Cheater PR

Workout date: 7/10/17

Previously on Sweaty Souka's Crossfit Adventure:

• A poor showing during Fran made me realize I needed to put some real work into correcting my pull-up form
• My plan for one of the Brawl WODs turned out to be a complete failure
• I re-discovered my power clean and used it to PR my clean and jerk for the 1st time in a couple of years

Monday's workout included a benchmark WOD that I'm not overly fond of: the 3RM shoulder press.  The shoulder press is a simple lift that only requires you to have upper body strength.  Just one problem: I don't have much in the way of upper body strength.  Leg strength?  Got that covered.  But even though my arms have gotten a bit bigger thanks to Crossfit, it hasn't translated much into gains on the shoulder press.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that I still haven't developed actual triceps.  Perhaps that will come about during the next 40 years of my life.

There were 13 of us signed up for Monday night's 6:30 class with Giulz.  With only 8 racks available, we'd be pairing up for the shoulder press.  Choosing a partner for a strength WOD like this is a very scientific process:

1. Look around to see if Matt B is in class
2. If Matt B is in class, partner up with him
3. If Matt B is not in class, awkwardly slink off to the side and wait to see if someone else looks like they haven't partnered up yet

Luckily for me, I only had to go through the first two steps of that process.  I knew Matt was going to lift much more weight than I would, but he's about the same height as me (important when sharing a rack) and we typically have fun doing strength WODs together.  He doesn't hate working out with me, so we partnered up.

My best 3RM shoulder press came using 135 pounds and it has been stuck there for quite a while.  "Stuck there for quite a while" has become a familiar phrase in this blog because it was true for my clean and jerk (until I finally broke through on Sunday) and it has been true for my deadlift.  I wasn't nearly as frustrated with my shoulder press stagnation as I was with my lack of progress on those other lifts.  The clean and jerk and the deadlift are programmed frequently, either on their own or as part of metcons.  I've put in additional work on the clean and jerk at Open Strength.  Improvements on those lifts shouldn't have taken several years.  The shoulder press was different.  It is usually substituted out of metcons in favor of push presses and push jerks.  And because it is a bit of a boring lift to work on, I had spent very little time working on it at Open Strength.  As much as I would love to get better at various lifts without putting the time in, I know that no practice means no gains.  With that in mind, I wasn't expecting to get beyond 135 today.  In fact, there was a good chance I'd end up with a score under 135.

There wasn't a whole lot for Giulz to go over when walking the class through the shoulder press, but there was one point that she wanted to emphasize.  We all knew that we weren't allowed to use our legs to help boost our barbells overhead, but there was one other unofficial form of cheating that Giulz wanted us to avoid.  To get the most out of this lift, we needed to keep a tight core and press the weight overhead without leaning back.  She didn't want us doing a "vertical bench press".  With a normal bench press, you lay horizontally on a bench and press a barbell upwards.  If you arched your back during the shoulder press, you would put yourself into a position where you were doing more of a bench press than a shoulder press.  This version of the shoulder press still met the lenient standards of "counting in Crossfit", but it certainly wasn't something that would do wonders for your back in the long run.

I started off very light on my 1st set, going with 75 pounds.  Matt was never going to challenge his previous 3RM if he started out that low, so his initial set was at 95 pounds, which I would keep on the barbell for my 2nd set.  The last time we tested our 3RM shoulder press, Matt got 3 reps at 165 and 1 rep at 175, so I was fully expecting him to get all 3 reps at 175 today.  Watching him easily do his next set at 135 did nothing to change my opinion.  It was also a little depressing that my personal best was nothing but a warmup for Matt.  Kid is strong!

We both moved up 20 pounds for our next set as I took care of 115 pounds and Matt had no problems with 155 pounds.  The 4th set was where we were going to be challenged.  We each added 15 pounds to the barbell.  130 pounds was not going to be a PR for me, but it felt like a weight that would probably be right on the edge of where I might fail.  If I could get through this set, I'd have a score I'd be happy with and I wouldn't beat myself up too much if I couldn't go any higher.  The two things I focus on when doing multiple reps of the shoulder press are having a strong first rep and keeping that momentum going for the remaining reps.  If that first rep goes poorly, you're in deep trouble.  And if you don't take advantage of the momentum from the first rep (something you don't have when you start your set), then you're screwed.  I don't think I've ever come to a stop in between reps of the shoulder press and successfully restarted the set.

When I was able to press out the 1st rep at 130 without too much agony, I felt relieved.  I still had two more reps to do, but the toughest part was out of the way.  Rep #2 wasn't a problem and there was only the slightest hint of a struggle while pressing out rep #3.  I had gotten 130 and now I could take on a PR attempt without feeling any pressure.  I had a decent score in my pocket and the last set would be like playing with house money.  As for Matt, he was already going after a PR with his next set at 170.  He had yet to show any signs of duress during the three sets he had completed, so I was very confident about how this 4th set would go.  He did not disappoint.  Matt did 3 very fluid reps at 170 and placed the barbell back on the rack.  He claimed it was much harder than it looked, but I was betting on him to set an even higher PR on his next set.

I may have been a little more excited about Matt's PR than he was

Success in Crossfit requires a lot of mental fortitude.  It's not only about fighting the doubts that you might have in your mind based on your own performances.  It's also about erasing bad thoughts out of your head when you see someone else fail.  I've found that when I see someone else fail on a big lift, I tend to follow that performance with a miss of my own.  The good news is that the inverse also seems to be true.  When I've seen someone succeed at the gym, it has subliminally unlocked some confidence that I wasn't aware of.  

