and then I heard a lot of people shouting at me. Was this the moment I got my first bar muscle-up?
You got it! You got it! Start kipping your feet and press out. Wait, your right elbow is flaring out. You need to keep that straight or you won't be able to get the left side up. Why aren't you moving? Everyone in the gym is yelling at you, you have to get this bar muscle-up! Hurry! Hurry!
<plop>
I don't know how long I was fighting for that bar muscle-up. It seemed like a long time. I know there was a ton of pressure on my right elbow and I couldn't keep it locked out. With my right arm unsteady, I couldn't use it to help pull the left side of my body up and over. I felt like I was 90% over the bar, but I couldn't hang on. When I came off the bar, I fell to the floor and sat there feeling like a complete ass. You had it and then you let it go! I was so disappointed. Making things worse was the fact that I now had some pain in my right elbow. Was it worth trying again or should I just wait for another day?
I decided to shake out my elbow and rest for 5 minutes before taking another stab at it. Jill came over and gave me yet another important tip. (At this point, my quest for a bar muscle-up had become like a Wheel of Fortune puzzle where there were only three letters yet to be uncovered. And here I was still needing to buy a vowel.) She told me that if I got in the same position that I was in during that last attempt, that I should lean my head towards the ground rather than trying to press up. As a man weighing close to 210 pounds, gravity would be my friend. I would slide forward, allowing my whole body to come to rest on the bar. Then I could press out to complete the rep. Smart!
I walked back over to the bar. Come on, stupid. You just had it. Do the same thing and use Jill's advice when you get up there again. The 5:30 class was still working on their snatches, but I could tell a lot of them were looking over at me as I got ready for my next attempt. I jumped up, made a big swing, pressed the bar towards my hip, and shot my feet towards the floor. Then I hurled the right side of my body towards the bar. Or at least I thought I did. The right side of my body did go over the bar like it did in my previous attempt. But this time, the left side of my body went over too. I took a moment to adjust my body before pressing up. The press out was the easy part. I locked out my arms and completed my first bar muscle-up.
I'm sure I had a big grin on my face. There was lots of cheering. I dropped down from the bar and got lots of high fives and hugs. Being one of the all-time worst at celebrating, I staggered around, not knowing what to do. I told everyone I was quitting Crossfit as there was little chance I'd ever do anything that would surpass that moment. Might as well go out on a high note. (I wasn't actually quitting, but it is hard to imagine I'll do something that tops this moment. Unless I somehow get a ring muscle-up. Not holding my breath on that one.)
I don't have a photo of my bar muscle-up because "I was being a dick" and did it when Samson wasn't ready with his camera. This isn't the first time I've been a dick when accomplishing something at the gym. There is no photo of me lifting the 215 pound Atlas stone to my shoulder, but I did provide a photo of Ryan A doing it to give you an idea of what it looked like. Don't worry, someone else came through with their first bar muscle-up later in the evening and you'll get to see that photo. (Fine, it was his second bar muscle-up, but he got his first one like 5 minutes earlier and he still had that "new member of the bar muscle-up club" glow about him.)
Having gotten the muscle-up before 6:30, I had to honor my word and attempt 17.2 again. There were 5 of us doing the workout, so we split up into two heats. LC, Danielle, and Actuary Mike would go in heat 1, with Neil and I going in heat 2. Danielle claims that I am her good luck charm, but I didn't bring her very much luck on Friday night when she did this workout and I ended up providing her even less luck this time around. She started off hot though. It took her nearly 9 minutes to complete her first round on Friday. Just 2:15 into this attempt, she was only 5 toes-to-bar and 8 power cleans away from moving on to round two. Then she hit the wall. Once she started failing on her toes-to-bar attempts, her confidence went away. The attempts got worse and worse. She ended up rallying a few minutes later. After a few close misses, she got 2 reps in a row. But that would be it in terms of successful attempts. With about 3 and a half minutes left, Danielle noticed that she had a rip on her one hand. There was no point in continuing on with a bloody finger. She would use her score from Friday night, as would LC. Mike came away with a score of 78.
