When I Spread My Legs, I Go A Lot Further

Workout date: 4/5/17

I may have only completed 79 pull-ups in that horrendous Tuesday night workout, but my hands took a beating nonetheless.  Granted, they didn't look nearly as bad as Actuary Mike's hands.  I guess if you can string more than 2 pull-ups together at a time, it grinds away on your hands a bit more.  Mike has become a rock star on the pull-up bar and I'm sure he did big sets on his way to finishing under the time cap.  His hands paid the price for it though.  I was considerably wimpier in terms of hanging on to the pull-up bar during the workout, but my hands were still very sore.  I was hoping for a workout on Wednesday that was kinder to my hands and, for the most part, that is what I got.

Wednesday's WOD was a repeat of a benchmark workout that we had done in mid-January.  Technically, the benchmark aspect of it was finding a 5RM back squat.  However, the two cash-outs that would follow were exactly the same as the ones that we had done in January, so we had the opportunity to see if we had improved on those as well.  Here's what the entire WOD looked like:

Wednesday's WOD:

Find a 5RM back squat
Cash-out #1: 1 minute AMRAP of back squats using 70% of your 5RM weight
Cash-out #2:
15 KB swings (53/35)
20 KB snatches (53/35) - 10 on the left arm, 10 on the right arm
30 burpees

There were 8 of us in Coach Jenna's 6:30 class: 4 guys, 4 girls.  This workout was being done in pairs, so the demographics of the class were fortuitous.  Among the guys, TJ and Mike C were about the same size, so they worked together.  I paired up with my favorite strength partner, Matt B.  The Prodigy and Nicole formed one group of ladies, while Erika R and Steph C made up the other pairing.

My health hadn't improved much since Monday, so I wasn't banking on anything wonderful happening during this WOD.  I let Matt know that I would be going through what I consider my "usual" progression.  Start off with warmup sets at 135 and 185, before gradually moving towards my current 5RM (285 pounds).  My hope was that I could get a set of 5 reps at 275, but because I was feeling so blah, I got to thinking that I'd probably fail at that weight, winding up with a best set at 255 pounds.  Matt wasn't entirely sure what to aim for.  His best set of 5 reps in January was at 225 pounds, which seemed awfully low.  There's no chance that I can handle 60 pounds more than Matt.  He's a strong dude.  Matt's issue tends to be getting depth on his squats, so it's possible that he did more than 225 pounds in January, but didn't count it because he wasn't breaking parallel.

We got started with our warmup sets and neither of us had any difficulty with 135 pounds or 185 pounds (a sure sign that Matt could handle well over 225 pounds for 5 reps).  From there, Matt and I began to diverge on the weights we used for our sets.  Matt's progression from there was 215 pounds, then 235 pounds twice (he did the set over because he was told he didn't hit depth on the first set), then 245 pounds.  After successfully completing that set at 245, Matt decided he was done with this portion of the workout.

As for me, I moved from the last warmup set at 185 to my first working set at 225.  If I struggled at all at this weight, I could be certain that 275 wasn't happening.  To my surprise, I had some good spring in my legs and moved through this set rather quickly.  My next set would be at 255 pounds.  When I did this workout in January, I really struggled on the 5th rep at this weight.  We also had another workout in January where I did sets of 5 back squats at 255 pounds and I didn't give it the proper respect because I knew I had gotten a set at 285 pounds earlier in the month.  I wasn't going to make that same mistake here, especially since I was feeling under the weather.  Somehow I got through this set without much of a problem either.  For the first time all day, I began to think that there was at least a chance that I could hit a new PR.

When I got ready to do the set at 275 pounds, I knew I was going to have to reset after each rep.  It's a process that takes much less time than you might think.  Basically, when I hit the top of a rep, I'll pause to make sure my feet are where I want them and that my breathing is under control.  If they're good to go, I'll go right into the next rep.  If not, I'll take a couple seconds to adjust.  At no point am I standing there for a prolonged period of time with a ginormous amount of weight on my back.  These resets are important for me because having a setup that is even slightly off can be the difference between success and failure at these higher weights.  I thought I would also need to reset after each rep at 255, but surprisingly, I didn't need to reset after my first rep.  I simply went right into the second rep, which is unusual for me.  (I did reset before the remainder of the reps in the set.)

At 275, I calmly went through the process of completing a rep, resetting, then doing the next rep.  The first three reps felt fine.  The fourth rep was probably when I started to think about how difficult this set was supposed to be (something you should never do).  I got that rep, but I took a couple extra seconds before the last rep.  Then I went after it.  It felt heavy and my legs were tested much more than they had up to this point, but I stood up with it.  All things considered, I was very happy with a score of 275.  If I could manage a PR, that would simply be the cherry on top.

