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Pat's Training Log


patrickmeniru

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02/04/2016

Another day, another WOD - this one was a 20 minute AMRAP with a partner, 3 calorie row, 3 pushups (taking hands off ground at bottom of each rep) and 3 deadlifts with 102.5kg, then 6 of each, then 9, etc. my partner was quite a lot slower than me so I got a lot of rest, which meant I wasn't really fatigued at the end of the 20 minutes so did some extra work.  We managed to make it up to the end of the 18 rep round, next time deadlift is involved in a workout that isn't going to be cardio limited I might add extra weight because it wasn't really challenging enough compared to how hard everyone else was working.

After the WOD did three rounds of:
10 muscle ups (had to break these into two sets each time)
10 single arm kettlebell swings (32kg) each arm
10 GHR sit ups w/9kg ball
10 GHR sit ups

Then 3 rounds of:
3 rings chin up with 32kg
7 HeSPU

 

 

 

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03/04/2016

I've been thinking about how I load my squat, and trying to shift my hips back to start the movement whilst trying to open my knees to create room to descend into, then bringing my knees forward over my toes later in the movement. I think that this helps me to get my hamstrings a little move involved but too early to know if it's an improvement overall or not.

Front squats:
2 x 10 air squats
1 x 5 w/50kg
1 x 5 w/60kg
1 x 5 w/70kg
1 x 3 w/80kg
1 x 3 w/90kg
2 x 3 w/100kg
1 x 5 w/70kg

Explosive kettlebell squats (holding two bells at shoulder level):
1 x 5 w/8kg
1 x 5 w/16kg
2 x 3 w/24kg

Grippers, did a few TNS closes, had two close misses with right hand at #3 TNS, I didn't have any chalk and I think that with chalk I would have had a very good chance to repeat the close from a few weeks ago.  Will try again to get this on video fairly soon.

Did a few hours of mobility work over the weekend.

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Did the 'Helen' workout today, which was 3 rounds of a 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings (to overhead position) with 24kg, and 12 pull-ups. My time was 9.23, which is apparently quite good for a first try but I think that's from the perspective of a non-athlete - I think that there's a lot of room for improvement as the pull-ups and kettlebell swings weren't challenging, and I didn't really feel  too tired afterwards, just that my grip was fatigued, partly from the gripper work yesterday I suspect.  I think that once I improve my conditioning and get back to doing a few sprints in the park over summer and improve my running generally I would like to get a time under 8.00, which I think is perfectly achievable (I think I can easily get the run done on average 10-15 seconds faster on each rep with some more training and although I didn't waste much time in transition, I suspect another 10-15 second each round could be found here).

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I have not checked in for a while and I'm noticing that you have #3 TNS close scratched off your list!  That's beastly.  Great work.  Any interest in certifying?

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Thanks Matt, it's weird because it came out of the blue as I haven't done much gripper work in the past 12 months. I debated whether or not to cross it off as I didn't get any evidence of the close, but it was pretty clear cut at the time - will try and get a video of a TNS soon, although starting crossfit makes it hard to fit grippers in because my forearms are smoked from the volume.

I'd like to cert at some point, but I think I'll wait until I can consistently TNS my #3 because it could be an easy one (I know that my #2 is noticeably lighter than others I've tried) and I don't want any nasty surprises on the day!

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05/04/2016

Another WOD, this time I managed to incur 100 penalty burpees pre-workout because I inadvertently booked into back to back classes rather than just one (the burpees are the owners way of discouraging people from booking slots and not turning up, which is fair). Broke them up into sets of 10 with around a ~45 second break between sets, so took a little under 15 mins.

Workout was:

50 wall-balls (9kg)
50 double unders (NB - I've never actually done these, or at least not in the last 15 years, do scaled to just single skips)
40 box jumps
40 toes to bar
30 chest to bar pull ups
30 burpees (really suffered here)
20 cleans w/60kg (did muscle cleans to my enduring shame, was way too tired to concentrate on anything technical)
20 jerks (only managed 15 before I hit the 20 minute time cap)
(rest of workout was 10 snatches w/60kg and 10 muscle ups but I didn't get to these).

Did some mobility work afterwards, definitely feel like I'm making steady progress with this managed a rough and ready attempt at the supta-vajrasana yoga pose (thunderbolt pose) when previously (when I started this log) I have had real difficulty just sitting on my heels.

