Tag: Thruster

High Volume, Low Weight Squat Variety

I’m feeling good after so many heavy squat cleans yesterday. Good thing too because we have a lot of squat volume today. I went in a little early to loosen up and work on some MU. Then I did the 9am.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 3 Rounds (25# KB)
    • 10/10 Satellite (Around the waste, let hips sway)
    • 10/10 Halo (Hold KB upside down by handle, go around head, rotate right side up behind head)
    • 10/10 Figure 8 (Through legs, pass to other hand, wrap around and up to chest, slap with other hand, and then through legs the other way)

Had never done those KB moves. Nice change of pace to the warm-up.

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • 2 Thrusters

I went 95#, 115#, 125#, 135#, 140#, 145#, 150#, 155#, 165#, and 180#. Tried to also focus on hip extension in the clean to start each round.

WOD

  • 20 Back Squats
  • 10 T2B
  • 20 Front Squats
  • 10 T2B
  • 20 Thrusters
  • 20 T2B
  • 20 Front Squats
  • 20 Back Squats

I used 95#, which was Rx. If I would have been thinking I would have asked if I could substitute OHS for the front squats since I did so many yesterday with the squat cleans. We think the 20 T2B was a typo in the WOD typed up on the web site, but rolled with it. I finished in 9:31.

Still a Little Cloudy

My head it still a little cloudy this morning, even after going to bed by 9pm. Oh well, shake it off with a workout at 9am right?

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • 2 Rounds
    • 10/10 Scorpions
    • 10s of Leg Swings (s2s, f2b)
    • 10 Wall Squats

Strength

5 Sets

  • 3 Back Squats (32X1 Tempo)
  • 2m Rest

* For the first set use your max weight from the 5×5 32×1 tempo back squats we did last week.

Holy shit that was heavy to start! I went 215#, 225#, 230#, 235#, and 240#. The pause at the bottom is brutal.

After another rest period follow that up with a max rep set at 30X1 tempo with 135#. I fought for 26 reps and then collapsed on the ground. Felt like I just got done with a WOD after that big set.

WOD

30-20-10

  • Row (calories)
  • GHD Sit-ups
  • Thrusters (95#)

Not much left in the tank for this WOD. My legs wouldn’t even work on the rower. Finished in 14:50.

Upper Body Push

After golf last night I was exhausted and got a huge headache which throbbed whenever I moved very much. I’m not used to nearly 6 hours out in the sun like that. Got to bed early for some sleeping recovery. In at 9am this morning.

Warm-up

  • 3/3 World’s Greatest Stretch
  • 400m Run
  • 200m Run Backwards
  • 200m Run
  • 1 x 10 MB Pass Ab Circuit w/ Partner

WOD

“Coe”
10 Rounds

  • 10 Thrusters (95#)
  • 10 Ring Push-ups

A couplet with both movements being upper body pushes. Reminds me of the 21-15-9 thruster and HR push-up WOD I did in a competition, which completely crushed the shoulders. Except this WOD was much tougher due to heavier weight, tougher push-ups, and more than 2x the reps. I didn’t realize it was a Hero WOD until a couple of hours later. Now it makes sense. 🙂

I did the first round unbroken and then switched to 5 thrusters at a time the rest of the way. I think I did the 2nd round of ring push-ups unbroken, then went 5-5 for the next 4 rounds. At that point I realized I was going straight up and down on my ring push-ups. I let myself come forward over the rings and was able to go 6-4 really easily until the last round when I went with as little rest as possible through everything and had to do smaller sets.

My time was 18:54, beating the 20 minute goal I set for myself. This was a good WOD for me to do since I need the work on upper body strength and thrusters. I got some nice skin burn on my triceps from the ring straps.

Ran home for a snack and a little rest. Back at noon for OLY.

Olympic Lifting

Might have been a good idea to skip the OLY work after that shoulder crushing WOD, but I need the technique work.

