When I got to the gym on Wednesday night for that workout that would severely humble me, I saw Justin C putting his equipment away. He had taken part in the 6:30 class. I asked him how the workout was and what advice he could give me. He told me the workout was a grip killer, that the KB swings at the end would be so much harder than I'd expect because your grip gets destroyed earlier on in the WOD.
If Wednesday's workout was a grip killer, then Friday's workout escalated things to the homicidal maniac level. (I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I see a WOD called "Jack the Gripper" on the KOP blog.) The Friday WOD was almost exclusively grip and shoulders. There were a bunch of rope climbs. There was shoulder press involved. The third movement in this "griplet" (so many grip puns!) was one that I had randomly gotten experience with several years ago. It involved stepping up to a fairly high box while holding on to heavy DBs. Here's the Friday WOD:
Friday's WOD:
30 DB (50/35) box step-ups (24"/20")
15 shoulder presses (115/75)
5 rope climbs (15')
24 DB box step-ups
12 shoulder presses
4 rope climbs
18 DB box step-ups
9 shoulder presses
3 rope climbs
When I participated in my first King and Queen competition at KOP, I did DB box step-ups as part of the second event. The DBs weighed 45 pounds and the box was 20" high. It was easily the most brutal aspect of that event. We regularly do box jumps to a 24" box, so you wouldn't think a step-up would be so bad, even if you were holding weight. Wrong. It wasn't until I did this event that I realized how much one uses their arms when doing a box jump or a step-up. Not being able to use them was a huge hindrance.
So it's the DBs that make this movement truly unpleasant, right? Not entirely. Don't discount the height of the box. Because as hard as this movement was with a 20" box, it became much more difficult with a 24" box. I discovered this over a year later. When I used to work out with Michal and LC regularly, I would participate in the sick cash-outs that they came up with after the WOD was over. Some of these cash-outs could run 20-25 minutes, meaning they were more like second WODs than cash-outs. One night, we did one that included DB box step-ups. The girls used 25 pound DBs with a 20" box. I was using 45 pound DBs with a 24" box. I figured it would be tough, but not all that different from my experience during that King and Queen event. Instead, I found the movement extremely clunky. Raising my leg high and pushing my body upwards while my arms hung low next to my sides was simply awkward. I couldn't do the movement fast and you really don't want to spend any extra time hanging on to those heavy DBs. I discovered there was a learning curve to the movement. Because I was struggling to get my foot high enough when I tried to step on to the box straight on, I started swooping my leg up alongside of the box. I'm sure it looked strange (isn't that the case with everything I do at the gym?), but it helped me move faster.
When I saw the DB step-ups listed in this WOD, I remembered that the side-swoop motion was the way to go. Could I handle 50 pound DBs this time? Five extra pounds per DB didn't seem like a whole lot, so I was going to give it a shot, at least when we warmed up. Coach Keithie asked the six of us in his class (myself, Steve Z, Tia, Steph M, Mariana, and Ashley) to set up our boxes and then test out the DBs we thought we'd use in the workout. There were 72 step-ups in this workout, so I figured I should be able to do 6-8 in the warmup without struggling tremendously. I did 6 step-ups with the 50 pound DBs and found them really tough to move with. Guess I was scaling down.
But then I got caught up in the choices of the rest of the class. All of the girls had grabbed sets of 35 pound DBs and they seemed very confident about using them for the WOD. Really? It seemed odd to me that they all might be going RX. Maybe I should suck it up and stick with the 50's. As the girls did more practice reps, they began to feel the same way I did initially. The RX weight was a little much. They start swapping their 35 pound DBs for 30 pound replacements. With the peer pressure decreasing, I began to feel more comfortable in my choice of 45 pound DBs for this workout.
