Pulling

Britain's Zoe Smith at London 2012, showing how it should be done.

Hang power snatches
65 x 3
75 x 3
80 x 3
85 x 3
90 x 3
95 x 1

I was really pleased with the first three sets because I felt I had very good form and technique, using lots of speed and power to get the bar overhead. I'd done quite a bit of warming up, plus I didn't rush myself between individual reps. From 85lb onwards there was a little pressing out, but not as much as usual. One rep at 95lb might not seem like a massive accomplishment, but it felt like a definite improvement.

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This was Sunday's main site WOD.

10 rft:
3 weighted pull-ups @ 22lb (45lb rx)
5 strict pull-ups
7 kipping pull-ups
Time = 30:33

Bloody hell, this was a damn sight tougher than I expected. I knew I wouldn't be able to cope with the RXed weight of a 45lb dumbbell, but I was unsure if I'd gone too light with half that weight. Definitely not! According to the demo video, you aren't allowed to let go of the bar during a set - i.e. from the first weighted pull-up of an individual set until completion of the final kipping pull-up - otherwise, the whole of that set would be a "no rep". There was no way I could maintain that. In fact, only the first set was completely unbroken. I had a good long rest after that, but when I got to the second round of weighted pull-ups, I really struggled. At that point, I had two options: (1) Quit, because I couldn't do the routine like the demo, or (2) Keep going, but break up sets when I needed to. I went with #2 because I figured it would still be a damn tough workout. I failed a couple of kips in the latter rounds, but other than that I did okay. My family doctor was in the gym at the same time as me, and I could see him looking over with a "WTF is he doing?" look on his face.

Nasty pull-ups gave me a boo-boo.
Left hand doesn't look too good, either.

During the ninth set I noticed that I'd ripped some skin on my right palm, but thankfully it didn't start to hurt until I'd finished. That was a fun challenge, but I won't be repeating it in a hurry. 150 pull-ups!

Good, satisfying workout today.