A lot of our strength work revolves around the tried & true method of a certain number of reps for a certain number of rounds. Tuesday night, however, we changed things up a bit. After lengthy warm-up involving everyone’s favorite exercise (burpees), class broke up into groups of 2-4 people and hit 3 rounds of 5 DLs a piece. This proved to be the lead in to the main strength event:
3 rounds of AMRAP DLs (No Bouncing!)
There were some great lifts through-out class – kudos to Sara, Sebastian, Mary Catherine, and Dian (to name just a few) for mainting really good form through-out all 3 sets!
AND, just in case anyone wasn’t really tired, class headed down to the Court for a 10min AMRAP of 5 push-ups, 10 squats, and 1 suicide (half ct, full ct, & half ct = 1).
Nice work by another big class. Be sure to post DL loads and Met-Con rounds to comments, as well as any other thoughts. ALSO – we’re rolling up on 30 days for the Nutritional Challenge – who’s still on, and who’s not? If not, why not? And, of course, who’s up for another 30days?
.
0 Comments
Ethan and I used approx. 275# for deadlift. My sets were 12-10-10. I could feel my middle losing tightness at the end of each set and decided to stop rather than pushing through a potentially dangerous rep.
The conditioning workout was awful, especially with a wrecked lower back. The only manageable movement was push-ups. My legs felt on fire during the squats and my body felt like it was moving in slow motion during the shuttle run. During the middle of the workout, Chris said to me, “You should be killing this.” But, honestly, I couldn’t move any faster. I think my girlfriend did more rounds than me . . . and she only works out once a week!
I’ve spend a lot of time worrying about getting bigger and stronger so that I can handle bigger weights. And I’ve improved in that area. Unfortunately, I’ve taken a step back in bodyweight/endurance movements. I guess you can’t be good at everything. I like to think it’s possible . . .
I worked with Julia and Myra on the deadlifts. Julia and I worked at 185. I got 15/15/11. I learned the lesson that I shouldn’t suggest weights for myself because Tom will agree even if he had a different number in mind ( the other weight was a bit higher and I definitely could have gotten at least 6 or 7 per round with that higher weight.
I agree with Sebastian the met-con was brutal. My lower back was sooooo incredibly tight in my attempt at running. I finished 7 rounds plus the push-ups and squats. That was one log 10 minutes for me.
In re: nutrition challenge – I’m keeping myself busy looking up pie recipes for the cookie exchange I’m going to (other goodies were welcomed so I’m going to try to make mini pies!), so I’ll be off the wagon again. Like I said before I’m not too concerned about it because I’m getting a kick out of cooking, but it would have been much easier to stick with this sometime other than the Holiday season. I plan on seriously buckling down & giving it another shot by Jan. 15th. By then all the holiday stuff should be done with.
I worked at 115 on the deadlifts, still figuring out proper form as I went along. Thanks, Sara, for all your help!
The metcon – well, it helped that I didn’t know how long it was supposed to last. That way, I wasn’t counting down mentally. The pushups were OK, but the squats… Ugh.
As for the nutrition challenge, well, honestly, I’m ready to quit. I weigh myself first thing each morning and my weight has been creeping up… five full pounds since this challenge began and no, it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving abundance. I’m just not doing well with the guidelines. I controlled my intake much better when grains and processed foods were part of my diet, and I usually didn’t have an emphasis on protein. Now I’m peeing every 10 minutes, probably my body trying to get rid of excess protein, and eating 50 walnuts at a time instead of going for the cereal I really, really want. Every morning, I think I’ll be able to handle it that day and every afternoon I tell myself I’m quitting. Starting tomorrow. How’s that for honesty?
The deadlifts felt – in a word – awkward. It’s a lift I’m still not very comfortable with, and all the more so at high reps. I’m also still testing out the mixed grip. All around, very much a work in progress. Thanks to Sara and Tom for their help.
I went into the metcon ready to work. Squats, pushups, and sprints were, unfortunately, all things I had done in the preceding 24 hours (as my body reminded me, not even a minute into the workout). Not a great situation.
But my thinking was, what’s written on the whiteboard is what’s written on the whiteboard – fretting, griping, and bargaining won’t change anything. Scaling is a separate issue; what I mean is that there will always be factors beyond your control. Worrying about those things won’t knock off any reps or move any weight. The one thing that you do control – the one area in which you always, always have the final say – is your mindset. That isn’t always or even usually my strong point, but it’s what I fell back on during a tough 10 minutes last night.
This is all actually a very long-winded way of saying: I lost count after approximately 2 rounds – I’m not too good with numbers on my best day, and oxygen deprivation doesn’t help – but in the end, I was just happy with how I went after the workout.
Deadlifts: How I love them (and squats and Olympic lifts)! [I probably sound like a broken record…sorry. :-)] I worked with Dan; we used 319# on the work sets (and worked up to 378# on the warm-up sets). Because I will be competing in a powerlifting competition this Saturday (11 December), Coach restricted my reps to eight repetitions per round (and I didn’t have a problem with that even though I could have done a few more reps).
Met-con: It was okay as I did not experience the post-deadlift, low-back issues that others have mentioned for this blog post. (I felt the deadlifts in my upper back and in the glute/hamstring tie-in which lets me know that I did them right.) I completed eight rounds, but I didn’t push myself on the sprints that hard (except for the last round). The push-ups didn’t bother my shoulders as much as I thought they would have, and the bodyweight squats were fine.
Post-class: Did a few pull-ups, did some more stretching, did a set of 20 “crunches” on the GHD (10 left, 10 right), and worked on my handstand and headstand.
Nutritional challenge: Still on track for the most part, and ready to do another thirty days. Who’s with me? 🙂
“Not too bad for an old man” -CFDC’s own ODB.
Nutrition Challenge: I’m struggling with it as I really don’t have basic meal plans to start with. Win or not, I’d like to go through baseline tests and benchmark workouts after 60 days anyway.