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06/04/2016

Squats today, first back squats for a while - was happy with how strong I felt, but tweaked my back again, I think that there is a technical issue I need to address because I can't just put this down to a hangover from hurting it slightly deadlifting any more! Having reviewed the video I think that in an effort to keep my chest as vertical as possible I'm actually extending at the spine at the junction of thoracic and lumbar rather than staying neutral, which is exactly where I'm getting the pain/soreness.  I imagine that to counter this I need to do a better job of bracing the anterior core rather than just focussing on keeping my back tight - I think previously I didn't have the spinal mobility to actually put myself into an over-extended position so didn't have to worry about it. Will try and put the video up to illustrate what I mean, I think that the 4th rep clearly shows the over extension.

Squats:
2 x 5
5 x 3 - starting feet together, moving wider with each set to a sumo width whether I can't quite hit depth without compromising knee/back position
2 x 5 w/20kg
3 x 5 w/60kg
1 x 3 w/90kg
1 x 3 w/110kg
1 x 2 w/130kg
1 x 5 w/150kg - felt really good, albeit  my technique wasn't quite in the groove, could probably have managed another 2-3 reps but obviously the back thing is annoying.
 

Finished with a bit of skipping, working on getting the hang of double unders, managed to integrate a few in and amongst some singles, which is progress as I couldn't manage to get a single one last time i tried (admittedly only for a minute or so just prior to a WOD). NB also that the crossfit gym is a 10 minute cycle from my flat so I do approx 20 minutes cycling for each session I do there.

Edited by patrickmeniru
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08/04/2016

Learned hang snatch today, just with the bar and a few reps with 30kg need to work on technique of course and as well as improving overhead position and squat (hips mainly) need to improve internal shoulder rotation. Following the overhead work and squat, my left hip is killing me, which I think gives me a clue as to what I need to work on!

WOD was 5 rounds of 15 burpees, 20 double unders (managed to get the hang of these, but not consecutively, would do DU, SU, DU, SU etc. and 6 dumbell snatches w/32kg. Took me 15 minutes exactly, could have been quite a bit faster once I get the hang of the DUs, but happy with being able to get the hang of them to some degree, as last time I tried I couldn't get one rep!

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10/04/2016

Feeling a bit out of sorts (hip especially pretty sore through 'till Sunday) all weekend so no gym session, but did a little mobility work on Sunday night whilst watching the Masters unfold.  Also decided to do some more gripper work and tried to film a #3 TNS but the main light in my room is broken and you couldn't really see either the stamp clearly or the close, and I don't think the handles actually touched anyway, will try again.

Warmed up with my golds gym gripper, #1 and #2.

2 x 1 #2.5 TNS left and right
1 x 0 #3 TNS right
1 x 3 #3 MMS left (video of this, will upload at some point)
3 x 1 wide sets right (wider than CCS but not TNS, just positioning the gripper in the hand and taking the 'slack' out of the gripper with the off hand to allow the fingers to get a slightly better purchase)
3 x 1 MMS left
5 x 1 #2.5 TNS left and right
1 x 20 TNS #2 left and right
1 x 15 TNS #2 right
1 x 12 TNS #2 left

Finished with a little levering work.

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12/03/2016

Hip feeling a lot better, although still not feeling as it should do (i.e. as my right hip feels, my flexors feel tight even when walking with a neutral pelvis). WOD at the crossfit box was front squats at 70% for what they called a 'wave', which is programming I've never done before, 90 seconds break between the sets below - I also didn't use 70% of my 1RM (which would have been 98kg) because I was worried about my hip and my back, which I tweaked last time I squatted - as it turned out the squats were a little too easy so I wish I'd gone to 95kg or something.

Warmed up then all reps with 90kg

1 x 2
1 x 6
1 x 4
1 x 7
1 x 3
1 x 8
1 x 5
 

Next was a 7 minute AMRAP of rounds of 5 strict pull-ups and 10 burpees, I managed 113 total reps (halfway through 8th round). Was limited on the burpees rather than pull ups, I think that getting into a 10th round should be easily possible as my conditioning improves.

Finished the session off after the WOD with some glute activation work, some pull-ups, ring rows, rope climbs, dips and handstand work, which was embarrassingly awful - could barely get up into a freestanding HS and when I did the form was worse than abysmal. Definitely need to pay some more attention to my handstands as they were really improving recently and I don't want to lose that progress. Also did a 40 second 1 arm hang on each arm, which probably isn't a PR, but it felt quite comfortable, so next time I'll go for 45 seconds and try and add a few seconds each time I try and gradually work towards getting a minute each arm with a little extra weight.

