Tag: Barbell Class

Wendler Cycle C Week 2 Back Squat + Barbell Class

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I was having a very bad day yesterday. It was a super stressful day at work and I was eating horribly. I also felt a little bit like I was starting to get ill.. low energy, chills, stuffy nose. I thought about not going to the box, but since I only have a few days left before I leave for a month I convinced myself to go anyway. And as always, that was a good decision :).

I signed up for the barbell class at 7:15 and decided to not join the WOD at 6:15 as I really needed to get my squats in for the Wendler schedule.

Back Squat

3 x 45.4kg / 100 lbs
3 x 49.9kg / 110 lbs
6 x 56.7kg / 125 lbs

(I decided to start reverting everything to kg’s. These lbs weights.. even though we use them at the box, really don’t mean anything to me.)

After that I did two tabata’s (8 rounds of 20 sec work and 10 sec rest). One with kettlebell swings and one with kettlebell lunges. Both with a 16kg kettlebell. I did 7 swings each round and 6 lunges each round. (Didn’t push myself too hard.)

I wanted to check my form when doing power cleans so filmed a few practice reps. (Did 2 x 3 reps.) But somehow I managed to film it upside down lol. There were kids running around with a football too. Very distracting! (Not to mention not very safe..) I will try and fix the video and upload it later.

I think I want to try and add power cleans to my strength schedule. Would be nice to train with heavier weights on that movement. But will have to see how much strength training I can do in the next month anyway as I’m not sure the box in Lelystad has open box hours.. So might wait until I’m back in Spain to add that in.

After my own training I joined in on the barbell class (will really miss this class!!).

barbellclass

 

So this time we practiced the split jerk. Started with some footwork and timing on when to “split”. After that we did 7 sets of 1 power clean, 2 shrugs, 1 split jerk and 1 split jerk from bar on back. I did them with 55 lbs (24.9kg).

For strength we did hand stand push ups. I used a 25 lbs (11.3kg) plate and one abmat and did 3 sets of 5 hand stand push ups.

Nice class again! I will miss these technical classes!!!

Wendler Cycle C Week 2 Shoulder Press and Barbell Class

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Pff, the shoulder press did not go so well. I messed up my weights on the second set and did 5lbs more than I should have. Which I am going to blame for doing awful on my last set.

Shoulder Press

3 x 55 lbs
3 x 65 lbs (should have been 60 lbs)
3 x 70 lbs

My rep goal on the last set was 7, but came nowhere near :(.

I did 5 push press with 70 lbs after that. But couldn’t be bothered to do more. Because it was up to barbell class next.

photo

1. Clean drills was basically going through the movements, but one step at a time and very slowly

2. Is where we had to bar in clean position and then did the dip and drive, but not extending our arms up. So just feeling the power of our hips moving the bar off our shoulders. Then we did 5 rounds of 2 of those drives and then 1 full push jerk.

3. A nice little complex of one power clean, then a front squat, then a squat clean and then a push jerk. For 5 sets. I did this with 55 lbs.

4. For strength we did 3 sets of 10 pendlay rows and 10 dumbbell push press. I did the rows with 55 lbs and the push press with two 25 lbs dumbbell.

5. More nice mobility tricks for good stretching. We used the band to stretch our calves and we did something where you would set up in the squat rack in racking position and someone else will push your elbows up as far as possible. After that had to hang from the bar while the other pushes against your shoulder blades to push you forward (stretching your shoulders/upper back). And we ended with but against the wall and then putting legs as far down in what is basically a horizontal “squat” position.

Nice lesson again! I love these technical classes. Very different dynamic, but I feel that I learn so much. And it forces you to focus on your weak points.

Barbell Class October 7, 2014

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I only did the barbell class today and did not do a normal WOD. The timetable changed, making it impossible to fit a class before.

I forgot to take a picture of the workout written on the board. And I find it impossible to remember the terms used for the different techniques. But I’ll try to remember what we did.

We started again with some mobility and warmup and practiced our footwork. Same footwork drill as last two weeks, but now we also did box jumps.

After that we did various practice movements.. tempo squats and snatch movements but broken down into little parts. We focused on the part where you go overhead.

Then we did a 5 minute EMOM of 2 “power snatches!” but where you would already be standing with the weight in end of deadlift position before snatching it up. And then 2 power snatches from the ground. I did them with 55 lbs.

After that we did 3 sets of 10 front squats with a 3 second hold in the bottom and then driving up fast. And 3 sets of 10 front squats where you go up a little bit from the bottom position (to just above parallel) then go down again and immediately drive up. I did a little less reps in each set (sometimes 8 sometimes 6) as, especially with the holds at the bottom, I was starting to feel a little bit faint (low blood pressure :( ).

We ended with some stretching.

Nice session again!!

 

WOD 30 September, 2014 + Barbell Class

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I had to drag myself into the box. I was so tired! But, I didn’t want to miss the barbell class and then I could choose between doing nothing for an hour or doing CrossFit. So.. you know.. not much of a choice there :p.

