In continuing to make an effort to increase my strength, I went after some more max effort work today. My focus was the overhead squat and front squat. I started with the overhead at 5 x 5 and finished with fronts at 3 x 5. My sets looked as follows:
Overheads
-5 x 135#
-5 x 155#
-5 x 175#
-5 x 185#
-2 x 205#
Fronts
-5 x 185#
-5 x 205#
-5 x 235#
The jump to 205# on the last set of overheads was clearly too big but I felt so strong at 185, I couldn't help myself. I haven't done more than 115# overhead squat in months so I was ecstatic with this effort. I owe it all to increased core strength. I felt more stable at 185 than I remember feeling at 155 before. At 205, my core felt strong but it was actually my shoulders that failed. And just coming out of the bottom on the 3rd rep too, so close. For the fist time ever, I think I can overhead squat my body weight. Exciting. This was a big improvement on the fronts too. Last Monday, I only got 2 reps @ 235 (needed a light spot on the 3rd) and today I hit 5 unassisted and probably should have finished higher. In a few weeks, I'll look to go for a 5 x 1 on both overheads and fronts and see where I get.
After the squats, we went after the CrossFit benchmark "Jackie" for time:
-row 1k
-50 x thrusters, 45#
-30 pullups
time=7:22
The last, and only, time I went after this one, I finished in about 10 minutes. So today's effort was a solid improvement. But, I was off the rower and through the thrusters unbroken right around 5 minutes with a chance to finish with an elite time...and I folded. The pull-ups ended up taking me almost 2.5 minutes. I had to complete the last 15 one at a time. I was frustrated because when I got to the pulls, I still had gas, I was in the game. I made it through 8 unbroken and then tanked. You figure you should be able to do 30 pull-ups in 1-2 minutes no matter how gassed you are. Just have to keep working.
I finished the day with the following un-timed:
3 x 10 ring-dips
3 x 10 ghd back extensions
1 rope climb, no feet
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