Matt and Jenna had been telling me how easy my sets looked up to this point, so they had more confidence than I did in my ability to get 5 reps at 290 pounds.  If I had been feeling 100%, I would have jumped up to 295 for this set (the weight snob in me hates putting on 2.5 pound plates and ending up at a round number), but I was feeling very congested and I thought my breathing might finally become a factor during this set.  Truth be told, I would have only gone up to 285 if that wouldn't have tied my PR.  (Tying your PR is a big no-no.)  I tried to feed off of Matt and Jenna's confidence as I took the barbell off of the rack.  The first positive sign was that it didn't feel unbearably heavy.  It wasn't light, but it wasn't so heavy that I began thinking "how the hell am I going to squat with this?"  The initial 3 reps went smoothly, but it's possible that I started worrying about failure at this point.  There was a slight hitch as I did the 4th rep, but I stood it up.  My reset before the 5th rep was on the longer side, but I was desperate not to blow this set on the very last rep. My feet felt like they were balanced and I drew in a big breath for the final rep of the set.  I hit the bottom and then got stuck as I began to rise up.  Crap!  I was still creeping upwards slightly as the rest of the class began screaming at me.  The fact that I was able to stand up with the weight was entirely due to them.  Had I been in a silent gym all by myself, I would have had to bail that barbell.  Their encouragement was the reason I got a new PR of 290 pounds.

My mind was already drifting to the cash-out with the KBs and the burpees when I was reminded that there was another cash-out preceding that one.  Oops.  I suddenly remembered how much the 1 minute of back squats sucked the last time we did it.  I was able to get a little bit of a breather as Matt and 3 others did the first heat of this cash-out.  When it was time for the second heat to go, I put 205 pounds on my barbell, the same weight I used in January.  Three months ago, I did 18 reps in a minute.  The only thing that changed during this attempt was that my pace was much more consistent.  18 reps in a minute works out to 4.5 reps every 15 seconds.  I looked at the clock after 5 reps and saw it was at 16 seconds.  After 9 reps, it was at 30 seconds.  After 14 reps, it was at 47 seconds.  I had to hurry at the end, but I made it to 18 reps when time was called.

The worst part of being in the second heat of cash-out #1 was that you got almost no break before doing cash-out #2.  We were all going at the same time in that one.  I should have remembered this from January.  Oh well.  I truly believed that I crushed my time from January when I completed it this time around.  The 15 KB swings were unbroken.  The 10 KB snatches on my right arm were unbroken.  I got through 7 on the left arm before needing a break, but then I took care of the last 3 and got into the burpees.  I didn't do a lot of crawling during my burpees.  The crawling that I did do took place in the middle of the 30 reps.  When I got to 18 reps, I made a concerted effort to push hard through the last 12 burpees.  Yet when I looked at the clock upon finishing, I saw my time was only 6 seconds better than it had been 3 months ago.  Cash-out #2 time: 4:22.

I stuck around afterwards mainly because I was tired.  But I also felt bad because Neil was taking the 7:30 class by himself.  I'm a big believer that Neil doesn't know how strong he really is yet.  He is steadily putting up bigger numbers when it comes to the weights he is lifting and I haven't seen him struggle a whole lot while he's been doing it.  As I watched him start doing five-rep sets of back squats, it was genuinely difficult to tell where his warmup sets ended and where his working sets began.  He was moving fluidly through set after set.

As Neil tore through sets of back squats, the only other people working out in the gym were Michal and Maggie.  The two of them were working on handstand walks.  From a distance, you might not have been able to tell them apart.  Both are short (they looked tiny in comparison to Neil).  Both were  sporting matching black outfits.  They were both making sure their hair didn't get in the way as they got upside-down to walk on their hands.  There was one stark difference between the two though.  When Maggie did her handstand walks, her legs stayed vertical and together as she took a very straight journey down the gym.  Michal started the same way, but once she got moving down the gym, her legs started widening apart and dangling to the sides.  This caused her to inevitably veer to the right, ending her walks over near where the rings are located.  I asked Michal why she let her legs do that and her reply was "when I spread my legs, I go a lot further".  I'm not sure what the original title for this blog was going to be, but it was instantly forgotten once I heard that gem.

When Michal was done with her handstand walks, she joined Neil for some back squats.  Michal eventually ended up with a PR of 190 pounds for 5 reps.  Neil, meanwhile, continued to blaze through his sets.  I mentioned how I needed to reset between reps when the weight got heavy.  Neil's set at 275 pounds looked like my set at 135 pounds.  He finally slowed down a little bit during his set at 295 pounds, but it was clear he had more left in the tank.  His next set would be at 305 pounds.  Neil did the first rep, then surprisingly bailed the barbell.  Jenna and I were both confused.  Neil told us that 305 was his new 1RM.  I think he only had designs on doing 1 rep at that weight, but I'm convinced he could have gotten all five if he stuck with it.

After Michal and Neil did a minute of back squats at 70% of their 5RM, they had some company for cash-out #2.  Kris and Jess C decided to take part in the KB and burpee party to end the night.  If wagering on this cash-out were allowed, I would have mortgaged my house that Jess would be the first one done.  A couple of years ago, I used to joke with Jess that she never went anywhere without a KB in her hand.  Every time I saw her at the gym, she was working with a KB in some fashion.  She was going to smoke through the KB swings and snatches.  And having done the burpee Advent challenge with her, I knew it wasn't going to take her too long to wrap up 30 burpees.  Michal ended up giving the former Queen of Prussia a run for her money, but in the end, Jess would beat her by 18 seconds.

Thursday preview: I abide by Giulz's time domains for the workout.  And I learn that I'm not terrible at cartwheels.