Month: August 2023

Skill
6 rounds:
20 second handstand hold
20 second L sit
20 second supine plank
20 second rest

Keep your transitions quick and scale the holds to a difficulty that you can maintain for the whole 20 seconds. You can wall walk or kick up for the handstand, and the L-sit can be modified by keeping the legs slightly tucked rather than totally straight.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 8 minutes:
200 m run
15 push ups

Rest 4 minutes, then:

AMRAP in 8 minutes:
20/15 calories
15 push ups

Record rounds and reps separately for each AMRAP.

You’ll be working up to a high volume of push ups today, so be sure to scale appropriately; you should be able to hit sets of 5 throughout the workout with sacrificing good body position or full range of motion. The difficulty can be adjusted by doing the push ups to a box, dropping to the knees, or both. The per-round volume could also be adjusted if you’d like to work on rx push ups but can’t manage the rx volume.

standard, rx, and sport: real pretty push ups
metcon: 8:00 on, 4:00 off, 8:00 on

Skill
Every 50 seconds for 8 rounds:
20 double unders
3 touch and go power cleans

We’re practicing quick cycling of the barbell under some time and cardio pressure for the skill work today. Choose a jump rope volume and difficulty that you can always finish in under 20 seconds. Use a barbell weight at which you can sustain touch and go reps without your form deteriorating, even at the end of the 8 rounds. 50 seconds is a very short time to do all of this, so prepare for little rest and quick transitions. If there was an rx weight for this is would be 135/95, for reference.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 12 minutes:
5-10-15-20-25-30…
Thruster
Pull Up

This is going to feel very similar to Tuesday’s workout. Use a thruster weight that lets you hit 10 unbroken, but that makes 15 unbroken a bit doubtful in the context of the workout. The pull ups should be scaled to a relatively easy difficulty; you should be able to do quick sets of at least 3-5 reps throughout the 12 minutes.

If you went hard on Tuesday, consider dropping the weight substantially and switching over to ring rows in place of the pull ups.

standard: 65/45
rx: 95/65
sport: 95/65, chest to bar pull ups
metcon: 6×1:40 on, 0:20 off

Skill
EMOM for 10 minutes:
Power snatch with a 3 second freeze in the catch
Squat snatch with a 3 second freeze in the catch

The catch position of the snatch is one of the toughest stability and balance challenges we face in here. By spending some extra time frozen in that receiving position you’ll get great practice controlling your barbell. Limit your load and range of motion to support a precise freeze in a stable position on both reps. Memorize that previous sentence and remember it when you’re thinking of adding weight 😉

Workout of the Day
4 rounds, 3 minutes on, 1 minute off:
4 burpee box jump overs
12 kettlebell swings

All of the workouts we do here have the potential to be quite mild, extremely nasty, or anything in-between. Your goal should be to consistently know where on that spectrum you want to target, to prepare and scale in support of that target before the workout starts, and to make pacing decisions during the workout to stay on target. On some days for some people that might mean going fast and heavy. On other days or for other folks it might mean light and slow.
What’s important is that you consciously make an effort to develop the tools that let you make those adjustments in your approach. That toolset is what will help you hit your personal goals.
It’s also extremely important to recognize that there isn’t a single right answer for what your goals should be. Some show up to stay healthy, some show up to compete, some show up to turn off their brains for an hour; some for all three reasons, and some for other reasons entirely. Be sure to check in with yourself regularly to figure out what your reason for showing up is. It’s an important and personal thing that will change with time, and understanding it will help you feel safe and confident in what you do here.

Pick a lighter weight for the swings today. Add up your rounds and reps at the end of the workout, Chief-style.

standard: 16/12 kg KB, 20/12″ box
rx: 24/16 kg KB, 24/20″ box
sport: 32/24 kg KB, 24/20″ box
metcon: 4×3:00 on, 1:00 off

Skill
5 sets of 5 strict press
Use ~70% of your max

On the last set, feel free to go for a max set. You can use the number of reps you get to calculate a theoretical max using the charts posted in the gym. Ask your coach if you aren’t sure how!

We’re working through one more 4-week cycle of back squat on Mondays and presses on Tuesdays.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 12 minutes:
5-10-15-20-25-30…
Overhead squat
Toes to bar

The sets in this workout will get large quite quickly. Prepare for that jump in volume by conserving your energy in the first few rounds. Use a barbell that lets you always hit sets of 5-10 on the overhead squats. Drop the overhead squat to a front squat if your mobility doesn’t let you securely pass through that range of motion. It’s ok for the toes to bar to break a bit by the end of the 12 minutes, but you should scale them so that you can hit sets of at least 3 to 5 at a time for the first half of the workout.

standard: 65/45
rx: 95/65
sport: 95/65, never rest for more than ten seconds, never do more than ten reps unbroken
metcon: 6×1:30 on, 0:30 off

Skill
5 sets of 5 back squats
Use ~70% of your max

On the last set, feel free to go for a max set. You can use the number of reps you get to calculate a theoretical max using the charts posted in the gym. Ask your coach if you aren’t sure how!

