A quick trip back in time. The year is 2013 and a slightly less athletic version of myself walks through the doors of KOP. The vibe was different. Aimee was about to give birth to her second child, so her coaching hours were limited. Nearly every class I took was coached by the quartet of Paul, Vinny, Keithie, and Plentus. There was definitely more of an emphasis on getting stronger via Open Strength (then called Barbell Club). You were more likely to hear that you went too light in a workout than hear that you went too heavy. I'll never forget finishing one WOD and having the coach pull me aside to tell me that he "better not ever fucking see [me] use a KB that light again". With the testosterone flowing, there was one class that was different from the rest. It was widely known by its nickname: the Dirty 9:30. The class got its nickname because the regulars had no filter. They were notoriously sassy and no topic of conversation was off limits. The Dirty 9:30 was primarily female, but it wasn't exclusive to women. It was actually very welcoming to the few guys who would drop by. (I made a few visits myself. I'm also a proud owner of a Dirty 9:30 t-shirt!)
Fast forward four years and the KOP landscape has changed. Nearly every class I take now is coached by the quartet of Giulz, LC, Jenna, and Aimee. I am more likely to be judged on the intensity of my workout as opposed to how much weight I used. Open Strength in the main gym tends to only have a few people working on Olympic lifts, along with a couple others doing skill work. (I believe most strength work takes place in the annex these days.) With the transformation to a matriarchal KOP, it should come as no surprise that the most notorious class now has a primarily male constituency. Like the Dirty 9:30, it is known for having incredibly sassy regulars. And similar to its mid-morning counterpart from years ago, it has its own nickname: Dudes After Dark.
The reason I bring this up is because I would hate for you to think that a class dubbed Dudes After Dark is exclusive to guys. I think it has a different vibe to it than other classes at KOP because it is mostly male, but LC is probably relieved when her class of knuckleheads is balanced out some by the fairer sex. Dudes After Dark might even have some non-dude regulars at this point. The Prodigy has been a great addition to Dudes and she told me that she really enjoys the Tuesday 7:30 class. When Andrew comes in for Dudes After Dark, Keara usually joins him. And this Tuesday we saw the return of the lady that I would consider to be the first non-dude regular at Dudes After Dark: Esra. She had spent a couple of weeks across the pond and it was good to have her back at KOP.
When Dudes After Dark became a "thing", it was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that 3 or 4 guys would show up to the late class on Tuesday night. There might be a girl in class every now and then, but Esra was the first one that I would see repeatedly on Tuesday nights. The irony (I'm sure I'm using that word wrong) behind her regular appearances on Tuesday evenings was that she wasn't there for Dudes After Dark. She was there for personal training with Aimee. (Note: I now see Ms. January every Tuesday night, but she's not there for Dudes After Dark. Maybe she'll become a regular as well. If she does, I might stop blaming her for jinxing the class with loads of pull-ups every week.) When Esra's sessions with Aimee ended, it was probably a natural transition for her to attend Dudes After Dark.
Esra, Keara, and The Prodigy were joining seven guys for one of the biggest editions of Dudes After Dark that we've had so far in 2017. The workout programmed for Tuesday felt like one that might have been handed down from Crossfit HQ. This year's Open had a heavy diet of DBs included in it. (Spoiler: The workouts for Regionals have also followed this pattern.) The DBs were returning for this WOD, although we were getting a bit of a break as these DBs were lighter than the ones we used in the Open workouts. Toss in some pull-ups and box jumps and here's what you get:
Tuesday's WOD:
20 minute AMRAP
10 DB squat cleans (45/30)
15 pull-ups
20 box jumps (24"/20")
First impressions:
- I've come to like squat cleans and this was much less weight than I've been using in squat clean WODs (2 DBs = 90 pounds), so that seemed like something I'd be okay with.
- Pull-ups...sigh...
- Box jumps with the 24" box meant I should be able to rebound through most of the reps. Sets of 20 would be pushing the limits of how many consecutive reps I could do while rebounding, but it was a small enough number that I wasn't likely to get discouraged doing them even if I got tired.
