Strength Becomes Cardio

Workout dates: 10/27/15 and 10/28/15

Tuesday marked the unofficial midpoint of my second back squat program.  I think technically the midpoint is after my next 6x2 session, but psychologically, this is the peak of the mountain in the program.  As you go up the mountain, your volume increases from 6x2 to 6x6 while the weight stays the same.  Once you hit 6x6, you make your way down in volume from 6x6 to 1x1 as the weight gradually increases.  This session was also a big deal because Jim had told me last time around that the 6x6 and 5x5 days were the toughest.  I had messed up the last set in my 6x5 session, so I needed to improve to get through 6x6 unscathed.

I had two things in my mind as I mentally prepared for 6x6 day: don't rock on your feet and take your time.  The rocking on my feet problem has been persistent.  At least during the first program I eventually got my feet to comply and stay rooted in the floor.  I haven't had the same luck since I bumped up the weight from 235 to 265 pounds.  With more weight on the barbell, I think there has been a greater urgency to get the weight back up from the bottom of the squat, by any means necessary.  That generally means getting up on my toes and not using my still-developing hamstrings.  It's a tactic that will only work for so long.  When I get down to the other side of the mountain, I will need all of my leg muscles to handle the heavy weight I'm expected to lift.

Taking my time seems a little more common sense in that this wasn't some metcon where the clock was running and I needed to hurry.  But there is a little more to it than that.  You have to have the belief that you can stand with the weight on your back, stay calm, and make any adjustments you need to make.  You have to be able to quell that sense of urgency I was just speaking about.  Once you know that you can hang out for a few extra seconds with that barbell on your back, you can get through the sets properly.

I had mixed results with these two objectives.  I still had issues with rocking on my feet.  One thought I had was that maybe I'm too focused in staying in my heels.  I'm supposed to be pushing with my entire foot, but if my weight is all in my heels when I go to squat, perhaps my body reacts by rolling forward on the way up.  I got to watch Justin H while he did back squats next to me.  Justin is a guy who used to lift all the time at our gym, but hasn't been around as much recently.  He tends to have very good form with his lifts.  I watched his feet as he did his squats and you would have thought those things were cemented into the floor.  Didn't even twitch a little.  I would love to get to that point, but I'm not there yet.  The one positive I can say is that I fought against any rocking during my lifts, trying to wake those hamstrings up out of their slumber.  For the most part, I did a good job of this, especially in the later sets.

When it came to being patient, I did an excellent job.  Right from set one, I knew this was going to be the toughest squat session I had ever done.  I had some rocking in the early reps, then when I got done with 4 reps, I needed to reset my breathing.  I took this opportunity to reset my feet as well.  I had 265 pounds on my back, had done 4 reps, and now I was standing there holding it as I got ready to go again.  I didn't freak out with thoughts that I was ruining my chances of getting the final two reps.  When I felt ready, I did rep 5, caught my breath again, then did rep 6.  When I placed the bar back on the rack, I needed a breather.  I always joke about the lifters sitting in chairs during Open Strength, but I would have paid someone to get me a chair to sit in after each set.  Instead, I found a wooden shelf to sit on.

The sets after that were pretty similar.  I tended to have rocking issues mainly on my second rep.  I would re-gather myself after 4 reps.  And when that sixth rep was complete, I was breathing heavily.  At the end of four sets, I was sweating like it was August again.  That was definitely the point where I became most worried about whether I could complete all six sets.  But once again, I took my time, not stepping back up to the barbell until I felt ready again.  There was little to no rocking during set five, although I did need to pause after 4 reps as became the habit during this session.  After one more break of several minutes, I told myself to just do what I had done during the first 5 sets.  I didn't need to be extraordinarily amped up or anything to get through it.  Simply repeat the process.  Like in the fifth set, there was barely any rocking.  There was a pause after four reps.  There was a lot of sweat and heavy breathing.  And there was a smile on my face after I stood up with the sixth rep and placed the barbell back on the rack.  I was wiped out, but I had made it through the six sets.

What does one do when they're feeling exhausted from working out?  They go work out some more, of course.  Luckily, I knew that the WOD was not metcon focused, so I wasn't too worried about how it would go.  And I lowered my expectations as well, knowing I had expended a lot of energy getting through the back squats.  The Tuesday WOD was:

2RM Push Press (5 sets)

Cash out:
10-8-6-4-2 GHD Sit-ups
50-40-30-20-10 Double Unders
*Alternating between the movements

With the cash out taking people in the range of 3-7 minutes, I figured I had enough energy to make it through.

