Its me and it's her (the wife)

[Vic McQuaide]

22 seconds sweet!

[Alex Burden]

Monday morning and feeling ok... the weekend is way to short! Monday's are always a little harder when we need to kick start the body again after not doing so much for 2 Days.

Plan - wife's plan with a small change.


Warm up
Set up eveything for the plan

Warm up as we needed on eveything, stretching a little in between.
I would say we spent 25min on this in total.



Plan

5 rounds for time with a 30min time cap

15/10 - calories AAB
15 - sit-ups
15/10 - calories Row
15 - w-balls 6/9kgs
15/10 - calories Ski-erg
15 - KB deadlifts 16/24kgs

Wife - 4 rnds + 47 reps = 347 reps Capped
Myself - 4 rnds + 60 reps = 420 reps Capped

So i started 2min before the wife so that i could keep ahead of her as we only set up 1 of each machine. We would lose time starting the machines on each round which may have made a difference of us completing the rounds or not. This was a tough one for Monday morning and we both started to feel it during the 3rd rounds. My head was telling me to rest but i changed that and started to think i am done soon. Our first rounds were just over 6min and i was thinking we will speed up a little later and complete the rounds, that didn't happen! plus the wife was catching up with me at one point so i had to keep moving. I must that this was a good allround WOD, the flow was good.

We were both pleased even though it really sucked.



Cool down
Clean up our crap and stretch and sweat for 20min

A tough but good start to the week.

[Alex Burden]

Tuesday morning and a little tired. On the other hand the wife slept well and was in a good mood this morning.

Plan - Technique - Snatch


Warm up
60 cal on the rower

extensive snatch warm up though all phases of the lift, pull including snatch balance.

All in all 30min i would say



Technique - Snatch
This is the first time we snatched in a month and this is due to the fact that i pulled my shoulder/rear delt. The weight was not important at all today, its all about the bar path and getting back into this.

Focus areas:
- start position - shoulders in front of bar
- 1st then 2nd pull
- bar as vertical as possible
- elbows vertical
- catch low and safe


Wife was very rusty in the snatch. After 10-15 lifts i made a small adjustment to her start - shoulders more in front of the bar and drive the legs from the heels. All of a sudden her bar was more vertical and she landed some great lifts. She made the comment on numerous occassions that the bar now felt really light.
She moved from 15-17 and then to 18kgs and boy did they look good . The path of the bar was great and when the bar reached her hips her upper body was vertical in that perfect sitting position and from there the bar flew up.
She received the bar nice and low with no movement or signs of instability in the hole.
A very pleased wife today, i mean way more than normal, she wanted to do more but its good to finish off on a high note.


Myself i took it nice and easy from the start to get back into it and judge what was happening with my shoulder. I needed to know if it felt good or if i was causing problems again. Started at 40, went to 50 and finished at 60kgs.
Everything felt really good today and i recieved the bar in the hole perfectly in all but 1 lift. The weight felt light and i was pleased will my pulls and how vertical the bar was moving.
Wife thought it all looked good today.

In total maybe 25 lifts each


Cool down
Just to get the pulse up a little plus to use those fast twiching muscle fibers we have been using..

55 burpee box jump overs (share the load)

Then a good stretch/mobility for 20min

[Alex Burden]

Wednesaday and boy were we tired.... we both slept really well but an hour extra would have been great. Delts and upper back a little tight from yesterday but that was expected.


Plan - keeping to it ... conditioning parts I, II & III


Warm up
jogging, some pipe work, light stretch, trigger legs into life

maybe 15min.


Plan - Pacing and efficiency

Part I - Row 20min - NO straps - for distance
We set up the rower drag to 115 for the wife and 120 for myself.

Start to row and keep a pace of:
20 strokes/min for 4min
22 strokes/min for 4-8min
24 strokes/min for 8-12min
26 strokes/min for 12-16min
28 strokes/min for 16-20min

During this time you keep the row as efficient as possible, drive with the legs, long pulls, make sure you keep your chest up the whole time.

We found the best stroke rate was 24 and 26/min while the others were very slow or too fast with no straps. The whole time we could pace off each other. Efficiency was quite good and we could see the 500m time lower every time we increased the stroke rate.

Wife:
4101 meters (228 calories)

Myself:
4602 meters (281 calories)

Enjoyed that, felt good all the way through... time just flew by



Part II - Run 20min - treadmill - for distance
Something different today... we could control the speed ourselves but not the inclince. We started off on a baseline of 0 degrees and every 4 min one of us chose the angle of incline we both had to change to.

Control your own speed:
0 degrees for 4min
3 degrees for 4-8min (my choice)
2 degrees for 8-12min (wife's choice)
5 degrees for 12-16min (my choice)
2 degrees for 16-20min (wife's choice)

Wife:
2980 meters (246 calories)

Myself:
3410 meters (412 calories)

Wife was a little ****ed after this because she sped up towards the end to hit the 3km mark but came up short by 20m . Apart from that we both felt that this went so fast, before we knew it we were done. Pacing was great for both of us, no stress.



