The Bear and a bit of Push/Pull

The Bear:


The big question is - is there a more miserable, heinous workout than the Bear??  I think not.  The bear brings you to your knees and makes you want to weep like a baby.  What exactly is the bear, you may ask??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WOP9J7QPwI

It's a power clean, front squat to overhead press or Thruster, down to your back, then a back squat to overhead press.  Doesn't really sound too bad.  Here's the kicker...you do 7 reps of that whole series and at no point, can you set the weight on the ground.  Then do this for 5 rounds.    The first 3-4 reps of each round were actually not bad.  However, once you hit that rep...the last 3-4 are the most painful things ever.  You really do want to quit, but you quash that thought, and keep going....pushing through the pain and misery.  When done with the last rep, you toss the bar on the ground and want to curl up like a bug and just weep.....
Instead...what do you do?? Get up and do it again...relive the pain and misery.... over and over..
But as horrible as it was, I did survive, with a mere bear claw bruise on my chest, a lump on the back of my neck from resting the bar, and a big bruise on my thigh.  No permanent damage.  YAY!
I did this at 95/95/95/85/85.  

Today was Push/Pull  - 3/3/3 Bench and Deadlift.   I was not going to go heavy on the deadlift, it hasn't been a week yet since my bizarro back muscle pull, and I didn't want to aggravate it before it had healed.  So, bench press, I did 135/145/150x2.   Deadlift I did 205/225/245, working on maintaining form.  Not bad - I want my bench to come up....I really want 175 by the end of the year....350 on the DL....and we'll say 275 squat.  Those are my 3 month goals...a bit lofty? Perhaps.  I know I'm not gonna get it unless I clean up the diet, which starts Tuesday.  Oddly enough, Tuesday can't come quick enough. I'm ready to get back on that horse and stay there.  I've learned and experienced the difference.  Have I mentioned how much I hate the fact that food has that much power over your well-being??

First of all - I must throw out how disconcerted I am about this whole new rule thing on pullups!!

Fresh off the gymnastics cert, Jonathan suddenly gets it in his head that no one can do kipping pullups until they can get at least 3 dead hangs.   Not that I can do kipping pullups either, but I at least feel like I'm closer.    I think there is an evil plot against me on this one - Destiny apparently doesn't want me actually succeeding and really doing a workout that includes pullups, the way it's supposed to be done, until about the year 2015.  ARGH!  Have I mentioned that I'm really starting to HATE pullups...and the aggravation they cause me??

Onto better subjects.....

Bench Press - 3/3/3/3/3 - with 2 second pause.  The point of this one was not to go to failure.  Like last Friday, this has been a week - ok, so it's only Tuesday so far, but it's been a miserable week.  I'm mentally and emotionally depleted.  I've been stress eating on crap like there is no tomorrow, which has caused me to feel like ca-ca the last couple of days - basically it's almost like having a food hangover.  So - I wasn't expecting a whole lot on this one.

The 2 second pause wasn't just a 1, 2 count - it was "one.....one......thouuuusand.......two........one......thouuuuusand"  

I ended up doing 115, 125, 135, 145 x2 (I failed miserably on the "don't go to failure" rule), 135.

The weird thing, is these didn't really feel bad - even the 145 - I did the second one, and I thought I could do the third.  I think during the long pause I took a bit of a nap though, and recovering from that was apparently just not gonna happen!  So, I got a tiny bit of a reprimand for that!  I think this is the first time I've done 2 at 145 with a really long pause though!

Today was the bear:
5 rounds of 7 "reps" of the sequence:
- Power clean
- Front squat
- Push press
- Back squat
- Push Press
Evil, evil bear.  Again - I'm feeling like a whipped puppy, so I didn't hold out much hope for doing well.  I kind of surprised myself.  Not that what I did was necessarily pretty, and it was really, super hard.  Actually - I think the hardest part of the Bear is the fact that you cannot set the bar down until the 7 reps are done - that is just painful.   I ended up doing 85/85/90/90/85 for a total score of 435.  Shocked myself!...although, again, I can't say that it was necessarily a pretty thing.  

This bear is ready to hibernate

Ok, I admit it I'm pretty much ready for a couple days off.  Between working out 6 days a week for the last 4-6 weeks, and work stress,  I'm just toast.    I don't really feel bad, but it was really apparent Saturday when we did Helen.  I got the suckiest time I've ever gotten - more than 17 minutes.  I don't think it was the run or the kettlebell swings, it was all in the pullups.  Yes, I was in minis, and I paused between each pullup long enough to know that I was actually working on them, and pulling each time.  But cripes, I added 3 or 4 minutes to my time!! So much for the days of vast improvements!!  My own fault.  Despite being REALLY good at resting on Sundays, it probably isn't enough.  So, I'll push through this week, then take some time off while on vacation.

Today we did the BEAR!! UGH!! Somehow, I've managed to only have to do this one once before.  The bear is a mishmosh of squats/presses/cleans.....all kinds of fun.  Basically you do a power clean, then front squat/overhead press, down to back squat, up to overhead press and back down.

Doesn't sound so bad.....for one rep.    The big problem with this one, is that you have to do that whole barbell complex 7 times - without ever letting the bar rest on the ground.   Then do that set of 7 - 5 times!! OY VAY!  I did 3 sets at 85 lbs, and 2 sets at 75 lbs.   I only cheated by sitting on the butt-ball once - the bad part - I couldn't figure out how to get back up - so that was a bit of a pathetic one.  My total score was 405. 

Could I have gone higher for a round or two....possibly, but I know for a fact that I definitely could have gone lower!!

Actually, next time, I am going to have to go higher, that skinny chick in the video Patty posted did more weight than me - so thinking about it, I'm a bit of a wuss!!