May The 4's BMU

Workout date: 9/7/17

It was a relief to come back to the gym on Wednesday night and have a good experience on my first day back.  The Brawl had definitely left a sour taste in my mouth, but Crossfit Total would be my Listerine.  On Thursday, I'd get eased back into the metcons.  Coach Giulz would tell her 6:30 class to try and keep the following WOD in the 10-12 minute range:

Thursday's WOD:
30 overhead squats (135/95)
7 muscle-ups (choice of ring or bar)
20 overhead squats
5 muscle-ups

This was oddly similar to a workout we had done a month ago.  In that one, we had to do 50 overhead squats (same here) and 25 ring muscle-ups (13 less here).  The overhead squats were lighter in that WOD and we were allowed to do the work in any order we pleased.  Here we had to do it in the order it was written.  I could use the same weight in this workout that we had used that day (115 pounds), but I felt like I should challenge myself more this time around since there were less muscle-ups.  I tried to take a cue from what I learned the night before: Don't make a big jump in weight when a smaller one makes more sense.

In most instances, if I felt 115 pounds was too light, I'd just move up to 135 pounds instead.  There is some rationale for making a jump like that.  115 pounds is a barbell with 35 pound plates on it.  135 pounds is a barbell with 45 pound plates on it.  There aren't any 40 pound plates in the gym, so it's easy to skip the idea of using 125 pounds and just go with the next biggest plates available.  (Note: It's not as if you can't use multiple plates, like a 25 pound plate and a 15 pound plate, to get to 125.  I think most of us are too lazy to grab multiple plates.  Or maybe it's just me.)  I wasn't going to fall into that trap here though.  125 was likely the most appropriate weight for me to use in this workout.  If that meant I had more plates to carry back at the end of the workout, so be it.

There were 10 of us in class and Giulz had us start things off by practicing the overhead squat with an empty barbell.  I happen to love the overhead squat.  Most other people do not.  Performing them with an empty barbell is wonderful for me because I feel like I can do them all day long without getting tired.  With most movements at the gym, I hate having to do a lot of reps during the warmup, but the overhead squat is a rare exception to that rule.  I'm sure the rest of the class would tell you that viewpoint is nuts.

We laid our barbells on the gym floor and moved over to the pull-up rig.  There wasn't a soul in class who had the ability to do ring muscle-ups and jumping ring muscle-ups were not an option today (another change from last month's workout).  Bar muscle-ups (BMU's) were an acceptable option for this WOD, with scales ranging from jumping bar muscle-ups using a box to a combo of pull-ups and push-ups.  I was planning on going with the jumping bar muscle-up option with the assistance of a 13" box, but Giulz had other plans for me.  She looked at our class and asked who had bar muscle-ups.  Her gaze honed in on me and Mike C.  Technically, we both had bar muscle-ups.  The reality was that Mike was very capable of doing 12 of them and I was not.  (Spoiler: Mike would get all 12 during the WOD.  I did not.)  Giulz wanted me to at least try and do them, allowing me to use a scale of bar muscle-up attempts should I not go on the biggest bar muscle-up heater the gym had ever seen.

When everyone felt comfortable with the muscle-up scale they had chosen, we went back to our barbells.  We proceeded to load them up little by little, taking practice reps until we felt we had reached the proper weight for the WOD.  Once that was established, Giulz gave us a minute to get ready before starting the clock.  In last month's overhead squat/muscle-up WOD, I did 13 overheads in my first set with 115 pounds.  Today's barbell was 10 pounds heavier, but I was fresh going into this set.  (I started last month's WOD with a set of jumping ring muscle-ups.)  My goal was to get 12 reps in this first foray into the overheads, but I was able to surpass that mark, hanging on for 14 reps before releasing the barbell.  After a bit of a break, I was able to do a set of 8, leaving me 8 more before I could move over to the pull-up rig.  Those last 8 reps were much less fun than the 8 that preceded them, but I completed them all in one set.

My attempts at a bar muscle-up in the warmup weren't horrible, but I wasn't extremely close either.  I never got to that point where half of my body was hanging over the bar and all I needed to do was rotate over.  Giulz watched some of these attempts and reminded me that patience was my friend.  I was pulling too early, which caused me to do more of a chest-to-bar pull-up than a bar muscle-up.  When I got over to the pull-up rig, I reminded myself to be patient.  I also took some extra time before starting my attempts because I knew I wouldn't be able to remain patient if my heart was beating a mile a minute.  Once I felt somewhat calm, I made my first attempt.  Not so good.  The worst part was that my right hand slipped at the very end.  It didn't seem to be a sweat-related issue for once.  I shook out my arms and tried again.  This time my right hand slipped even more.  What was up with that?

