CrossFit Minneapolis + St. Paul

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
4 Rounds:
In 3 Minutes:
15 HSPU
Max Row Calories
…rest 1 minute…
In 3 Minutes:
8 BMU
Max Bike Calories
…rest 1 minute…

You have to look at this workout from a few angles: 1) it is heavy endurance considering you’ll be rowing and biking for upwards of 15-17 minutes, 2) keep in mind there are two high skill movements initially preventing me from getting on the machines, and 3) what is most important at to my fitness goals. Both the HSPU and BMU portions of your rounds shoukd something you can accomplish in a minute. During the HSPU sequence this may mean less volume, it may mean regular push ups, or you may chose to hold a handstand. The BMU may be less volume as well, or done with a band, or C2B pull ups. Again, you have to decide what you want your workout to look like. Now, remember this has the potential to be an excessive amount of row and bike. Make sure you establish a pace that you can maintain for a potentially lengthy period of time. Don’t treat your first row or bike as a true single effort max distance.

WOD AT HOME
For Time:
2:00 Wall Sit
2:00 Plank
30 Sit-Ups
30 Burpees
1:30 Wall Sit
1:30 Plank
20 Sit-Ups
20 Burpees
1:00 Wall Sit
1:00 Plank
10 Sit-Ups
10 Buprees

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Clean:
1 RM

3 Rounds For Time:
9-7-5 Reps of:
Hang Power Clean (135/93)
Lateral Burpees
…rest 1 minute b/w rounds…

End of the cycle means a lot of these max days. Now before you get upset about a potential for a second heavy day of squatting know that you can do a squat or power clean, or both for that matter. A good focal point today is an awareness of your center of mass. You have to be aware both in terms of weight distribution in your feet, as well as from a north/south direction regarding your chest. Begin the lift with your weight in mid foot and your chest in a very tall position. As you begin to “lift”, drive your feet through the floor and continue to pull your chest UP. When we keep our chest up we allow for a proper hip angle during the final pull of the lift. Your goal is to finish the pull from the exact same spot we start a hang clean from at the hip.

Pretty straightforward couplet. With the hang power clean we want to produce a quick cycle time and a powerful pull. Ideally we are looking to find a weight we can rebound and cycle quickly. For the burpees we want to fast down to the ground, strong through the press off the floor and quick to get over the bar. With each round being a descending rep scheme we want to increase our intensity through the round. Logistically, it is 9 HPC, 9 LB, 7 and 7, then 5 and 5, then rest and repeat.

WOD AT HOME
DB/KB Bent-Over Row:
5 x 10 (each arm)

AMRAP 17 Minutes:
20 Alt. DB Snatch
15 Hollow Rocks
20 OH Reverse Lunges (10/arm)
15 Back Extensions

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Back Squat:
1 RM

AMRAP 11 Minutes:
7/6 Row Calories
8 Thrusters (95/63)
35 Double-Unders

This is one of the other squats we’ve been building on throughout this cycle. We had a backoff day this past Saturday for the back squats as a chance to let the legs feel some heavy weight but not be pushed super hard. Much like the bench press yesterday, come to the gym with a game plan. With the squats it’s a good idea to get in some low weight volume to warm up the big muscles and your posterior chain (back, shoulders, flutes, hammies). Keep the bar tight on your shoulders so your upper torso remains nice and tall under the heavy weight. Using a similar cue like we did with the bench yesterday – drive the bar away from the floor with your legs. Imagine yourself trying to push the floor away from you under that weight.

This can be a sprint type workout based on the short rep scheme and lighter loading. But 11 minutes is still long enough to really burn you out. You want to get the most out of every pull in a workout like this so we want to adjust the damper to a higher setting, between 6-9. Make sure you can get the 8 thrusters done in a single set without breaking. Each round on the rope should be limited to a 30-45 second effort. In fact, all of these movements should have about the same work time throughout the workout including transition time. Should be a good test coupled with the 1 RM back squat today.

WOD AT HOME
DB/KB Curls:
7 x 5 (each arm)

2 Cycles:
AMRep 4 Minutes:
5 DB Squats (AHAP)
6 Lateral Burpees Over DB
…rest 2 minutes…
AMRep 4 Minutes:
6 DB Lunges (3/leg)
5 Push Ups
…rest 2 minutes…

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Bench Press:
1 RM

5 Rounds For Time:
10 – 10 M Shuttle Sprints
12 Alt. DB Snatch (AHAP)
10 – 10 M Shuttle Sprints
12 DB Push Jerk (6/arm)

We had a day of building up to a heavy single last week, and many of us may have surpassed the weight we established at the beginning the cycle, so today is another day to beat what you may have done last week. If not, today is the day to see if all this bench pressing volume has paid off. Be strategic about your approach. If you need a lot of volume at low weight get that in right away so you have enough time to build up at the end. Or maybe you just do a bunch of heavy singles leading up to your new PR attempts. We’ve been putting out 18 weeks worth of notes on these lifts, so let’s hope by this point we are ready. When that bar makes contact with your chest do you very thing in your power to push your body as hard as you can into the bench.

This workout will be harder than it looks IF you run hard and IF you go as heavy as you are able to for both DB movements. We’ll go back to our traditional standard for the shuttle run where only a single foot has to cross, and a hand has to touch. For the DB snatch make sure it’s a weight that needs to break/pause mid set. For the jerks, it should be a weight you can do unbroken on a single arm.

