This week marks the end of the month and the only acceptable time to put up a christmas tree. It also is a chance to get over last week. We have backed off a little on the upper body volume however if you are getting after the open gym WOD’s like me, I wish you luck.
Special note – It’s getting hotter. Bring a towel and water to class and clean up your sweat when your done.
Lifting
This week we get to test out our front squat max. We have programmed it as a pyramid scheme… the good kind. You will build up to a good looking max weight for the day, then drop the weight back and continue looking good for another three or four sets.
If you hate front squats, chances are you’re just not in quite the right position to get comfortable and handle some really big loads.
If you struggle to keep that bar on your shoulders or your wrists hurt it’s probably a combination of shoulder,scapular and thoracic mobility (it’s usually never the wrist) stopping you from getting organised into a good position or just the way you set up. On the day we will throw heaps of mobility work your way in the warm up but here’s a video from the MobilityWOD on how to better set up. https://youtu.be/oXOgjuGOQBY
We also have some 3 position snatch work to do where we snatch from the hip, knee and floor. This awesome complex is here to really help us to perform our second pull with more proficiency. That is finding our hips with the bar, with long straight arms as we explode up and shrug.
Here’s a video of the breakdown of Lu Xiaojuns the Olympic and world champion breaking the world record snatch two years ago in Rio.
Yeah that’s 177kg by a guy who weighs less than 77kg
Skills
We have a good skill session around the ring muscle up. It consists of sets of strict ring muscle ups (or banded/assisted) and kipping swings. This isn’t really a workout that you try to score high on. Instead the focus should be on how to better perform the parts required to be successful at muscle ups. We will continue to work hard on our kipping swing skill and building strength through the range of that muscle up so we can get you as good as possible at muscle ups come open time.
We also have a good deal of play one day with some kettlebell snatch, clean and jerk and overhead squats. Expect to see a bit more of this stuff come up over the next few weeks.
Metcons
This seems to be the week of the AMRAP’s. We have three headed your way. The main thing you will need to prepare yourself for this week will be the longer 20min one. It has Rowing (no worries) light deadlifts for reps (gross) and toes to bar for reps (lookout hands, abs, lats, heart, soul). The main obstacle in this one will be the toes to bar. Get your kipping sorted and your meaty grip right. If your hands slip and slide around that bar be prepared to tear and not finish the workout. Special note if you tear and bleed you must stop. This is a common courtesy as no one wants to share a pull up bar and rower with your DNA.
Open Gym
The main difference with this weeks open gym wods are
- The Kettlebell AMRAP repeats. This is there to help us learn how to hold on to a weight for longer. They may only be 2min AMRAPs but this will be tough
- Two endurance wods this week. One a interval piece on the bike like the row and run ones from the last two weeks. The other a more continuous row run and then cart some heavy weight around. This will challenge you to keep a good position on the carry’s whilst you’re fatigued.
