Barbara:deceptive beyotch

When I checked the WOD online yesterday, I literally smiled. It was not just a smile, it was a full-on-shit-eating grin:


“Barbara”

5 rounds for fastest times:

20 pull-ups

30 push-ups

40 sit-ups

50 squats

Rest 3:00 between each set

Lately, every WOD has seemed to include some element that I totally suck at (double unders, snatch, jerk, etc.). But Barbara is not that technical…she’s a "grinder WOD", just a lot of work with a few exercises that I actually kinda like (pullups and pushups).

Barbara. I started thinking that I would finally get to post an “Rx” after my time on the blog.

I get to the box and the 7PM class is peppered with some new members who look kinda nervous, so I am thinking that I may even NOT be the last guy to finish all 5 sets (Rx'ed!). I had a good spot on the pullup bar, right next to the chalk bucket. What else could I ask for?

Sam said to use the first round as a benchmark for the rest of the WOD. If we can’t finish the first round in 3-4 minutes, scale back. Round 1 took me over 5 minutes. WTF?

For the next 4 rounds I scaled back each of the reps by 10 (10 pullups, 20 pushups, 30 situps, 40 squats).

But each round still took much longer than 3-4 minutes (approximately 4.5 minutes per round).

And once again, I was pretty much the last guy to finish.

Barbara is a deceptive little beyotch.

Although the workload was intense, it was manageable. But I required a lot of time to get it all done. The pullups and pushups fly by quickly. But it takes me forever to get through the situps. And I rest a little after every 10 squats.

Could I have pushed a little harder to get a better time? Definitely. Especially during the squats.

But I think that there is also an athletic component that is required in order to own a WOD like Barbara. For one thing, the guys who made the best times seemed to breeze through the situps. It took my forever to get through the first round (and the following rounds) of situps. The reps were not above my fitness level…I can totally do 30-40 situps without pushing too hard. But each situp takes me a few seconds to complete…I don’t “fly” through them like I should.

Also, although I think that my pullups have definitely improved over the past few months, my kip seems a little outta control…when I push my head through at the bottom of the pullup, I seem to hyper-extend too far which I think adds a couple of seconds to each rep. If I want to be able to Rx a WOD like Barbara, I am going to have to find a way to move more efficiently.

So Barbara did not go as planned. At all. By the end of the WOD I had tempered my bravado and was just happy to finish.

Now that I can do these workouts (i.e. I am strong enough to do 20 pullups), I need to start working on refining the mechanics so that I can do the exercises more efficiently.