Part III - AAB 20O calories - for time (share the load)
We split this up so that wife did 8 cals and i did 12 cals which is 75% of my workload. We used 1 bike and had to adjust the seat every time we alternated which means we lost a lot of time but we did get better as the rounds moved on.

So we split this up into rounds.. wife did her 8 cals and the only thing i did was adjust the seat and add 12 cals to where ever the counter stopped.
When i was done i would reset the counter while the wife adjusted the seat so she could start from 0. This made life so easy rather than having to add things up the whole time.

Time 17:31

I was in the zone today, it felt really good, just below that lactic acid level every time. Wife found it hard after 40 cals so she slowed just a little and blasted through it...



Cool down
sweat, bring the heart rate down and stretch for 20min

[Alex Burden]

Thursday morning and tired... woke up in the middle of the night and found it hard to get back to sleep. Wife was also tired but in a good mood.

Plan - quality over quantity



Warm up
60 cals on the rower
pipe work, shoulder mobility

warm up with the first part of today
Ensure those fast twiching muscle fibers are woken up



Quality over quantity
The focus today was on the split jerk and not the weight. Technique, technique, technique.

10 rounds
2 Split jerks (take bar from the rack) 27/60kgs (60/132lbs)
5 DB bench press 12/22kgs (26/49lbs)


The idea behind the DB bench press is to make the chest and triceps tired. This means to split jerk you really need to focus and it will limit your chance to push press the barbell.
Speed under the bar and lock out is so important, it will show in the split jerk.
Do not rack the bar between the reps...

Things got better over time and we both had rounds where the first split jerk was not that good but the second was solid. maybe 75% of the split jerks were solid.

Tips for the wife today - thumb grip on bar, wider grip on bar and foot position from start. After these things it went really well. She was very pleased and the weight felt light. She has started to feel and see the difference in a lot of things these days.
I think she has started to understand the thought around my input (coaching) to improve and due to the fact she has very good body control compared to years back it makes it easier for her to comprehend.



Deadlift - 15min - 10 singles
Take the weight and reps on that weight as far as you like.

Wife - 2x55, 2x65, 1x70, 1x75, 2x80, 1x83, 1x88kgs/194lbs (95% of 1RM)

Myself - 3x110, 2x120, 2x130, 1x140, 1x150, 1x160/352lbs (91% of 1RM)


Good solid lifts, wife said that 88kgs was getting heavy but she was able to drive it up at a steady pace with good form. For myself i had no problem at all and i had a lot left in the tank at 160kgs.



Cool down
mobility for 20min or so..

[Alex Burden]

Friday morning and we are both quite tired. Very late night last night as our oldest son came home from university to see us before he heads out to Sri Lanka today With his girlfriend. So 5½hrs sleep is not enough.
This also meant i did not have time to plan anything for today.

Plan - just made it up as we went


Warm up
around a 600m jog
some pipe work and warm up our shoulders and lats.

20min i would say.



What we came up with

Kettle bell - Farmers walk 5 rounds
Single arm OH x 20m (left arm), wife 16kgs, myself 28kgs (35/62lbs)
Single arm OH x 20m (right arm)

2 KB - front rack - 20m, wife 16kgs, myself 20kgs (35/44lbs)

For Distance - 2 KB - farmers walk front rack position - 1 attempt = walk till you drop.

Wife - 104m (341ft) 16kgs
Myself - 140m 460ft) 20kgs



DU/SU
3 x 25/50 to get going

then 2 attempts - Unbroken

Wife = 538 SU's... what a beast
Myself = 58 and 46... such a loser

We were jumping in a different part of the gym and the new mats have an awful lot of friction which i could feel when my rope hit the floor. This sort of put me off, the thing is the wife had no problem... so maybe i am just a loser today . Wife was a beast and she commented to me that she was worried how long i was going to have to wait until she was done .



T2B/K2C
Wife wanted to test a new K2C she had seen with a resistance band... that didn't work so we stopped that.

6x5 reps

I had to test this today as i have not done T2B since i pulled my shoulder. after a couple of rounds they felt ok.



Banded leg raises With core activation

5x12/14 reps

This was new, the wife wanted to try it out... Not bad, we can do this again.



Kipping - technique - 15min
I helped the wife to understand and get the feeling for kipping. Now she cannot complete pull ups yet but to understand the feel and how the body reacts on the lower/bottom part of the kip. This we used because i want her to complete T2B first as the principles are the same. She was pleased With the difference and how she can approach this in the future. 50% left to go on that. Great proggression in my view.



Wall walks
For me i just need to get back into these. I took it easy and held the position for 20 seconds every time. Shoulder felt ok, nice and stable.