Watching Matt take care of 170 without much struggle gave me some hope that I could do 3 reps at 140.  Just get that first rep and the rest will work out.  I took the barbell off the rack and pressed up with everything I had.  It didn't move upwards nearly as quickly as it had in my earlier sets, but it didn't stop moving either.  After a couple of seconds, it was locked out overhead.  I could do this!  The second rep wasn't easy, but it was better than the first rep.  Do not mess up on the last rep!  That is the absolute worst.  I brought the barbell back down with speed and tried to bounce it off of me to help in my pursuit of the final rep.  It helped somewhat, but not enough to result in a smooth third rep.  I was stuck.  I was pushing, but the barbell wasn't heading much higher.  Trying to find some extra strength, I leaned back while I pushed.  It was vertical bench press time.  Was it cheating?  Maybe.  Did it work?  Absolutely.  The barbell emerged from the stuck position and ended up overhead.  I had a new PR.  It was a cheater PR, but it counts in Crossfit.

I was hoping that the good vibes would continue as Matt went up another 5 pounds to 175, but I think he might have gotten it into his head that 170 was good enough.  His first rep at 175 looked just as good as the three reps he did at 170, but right after he came down with that rep, he suddenly dropped the barbell.  It was surprising to say the least.  But I think now that 170 is his 3RM, he'll probably crush 175 the next time we perform this shoulder press test.

There are some days when you look at the workout and think "wow, this may have been designed specifically for me!"  And then there are days like Monday.  The shoulder press may be my least favorite lift.  That was being followed up with a cash-out that was not gonna end up on my Top 10 list.  Here's what was in store:

30-20-10

Chest-to-bar pull-ups

DB push press (35/20)

*Time cap: 12 minutes

Remember how I said the shoulder press if often substituted for in metcons?  It didn't take long to see proof of that.  The DB weight for the cash-out was probably light enough that we could have handled doing a shoulder press, but since this was meant to be done quickly (note the time cap), we were given a similar movement that could be done with more speed.

With 13 of us in class, it would be tight quarters if we tried to all do chest-to-bar pull-ups at the same time, so Giulz sent us off in two waves, with the second wave starting two minutes after the first one. There was still going to be some overlap at the pull-up rig, but it wouldn't be nearly as bad as if we all attempted this in one heat.  I was trying to be accommodating, so I volunteered to do my chest-to-bar pull-ups on the bar that was closest to the lobby.  There was just one issue.  There is another bar slightly behind and above that one and I wasn't entirely sure that my head wouldn't clang into it while I was using my wild kip to do chest-to-bar pull-ups.  Conn was sitting off to the side waiting for Open Strength to begin, so I asked him if he could tell me how close my head was to hitting this bar as I did a practice rep.  Thankfully it wasn't close.  Because I get so horizontal on my chest-to-bar pull-ups, my head wasn't getting very far above the bar I was using and therefore didn't come close to the bar that was scaring me.

I was in heat one and I thought I got off to a pretty good start.  I was doing consistent sets of 6 singles before needing a break on the pull-up rig.  When I got to the DBs, I was able to manage 12 reps before having to put them down.  I went 12-12-6 there and headed back to my pull-up bar.  The round of 20 was very tough, as the middle round often is.  My sets were shorter and I needed longer breaks. Being the middle of July, it was very warm in the gym and I got tired quickly.  It wasn't long before the heavy breathing and the torrential sweating set in.  As I neared the end of my 20 chest-to-bar pull-ups, I began to worry that I wouldn't finish before the time cap.  I got over to the DBs and tried to make up some time there.  Once again, I started with a set of 12 before wrapping things up with a set of 8.

I knew I couldn't dilly-dally on the final 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups if I wanted to stay under the time cap, so I dug deep to churn out one rep after another.  I'm sure there were a couple of small breaks sprinkled in there, but I tried not to stray more than a step away from the pull-up bar and I didn't allow myself to drop into my resting squat.  That last surge paid off.  When I headed back to my DBs, I knew I'd be under the time cap.  I picked them up and quickly fired off the final 10 push presses.  Cash-out time: 11:17.

As I sat on the floor, I watched Matt (who was in the second wave) finish up the cash-out.  He was working through the last of his chest-to-bar pull-ups, so it appeared as though he would crush my time.  When he was done there, he was well ahead of my pace.  I figured he would do the same thing I did at the end of the cash-out: walk over to the DBs immediately and pump out 10 push presses.  Instead, he came off of the pull-up rig, walked to his DBs and took a break.  When he finally picked them up, he only managed 5 push presses before placing them back on the floor.  He took another decent-sized break and it started to look like I might beat him.  Finally, he leaned down and picked up the DBs one last time, working through the last 5 reps to stop the clock at 11:16, beating me by one second.  He had to make it close!

I stuck around for Open Strength to work on two things.  First, I needed some extra work on my pull-up form.  You might think I got enough practice doing 60 chest-to-bar pull-ups in the cash-out, but those were sloppily done, completed in a hurry to beat a time cap.  There was not much attention paid to form during that sprint.  After I had recovered from the cash-out, I got to work on completing 5 sets of 4 consecutive pull-ups with solid form.  I took my time and was able to handle that.  Then I moved on to double unders.  Just as I wanted to focus on form with my pull-ups, I wanted to focus on remaining calm while doing a considerable number of double unders.  There was a good chance that I'd need that in my tool kit for the Polpetta WOD at the Brawl.  I did a set of 50 before coming to a stop.  The plan was to do another set of 50, but I messed up after a set of 18.  I was able to get the final 32 in a row.  I got through 100 dubs in 3 sets, without long breaks and with pretty decent form.  It gave me hope that I'd be able to complete a large number of double unders while under pressure at the Brawl next month.

Tuesday preview: Another photo finish with a classmate at the end of a metcon.  Could I turn the tables and edge out my rival?