11-09-26:Hang Power Cleans, Floor Presses and Tire Jumps

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Monday, September 26th, 2011

The hang power clean. Bar starts at mid-thigh, with ankles, knees and hips all partially closed .All three joints fire open, arms staying straight like chains dragging the bar up. Having accelerated the bar upwards, there will be a minute when it is temporarily floating in the air before accelerating just as quickly downwards. In that instant, the body's momentum needs to be reversed to get under the bar and make the catch. (CrossFit Camp Eggers)

Floor press. Like the bench press, but WAY less fancy. (Body Armor CrossFit)

Box jumping, but with a tire. w00t! (Stoneway CrossFit)

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WoD: 7RFT

• 3 Hang Power Clean 115#
• 5 Floor Press
• 7 Tire Jump 24"

After a weekend filled by emptying our house on Long Island into PODS, including the piano, two sofas, two loveseats, and a whole bunch of other heavy crap, bookended by some nice long drives, it was time to do some real work again. Tired and sore, I was again reminded how awesome SMR can be at revitalizing me. Some stretching and active warming-up later, it was time to review the hang power clean.

The simplest of variations, the weight doesn't have to come from the floor, and it doesn't require catching it in a full squat. Easy! Not necessarily simple, however. It still involves loading up the three main joints of the posterior chain (hips, knees and ankles), unfolding them powerfully in the correct order, then immediately reversing the flow as the weight goes weightless for a moment, and getting under it for the catch. As a power clean, we don't want to go far down to catch it, but a little dip is still required.

Ultimately, I still need a lot of work. I *think* my initial lift is pretty good... I'm sure it needs a ton of finessing, but I can get the weight moving if nothing else. However, I just can NOT time the drop back under the bar. Even hang power cleaning, I was catching the bar in a full standing position. If nothing else, the ability to drop a few inches into the slightest of squats would let me NOT have to lift the bar those extra few inches. Greater skill = greater efficiency = less overall work.

The floor presses were easy enough, though I stupidly put myself in an area where every set required me to the pre-plan how I was going to ditch the bar. Ideally, after a lift to full extension, you would just (with arms still fully extended) dump the bar over your head, with it hitting the floor with a good foot of clearance over the top of your head. At least one set had me dumping the bar back down to my hips, as there was no overhead clearance, and one where I nearly scalped myself when the bar hit the pull-up structure behind me. Totally my fault in every possible way.

Did the tire jumps using a slow jump-up, jump-down pace, as compared to my usual jump-up, step-down approach. It picked up the pace a little, and didn't feel too bad on my knees. Its an odd mental thing: jumping onto the slightly pliable tire made me less concerned about the impact of jumping back down to the floor... when in reality the surface of the jump up should have little or nothing to do with the impact jumping back down to the same surface as always. Still, I totally felt more comfortable jumping down from the tire. Weird.

I spent the entire WoD chasing/pacing Woody, one of our Ironman triathletes, and though I think I was out in front when we first hit the tire, he quickly passed me on the tire jumps. After that, I just tried to stay within a rep or two of him, making up some time on the hang power cleans, losing some on the box jumps. I don't honestly know how I would have done without him to chase. My total time (6:25) is well outside of my sprint comfort zone of 60-90 seconds before my lungs implode, but for a medium burner like this workout, I think I actually held my own very well. 

Total Time: 6:25