8:00-10:00am - Deadlift Day at Elite Performance Center
Saturday is deadlift day at EPC! Yay! Working with my coach Chris on the width of my stance and degree of toe turnout, trying to find the perfect spot.
Deadlift (sumo stance):
5 x 95#
5 x 135#
5 x 155#
3 x 175#
3 x 185# w/ belt
3 x 195# w/ belt
3 x 205# w/ belt
225# miss :(
205# x 3 felt really good…and then 225# wouldn’t move. Chris thinks once we figure out my starting position I’ll be able to lift a bunch, ‘cause I’m really strong after the first inch or two. So, that is what we are working on!
Then we did rack pulls, conventional stance:
5 x 185#
5 x 205#
My hands were FRIED by this point and I haven’t ventured into using straps yet. Soon, I imagine!
Then - Assistance work:
3x through - Face Pull w/ Sled - 35#, length of room, which is 100 feet I believe. I think I was supposed to use 45# but I haven’t gotten my log organized yet. Grr.
Grappler - 10#, 10 on each side. Ugh this one is hard for me. I think partly because of my shoulder injury which is tons better, but I can’t hold my right arm out from my body with too much weight still.
Ring Rows - feet on chair, 12-16 reps each round. 1st round no assistance, 2nd and 3rd round with band.
Working at home 1-2 days a week now, so I walk over at lunch and take yoga. Usually Willow teaches at lunch, unless she’s out of town, which is awesome. We worked on some really challenging stuff today—half moon, quarter moon, vertical splits…umm…ow? I sweat a bucket of water and shook like I was having seizures for most of class. Did a lot of “lion breath” which is kind of awkward at first and then becomes very useful and fun—you exhale forcefully with your mouth open and your tongue hanging out! lol!
Met up with none other than CFLA’s own Kevin Butler for a workout at CrossFit Pearl District. Small class, like 6 of us, and a great workout.
3x
15 hang power snatch (62#)
50 walking lunges
150m farmers’s walk (30# in left, 15# in right)
50 double unders 18:20
Still have not located my jump rope since I moved here. Also have not looked terribly hard. And bought a new pair of shoes at lunch time. So considering all that, I handled double unders pretty well. I don’t think I’ve done them since…July??
Farmer’s walk I did lopsided because for some reason carrying things at my side still bugs my right shoulder. Deadlifts don’t and snatches don’t…but carrying groceries does. So strange. Anyway, that’s why the lopsidedness. I only put the d-bells down once, on the very last round.
All in all, I’m very pleased with how I did considering I haven’t been doing any cardio at all. I have, however, been sleeping more than I used to, been eating more paleo consistently, taking my supplements, and making more of an effort to drink water. So, go figure, I perform better.
Had a different instructor than I’ve ever had before. I liked her, but it was a SUPER mellow class, which wasn’t really what I was looking for. Basically it felt like we kinda rolled around for an hour and that’s about all. It wasn’t bad and there’s probably certain days I would like a class like this…but today wasn’t one of them.
5:00 - 7:00pm - Squat Day, at Elite Performance Center
Mondays are Back Squat day at EPC! My first time squatting with them. They have this contraption called the “mono” which is AWESOME, but takes a little getting used to. They use it instead of a squat rack, so basically you get in exact position and then the mono moves out of the way around you and you squat without having to step backwards, readjust, etc. REALLY cool.
I have some form issues to work on - I’ve practiced a much less vertical squat, as far as my upper body, than they do, and at the same time I need to reach BACK further with my hips (more like a box squat). So, going to keep working on that, but it was feeling better every set and it turns out I’m not as weak as I thought I was either. Yay!
