Bar Gone Bad

Three rounds of:
Hang Squat Clean 95/65 (Reps)
Hang Snatch 95/65 (Reps)
Burpees (Reps)
Kettlebell Swings 2.0P/1.5P
Push-Jerk 95/65 (Reps)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep.

117 nearly RX (I did the snatches from the ground)

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3	Total
HSC	8	9	8	25
Snatch	2	1	2	5
Burpees	13	12	12	37
KB Swing	13	10	10	33
Push-Jerk	5	6	6	17
TOTAL	41	38	38	117

One of those workouts that really served to highlight how far I still have to go in terms of strength and power. :(

Blargh

Warmup - none to speak of - i was late to class, and i only got about 4 hours of sleep. (Late to bed, middle of the knight leg cramps, and woke up ridiculously early, unable to go back to sleep)


WOD:
Part A
Mini Bottom-to-Bottom -Tabata

First four intervals are pull-ups, without letting go of the bar, second four intervals are push-ups, rest in plank, third four intervals are sit-ups, rest in up position, final four intervals are squats, rest in bottom position.

Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the 4 intervals.

Plus Part B:

Snatch 5-3-3-1-1

Results:
Part A:
The pullup bar was full, so I started with pushups and then did pullups while everyone else was pushing up. My score was 6/0/7/5. kinda pathetic.

Part B:
Snatches - they just weren't happening today. my timing was completely off, and the 45# bar that went up so easily yesterday wouldn't make it past my nose today. I worked some light snatches - but nothing formal with any sort of rep scheme - up to about 35#. About half way through class I decided to work on cleans instead. 60# went up ok. Not pretty, but ok. Then I got 3 nearly consecutive pulls at 65# - my previous 1 rep max. So I decided to try for 70. First try failed, 2nd try failed. Waited a few minutes. Got it on my third try! New PR.

I do not drop under the bar. That is the reason I can't get very much weight up. It's mostly a mechanics and a balance issue. I am looking forward to the oly cycle we are planning on doing soon, but I know it will be fraught with frustrations and disappointments when my body can't figure out how to do what my brain wants it to. The only way to get better is to practice though, so I'll just have to stubborn through the frustration.

2nd time not quite the same as the first.

Warmup: ME, Squat hold, 5 minute static hang 10 burpee penalty for each stop followed immediately by 5 minute plank hold - same penalty.

WOD:
Run 400 Meters
15 Power Snatch 115#/75# (30#)
Run 400 Meters
15 OHS 115#/75# (30#, 35#, & 25#)
Run 400 Meters
15 Power Clean 115#/75# (50#)
Run 400 Meters
15 Front Squat 115#/75# (50#)

Result:
32:55

Comments:
We just did something very similar to this not a month ago. This time the runs were shorter and the rx weights a bit heavier. I decided to try to make my weights heavier all around, too.

Last time, I worked with 22# for the Snatches and OHS, and 42# for the cleans and Front Squat.

I forgot my watch and tried to borrow Daniel's but apparently I didn't start it right - or my hand kept hitting the button - or something - because I do not have my splits. WHich makes me sad. I was really pushing on the runs, and I really wanted to see how I did on them. ( I kept visualizing Ynez out in front of me and tried to 'catch up to her' to get myself to work a little harder.

The OHS were a complete disaster. I got the first 7 with the 30# women's bar. - that part was not a disaster - that part is actually pretty cool and probably a OHS PR. However, after that, my wrists completely gave out, and I just couldn't hold the bar up over my head anymore. The 15# bar was not being used, and Daniel suggested that I put the 10# plates I had standing by for my cleans to get it to 25# and finish my set. I got the plates on, found clips for them, managed to get it up over my head but MAN that felt so much harder than the empty 30# bar - i thought it was just having weights on a bar instead f an empty bar, I put the bar down. Tried again. Damn - just no way that was going to work. DAMN. have to go find some 5# plates I guess. Got the plates on, got them clipped. FINALLY did the math. "Daniel, 15# bar plus 10# plates is THIRTY FIVE pounds!!!" Finally managed to finish the last 8 squats. it only took me about 10 minutes.

