I always find myself surprised at how little things can completely turn my mood around. I was miserable in the latter stages of Bull. Then me and Rob worked together for the last 400 meters of the run and I left the gym feeling good. As I headed back to the gym on Tuesday night for Dudes After Dark, I was hopeful that more opportunities like that would present themselves during the WOD. Look, I'm not headed to Regionals ever. I haven't even been able to crack the top 10 at our annual King and Queen competition. So losing a few seconds or reps during a workout to help someone else out is not going to be detrimental to me. That was my approach on Monday and it would play out that way once again the following night.
There were seven of us attending Dudes After Dark with LC and we were looking at a WOD that was broken up into two distinct 15 minute segments. During the first 15 minute segment, we would be trying to find a 1RM on the bench press. The second 15 minute segment was more metcon than cash-out. We would be performing a 5 minute AMRAP three times with a 5 minute break in between each AMRAP. Here's a look at what we'd be doing during those AMRAPs:
Tuesday's metcon segment:
Three rounds:
AMRAP in 5 minutes
15 power cleans (155/105)
25/20 calorie row
15 bench press (135/95)
*5 minutes rest between AMRAPs
My initial reaction to seeing the weights for the metcon was that they were heavy, but within my abilities, especially since we'd be getting a long 5 minute break between rounds. I was hoping to make it deep into a second round of power cleans during each of the AMRAPs.
Before we got to that though, we all had to see how much we could bench. This seemed like a very fitting activity at a class dubbed Dudes After Dark. (Although to be fair, we were only 5/7 dude this evening with Esra and The Prodigy joining Bryan, Actuary Mike, John McHugh, Ryan A, and myself.) LC told us that we should partner up during the bench press portion of the workout and keep those same pairings for the metcon later on. With the AMRAPs and the rest both 5 minutes in length, the partners could alternate between working and resting/counting for their buddy. Esra and The Prodigy partnered up, as did Bryan and Actuary Mike. That left me, John, and Ryan to work as a trio through the WOD. We set up two benches: one for me and John, one for Ryan. John was likely going to bench less than me, but neither of us were going to be in the same zip code as Ryan. My best bench press was likely to be a warmup weight for him. I would take turns spotting each of them. It really wasn't that different from having three people use the same bench. However, with all of the loading and unloading we would have to do to accommodate Ryan's attempts, it made more sense to use two benches given that we only had 15 minutes to complete this part of the workout.
John has been dealing with shoulder issues for quite some time, so I try not to amp him up too much when we're working with barbells. The last thing I want is for him to re-aggravate his injury. That being said, I kind of scoffed when he said his 1RM for the bench press was 155. I've done a lot of workouts with John and he usually hangs pretty close to me when it comes to barbell weight. My top bench press was 210, so 155 seemed lighter than I would have guessed for him. I let him know right away that I thought a PR was likely for him before our 15 minutes was up.
I thought John would want to start at a lighter weight than what I was beginning with, but he said he was a-okay with 115 to kick things off. We each did three reps at that weight. John didn't struggle at all, making me feel more confident in my prediction that he would soon have a new PR. I stood near Ryan's barbell as he did some warmup reps at 135, but he definitely didn't need a spot with that weight.
John and I moved up to 135 for our next attempt and we both did two reps at that weight. We were just 20 pounds shy of his 1RM, but John was still doing multiple reps. I was originally thinking he'd finish with something in the 160-165 range, but now I was revising that to 165-170. How easy was 135 for Ryan? He threw on to more 45 pound plates and made his next easy-looking attempt at 225. It didn't take long for him to go beyond anything me and John could do.
From that point forward, it was nothing but singles for all of us. I did 155 and so did John. He definitely moved slower with 155 than he had at 135, but I figured he simply had his PR number in his head and was overthinking a bit. I don't remember what Ryan's progression was from here (probably 245), but he still had no need for a spotter. John and I would part ways from here. I continued to go with my 20 pound jumps, going to 175 for my next lift. This would be the last lift I'd do on the day that felt comfortable. If I had to do multiple reps with 175, it might not have gone so well. When I was done, I got John set up for his PR attempt at 165. That's right. He wasn't going to try and eek by with a 5 pound PR at 160. He was jumping right up to 165. I have to admit, there was little doubt in my mind that he was going to come through at 165. His lift at 155 was slower than the sets he had done at 115 and 135, but he didn't look like he was really in trouble at any point. I helped take the barbell off the rack with John and he brought 165 down to his chest. He began to press it up, but then he got stuck. I let him fight it for a couple of seconds before I intervened and helped him bring it back up to the rack. He might not have gotten it on his first try, but there was still plenty of time on the clock for him to get it on a later attempt.
