Day 348: CF Armoury: 1 RM Max Pull Up; WOD - AMRAP: HS Walk or Bear Crawl, Pistols

Monday; May 2, 2016 @ Crossfit Armoury

0-10
Warm-Up:

Dowel Shoulder Passthroughs
Dowel Shoulder Rotations
30 second Hang from Pull-up Bar
Practice Loading Shoulder with Hollow Body
5-10 Strict Pull ups


:10-25
STRENGTH:

Establish 1 RM Max Pull-ups

  OR

Starting with Chin over Bar

3 Rounds to establish max time from chin over bar to extended arm position


:30-35
WOD Warm-Up:  

50' Inch Worm with Push up and Downward Dog
Test Kick-ups to handstand against wall

:35-45
WOD:  

 10 Minute AMRAP: 

Handstand Walk for Distance

  OR

Bear Crawl for Distance

 REST for 5 Minutes 

:50-55
 5 Minute AMRAP:  

 Pistols


Today's Coach:  Jason 


My Thoughts:
Starting off this with fresh shoulders, as I had some family events to take care off, thus only two classes last week.  This should go off great or horrible.   This week is a retest of what we did a few weeks (5) ago; to see the progression we have made.

Warm-Up;
Grabbed a wooden dowel and did 10 shoulder passthroughs followed by shoulder rotations (5 in one direction and then the other direction)
Next, we selected a bar with appropriate height to hang from.  We were to hold for 30 seconds before letting go.  I failed this, and dropped down twice.   Grip strength, need to work on this..  That and ignoring the pain from my hand/callus.   It's only 30 seconds, I'll have to remind myself.  Like all movements, when hanging; always engaging the shoulders and focus on holding with a hollow body. 

STRENGTH;
A continuation from the warm-up; a few of us were to use rubber bands that we would eventually decrease in size (width) and color.   I originally picked a pretty thick rubber band which didn't do exactly what I thought it would do.   One of the comments by Coach Jason was to try and hold the pull-up for at least 15 seconds (as you slowly decent from the starting point [chin over bar]).   How I interpret this was to pick a very thick (width) rubber band.   And I grabbed a box so I could get my leg up and into the band while starting with the hang.  However, Jason said, "it's doing nothing other than holding you up.  It's doing all the work for you.  Change the band!"   
My logic was correct from what I heard, but the actual workout; nope.   Off to a lighter band (green, less width).   As I gave it a few tries, Jason came by and advised me if I can use this color band and hold for a maximum time of 30 second from the starting point to the extended arm position; it will be time to change to another lighter band (even if it a combination of a few different color/width bands).   I, however did not get more than 18 seconds after a few tries with this movements.   The only thing I got was fatigue, blood engorged arms.   Another area to work on, as I had asked the coach what would my next set of bands look like.   This will be another movement that I will need to focus on.  The grip was overhand (palms facing bar, fingers over forward - like how you grip a motorbike handlebar).

WOD Warm-up;
The warm-up, a doozy..  It's not your standard Inch worm, but with a a push-up at the end of your extension, followed directly by a downward dog before walking with your feet (inch worm forward).   As I got to the 35' mark, my arms started to feel weak and I found myself resting at the bottom of the push-up.  Yup, another weakness identified.

WOD;

Since I don't have Handstand walk yet, the other choice is to do bearcrawls.   We had 10 minutes to do as minute of these.   Each direction of the gym is about 50' (an area was measured and mapped out for us).    I managed to get 800 feet in that 10 minutes.   The last two minutes were the hardest.  Fighting fatigue not just in the arms/shoulders, but some burning of muscles in the quads and the butt.   I'll be doing some extra rolling in the morning.
After the 10 minutes; we had 5 minutes to rest before starting the second part of the WOD.  A nice 5 minutes of Pistols.  If you didn't have pistols, you can scaled.   Since I was recovering from some knee issues last week; and my physiotherapist - Arri was doing the class, it was decided that I should just do squats against the box.  This mean, my toes must be touching the box and full depth air squats.   I managed to push out 64 air squats in the 5 minutes.   More work need on my squats, and keeping my chest upwards while squatting.   Practice, practice, practice....

Misc:


Extra credit; also known as extra programming for the likes.   In case you find that the WOD was not enough, or you are looking on increasing your skills, strength for an upcoming competition.  This little nugget is the thing for you!   Coaches are on-site and can be asked for assistance if there is a movement you don't understand.  They will also provide some guidance if you are doing it wrong.
Usually, the extra credit is performed after the class.   And more than likely, there will be others from the class who will want to do it.   This is definitely another way to get to know the other members at your box.

- Nothing for today -

Remember to stay consistent in your training and tackle one WOD at a time!!