Sean's occasionally coherent ravings about Crossfit and diet

Cleans

scmcmanus — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:14:41 +0000

After an awesome beach weekend of margaritas and undoing any good I may have done with this workout, the workout from Thursday:

Squat cleans 3-2-2-1-1-1-1

This was the first time attempting heavy squat cleans in about six months, so it was mostly about jogging muscle memory and getting “comfortable” with the form again. The rep scheme went out the window, but I got up to 125 before running out of time, and they felt fairly solid by this point. AND THEEENNN:

3 Rounds
10 Power Cleans (135/95)
20 Box Jumps (24/20)

Used 95 lbs for cleans and had to scale back to a 20-inch box after the first round, since my legs were doing a kind of uncooperative lagging disconnect thing that I haven’t experienced since almost back to Foundations, which makes it seem like I’m going to faceplant at any second. May have had to do with some fatigue from the many reps of squat cleans beforehand. In any case, did it in 6:03, and felt pretty strong throughout beside the leg thing.

HEY, WHA HAPPENED?

scmcmanus — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:21:19 +0000

So as I’ve hinted at, I learned from the orthopedist in November that I had a partially torn tendon in my right wrist, for which I was immediately put in a cast for four weeks in order to keep the wrist neutral and actually let it heal properly, which hadn’t happened in the previous un-casted seven months while frequently doing things like cleans and handstands with impunity. Luckily, it wasn’t a complete tear and required no surgery, but needless to say that this has set me back a bit with training. There was still plenty that I could do while I was healing, some of which I did, although inconsistently. This healing time included not doing anything with a barbell for three months after getting the cast off, which was advice from Brian that I took. I let myself get a bit disaffected with always trying to scale around the wrist, and my workouts dropped to about one or two a week until April when I finally shook off the ennui and got it together. Now let’s never speak of my goddamn wrist again.

Getting strength back has been goal one and I’ve been doing SS 3×5′s of deadlift, squat, and press, sometimes doing these at PCF when the programming schedule lines up, and sometimes at the work gym, albeit defiantly as a lowly contractor and sometimes in Bostonians and chinos. If I get looks, I just scowl back at their tricep pushdowns with horrible form. I feel like I’ve been doing enough metcon WODs and sprint sessions at the W&L track to be back in decent condition, but at 135 lbs and a Crossfit Total of 615, strength is the prime directive.

Current week numbers:

DL 3×5 @ 185 lbs

Squat 3×5 @ 160 (missed a week, this set me back)

Press 3×5 @ 85 (stalling a bit due to work gym’s lack of 2.5 lb plates, two of which I’ll be donating when they arrive in the mail today)

Reset

scmcmanus — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:28:24 +0000

Back squat 1 RM

225, but kind of sketchy depth. I guess it’s probably closer to 215. 235 is my PR and I’ve been mostly on hiatus for about six weeks, so I’m alright with this for now.

Weighted pull-ups 3-3-3-3-3

35-35(2)-25-25-15(2)

Also not record setting, but, uh, okay for the moment.

I want to post an update soon about the last couple of months and my four weeks spent in an arm cast for what had turned out to be a partially torn tendon in my wrist, but unfortunately, now is not the time.

hrm

scmcmanus — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:58:38 +0000

“Elizabeth’s Purse”

21-15-9

55# DB cleans

Ring dips

13:18 with 50# and mostly kipping ring dips

This was the first real test of my metcon performance since I’ve been pretty low-carb for the last couple of weeks. Oh yeah, I’ve been doing a paleo “cleanse” for the last three weeks, and decided to cut way back on fruit also, since I think I was relying on it too much. This has, in effect, kept me below 50 grams of carb most every day, sometimes a good deal lower, and that’s been an adjustment. Going to write a post about that soon.

Anyway, this was a gut check that I really wasn’t expecting. It was only the third workout in a year that I very nearly puked, the first of which was Barbara in my second week. So it’s in good company. Apparently I’ve been neglecting my metcon more than I thought, too, even beside dietary adjustments. I just haven’t been making working out a priority, and I need to get re-focused. Getting the orthopaedist to look at my wrist MRI next week will help in proceeding, as well.

RUN!

scmcmanus — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:55:43 +0000

7x100m sprints
Four of these at :17, interspersed with three at :18. Didn’t commit the tenths and hundredths to memory, as any world records couldn’t have been corroborated.

