Death by Pullups!

Today was actually a fun WOD. I don't usually think of them as fun in the moment, but I thoroughly enjoyed today's workout. First, I had missed Monday because I was not feeling well, and so my body was not hurting at all when I went in today. I had no stiffness or soreness in any muscles from last week, and I've had a couple of nights of good sleep, so I felt fresh and ready to go.

First I learned how to do a dead-lift. Boring, but good. Maxed out at 125#. My favorite lifts so far are the bench press and hang cleans (except for the bruises I sometimes get on my clavicle, but never mind).

Then the WOD was "Death by Pullups." That meant as many reps that you can complete in one minute on that minute of the workout, so 1 pullup the first minute, 2 the second, 3 the third, etc. I maxed out at 10 in 1 minute and then my left arm was burning so much that I couldn't get more than 5 in the 11th minute, so I was done. 10 + 5 was my score. I had hoped to get to 12 or 14, but next time. Even as I sit here typing, the pain in my forearm is making it hard to type! All together that was a total of 60 reps for my workout.

I had some concern coming in today that I would have lost some strength due to not having been there for a couple of extra days, but actually I found the opposite to be true. Coming in fully refreshed and recovered I was stronger than I have been. In the warm up there were 20 kettle bell swings and up until now I have used the 20lb bell. In the first set of ten I used the 20 lb. bell and it actually felt light. There was nothing between the 20 and 35lb bell, so I switched. Ho! It was much heavier, but in the switch, the coach gave me some very good pointers about how to tighten up and breathe correctly, and I was able to rep out the next 10 without any problem. Also, I was able to do the first 5 minutes or so with the next lighter band than I have been using for pull-ups, so I'm making a little progress there. I hope to be using the green band exclusively within a few weeks.