Monday's Workout

I'm a little exhausted. Work has been crazy, and the holidays (and multiple birthdays in our family) have ratcheted up my stress levels. Vacation's still a week away, and my to-do list is as long as my arm. To top it off, M and I have been insanely busy cooking up some Nom Nom Paleo-related stuff. But I'm keeping my priorities straight: Come Monday morning, I'm at CrossFit Palo Alto.

Strength Skill:

• Deadlifts (5-5-5-3-3)

My back's feeling fine, but given how I felt just a few weeks ago, I was much more tentative than usual. Rather than shooting aggressively for a new PR, I started light and stayed light, lifting just a fraction of my personal best. I'll eventually work my way back up, but for now, I'm going to play it safe, and settle for watching my classmates set new benchmarks. (Jake's new deadlift PR: 405 pounds!)

Metcon:

• Row 500 meters
• 50 air squats
• 40 Games standard push-ups
• 30 overhead kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 20 pull-ups
• 10 toes-to-bar

Despite my antipathy for the erg, the 500-meter row wasn't too bad. I quickly settled into a steady rhythm, and finished with enough pep in my step to get through the air squats unbroken. (High five!) The push-ups proved to be a bigger challenge; try as I might, I couldn't string together all 40 in a row. I had to break the last 15 or so into mini-sets of a few at a time.

The kettlebell swings weren't any easier, but I was determined to blaze through 'em. After 20 or so, I desperately wanted to drop the kettlebell, but didn't. I hit my goal of 30 swings in a row -- but as I grabbed the pull-up bar, fully intending to crank out the last two exercises, I realized that MY GRIP STRENGTH WAS GONE.

As a result, the pull-ups took a bit longer than usual, and so did the toes-to-bar. My forearms were on fire by the end of the WOD.

Result: 9:07 as RXed.

Later in the day, I popped into a local health center for a much-needed massage. My masseuse spent a good chunk of time on my forearms, kneading them with her (insanely strong) hands and knuckles.

"Your hands and wrists and forearms are all knotted up," she said. "You're spending too much time at the computer. Try doing some exercise -- it might help."

Haw, haw.

Monday's Workout: Fat Gripz & PTP

CrossFit Palo Alto's closed for Turkey Week, so for the first time in a long while, I got to play around in my garage with some of my toys. Some of them -- like my Fat Gripz -- have been sitting in a box for a month, waiting for me to get off my ass and try 'em out.

Now that my back's feeling better, I want to work on getting it stronger -- and so my plan is to start doing some low-rep sets of deadlifts and strict presses, mixed with some super-short metcons. Sound familiar?

Yep -- I'm revisiting the Power to the People protocol.

Dallas and Melissa of the Whole9 have a PTP template from their CrossFit 603 days, so I decided to jump right in with their programming for Day One. First up: the "Buy-In":

3 rounds:

• 20-second handstand hold
• 15 Russian kettlebell swings (24kg / 16kg)
• 10 box jumps (20″)

This was a fun way to kick off the morning and get the blood pumping rushing to my head. Once I was nice and toasty, I was ready for PTP.

Deadlift:

• Warm up: A few reps at a light weight
• Set 1: 60% of 1-rep max, 3-5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of Set 1 weight, 3-5 reps

Just to keep things interesting, I decided to wrap the Fat Gripz around my barbell -- I figured I might as well work on my grip strength, too. (Yes, I know that some folks say that increasing open-hand grip strength isn't necessarily going to help with support-grip moves like deadlifts or pull-ups, but I'm happy to settle for just generally increasing the strength of my hands.

I had trouble wrapping my thumbs around the width of the Fat Gripz -- my grip felt much more awkward than I expected -- but the starting weight was light, so I managed just fine. We'll see what happens as the weight on the bar starts creeping up.

Press:

• Warm up: A few reps at a light weight
• Set 1: 60% of 1-rep max, 3-5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of Set 1 weight, 3-5 reps

I used the Fat Gripz on the strict presses, too, though I don't think it made much of a difference. Presses don't rely much on finger strength, so I'll probably skip the Gripz for this movement next time.

Cash Out:

3 rounds for time:

• 30 double-unders
• 15 knees-to-elbows

This sounded easy, but the KTEs rocked my world. I cranked out the double-unders without much trouble, but they wiped me out enough to make the knees-to-elbows a royal pain in the butt. Also, to be consistent, I'd stuck the Fat Gripz on the pull-up bar, too -- and it didn't take me long to start regretting it. Getting a handle on the bar was much more challenging than I anticipated, and my hands kept slipping off. Ugh.

Result: 4:27 as RXed.

I need bigger hands. My teeny little baby hands aren't cutting it.

Battle of the Bands

As part of my exploration into ways to improve my grip strength, I recently ordered a pack of IronMind's Expand-Your-Hand Bands from Amazon. They're easy to use: Just pick a band, loop it around your thumb and fingers and try to open your hand.

Unlike hand grippers, wrist rollers, thick bars, Fat Gripz and the like, these elastic bands work your finger extensors and abductors, counterbalancing all your other grip work and thereby reducing the likelihood of repetitive stress and overuse injuries.

But at the end of the day, could you use just plain old rubber bands? TOTALLY. You won't be able to easily replicate the Expand-Your-Hand Bands' conveniently color-coded resistance levels, but you know what? All you have to remember is this: The more bands you use, the greater the resistance. And while regular rubber bands are more prone to snapping, you can always grab some more for free in the produce section of your supermarket.

Getting a Grip

As soon as a phone book get dropped off at my doorstep (who even uses those anymore?), it goes straight into the recycling bin. It never occurs to me to tear it in half first. Same goes for our old frying pans -- I never think to bend and squish ‘em up them with my bare hands before tossing them.



The reason, of course, is that I can’t. I can offer a firm handshake, and I don’t have baby-hands like Kristen Wiig's Junice, but I don’t exactly have an arm wrestler’s grip, either.

Frankly, I never really thought to develop it. But a strong grip makes it easier to lift heavier. My lack of hand strength will eventually limit my overall ability to optimally perform everything from deadlifts to kettlebell swings to pull-ups. And that just won’t do.

More after the jump...

Monday’s Workout

My alarm went off at 4:20 a.m., jolting me out of a dream. And in that dream, I was blogging.

I need to get a life.

Today's WOD -- after the jump...