Day: April 5, 2013

The Grizzly Bear Complex

Earlier this week I came up with a great idea to combine the Bear Complex with a Curtis P and add an OHS. I decided to call it the Grizzly Bear Complex. It goes like this…

Perform 10 touch-n-go doubles of the following complex.

  • Clean
  • Front Squat
  • Lunge
  • Lunge
  • Shoulder to Overhead
  • Back Squat
  • Shoulder to Overhead
  • Overhead Squat

Notes:

  • Rest 90 seconds to 2 minutes between each set.
  • Start with a light load. Increase the weight each set. The last 3 sets should be hard!
  • Combining movements is allowed. For example you can do a squat clean and a back squat thruster.
  • It works well to switch to a wide snatch grip before the back squat so that you can do a thruster and go right into the OHS.
  • After the OHS on the first rep you may want to drop to the back so you can switch to a clean width grip. Then do a short press just to get the bar over your head and back to the front rack, ready to go into the TnG for rep 2

I was able to round-up Kevin and Jason to give it a go at 8pm. I warmed up with a 500m row and some DU.

My goal was to be able to hit for some heavy OHS, 175# or more. Boy was I underestimating how tough this would get. I started at 75# and went up 10# each set. When I got to 135# in the 7th set, it took everything I had to keep control of the OHS, especially on the 2nd rep. I stuck with 135# for the 8th and 9th and then managed to get 140# on my last set.

I wasn’t sure how the lunges would feel, but they weren’t really too bad. I felt like I got stuck on a couple towards the end, but I think it was more from not concentrating on them than it was from the weight. The OHS was definitely the limiting factor, especially after holding on to that bar for so long. Great complex though and I’ll definitely be willing to try it again some time.

Brent got held up with kids, but showed up as were just finishing our last few sets. Then we did some work with Kevin’s new wheelbarrow drive sled from Again Faster. First we did 5 sets of a 50′ rope pull followed by a 50′ high prowler push. I think we had it loaded with 135# for the first 3 or 4 sets and then added another 45#. After that we converted it into the “wheelbarrow” did 5 down and backs of close to 100m total. At the end of 5 trips I think we had about 400# stacked on it. To finish things off we loaded it with 180# of plates and did a 50′ high prowler push with a low push back. On the 5th set we added another 45#.

Then we ended with a beer. All in all, a fun Friday night.