Tally that up and you get a final score of +1 (2 good movements offset by 1 bad movement). I was feeling good about my chances of putting up a solid score on this workout.
I knew in advance that squat cleans with DBs would feel more awkward than the type we normally do with a barbell, but I've squat cleaned 235 pounds with a barbell before. 90 pounds with DBs shouldn't be that much of a problem, right? Wrong. The first indication that these would be a problem came when Matt B tried to offer us some helpful advice. He was in the 6:30 class with Giulz and she had told him that it was easier to do the reps with the DBs positioned inside of your feet. That meant your arms would hang inside of your knees as you grabbed the DBs. When performing squat cleans with a barbell, you grip the barbell with your arms hanging outside of your knees, so this was going to feel very different. Seeing how Giulz and Matt had just completed this workout, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. I would perform the squat cleans with the DBs positioned inside of my feet. For the other two movements, there wasn't much to go over. Pull-ups were going to suck (thanks again, Ms. January!). The box jumps would be my opportunity to make up time as long as I kept rebounding and tried to take no more than one break per 20 reps.
LC had us run through all of the movements. We practiced rebounding on and off of the box. We went through our typical progressions on the pull-up bar. Then we did some reps of the DB squat clean using DBs that were lighter than what we planned on using in the workout. I grabbed a pair of 30 pound DBs expecting the movement to be very easy. Instead I got an education on how awkward and difficult this movement truly was. I had a tough time moving through these practice reps, which made me really concerned about moving up to the 45 pound DBs. The more I thought about it, the more I attributed my struggles to being unfamiliar with DB squat cleans rather than the weight of the DBs, so I ended up sticking with my plan of going RX once LC told us to grab the DBs we needed for the WOD.
I was positioned at the far end of the gym between Noel and Neil, two athletes with names that are similarly spelled but who are polar opposites when it comes to their strengths at the gym. Noel is very good at gymnastic movements while Neil is a powerhouse that prefers heavier weights. This workout was going to be interesting because I expected Neil to be the best at the DB cleans and Noel to be the best at pull-ups. I thought I would be the best at the box jumps, so the three of us could constantly be taking the lead from one another like one of those animated races they show on the Jumbotron between innings at a Phillies game.
LC got us started and we began working on our first set of 10 DB cleans. Even though these sucked from the beginning, I decided that I was going to hang on for all 10 reps in round one. It might hurt, but if I had to break these up right off the bat, I was likely going to be in big trouble later on. Neil got the jump on us in getting to the pull-up bar, but Noel and I weren't far behind. My plan at the pull-up bar was to try and do sets of three. I've been trying to calmly perform sets of two in workouts that are pull-up heavy because jumping up and doing singles on the high bar saps a lot of energy out of me. Sets of two would automatically cut the number of jumps I did in half. Doing sets of three would...okay, I'll stop with the math. Attempting sets of three would at the very least be good practice in terms of stringing pull-ups. I just needed to make sure that I wasn't falling too far behind using this plan as I knew I'd need decent-sized breaks in between sets. During this initial round of pull-ups, I made it through 3 sets of three before seeing that most people were moving to the box jumps or had already been working on them. Change of plans. I needed to pick up the pace. Practicing sets of three would have to wait for another time. I did 6 quick singles in a row and moved on to the box jumps.
I might not have correctly predicted how things would play out on the DB cleans or on the pull-up bar, but I did get the box jumps right. I kept telling myself it was only 20 reps as I quickly rebounded from one jump to the next. I was gaining on Noel and Neil. I took but one break during those box jumps before coming back to the DBs. One round was in the books.
I stupidly tried going right into the DB cleans once I was done with the box jumps, but that didn't work out very well. I managed two reps before careening forward and needing to put the DBs down. Not only did the reps feel awkward, it felt strange simply getting into the setup for the DB cleans. I probably should have practiced a few reps with the DBs outside of my feet just to see if that would have worked better for me. It might have been more efficient for Matt and Giulz to have them positioned inside, but that didn't necessarily mean it was best for me. Switching in the middle of the workout seemed like a bad idea, so I stuck with them positioned inside. I finished this round with two sets of 4 reps.
