12-04-04: Presses and HOORAY burpees!

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, April 4th

The press, performed with a minimum of  backwards movement.

Burpees. Let the suckage begin.

WoD: 7 Rounds For Time 

• 5 press @ ½ BW (95#, reduced to 85# in round 6) 
• 10 burpees 

Coming off a period of several missed or infrequent workouts, a full-body destrominator like this one was sure to hurt. Yup. Not having weighed myself since starting at ECC back in June, I again opted to go for “ideal” bodyweight, about 185-190 pounds for my height, meaning ½ BW would be about 95#. Coach Vin had excellent advice: whatever weight we were going to use, make it out of 10s and 5s, rather than using full 25#, 35# or 45# plates. That way, if and when the weight became too heavy, it would be easy to strip off a single small plate, rather than having to take one big one off and put another big one on. Brilliant!

The first round of presses went well enough, and the first set of 10 burpees (oddly enough, in the middle of it, I pictured my early attempts at them, where stringing together 4 was an achievement!). The second round went… tolerably well. The third round of presses was hard, and may have been broken into two sets… who can remember when the suck sets in? The burpees became my mortal enemies, with me barely able to complete one, much less string them together.

Midway through the sixth round’s presses, I finally had a failed rep, and I quickly stripped off two of the 5# plates, with help from Big John, who had finished his workout several minutes earlier… the big jerk. When I cleaned the weight back up to my shoulders, it didn’t feel any lighter, but the next three presses were definitely a little easier. Not much, but enough to make it through. Sadly, that didn’t do a thing to make the burpees easier.

There was a moment, at the end of the sixth round, when everyone thought I was done with the workout… everyone else was, why not me. I had the option to instantly scale the workout and just be done with it. It sounded good… but not great. Coach Vin asked was I was done when I got up from the last burpee, to figure out my time. Staggering back to the bar, I waved him off, croaked out “one more round” and got back to work. Clean, 3 reps, drop, clean, 2 more reps… then f’ing burpees again. 10 awful burpees later (in form and feeling), I was finally done.

Total time: 13:06

12-03-12: Front Squats, Presses and Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Monday, March 12th, 2012

WoD: 3 Rounds

• 1min Front Squat @ 1/3 BW
• 1min Rest
• 1min Press
• 1min Rest
• 1min Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
• 1min Rest

Took too long to write this up, my notes are no longer available on ECC's website. All I know is that each round was worse than the last, except for the SLDLs, which increased by a rep or two each round. I seriously thought the front squats and presses would be the death of me, and couldn't believe how short a minute's rest could feel, or how very long a minute of work could feel. Just awful!

12-02-15: Presses and snatch balances

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Overhead press. Note the utter LACK of knee bends or leg action. The ONLY thing moving the weight is the upper body. Everything from the nipples down is locked into total support for the moving weight. Everything.

Snatch Balance. A slight dip (pic. 2) and re-extension of the legs drives the bar up, allowing time to redirect the body under the bar, catching the bar with arms fully extended. Fun fun fun...

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• Strength: 5-5-4-4-3-3
  Press @ 85% (110#)
• Skill Work: Snatch Balance (65#)
  

Push presses... you know, I don't think I've done these since June. That was my last PR at least, so I think that was the last time I did them at any sort of weight. Given another 7 months of work, I decided to up my work weight a bit from the original 85% of 115#, which would have been 100#. 110# instead, which was nice in that I then got to work in with Woody, a recovering distance junky. Between the work he's doing, and my making my way back from soccer and frisbee imbalances (upper body strength? Schwa?!), we both ended up at 110#.

I think I picked well, since the first two rounds felt like I had "one or two left in the tank," as 85% of 1RM should come out to a 6-7 reps. By the third or fourth rounds, fatigue was building up and I started struggling to finish the rounds. By the final two, the supposedly "easiest" ones (if you're naive), I was barely finishing. w00t! However, I was happy to make it through without failing any of them.

After that, it was on to working on the snatch skill set. I chose the snatch balance, since dropping into the bottom position is one of the biggest issues still facing my performance on the full movement. After several reps at 45#, I moved up to 65#, and instantly the struggles began. One of my big struggles is getting all the way down cleanly and quickly, compared to catching the bar most of the way down and "riding the elevator" the rest of the way down. I think I started to see some success, or rather, more success... still some work to do.

 Best song of the workout:

\m/

12-02-03: Press, Overhead Squats and/or Snatches

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday, February 3rd, 2012

Robb Wolf coaching the overhead squat (or the snatch... probably the OHS on a plyo box)... and then the CHUDS attacked.

Overhead squat form. Note the two overhead pictures a the top, and how the bar doesn't deviate from its position directly over her traps.

Sage Burgener demos a perfect snatch, with a nice deep catch.

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet snatches in competition at the CrossFit Games.

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Strength: Pick 2

• 3 x 6 Press @ 85% (115#)
• 3 x 2 Overhead Squat @ 90% (110#)
• 3 x 1 Snatch @ 87% (110#)

Ah, a workout designed to work more than one goat at a time... sweet! Though I haven't worked presses in a while, I decided to shoot for the OHS and Snatch, since both involve both strength and skill, and I *need* to work on those skills.  After a good warm-up and pvc bar review of all three techniques, we went to work.