The wife has never done these before and actually got her legs up on the wall (hands 2ft from the wall) after a little instruction. She could hold the position for 15 seconds. I am impressed as everything the wife is scared of she has started to combat .



Cool down
not a lot, chat with others and 15min stretch

and that was that for this week.

[Alex Burden]

Monday morning and we are both a little tired. This weekend we took it really easy apart from the wife went walking for 1½hrs yesterday. Monday is normally a stiff day, get going day for the rest of the week.

Plan - Speed, speed speed


Warm up
60 cal row
extensive shoulder and mobility warm up
warm up with what was to come.

25min i would say



Speed - Under the bar
The focus is not the weight but on the speed under the bar, stability and quality.

1 Snatch Balance
plus
1 OHS

Start with a light weight and focus on getting under the bar in the hole as quick as possible. At the bottom we had to pause for 1 second and then complete the lift. Once at the top, without moving your feet from the position they are in complete 1 full OHS.
The reason for this is that we need to know if we are stable. By completing the OHS afterwards will also show if your feet are in the correct position.

Wife - 10, 12, 15, 17, 19kgs/42lbs
Myself - 40, 45, 50, 55, 60kgs/132lbs

We never kept track on how many reps we completed on each weight, but we never increased the weight if the reps were not good. Techinque, speed, feet position must all be good before we progressed. I would say that we completed at least 4 rounds on each weight.



Squat Clean
As above, focus, speed, form, quality.

Wife - 25, 29, 32, 35, 3x37, 3x39, 3x42kgs/92lbs equaled current PR 3 times
Myself - 60, 70, 75, 70, 85kgs/187lbs

As above, no count on the reps. Worked on the starting position and getting under the bar as far as possible. The wife felt the difference if her start was off slightly but when it was good she felt the wife fly up and found it easy to land the bar in the rack position.
I was pleased With today, weight felt heavy but i felt solid getting under the bar. I did grip the bar with a wider grip today to see what happens, felt good.



Cool down
clean up and stretch for 20min

[Alex Burden]

Tuesday morning... wife is in a good mood both of us were feeling good.

Plan - Ghost



Warm up
60 cal row
mobility work
get our pulse up before we started



Ghost
So the last time we did this was in 2016. Gave the wife a choice of 4 different WOD's and she chose this.

6 rounds
1 min Row for calories
1 min Burpees
1 min Double unders (scaled Single unders)
1 min Rest


Results:
Wife
Row - 13, 12, 13, 12, 12, 14
Burpees - 10, 10, 11, 11, 11, 12
SU's - 115, 117, 125, 118, 133, 125

Result - 874 (2016 = 856)

The wife was pleased with her result but she did trip a few times on the SU's and was a little ****ed about that. She pushed on the burpees which also meant she lost a few seconds on the rope which also meant reps.


Myself
Row - 16, 15, 15, 15, 13, 15
Burpees - 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10
SU's - 67, 72, 57, 66, 18C, 77

Result - 506 (2016 = 402)

Everything was going great until round 5, as i started the DU's i got cramp!!!!! thats why there us a C next to the total. I just had to try and walk it off, it calmed down during the rest and then on the row, it didn't affect me on the burpees... on the last round of DU i just went for it.
My plan through it was 15 cal and 10 burpees and see what happens on the Du's. I am still pleased With the result, a nice improvement.



Cool down
sweat a little and stretch for 20min.

[Alex Burden]

Wednesday morning and all by myself wife had to be at work at 8 for a meeting. So that also means i get to whatever i like

Plan - technique



Warm up
5 min on the rower
a lot of pipe work, shoulder mobility
made sure my lats and back were well warmed up



Technique
Now that my shoulder is feeling stable and no pain it's that time again.

7 - Wall walks with 5 second hold
7 - Wall approaches - get into vertical HS position and hold
3 - Strict HSPU

Progression from the wall walks to getting vertical in a smooth motion with my heels touching the wall first without smashing into it. I was more stable and almost able to keep myself from the wall. The HSPU were solid, nice and strict.



7 - Muscle ups - kipping
7 - Muscle ups - negative from top position

MU felt really good today, no problem getting up. The negatives are harder from the top when you weigh 100kgs but they got better after each rep and controling the movement on the way down uses the biceps which makes it tough.



7 - Bar Muscle ups
7 - kip technique, high hips to the bar

These were hard today, i was getting tired and i had trouble getting up. Chicken wings.... I then went back to just the kip and high hips, they felt good and the height was good.



1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (21 in total) Strict pull ups
1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 1, 1 Strict ring dips

Both of these movements felt quite good, great form and body control.


So today i was in no rush with any of movements, áll effort was put into the quality and form of the movements.



Cool down
upper body stretch for 10min or so.

[Vic McQuaide]

Chicken wings.. good for snacks not so much on the rings.