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12/04/2016

WOD today was two 'on the minute every minute' sets each lasting 12 minutes with 2 exercises and then a max set of pushups.

1st circuit was toes to bar and headstand pushups against wall, 8 reps each. Managed the toes to bar very easily, headstand pushups were a different matter, first round to last round my numbers were: 8, 7, 6 , 5, 4, 4.

2nd circuit was 40 second wall handstand hold, 40 second hollow body hold, found both elements of this tough right after the previous circuit but managed to finish fine.

Managed 53 pushups plus two reps that were called no reps for not locking out fully.

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13/04/2016

WOD was 1RM power-cleans and then 3 rounds of 20 wall balls and 10 power-cleans with 70kg.

Power-cleans:
1 x 3 w/50kg
1 x 3 w/60kg
1 x 2 w/80kg
1 x 1 w/100kg
1 x 1 w/120kg
1 x 1 w/125kg (ran out of time - not a problem I've ever had going for a 1RM before lol - but definitely had at least 5kg more in the tank, maybe more).

Circuit took me 4:53, could have been quite a bit faster but went out a little too quickly and got gassed and also had quite a few (6ish) no reps on the wall balls, which I can clean up with practice. I think that 4:15 or so would be possible quite easily.

Finished with a couple of handstands and one arm hangs (45 seconds as planned).

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Here's the video of the #3 TNS I mentioned earlier, as well as some MMS reps lefty, from the video I think that I did actually make the close just about, but not as convincingly as I had the first time I managed to do it.  This isn't really good enough quality to 'prove' anything, as you can barely make out the stamp, I'll try again with better lighting sometime soon.

 

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Sweet.  #3 TNS is an elite feat.  Well done!

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On 4/14/2016 at 3:09 AM, anwnate said:

Sweet.  #3 TNS is an elite feat.  Well done!

Thanks very much man, appreciate it. It's taken me a while, getting pretty close to #3.5 MMS last time I tried, so hopefully will manage to do that sometime this year.

15/04/2016

Squats - worked up to a triple with 120kg and then a set of 10 with 100kg.

Box jumps, went as high as I could between sets of squats, managed to get up to 48".

16/04/2016

First WOD was 5 rounds of 400m run, 6 push presses or jerks with 85kg, 6 squats (no rack so taking bar from the floor). Time cap was 17 minutes, which I hit after 4 rounds and 400m.  The weight felt fairly heavy but i ran out of time mostly because I didn't feel that I could push the run at all because I wasn't sure I'd be able to execute the overhead movement whilst out of breath.

Sumo Deadlifts:

First time doing these properly, was hard to get into position and my technique definitely wasn't consistent as sometimes rep 3 or 4 in a set would feel really easy and strong.
1 x 10 w/60kg
2 x 5 w/120kg
1 x 3 w/160kg
1 x 1 w/200kg (conventional randomly)
1 x 1 w/200kg
6 x 5 w/200kg (straps)

Practiced handstands a little and a few pull ups then finished with another metcon of 5 rounds of 10 cleans with 60kg and 10 box-over-burpees (burpees where you have to climb over a 24" box between reps).

 

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On ‎4‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 9:09 PM, anwnate said:

Sweet.  #3 TNS is an elite feat.  Well done!

This is exactly what I was going to say! 

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Thanks Ben, appreciate you taking the time to say so.

18/04/2016

Shoulders felt pretty tight in the morning, especially in relation to external rotation, didn't think too much of it but came back to bite me as I've managed to hurt my right shoulder doing overhead press - don't think it's anything too bad, but probably hinder me for at least a week or two, which is annoying.

Strict press:

1 x 5 w/20kg
1 x 5 w/40kg
1 x 3 w/60kg
1 x 3 w/70kg
1 x 2(1) w/80kg
1 x 3 w/75kg (think I tweaked the shoulder here).

WOD was three rounds of 12 lunges w/42.5kg, 12 push press w/42.5kg and 12 burpees for time.  Managed 5:15. Brought my grippers to the box and nobody could close a #1, although I think that this was due to the common first time error of letting the handle slide back in the hand to make the close very hard. Squeezed grippers up to my #3 for a few wide set reps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been a little while since my last post - it took a few days for my shoulder to recover and then there have been public holidays and a trip back to the UK to contend with.

