Friday afternoon workout with JJ. Tegan ditched me and Nick is at Regionals so I’m all alone. But I show up because I know this is going to be a challenging workout and I really want to work on my front squats. It’s a gorgeous afternoon and we warmup with a quick run. We are doing a bunch of running lately, so I hope I get better at some point. We work on front rack and squat mobility and move on to the skill.
I get put with Steph. She has been here for quite a while and always does well during WODs but for some reason, she does not care about weight lifting. She never knows what her 1 rep maxes are and she always underestimates how much she can lift. Fortunately, this means I can pretty much set the pace. Unfortunately, I miss out on the opportunity to be pushed a little bit by someone a bit stronger than I am. Of note, she likely is stronger than I am but she just doesn’t care or push herself. Anyway, the scheme is as follows:
3 @ 70%
3 @ 80%
2 @ 85%
2 @ 90%
1 @ 95%
4 @ 85%
I don’t have a firm 1rm established and Steph says maybe 100, maybe 130 so that’s totally unhelpful. We decide to go for 120 as our 100%. Our weights were
80lbs
95lbs
100lbs
110lbs
115lbs
110lbs
We decided 120lbs was a little light for us so we did the 90% weight for the last 4 reps instead of the 85%. Probably could have gone even higher. After that, we had a bit of time so I did 125lbs and then 130lbs once. I am documenting 130lbs as my 1rm but I certainly had more in me. Hope to get the chance to truly establish that max soon. And to establish my back squat max! My only official one is still at 130 back from the 2nd week I started CF!
Onto the WOD and like I said, I know this is going to kill. More push-ups because Tuesday’s workout wasn’t enough..
WOD
3 RFT
5 squat cleans (185/135) I do 80lbs
10 burpees
15 pull-ups
20 hand-release push-ups
25 box over jumps
Time: 22:13
This workout included a first for me. The first time ever that I did kipping pull-ups. I had been working on them earlier in the week and thought this would be a good workout to try them in. The first round I think I did 7 then 3, 3, 2 or something like that. Subsequent rounds went a lot more slowly but I know I can’t do that many strict pull-ups and banded pull-ups are so slow and I always feel like I’m inferior to the people doing kipping. Nick certainly would have a lot to say about that statement but it’s how I feel. Crossfit workouts are built around the idea that people kip. Otherwise, there is no way they would include workouts that have 75+ pull-ups. That being said, it’s ludicrous that out of the 7 girls that worked out at 4:30, I have only seen 3 do a strict pull-up (myself included, although technically I can’t see myself doing them). If you can’t do a strict, you can’t kip.
The squat cleans felt so great. 80lbs was too light (should have done at least 90) but I really wanted to work on doing a great squat clean and not a clean and front squat and I accomplished that goal. Burpees sucked as usual but I wasn’t any slower than the rest of the class. Already discussed pull-ups..The fucking push-ups. Here is another beef I have. I did all strict push-ups on Tuesday. I did all strict push-ups (chest all the way to the ground, tyvm) during this workout. Both days I noticed female athletes who compete for our gym either doing knee push-ups (is this real life!?!?) or doing half-assed 3″ above the actual ground push-ups. I’m sorry but this is insane. Do not tell me that you can OHS 120lbs, deadlift 200 something, do a bazillion kipping pull-ups, and beat me in every damn workout but you can’t do a strict push-up!? They are being lazy and it pisses me off. I was the second to last person to finish this workout, behind this really old dude (Dale, you’re awesome but you have 25 years on me). But I know my push-ups are getting better and better with each workout. If you can do a single strict push-ups, you should not be scaling them!!! Of course it takes more time! It’s hard work. But my goal (and the philosophy of Crossfit) is to push myself and get better with each workout. If I coast along doing bare minimum each WOD just so I can get a good time, I’ll never get better. One of the females who beat me by 5 minutes (admittedly doing 20lbs more on squat cleans) looked at me in shock when I said I did all push-ups strict. Head’s up, maybe that’s why you can’t do a single strict pull-up. Ya ya you don’t need tell me about how different muscles are used for each exercise. I know.. I’m just making the point that you gotta push yourself if you want to accomplish shit. It’s frustrating that my gym let’s people get away with this. And btw, it’s not just the females. I have seen many males do the push-up where they are 3″ above the ground and then they “finish” at the top while their elbows are at 45 degrees. Not even close. Stop cheating yourselves! And selfishly, stop making me look like a slow, lazy ass!!!
Ok, let’s move on, shall we? Box jumps are shockingly tough. I do all jumps though. I decided (after a lengthy discussion with Nick) that step-ups are kind of the same thing as knee push-ups. I know I can jump on that box. Yes, it’s harder and slower when I’m tried to jump but I’m not going to improve by stepping up. I’m going to improve by jumping up rep after rep. Hate when he is right… Anyway, these are slow going but I go, go, go. No breaks during box jumps. The last round everyone in the gym (except Dale, ofc) is cheering me on during my last 25 box jumps. And I’m doing fine but my god, I’m dizzy! Finally finish. Whew. Exhausted. But happy. Established a soft 1rm for my front squat, kipped some pull-ups during a WOD and one final thing I forgot to mention. Me and my 95lb snatch made it onto the board!!!! I’m in third place and quite certain there are other females who can snatch more than that just didn’t show up to Thursday’s workout but guess what..if you don’t show up, it doesn’t count. One of my original goals when I started at SISU was to be up on that board. Six months later, I can cross that goal off the list! Wooooo.