My 5RM for the shoulder press was 120 pounds, so using the RX weight of 115 pounds for this workout was a no-go. I also factored in how tired my arms/shoulders would be from the DB step-ups and the rope climbs before deciding that 95 pounds would be plenty for me on the shoulder press. That left the rope climbs. How would I be scaling the rope climbs? I kid, I kid. There's no way I'd be scaling the rope climbs! As Keithie had once said, "those are my jam". That didn't mean there wasn't room for improvement though. I decided to hit up Keithie for some rope climbing advice. Because this workout would be so fatiguing on the arms, shoulders, and on your grip in general, I would need to be as efficient as possible when climbing the rope. And there is no one in the gym who climbs the rope as efficiently as Keithie. So I asked him if he could teach me to climb the rope the way he does.
I knew if I was going to replicate Keithie's rope climbing technique that I would have to pull my knees much higher to my chest. There was a lot more to it than that though. I've always described the "right" way to do the J-hook as more of an X-hook, because when someone like Keithie goes to pull his way up the rope, his feet are crossed like an X. Then he imitates a pair of scissors, opening up the X during the pull and closing the X when he's ready to clamp on to the rope. I didn't realize that this X-shape begins at the bottom of the rope. Keithie explained to me that my right leg should be crossed over my left right at the beginning of the climb. How the heck was I supposed to get a good jump with my legs crossed over one another? Turns out I was taking his advice a bit too literally. I should jump like I normally do, but as soon as my hands grabbed the rope, I was supposed to cross my legs. From there, you draw them up as high as possible and clamp on to the rope. Stand all the way up and repeat the process.
I took a few shots at this new technique, but I struggled with it (as you might expect the first time you try something new). Crossing my legs and climbing felt strange to me. The technique I normally used made sense to me because the motion was like a J. I jumped to the side of the rope, lifted my right leg high, and had my left leg sweep the rope underneath my right leg before coming up and over my right foot. Think of the vertical part of the J as the rope hanging from the ceiling. The curved bottom is off to the left of the vertical piece, just like my left leg would swing the loose end of the rope upwards as I climbed. I could get my head around that being a J-hook. This technique (which I'm still going to call the X-hook) required me to center the rope with my body, cross my legs, and then use that scissor-like movement. The only time there was anything resembling a J was when I brought my left foot over my right foot to clamp the rope.
On my 4th try, I finally did it right. It usually takes Keithie two pulls to get to the 15' mark whereas I need 3 pulls at least. When I'm tired, I need a little 4th pull to get me to the mark. My form with the X-hook wasn't good enough to get me to 15' with two pulls, but I was close. I just needed some practice. Keithie told me that I looked good on this last attempt. I appreciated that and I let him know that I'd keep practicing it going forward. For today though, I was sticking with my J-hook. I didn't have faith that I could do the X-hook correctly for 12 climbs. Keithie wasn't having it. He told me to give it a shot in the workout. I sensed this was going to go poorly for me, but I reluctantly agreed.
Keithie got the WOD started and I made it through 10 step-ups before placing my DBs on top of my box. That was according to plan. I thought breaking the step-ups into three sets would save my grip some. I also didn't want to exhaust myself before trying to climb the rope with a totally new technique. On my second set of step-ups, I learned an important lesson. I was side-swooping my lead leg up to the box each time, but as I went for my 7th rep, my foot caught the box. It killed all of my momentum. Speed is your friend while doing DB step-ups and I basically had to stop after catching the box. I placed the DBs down and took a break. 16 down, 14 to go. I was able to do 8 on my third set and 6 on my 4th set. As I walked over to my barbell, it looked like I was the last one to get there, but I wasn't too far behind the class.
With all of these movements affecting grip, arms, and shoulders, it seemed like pacing was more important in this WOD than is the case in many others. 95 pounds was a weight I could move fairly well for the shoulder press, but I put it down after 6 reps. I shook out my arms, tried to keep my break small, then did another set of 6. Went through the same break routine and finished off my last 3 reps for this first round. It was time to test out the X-hook.