Managed to hurt my other shoulder(!) in a very similar way doing push press - even though I deliberately kept it fairly low RPE, which tells me there's some kind of issue there that I need to work on, either spending more time with a barbell overhead with less weight and/or doing some accessory and mobility work.

Took part in one of the Tough Mudder events on Sunday (01/05/2016) which was great fun, weather was perfect and the course was challenging without being too hard (the obstacles themselves were easy but the 12 miles of running up and down hills was harder!). Finished the course in 2h 25mins, could have probably gone quite a bit faster (maybe crept under 2 hours) but was in a group of three and two of us waited for the third who was struggling a bit towards the end.  Suffered quite a bit with cramp from about mile 8, especially in my calves and weirdly in my adductors/groin (also hammies to a lesser extent).  Calves are the only area to be very sore in the following days.

 

Hopefully get back to training properly this week.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow, again it's been a long while since my last update. To give a flavour of how I've been doing from a training standpoint, a combination of some minor niggles, having some friends to visit at weekends, getting much busier at work and starting to play football again on a weeknight have meant that I've been training less frequently than I would like.  The training I have been doing has been almost entirely the WODs, which means very little strength work.  This has had a detrimental effect on strength, tried to work up to a heavy single deadlift last week and could barely break the floor with 240kg. Endurance and capacity continues to improve but I don't want to get any weaker so will have to try and address this.

My last workouts were: 

20/05/2016

5 rounds of 10 thrusters w/42.5kg, 10 kipping pull-ups, 400m run, 1 minute rest.  Finished in 17m 10s including the mandatory 4 minutes of rest, which I was fairly pleased with, the thrusters and pull-ups weren't a problem, the speed of the run was the limiting factor in terms of time.  Then practiced full cleans (catching in squat) found these very hard because my mobility doesn't allow me to get into a good front squat position at the bottom without the weight  on me.

21/05/2016

Played football in a tournament, managed to win best player, although the standard wasn't that high. Also managed to roll my ankle in the semi-final and missed the final, was a bit sore but seems to have mostly recovered now.

24/05/2016

Practiced kipping pull-ups (biceps very sore for some reason, suspect it's because I haven't been doing any chin ups at all for ages) and handstand pushups against a wall (a few sets of 5).  Then joined a friend from the gym in his session:

WOD 1: three rounds of 400m run, 40 GHD sit-ups, 7 deadlifts (touch and go) with 150kg. Found this pretty easy, the hardest part was the sit-ups, finished in 12:05, time was very consistent across each round at ~4 mins.

WOD 2: 1km row, 100 pushups (lifting hands off floor briefly at bottom of each rep) and 300 single under skips (was double unders but I scaled it because of my ankle and a lack of proficiency at double unders). Finished in just over 15 minutes. Found the row and skipping pretty easy but the pushups were much harder than expected, not sure why but shoulders were completely fried.

 

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25/05/2016

Warmed up with some squats and lunges, trying to work on bracing my core more effectively and keeping tension better through the ROM and having a more externally rotated position in the hole, means that I don't get as deep as normal (still below parallel though) but hopefully that will improve as my hips get more mobile. Although I was conscious not to go that heavy, still managed to aggravate my back - no idea what's happening but will look at trying to figure it out and potentially see a physio if it persists.

Warmed up with bodyweight squats and lunges.

2 x 5 w/20kg
2 x 5 lunges w/20kg
1 x 5 w/60kg
1 x 10 w/60kg
1 x 10 w/90kg
1 x 5 w/110kg (5-2-1-0 tempo - i.e. 5 secs down, 2 pause, 1 up, no pause between reps)
1 x 5 w/120kg (5-2-1-0 tempo)
1 x 3 w/130kg (5-2-1-0 tempo)
1 x 1 w/110kg (lost form a little on previous set so wanted to re-set)
1 x 3 w/110kg (5-2-1-0 tempo)
2 x 5 w/90kg
2 x 5 front squats w/60kg
 

As always did 15 minutes of cycling in total going to and from the gym.

Edited by patrickmeniru
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27/05/2016

Did some weighted muscle ups, pull ups and dips. Managed a strict rings muscle up with 24kg (have a video, will try and get round to uploading it).

