Rest Week

1/2 mile swim

Morning WOD

2 min AMRAP(as many reps as possible) of Muscle-Ups

2min AMRAP of Floor Press

2 min AMRAP of GHD Sit-Ups

2 min AMRAP of Pull-Ups

2 min AMRAP of Ring-Dips

2 min rest between each exercise

Evening WOD 

15 mins of Various Handstands

1000m Swim for time:

          I didn’t really have much upper body lifting left that I haven’t already hit this week so I decided to do the above workout.  Two minute rounds of 5 different exercises for max reps with two min rest in between rounds.  The first exercise was muscle-ups and I got 8 on my first set not too impressive.  I waited about 20 secs and hopped back up and got 3 more and then I got two singles and missed a single right before the time was up.  Total of 13 muscle-ups in two mins I was shooting for 15 which definitely is possible.  For the floor presses I chose 135lbs and I managed 32 reps I can’t complain.  The GHD sit-ups were a dismal performance only managing 30 in the time period.  Really seem to struggle with this movement.  On to the pull-ups I got a total of 42 reps.  After this I really hit a point of exhaustion and could feel my breakfast making it’s way up.  I tried to regain my composure for the final round of ring dips but I was struggled and finished with a total of 37 reps.  So I got 13, 32, 30, 42, and 37 reps respectively. 

                I decided to condense my skill session and conditioning session into one workout.  I went to the Sport & Health club in my neighborhood and worked on handstands, and handstand walking.  I then tried a new variation of walking along the wall laterally on my hands this was a new and exciting change up.  Try walking on your hands laterally it gets tiring very quickly.  Now onto the conditioning which was 1000m swim for time.  I knew it was going to be brutal since I’m a land dweller and haven’t spent much time in the water.  I became quickly fatigued and felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest.  I took breaths and breaks about every 50m it seemed. The gym was closing so I had to call it a quits at the 800m mark.  I swam a ½ mile and it took me just over 20 mins.  I think with more time spent in the water I can get that down to the 15 minute mark.  Certainly no Michael Phelps but I’ll take it for my first real swim.  I’m looking forward to a long weekend of recovery after the 8 training sessions that took place Monday thru Friday.

Ring Progressions

Morning WOD

Incline DB Press  5/5/5/5/5/20

Strict Toes to Bar  10/10/10

Back Ext

Afternoon WOD

Ring Dip to shoulder stand

Skin the cat to l-sit

Front lever progressions

Evening WOD

1 min on: 10 pull-ups + ME HRPU

1 min rest – continue until 100 HRPU are completed

I’m kind of running out of strength exercises to do with my knee injury.  I decided to hit an old Globo-Gym exercise incline dumbbell press.  I thought it would be weird since I haven’t pressed dumbells on a bench in six months.  Also I haven’t done incline bench anything probably even longer.  I did my sets of 5 with 80lb dumbells.  Didn’t really seem to lose strength on this exercise probably could have gone up to 85s but I didn’t want to overload the shoulder joint.  Good to know that overall strength carries over to all kinds of exercises. 

For the afternoon ring workout I worked on getting up and over the rings and transitioning from a dip to a handstand.  This is very awkward and unstable, I got my legs extended a couple times but never was able to grab the straps and fully extend.  It became increasingly more comfortable during the five sets so just something that will take time.  The skin the cats were good, I'm really starting to get my torso parallel to the ground.  I took a still shot which is below I am parallel but I would like to maintain a more neutral spinal position.  I would come out of the skin the cat and try and hold an l-sit, this part needs some more work.  The front lever progression I would stick one leg out at a time.  These were pretty ugly but it's a movement I have never tried before.  Pratice. Practice. Practice. 

         For the evening wod I came up with 10 pull-ups on the start of every other minute + max effort hand release push-ups.  Then took a minute rest, stop the clock when you reach a 100 total hand release push-ups.  I took me 10:31 which 5 minutes were rest so 5:31 total work time.  Not bad certainly not great.  Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow!  I’m going try an EPSOM salt bath tomorrow since they seem to have so many benefits mainly in the recovery department.

New Training Day1

Morning session

Bench Press 5/3/1+

Weighted Chins

Weighted Dips

Weighted Sit-Ups

Afternoon session

Handstand Walking 5 x max effort

Freestand HSPU 3x ME

L-Sits

Light-Pole Climbs

Evening WOD

30 Muscle-Ups for time

                The morning session at Crossfit Grand Strand went as planned.  For my all out set on the bench press at 215lbs, I got five reps.  I’m pretty happy with that.  Then the rest of the strength session was routine.  For the afternoon session I went to these grass badminton courts in my neighborhood and walked on my hands for a while at least attempted too.  For some reason I seem only able to walk backwards on my hands.  Then I did some L-Sits on a bench, and then a played around with a few different creative things.  I didn’t do any work on the rings because of the 30 muscle-ups for time this evening. 