Everything else went really well overall. The snatches were easy - pretty much unbroken. The cleans were good (though not great) - i really need to work this movement. The front squats went well, too. There were one or two very iffy reps where the bar got out in front of me and I just muscled my way up - but for the most part I feel like I was really able to keep my chest up and my knees out - my biggest problem was actually air. At any rate, they felt better than they did last time with less weight. Video might have told a different story - I usually do worse than I think I did - but things mostly felt right.

I would really like to know what my time would have been without the OHS lameness, and i really wish i knew what my run splits were. must not forget watch again.

Shorter and heavier

At first glance, this workout looks quite familiar. But it's 20# heavier than that workout, with fewer reps and shorter runs...I can't figure out if that's supposed to make it more intense or more strengthy.

Run 400 Meters
15 Power Snatch 115#/75#
Run 400 Meters
15 OHS 115#/75#
Run 400 Meters
15 Power Clean 115#/75#
Run 400 Meters
15 Front Squat 115#/75#

21:22 (Snatch @ 95#, OHS @ 75#, otherwise RX)

Due to some confusion with the watch, I don't have splits for this one, but I have some observations nonetheless:

• Snatches 10# heavier, and were heavy, but definitely doable. I didn't even have to split snatch until the last few.
• OHS were the same weight, but were considerably easier. I even did a set of eight consecutive! I'm eager to get better at these.
  
• Cleans were 8/7, as were front squats
• Back hurts again, like it did before.

All in all a good one, but (again) I need to be stricter with my form.

Damn you, Overhead Squats

I think I may be starting to get the hang of snatches - maybe even figuring out the final pull (though I'm still nowhere near diving under the bar). But I'm still horrendous at OHS, and will probably never get much better at the snatch until I get the OHS.

Run 800 Meters
21 Power Snatch 95/65
Run 800 Meters
21 OHS 95/65
Run 800 Meters
21 Power Clean 95/65
Run 800 Meters
21 front Squat 95/65

33:30 (Snatch at 85#, most OHS at 75#, all else RX)

So, let's check out the splits:

Run 1: 3:26
Snatches: 4:11
Run 2: 4:48
OHS: 7:55
Run 3: 4:10
Cleans: 2:16
Run 4: 4:21
Squats: 2:19

Wow, I didn't realize how crappy my runs got. But apart from that, it's clear that the OHS are the outlying movement. After 5 it was clear to me I needed to drop the weight if I was going to get anywhere, so I went down to 75# and worked in with Bill. The weight was not bad, but it hurts my wrists like CRAZY. I think the limiting factor here is actually hamstring flexibility: in order to go down all the way, I need a super-wide grip (all the way to the collars), which torques my wrists and makes them burn in a bad, bad way. It's all because my trunk leans way forward at the bottom of the squat. I can't really think of a way to work on this other than by doing squats up against a wall, or maybe front squats. But if I can get my trunk upright, then I can take a narrower grip on the bar, which will prevent wrist pain.

The second lesson here was about my lower back - it's been acting up lately, and I think the consequences of poor form are catching up to me as my weight and volume is going up - particularly as we keep hitting thrusters and snatches for reps. By the time I hit the cleans, my back was smarting pretty bad, but I found that if I focused on keeping my chest high, back arched and visualizing a short, vertical bar path then it didn't really hurt. Virtuosity is about more than efficiency of movement for a better time - it also prevents injury, and I need to be better about protecting my back.

Two more down

I only have a few weeks until my one-year anniversary, and I'm not going to make my goal of having all Level II skills checked off. But damn if I'm not gonna get as close as I can. To that end, I set my sights tonight on the 1/2 bodyweight snatch and 3/4 bodyweight clean, figuring I might be close enough to get them.

Back Squat, x 5: 95-135-160-160-160-160-160
Power Cleans: 75 x 5, 87 x 5, 115 x 1, 130 x 1(f), 130 x 1(f), 130 x 1*
Power Snatch: 75 x 5, 87 x 1*

And there you have it! My form was horrible on both of them, and they were more like muscle cleans and snatches than powers, and I still haven't quite figured out how to come to full extension before dropping under the weight, but dammit the weight went up, and that was all I cared about tonight. Now I can drop the weight to something more manageable and focus on virtuosity again.