Here was my post this morning on Instagram HERE.
I mean – HONESTLY. You’ve just GOT to be kidding me.
Now, granted, I’m not doing “full” burpees, or “full” pullups – I do the burpees on the edge of the “desk/box” and then the pullups from 3 of the big plates. But it was 10 rounds for time (4x30meter dashes, 10 burpees, 10 pullups). The dashes you went back and forth down the meter markers in front of the box, so basically you ran from the 10 meter mark as hard as you could to the 40 meter mark, turned fast then dashed back, twice.
I discovered that for the pullups, if I put my hands facing me (versus me looking at the back of my hands), I can do them easier. How I do a pull up is I’m standing on 3 of the “tallest” (heaviest) weight plates, under the tallest pullup bar. That puts the pullup bar at the middle of my forearm when I stand up straight and put my hands above my head. I squat down on each one so that my arms are straight. Then I pull up, while “un-squatting” so my legs get to help me get my chin over the bar.
I think that the “palms facing me” way uses biceps more, which I think might be stronger.
(commercial break, as I go and research this)
Okie dokie – turns out that with the “palms facing me” it’s technically called a “chin up” whereas with the palms facing out, it’s technically called a “pull up.” The biceps do indeed get more use in a “chin up” – and each uses the lats, but in different ways, and they also engage the shoulder differently.
One of the articles I read talks about how a pull up is “more useful” because it’s a motion that you’d use to raise yourself “up and over” something (e.g., a wall). A “chin up” is more of a move to pull yourself “up and under” something (holding onto a bar, bringing your legs up).
I think for now, I’m going to keep doing half as “chin ups” when it calls for “pull ups” – so if it’s 10 pullups in a WOD, I generally have to take a break between 2 sets of 5 – I’ll do 5 chin ups and 5 pull ups. (This WOD by the time I got to like 6 repeats, I was doing 3, 4 and 3 . . . killer.
When were stretching, awesome Karen (married to awesome Rich – she has 8-pack abs and everything) said to everyone (it was a big group today) – “OMG give yourselves a hand, 10 times 10 burpees and 10 pullups, before 10:00?” It was also actually fun when we very first began, because she and a couple of the others were doing the WOD (we were doing the conditioning WOD), but we all were on the pullups bars at the same time. So that had to be at LEAST 10 people at the same time. I think at that point Jim said something like “Look! All one big happy family…”
H “beat me” today by 2/3 – he was done when I was coming in from my last set of sprints. It was killer, and even though I was scaling, burpees and pullups are just NOT in my “strength wheelhouse”!
The warmup was 1,000 meter row, then 2 x kipping pullups, squats, and “ring rows” which means that you lie your body out under the rings (so your arms are straight hanging on the rings, back of your heels are on the ground, body straight), and “row up” to them. This was actually not bad, because I’m pulling my body “up” to the rings, versus a pushup where I’m lowering it “down” (which hurts my shoulder). Then we had to do shoulder rolls, and 10 downward dog to upward dogs.
Loaned my Supple Leopard book to Traci, so need to be sure to get that back. She’s having hip issues. She’s one of the “advanced” gals – I think she said she lives in Tiburon. It’s interesting, folks don’t live all that close – Karen/Rich in Mill Valley, one in Novato, she’s in Belvedere, etc. I’d think that TJ’s across from Dipsea would be “closer” for them – but then again, I have 3 closer to me and I like this one best, too.
Bo did the workout today – I think he said he does Friday mornings.
Time to get some work done…