Episode 7
After a few computer errors, episode 6 was lost to the void. Instead of recording that episode over, we decided to just move forward. We discuss regionals, our week in CrossFit and go over the spoiled cards for Warmachine/Hordes. If you have any questions or comments, leave them at the bottom or you can email them to barbellsandboxcars@gmail.com
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Direct Link: EPISODE 7
3 second decent, 10 second pause at bottom
I really hate pause front squats after this session. The 10 second hold was hard to handle. I couldn’t do the reps in quick succession. I would do one rep and then rest a minute or so. I had a hard time keeping my elbows up after five seconds. I was also trying to control my breathing. It was a lot harder than I thought.
Split Jerk (Behind the Neck) – 5×3 at 75% (175 lb.)
We did this workout last week but this time we had to add 5-10 pounds. Even with the heavier weight, the jerks were not too bad and I felt my form was good.
AMReps in 5 Minutes at (375 lb.)
This was the first time I used a yolk in a workout. I’ve done short yolk carries but they were done at a lighter weight. I was excited to see how far I could get in five minutes. We have a 50 m course set up in the gym but I decided to do intervals of 25 m. The first minute and a half, I was able to complete 50 m. The yolk might have been a bit tall and I should have adjusted it. The path wasn’t exactly straight all the time. Members from a class would be doing double unders near the path and I would have to shift a bit to avoid the ropes. The shifts would also cause the weight to become unwieldy. After 75 m, I could feel my legs buckling under the weight. I would be taking slightly shaky steps but I was able to make it over the 25 m interval. It was a fun workout and I hope I get to do more in the future. I was able to walk 150 m in five minutes.
The front squats didn’t feel the best but I wanted to make it up on the snatch. My heaviest weight for this workout was 125 lb. So I would use that as my weight gauge. I worked up to 135 lb. but it wasn’t the best. The ground and hang were good, I moved well but the lift from the power position wasn’t great. I didn’t get under the bar quick enough, and I pressed out a bit. I hope it was fatigue.
I haven’t been practicing split jerks from behind the neck so I decided not to rush the weight. At 135 lb. the weight felt light so I decided to go straight to 165 lb. The lifts were great, the hardest part of the workout was lowering the bar on my back. I wasn’t using blocks so I couldn’t just drop the weight. It was a fun workout.
This was a grind. I took a few minutes in between sets. I struggled with my form towards the end but I finished eventually.
Lift Heavy and Level Up!
I included a video of some of the workouts I did during the week. Check it out at the end of this post.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Episode 5
In this episode of B&B we discuss the Pacific, California and South Regionals. We also discuss our highlights for the week. We talk about getting into wargaming and what to expect.
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Links
EPISODE 5
My snatch is getting better and I can feel the difference. I treated this like an EMOM and finished it in six minutes.
This workout was fun and challenging. I’m not used to jerks at this weight but I knew I could get it done. The whole workout was great and I finally feel more confident doing jerks. I need to do a few more heavy reps to get the hang of it.
I haven’t done this in months. Thankfully I had a coach nearby to teach me. These were easy enough. It’s a light weight for me so I focused on form.
WOD – AMRAP 7 Minutes
My snatch still needs some work but this wasn’t too bad. I hit a PR with a power snatch at 145 lb. but I wasn’t able to hit all three positions. I was able to get the ground and the hang snatch at 145 lb. but not the power position.
I haven’t maxed my jerk in awhile mainly because my clean hasn’t gone up by much. It was also my first time doing jerks from the blocks. It took a few reps to get used to the blocks and trusting my feet to not hit them. I was able to PR my jerk by 1 lb. and 5 lb. I missed at 226 lb. but I’m okay with it. My PR is not a huge leap but I’ll take it. I would like to hit a 225 lb. clean and jerk soon. I think I’m on the right track. I posted a video below of my jerk PR’s and my miss.
This was an interesting one. I don’t like burpees, I’m slow at box jumps but I was excited to do this workout. The first seven minutes went well and I was keeping a good pace but then I hit a wall at the eighth minute. I was barely able to complete the eight reps under a minute and I was only able to finish seven in the ninth round. I did better than what I thought I was going to do. It was a small victory for me.
Lift Heavy and Level Up!