Threw in some handstand holds on dumbbells, and about 12 HSPUs, with the equivalent of about two abmats. Not very many, but I’m still new to even being able to do them.

deadlifting

scmcmanus — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:18:08 +0000

Deadlifts 5-5-3-3-3-20

185-215-245-255-225-135

Good pointers from Ryan about shoulders being too far back and doing what I think is sometimes called the “stripper ass” thing, which I’m now conscious of. Little bit of a headache at the end of the set of 20, which is lame, but may have been a little dehydrated.

Handstand skills class and, ok seriously, what’s up with my wrist?

scmcmanus — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:06:13 +0000

Went to the handstand class run by Tes the other night and definitely got what I was looking for, which was basically a refinement of form in the handstand and, most importantly to me in this case, in getting into a handstand from a standing position. I’ve been doing handstand holds almost every day to get comfortable with them, but they’ve been kind of ugly, starting from a crouched position, sometimes taking two or three tries to get up type things. Learned how far to be from the wall to start the lunge into the position, and to keep active shoulders and the plane from the raised arms down to the kicking-up leg when lunging. Glad I didn’t try this on my own, as I probably would have put my head through the wall or landed on my neck, or just generally looked ridiculous.

In this process and after my broken-record routine of explaining that my right wrist is still not right after straining it many months ago, we got to talking about the symptoms and such, which is something that Tes knows something about after her husband, aka Mike PCF, “sprained” his wrist a couple of months ago and still was doing some working out using it, and it came to light later after an x-ray that it was actually a fracture and required surgery. As it happens, also at the class with us was Aura, who is a PT, and she was going over the myriad problems that can be going on in the gunnyworks (my word) of small bones, tendons, and arteries in the wrist. Also, the point that if this is still a problem after seven months (!), it’s probably worth being looked at by a professional. I did see a chiropractor in June, which helped some, but x-rays were not done. This was one of those things that seems so goddamn obvious after someone points it out to you, but that you’ve somehow unconsciously rationalized away for a long period of time, I guess so that you can keep going along with your normal routine and not have to deal with it. But I am tired of explaining it and scaling around it and having it be an issue, so I’ve made an appointment with an orthopeaeaeaidic (what my first attempt at spelling orthopaedic looked like) specialist for Monday at Commonwealth who specializes in hands/wrists. Long overdue, I suppose.

So hopefully sometime in the near future, I’ll be a real boy and able to actually put these new handstand skills to use.

5k

scmcmanus — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:31:54 +0000

5k run at the W-L track: 25:13

Would like to give myself a handicap of a few seconds for dodging all of the soccer game spectators and their kids standing around on the track like stuffed animals, but I’ll refrain.

I’m not a runner. This is the second time I’ve run 5k, the first being in September, and therefore the second time in my life that I’ve run more than a mile in one go. When I ran it in September: 29:58. That time I hit the wall around 3500-4000 and there was a little bit of walking. When running, I was really jealous of people I was running by that were not running and wanted to be them for the sole reason that they were not running. Was leveled at the end.

This time, a 4:45 improvement. Felt pretty solid the whole way through and thought I could even have kept a faster pace towards the beginning and middle if I hadn’t been anticipating meltdown towards the end. I guess it’s noteworthy that when I ran this on 9/23, it was something like 85 degrees, so that probably added some time (as probably did my compromised metcon from just having finished GOMAD). Nevertheless, I’m happy with this for now.

Push jerks

scmcmanus — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:43:44 +0000

5-5-3-3-1-1

95-115-115-115-130(f)-125(f)

Did not come to play on this one. Frustrating workout. Was feeling kind of weak from the get go and energy was sapped quickly for some reason. I know that most of the problem is getting under the bar properly and not trying to mostly push press it up, and since my press is disproportionally weak to other lifts, I’m really not doing myself any favors. When I try this again fresh, I need to make a point to be aggressive in getting the bar moving. B-E aggressive. B-E, A-G-G, R-E-S-S-I-V-E. Had this point drilled home to me towards the end of the sets, but my upper body was pudding-like at that point.

Oly lifting class – cleans

scmcmanus — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:26:06 +0000

I can’t seem to get enough guidance on the clean, so I was in the right place. We were focusing mostly on the first pull and how it transitions into the second, and I realized I had been going about it wrong in basically deadlifting to the “explode” point, where I should have been in more of an ass down, chest up position, a la beginning a snatch. That’s feeling a lot more natural, and I now just have to get my right wrist healthier (time check – it’s time to ice) and, Jon pointed out, not be so tentative about letting the bar roll back off my hand.

Followed up with some 3×5 squats at 165.

Bonus finishing WOD: “Vague Foot Discomfort” – Walk one mile home in oly shoes. Talk on the phone so you don’t notice you’re wearing them until about halfway there. Leave your Sambas in the back of the gym.