8/20 - She’s a killer 'clean'…

Today the barbells were back!  I was super excited.  Not only that but we were doing relatively heavy lifts.  Happy Monday.

Coach Tim had a pretty solid warm-up laid out for us too.

Warmup

2 rounds

10 x banded deadlifts

10 x banded side steps (each way)

5 x banded push-ups

5 x bar deadlifts

5 x bar hang cleans

5 x bar power cleans

5 x lunges with bar in front rack (each leg)

5 x jump squats (with bar on back)

It was good to have an outline to follow and to work through on our own pace.  It all tied in quite well to the workout however on the second round I just did normal push-ups.  While the banded push-ups are a great next progression I find that I’m just getting better now at regular (not on my knees) push-ups and am not yet ready to go to the next level.  I can definitely see them in the future though and it’s good to know how to do them.  I also found that I’d have to be very careful of doing too many as they tax my poor little shoulder/bicep area a little too much.

Strength

Work up to 3RM deadlift

60-70-80-90kg (PR)-95(f)

Was definitely happy with this given that my current 1RM is 100kg.  Coach Tim said I should easily get 85kg if not 90kg and since I was working with Kayla we skipped right over the 85kg to 90kg and I got it.  It was tough but I did it and was happy.  I  gave 95kg a try as well but only got one rep and knew that if I pushed it I was going to hurt myself so I ended it there.

WOD

12 minute AMRAP

3 deadlifts

6 hang cleans (45/60kg)

9 power cleans

EMOM do 5 jump squats

5/5 (40kg)

I’m pretty sure I wrote 5/4 on the board as this became my target with 4 minutes remaining (it was Tash’s score from the morning and I was staring right at it).  I knew I’d have to push myself to get there as well which was good.  I got one rep more than what I was aiming for but had 5/4 so engrained in my head I think that’s what I wrote (waiting for the update on the Cooee website still).

This was a hard WOD.  Lots of heavy (killer) cleans – bonus points to anyone who figured out my music reference in the title (answer below).  The deadlifts were a ‘rest’ during this WOD – at one point Coach Tim said that we could use a mixed grip to save our forearms on the deadlifts if we wanted to but I didn’t really see the point as they went so quickly – I would have preferred more deadlifts (light) and less cleans (heavy).  Heh.  I pretty much broke all the cleans into sets of 3 after the first round or so.  They just got heavy real fast – I wanted to do 45kg but it’s near my max right now so I figured with that many reps I might die – 40kg was still a challenge.  I managed to have solid technique all the way through which indicates that I’m becoming more comfortable with getting the bar high/ getting under it without spreading my feet wide to compensate.  It was good.  I did falter a little near the end but most reps were pretty solid technique wise.  I do however need to stop bracing the back on my thighs on the way back down as I have some nice bruises there today to match the ones on my collar bones from all the cleans.  Ouch.

The jump squats were an interesting twist.  In our session the trigger for the squats was Coach Tim yelling out party time which sounds so much better than ‘squats’ or a variation thereof but they still hurt.  I’m not sure if it was the sudden shifting of blood in the system or what but it was unbelievably taxing on the quads even with only 5 reps.  Every round I did them steady, not too fast but no breaks either.

I finished off the night with about 20 minutes of mobility (yay me!) – mostly focused on my traps and lats – I could really get in there with the ball and definitely felt some sore points.  I need to remember to bring my ball to work so I can get a bit more into the day rather than just waiting until post WOD when I’ve already added to the soreness.

Overall I was quite happy to see the barbells back in action and enjoyed the heaviness of the day though I’m really feeling my traps as I sit here and type this – I wonder what tonight will bring.

Oh, and as for the song reference…