This Cycle’s Standardized Warm-Ups
Here are the next two standardized warm-ups for the current cycle. They’re very similar to the previous rotation with some minor tweaks and positional emphasis built in.
Warm-Up 1
3 Rounds NFT of:
12 Overhead Squats 2-2-2 Tempo
10 Push-Ups 2-1-2 Tempo
8 Ring Rows 2-2-2 Tempo
Squats: Focus on creating as much torque and tension in your body, especially at the bottom of the squat. 2-2-2 means two seconds on the way down, two second hold at the bottom and then a two second ascent. If a PVC is easy, scale up to a barbell. If you’re no where near overhead squatting a barbell and even a PVC proves nearly impossible to hold overhead, consider grabbing a barbell (not a PVC) and working your Front Squat rack position instead. That being said, you’ll need to work your overhead position with mobilizations before and after class every day.
Want to learn way too much about the OHS? click here.
Push-Ups: Before every descent, make sure to squeeze your butt, belly and create some torque at your shoulders. The bottom position is only held for one second and should be active as possible. A simply way to organize yourself is to imagine your belly button being the last thing to touch the floor and the first thing to leave the ground on the way up. Don’t rush these and ask a coach to put a plate on your back if you’d like to scale them up.
Ring Rows: Same old ring row, but using the 2-2-2 tempo allows you to develop the finished position with your shoulders back and a hollow body position. When your elbows are extended, keep the squeeze in your upper back, don’t go soft in the shoulders when you’re at the bottom position.
Warm-Up 2
3 Rounds NFT of:
:20 Static Hollow Hold
20 Reverse Lunges
5 Pull-Ups or Chin-Ups with a :02 hold at the top
Hollow Hold: We are starting on the floor with your arms overhead. Start by going through your basic bracing strategy, then picking up the head and shoulders with the arms overhead followed by raising your legs (with straight knees) until your lower back presses against the floor. To see a video of this, click here. If your lower back is not pressed into the ground, you’re blowing it.
Reverse Lunges: Alternate legs until you get to 20 or go 10 on one side then switch. We recommend loading this movement with a bumper plate or dumbbells if the bodyweight version is easy.
Pull-Ups or Chin-Ups: With the emphasis on holding the top and finishing with a neutral head position, you stand to make the most improvements in your overall performance by getting this right. At the top, your elbows should be pulled down and back and you should be looking across the room, not up at the ceiling. Scale your assist so that you can get the bar in line with your clavicle, not your chin reaching over. I can’t emphasize how much getting better at the last few inches will make your pull-ups that much easier in the long run.
If you do nothing else today, watch this video to understand this position.
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What’s the most painful mobilization you’ve experienced in the last month or so?
I'm tired for most painful with pinning my shoulders down and lowering my hips or maybe the first time we used feet on our legs.
No more straining to get the chin over the bar.
Lax ball "rolling" around my upper back/shoulders would be putting it nicely.
You realize DO is just collecting ideas for what to do to us in the next AR class, right? (which, sadly, I have to miss)
I'm gonna have to go with barbell mashing of the inner thigh.
Definitely the quad mash. At first I thought kstarr was kidding when he said 'the safe word is brisket…' He wasn't kidding.
Anything where someone's foot is digging through my muscles. They're simultaneously the best and worst mobilizations I've ever done.
MeLO CALF MASHING ME WITH HER FOOT.
Partner calf mashing on the paralettes killed me!
6am with Jess and McDowell. Decided to mix things up this cycle and go with a linear progression instead of wendler and high bar instead of low because it seems to be better for my hips. Squats: 225x3x5. Felt super light today. A bit sad and strange that I benched more yesterday than I squatted today. WOD at 45#: 5 rounds + 5. Started at 35# for the first round before manning-up.
Partner adductor mash. Loved it. Hated it.
i know this is going to sound super vain, but which programming track leads to bigger size gains (aka swoleness)?
partner calf mash with Whit H. She made me hurt so bad I really thought I'd cry.
Yesterday's Intensity Day:
Squat: (45×5, 95×5, 135×4, 165×3) 190x5x5
Bench: (45×5, 65×5, 85×5) 95x5x5
6am with Jess and McDowell. 95x3x5 for the bench press. Finished the WOD in 10:14 (thanks, McDowell, for the few extra seconds), using a 20kg KB and doing ring rows.