First up was overhead squats, which I tried to warm-up extensively with the empty bar (45#). As always, I find the empty bar very difficult to do, as it doesn't seem to provide enough of a counter-balance, but that's probably just my not-quite-supple enough body mechanics, where I need heavier weight pressing down and back to counteract my inability to fully open up my trunk and hips in the front. Maybe. I'm still tinkering with it. After some more warm-up sets at heavier weights, I moved up to my work sets at 110#. Best coaching tip I've ever had directed at me: "That's the best overhead squat I've seen you do here. How did that feel?" It felt freaking amazeballs!! ;)

After three sets of two (interspersed with helping Larry reset his far heavier bar in the rack after it hit the floor after his reps), I moved onto the snatches. After a few reps with the empty bar and a few at 65#, I started working up in weight to 110#. My goal was to perform all full "squat snatches" (as always, a full snatch IS a squat snatch, so squat snatch is actually redundant), rather than the allowable power snatches, which require a bit less skill, and don't work the part of the lift where you actually get under the bar, the most critical part of the Olympic lift known as Snatch.

I hit the first rep fairly easily, and felt good catching it at the bottom, but then I failed on the second. In that instant, I resolved that I would NOT count any misses towards my three rounds. Good thing. I hit the third attempt, bombed out on the fourth (crap technique put the bar too far out in front), and nailed the fifth. So, there was that. ;)

In hindsight (writing this a few days later), any workout that makes all your core and stabilizing muscles sore as crap for a few days is absolutely a great workout. This one looked easy on the whiteboard, but definitely was a bit of a ball-buster!

11-07-08: Hang power cleans, front squats, presses, SLDLs, and jump squats

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday, July 8th, 2011

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1min on: 1min off until 20 Rounds completed

• 1 Hang Power Clean-Front Squat-Press 95# 85#
• (As Rx'ed: Hang Power Clean, Front Squat to Sotts Press, THEN stand with bar overhead)
• 2 Stiff legged Deadlift 95# 85#
• 3 Squat Jumps

Sellout:2x20
Supine bicycle

I was completely unable to do the Rx'ed version of the workout, as I have NO shoulder mobility in terms of the Sotts press. Even with an empty bar I was failing way forward. Maybe it really reflects limited heel/calf flexibility, and an inability to hit the bottom position of the front squat with a vertical-enough spine, but either way, no Sotts press for me. Yet. Unfortunately, I scaled my weight to try to attempt it, and probably should have just stuck with 95# for the modified version. Damn.

Felt pretty good the whole way through, but was totally frustrated when time ran out in the 11th minute just as I was descending into my final squat jump. I had to wait, and rack up, another whole minute just to jump from a squatting position to finish the workout. Lame.

Total time: 12:01

11-06-06: First class at Elm City Crossfit

Elm City CrossFit WoD for June 6, 2011

Press position: feet under the hips, shoulders shrugged up, so the muscles are supporting the weight, not bone grinding on bone in your shoulder and back.

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Strength:
 - Press @ 82% 3x7

Sellout:
3 Rounds for time:

• 10 Hand-Stand Push-ups (Scaling: Pike push-up off 18" box) 
• 10 Kettlebell Swings 70# 55#

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First time working out in a month, and its in an actual gym, with an actual crew of like minded people... heaven!!  After a thorough warm-up (foam rolling, muscle activations, stretches, etc, some of which were very new to me), we walked through the technique of the press (aka overhead press). A few warm-ups sets with a slightly weighted pvc pipe were all I needed to remember where I was and what I was supposed to be doing.

We split up into groups by height/strength lines, and I ended up with the slightly taller, but not quite as strong guys: perfect.  While we all did similar weights on our warm-up sets, I was happy to see my group was all in the same ballpark (115# for me and another guy, Larry, 135# for our third, John), while the next group over was banging out 145+#.  Not me... not YET. ;)

My first two sets of 7 were intense, but not too bad. I did have one bobble, on the final rep, where every instinct in my body was telling me to either push press or push jerk the bar, and telling my body not to do it almost resulted in a total train-wreck. In the final set, I failed twice on the 5th rep before dropping the bar. It was *magical* to workout in a place that actually has squat racks, bumper plates, AND a nicely padded, solid floor. All of that adds up to an ability to workout at the ragged edges, rather than safely (and ineffectively) well within your boundaries. Sweet.

Presses @ 115#: 7 / 7 / 4x

The met-con was a beast, hitting the same shoulder muscles we had just abused with the presses. I should have opted for the scaling of having my knees on a taller box, as it would have put me both more vertical AND supported more of the weight. I need to learn how to kick up into a supported headstand, as the banded version off the pull-up bar looked pretty sweet, too. Hm...  

Handstand Push-Up/Kettlebell Swing Couplet: 4:17 (no where near the fastest, but not the slowest either. I LIKE this group!)