10-12-06: Rowing and thrusters

CrossFit WoD for Thursday December 2nd, 2010

Five rounds for time of:

• Row 500 meters
• 135# 105# Thruster, 7 reps

Mikko Salo 10:44, Graham Holmberg 10:56, Ken Gall 11:45, Tommy Hackenbruck 11:45 (thruster behind the neck), Pat Padgett 11:48, Kevin Montoya 11:56, Austin Malleolo 12:03, Dave Lipson 12:50, Michael Giardina 12:51, Chris Spealler 12:52, Kristan Clever 13:36 (95lbs), Rebecca Voigt 13:55 (95lbs), Katie Hogan 14:42 (95lbs), Heather Bergeron 15:28 (95lbs).

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WOD Demo with Chris Spealler - video [wmv] [mov]
Michael Giardina and Ken Gall on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]
Austin Malleolo on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]
Heather Bergeron and Dave Lipson on today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]
Rob Orlando modifies today's WOD - video [wmv] [mov]

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The joy of rowing.  Three pulls make the chain speed up throughout the extension phase: legs, hips, then arms.  (picture courtesy nwwayoflife.com)

Thrusters. Notice the precarious "grip" in the middle panels... we'll get back to that. (crossfitdublin.ie)

Rowing?  Not too bad. I know my form is probably crap, but I can at least sprint a 200m, suffer through a fast 500m, or grind out a 2Km, as compared to needing to stop on die while running.  But heavy thrusters?! Argh... so painful in so many ways... I set up the barbell with 125# (taking all I could from the kids doing 1/4 squats on the Smith machine... don't get me started on THAT!), and tested it out.  Heavy...but doable.  Just...

Warmed up a bit, some good jump-rope work, got in a little active stretching, but not a ton, since there were too many kids wandering around... ugh.  I hate that excuse, but the third time I hit someone and/or got bumped into/tripped over, I kind of gave up. :S

Rowed the first 500m, feeling pretty good, and grabbed the bar.  Hm, a bit heavier now. Cleaned it up into the rack position, dropped into a deep squat, and came firing out of the bottom. 1 rep done. Repeated it. 2 done.  However, while coming out of the squat for the third time, my fingers (see the picture above), slipped, and I suddenly had a barbell rolling down my shoulders and chest. I managed to get under it enough to catch it almost in a Zercher squat hold, before catching it with just enough control to lower it without dropping the metal plates straight through the crappy floor. Got a nice bruise on my right forearm to show for all that. Sweet!

So, having proven that my slight scaling wasn't quite enough, I dropped another 20# to 105#.  This proved to be a heavy enough weight that it still sucked completely, but at least I was able to complete each set... even if the final two were both broken up a bit.  I finished up the first 4 rounds this way and seriously thought about "scaling" the workout to just four rounds.  I took a minute to collect myself, and decided I could at *least* do a fifth round of the rower... and if I'm already doing the rowing machine... I might as well finish the thrusters, right?

So, 5 rounds completed, with some necessary weight scaling on the thrusters. I can't wait for the next time I get to do thrusters with "only" 75#.  Oh, it'll feel so good!