Shoulder work galore

Ok, so not the most creative title, but at least it didn't have the words "Holiday," "WOD," or "Part" in it! I'm definitely feeling sore today from Monday's Angie and the shoulder-heavy WOD we did today only compounded the effects.


A lot of people often wonder why CF doesn't have more sit-ups or ab work in the workouts, to which I always respond that your abs and core should ALWAYS be working when doing a movement (mainly by keeping you balanced). The abs are especially engaged when moving or keeping weight overhead and when using dumbbells - which is what we did today.

Five rounds for time:
12 Dumbbell strict press (Women's RXd: 35#)
21 Dumbbell deadlifts
15 Ring dips

Weird rep scheme, but it helped in the end. You could only use one set of dumbbells for the strict press and the deadlifts, so it was "pick your poison" and then stick with it. I opted for a 20# set, since my CF Total strict press with a barbell is 55#. Dumbbells are harder to maneuver, so I scaled down the weight. It was still very difficult for me to push the weight overhead without wanting to do a little dip at the bottom, which is technically a push press. I concentrated really hard on pushing weight into my heels and generating energy from that, and also engaging my abs and closing my ribcage so I wouldn't be leaning back and pressing out (instead of up). But the soreness of my abs and shoulders from Monday kept me from pushing out anymore than 2-3 reps at a time. The strict press was definitely the "gating" movement (or "bottleneck" for all you supply chain management people out there) for me.

The reason I say the weird rep scheme helped in the end is because the deadlifts were definitely the easier part (for me, at least) and gave my shoulders a break. I'm glad there were a lot of them in between the presses and the ring dips so I could use my legs and give my arms a break.

On to the ring dips. I put my knee in a blue band to help, but again I had trouble busting out more than 5 reps at a time. My shoulders just couldn't take it! CF Central puts a time cutoff on WOD completion and I didn't finish in the 18 minutes allotted. I only got in 4 complete rounds plus 6 presses. On a positive note, though, I'm giving myself major props for sticking with my 20# weights and not scaling down any further in order to complete the WOD.