CrossFit Minneapolis + St. Paul

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Every 2 Minutes, For 12 Minutes:
2 Cleans

AMRAP 15 Minutes:
10/8 Bike Calories
6 Push Jerk (165/108)
2 Wall Walks
…rest 30 seconds after each movement…

You’ll notice that later in the week we have a similar sequence for the snatch with some slight variation. Also note that today is not set up to be a max out effort. You may go as heavy as you desire, but the importance should be placed on quality of consecutive reps. Your main goal should be to make each rep look the exact same from start to finish no matter how tired you are. You can do a single working weight the entire time which depending on load would greatly challenge you early on, or build for the 6 intervals. Bodyweight percentage is a great target to use, probably going no heavier than 1.25x BW. With the OLY lifts we want to maximize tension throughout the trunk of our body and use this as leverage against the heavy weight of the barbell. The greater the tension the better result we have with our ability to hold a strong position and ultimately execute a successful lift. What we’ve been drilling is maintaining a constant back angle while the barbell travels between the floor to above the knee, at which point we begin to bring the torso upright and open up the hips by shifting the knees (referred to as scooping) forward so when the bar is approaching the hip we can use a loaded leg position to essentially jump the bar through the pull. Legs are way stronger than your arms.

The theme of this workout is that there is a lot of push/press. But, the bike and jerks can incorporate a lot of leg if done properly and efficiently. For the bike to be efficient set up the height of your seat so that you can maximize the downward drive on the pedals with your quads, and the seat far enough back so that you can slightly lean forward and lightly push on the arm bars at the shoulder. Never pull the handles, it’s inefficient and kills the arms. For the jerk to be efficient we need a rapid hip drive and an explosive punch under the bar. This prescribed loading is manageable, but a lot of times a weight like this is really meant to keep you aware and focused on what you are doing. The wall walks are lower in skill for a gymnastic movement, but still very challenging. Similar to the bike, we want shimmy at the shoulder keeping the arms as close to extension as possible. This creates better support and stability.

WOD AT HOME
Time Trial:
400 M Run

5 Rounds For Time:
17 KB Swings
20 Box Jumps
23 Up and Down Planks

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Back Squat:
3-3-3-3-3

4 Rounds, Each For Time:
15/12 Row Calories
12 Burpees-Over-Rower
…rest 2 minutes b/w rounds…

Throwing these in at the end of the week with a long gap between some heavy squats following Murph. By this point your legs should feel relatively recovered enough to put some weight on the barbell. No percentage for today, but you’ve been given a building sequence of 3 so you can choose how heavy you want to go. A good target to end the sets of three at for today would be at or around 90%.

This couplet is pretty straightforward with very little skill. Each round is set up for you to sprint through the entire round as fast as possible. That is a big ask considering there are 4 rounds, and 2 minutes of rest will be enough but never really feel like enough. We’ll more than likely have to stagger the rounds if there are more people than rowers. In which case if the round takes longer than the two minutes of rest just wait until a rower opens up since you’ll be needing it to row and jump over. You can modify the object you are jumping over if you feel like you need it because the rower is a bit taller than a barbell. But don’t just use something else to use something else. Jumping laterally over the rower is an added challenge when you are tired and the legs are fatigued. It doesn’t matter if you jump from two feet or bound over another way, just get the burpees done by any means possible as fast as you can.

WOD AT HOME
For Time:
50 Burpee Box Jump-Overs (24/20)
…rest 3 minutes…
5 Rounds of:
20 DB Swings (AHAP)
10 Push Ups

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
For Load:
3 Snatch

AMRAP 15 Minutes:
15 HSPU
400 M Run
10 Box Jumps (36/30)

This will be the first day in a while that we’ll be doing an OLY lift without incorporating a drill, timing, pause, etc. into the lift. The idea is to throw in some practice on the lift before we spend the last third of the cycle working on the actual pace of the lift from all three working positions: hip, knee, and floor. Today is the day for you to apply all of the drills we’ve been doing over the past 11 weeks and see if any of it has paid off in terms of your movement getting better. That said you’ll notice that the volume programmed is 3 snatch. So you WILL NOT be going for a PR. I repeat, this is not intended to be a PR. This is intended for you to apply your skill set to consecutive reps. You can do them as touch and go, although I would not suggest that if this movement is still feeling new to you. A better gameplan is 3 back-to-back singles that allow you to properly set up on all three lifts. Like the entirety of the cycle, these are full squats. So you’re other job is quickly transition under the bar and avoid a power snatch + OHS combo. Smooth pull, plus smooth turnover should equate to a smooth transition under the barbell.

