I included a video of some of the workouts I did during the week. Check it out at the end of this post.
Monday
Power Snatch (Low Block) – 4×3 at 75% (115 lb.)
This is the first time I did snatches off of low blocks. It felt great but I need to work on my technique. I need to work my bar path since the bar would swing out.
Pause Power Clean and Jerk – 5×2 at 70% (155 lb.)
This was challenging for the first two sets. I’m not that great at pause lifts but I was able to finish the workout. I got the hang of the movement towards the end of the last round.
Front Squat Pause – 5×3 at 70% (215 lb.)
This was a hard one. In the beginning, it was easier to keep an upright torso and keep my elbows up. Towards the end I had to fight to keep my elbows up. I tried to focus on maintaining a good front rack and being active in the bottom position. I also need to learn how to breathe while holding that pause at the bottom.
WOD – 10 Minute AMRAP
50 double unders
10 back squats (135 lb.)
This was a great workout. I wanted to test my endurance during a high intensity workout. I’m okay at double unders but I tend to tire quickly. The back squats are light enough that I can go unbroken without issue. My goal for this workout was five rounds. I was able to go unbroken on the first two rounds and then I hit a wall on the third. It was difficult for me to string double unders together. I would get to about 5-10 reps and then hit my shoes or stop from fatigue. It took me about a minute or so to get through them. The same goes for round four and the beginning of five. The squats started feeling heavy after round two. I would complete five reps rest for ten seconds and then continue with five more reps. I was only able to complete four rounds plus 35 double unders, a bit short of my five round goal. If I didn’t fatigue on the double unders I would have finished five. I have a lot of room for improvement.
Tuesday
Took some time to get used to the platform. I’ve been working on deficit dead lifts which are done on plates but the platform has some room for foot movement. I also had to work on stepping off the platform to drop the weight since it might have hit the platform and bounced everywhere.
Ended this day with a back squat workout. Nothing too crazy, mainly a maintenance day.
Wednesday
I wasn’t able to hit a PR today but I learned a lot. Programming is important. The past few weeks, I haven’t been doing the strength portion of the class programming. I’ve been focused on the oly strength work and haven’t been doing heavy deadlifts. I was able to complete my 93% (385 lb.) but I failed at 420 lb. I felt my form break a few inches off the ground and I let it go. I didn’t want to fight for it and hurt myself in the process. Need to get back to heavy deadlifts so I can finally PR this lift!
Run (200 m)
10 Ab mat sit ups
6 deadlifts (225 lb.)
This was a fun workout especially after all the heavy deadlifts. My goal was to complete six rounds completing one round every two minutes or so. The first few rounds went by smoothly. I did all the reps unbroken and was below my two minute per round pace. After round three though, the run started to slow me down. I was jogging at a slow pace and I couldn’t speed up. It was like I was in auto pilot. I was able to finish 5 rounds and 50 m.
Thursday
I would only work for 20 seconds and rest for 40. It was difficult holding onto the bar for that many touch and go reps. I would stop after I let go of the bar. For the first two rounds I was able to do three reps and declined to one rep by the sixth minute. I found a second wind and completed two and then three reps for the last four rounds. I may have to do less reps in the future, since my form wasn’t great towards the end.
I was able to complete the row but not the hand stand push ups. My reps ranged from 5-15. I might have been fatigued from all the press movements but I pushed as hard as I could to finish. It was rough.
Friday
I learned a lot in this workout. I had one of my coaches watching my reps and he corrected a bunch of issues with my lift. I worked on my catch and foot work. I feel a lot more confident in this lift but I still have a lot of work to do.