Back Squat
5 x 95
5 x 115
5 x 125
5 x 135
5 x 145
5 x 155
5 x 165
3 x 175
The last set was HARD. I tried on a weight belt for the first time, too. Going to practice using that and getting used to it. The very last rep I just shut my eyes and it felt like it took FOREVER, but I made it! Definitely not the strongest I’ve ever been, but also not bad for not lifting in…oh…many many months…like…uh…a loooooong time. lol
Then assistance work…
Glute Ham Raises - haven’t done these much before and they were KILLING my quads on the foam pads. Finally on the last set I figured out how to set my legs so I wasn’t in horrible pain and I did a whole lot more raises. We did them band assisted so we could get the hang of them, but Chris (my coach), thinks I’ll be off the bands in a couple weeks - that’s it’s just neurological adaptation right now. Did a whole bunch of these. Somewhere between 30-50.
Bad Girls/Band Assisted Squats - Chris showed me how to do “Bad Girls” but then we switched to squatting with the bands around our knees. This is SUPER helpful to me in keeping my knees out in the wider stance I’m practicing now, and also reaching back with my hips, since we were squatting to a box when we did these. Did 3 sets of 20. Made my hips burn!
My second time at EPC and I am now officially a member. Going to hit the team training three times per week and eventually do a competition. So excited to be moving weights around. Really missed it!
Deadlifts (sumo stance):
Saturdays are deadlift days. Today we did band assisted ones. They have a special platform with 4 carabiners attached to it, where they actually hook in the rubberbands. We had a fish scale and could measure the exact weight of the rubberbands at the top. We checked a couple people’s but I didn’t get my exact one. I think it was around 100-125# of added resistance at the top. We were supposed to work up to our 5 rep max on it.
I don’t know how many sets I did (starting next practice I’m bringing my journal to log everything). My heaviest was 125# on the bar, plus the rubberbands, so I am pretty happy with that. It was REALLY hard to lock out at the top!
After that we did an assistance movement:
Kroc Rows:
As Chris, the coach, explains, these are “sloppy high rep DB rows”. We did 2 sets of 20 each side. I did 30# the first time and it was way too easy, so I did 45# the next time. I hit 20 both rounds, so next time we do these I’ll do more weight.
After that we did our circuit of dynamic upper body movements - we did this circuit 3 times:
K-bell Face Pulls:
We did these last week, where you put a rope through the k-bell handle and just using your upper body, pull the weight up under your chin and your hands by your ears. I remembered I ended up with the 16kg kbell, so I started with that this week. Did somewhere between 12-16 reps each round.
Sled Face Pulls:
They have a 100foot runway and sleds, so I put 45# on a sled and then you walk backwards across the runway. Basically you lean back a little and then pull the sled ropes to your ears, but with palms forward, like you’re turning your arms upward, then you step back and take up the slack and keep doing it.
Reverse Hypers:
Basically like weighted arch rocks from hell. Yowza. Did these with 140#? I think that’s what it was. Whatever all the boys except Chris were doing (Chris does INSANE weights). We were supposed to do 20 each round, but I think I only made it to 20 on the first set. Also bruised the heck out of my pelvic bone. Have to figure that out for next time! lol!
My coworker Jessica discovered a private little gym with kettlebell classes in downtown Portland so we went over on Friday to take a class. It was RKC style so it was very different from what I am used to from CrossFit. It was fun to learn the different swing though. We did transfers, which means you do a 1-handed swing and then a 2nd swing with 1-hand where you switch hands. You only count the transfers to the new hand, so each “transfer” is actually 2 swings.
It came out to over 450 swings, I believe is what Lance said. And the RKC style swings are mostly glute and hamstring…so um…ouch? I enjoyed the workout and learning new stuff. Also tore my hands, as I have been a lazy bum about caring for my calluses. So yeah, mostly I just show up at people’s gym as a guest and bleed all over their equipment.
5:00-7:00pm - Olympic Lifting at PDX Weightlifting
Got some more snatch practice in with coach Nick Horton. He said if it looked pretty enough he might even let me do a clean…but alas, no such luck. Did lots and lots of sets of 2 snatches at a time, anywhere between 45-80#.
Rode to and form work. Pouring rain. Froze my patootie off. Need to go shopping and buy warm outerwear.
5:00pm - Olympic Lifting, ELC Office Gym
Christened our office gym with some clean practice today! We built a garage gym to shoot demo videos for the website, but will also be doing some workouts for the staff in there and anybody can use it if they want (and know what they are doing). The programmers kept poking their head in trying to figure out what I was doing. Pretty entertaining.