5 Sets

  • Hang Power Snatch
  • Full Snatch
  • 2m Rest

I used 75#, 95#, 105#, 115#, and 125#. Tried to really focus on meeting my hips with the bar. Could tell I was fatigued in the last set. In my full snatches I need to work on riding the bar down instead of crashing into the bottom of the squat.

4 x 2 Drop Snatches

Because of all the shoulder work I used 95# for every set. Concentrated on jumping out to good foot position, keeping the weight back, and riding the bar down.

5 x 3 Snatch Pulls

We went up to the shrug but didn’t break the elbows at the top. I went 95#, 105#, 115#, 125#, and 135#. Found out I haven’t been getting the ankle extension and coming up on my toes. I kind of jump and float. So worked on getting to extension with the ankles as well as in the hips here. Still need to stay over the bar longer too. I could see snatch pulls over and over again really helping with the major problems in my technique.

In the end, I’m glad I was there because I learned a few new things that can help me out. Need to keep working at it.

Double Trouble

I was itching for a WOD all day yesterday since I’d taken Wednesday off and won’t be doing a WOD tomorrow since we are doing a 4.7 mile Spartan Race. The hike helped, but it’s not the same as being in the box. In at 8am this morning for the competitors WOD and stayed for the regular class as well.

Warm-up

  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • 500m Row
  • Thrusters

Strength

Find 1 RM Thruster with 1 attempt EMOM. No rack, so must do a power clean and a thruster or a squat clean thruster. Keep increasing weight each minute until failure.

I started at 115# and added 10# every minute. Got 195# and then failed at 205# because I was too slow coming out of the squat clean and couldn’t get any momentum on the bar. That’s a 30# PR for my thruster when I last did it back in April. Having to go every minute is pretty tough once the weight gets heavy. I did power cleans up through 175# and then switched to squat cleans. So that ended up being 10 attempts in total.

Competitors WOD

This was WOD #6 of the 2011 Regionals.

  • 20 cal Row
  • 30 Burpees
  • 40 Two-arm DB ground-to-overhead (45/35# DBs)
  • 50 T2B
  • 100′ Overhead walking lunge (45/25# plate)
  • 150′ Sprint

I used 40# DBs for the ground-to-overhead and I’m glad I did. I still had to split them up into sets of 5 (pretty much doing a clean and jerk) and it took the most time by far. I should have worn some wrist sweat bands because I could barely hold the bar for the T2B making those take a lot longer than they should have since I had to do 2 or 3 at a time most of the way. Everything else was kind of easy. Took me 15:52 to finish.

Stuck around and let my heart rate come down while the 9am class did a warm-up.

Regular WOD

25:00 AMRAP with a partner

  • Partner 1 – 400m Run
  • Partner 2 – AMRAP:
    • 5 HSPU
    • 10 KBS (53/35)
    • 15 Goblet Squats (53/35)

* Both partners work the entire time, but keep switching off and continuing where the last guy left off in the AMRAP so total rounds can be counted.

Brian was the only other person in at 8am and stuck around too, so we paired up for this WOD. We finished 14 rounds of the AMRAP doing everything Rx. I picked up a nice little tip from the CrossFit Journal to make the HSPU easier and didn’t really have any issues until my last 5 when they started to get a little tough. My arms were shaky after the first WOD today so I’m thrilled I was able to hold on that long. The goblet squats were by far the roughest part of the circuit, but I pushed myself to always do 15 unbroken because squat stamina is one of my weaknesses.

Great 2 hours of work! Think I’ll try to get out for some golf this afternoon.

The Real Bear Complex

Yesterday I rested. Walked 9 holes of golf early in the morning, which was good active recovery. I was pretty wrecked from Saturday through Tuesday so my body needed it. I’m still sore today, but don’t feel destroyed like I did. Went in for the 9am.