I fully expected my next attempt at 195 to be heavy as we were starting to get close to my 1RM of 210 pounds. It was considerably more difficult pushing it up off of my chest, but John told me that the rep looked easy like my previous attempts. I guess the best parallel I could draw is that it was similar to John's lift at 155: looked easy, but the speed of the lift decreased and it felt much tougher than it looked. John decided to give 165 another try, but his first attempt might have placed some doubts in his mind. When he made this attempt, he nearly came to a stop as he tried to tap his chest with the barbell. He had no momentum to push the barbell back up and he was barely able to get it off of his chest. 165 wasn't happening today for him, but I thought if he regrouped, he could still get 160.
Another 20 pound increase seemed unwise for me, so I only added 10 pounds for my next lift at 205. I hadn't benched 210 pounds since back when I did Barbulls in early 2014, so it was entirely possible that 205 could be too much for me on this night. After all, 210 came on the heels of completing a strength program. I haven't done any sort of strength program in a while, so just assuming that I would PR now (or come close to doing so) might have been wishful thinking. (Full disclosure: I go into the gym every night hoping to PR. Most nights it doesn't happen, but I tend to have the mindset that it could happen, no matter how improbable the circumstances.) John helped me take 205 pounds off of the rack and I did my lift. I wouldn't say that I got stuck on the way back up, but it was a very slow and strenuous push getting the barbell from my chest back to the rack. I had made it through 205, earning me a PR attempt at 215 for my next lift.
John moved back down to 160, which was still a PR attempt for him. If he had tried 160 right after his first attempt at 165, I would have felt very good about his chances at this lift. That second attempt at 165 made me less optimistic. I have all of the faith in the world in John though. He somehow summons all of the energy in his body and puts it into the lift he's doing. Right when you think he's crazy for attempting something at the gym, he shows that he can handle it. So despite the ugly 2nd attempt at 165, I was still expecting to hear John roar "YES SIR" while pressing 160 up from his chest. His speed was better on this attempt and he did get it about halfway back up to the rack, but then he stalled out. I let him try to keep going for a second or two, but once I saw the barbell start to go down towards his chest, I grabbed the barbell from him. I would have lost a lot of money betting that John was getting a PR today. He would make one more attempt at 160, but much like his 2nd try at 165, he didn't seem to have the same fire behind it as he did on the 1st try at that weight.
I continued to walk over to spot Ryan between lifts, but he wouldn't need me until his last attempt. Towards the end of his attempts, I did help him take the barbell off the rack, but that was the extent of my help on bench #2. He continued to make benching big weight look easy, so much so that I didn't even realize he had gotten a PR when he pressed out 285 pounds. I think his last attempt was at 305 and I was genuinely shocked when his barbell stopped rising towards the rack. I grabbed a hold of it and we put it back on the rack together (there was no chance I could manage that by myself!).
There was about 2 minutes left on the clock when I took my shot at 215. I remembered that when I got 210, I had to dig really deep to get the barbell back to the rack. It seemed like I was stuck, but I kept inching it upwards, desperately hoping my spotter didn't grab the barbell to help me out. My attempt at 205 didn't feel nearly that bad, so there was still hope that I might get 215. John helped me take the barbell from the rack and then it was all on me to get a new PR. I tapped the barbell against my chest and pushed up as hard as I could. Unfortunately, I committed a cardinal sin while pushing up. You never want to lift your feet off the ground when you bench press. They should be pressing into the floor while you push the barbell upwards. I got caught up in giving everything that I had to get the barbell back to the rack that I accidentally lifted both feet off the floor. I knew immediately that I had messed up, so I tried to shoot my feet back down, almost like what I do when I'm trying to kip a gymnastics movement. Kipping doesn't work with the bench press. While I was kipping my feet back to the floor, the barbell came to a halt. I was in a world of trouble. John gave me the courtesy of a second or two to fight through it before helping me out once I said I was done. I could have snuck in another attempt, but I felt a twinge in my back from that failed kipping attempt. 205 would have to be good enough this night.
I probably could have injured myself seriously doing what I had done, so I considered myself lucky to get off with some light back pain. Then I made the decision to scale down my weights for the cash-out. I knew I could power clean 155 and bench press 135, but my back was tingly from that messed-up PR attempt. I dropped 20 pounds from each of those movements, trying to maintain a balance between using a challenging weight and not aggravating a minor injury into something worse.