At the pull-up bar, I transitioned to sets of 2 and that worked well for me. In fact, I'd do two sets of 2, take a break (trying to keep it as brief as possible), then move on to my next double. I went through that routine four times (with a nice little bonus of only having to do 1 rep at the end for 15) and then came back to my box. I'm not sure if it was on this round or the next that I started losing track of Noel, but somewhere in the middle of this WOD, I began to focus only on where Neil was. It probably happened because the two of us were plodding through the pull-ups together. We were side-by-side on the second round of box jumps, but I was able to get a lead there by doing larger sets.
On the third round of DB cleans, I went 3-4-3. That allowed Neil to catch back up with me as we got back to the pull-up bar. I did two sets of 2 twice before fatigue started to set in. I did 1 more set of two (getting me to 10) before resorting to all singles to complete the round. I was able to push through those last 5 without a break and, for the first time in this workout, it seemed like I was opening a lead on Neil. I had 9 box jumps done when he came over to his box. The clock was closing in on 15 minutes, so we probably only had one more round left. If I kept moving, it was going to be hard for Neil to catch me.
Unfortunately, the fourth round of DB squat cleans crushed me. I went 3-3-4, but they were slow, difficult reps. Plus I needed long breaks between them. Neil had no such problems. He was back to the pull-up bar for round four before I was. So much for opening a lead on him. I knew I could no longer string pull-ups, so I decided I would try to do sets of three quick singles and do my best to limit the length of my breaks. I think Neil was stringing three pull-ups at a time, but taking longer breaks between sets, kinda like I was doing back in round one. He was ahead of me with 6 pull-ups to go, so I decided that I needed to push and do my remaining six without a break in the middle. It was unpleasant, but I got it done. Just one problem: Neil didn't take much of a break between his last two sets, so as I walked over to my box, he walked right along with me.
There was about a minute left and I desperately wanted a short break before beginning the box jumps, but I had to keep moving if I was going to beat Neil. To his credit, Neil knew the same thing about me. He had to start his box jumps right away because I wasn't going to take a break. We began jumping together, but I knew I wasn't going to last long. After my third rep, I stopped for a second. When I hopped down and tried to rebound for my next rep, I clipped the box and fell on it. I ended up hitting the box and stumbling two more times during that final round. That hadn't happened once during rounds one through three. It was confirmation that I was out of juice. Neil kept plugging away, determined to complete round four. He was able to, adding on 5 DB squat cleans in round five for good measure. I would not see round five as I fell five box jumps short of 4 full rounds. Final score: 3+40.
I would have been happy to throw on my second shirt and call it a night once the WOD was over, but LC informed us that we had time for an ab cash-out. Oh joy! The one good thing about the ab cash-out is that the majority of it would take place on the floor. I could essentially crawl my way around the circle we would be rotating through. This circle contained 4 stations. Bryan and I made up one group while our 8 classmates divided themselves into three other groups. Bryan and I would start at the Russian twist station, where we would move a light medicine ball back and forth across our body in a twisting motion while seated and holding our bent legs off of the ground. Rotating counterclockwise, our next stop was the ab-mat sit-up station. Then we would hit the evil wheels. It's been a long time since I've done those and they hurt just as much as I remembered. The evil wheel is a small wheel with two handles protruding from its sides. You grab the handles and roll your body out as far as you can while kneeling. You then need to pull your body back in to your starting position without allowing your core to loosen up. It is very unpleasant. The final station was empty as no props were needed to hold a low plank. This was a tabata-style cash-out, so we did 20 seconds at each station with 10 seconds to rest/transition. We went around the circle twice before the 10 of us were allowed to head home.
Wednesday preview: The bench press is back again! We're going heavy in this WOD. Plus the ski ergs get some additional use, as do the GHD machines.
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