Don’t immediately look at this workout and see it as too many HSPU, or too long of a run, or too high of a box jump. This is intended to be a combination of skill practice and application for the HSPU, a challenging or recovery distance for the run depending on what you’re approach to the workout is, and a test for your agility with the taller box. If you look back to Fridays notes regarding the TTB, the modification for HSPU should be identical: 1) taper volume (15-13-11-9…), 2) establish a set volume (8-12 reps), 3) set a timeframe, maybe somewhere in the range of 30 seconds, in which to get as many HSPU as you can. Or modify to something like a seated strict press with DB’s or a light barbell. Avoid push ups after Murph. Share the boxes and stagger start with someone else as 36/30″ requires several boxes to be linked together. If you’re worried about the box use a soft box or go with a lower jump. Just make sure you are unable to rebound on the jumps.

WOD AT HOME
5 x EMOM 4 Minutes:
6 Single-Arm DB Hang Power Snatch (AHAP)
5 Single-Arm DB Thrusters
4 Burpees
…rest 1 minute b/w EMOM’s…

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Thruster:
1-1-1-1-1-1

5 Rounds For Time:
15 TTB
300 M Run
7 Front Squats (225/153)

With heavier front squats in the workout today and no clean complex this week following Murph we’re gonna throw in some thrusters. Think about a thruster as a push press with a deeper squat. We relate the push press because the same aggressive, upward extension of the hips and knees to accelerate the bar off the shoulders is identical. This is where the front squat and shoulder to overhead movements differ. A front doesn’t necessarily require as much speed to complete the lift successfully because we simply need to just stand up. When we combine the overhead press into the front squat to create the thruster we need to add that speed at the very end of the squat where we are now aggressively standing up, popping the hips, and finishing with what might feel like a strict press. So you’re three points of performance on each heavy single is to: 1) front squat really tall, 2) drive the hips UP through extension, and 3) finish your press with the feeling that you are driving your feet through the floor.

Very comparable to last week’s workout. In order we had 4 BMU, 5 heavy hang cleans, and a 200 M run for 6 rounds. Now the barbell is going to come from the floor in todays workout, so if you did last week (which was AHAP for the barbell) and you were able to complete all the rounds unbroken, know that whatever you did last week should be no problem this week having to only pickup that barbell one time for the 7 front squats. Hopefully by the point in the week anyone who has modified a run is feeling better and can get outside to run. Like last week, the run should be used as some recovery to the pace of the workout before getting to the barbell after a lengthy set of TTB. Some of us may have some hands that are still pretty banged up from the pull-ups in Murph. Now this is a good amount of volume. If you really want to try and get all the TTB today, consider reducing the weight of the front squats, or just be ok with a slower time. Otherwise here are some suggested scaling/modifications: 1) TTR instead of TTB, 2) taper your volume (15-13-11-9-7 for example), 3) set a modified rep scheme to begin with, maybe just 10-12 reps each round, 4) knees to chest. Looking to get each round done in 4 minutes or less. This workout should t take you any longer than 20 minutes.

WOD AT HOME
12 Rounds, Each For Time:
15 Single-Arm DB Push Press (AHAP)
20 Sit-Ups
30 Double-Unders
…rest 90 seconds b/w rounds…
*Alt. arms each round on Push Press

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
OHS:
3-3-3-3-3

Every 4 Minutes, For 20 Minutes:
20 Sit-Ups
200 M Row
10 Bench Press (155/103)

The OHS is such a great tool for teaching us how to squat really well in general. Not only does it incorporate the basic mechanics of the squat itself, it teaches us how to support and balance a heavy weight overhead while doing so. If we start from the bottom, up mechanically speaking we want the weight in your heels, toes pointed out more than they would be in a front or back squat. The direction of the toes is important because that will dictate the direction of the knees, which we always want in an outward direction – never caving in towards the middle. These key elements make room for the hips to be mobile in a comfortable range of motion. With these things taking place then we can work our way to achieve a virtuous squat; meaning the glutes travel down just above your heels. From a profile view you would be able to see the crease of your hip surpass the top of your knee cap, which is what the coaches refer to as a full depth squat. Remember, a squat is intended to support load. A hinge (think deadlift) is meant to pull load. In terms of your trunk/belly/midline, this area of the body needs to hold a high amount of tension to support the added load to the body, in this case overhead. We create tension in the midline by taking a HUGE breath and holding it in for the duration of the squat. Holding a PVC pipe, an empty barbell, your bodyweight, or a handstand hold requires an active shoulder position. Yes the arm is attached and holding the bar, but the ability to hold the weight overhead comes from the shoulder. With the weight overhead think about reaching the top of your shoulder towards the bottom of your ear. At the same time we need to squeeze the tricep and bicep locking out the elbow and wrist. By doing all of this we create a “pressing” feeling into the barbell that allows us to support the weight.