I got started with the evening WOD and got 10 on my first set, I was hoping for at least 12.  I took three breaths and jumped on the rings and got up and then lost the rings behind me.  It was a scary moment as both my shoulders got pulled behind me.  I jumped down and waited a few seconds to see if I had done any damage.  I didn’t I think so I hopped back up and knocked out 4 more.  From then on it was a couple sets of 3s 2s and a lot of singles.  I was frustrated from the start and the straps kept getting in the way of my grip.  I finished in 8:11.  Really not happy about the time but I think 30 muscle-ups for time might be a little ambitious for my skill on the muscle-up at this point.  It was a minute faster than the first and only time I did this workout.  I got my first ring muscle-up less than a month ago so I guess I shouldn’t complain.  It was a long day of training looking forward to some rest and recovery tomorrow.  Below is a video I took with my gopro of some muscle-ups

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New Training Schedule

I’m starting a new training protocol with a 1 day on and 1 day off approach.  I think this will be the best way to maximize my gains while minimizing the risk for overtraining and excessive fatigue.  Since my knees are still healing I’m only able to train upper body which makes my training a little redundant.  I will train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the rest of the days will be active recovery.  On my training days I will be training three times a day.  It sounds excessive but it isn’t.  In the morning I will do my lifting session which lasts around an hour.  In the afternoon I will be doing around 25-40 mins worth of bodyweight gymnastics skill training.  The evening will be my final workout which will consist of a metcon(metabolic conditioning) or some other sort of conditioning work.  This will last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes depending on the workout.  So I will be probably training a total of 2 to 3 hours on my training days.  That’s not that much and the workload is about the same.  Also instead of cramming it all in to one session I’m able to split it up and get more benefit out of each area. 

Variation of Cindy

METCON- 20 min AMRAP

5 HSPU

10 Pull-Ups

15 Sit-Ups

I decided to just work on conditioning today so I decided to do a longer Metcon.  I thought 20 minutes would be good. So I came up with the following, as many rounds of 5 handstand push-ups, 10 pull-ups, and 15 sit-ups in the 20 minute period.  I did this at the regular gym in my neighborhood.  I completed 11 rounds plus 5 hspu, and 10 pull-ups.  So in all I did 60 HSPU, 120 pull-ups, and 165 sit-ups.  I really felt strong on the handstand push-ups, I did all of them strict.  I only broke up one set due to me losing balance not a lack of strength.  On the pull-ups I didn’t break up any of my sets of 10.  The butterfly motion seems to get more and more efficient.  I think I should up the number of pull-ups to 15 per set next time.  The sit-ups are where I struggled the most.  I just seem to lack core strength; I think most of this is probably from neglect of core training.  I will definitely make an effort to get my core stronger.  All in all I felt good with this metcon since I never really took any rest during the workout other than the walk from the HSPU to the pull-up bars.  I think I will start doing two longer metcons a week while my knee is recovering to keep my endurance.

Muscle-Up Ladder

Morning WOD

Strength 5/3/1 Bench Press 3,3,3+

EMOM Muscle-Up Ascending Ladder

METCON- 1 min rds of:

Floor Press @135lbs

Pull-Ups

Sit-Ups

Rest 1 min & repeat 3 times

I am on the start of my third week of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 strength program.  I’m still only able to do bench press due to my nagging knee injury.  I’m thinking the start of next month I’ll be able to start doing the squat, deadlift, and strict press.  I am pretty weak on the bench press right now so hopefully this program will help with that.  On my top all-out set I got 6 reps @202.5 lbs. 

Then I was off to do an EMOM ladder of Muscle-Ups, min 1 do 1 muscle-up, min 2 do 2 muscle-ups and on and on until you fail to get the designated reps within the minute.  I felt a little shaky today on the muscle-ups.  I got through the first 6 rounds unbroken and was very fatigued going into the 7^th round.  I got 4 then I got two singles and failed on my final rep, one shy of advancing to the eighth minute… bummer!  All in all, I got 27 muscle-ups in 7 minutes with about half the time being rest.  Not too bad considering I got my first ring muscle-up less than a month ago. 

Now on to the Metcon which was a minute AMRAP of Floor Presses @135lbs, Pull-Ups, and Sit-Ups then 1 minute rest and repeat it three times.  So basically it’s 12 minutes of work and 3 minutes of rest.  I got a total of 234 reps, no idea what my reps were round by round.  This number was not too bad but I think I could get closer to the 300 range.  I haven’t done a WOD like this in a while but I think it’s a really good way to test your work capacity with very limited rest.  There wasn’t a ton of strategy in this workout just get after it.  The floor press I started setting reps to hit on the later rounds.  The pull-ups I just kept going until I could no longer get my chin over the bar.  Sit-Ups were pretty straightforward just up and down.  I think this exposed a weakness in my training and is a great way to test your muscular endurance.