3/11 - Barbell Club

Following Monday’s run time trial and I wandered over to the other side to see what was programmed for the Barbell Club – both oly and strength.

Initially I wasn’t going to jump into it feeling as tired as I was and having promised myself during the run that I could just relax the rest of the evening but I saw the board and figured I’d give it a go.

Warm-up

2 rounds / 5 reps with 15kg bar

200m  row

Deadlift

Hang cleans

Front squats

Jerk

Strength

Clean and Jerk 5x(3+1)

Clean Pull 4x3

Back Squat 5x5

Worked in with Cam on this one which was fun and we both had our own bars which worked well.   I really enjoyed it.  Oh, and Coach Jono was coaching us and it’s amazing – no matter where in the room he was you knew he could see you. 

Clean and Jerk

5x(3+1) – three cleans (full squat) plus one (split) jerk

45-45-45-45-45

I warmed up with 35 and 40kg before going with 45kg for a working weight. It felt solid especially in the squat cleans where my hip flexors/quads were still screaming from the Friday night burpees.

It was good overall – some good movement, some not so good.  It was funny in a matter of two reps I got a ‘very good’ and then a ‘that was average’ which made me laugh, mostly because I also could tell.  Sometimes I just think too much.

Got some awesome coaching on the jerks too from Coach Jono.  He told me to drop my elbows a bit more before the jerk (keeping the bar up on my shoulders still) so that I could get more explosion.  It made it feel easier and then after I as doing that he told me to have confidence in it which I apparently seemed to be lacking.  Definitely will help as I continue to go heavier.

Clean Pull

4x3

55-55-55-55

Warmed up at 45kg as it was already on my bar then did working sets at 55kg which felt good.  After the first one Cam reminded me to keep my heels on the ground which is a good cue for me – push through the heels.  These went quick which I was thankful for as I was starting to feel really tired by this point.

Back Squat

53x5

40-50-50

I started with 40kg presuming this would be a warm-up weight for me but my hip flexors were really unhappy with me.  I did the 5 reps and thought about staying at that weight for the rest but Coach Tara pointed out (when I asked) that back squatting less than I was cleaning and jerking was most definitely not a good thing so I bumped it up (a little).  It hurt.  Every rep of every set.  I called it after three as Tara was talking about doing handstands and when I suggested handstand walking and she was in I ditched it.

Skill (bonus)

3 x 10m handstand walks

This was a ton of fun – for all three I was within a meter of finishing before falling over.  The first two Tara fell first (near the end) and gave a bit of a squeal which immediately caused me to fall over too.  The last one I fell first which caused her to fall at the same time.  It really was quite funny – like we were synchronized walking and subsequently falling.  Felt good though – I haven’t spent much time handstand walking lately and it’s really cool to have someone who can go just as well as I can.  Definitely a fun ending to a long night.  And most definitely worth bailing on the last two sets of back squats.

3/6 - Burpees and Oly...

Working on lots of skill stuff this week which is great fun.

Warm-up

200m run

Gymnastics warm-up x 10 (planche push-ups, dive bombers, hip raises, rolling sit-ups)

Mobility (traps with barbell, calve stretch)

200m run

Gymnastics warm-up x 5

Skill

L-Sit or "L" Hang Hold 4 x 30 Seconds

Either hold L-sit on paralettes or L-hang from pull-up bars.  I did the hang again with my knees bent and (barely) managed to stay on for the full 30 seconds.  Really need to work on my leg strength to keep them extended at all – also my hands were a bit sore on the bar.  Hmmm, hopefully my new grips from The Health Evolution arrive soon (and help).

WOD

4 Rds

200m

10 Burpee Pull Ups

10:02 Rx

The pull-ups were what really slowed me down on this one.  The fact that I had to jump to the bar, hang there, kip and then pull took way more time than just being able to jump up to the bar and pull on the way up to get my chin over.  Maybe one day.  Still, I got them all done and was quite quick on the drop as my feet hit the floor I then pretty much face planted to the ground and jumped my legs in.  Any rest I took was when I was standing as doing it lying down makes it way too hard to want to get back up again.  When standing I hear the voice in my head saying “just do the pull-up already” so there’s that.

The first run was solid, I was up near the front  but the rest kind of sucked.  I didn’t feel like I had much of a stride and they just hurt rather than feeling fluid and (almost) graceful.  I think it was the combination of the jumps (really made my legs go wtf) and the sprints and rowing from the past two days.  Still I managed to get it done and well within the 12 minute cut-off.

Today was also the first day of the new schedule (as Monday the box was closed for the long weekend) which had the ‘Barbell Club’ session – Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights…  I’m pretty excited for this and to get back to lifting heavy stuff more often.

Made my way over to the other space to see what was on the menu as I wasn’t sure I was going to stay and do it.  I did though – it was snatching – the way to my heart for sure.

‘Barbell Club’

Warm-up

2 rounds

10 burpees

3 deadlifts (empty bar)

3 power cleans

3 front squats

3 push jerks

Warm-up Snatches – 3 @ 15kg/25kg/30kg

Coach Hayden had some mercy on those of us who had just finished the WOD and told us we didn’t have to do the burpees.  Sweet!

Strength

Use same weight for sets, 2-5 minutes rest between sets

Snatch – 5 x 2 reps @ 35kg

Snatch Pull – 3 x 3 reps @ 35kg

Front Squat – 3 x 3 reps @ 50kg

This was good.  Steph and I were working in together on a platform of our own and it was good as we had a lot of mandated rest between sets.  It was good to have someone to gossip chat with.

It was interesting to be doing strength after a WOD as it took me a bit of time to recover even as I was getting into it.  It was good to have a prescribed warm-up to go through – as Coach Hayden stated – it helped to switch our brains from metcon to strength.

The warm-up snatches felt okay.  The coaching was amazing though as Steph and I agreed by the end of it – we weren’t really sure how to snatch anymore.  It’s good to get more cues in the movement but it’s going to take some time to reconfigure our  instincts to correct some bad form.  The biggest cue for me that Coach Hayden pointed out was to keep my knees out on the set-up with weight on my heels/ outside arches and arms straight through the pull until I’m fully extended (again with focus being on pushing through my heels on the extension).  It helped – I could feel the bar travelling faster and getting lighter the only problem I was having was that I was forgetting about the rest of the movement so there were a few reps where I was lucky just to catch the bar nevermind dropping under it.  Ooops.  Baby steps and it’s why we practice anyway.  Good things to think about and I’m excited about getting stronger on the snatch – still my favorite movement of all.

The snatch pulls were good – not too heavy and worked to emphasis the cues as noted about.

On the back squats I didn’t go too heavy (just under 80% of my max of 65kg) and they felt okay but I could definitely feel the fatigue in my legs from running and rowing over the past few days.  Still good and once again Coach Hayden had some good notes on my form – I collapse at the bottom mostly because of my lack of flexibility to keep my torso upright (he says it’s probably a combo of tight calves and glutes – more mobility!!).  He told me to set up for a clean and then commented that I’m more of a deadlifter than a squatter.  Heh.  It’s good though – I know these things I just need to get better at them… more time. More hours in the day please.

Mobility

Shoulders with band

Pigeon pose for glutes

Overall it was a long session but I’m really glad I stayed to do the oly especially now that Open WOD 13.1 has been announced.  Snatches and burpees.  Woo-hoo.  I’m excited.  Especially since I can power snatch, and moreso since I know I can power snatch 45kg now (at least a little bit).  Resting tonight and then it’s on for tomorrow.  I’m ready to bring it especially as Cam and I have a wager on it… loser washes winners car and boy is my car dirty!