Each movement in the triplet is set up to allow you to go at 95%+ max effort on each exercise for all rounds. While not an overly technical movement, the sit-ups are going to become quite challenging, and the speed of the sit-ups are going to greatly affect the output of the row. While this is going to be tough, each row should also be near a sprint effort. The nice part about the bench press is the core fatigue will not greatly affect the bench, but the pulling on the rower will have some effect on the shoulders. Whatever weight you choose for the bench press make sure that you can do it fast, and unbroken.

WOD AT HOME
For Time:
50 Alt. Single-Arm Devils Press
…rest 3 minutes…
5 Rounds of:
15 Russian Twists
2 Wall Climbs

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Clean-Grip Deadlift:
5 x 5

AMRAP 20 Minutes:
10 No-Jump Burpees
400 M Run
20 KB Swings (53/35)

This simply means that we are going to use an overhead grip with both hands as opposed to what we might traditionally use which is a reverse grip on the deadlift. The clean-grip deadlift does not however require the use of the hook grip because we are only pulling to the hip at a slower rate. You can use it if it is a benefit to your ability to lift. We’ll continue to use the deadlift as a way to strengthen both the posterior pulling muscles as well as your grip on the barbell. Now that we’re getting into the last third of the cycle and will be focusing on doing heavier OLY lifts, this will be a great movement for just working on getting heavy bars off the floor. Stick with 1 weight across all 5 sets.

Two days following Murph is typically when the heavy soreness starts to settle in. The biceps, chest, shoulders and quads tend to be the most affected. Hopefully this workout meets your ability to keep moving if you are still pretty sore. And for those of you who didn’t do Murph this should be another challenging AMRAP. For the no-jump burpee let’s just make sure we meet the standard of chest to deck followed by a finishing position where you are standing straight up and down with hips and knees fully extended. If you’re still not feeling the run, row distance is 400 meters, bike is 0.5/0.4 miles. This distance will probably average out to about 1.5 – 2 minutes throughout the workout. The toughest part about today will be these swings. They are American swings so the KB has to be swung all the way overhead with the bottom of the KB facing the ceiling. This movement gets very tiring without big hip extension. Try to avoid making it a swing and “lift” with the arms. To create that big drive with your lower body, as the KB comes up out of the swing, drive your heels into the floor, squeeze your quads and glutes, and open up the hips at high speed to help accelerate the KB. If done correctly the arms become a guide, only helping to assist in putting the KB into its finish position with the hands there to hang on so it doesn’t fly out of your grip.

WOD AT HOME
AMRAP 25 Minutes:
12 Single-Arm DB Renegade Rows (AHAP)
24 Alt. DB Hang Power Snatch
12 Alt. Jumping Lunges
…rest 1 minute b/w rounds…
*Alt. arms each round on renegade rows

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Strict Press:
6 x 5

AMRAP 22 Minutes:
400 M Row
…rest 1 minute…
0.6/0.5 Mile Bike
…rest 1 minute…
75 Double-Unders
…rest 1 minute…

There really isn’t a great “lift” to program today, but the beauty of the strict press is that you can still get a good amount of work in at a very reasonable weight. Also, strict press is a really challenging movement/range of motion with limited mobility. Back to the fact that it’s the day after Murph, listen to how your shoulders are feeling. Not only that, but strict press does require a decent time under load where your quads are active and helping press, so while it is an upper extremity workout you’re going to feel it in your legs as well. Again, if you did Murph, best bet it to keep it light. If you didn’t do Murph, the volume will keep the loading reasonable, and still focus on improving mobility if the lift as well. If your legs are sore to the point where even standing with active quads is rough, sub out the strict press for a seated strict press.

Like the lift, it’s tough to program a great workout the day after Murph with some of us who did wanting to workout, and also meeting the weekly schedule of those who didn’t do Murph. If you did do Murph consider scaling the rounds or distance based on how you feel. Or adjust the intensity level down. If you didn’t do Murph the goal of the workout is a high pace on the row and bike coupled with about 90 seconds of jump rope. Ultimately the upside for everyone today is that this is an AMRAP. Your choice to make this a high paced workout and really push the intensity on those distances, or on the other hand if you’re a little banged up from yesterday you can drop your pace a little and use this as more of a recovery workout.

WOD AT HOME
Every 3 Minutes, For 8 Sets:
Sprint 200 M
15 Box Jump-Overs (24/20)