As much as I want to believe that I'll be able to sneak away for a workout when family and friends are in town, it never happens. There's always an overindulgence in food and drink. I somehow get less sleep than I typically do (which is hard to pull off). Going to the gym falls to the bottom of the priority list. I had family in town from Saturday to Monday, so I didn't get back to the gym until Tuesday. And what better way to get back into it then with a little Dudes After Dark?
The Tuesday WOD would be a combination of three mini-WODs. Each of them consisted of a gymnastics movement and a barbell movement. Here's the layout for Tuesday night's programming:
Tuesday WOD:
8 minute AMRAP:
3 ring muscle-ups
10 power snatches (115/75)
2 minutes rest
6 minute AMRAP:
5 chest-to-bar pull-ups
10 clean and jerks (115/75)
2 minutes rest
4 minute AMRAP:
7 pull-ups
10 thrusters (115/75)
That was a lot to digest, although it really only left me with two decisions for the workout:
- What would my scale be for the ring muscle-ups?
- What weight would I use for the barbell movements?
I might suck at pull-ups (both the chest-to-bar and regular variety), but there was no reason to scale those. More and more KOP workouts were being programmed with large volumes of pull-ups. It was time to step up to the plate and get used to doing workouts like that or I was going to get left behind in the gym. It wasn't good enough to just do workouts like Wolverine that popped up once a year. I wanted to train my body to handle dozens of pull-ups in a WOD weekly. This was the type of workout I needed to do more of, especially since it looked like I'd be doing pull-ups as part of my scale in the first AMRAP to go along with what was spelled out in the last two AMRAPs.
Having the ability to perform a high volume of pull-ups isn't the only thing I've been working on. I've also been trying to get better at arriving to the gym earlier. I got there with plenty of time to spare on Tuesday night, which allowed me to see the end of the 6:30 class. Once they were done, I got to chat with Matt B about it. I wanted his feedback to help guide me on the two decisions I would have to make. In terms of the barbell weight, he said that the power snatches weren't bad at 115, but the thrusters were awful in that last AMRAP. That told me I should use 105 or 115. His answer to my question about scaling the muscle-ups was really what caught me off-guard though. He told me that he started out with jumping muscle-ups, but then tired out and changed to transitions and dips. Jumping muscle-ups? Whaaaaaa?????
Despite the fact that I've never been all that close to a bar muscle-up or a ring muscle-up, that didn't mean I hated seeing them programmed for WODs. It just depended on what scale I could use. Swinging on the bar and jumping off of a box to complete bar muscle-ups is actually kinda fun. There was no box involved when doing jumping muscle-ups on the rings, but I enjoyed those as well. Unfortunately, it turns out that the fun scaling options aren't always the most effective in helping you progress down the road towards real muscle-ups. As such, they've been weeded out as scaling options in most of our muscle-up workouts. Not today though! I thought I was going to have to do 6 dips and 6 pull-ups as a scale for my 3 ring muscle-ups in that first AMRAP. That didn't sound fun at all. But 3 jumping muscle-ups as a scale? I was completely on board with that.
LC had 8 of us at Dudes After Dark. The class was 50% dude, 50% non-dude. There was a lot to cover in the warmup, so LC brought us over to the rig with the rings to talk about ring muscle-ups and possible scales. Most of us were unable to do muscle-ups, but Andrew could knock them out without much of a problem. That did cause some logistical issues at the rings though. The rig is set up with 8 sets of rings at a level that is typically used for dips. In the middle of the rig, there are a couple additional sets of rings that are positioned much higher off the ground. These are generally used for ring muscle-up practice, but Andrew needed a set for this workout. Based on where he would be swinging around, it was going to be tight for the folks using the lower rings in front of him and behind him. Those two people would be Esra and myself. Esra came up with a smart way of dealing with this situation. She was doing the dips and pull-ups scale and simply did the pull-ups first and the dips second. That wasn't an option for me unless I was giving up on jumping muscle-ups. So I told Andrew that I would wait on him to do his 3 muscle-ups to begin the workout and then I would go. This workout was another one where I wasn't expecting a high score, so losing 10 seconds or so at the beginning wasn't going to cost me very much.
After we got the ring situation sorted out, we came over to the pull-up rig and worked on progressions. LC instructed us on the different amount of intensity required to do a chest-to-bar pull-up as opposed to one where you only need to get your chin above the bar. Neil was working at the bar next to me and he seemed to easily string a couple of chest-to-bar pull-ups together. When he dropped back down, he let Esra and I know that he didn't think he could do that until he just tried it. I wish I could accidentally string together chest-to-bar pull-ups! (I tried to string them on purpose to no avail.)
The last part of the warmup involved going over the barbell movements. I ended up being the very sweaty demo guy. (To be fair, it was unseasonably warm for late February.) After we had gone over the three barbell movements without plates, we were allowed to load up our barbells with the weight we expected to use in the workout. I grabbed the 35 pound plates to test out how 115 pounds would feel. As Matt had said, the power snatches weren't so bad. (Note: This was my first night wearing my new Crossfit sneakers. They're a bit heavier than my old sneaks, but they're supposed to provide more support for lifts. The new footwear might have helped me feel more comfortable with the 115 pounds I used in this workout.) I decided I'd roll the dice with 115, knowing that the thrusters at the end were probably going to be painful.