A lot of people were expecting me to get a score of 79 (or higher) on the re-do because I had gotten that bar muscle-up. Being the pessimist that I am, I told everyone that I'd probably end up doing worse than I did on Friday. It didn't go quite that bad. My first round of lunges were fast. My toes-to-bar were better, as I used a solid kip to do a set of 8 and a set of 4. I thought I could get one more set of four, but I failed on my third rep in that set. Not wanting to waste time, I moved to the low bar and did two quick reps. I did 7 power cleans, caught a breather, then did the 8th power clean to simultaneously end round one and get started on round two.
I changed my grip as LC told me I should save it by holding the DBs differently. I found a valley near my neck where the DBs could rest and wrapped my hands around the handles (the rules said you had to have a full grip on the DBs). This method was easier on my grip, but felt awkward in general. I used this for the entirety of round two and for the first half of my lunges in round three. I probably should have attempted to kip again on the high bar when I started my second round of toes-to-bar, but I went directly to the low bar and did fast singles instead. I did a fairly solid job of not taking any long breaks as I moved through those 16 reps. I took a peek at the clock as I got towards the end of that round and discovered that I was going to improve on my tiebreaker time. I got over to the DBs after the toes-to-bar were done and did 8 power cleans as fast as I could. New tiebreaker time: 5:17 (improved 44 seconds from Friday).
The improved tiebreaker time was nice, but I wasn't doing this workout a second time just to post another 78. I still had another set of lunges before I got to the bar muscle-ups, but the muscle-ups were my focus. After completing the lunges and taking some time to recover, I had about 5 minutes to get a bar muscle-up. Things didn't begin well. I had recovered slightly from the rest of the work I had done, but I was nowhere near as fresh as I was when I got the muscle-up earlier. I wasn't generating enough power on my swing. More importantly, fatigue had stolen my aggressiveness from me. I wasn't throwing my body towards the bar like I needed to if I was going to complete the muscle-up. I took my time between attempts, but I wasn't getting any closer.
Giulz came over and told me to move down to where Dana had completed her workout. It was the same bar I had used to get the muscle-up earlier. I had about two and a half minutes remaining. Going back to the bar I had success on improved my confidence. I was still tired though. My attempts improved, but I still wouldn't call them close. It wasn't until there was about 90 seconds left that I finally got close on an attempt. I think I made 3 more close attempts before time ran out on me. I may have gotten my first bar muscle-up, but that didn't mean I had figured that puzzle out completely. Lots of practice awaits.
When the 6:30 class ended, I saw that Bryan was toying around with bar muscle-ups. I had watched pull-ups come easy to him. I had watched chest-to-bar pull-ups come easy to him. There was no doubt in my mind that it wouldn't be long before he could do a bar muscle-up. Watching him swing on the bar reminded me of Mooney. Bryan looked like he was floating up towards the bar effortlessly. Heavier guys like me looked like they were pulling as hard as they could to get to that height. I went over to watch him and told him that the first time he got a bar muscle-up, he was gonna end up with 8 of them, not one like me.
A few minutes later, Bryan had his first bar muscle-up. Samson was nowhere to be found to take a photo. Bryan's wife, LC, was not watching when it happened. She was working with Esra on her handstand push-ups. This big moment didn't get nearly as much attention as it should have. Luckily, Bryan had plenty left in the tank to go after a second one. He failed on a few attempts, but then he did this while Samson had his camera trained on him:
Shave that guy's head, add 70 pounds or so to his body, and you have a
perfectly good snapshot of my first bar muscle-up.
I'm glad Samson took that pic because LC wasn't paying attention when Bryan did his second bar muscle-up either. Bryan called it a night after this one, but I still contend that he could have done six more if he wanted to.
As for me, I went home feeling happy that I crossed off another goal from my 2017 list, but also feeling very sore. I felt like I had been playing football all day long. I'm not sure I've ever completed a Crossfit workout and felt like I had been competing in a contact sport, but my chest hurt badly when I left the gym. Made me wonder whether I cracked a few ribs. It wasn't quite dislocating my shoulder, but Jason was right: it was worth it.
Tuesday preview: I get the chance to do real handstand push-ups in a WOD for the very first time. I got five in a row once. Could I handle 30 total in a workout?
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