WOD AT HOME
DB Push Press:
5 x 10 (each arm)

4 Rounds, Each For Time:
25 Jump Squats
20 Alt. Single Arm Devils Press (AHAP)(10/arm)
…rest 2 minutes b/w rounds…

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Deadlift:
6 x 1

AMRAP 13 Minutes:
5 Deadlift (275/183)
6 Lateral Burpees
7/6 Row Calories
8 Wall Balls (12′)

We’ll also see a bit more traditional deadlift days in the coming cycle. We had been doing so much squatting and enough cleans that we were still able to work on our pull off the floor. The great news about squatting is that it strengthens your legs and back so that while a program is absent of deadlift volume, you don’t lose the ability to strengthen your pull. No prescribed loading today so you can go as heavy as you would like to. Last week it was 1.5 – 2x your bodyweight. That is a great range to use this week if you would like to do something that is heavy enough. On a heavy deadlift you should treat it like the machine at the globo gym where you are sort of lying down with the weight cushioned on your shoulders, feet on a platform, and you essentially press the weight with your legs. In other words, when executing a heavy deadlift hang on with your arms and push the weight away from the floor with your legs.

A couple weeks ago we saw a workout with these same movements, however it was 5 rounds for time, and each movement called for 11 reps. There were several people who said it was one of the worst workouts they had ever done. That makes it a good workout to repeat in a different way. You’ll feel a lot better doing this workout simply because the rep scheme is significantly shorter. With this workout you’ll want to find a steady pace that you can maintain the entire workout. Don’t start out too hot because the 12′ wall balls going into the deadlift will catch up really quick. Scale the weight of the deadlift so that you can do each round unbroken. Make sure you can also do the 8 wall balls unbroken each round. You’ll notice that when there are 12′ wall balls prescribed there is no weight assigned, and this is because we want to do them unbroken and focus more on the accuracy of our throw.

WOD AT HOME
DB OH Lunge:
3 x 10 (each leg)

3 Rounds For Time:
3 Cycles:
5 R-Arm Russian KB Swing (AHAP)
5 R-Arm KB Clean
5 R-Arm KB Push Press
5 L-Arm Russian RB Swing
5 L-Arm KB Clean
5 L-Arm KB Push Press
…then…
35 Push Ups

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Back Squat:
6 x 1 @ 85%

“Jackie”
For Time:
1000 M Row
50 Thrusters (45/33)
30 Pull-Ups

This is a back off percentage day for the back squats going into test week next week. This is significantly lighter than the weight we had last week. It is intentional that we are lifting less than we have been over the past 5 weeks so that we can still squat, but do with some purpose so that we don’t wear ourselves out. Compared to the weight we’ve been doing this should feel really easy compared to the past few weeks. Typically we want to keep going heavier and heavier. The mindset is usually that if we aren’t always adding weight then we aren’t getting stronger. But the truth is that we need to go at something like this with a calculated approach. Make sure all 6 of your reps are at the same weight.

Jackie is a classic benchmark workout that was originially published back in 2009 on CrossFit’s mainsite. Jackie is a part of the benchmark group of Girl named workouts that include some sort of weighted barbell and calisthenics. Jackie tests the aerobic capacity of your lungs for 7-10 minutes, as well as the anaerobic capacity of your arms and legs. There should really be no gameplan here. The objective is to row hard for a thousand meters. After this while the barbell is light, it’s essentially 50 squats and 50 press at a weight that is enough to be devistating after a long row. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT DROP A BARBELL WHEN YOU ARE TIRED. IF YOU DROP A BARBELL IT DAMAGES THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE BAR AND OVER TIME WARPS, BENDS AND POTENTIALLY BREAKS THE BARBELL. IF YOU DROP A BARBELL YOU WILL SEE A $300 CHARGE ON YOUR ACCOUNT FOR A NEW BARBELL. IF YOU CAN PICK IT UP YOU CAN SET IT DOWN. If you are worried about getting so tired and having to drop it, use a training bar and load it with plates to 45/35#. Or use a rack. The pull-ups can get pretty nasty after all the rowing and thrusters. Jumping pull-ups is an awesome option to maintain a higher intensity. Banded pull-ups are an awesome option as well. You want to go with an option that allows you keep moving with the fewest amount of breaks.

WOD AT HOME
3 Sets:
40 Inverted Shoulder Taps (20/side)
30 Seconds R-Side Plank
30 Seconds L-Side Plank
30 Seconds Hollow Hold

AMRAP 20 Minutes:
35 Unbroken Double-Unders
20 Second L-Sit
15 Weighted Box Step-Overs (AHAP)

WORKOUT OF THE DAY
AMRAP 30 Minutes:
1 Hang Power Clean (225/153)
10 KB Push Ups
1 Hang Cluster
0.3/0.25 Mile Bike
…rest 1 minute b/w rounds…

Today’s workout is in line with the longer AMRAP’s we’ve had in the past 6 weeks. These workouts have had a few components: 1 strength movements, 1 endurance movment and 1 skill movement. For your barbell weight you have to consider what you are able to do both 1) from the hang, and 2) what you can throw overhead. Be most conerned with the latter because it is weaker than your pull, and it is the second of the two reps. For your hang movements we want an active upper back when we hinge and drive with the hips. Imagine you are squeezing a towel in the back of your armpit, and that towel needs to remain there until you pull yourself under the bar. This cue will help to ensure the barbell remains close to the body. For the cluster you’ll perform a hang clean and when you come up out of the bottom of the front squat you will drive with speed and throw the barbell overhead. Think “hip drive” on this movement. The KB push up can be done with any weight of KB’s, but make sure they are stable enough to do the push ups on. Your chest should surpass the top of the handle helping to create some strength in the front of the shoulder. Take into account that this will probably affect the overhead pressing position of the cluster. This distance bike is very equitable to 12-16 calories. With it being a longer clock the pace should be more of a maintenance speed.

WOD AT HOME
5 Rounds, Each For Time:
20 Push Ups
30 DB Snatch
40 Sit-Ups
50 Air Squats
…rest 3 minutes b/w rounds…