Tabata Squats & Pull Ups

Last night was fun. A Texas thunderstorm started to roll in just as I was leaving the office for the 7PM class at Xfit.

By the time that I'd pulled into the parking lot, raindrops were just starting to hit my windshield. I found Carrie and Kason in the gym and immediately got the 4-1-1 on the WOD. After the humiliating experience that I’d had the night before (which I have not written about here on the blog…just can’t stand to relive it…), I needed to have a good night. Carrie’s run-down from the 6PM always gives me “my edge”.

Koy started us with an 800m Indian run…which means that our whole group had to start in a single-file formation – the last person in line sprints up to the head of the line in a constant rotation. The Indian run is my favorite way to run our 800m route around the block. Even the uphill part along the row of warehouses that I hate is less of a chore when you’re running with the pack. It’s even more fun in the rain. By the time we made it back to the box, I had totally recovered from a long day at work and was ready to "slay dragons".

The WOD was two rounds of tabata squats and pull-ups or muscle ups. As I explained earlier this week, the muscle up is a milestone that I have not reached yet. I hope that someday we get some technical training on how this movement is performed…cuz even with all of my Internet research, I still don’t think I get it.

With Carrie’s “Cliff’s Notes” from her 6PM WOD, I was able to kind of estimate how I was gonna get through the tabata squats and pull ups. And amazingly, I was able to stick to the plan. I found a steady pace for the tabata squats – nothing crazy because I did not want to "run out of gas" on the last few rounds of 8 (as I usually do). I was able to hit at least 10 squats for every round this way. No records broken for sure, but respectable (for me).

Although I’ve come a long way with the pull ups, they are still really hard, especially after tabata squats when oxygen is at a premium. The goal defined by the WOD was max reps in 3 minutes. In my first attempt on the bar, I was able to do 10 pull ups (without a band). After that, I did groups of 5. By the very end of the second set, I was only able to do 2 or 3 at-a-time. In the first 3-minutes round I was able to do 30 pull ups. In the second round I did 20.

The 7PM crew has become like a little family now that I look forward to hanging out with every night. Even though today is my rest day, I brought my gym bag with me to work just in case.