My BFF the Deadlift

(and My Blind Date With Miss Muscle Up)

I really heart deadlifts.

I haven't always held them so close to my heart. There was a dark period in my Crossfit days, before my thyroid was unmasked as the cause of my chronic weakness, where my heart would sink at the mere mention of a deadlift workout. September of last year my dead lift MAX WEIGHT (1 rep) was 145#s. This morning our workout was:


5 Rounds

4 Modified Muscle Ups*ours started on our knees, pulling up, finished with a ring dip

8 Deadlift

12 Cowboy Jumps *I can't find video of this, but you hold the med ball on your head, squat down then jump up and lift the med ball up off your head, then back down. This is a continuous up and down movement.

My first inclination was to get through the workout, so I walked up to the 135# bar and scoped for a med ball under 20lbs. Jen wasn't having any of that. "155#s" she says. Crap. Ok. No med balls under 20#s were available. Crap. Ok. Jen was right; if the reps are under 10, no reason not to go heavy. Like, really heavy. I'm not doing this to be first, I'm doing this to get better. (This is my new mantra)

Deadlift at 155#s, Cowboy Jumps at 20#s. I made it through three rounds before time was called. The majority of my time was spent on the deadlifts; but whatevs, 155#s is more than I weigh. The modified muscle-ups were incredible, and I think I have a new end of the year goal. These take a long time, and a lot of patience to master, so I'm going to be easy on the time limit. After doing the modified version I felt all sparkly about them, and then humbled myself in a big way on the real rings. If a bonafide muscle up is what I want, then I have a lot of work to do. It's a good thing I like work.