Category: Injury
Last post
The Spartan Race has come and gone, and I wasn’t part of it. My ankle was simply not healed enough. Many told me of the steep muddy hills that were on the course, so that might’ve actually broken it.
I could say this was wasted, but it’S not really. I learned a lot about myself while training and writing this blog. It has been an interesting journey, one that I will continue.
Well, this is it. I think this might be my last post. I’m not sure if I should go on writing posts, now.
It’s been fun, thank you all for reading (thus far, maybe) and sharing my travels on the road to Sparta(n). Keep training, have fun and never let go.
Chris
Diane
Pick you poison Friday has come around again, but matters are a little bit complicated by the ankle. Many WODs require ankle mobility, and those that do not, I’ve done already.
A few days ago, I saw a tweet from Pat Sherwood, one of the Crossfit Games Show anchor, saying that the first time he did Diane, a dirty benchmark girl, it took him 15min, and then he spent months training for hand stand pushups, which brought his time down to some 5min. Diane does not require that much ankle mobility… so here we go.
For time: 21-15-9 of deadlift 225lbs and HSPU. It took me 12:57 to do it; I beat Pat Sherwood! Well, not really, mine was not Rx, as I couldn’t quite lock my elbows on every rep… lousy not-locking elbows! Still, my HSPU kip is progressing nicely and I’m improving. Deadlift is ok at 225lbs – it’s a heavier work weight, but I can do my reps without burning myself out.
9 days until the Spartan Race, 8 days to heal the ankle.
Pistol Squats
No so a great day to train today… It’s raining, my knee hurts (getting old and surgery) and the skill was pistol squats. Pistol squats are one legged squats – the other leg is stretched in front of you. You need strong quads, good balance and some ankle flexibility. Quads are getting there, strength-wise, balance is OK and ankle, well, no at the moment. I’m slowly getting the hang of it, though. The right leg doesn’t go low enough, but that’s normal with the ankle. I’m very careful with it and make sure I don’t use it or stretch it too much.
The WOD, on the other hand, was good. 17min AMRAP: 10 toes to bar, 20 wall balls 20lbs. I did try beforehand a few wall ball shots, to see if my ankle would hurt or stretch too much. It was OK again, but I still too it at a slower pace. After a while, fatigue and the desire to go faster take a toll on the form, and that’s when I go aggravate things. I focused more on my technique, deep squats and good high shots. A few went sideways, and stepping to the side brought a twinge once or twice – a great motivator to shoot straight!
I still can’t kip the toes 2 bar, though, and it’s driving me mad. I can kip pullups and knees 2 elbows, but not T2B. Best I can do is a slight kip backwards (half swing in hollow position) in order to then swing up for another rep. There’s a piece of the puzzle missing in this, and I can’t find what…sigh.
Oh, and I did 5 rounds and 15 wall balls.
No Rep
Every now and then, I get a break. This time, it was the WOD. My sprain limits a lot what I can and can’t do. No running, skipping, rowing or other type of umping/impact. But I can squat and do upped body work.
Today’s skill was squat cleans… to movements combined I’m allowed to do. Because of the slight jumping motion in the transition, though, I kept the weight light, 65lbs, and worked on technique, correcting big small details.
Then came the WOD: 20min AMRAP – 7 HSPU, 12 strict pullups. All upper body.:) I recently managed to learn how to kip HSPU, sop I decided to go Rx. My goal was to do 2 rounds, maybe a third. I ended up doing 6! Strict pullups are hard… I no rep’d myself quite a few times because halfway up, I started kipping. That takes a lot out of you after a while…
Now some rest and ice for the ankle. It wasn’t used much, but it still has to heal.
Sprain
As the swelling in my ankle didn’t go down as much as I thought it would, and because a bruise appeared yesterday, I went to see a doctor to see what’s the story. Seems I have a slight sprain. Ice, elevation and compression are prescribed… and obviously no running or activities that involve impact on the ankle. I can still lift, but no double unders, burpees or box jumps. It should heal on its own.
I did ask about running – I have the Spartan Race in 2 weeks. Doctor told me to use my judgement. That means that, in a week, I’ll have to assess my situation and see if I run or not.