WOD

Mini Triple 3

  • Row 1.5k
  • 150 double unders
  • Run 1.5 miles (6 laps)

My workout:
I did the row in 6 min 49 seconds. Then I completely sucked at the double unders and finished them when the clock was at 15 min 15. Then I went for 3 half assed laps.. with some walking and jogging.. not much running.. I felt kind of dead at this point. Stopping at 3 laps also meant I had 5 minutes to recover before joining the Barbell Class. My end time was 24 min 50 seconds (pretty horrible).

Barbell Class!

photo (13)

We did some nice mobility work. These are all very nice tricks and things to learn as I can use them whenever I train on my own :). They are hard to explain here though… But I’ll try.

  • We did footwork to imitate the start and landing position of the snatch. We used plates to ensure we landed on the same spot every time.
  • We used one band looped through another to put pressure on the back muscle. Holding the band and stretching it out in top snatch position.
  • We used a plate on a kettlebell so it is in a diognal with the bottom part against the wall. Then you step on it with both feet, with your back against the wall. This forces your feet to stand with the toes up. Which is good for ankel mobility (one of my weak spots).

Then we did a couple of halting snatch deadlifts (see last post) with just the bar and practiced doing the second pull properly and with good speed. After this we put on some weight and did 7 min EMOM of 2 high pulls + 1 power snatch. I had a 15kg bar and only put on 10 lbs plates. (It is all still for practicing good form after all.)

After this we were supposed to do 5 sets of 5 of those Sotts (?) presses. Which is where you have the bar on your back as in a back squat. Squat down and then from there try to push the bar up (with snatch grip). And this 5 times. This was almost impossible for me!! I only used the 15kg bar and barely managed to do 1 rep for 5 sets. It is both a mobility and a strength thing I think, but crap.. I need to practice that more!!

We finished with 50 hollow rocks (which I should also do more often, because ouch!).

After this we did some stretching and some of the guys started practicing handstand walks. And they were good at it too!! Bunch of acrobats. I tried some freestanding handstands, but no luck yet. I’m a bit too scared of falling over I think.. Hard to find balance when you are afraid to go all the way up to the sticky point :p.

It is amazing to me how I can turn up at the box without any energy at all, kind of just wanting to skip it and hang on the couch all evening, and whenever I do go I just get so much energy from it. I do hope I will feel a bit more energized again throughout the day though. This week has been tough so far!

WOD September 23, 2014 and first ever barbell class

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WOD 1

“BURP – ANNIE”

50-40-30-20-10 reps of:

– Double Unders

– Sit Ups

(EMOM 5 Burpees)

My workout:
I came running in half an hour late into this WOD. They just finished the warmup and skill practice so I went straight into the WOD. Luckily with this kind of WOD you don’t need much of a warmup anyway. The WOD is one big warmup. It went quite well! I messed up on my double unders a couple of times, especially in the first set. But other than that I was able to keep going pretty well. The burpees felt so easy somehow! Almost like a break from the work (I did 3 burpees instead of 5 btw). My time was 12 min 48 seconds. The timecap was 15 minutes. I did 5 burpees on every minute for the remaining minutes in the timecap. Rich thought that was a good idea lol.

WOD 2

3 x 800m Run (2 Mins Rest between sets)

My workout:
I scaled this to 3x 400m run with 1 min rest in between. I knew the 3 x 800m would destroy me and I still had the barbell class after this. I hate, hate, hate running. Even the 400 meters are horrendous. My times were:

Round 1: 1 min 50 sec
Round 2: 1 min 48 sec
Round 3: 2 min 10 sec

After the last round I ran another round with one of the guys who struggled through one or two rounds and then decided to sit the rest out. I was able to convince him to run one more together :D.

After that it was time for my very first “barbell class”. Maria, a coach at the box is starting a class for olympic weightlifting, which focuses just on the Snatch and Clean & Jerk and mostly on technique and form. The first lesson was today and it will go on for the next 6 weeks (don’t know if it will continue after that). It’s too bad I will have to miss most classes when I leave for Holland next month, but very happy that I can attend the first few.

Barbell Class

photo (11)

My workout:
We didn’t really work with those percentages as it was the first class for everyone, so we just worked on the technique with no or very little weight.

  1. The foot drills were about starting position and end position for the snatch. We used plates to make sure we ended on the same spot on every jump. And tried to land heavy (not so easy).
  2. We did 5×1 of the halting snatch DL where you pauze at 3 points. (2 x with 55 lbs and 3 x with 105 lbs.)
  3. Drop snatch + OHS. I hate everything overhead so stuck to just the bar.  4 x 1 with 35 lbs
  4. And then it was on to try the full snatch, with special focus on the footwork. We took turns for 3 sets of 4, which I did with just the bar (35 lbs)
  5. After this we ended with 50 back extensions. Which I think I did wrong, because I only went up with my chest and not with my legs (ups).

I really enjoyed this class! I can learn so much from it!!