New PR's....BOOM!!

Last night I saw the most significant improvement in my Crossfit skills to date – and for a change it wasn’t strength, it was the gymnastic movements.

The WOD was

3,3,3,3,3 Weighted Ring Dips

3 rounds of Max Handstand Push Ups

I have been unable to even get out one ring dip, even with the assistance of the thickest band.  We tried them a few weeks ago in a 1:1 session with Sam.  So ever since then I have been doing them on the parallel bars with the help of a band.  The bar provided a more stable base for me to do them on. Enable me to concentrate on the movement and building that strength, without having to deal with the moving rings.

I have been improving on the bars and just last week I managed to crank out sets of 10 unbroken on the bars (still using the thickest band) but am looking to now move to a thinner band.

For last night’s workout Sam suggested we try one on the rings and if I couldn’t do it we could jump on the bars.  So I wrapped the band around the rings and gave it a crack.  To my utter surprise I nailed the 3 reps, last one was a struggle. But I did it. So we decided to finish the sets on the rings.  I have to say I was pretty stoked as I hadn’t even tried the rings again since the first attempt.  So now depending on the workout I can use the rings.  If the workout has lots of reps will go back to the bars for time efficiency.

Note the WOD called for weighted ring dips, but if we weren’t able to do a ring dip unassisted then the goal was to get to the hardest version you could.  For me that was moving from the bars to the rings. For others it was dropping down to a thinner band etc.

The next part of the WOD was 3 rounds of Max Handstand Push Ups (HSPU). So basically keep going until your arms give out.  I don’t yet have a HSPU; I don’t even have a headstand!! So my scaling is to put my knees up on a box and with my hands & head in a similar position to the HSPU lower my head to the ground and then arms back to full extension.  Last week I tried this for the first time in a WOD and could barely do 3 rounds of 5.  I had to weight plates on the ground and an ab mat to lower my head onto, making it easier than straight on the ground.

Last night when we set up the box I only had an abmat to raise the level.  I jumped on and away I went and before I knew it I had hit 10 reps.  Now the aim of this was to go to failure and I learnt what that meant when I attempted rep 11. I lowered my head to the mat and as I was pushing up my arms gave way and I simply slid to the floor.  Hardly a graceful exit from having my knees on the box.  And luckily I felt it happening so avoided face planting completely. I was shattered but happy with the reps.  Still 2 more sets to do.  Second set the same thing happened at rep 11 and another slide to the floor.  I was taking the instruction to work to failure literally!! Sam was cracking up laughing and wished she had videoed the dismount.  Those who have seen my trapeze video are well aware of my inability to gracefully dismount! Set 3 I was determined to get more than 10 and I managed to squeeze out 11 this time. YAY!!

Majorly happy with this improvement in what seems like a relatively short time.  Maybe my diet has been better and I had more energy or maybe the work I have been doing before and after classes and at home is reaping some rewards.  I always expect to improve in strength stuff quickly but I really don’t expect to improve that dramatically in some of the gymnastic movements as it’s really not my thing.

But I am really happy with last night’s results!!!!