I was still pulling double duty as LC asked if I could make sure that the monitors on the rowers for John and Ryan were both turned on right as they neared the end of their power cleans. That was simple enough because they were side-by-side at the front of the gym. The tricky part was getting my own equipment set up. I wasn't using the same weight as John or Ryan on the power cleans, so I needed my own barbell with 135 pounds on it. And I needed someplace to put it. The other 6 people in class were all next to one another, so I took the next closest spot available, back towards where the rings are. I'd get some extra cardio running from there to the rower I'd be sharing with John. Then I'd run back to where my bench was set up. I thought John and Ryan were both using a different weight than me, so I set up a bench down near the barbell where I'd be doing power cleans. (It turns out that John ended up using the same bench press weight as me. Wish I realized that before the cash-out began!) My score was going to be a few reps lower than it could have been if I was sharing equipment, but I was more than happy to sacrifice a couple reps to help out my classmates.
John and Ryan went first while I waited for their rest period to start the cash-out. I was responsible for counting for John, although I kept an eye on Ryan's progress so that I could turn on his rower right before he completed the power cleans. Once they both got to their rower, I got a break. Ryan was the first to the bench press, so I followed him over while continuing to cheer John on. Ryan didn't really need me to spot him on the bench though, as 135 pounds was light for him. John soon came over to the bench and I did keep an eye on him as he did a few sets to get to 15 reps. John made it back to the power cleans before his first 5 minutes were up. I had to ask him to count his own reps at this point because I was going to have run over to my barbell when the clock hit 5 minutes. I also needed to turn the monitor on Ryan's rower on again as he was going to get to his rower a second time. With 3 seconds left, I ran over to my barbell for the power cleans.
It was my turn to go! I plowed my way through 15 single reps of power cleans, then jogged to the front of the gym to get on my rower. The 25 calorie row wasn't too bad. I was more concerned about how the bench press was going to feel with my back not 100%. Turns out that 115 pounds was a good choice for me. I did a set of 10 and a set of 5 before heading back to the power cleans. I was able to finish off a second set of 15 power cleans just before my 5 minutes was up. Sprinted down the gym to my rower and managed to get 2 calories before it was time to rest/count/spot again. First round score: 72.
The second round wasn't all that different from the first except for the fact that everyone was moving slower. The power cleans were slower, the row was slower, and the bench press was slower. It wasn't like we were taking a minute longer on each of these elements, but it was just enough to ensure that none of us were getting back to the rower a second time. As I had done during round 1, I took off a few seconds early on John to get back down to my barbell. When I got there, I had a surprise waiting for me. LC smartly recognized that my life would be easier if another rower was set up at the far end of the gym for me. Less cardio is always beneficial to me. So for rounds two and three, I didn't need to run up and down the gym like I had done in round one. I did 15 singles on the power cleans, rowed 25 calories, then went 9 and 6 on the bench press. I completed the bench press about 4 minutes into the AMRAP. LC got a little confused on the clock and began the countdown for the two heats to switch, but I brusquely muttered "no, we have another minute" as I walked by her to get back to my barbell for the power cleans. I'm not sure if the people in my heat were happy about having to work another minute, but I'm sure the people resting appreciated the extra 60 seconds. I made it through 10 more power cleans before time was called. Second round score: 65.
The third round was definitely slower and heavier. Ryan may have gotten back to the power cleans for a second time in this round, but John did not. Because he was still on the bench press when it was time for me to start my third round, I yelled over to LC and asked if she could spot him for his last few reps. When it was my turn to go, I did my 15 power cleans, rowed 25 calories, then began to struggle on the bench press. I started off with a set of 9 again, but I was too tired to get the remaining 6 in my next set. I did 4, took a break, then got the last 2 reps. Time was ticking down, so I just kept ripping the barbell off the floor for power cleans as quickly as I could. I got 6 of them before time was called. Third round score: 61. Total score: 198.
You would think after all of that work that I would have called it an evening at that point, but foolishly I did not. All of us spent some time rolling out afterwards and then I got talking to Jim C as I was packing up my bag. We started talking about the new short ropes that were hanging from the ceiling. I told him that I wanted to try it out at some point and Jim's response was along the lines of "why not now?" The correct answer should have been "because I'm tired and I tweaked my back during the WOD", but instead I said I'd try it out. I jumped up and began to pull myself up the rope with a legless climb, but I discovered that these new ropes were on the slippery side due to lack of use. I couldn't get high enough to clamp my legs on, so I let go of the rope and dropped to the floor. The new rope was going to take some practice. That practice would have to take place on another evening as one failed climb was plenty for me to cap off the evening.
Wednesday preview: I hate EMOMs! (Though this one isn't so bad.) The cash-out gives me an opportunity to land on the 100 double unders board. Will I finally get there?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.