12-01-04: Overhead squats and more

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Overhead squat (or the catch to a perfectly executed snatch) by Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet. Depth (as with all such lifts) is all-important. Go deep or go home... or go to Planet Mediocrity where no one cares if you get a workout or not... (CrossFit)

Stiff-legged deadlift. Starts and ends at the top, and the range of motion is defined by how far you can go down before form falls apart. If that's the floor, congrats. If its not, push into the depth, then come back up.

Nicole Carroll demos a perfect hang-power clean. Left: all three power joints (ankle, knees, hips) are slightly closed, arms are straight. Center: all three hips have opened forcefully, the bar is rising quickly, and the arms have just started to finally bend allowing, Right: the elbows to fire under the bar, with the upper arms parallel to the floor, the weight supported on the front deltoids, and the knees, hips and ankles rebent to cushion the impact of the weight landing. (CrossFit)

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• Strength: 2x Max Rep
  
  • Overhead Squat @ BW
• WoD: 3RFT
  
  • 3 Overhead Squat @ 60% BW
  • 4 Stiff-Legged Deadlift
  • 5 Hang Power Clean (mid-thigh)

Warming up in a gym with no heat on a morning when its 14 degrees out is seriously no fun... but what inspiration to get moving and warming up! I was still feeling crushed by the back squats from Monday, lots of stiffness and tension around the quads, adductors, abductors, hamstrings, IT band... etc. All of it.

After going over proper form for the overhead squat with pvc bars, we moved onto the real thing. I warmed up a few sets at 45#, 65#, and 95#, pulling the bar out of rack in a the back squat position and jerking it up overhead. At 95#, I did five reps, but ended the set there, as part of the warm-up. At 115#, I managed 3 reps before failure. My final "set" as at 135#, at which I failed dropping into the first squat. Unfortunately, we were up against the starting time for the WoD, so that was the end of my work sets!

Going into the WoD, I first set up attempt it at 85#. I guess I was still gun-shy from failing so totally on the OHS at 135#, but it just felt insanely heavy. Rather than using the racks, we were going ground-to-overhead any way possible. While 85# should be well within my snatch tolerances, I felt really uncomfortable at that weight. So I dropped to 65#... and enjoyed a ridiculously easy WoD... I tried to focus on depth and form, since I ended up not really needing to worry about the weight. Kicker proving I still have work to do: I still wasn't the first one done. Dammit.