The answer popped into my head rather quickly.  I've been doing pull-ups with a monkey grip (hand over the bar) rather than using a regular grip (hand around the bar).  I was using the monkey grip here, but it wasn't providing enough stability.  If my hands weren't slipping because of sweat, then this change in grip would probably help me out.  Sure enough, attempt #3 would be my best one yet.  I got most of my body up over the bar, but I wasn't able to rotate over from there.  Giulz said I needed just a little more patience and I would have it.

I was taking close to 30 seconds in between attempts.  That wasn't ideal, but it was necessary.  One of the unfortunate side effects of coming close but not completing a bar muscle-up is that you smack part of your torso against the bar, knocking the wind out of you temporarily.  I needed my wind back before I could make my next attempt.  Several of my classmates had already headed back to their barbells, but I had 4 BMU attempts remaining.  I jumped up to the bar with a regular grip, swung forward, stayed patient as long as I could, then threw my body forward.  I was mostly over the bar again, but this time I had some momentum.  I looked towards the floor and tilted the rest of my body over the bar.  Extending out of the dip was the easy part.  I had done it!  My score would reflect at least one successful bar muscle-up.  I looked towards Giulz, but she had her back towards me as she chatted with one of the lifters there for Open Strength.  I finally employed her advice properly and she wasn't able to see it.

I couldn't stay up there all day hoping she'd turn around, so I moved on to the next rep.  Because I got my belly over the bar on that last rep, I didn't need as much rest before the next attempt.  Maybe I should have taken it anyway.  The fifth attempt wasn't very good.  Attempts 6 and 7 would end up like the 3rd one.  Got my body mostly over the bar but didn't have enough strength to rotate the rest of it over.

As I came back to my barbell, it appeared that everyone was well ahead of me.  A couple of my classmates were behind me, so it was possible they were going at my pace, but I figured I was last like I typically am.  The overhead squat was my opportunity to make up some ground, so I got right into my 1st set.  Rushed it again.  Rest was my friend, so why was I neglecting him?  I hurried into the overhead squats and was off-balance from the get-go.  I wobbled my way through 4 reps before I needed to put the barbell down.  Lot of good rushing did me!  I caught my breath and then did two legitimate sets of 8, completing the second round the same way I had finished the first.

The clock was approaching 11 minutes, so I was going to have to pick up the pace to keep this workout under 12 minutes.  If I rushed my attempts though, I was going to fare even worse than I did at the beginning of my second round of overhead squats.  My time didn't matter as much to me as executing bar muscle-ups properly did, so I took my time when I came back to the pull-up rig.  About 30 seconds of rest before each attempt.  Based on the cheering from the rest of the class, I could tell I was one of two people still working.  In my first three attempts, I came close twice to rotating over the bar, but I just couldn't make it happen.  I guess there was something magical about the number 4 for me though.  As was the case in round one, my 4th attempt was my best.  I didn't feel stuck as I tried to rotate over the bar.  My body kept sliding forward and I knew I had it.  Bonus: This time Giulz witnessed my successful bar muscle-up.

I came back down hoping that I might get two in a row to wrap up this WOD, but I think the excitement of the previous attempt got me amped up and I pulled too early again.  I wasn't disappointed though.  One bar muscle-up in this workout would have made me happy.  Two was gravy.  Final time: 13:20.

When I came down from that failed attempt, I turned around to see who was still working behind me. It was my Brawl teammate, Kris.  She was taking care of the last of her jumping bar muscle-ups.  There was a look of uncertainty on her face, but if she could see what I was seeing, it would have disappeared quickly.  She was jumping so high over the bar that she barely had to do any press out at the end of each rep.  There was no reason to be concerned.  She probably could have made it with a smaller box.  Kris completed a couple more reps and her workout was done.

As we began putting our equipment away, Danielle asked me if I wanted to participate in an assault bike cash-out with her, Kris, and Caitlyn.  I agreed to join the peloton, but first I had a bone to pick with her.  She had done jumping bar muscle-ups, but she had yet to put her box away.  That is how I knew she used a 24" box for the workout, which was way too much assistance for her.  I jogged down to the end of the gym, grabbed a 20" box, and peer pressured her into doing some attempts with the smaller box.  She claimed that she couldn't get high enough with that box, but her attempts were not persuasive.  Instead of throwing her body over the bar, she kept tapping her chest against it.  She was jumping plenty high, she was just not doing the right movement.  Try as I might, I couldn't get her to throw her body over the bar.  I'm sure she'll be using the smaller box once she gets the hang of the movement.

The cash-out that the four of us would be doing was an elongated tabata.  Instead of the typical eight rounds, we'd be doing ten rounds with 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest.  It really wasn't all that bad.  When the 10th round was complete, I looked down at my monitor to see I had gotten 59 calories in my 200 seconds of work on the assault bike.

It was a short week for me at the gym because I had another wedding on tap for the weekend.  I'd be back at it on Monday.

Monday preview: The 9/11 Memorial WOD.  Cline carries me for most of the workout.  I carry him at the very end.  I decide that tradition is more important than victory.