Our gym started its performance challenge about two months ago.  Today was our final exam. I felt like I did pretty well last time.  Let’s see if I’ve gotten any better.

1RM Deadlift

I’m still lifting too much with my back and not my legs.  I was surprised that my back wasn’t sore the next day though.

Deadlift: 288#

For time:

Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)
30 KB Swings (35# / 25# )
30 Burpees
30 Double Unders
30 Push Presses (45# / 35#)
Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)

I’ve been working on my double-unders, but the burpees had taken so much out of me that I wasn’t able to string them together at all.

Time: 15:03

Since last time, I added 10 k to my deadlift, and took 3:22 off of my WOD time.  I’m pretty happy with that.

Today’s workout was thrusters and something new, burpee pull-ups.

5-5-5-5-5 Thrusters (70% of Max)

I’ve never tried to do heavy thrusters, so my choice of weight was a bit arbitrary.  I did the sets with 77#.

For Time:

60 Burpee Pull-ups (burpee into a jumping pull-up)

I was able to do all pull-ups from the floor.

Time: 10:17

The gym followed their regular template today with a combination strength workout followed by a MetCon WOD.

Today’s strength workout was 5×5 shoulder presses. We did 15 rep sets last week, so this would give me a chance to boost my numbers up a little more. I’ve never tried for my 1RM, so I’m using this strength workouts to help me get a feeling for what that number probably is. I did warm-up sets at 35# and 45#, then started with my max 15RM of 67#. Since that was pretty easy, I added on 10# and did that for two sets. Now that I was half way though, I tried pushing up a little more to try to find my failure point. I did a 82# set with a little struggle on the last rep, and pushed to 89# for the last set, only getting 4 reps before failure.

On to the WOD.

3 Rounds of:

10 Burpees
20 KB Swings (45#/35#)

I did a few 45# KB swings before the WOD, to see if I thought I could handle that weight.  I figured I could get through one round, then switch to 35# for the remainder.  By the 10th rep into the WOD, I wasn’t able to keep my elbows straight, so I switched to 35# at that point.  In the middle of the second set of burpees, I suddenly felt all my energy drain.  I was surprised by the suddenness of it.  The rest of the workout was a trial.  I was having a hard time with the burpee jump.  I remember feeling like I had a pained expression while doing the last 20 KB swings with no break (Thanks Landon and Dave).  I didn’t beat many people, but I felt like I gave it my all.  That’s all I try for.

Time: 4:28

Today was the first day of the gym’s Performance Challenge.  We had two different benchmarks, 1RM deadlifts, and a metabolic conditioning workout:

Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)
30 KB Swings (35# / 25# )
30 Burpees
30 Double Unders
30 Push Presses (45# / 35#)
Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)

I’ve never worked on my max deadlift before, so this was a real treat.  I worked my way up from a couple of warm-up sets,  177# to 265#.  I tried 288# and got it almost up, but the bar started rolling out of my hands and I wasn’t able to fully stand up before losing control of it.  I tried a second time with a mixed grip, but couldn’t stand up.  I probably could have played around with weights between 265 and 288, but decided that what I got was good enough.

The MetCon WOD was not fun.  I took it easy on the first run so that my breathing and heart rate weren’t completely blown away before I started the hard stuff.  While doing the KB swings, I learned a lot about how to do it correctly.  I finally got the “explosive hips” that everyone kept yelling at me for not doing in the past.  I got through everything else by breaking them into sets of 2-5.  The final run was a jog.  Yuck.  Final time: 18:25 Rx

4 Rounds of:

4 Deadlifts at 85% of 1 Rep Max (If you don’t know your max, we’ll find a weight that works)
Sprint to Truck (300M)
7 Burpees

When I looked at today’s workout, I knew that I’d be able to push through it pretty quickly.  On the 10th, we did a 5x3rep deadlifting skills workout.  I did two reps at 221#, but stepped it down because Kyle didn’t like my form.  I don’t know my 1RM.  So, I could have probably done 187# on this workout, but Ben didn’t like my form when lowering the bar at 133# so I went with 155#.   I tried to pace myself on the sprints.  In the past, I’ve gone out too quickly from the gate, and then my last rounds are really slow.  I felt like the burpees were really efficient.  I was able to do a hop and drop myself on the floor without incurring the energy wasting penalty of lowering myself to the floor.  I was really happy with my performance today.

Time: 7:05 @ 155#

A lot of reps of some standard exercises today.

WOD for Time:

1 Minute Handstand Hold
40 Pullups
40 Burpees
40 Situps
40 Air Squats

We did some front squats as part of the warm up (3x15reps). My PR 3rep FS was 75# a year and a half ago, but I also didn’t know what I was doing. I went with 67# today and got a good workout. My wrists need some stretching work so I’ll be adding the Reverse Namaste stretch to my warm up. I found another good tip online to think about pushing your elbows into the wall in front of you when doing front squats. This will create a bigger shelf for the bar and will give an extra half-inch or so for your hands.

On to the WOD. I think I can do a hand-stand, but holding it for 1 minute is definitely out. The substitution was a plank hold and even that was making my arms shake by the end of the minute. I was able to do 7 dead-hang pull ups, and the rest were jumping pull ups. The burpees were slow, but as Rx. Situps on an ab-mat.

Final time- 12:48

Today’s workout:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
Burpees
Knees to Elbows

The warmup today included 50 sumo deadlift high pulls.  My back isn’t as strong as it needs to be, so i didn’t have a good curve to my spine.  I also tend to dip/drive on deadlifts, which is very wrong.  I need to focus on getting some tension on the bar and explosively push with my legs.  Don’t think about pulling the bar up; think about pushing the floor away.

I went into the workout saying to myself that there would be no cheating.  No knee-burpees, no knee-raises.  In actuality, I was pretty close.  I had to push off the ground a little bit in order to get the knees to elbows, but my burpees were good.  Final time- 14:52

Today’s Workout is a new one.  I’m kinda surprised that they’re doing this on a non-free day.

“Pace Yourself”

50 pull ups
Run to Stop Sign on Market (800M)
50 push ups
Run to Guard Rail (400M)
50 burpees
Run to Truck (~250M)

I scaled it down to 30 reps instead of 50.  I got six or seven good pull-ups in, but then switched to jumping pull-ups.  My 800m sprint was 3:44 (pretty good for me).  I got almost all of my push-ups, only having to do 4 knee push-ups.  My next 400m took me 2:01.  I was drained from the push-ups, so I did my burpees on my knees.  Final sprint was  51 seconds.

Total time: 15:52.