335# overhead and 5 x 500 m row, postdated 4/12.

Workout of the Day

WOD 1 – in the morning…

Glide Kips and Bar muscle ups

WOD 2 – in the afternoon…

Jerks from the back 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 Incline bench press 3 x max reps at bodyweight 200 meter kb overhead carry (2 x 53#)

WOD 3 – in the evening…

5 x 500 meter row w/ 1 minute rest between efforts

Today’s training was an example of something that doesn’t look like a lot of volume on paper. Reading over it now, my reaction is, “Eh, some good stuff in there, but nothing crazy.” My body’s reaction is more like, “Easy on my shoulder joints, moron!” This is an easy trap to fall into when doing skill sessions that are both fun and taxing. Even though the glide kip is designed to use minimal effort to get your body over the bar, it’s still getting your entire body OVER THE BAR. Do this 15-20 times while trying to figure it out and there will be an effect. Same thing goes for bar muscle ups. Just because you’re trying to figure out the correct technique doesn’t mean your body isn’t working just as hard to complete the movement. The result of this particular technical session was that my lats got more work than they’ve gotten in a long while. This should serve as a lesson to all of us. You don’t always need a WOD to get sore or to get good work in. Simply playing on a bar, seeing what you can do, is in fact a good workout. Every once in a while, take this into account and use your allotted time to play, rather than WOD. You might enjoy the results.

The remaining sessions offered some good action as well. I jerked 335# from my back, the most weight I’ve gotten overhead by 16#, and it felt pretty good. We followed this up with some incline bench press at bodyweight, which totally took me back to the days before constantly varied functional movement. I managed 17 reps the first attempt, 13 and 10 the remaining 2. As fun as that was, the 5 x 500 m row was equally as shitty. This might be the most un-fun conditioning exercise ever. I’ve done it a few times before, but often I’d add in a max set of pushups or something else to distract myself from the rowing. Only one other time did I do it purely for the times and that was back when I lived in Paris in January, 2010. My times back then were 1:39.3, 1:38.9, 1:39.5, 1:41.7, and 1:39.8, averaging out to 1:39.8. This time around I rowed 1:38.8, 1:39.1, 1:39.6, 1:40.1, and 1:39.5. This averages out to 1:39.4. Even though this improvement appears minimal, the suck factor was SO high that I’m stoked to have even matched my previous score.