Didn’t go heavy - just between 95-110#, working on form.
Did 100 situps when I was done.
Starting my new regimen of healthy eating and regular exercise again this week—feeling a renewed spark to get back in badass shape!
Rode to and from work. Pouring rain! Trains in the way! Oh, Portland.
I almost hit a squirrel on the way home. If I ever crash my bike due to a squirrel encounter, I will never admit it.
5:45pm - Yoga, at Inner Elements
We did a lot of stuff tonight with twisting and interlocking and balancing and…it was a wee bit challenging. Sometimes I just wasn’t sure which way to turn! lol! Lots of hip opening and hamstring mobilizing, which is good for me, but truly painful. I am really, really flexible in certain ways and horrifically un-so in others. And shoulder stands freak the heck out of me. Too much pressure on my neck - I feel like I’m going to pop my head off.
Rest day! Feel like I’ve actually earned it after the last couple days. Body is definitely sore, but not too sore really and only in good ways. I am so much happier with this sumo stance deadlift business!
8:00-10:00am - Powerlifting, at Elite Performance Center
I am not sure how Portland has such amazing weight lifting gyms. Maybe because it rains so much? People get bored and lift heavy things? It makes for some amazing resources.
This morning I worked out at Elite Performance Center, owned by Chris Duffin and Rudy Kadlub, who are both crazy strong! Rudy is the pound for pound best powerlifter in the world in the 60+ age range and Chris…well Chris is just ridiculously strong. Chris was full of tons of good info and everybody at the gym this morning was super welcoming and nice. Made for a great, warm, supportive vibe.
Sumo Stance Deadlift
Saturdays are deadlift day at EPC, so we worked on that for a while. The guys all strung themselves up in this crazy rubberband contraption (which was totally fascinating!), but I just worked on the basics since I don’t sumo deadlift powerlifting style that much. If feels SO much better on my back than the conventional deadlift, and I think it’s better for working hip thrust too. I might just do sumo for the most part for a while.
Weights were a mess of kg’s and lb’s, so I think I was lifting mainly 155# doing sets of 5’s, working on form. Will go heavier next time, now that I have an inkling of what I’m doing. Chris gave me some tips and said I had great form and had potential to lift a lot. Yay.
Assistance Work
Then we did a circuit of assistance work for shoulders and back. We did this three times through.
Station 1 - “Grappler”
I know there’s another name for this, but can’t remember. Haven’t done it before—it’s where you have a barbell with one end on the ground and then rotate the other end around you from side to side. We weren’t using any hips on this today, just lats, so you have to keep hips straight ahead and not engage the obliques. I did the 45# bar with another 10# added and did 10 on each side.
Station 2 - Kettlebell
Urgh, I can’t remember the name of this one. but you used a piece of rope strung through the k-bell handle and help the rope at either end, thumbs up. From there you basically did a highpull with it so your hands came up and out to temple height and you opened up your shoulders. It really works your back. Totally awesome.
We did 12-16 reps each round. I started light since I’d never done it and Chris kept saying, “That looks light.” LOL So I worked my way up to a 35# k-bell by the third round. Could go heavier next time, or start on round 1 with the 35# maybe.
Station 3 - Bench Press w/ Rubber Band Resistance
This was too cool. They had a bar strung up on a rack, suspended with rubberbands. You laid on the bench and pulled down on the bar and had to hold it at your chest for 5 seconds. You did 5 reps like this. It teaches you to engage your lats and arch your back. YOu had to keep your hips on the bench the whole time and you had a partner press down on your chest so you didn’t just pop up. Really fun! I used 1 rubberband on the first round and then 2 on the other rounds. I think it was the equivalent of a black and purple at CFLA, maybe.
After that I had to leave, but they were doing some conditioning work - they had a squat rack that was reconfigured to be a yolk and they were walking up and down a long runway they have in the gym, putting weights on each side. Total strongman type stuff. So awesome!