Partner paralette calf mash was the most painful, and therefore the best, mobilization.
It is a tie between McKensey calf-mashing me with her foot blade and (can't remember partner's name) doing the same to the inside of my quad where it attaches to the knee.
Jeremy stomping on my triceps. I think I grew chest hairs that day.
All the calf mashing was brutal!
Partner quad mash with Joy in last Saturday's AR class. We both had bruises to show off as a result. I honestly thought I might pass out.
Josh's big feet mashing my quads post murph was pretty brutal. Other than that nothing usually feels that terrible. The most intense discomfort I've experienced was Inka's hands on my calves. YEESH! I've not been able to replicate that with any self inflicted torture device yet.
csa members who want to attend the farm day, june 30
if you RSVP'd but didn't get an email from coach margie today with schedule and logistics, email me asap: mignyc at gmail dot com.
Monday night cycle of strengthening…
Squat (Texas Method Volume Day): 290×5, 315x5x3, 290×5
First time squatting 3 plates for 3 sets across. Too much sweat. The last set was easy, (quickest sets of 290 i've ever done really), Good volume day, but brutal with the heat.
Press (Wendler 1/week): 145×5
Meh. It's been 12 days since I pressed and it showed. Missing last week messed my groove. Will add 5 pounds to the calculator and see.
Deadlift: 385×4
Disappointing. The 3 rep was fast but the 4th was an all out max effort– I completely gassed out so I left it there. I'm sure this was due to the heat and the volume squat. I'm going to do this weight again and get the 5.
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Clearly this place is full of masochists. Alec is my DOM, I mean body worker, so any pain that make me wince is elicited by him and not self-inflicted.
@DO that's the best compliment you've ever given me! I have some new torturous moves for our next session 🙂
For those of you who want to couple those AR classes with some massage on your sliding surfaces, I'll be at the gym this Sunday from 9am- 2pm, and open gym 6pm- 8pm and still have a bunch of slots available. email me! inka@inkahodes.com
#1 The Most Emotionally Painful (photographed above) – mashing Jess Bailey's adductors with my foot. She was Partner A and this was the first AR class after the KStar workshop so I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t like the feeling that I was hurting my friend 🙁
#2 The Most Physically Painful – having MeLo and Fox mash my calves at the same time. Kind of makes me sick to my stomach to think about it.
Kelly mashing my left adductor the Monday after the Spartan race, when I had cramped soooo bad I thought I'd pass out. Then when Kelly smashed it I couldn't help but yelp in pain. Rough stuff. I really like everyone else writhing in pain though.
One more thing: that the banded OH stretch we did last Thursday was effective – moreso than the other version that we usually do. It wasn't painful, but I saw immediate results.
Definitely big blue ball and Psoas. Horrible.
@Kmo,
What banded overhead stretch?
@JJ… hilarious. @Lady Fox… our beautiful moment is captured in one of those rolling photos above. my foot + your calf = pain/love.
Partner calf mash is THE WORST for me. Also the best. From years of dancing and having plantar fasciitis, this is really where it's at for me. The calf muscles, the fascia, the achilles tendon… vomit city. population: me. Julian and I did a bit of this last night and I was quite literally wimpering in pain.
8AM class with lady fox:
Bench: 45×5, 65×5, 80×3
95x5x3
Harder than I expected, seeing as I did 95×5 with pause last week. chalk it up to coming at 8am and not having any food/coffee in my system? they all went up with decent enough speed though.
WOD with Serene, who is THE BEST, most positive partner to have cheering you on:
15 KB's @ 20kg, face level
10 HR push-ups (love these. somehow they feel easier, like I can drive through my hands more)
5 Chins with white band. a little help from Serene on the lsat couple to get chin up and over.
Time: 9:56
Grip still seems to hold me back in these workouts. Otherwise, felt like I was moving well thru it all.
