Fitness-12/24-snatch, deads, bench, hspu/rope/thruster

Christmas Eve

After taking Wednesday off as a rest day and with a few days planned off for Christmas, I went in to the gym this morning to get after it. Started with about an hour of strength work. It went as follows:

Snatch
-3 x 130
-3 x 150
-3 x 165

Deads
-3 x 285
-3 x 305
-15 x 335

Bench
-3 x 175
-3 x 205
-9 x 225

The snatch was sub-max and a great warm-up going into the deads. 15 reps at 335 on the deads felt like death, this was a painful effort. Honestly, after 5 reps I didn't think I'd make it very much further, was having one of those kind of days. But just decided to keep pulling. The reps prob didn't look great but this was a great mental effort if nothing else. I think I had 10 or 11 reps in me at 225 on the bench but I was in the gym by myself and didn't want to be foolish. The 9th went up slow and I decided to rack it. Press strength continues to improve which is promising.

I finished the day with a productive little circuit, un-timed. I did the following work with 30 second timed rests between each exercise and 1 minute timed rest between each round:

Round 1
-max hspu w/1 abmat
-12ft rope climb, no feet
-20 thrusters, 115#
-12ft rope climb, hands and feet

Round 2
-max hspu w/1-2 abmats
-12ft rope climb, no feet
-15 thrusters, 135#
-12ft rope climb, hands and feet

Round 3
-max hspu w/2 abmats
-12ft rope climb, no feet
-10 thrusters, 155#
-12ft rope climb, hands and feet

This little line-up proved more difficult than I'd thought it'd be. Body weight skills continue to improve which is motivating. Still lots of work to do.

Fitness-12/22-OPT WOD

Tuesday

Went after a short, intense one today. This little line-up was from OPT's (James Fitzgerald) website, one of CrossFit's elite. Not only is he an amazing specimen, he's legit when it comes to programming exercise and performance. So, every once and a while, we give his stuff a go. Today's workout consisted of two very short wods separated by a 5 minute rest. Looked as follows:

Perform 7 rounds of the following complex with 95# afap:

-1 x power snatch

-1 x snatch balance

-1 x ohd squat

-1 x hang squat snatch

time=1:15

5 minutes rest, then-

Perform as many reps as possible in 3 minutes of:

-3 x pullups, chest to bar

-3 x burpees

score=47

The snatch complex was right in my wheel house. I never even lost my hook grip. The only way I could've done this one faster is with smoother transitions between a few of the movements. As for the pulls and burpees, I think I did more than this but I lost count towards the end and when in doubt, most honorable to guess low. I never really stopped during this one either but the pulls got slow during that third minute. Overall, a nice short burst today. Fairly light, but good intensity. I'll get after one more session tomorrow before taking a couple days off for Christmas. Stay tuned.

Fitness-12/21-press, clean and jerk, front squats

Monday

I took Sunday off and got a good bit of leisurely rest. And the great news is that after taking the second half of Saturday easy as well, I woke up today with no pain or discomfort in my neck. I honestly went from not being able to turn my head to the side or hardly look at the ceiling to no pain in a day and a half. Amazing how capable the body is of healing itself. Went after some strength work in the gym today.

Press

-3 x 115

-3 x 130

-7 x 145

Clean and Jerk

-3 x 160

-3 x 185

-3 x 205

Fronts

-3 x 215

-7 x 235

Wasn't feeling strong today but still made the most of it. Warmed up for a bit and used a sub-max clean and jerk as a warm-up to the fronts. Getting stronger at the squat clean and jerk as a combined movement. I've jerked 275# before off of the rack but coming out of a front squat, I think the most I've ever jerked is 235 or 240. It's a transition that's way tougher than it sounds.

I'll continue to work on it.

Finished the day with some productive muscle-up and handstand work.