11-08-24: Clean & Jerk Madness

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday August 24th, 2011

Sage Burgener demonstrates the Clean & Jerk. Click the link to Olympicize the picture. (crossfithawk.com)

(motherfitness.com)

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Strength: 3 x 6

• Clean and Jerk @ 70% w/
• 45 seconds between sets

WOD: on the minute for: 10 minutes

• 1 Clean & Jerk @ 80%
• 5 Shoulder-Width Push-ups

I totally suck at the Olympic lifts again. Seriously, its like I never even vaguely learned them in the first place. Not that I was ever coached, so maybe this is just all of my half-assed technique under the microscope of experienced coaching. Either way, even if my form has always been crap, I at least *felt* more comfortable with Clean & Jerks 6 months ago than I do now. For the record, I guess its fair to say that i really never did the full version (catching the bar in a squat), but that's not even the part that's giving me trouble... the trouble begins long before that, and the squat is just part of the ensuing train wreck.

My PR weight is 125#, so the strength portion was done with 85#, and the WoD with 95#. My wrists and forearms are *still* sore from last week's farmers carries, and the receiving position of the C&J didn't do me any favors, which added yet another thing to worry about throughout the workout. For the WoD, I ended up alternating sets of regular push-ups with fist push-ups, which allowed me to keep my wrist straight, which felt much better. Being out of shape on the fist push-ups meant that they knocked the crap out of my hands, instead.

"It's always something." - Gilda Radner

I ended the workout tired, sore, and sweating, so there was definitely some good work going on, but I can't shake the feeling that, having struggled with form the whole way through, that the workout wasn't as good as it could have been. Meh.