I’ve officially completed two four-week cycles of The Outlaw Way!
If you missed it.. you can check out why I’m trialing Outlaw and an update from my first cycle.
Also… To keep up with my workouts, you can follow me on Google+ as I post them there daily, and if it’s an epic workout, it’ll be on my instagram with a story and picture to go along with it!
Summary of lifts, starting 1RM (as of 9/28/2014) to ending (10/25/2014):
Snatch: 95# –> 100#
Clean: 130# –> 130#
Jerk: 130# –> 130#
Clean and Jerk (combined): 120# –> 125#
This cycle, I did deviate from the program a few times, which I hate to do because I am all about consistency and measuring and following programs as written! I like how The Outlaw Way (OLW) is set up, where you repeat three weeks of lifting, with the fourth week being a deload (varying WODs though). So every Monday, I know what to expect throughout the cycle.
The first deviation was to do some in-house benchmark workouts. Our boxes (we have two, soon to be three, affiliates!) have put together some competition classes occasionally throughout the month and in order to participate, you have to complete a number of 2-minute drills (think AMRAP KB swings, pullups, HSPU), as well as various benchmark WODs (Karen, Fran, Nancy, and more), plus have a recent max for all of your lifts. Only records from the prior three months would count, so I had some catching up to do.
Even though not prescribed by OLW, I feel my progress with the program has helped me to achieve some great success in completing my worksheet! I bypassed some of the OLW wods in favor of these benchmarks, and put in some extra time working on lifts that we haven’t been working on with Outlaw. I PRed my OHS and deadlift, did Nancy RX, and PRed Karen without crying.
I also ended up taking an impromptu work trip over to Long Beach. I definitely was not mad.
I had a barbell meet scheduled for that Saturday so was planning on taking it easy, but got in a couple awesome workouts while in Sunny California, once just a mythical place to me. I dropped in at two boxes: one not far from my hotel at Crossfit Reality (loved Coach Dustin!), and another to meet one of my favorite tweeps, @crossfitandrew in Yorba Linda. I ended up PRing my hang clean at 125# AND doing 21 HSPU unbroken! Whee!!
The last derailment from OLW was my barbell meet! I encourage everyone to sign up for a Crossfit competition if you have never done one, no matter what your experience or skill level. Do it. Now.
You can read all about it in this post, but the short-story version is I PRed my snatch (FINALLY!!!!!!!!), PRed my clean and jerk (which I’m less than excited about because I can clean and jerk more than that amount independently, just not together..), and PRed my deadlift, though the judge didn’t count it.
Aside from those blips in my training plan, some exciting things that I completed over this past month were: Rowing a 5k, running with a 20# weight vest, using an axle bar for the first time and doing a WOD with it, and a big fat Fran PR! Oh.. and I ran a 10k.
We we entering a new cycle this week which looks to be crazy hard. The first post of this cycle said this:
Now that we’re through the adaptation phase there’s only one thing left to do – get jacked.
Yeaahhhhh!! Gains time! Or time for this program to finally hit me mentally. I have been so crazy strong mentally since starting Outlaw it is unreal. I haven’t cried. I know, sounds silly, but that’s a huge deal for me. I go in the workouts and do the best I can do. PR or not. Terrible miserable WOD or not – I just DO.
I’m really excited to see where the next cycle takes me, and hopefully doesn’t break me!
P.S.!! Did you know that for reading this, you can get 50% off your whole order at Hylete?! Click here and choose “wine to weights” as the referrer to get a one-time code for your first order! Then use “winetoweights” at checkout next time for a discount anytime after!)
Your turn..
Can you clean and jerk as much as you can clean and jerk?
What lift do you see the slowest progress with?
What is your most recent benchmark PR?
How far is the furthest that you’ve rowed?
Have you ever used a weight vest?
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Fran PR! Awesome. This weeks starts my second cycle of 531. I won’t hit heavier weights for another week or so. Try to stop world traveling and being a fitness overachiever so Outlaw gets its proper focus, k? =)
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For the month of October I decided to dedicate extra time on Sundays to working on my Olympic lifts. Obviously not nearly as intense or challenging as OLW, but I COULDN’T BELIEVE how much more it challenged me mentally than I ever expected. I actually cried at the gym for the first time! But slowly and surely I’m working my weight up with snatches and I’m so damn proud.
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That’s awesome! Well done – look forward to hearing how you get on with the next cycle!
I am currently at a block with my clean which is stopping me from being able to progress in so many other areas. I can clean 27.5kg no problem but 30kg? Nope!
I know I need to evaluate my technique as I know that’s what’s stopping me, I don’t get low enough on my clean. Just need to work on it and I will get there!
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Congrats on all your recent PRs! All of your hard work is paying off and I am super excited to keep hearing about your progress with Outlaw! Seems like a legit program.
I feel like I’ve hit somewhat of a plateau this month and it’s been kind of tough. I don’t know if it’s a result of doing Invictus solo and not having someone/anyone there to push me or what, but it’s time to change things up. I start at my new gym on Monday and while I won’t be doing Invictus anymore, I am REALLY excited to have my old coach back and to start making some new gains (post to come about all that)!
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Sweet! PR’s are always a nice happening 🙂 I’m glad the Outlaw programming is working for you. A while back I had followed a cycle of the CF Invictus programming which is great, but not super specific to lifting. Now I just write my own programming with the help of a coach which seems to be working well! The farthest I’ve rowed is a 12k which was definitely a mental challenge!!!! I feel like once you find the right fit of programming for you then things start to “fall into place”, both physically and mentally which is huge! Excited to see this post and happy to find your blog 🙂
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Holy, girl… You are seriously inspirational to me 🙂 I admittedly don’t know too much about crossfit but I am very envious of your very serious muscle tone.
I once did a rowing competition and came in dead last. I really need to up my game here. LOL!!
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