28/05/2016

Joined in with the competition athletes in the crossfit box where I train for a session. I definitely am a long was behind them in terms of the longer workouts. Workout was meant to be:

100 wall-balls /w20lbs (completed)
100 chest to bar kipping pull ups (managed 70 and then tore my palm open so decided to stop there)
100 pistol squats (managed 70)
100 dumbbell snatches w/32.5kg (15 reps before hitting time cap of 25 minutes).

Really irritated that I hurt my hand, have never had a similar problem before - just need to let it heal, luckily it's quite far down the palm so can still hold a bar if I let it sit lower in my hand.

30/05/2016

Did the 'Murph' workout in 49:52, again another long workout, which is not a strength, but I don't feel particularly sore the following day, which I think shows my endurance is improving:

1 mile run
100 kipping pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 bodyweight squats
1 mile run

The pull ups were hindered a bit because of my hand (managed to borrow a gymnastics hand guard which helped a lot). I found that doing the squats by lower back got very sore at the bottom of each rep, which probably shows that I'm compensating down there for a lack of mobility in the hips/ankles by going into lumbar flexion, which I'll try to address.

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01/06/2016

Pretty easy WOD today, which was nice, tried to work on squat form and improve my clean technique. WOD was triples at 70% 1RM for back squat and powercleans, doing three reps of each every 4 minutes (so squats on 0-4-8-12-16 mins and cleans on 2-6-10-14-18 mins). Used 126kg for the squats and 107.5kg for the cleans, probably should have gone a little heavier on the squats but nevermind.

Finished with a little handstand practice.

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02/06/2016

Did a few pull-ups, ring push-ups and ring-dips this morning before work (maybe 20 reps pull ups, 40 reps pushing)

Played 5-a-side football for 40 minutes and did about 45 minutes of brisk cycling.

Was pretty tired and hungry by the time I did the WOD, which was 25 double unders, 12 burpees and 8 clean and jerks with 50kg. Basically a nightmare because I'm not proficient at double unders at all, hate burpees and find that clean and jerks take as much energy with light weight as they do with heavier weights because I'm still learning the technique. Anyway, was meant to be 5 rounds for time with a cap of 16 minutes, I was part way through my final set of double unders when I hit the cap.

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03/06/2016

Friend who is a weightlifting coach and v.strong guy is in town, worked on some snatches and then did some weighted pull-ups. Couldn't do a single chin with 50kg, which was a bit of an eye opener. still a lot of technique to learn and practice on the Oly lifts.

04/06/2016

Partner WOD of 3 minutes on rower for calories, 3 minutes AMRAP of 42.5kg snatches, for 3 rounds. Managed approx 150 cals and 90 snatches.

Then squatted, worked up to 120kg for a single front squat, 140kg for a few back squat triples and then some technique work with 120kg and 100kg. Saw Chris Moore formerly from the Barbell Shrugged podcast at the gym today, which was cool. Also did a few pull ups.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Haven't been in the gym much in the past week or so, have played football twice and that's about it, have been quite busy with work and a few social events on weekday evenings along with all the sport that's been on lately with the European championships, England rugby tour in Australia as well as the F1 last weekend.  Am competing in a Dutch crossfit competition this weekend, so interested to see how that goes - if I'm going to be event remotely competitive on the national level I need to get pretty lucky with the workouts (x3) as anything that involves double unders, fully Oly lifting (I'm okay at power cleans but that's about it) or very high volume is going to be really tough for me.

13/06/2016

Workout today was max height box jump (I managed 138cm) followed by an AMRAP of 8 burpee box overs, 8 thrusters w/60kg. I only managed 66 reps, partly because I'm not great at the movements and partly because I hadn't eaten since lunch (WOD was 8pm) and had no energy to fight through. Then (no recovery) 100 double unders with time cap 6 mins or 600 single unders, because I still can't really do double unders very well I did the single unders but only managed 495 reps.

After the WOD I did back squats and press work with a friend (all reps were done with a 4-2-1-0 tempo):
1 x 5 w/20kg
1 x 5 w/60kg
1 x 5 w/82.5kg
1 x 5 w/92.5kg
1 x 5 w/100kg
1 x 5 w/110kg
1 x 5 w/120kg

Strict press:
5 x 5 w/60kg

Push Press:
1 x 6 w/80kg

Finished by messing around with some false grip ring rows (he's trying to get rings muscle up).
 

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