Went to a 90 min yoga class afterward, pouring sweat in an non-A/C studio with about 30 other people. pretty great to do that kind of release work and still the challenge of mental focus, esp. after a full workout. coffee on the way to class helped 🙂
i have yet to experience this calf mash of which everyone speaks so fondly. I can't wait for someone to be my dom on that.
speaking of painful – it breaks my heart that I have to get rid of my couch… if anyone's in the market, you can see the craigslist post here: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fuo/3894272370.html
feel free to email me directly at shpaddock(at)gmail.com to inquire. willing to make a super great deal.
@ Whit H,
The couple that mashes together…freaks out their neighbors? I said some really mean things to McKensey while also yelling in pain, and vice versa, and if our neighbors hear us, which they do because we hear them, they must think something much weirder and more fun is going on. Ok, maybe not weirder.
Joel! Hahahahahaha!
Most painful for me was when Melo smashed my calf too!
Squat – 205×5, 235×5, 265×11 – Solid – felt good to be squatting again after crush/backoff weeks.
Just under 6 rounds on tomorrow's WOD
I"m going to go with calf stepping as well. So painful while a friend is stepping on you and such a weird feeling to squash someone else's muscle back & forth.
This came along at the perfect time though, my calves had started to cramp at random and it's been much better since all the stomping.
@ JJ Do you switch? If so I'll Dom you.
@ Joel W, Do you have the supple leopard book? If so: Page 258 (OH with External Rotation Bias). If you don't, your bad.
On a semi related note. I've been working vigilantly on my "passive" standing posture. Not standing like a duck and not trying to shift to my right. After about 2 months I feel like I've made some real progress on what I "default" to when standing. Even Alec Helner noted that my gait and standing posture looked like it had really cleaned up recently. It's not perfect, but if I had to guess I think I maintain conscious, organized posture about 85% of the time.
To further the DOM/SUB theme, I think that should read "you're bad."
I've never had to use "cacao" yet. Portlandia anyone?
@DO: yes, of course.
I was unaware that I had caused so many people so much pain in the past month. Sorry y'all, but it's for your own good. 😉 My most painful mobility moment of the past month was also the calf mashing. It was one of two times, with either Coach J-Mart or Matty-Katz. Both pretty big dudes, and both without hesitation squishing my calves. I suppose I should thank them, but I won't. I also suppose I should take better care of my calves (*noted).
@ Whitney H. – great face in the rotating pics.
Having Coach Fox crushing my triceps with his feet…loved every minute of the pain.
"your bad", bad being used as a noun, as in an action (or inaction) Not, you are bad.
High Bar BSQ 198x3x5
Bench Press 145x5x2
(Having some major issues organizing this lift)
DB Bench 45x12x3
Supine Static hold on GHD :30×5
Prone Static Hold on GHD :45×3
@ Luca
Probably Fitness
Calf Mash. Melo wandered over all nice and smiley, gently kneeled down, softly put her hands on my shin and proceeded to make me cry – while she smiled the entire time.
6am! 4 top on a rack for Monday's bench. Worked it like NASCAR. Then the 5 Rounds with a 12kb, 7:31. Wanted to use 16kb but was afraid of toppling over. I think we were 30 or 31 deep with SBKers. Zoinks! Jess and McDowell were aces as always. Fox tried to tell me a joke about hay and horses and it seriously did not compute. Had a good time today. Seriously.
Inner thigh just above the knee – right side. From the beginning this was the dreaded location with a barbell, and now the feet!
There's something about the first time you get stepped on.
I actually felt a surge of anger.
And then, you find yourself effusing appreciation..
Apologies to whomever had to clean up my 60lbs dumbbells!!! Supremely sorry. It hit me as i was walking into my apartment.
HBBS 325 3×5
Started the WOD with 60# bells, and decided, in all honesty, that I deeply disliked the movement and did Tabata rowing from minute 4 on.
6:30 AR- great
7:30 with Noah for Monday's wod
Warm up 2 without knowing what the wod was because I can't get enough pull ups.
20 hollow hold much harder than the rocks
10e reverse lunge with 25# overhead getting easier at the end.
5 pull ups with a few seconds at the top
Then a couple failed attempts at muscle ups. 🙁 I'm so greedy. I want more.