Warm-up

2 Rounds

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 20 Sit-ups

2x Bergener Warm-up with empty bar

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Power Snatch
  • Hang Full Snatch

I’m excited about all of the snatch work we’ve been doing. Today I really focused on full hip extension and I think I made some great progress. I went 75#, 85#, 95#, 105# for 3 minutes, 115# for 2 minutes, and 125# for the last 2 minutes. In the 9th minute I lost focus a bit and had to bail on the full snatch in the bottom of the squat, but I picked it back up and got the rep in. I felt like my hip extension was pretty good in the power snatches and still short from the hang position. It’s definitely improving though.

WOD

bear-complex5 Rounds

  • 7 TnG Bear Complex (Power Clean, Front Squat, SH to OH, Back Squat, SH to OH)

* Combining is allowed, such as doing a thruster for front squat + shoulder to overhead.
* Increase weight each round.
* Partner up so you rest while the other person is working.

I’ve done bear complexes, but never as it’s designed to be done, with 7 TnG reps of the complex per “round”. It was definitely a challenge! Started off light with 75# to get the feel for it and warm up some more. Then went 85#, 95#, 115#, and 125#. Pretty much thrusters and back thrusters the entire way for me. I did quite a bit of resting with the bar on my back in the last round and some in the 4th round. Going any heavier would have been very difficult to finish.

Hike

After 4pm I headed out and did a hike. 2.39 miles in 1:03:59, while wearing the 20 pound weight vest. Strapping that thing around my chest really adds a whole other level to the hike.

135 Pound Thrusters Suck

My abs are pretty sore, either from the sit-ups, the snatch work, or more likely from both. Things like the OHS and snatch balance are very underrated in being a core exercise. My shoulders and lats are pretty sore from the snatch work too. Since I did double workouts on both Saturday and Sunday, I took some extra rest and went in for the 5:15pm today. I’ve also been told there is some good competition at this time.

Warm-up

5:00 Row at 20 spm keeping a pace +/- 3s

This was something new and interesting. I tried to count a 1-2-3 on the recovery to make sure I wasn’t pulling too often, but when I did pull I gave it power. I tried to keep my pace right around 2:00/500m.

Strength

5×3 Front Squats

Last time I did a 5×3 on front squats I hit my old PR of 235# for all 3 reps. It’s been a couple of months since hitting a 255# 1RM so I was shooting to hit it for 3 today. So close! I went 135#, 165#, 205#, and 235# for 3 reps. I got the first two reps at 255# and then lost the rack on the 3rd one as I started to come up. If I had gotten a little tighter and more organized before the rep I think I would have had it. Nice improvement though.

WOD

  • 15 Thrusters (135#)
  • 200m Run
  • 20 Thrusters (95#)
  • 400m Run
  • 30 Thrusters (65#)

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate thrusters? I was not looking forward to this WOD, especially Rx. But I went for it. For the 135# thrusters I had a set of 9 to start and then got 5 more before I had to bail. I was so pissed to leave one rep left. On the 95# thrusters I went 8-4-4-4. Rough! Then for the final 30 with 65# I went 12-10-8. My strength endurance still sucks. Lance and Adam smoked me. I finished in 15:17. Glad I went Rx after all is said and done, but it damn near killed me.

Aloha Hawaii

Last day in Hawaii. My flight leaves at 11pm, so got up for one last workout in the fitness center. Went for my “go to” travel WOD, which I’ve been saving all week. Warmed up with a 400m run on the treadmill first.

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WOD

  • 100 DB Hang Squat Clean Thrusters (30# DBs)
  • EMOM (except for at the beginning), do 5 burpees.

Last time I did this was back in San Diego in September, with a time of 15:35. Today I finished in 14:37, almost a minute faster! I think it was due to a good first minute where I got 14 reps in and then 8 in the next minute. Went to 7s for the next 4 or 5 minutes and then 6s the rest of the way. No rest minutes, but I did make sure to leave myself about 10-15 seconds of rest time at the end of every minute before starting up burpees again. I wonder if that helps very much in the long run or if it would be faster to keep working nonstop the entire WOD.

I walked an easy 400m on the treadmill to bring my heart rate down, because this one really gets you going. Great workout!

