come at me, bro

Today was...in a word...meh.

All day I looked forward to the box.  We were maxing out on bench press, after all.  The last time I did bench press was probably when I worked at Lifestyle with Michael Kelley in 2007.  I don't even remember what weight I did.  Tonight my goal was just to lift.  I had no weight in mind, I just knew I wanted to lift.

I have body weight goals, meaning I wanted to squat my body weight, and then my goal was pull ups.  I've decided that now my goal is to bench my body weight, and eventually press my body weight.  I figure that's a good measure.  It may take a while, but that's ok, it took me what, four? five months to get pull ups?  I'll get these. 

The new programming is very interesting.  I like the strength work we are doing.  Michael Kelley is quite good at this programming thing he does.  There, that's one compliment.  Michael Kelley also had very fat arms tonight.  Phew...now I feel balanced.

I enjoy working out with the 1830 class.  There are members that I don't know so well because I'm not there enough, but Coach Paul and Nicole H. were there.  Much to my dismay, I find out that Nicole H. has a cupcake business on the side.  It is to my dismay because I L O V E cupcakes.  Like, I might be obsessed.  So you can check out her site here http://www.facebook.com/cupcraverycupcakes .  I'm placing my order tonight.  It seems ass backward that she's so into CrossFit and makes cupcakes.  It also seems ass backward that I'm so into CrossFit and I love cupcakes so much.  Therefore, I retract my previous statement.

Coach Paul was his normal joyous self tonight.  He even offered to coach the 1715 class WOD.  He's a great coach.  It's always a pleasant surprise when he coaches the sessions I'm a part of.  Jeff was also there, working out with the 1715 group.  I miss Jeff.  He was gone for two weeks, and now that he's back I haven't seen him much.  That needs to be fixed ASAP. 

With all that being said, here was today's plan:

A. ME Upper

               Main Lift-Bench Press-1RM

B. Accessory

               3x5 bent over row-heaviest weight possible

               3x5 RS press heaviest weight possible

C. Conditioning

               AMRAP 7

               7 dumb bell burpees

               7 chest to bar pull ups

D. Burnout

               3x15 cuban press

               3x15 reverse fly

Before we even got to today's plan, Michael Kelley had one hell of a warm up planned for us.  I hate running.  There, I said it.  My apologies Coach Paul.  I just hate it.  You know where I'm going with this.  Part one of our warm up was a 400 meter run with plates.  Even the dinky little 2.5 pound plates I had felt like boulders once I hit 200 meters.  Coach Paul loves running so much he sings whilst running with plates.  He's a monster, a peppy, motivational, bright, supportive monster.  Ugh.  Worst warm up ever.  Yes, perhaps I'm dramatic, get over it.

The next part of our warm up was to do twenty reverse flys with said plates, and then to do twelve reps of lateral and front raises.  Then...fifteen reverse flys.

But wait...there's more...

We then did ten push ups, then while in push up position, did side planks, twice on each side, then held plank position while lifting arms and alternate legs.  Ummmm...I was tired just after the warm up.  Okay, I'm done bitching.  (if you believe that, I take pity on you)

I did have the pleasure of teaming up with Margie on bench press.  Again, my goal here was not to focus on the weight, but the lift.  Reps were as follows:

5x33#

5x53#

1x63#

1x73#

1x83#

1x88#

1x93#

1x98#

Yep...I benched 98# today!  That's almost what I weigh.  Almost.  Okay I lie, it's fifteen pounds shy of my weight.  But I'll tell you, I could not have done more.  That last 98# lift was sloooooow and heavy.  It was also during this time that Michael Kelley was walking around "coaching", and his sleeve was slightly raised, revealing his modified compression sleeves that he's using to nurse his poor arms.  It was at this point that I  noticed the slight puffiness above his compression sleeves.  I felt the immediate need to point out to Coach Paul how fat Michael Kelley's arms looked.  His only response was "er".  Get it? 

But onto the accessory work.  The bent over row reps:

15x53# (oops)

5x73#

5x78#

An RS press is similar to a bench press, the difference is that once you bring the bar down to your chest, you do a slight "J" motion toward your chin, then back to your chest while still in down position, and press back up.  Michael Kelley wanted these to be done on or around 50% of your bench 1RM. 

These were completed at 3x5 @ 53#.

Now.....it was time for the WOD.  I like AMRAPs.  The reason I like AMRAPs is because everyone finishes at the same time.  The reason I like this is because my "rounds for time" workouts aren't very fast.  KK and Coach Paul smoke on rounds for time workouts.  I'm like the last kid picked for the dodgeball team in gym class with rounds for time workouts.  Disclaimer, the self pity in this post comes free of charge.

So...AMRAP.  I pick up the fifteen pound dumb bells, and hook up a red band.  For those of you who aren't CrossFit savvy, a red band is thirty pounds of assistance.  These are chest to bar pull ups after all.

The WOD is tough.  Dumb bell burpees. They are very different from plate burpees.  With dumb bell burpees, you jump with the dumb bells by your side instead of pressing them.  With chest to bar pull ups, each round was unbroken with the exception of the last round.  Ouch.

Total rounds...5+7 reps.

Burnout work, a cuban press.  Okay...imagine holding a bar, now do an upright row until your upper arms are parallel to the ground, keeping that position, rotate your shoulders until the bar is now in a press position, then press.  Back down to the second position, re-rotate back down, then down position.  That's a cuban press.  Rotating between this with a fifteen pound bar and reverse flys with five pound plates and my body was D O N E.  Phew.  The work load today was heavy.  It is quite brilliant though, because according to our WOD schedule, tomorrow is an off day.  So heavy days on Wednesdays are great because they are followed by a rest day.

My shoulders are feeling a little funny tonight.  I need a long hot shower.  Preferably someone to come wash my hair.  My plan for tomorrow is to show up and do core work.  Who knows?  Maybe my attention whore friend Thomas James Kelley will be there with me?