Episode 3
In this episode we discuss our week in CrossFit and talked about the other side of Warmachine, Hordes. We also talk about spoilers for the new edition of Warmachine. If you have any comments you can email us at barbellsandboxcars@gmail.com. You can also get a hold of us at our FACEBOOK PAGE. You can also comment here if you like.
New Start
Hello everyone. I was falling behind in my weekly posts and decided to start writing current workouts. I was a three weeks behind and my memory of those workouts were hazy at best. I have the results on Beyond the Whiteboard, but I didn’t remember all the details of that workout. I’m going to start writing daily and hopefully I won’t have to catch up again.
I also started a Olympic weightlifting program. I’ve been wanting to do more weightlifting specific programming so my coaches added me to one. I didn’t want to stop doing the class WODs so I would do the weightlifting workouts and then the class WOD after.
I was dreading this workout but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was scared by the percentages and the weight. I was a bit warmed up from the front squats so I didn’t take as long warming up as I usually do. I was able to do two reps at 315 lb. which is about 86% of my 1RM. I wanted to add 10 lb. to make it ~90% but I decided against it. I didn’t want to risk it since my legs were not fresh. I’m proud of my lift however.
WOD
AMRAP 7 Minutes
30 double unders
15 hang power cleans
10 toes to bar
This workout was more challenging than anticipated. I was weary of the toes to bar but I was confident I would be able to get through it quickly. During the workout it became evident that the toes to bar were going to be the hardest movement. I had to break up the hang cleans during the second and third round but I didn’t have a long rest. The toes to bar were harder to string together. I was only able to to complete three or so before I had to rest. I finished two rounds, 30 double unders and 15 hang power cleans.
Power Snatch
Every Two Minutes for Ten Minutes
2 power snatch at 85% (135 lb.)
This workout was not as bad as I had envisioned it. Since I have a light snatch, the weight was manageable. I had enough time to recover between sets. I hope this means I can try and PR my snatch soon.
Clean and Jerk
Every Two Minutes for Ten Minutes
2 power cleans plus jerk at 85% (185 lb.)
I thought this workout was going to be tough and it was. The first two rounds were good. I was able to clean the weight without much trouble but my jerk needed help. I’m still not comfortable doing my jerk and it showed during the workout. I need to do more reps to get the hang of it. I was making sure my form was good and my coach said I was doing a great job. The last round was the hardest. At this time I was barely able to power clean the weight and it took the last bit of strength to complete the jerk. I was drained at the end but I managed to complete the workout.
Front Squat
4×4 at 75% (215 lb.)
I really didn’t want to do this squat workout. I was drained after the clean and jerk workout that I wanted to just walk away. A few members didn’t finish this part since they ran out of time but I was determined to end the week on a high note. After warming up my front squat I decided to get right into it. The first set wasn’t good. I felt my elbows dropping and I was struggling to stay upright. I took a few minutes to regroup and catch my breath and started on my next set. My form improved and the reps felt better, I was feeling a lot more warmed up. All I needed was a few minutes to regroup. The last two sets were great. I kept telling myself that it was almost over and that was enough to push me to finish.
I wanted to do the WOD but I was too tired. I was drained and I would have done horribly in that workout. It looked like lots of fun but my body didn’t want to cooperate. Sometimes, it’s best to just take a break and hit it hard the next time.
Lift Heavy and Level Up!
6 pull ups
9 power cleans (95 lb.)
12 toes to bar
This was a fun partner workout and I was excited to do it. My partner and I decided to split the reps by alternating movements. I would start on the pull ups and then he would do the power cleans and I would finish with toes to bar. I wanted to finish eight rounds, which would put us at a round every two minutes. I felt this was achievable since my partner and I are similar in fitness. The toes to bar would probably be our hardest movement. I’m still not great at it but hopefully I can recover between rounds.
We started out great, doing the first round in under a minute. I knew we would be able to keep this pace so I decided to slow down a bit so that we wouldn’t die out halfway through the workout. We were able to keep going at a steady pace until the sixth round. My partner and I had to take longer breaks between movements which slowed our pace. We completed eight rounds, six pull ups and nine power cleans.
Group WOD
The sled pull was the same distance except without the burpees or air squats. I haven’t done sled pulls in awhile and it was murder on my quads. It was a lot of fun however. Everyone was working hard and it was great motivation to push harder. This was a fun workout and I wish we did more of them.
Lift Heavy and Level Up!
8-Bit Barbell 