You know, I’m getting sick and tired f this. Every time there’s a competition coming up, I seem to injure myself and miss it. I want to do those competitions! It stinks. This one most of all, as it’s the very reason behind this blog.
‘Guess we’ll see in a week how things stand.
Ankle
Well this sucks. I was having a great WOD and I hurt my anle.
We started out with deadlifts 10-8-6-8-10, going progressively heavier up to 6 and lightening the load, but still keeping it heavier then the first similar set.. so my second set of 8 was heavier than the first one. I started at 135lbs, went up to 235lbs and down again. I was good – it’s hot and humid out so I like it. I pushed myself, but didn’t go overboard and then be gassed for the WOD.
The WOD was quick and good. 4 rounds for time – 2 rope climbs (13-15ft) and 4 squat cleans 185lbs. With the deadlift done previously, the squat cleans could be a nasty thing. As my max clean is around 170lbs, there was no way in hell I could Rx the damn thing. I scaled it to 135lbs. I gave it a try, but I felt a sharp twinge on the side of my deltoid. I’m told by my physio I should roll my bicep. I’ll heed her advice, but that also means I have to scale down some more. I went down to 95lbs. It worked out well. I’m sure I could’ve pushed it,but risk busting the shoulder? No.
When the time started I went up and down that rope like the devil was after me – 7s! By the 19th second, I was at my bar for the lifts. I felt good, things were going great and in my last rope descent in the 3rd round, I went down way too fast and landed on one of my ankle. It hurt – no snap -but pain. I wasn’t sure if I had sprained it or not. My coach got me some ice just in case. After some times, the pain was mostly gone. It felt more like when you miss a step going down the sidewalk and roll on your ankle… that’s how it felt. So I went back to the WOD. I figured I’d do a squat clean, see how that went, and move on. At the first sign of pain, I’d quit. I managed to finish the WOD in 5:59, having “lost” about 1:30 to check if my ankle was ok.
At the moment, the bony part on the outside is slightly swollen and there’s a dull ache, but I can walk and put my weight on it. I’ll know tomorrow for sure how things are. My coach also checked up on me to make sure I was ok. 🙂
It’s one of those thing that differentiate crossfit from many sports or physical activities – the caring.
I just hope the ankle will be healed by June 16- for the Spartan Race.
Body Metrics and End benchmark 1
The 90 days are done, now we collect our winnings or bragging rights. Sort of. First we have to redo the benchmark we first did before the challenge started, in January.
According to the rules, I had to do at least 2 benchmark WODs at the beginning and redo them at the end. In my case, it was Jack and Fran – you can check the January 7 and 10 posts. The results were used as a baseline to determine the winner and improvements, among other things. In my case, I’m number 1 equal with another athlete, so the benchmark will separate us. Obviously, for the comparison to be fair, it means I have to do this week’s WODs at the same weights as last time. Those that I’ve been reading my blog for a while will remember that I got a shoulder injury at the end of October that left me on the bench for a while, and that it took forever to heal and regain my strength. At the benchmark time, I wasn’t back up to full strength for Jack.
After the skill, we went straight on to Jack: 20min AMRAP – 10 push press 115lbs, 10 KB swings 1.5pood and 10 box jumps 24in. In January, I scaled at 75lbs and finished with 7 rounds and 2 push press. This time, with the same weight (no choice), I finished with 11 rounds and 2 box jumps! Holy crap! It’s a 50% improvement, more or less.
I guess the paleo, the training and the Open help. 🙂 Pretty proud of myself.
Speaking of pride, we also took my measurements to compare. In January, I weight 199lbs and had a body fat percentage of 20.1. Today, at about the same time, I weight 180lbs and had a body fat percentage of 15.1. 15.1! Again Holy crap! I think back then I was aiming at 10% body fat loss and some 20lbs. Half of my goal – not too bad. 🙂
And yes, the Mrs is happy with the results. 😀
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
P.S. My thoughts are prayers go to the runners and folks of Boston.
Cardio
Can your cardio actually get worse? I mean while training, not after a long break from exercise. More on this further down.