LC asked everybody to get ready to begin the first AMRAP and everyone did. Except me. I stood off to the side, hoping that Andrew had no issues with these first three muscle-ups. If he struggled, then I'd have to figure out a plan B. The WOD got started and Andrew made it clear that a plan B would not be necessary. He floated through 3 quick muscle-ups and headed to his barbell. I grabbed my rings and moved fairly quickly through 3 jumping muscle-ups. I ran over to my barbell and put together a set of 5 power snatches. I completed my first round with a set of 3 and a set of 2. I had moved so fast that Andrew was still in the midst of his muscle-ups when I got back to my rings. I only had to wait a second or two before I began work on my second round.
The jumping muscle-ups were still more fun than work in round two. I came back to my barbell and did 2 more power snatches before deciding to go with quick singles the rest of the way. I still hadn't reached the point where I needed to walk away from the barbell and get a breather. I completed my second round and looked at the rings. Andrew was working on his third set of muscle-ups, so I had kept pace with him through two rounds. Not sure if I'll ever get to say that again in a workout. By the time I got to my rings, Andrew was done, so there was no delay this time. And there wouldn't be any delays after this because round three would be where I slowed down.
I remember that less than 4 minutes had elapsed when I finished my second round because I still believed I could complete 4 full rounds in this first AMRAP. I got to my rings, jumped into the muscle-up, and had my left arm shoot out wildly to the left. It was not a good feeling. When I've been cheering on Pam in her muscle-up attempts, she mentioned to me that she had some apprehension about the transition because she had an unpleasant experience where one of her arms shot out to the side as she tried to pull her body over into the dip position. Having it happen here made it really hit home for me. I shook out my arm, then took a few seconds to think about whether it was wise to continue using this scale. I decided I'd give it one more attempt. If I felt anything out of place, then I'd need to do something else. Thankfully, the next attempt went like the ones I had done in the first two rounds. I did two more JMUs and got back to my barbell. I did 10 singles there with a break or two along the way. The clock has passed 6 minutes when I completed this round, so finishing up another full round before my first rest period probably wasn't going to happen.
I didn't rush through the 3 jumping muscle-ups because I didn't want another incident like I had in round three. That didn't give me a ton of time when I got back to my barbell. I managed to complete 7 reps before my initial 8 minutes were up. I might have been able to sneak in another rep or two if I hadn't started the round 10 seconds late, but getting 50-51 reps as opposed to 49 reps wasn't that big of a deal to me. Round 1 score: 49 reps.
The two minute rest period was just what the doctor ordered. About 90 seconds of it flew by. I headed towards the pull-up bar feeling somewhat recovered with 30 seconds left. I would be using the low bar for the chest-to-bar pull-ups because I couldn't string them on the high bar. I also knew that I could reliably get them on the low bar. When the second AMRAP began, I moved through 5 fast singles, with my chest hitting the underside of the bar for each rep.
I thought I'd fly through the clean and jerks, but I went slower on these than I did on the snatches and the thrusters. I did sets of two at a time. The plan was to do much larger sets, but for some reason I was struggling to string reps. Maybe my grip was weakening. Or maybe that first AMRAP took more out of me than I realized. I completed the first round and returned to the bar for more chest-to-bar pull-ups. I broke them up into a set of 3 singles and a set of 2 singles this time. It was 5 more sets of two back at the barbell. I had about 90 seconds left in this AMRAP, so I wasn't completing three rounds here. I went 2-2-1 on the chest-to-bar pull-ups, then raced through clean and jerks as fast as I could. I got 6 of them done before the second rest period began. Round 2 score: 41 reps.
Two minutes was the right amount of rest between the first two AMRAPS, but I could have used more than two minutes between the second and third AMRAP. That aspect of the workout was non-negotiable though. If I wanted more rest, I'd be losing part of the 4 minutes I had for the final AMRAP. My pace per round had been just over two minutes in each of the earlier AMRAPs, so I was going to have to work to finish two rounds in the last AMRAP. Giving up time at the beginning was not going to help that cause, so I trudged to my bar for the start of the final 4 minutes.
I used the high bar for my pull-ups, but I was too tired to string reps. I did 7 singles and tried to avoid taking any long pauses between reps. I headed over to my barbell when I was done and managed 3 thrusters. After a break, I did 3 more. I'm sure I took a longer break before the last set because I had to talk myself into doing 4 reps in that one. The clock told me that I used 2:15 on that round. Two rounds wasn't happening in this AMRAP. But I did want to get at least 30 reps, which meant completing 6 thrusters in round two. Gotta keep pushing on.
The next 7 pull-ups felt like the worst ones I had ever done, but I got through them even if they were slow. It was time to sprint with the barbell again. I managed another set of 3 before dropping the barbell. There wasn't a whole lot of time remaining though, so I told myself that I needed to hold on for at least three more reps in my final set. When I got through the third rep, I felt like I had enough energy for one more, so I snuck a last one in before time was called. Round 3 score: 31 reps. Total score: 121 reps.
I was happy with that effort. All of my gymnastic movements still need work, but I hung on pretty well in this workout. Matt B and Matt E had finished with scores of 109 and 114, respectively, and my strengths are similar to theirs. Same story with Neil, who got a score of 112 working next to me. How could I not be pleased with a score of 121? Now if I could only remember how to string pull-ups...
Wednesday preview: A long benchmark WOD that I've had my struggles with over the years. The Filthy Fifty makes its first of four appearances in 2017.
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