The Seven

Feeling better today. Went in for the 9am class instead of the 8am Competitors WOD because the Hero WOD sounded like fun and I could get another hour of sleep.

Warm-up

  • 600m Run
  • 2 Rounds
    • 5 Push-ups
    • 10 Air Squats
    • 10 Leg Swings (Front to back, Side-to-Side, each leg)
    • 10 PVC Pass-thrus

WOD

“The Seven”
7 Rounds

  • 7 K2E
  • 7 Deadlifts (245#)
  • 7 Burpees
  • 7 KBS (70#)
  • 7 Pull-ups
  • 7 HSPU
  • 7 Thrusters (115#)

When it’s a Hero WOD you know you’re in for a suck fest. The first round wasn’t bad, but after that it was brutal. This WOD actually starts off with the HSPU and then thrusters but because of a big class size we paired up to share bars, so I started with the K2E. Rx for thrusters was 135#, so I scaled it down to 115#. I did all of my K2E, deadlifts, burpees, and KBS unbroken. Pull-ups were usually 4-3, but I think I got all 7 in round 1. HSPU were unbroken except for my 6th round where I went 5-2. Thrusters unbroken until round 6 where I wont 4-3. We had to stop at 33:53 because the next class was starting. At that point I had completed 6 full rounds and 3 of the pull-ups, so I only had 18 more reps to finish. Great WOD, but brutal. I think I did the first round in 3:11, but slowed down a ton after that.

Hike

Went out to Piestewa Peak and did the Summit Trail wearing the 20# weight vest. Going up while wearing that thing is horrible. The last 10-15 minutes with the vest is absolutely brutal, but I kept chugging along without stopping. Overall went 2.05 miles in 58:59 with 1,024 feet of climb.

Heavy Thrusters

Spent all day cleaning and doing laundry, so went to the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

10:00 AMRAP

  • 30 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 40 Zombie Kicks
  • 50 Mountain Climbers

Nice and easy, not really pushing for the most rounds/reps. I think I got into a 4th round.

Strength

1RM Zercher Squat

Started with 5 at 135# and 2 at 185#, then 1 rep at 215#, 235#, 255#, and 265#. I was starting to really feel it on my back, so I stopped there. Lots left in the tank though. Beat my front squat 1RM by 10#.

WOD

21-15-9

  • Thrusters (115#)
  • Hang Power Clean (115#)

The Rx weight for men was 135#, but that would have killed me. I was able to get a nice intensity with 115# and finished in 8:42 for a solid time. I split up the first round into 11 and 10 for each movement, then went 5-5-5 on thrusters and 9-6 for the cleans, and finally 4-3-2 to finish off thrusters and did the cleans unbroken. I really tried to focus on popping my hips in the thrusters to get that weight flying off my shoulders.

Finisher

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

  • T2B
  • KBS (53# KB)

The finisher was as tough as a lot of WODs! Not used to doing those American Kettlebell Swings since we always do the Russian variation. The American swings are a lot more taxing on the cardio side of things.

Casey’s Birthday WOD

In at 10am for my last Survival Fitness class for a few days. Heading up to Rogers City for x-mas.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Butt Kicks
  • 15s High Knees
  • 15s Air Squats

WOD

28:00 AMRAP Partners (Each partner does a round of their own to make a complete team round)

  • 1 HSPU
  • 9 Burpee Clean Thrusters (95#)
  • 8 Double Squat Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target
  • 5 C2B Pull-ups

I partnered up with Casey and we did well. I started off first and got through 6 full rounds, then Casey got through 3 of his burpees clean thrusters before time ran out, so we had 5 + 27 to top the board. Having those thrusters and wall balls back to back was pretty brutal. Each round I’d start out fast on the burpee clean thrusters, but that would only last for 3 or 4 reps and then it was just a grind.

Finisher

8:00 Death by AbMat Sit-ups (by 3s)

I was able to get through mine all the way, for a total of 108. Not sure why, but it felt worse than doing 100 in a row the other day. Maybe it’s because of the other day!