Back to the box today after winning my annual fight with the taxman over the weekend (I owe him nothing!), and training from my parents’ place, with bodeefit. After the stupidity of 13.1, we started with strength training. On the menu for the skill part today: a trio of squats. First course was back squats 8-8-8. I ended up lifting 195lbs for 2 reps at the end, then went back to 165, as it was simply to hard to complete the set safely – I could feel pain in a quad at that point – NOT going to pull a muscle or blow my good knee on a squat, or at all for that matter. Considering my max 1 rep is around 255, I’m happy.
Next came front squats 6-6-6. My wrist is still not fully healed from my last experience with the front squat, so I took it easier at 85lbs. Enough to get a workout and a stretch in the arms/wrists, while keeping the tendons safe. With finished our trio with a favorite of mine, the OH Squat 4-4-4. I kept a decent weight, 65lbs. My shoulders are slooowly getting the needed flexibility and strength. 🙂
Now on to the main course, WOD 11.2, to keep with the Open spirit. WOD 11.2 is 15min AMRAP: 9 deadlift 155lbs, 12 hand release pushups and 15 boxjumps. I did 5 rounds and 8 HRPU Rx. Honestly, it’s not a WOD I’m proud of; it didn’t go bad, but didn’t go well either – I was expecting more out of me for this, to be honest – at least 6 or 7 rounds. After the second round, my cardio simply gave out. Just like that, box jumps became twice as hard and deadlifts seemed much heavier than they usually are at that weight. Hence my question at the beginning: Can your cardio get worse? I see no cause for it to suck that much today. Ah well, it is what it is, and I’ll get over this, too.
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training
Cursed
Jiu night tonight. You know, I’m starting to think my gym bag is cursed, or something else is. Every time I heal from a minor nagging injury, I seem to get another nagging one. It’s very annoying, and mildly painful. My wrist is mostly healed now, I can do pushups without pain, no worries. This time around, during warmup, we were doing mock stand-up, trying to hit different parts of the body to make our partner do pushups. With open hands. Trying to hit my partner’s shoulder, he ducked and twisted, and I jammed my thumb straight in his shoulder while fully extended. Thumbs doing this usally pop out, break or do something else that makes it hurt like &%/$T%E!
So now I’m typing with one hand, the other being wrapped in an ice pack. Lousy minor setbacks… at least it didn’t pop out or break.
Nevertheless, it was a good night of techniques. Silver lining to the whole thing, either crossfit or the paleo is doing its magic, but I’m full of energy. I mean doing the pushups were nothing, I could’ve gone for an extra hour of class. I like it. 🙂
Hopefully my thumb will be ok by tomorrow night.
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training.
Crossfit Total
After last Monday’s training, I’m glad today was a good night – and it almost wasn’t. Because of work-related events that ran longer than planned, I actually cancelled my registration for tonight’s class; work is more important, and I’d rather give my spot to someone who’d be there (and avoid the burpee penalty for a no show). Nonetheless, a small miracle happened, and I got there 15min after class began. I was quite ready to sit on the sideline while the Mrs kicked ass on the WOD – that she did, too! The coach simply told me to change and get in. Tonight, for skillz, we did Crossfit Total. Time enough for me to warm up and join the athletes.
Crossfit Total is a benchmark WOD designed to test strength. Three exercises, 3 tries for each. You must do you best 1 rep max back squat, 1 rep max shoulder press and 1 rep max deadlift. Each pound lifted at the end counts as 1 point, and you add up.
Last time I did CFT was somewhere back in September, before the shoulder injury. I was curious to see how I improved, or got back, in terms of strength. I was eager for the deadlift, as I hadn’t done a 1 rep max in quite a while, but wary of the back squat, as Monday’s experience had been disapointing. Last CFT, I did 205lbs back squat, 115 shoulder press and 275 deadlift, for a total of 605.
This time around, witht the training and the tips I got back in New-Brunswick (for the deadlift, at least), I did 225lbs back squat, 120 shoulder press and 355 deadlift, for a total of 700! I PR’d all my scores, pushing my deadlift lift back by 50lbs! I even did better on the back squat. Pretty happy right now. 🙂
Supplements
1 scoop (10g) Beyond Yourself AMRAP (BCAA) with 12oz water – during training, 1 scoop (30g) Beyond Yourself Whey ISO in 500ml water – after training.
Road 2 Sparta(n) 