Friday's Workout: Ow.

I woke up with a sore and twitchy lower back. It feels like some sort of impingement on the left side of my tailbone, starting near the top of my butt cheek and radiating down the back of my thigh. At the gym, I did my best to stretch and roll it out, but to no avail. At the bottom of each warm-up squat, I felt a twinge radiating from the general direction of my upper butt. (Sorry -- I’d be more anatomically precise if I was more edumacated.)

Possible culprits:

• The large volume of lifts from Monday’s and Wednesday’s WODs;
• My awkwardly clomping jumps during nightly double-under practice with M;
• The fact that I was sitting awkwardly in work meetings and in my car all day yesterday. (With traffic, it took me one hour and twenty-five minutes to drive home last night. Fun!)

Thankfully, the strength portion of today’s workout didn’t involve heavy loads.

More after the jump...



Strength Skill:

• Strict Pull-Ups (3 sets, max reps)
• Kipping Pull-Ups (3 sets of no more than 15 each)

It felt good to flex and stretch my back while hanging off the bar. But today, I wasn't feeling quite up to pushing myself to 15 kipping pull-ups per set. Sets of ten were enough to keep the rust off.

Metcon:

For time:

• 400-meter run
• 21 dumbbell squat cleans (45lb / 30lb)
• 21 Abmat sit-ups
• 21 burpees
• 400-meter run
• 15 dumbbell squat cleans (45lb / 30lb)
• 15 Abmat sit-ups
• 15 burpees
• 400-meter run
• 9 dumbbell squat cleans (45lb / 30lb)
• 9 Abmat sit-ups
• 9 burpees

A week ago, I would’ve likely insisted on the RXed weight, but I’ve since learned my lesson. Given my less-than-100% back, I went with the women’s RXed weight and grabbed a pair of 30 pound dumbbells instead.

Turns out that I would've likely struggled with the 45 reps of dumbbell squat cleans regardless of my back. In combination with the burpees and running, the squat cleans turned my legs to jelly -- and I winced every time I hit the hole. Still, I knew that anything less than the full range of motion would put even more pressure on my lower back, so I did my best to get all the way down. It took me a while, but I eventually got through all of ‘em.

Result: 16:56. TGIF. No more squatting or double-unders until this thing feels better.