Usually I would jump right on the rope for my first climb if I had just completed a small set like the one I had done to finish off the shoulder press. But I took some extra time to make sure I did this first climb properly. When I felt ready to go, I jumped as high as I could, crossed my legs, and pulled my knees up towards my chest. I clamped on to the rope and stood up. I repeated that process and when I stood up, I was surprised to see the 15' mark within reach. It was the first time I had ever gotten to that mark in two pulls. The X-hook was a success! I slid down the rope eager to try it again. The good news was that I had learned a more efficient way of climbing the rope, one that probably saved me one pull per climb on average. The bad news is that this would be the only climb of the 12 where I'd reach the mark in two pulls. For most of the workout, I needed a 3rd mini-pull. Towards the end, when I got really tired, I needed a decent-sized 3rd pull to get me to that 15' mark. I paced those 5 climbs pretty well. I needed breaks in between each climb, but I had to chalk my hands repeatedly anyway, so those breaks were at least productive.
When I came back to my box for the step-ups, I saw that Tia was just beginning her 2nd round, so I began focusing on her as the person in class I'd try to keep up with. (She was also right next to me, so that helped.) I wanted to go 8-8-8 for this second round, but as was the case in round one, I had to cut my second set short. As a result, I went 8-6-6-4 to complete my 24 step-ups. The breaks between sets were considerably longer and I was getting tired quickly. As I finished off my step-ups, I started to wonder whether I'd have enough energy for the shoulder presses and the rope climbs.
Tia was moving through her shoulder presses when I got to my barbell. I took a few moments to calm myself before starting my round of 12. Going 6-6 like I did at the start of round one would have been great, but I wasn't sure I could pull that off. Perhaps that doubt fueled me to do better. Nearing the 6th rep of the set, I told myself to hang on for one more. With 7 completed, I'd only need to get through 5 to finish the round. Those 5 were definitely tougher than the first 7, but I didn't put the barbell down until I had finished off the 12th rep.
I moved back to the rope and repeated everything I had done during the first round of rope climbs. I'm sure the breaks between climbs were longer, but I was getting a lot of solid practice in with the X-hook. The last climb of the round was the first one where I noticed that I wasn't all that close to the 15' mark after two pulls. That wasn't a deficiency in the technique. It was simply a sign that I wasn't getting my knees as high as before due to fatigue.
When I got back to my box for the last round of DB step-ups, I was certain that I wasn't going to catch Tia. Steve, Steph, and Mariana seemed too far ahead as well. Ashley was struggling with the shoulder press, so I had a large lead on her. There was no one left to push me, so I'd have to push myself. I didn't do a very good job. The DB step-ups were miserable. I tripped on the box not once, not twice, but three times in the final round. Apparently my inability to draw my knees high wasn't limited to the rope climbs. I went 4-4-4 before completing the last round with 6 in a row, helped by Keithie coming over and encouraging me to hang on. He wasn't done. He told me to get all 9 shoulder presses when I walked over to my barbell. That seemed like a big ask given how tired I was, but I'm a special kind of stubborn. Amid much yelling and grunting, I held on for all 9 reps.
All that remained were the rope climbs. After pushing through 6 DB step-ups and 9 unbroken shoulder presses, I needed a breather before that first climb. When I felt ready, I got through climb #1 without much of a problem. Same thing with climb #2. However, I had little left in the way of grip with one climb to go. I applied an extra thick layer of chalk to my hands and told myself it was just three pulls and then I was done. They were some pretty slow pulls and I didn't do a wonderful job of raising my knees, but I was able to reach up and slap the 15' mark after the third pull. Final time: 21:37.
Certainly not one of my finer performances, but I got through this difficult workout and even learned something new along the way. Rope climbs show up frequently in our programming, so I'm sure I'll be working on the X-hook quite a bit in the upcoming months.
Monday preview: It's Memorial Day, so it's time for Murph. I haven't done this workout in any form since 2013. How would it go four years later?
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