Bench 70# for 3 and I couldn't hang. Also didn't do these lastncycle and should've been much lower for the beginning of a new cycle. 65x2x5
16kg kb/15 I'm horrible at these. Rd 4+5 went 12,3
Hand release push ups/10 Noah said I was broken and I don't know that I ever fixed it
5 strict pull ups. Did one chin up somewhere in there but it didn't feel any easier so I switched back. 4 rounds,+kb swings, and 7 push ups. Boo
Is it time for open gym yet?
@DO, I wasn't correcting grammar, just commenting that in the spirit of Domination it would be funny to say "you're bad" as in "you're a bad little boy, Joel!"
Serious marathon session today. I've been working some hamstring stretches during the day at work using a kb, and since it was making me feel some tightness in my calves and due to the calf mash love in this thread, I did 5 minutes per side on the bell before leaving for the gym.
Then a killer AR sesh with Fox for t-spine, lower back, and hips.
Then 7:30 class with Noah and Josh, did yesterday's bench workout so got some external shoulder rotation mobility in too.
Bench
95×5 140×5 155×5 175×10
This was all over the place due to some spreadsheet errors on my part. Where's Ryan Joyce when you need him! Felt fine, wanted to get 11 as I had gotten 10 on a 175 rep out last cycle but I started coming off the bench a little on 9 and 10 so I calle it.
WOD rx'd in 9:48. L sit pull ups got ugly at the end. Surprisingly the first 4 rounds of swings were unbroken, 10-5 in the last round.
Afternoon Workout
BBG
7X1 3 Position Clean (Hi-Hang, Hang, Floor) + 1 Jerk – rest 60-90 seconds
Warmup, complex at: 45 and 95
Work weight: 135, 145,150, 155, 160, 165, 170
Strength
1a) 4X5 Split Press – rest 60 sec.
5×45
5×65
5×75
5×95
5×100
1b) 4X5 Pendlay Row – rest 60 sec.
5×135
5×160
5×165
5×170
Conditioning
3 rounds for total reps of:
1:00 ME Deficit HSPU 4"/3" scaled to 8" negatives
2:00 AMRAP of:
12 TTB
12 DB Push Press scaled to 35#
Rest 1:00
Round 1:
3 HSPU negatives, 12 T2B, 12PP@35
Round 2:
5 HSPU negatives, 12 T2B, 12PP@35, 3 T2B
Round 3
6 HSPU negatives, 12 T2B, 12PP@35
Notes:
Clean complex w/jerk got heavy very quickly; no dumping of the weight caught up to me quickly.
Left shoulder is clicking a bit — need a dose of mobility wods.
Assistant strength work was fun, the split presses were remarkably challenging.
Pendlay rows are making a huge difference in that I've begun to grow a nice shelf for the bar during HBBS. Very necessary as my vertebrate were in danger of being crushed.
Could have done considerably better on the Metcon, but kept being displaced from the pull-up bar.
Overall, was a good day.
The stuff Todd does at work blows my mind. I stand up for a few hours rub my foot on a lax ball and then chase it down the hall when it rolls away..
Lots of people cracking me up on the blog today. I also like when David explains grammar.
Since I'm on a roll..
Monday's- 2 chin ups shy of 5 rounds in 10 min. 20kg bell and a few of the chin ups in each set with knees tucked. Really hard
Wednesday's- 4 Rnds +2 things (intentionally vague) at 20 lbs, which was probably too light. Curious about how this movement was conceived
McDowell mashing my thigh with his feet. Kind of gross and also painful.
WOD in 7:37
Knee HR pushups
Ring Rows
24 KG KB – not totally overhead but past my face
Bech 3×5 @ #75
BSQ: 130x5x3
Felt messy and crappy. Great cues from Jess though.
WOD @ 20#: I thought 5 rounds + 10 split cleans, but that seems high. 20# definitely felt light. Lauren B, I also felt weird doing this movement.
LBBS – Happy to move to "Performance" for the 1st time.
Wendler:
65% – 95×5
75% – 112×5
85% – 125×10 repout
Probably could have done 1 more but wasn't sure how many I should be able to do and legs were definitely shaky after 10.
I do not have the supple leopard book. A pic for a promise to buy?
Squats, Wendler 5 week
245×5, 275×5, 305×10. The bar definitely started slipping and I definitely felt out of the groove. I look forward to the 3 week feeling stronger and to doing this again in the next 5 week.