We had the option of working as partners for the push press, so I naturally chose Matt B.  Did I know he was going to kick my ass in the push press, even if I showed up fresh?  Yes I did.  He was nice enough to let me think I could hang with him for at least a little bit though.  We started out with some warm up at 95 pounds before doing our first set at 135.  No problems there.  Then we went to 155.  Still no problems.  At 175, I was working much harder than he was to get two reps.  I told him I was only moving up to 185 for the fourth set, but that I'd be happy to put on more for him.  He immediately said "I'll try 205".  Well damn, that's quite the jump!  Then he backed it up by knocking out two reps at 205 like he was bored.  Meanwhile, I put 185 on the barbell, struggled through the first rep, let the barbell crash down on my chest, then struggled through a second rep, before ungracefully crashing the barbell down on the rack.  I was not going to be able to do much more than that.

Matt made another big jump to 225 (show off!).  I would have bet money that he was going to get it, but he made three attempts at this weight and couldn't get it overhead.  Guessing he would have gotten 215, but he stuck with 205 for his score.  Then I attempted 195.  I went to do the first rep and couldn't get it overhead, but I caught the barbell on my front rack instead of letting it drop.  Matt told me that I wasn't taking a big enough dip, so I dipped lower and tried again.  Got the barbell over my head!  I controlled the barbell back down on to my front rack and prepared for the second rep.  Sadly, this rep would resemble the first one despite a lower dip.  Today was 2RM day, not 1RM day, so I got no credit for 195.  I thought since I tried three reps during that set that maybe I'd get 195 if I took another swing at it.  But when I made a second attempt, I couldn't get the first rep again.  I wasn't all that disappointed.  I thought 200 would be ambitious given what I had just done in the annex, so even 1 rep at 195 felt like a win for me.

Cash out time!  I had to trim the new jump rope that I got weeks ago because I've done nothing but let it sit in my bag since the day it arrived in my mailbox.  Pull-up practice has definitely taken up any time I might have previously devoted to double under practice.  Once again, lowered expectations on this cash out.  The GHDs didn't seem like they would be too much of a problem as the rep scheme there was on the low side.  However, I wasn't sure the double unders would go so well due to lack of practice and waning energy at that point in the night.  Things played out as expected.  During the first round of 50 double unders, I got a couple of sets in the teens, but needed to pause after each of them to shake out my legs.  After a couple of very short sets where I messed up, I did manage to rattle off the last 16 in a row to get back to my GHD.

In the round of 40, my reps were much more broken up, including some sets where I got tired and stopped before the rope hit me.  The set that ended the round was probably my best set (I get very determined to reach the finish of double under rounds).  After another visit to the GHD, I walked back to my rope, going 9-9-12 to complete the round of 30.  Michal and "Megs" were warming up for the 7:30 class and started getting on my case.  I was very tired when I got back to my rope for the fourth time.  It had gotten tangled up when I dropped it at the end of the last round and my brain was not processing how to untwirl it.  Michal was yelling at me to get going, while "Megs" was telling me that I should just be like "20...done."

With the rope straightened out, I got going, this time with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder.  I wasn't mad at them, but I wanted to prove I wasn't falling apart at the end.  I got a nice set going and became determined to hold on for the entire twenty reps.  17...18...19.  The rope passed underneath my feet two more times as I did one last jump.  I threw the rope to the ground, turned to "Megs" and said "20...done".  The "done" part was absolutely correct as I got over to the GHD and did two sloppy sit-ups.  I came back to my rope and honestly don't remember if I got all 10 or if I messed up along the way.  Oh well.  I had my mini-moment of glory during the round of 20.  Final time: 6:42.

Wednesday preview:  There is no Wednesday preview!  Because driving in the rain is so incredibly hard (sarcasm), I was stuck in traffic most of the afternoon on Wednesday, not making it to the gym in time to do a workout.  Instead, I went to the annex and worked on squat cleans.  At lower weights, my form looked okay.  Once I got to higher weights, I struggled whipping my elbows through to catch the clean.  I failed at 205 a bazillion times before finally succeeding in very ugly fashion.

After that, I helped out Rachel as she became the 38th person at our gym to complete Wolverine.  I counted her reps and did the runs alongside her (2.25 miles is a decent amount of running just on its  own).  She finished in 76:54.  It looked grueling.  I am going to have an incredibly hard time keeping the workout under 90 minutes on Saturday.  Assuming I get through it.  But that's the next thing on the agenda.  So check in on Sunday to find out if I made it through 60 clean and jerks, 120 pull-ups, 600 sit-ups, and 2.25 miles of running while wearing a costume.  (The costume will definitely be worth it!)