Month: August 2014

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August Pull Up Challenge Day 2 and Back Squat PR

Day 2 of the challenge is Ring Rows at a  “31X2” tempo, 6-8 reps x 4 sets; rest 1-2min between sets.  The tempo is explained this way:

’3′ is the lowering portion; ’1′ is the hold at the bottom; ‘X’ means explode up; ’2′ is the hold at the end of the movement. So from the starting position pull chest thru the rings then pause for 2 sec, lower for 3 sec and pause for 1 sec before you repeat. You will do 6-8 reps at this tempo!

I did 4 sets with 6 reps in each.

Another part of today’s workout was to find our 1 rep max for Back Squats.  My last recorded 1RM was 145#.  I blasted that out of the water today, and lifted 173#.  I’m fairly certain I could have gone higher if I’d wanted, but I decided that ending on a high note (nearly 30# over my previous PR!!!) was good enough.

Major thanks to Ellen and her Mobility classes on this one — my squats have gotten worlds better since she showed me how to properly activate everything when squatting.

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August Pull Up Challenge – Initial Test and Day 1

Crossfit Moxie is running a ‘Coaches Challenge’ (initial week described here) this month to help folks improve their pull ups.  Mine need a lot of work, so I’m in!

Initial test:

As an initial test to help keep track of progress, we’re supposed to answer:

Start today by testing your pull-up and posting to comments that you are in.  How many can you do?  Can you do one!?  How are your negatives?  How long can you hold the flex arm hang?  What ever you choose, you will do the same at the end to see if you’ve made progress. WRITE IT DOWN!

This is my writing it down 🙂

I can do 0 unassisted strict pull ups.  I did not test negatives, but I imagine they’re not strong.  I can’t really hold a flex arm hang — When I jumped up for flex arm hangs today, I pretty much immediately came back down.

As for assisted pull ups, I currently use two green bands.  I can do ~10 kipping banded pull ups, and ~2-3 unbroken strict banded pull ups.

Day 1: 

Day 1 of the challenge is ‘Accumulate 2 min in a static hang or flex arm hang’.  I did a combination — 1 min static hang, 1 min flex arm hang.  I was able to accumulate the static hang in 8-15 second chunks.  My flex arm hang is not at all strong, so I actually did 60 jumps up into the flex arm position as each jump took about 1 second.