We’re working through one more 4-week cycle of back squat on Mondays and presses on Tuesdays.

Workout of the Day
5 rounds for time:
12 deadlifts
9 hang power cleans
6 push jerks

15 minute time cap

Happy Birthday, Lilli! Her choice of a birthday workout is a classic benchmark, and a very tough all-barbell challenge. If you think you’ll get to a point where you have to break up the push jerks into more than two sets, you’ve definitely gone too heavy. The same goes for the hang power cleans.

standard: 95/65
rx: 135/95
sport: 155/105
metcon:

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 20 minutes with a partner:
50 Russian twists
15 push ups

While one partner works through rounds and reps of that AMRAP, the other partner either rows 500 meters or bikes 1,200 meters. Once the partner on the machine finishes that distance, they’ll take over for the partner working through the AMRAP, picking up where they left off. Continue swapping back and forth like that, with one partner chipping away at the Russian twists and push ups, and the other partner rowing or biking until they’ve finished their prescribed distance.

Use a 5, 10, or 15 pound plate on the Russian twists. Pick a push up difficulty that lets you maintain a rigid body and solid chest contact with the ground (or other target).

Workout of the Day
For time:
1,000 m run
80 alternating dumbbell power snatches
60 single arm overhead lunges
40 burpees to a target
200 double unders

Time cap: 25 minutes

We’re going to start calling the run left out of the garage doors and east to Cantrill and back on 2nd street 1,000 meters. It’s actually 960, so 1,000 isn’t totally precise, but it’s less of a slap in the face than saying it’s an 800.

Use a dumbbell that you’re comfortable sticking with for high volume. If the overhead position on the lunges is a no-go, pull the dumbbell down to the chest for goblet lunges. Pick a target for the burpees that is just outside your standing reach; you should have to jump, but not more than about an inch. For the double unders, scale the volume and difficulty to take no more than about 5 minutes fatigued (3 or 4 minutes fresh).

standard: 35/20
rx: 50/35
sport: 50/35, drag rope
metcon: 7×2:20 on, 0:40 off

Skill
AMRAP in 8 minutes:
2 strict toes to bar
4 kipping toes to bar
6 handstand push ups (strict or kipping)

Before you tackle the handstand push up, make sure that you’re able to do about 10 strict and solid regular push ups, and have the shoulder mobility to go overhead. Feel free to stick with regular push ups (8-12 reps per round) if you aren’t ready to get into the handstand push ups yet. If you’re new to the handstand push up or haven’t practiced it in a while, stack up 2-4 abmats underneath your head to give yourself and easier range of motion.
Scale the range of motion on both the strict and the kipping toes to bar to keep the technique and cadence consistent. You should ideally be able to do the 2 strict plus 4 kipping in one set without dropping off the bar.

Workout of the Day
5 rounds:
2 minutes to complete: 20/16 cals, then max hang squat cleans in remaining time
2 minutes of rest

Each 2 minute interval will start with a hard effort on the machine. It should take you about 0:45 to 1:15 to finish your calories before getting on your barbell and hanging on for a few hard and fast sets. Use a weight that lets you hit 5-10 reps per set, with about 5-10 seconds between sets. The goal here is to go fast enough that you need the full 2 minutes to recover and get ready to repeat the effort. Record the total number of hang squat cleans that you accumulate; the calories are just a buy-in, and don’t count towards your total.

In large classes, one group will stagger by 2 minutes and get their work done in the other group’s rest interval.

standard: 95/65 pound bar
rx: 115/85 pound bar
sport: 27/21 calories, 115/85 pound bar
metcon: 5×2:00 on, 2:00 off

Skill
5 rounds:
45 seconds of calories
15 seconds of rest
45 seconds of rest (rx) or plank (standard)
15 seconds of rest

Compare to Thursday, 6/27

If you typically plank in the rest interval, consider not doing that today. Think about how hard you’d have to push on the machine so that planking during the rest interval would be prohibitively challenging, and then hit that pace. These machine sprints are a great chance to practice a much more aggressive approach than you normally take, especially if you’re someone that feels like they only have one speed on the workouts.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 15 minutes:
30 sit ups
25 kettlebell deadlifts
20 kettlebell hang power snatches

Use a manageable kettlebell weight today. You’ll be getting a lot of reps in on both movements, and even though the deadlift will be quite easy on a per-rep basis it will still stack up and start to tire you out. Break up the kettlebell hang power snatches however you’d like; we’d recommend switching hands every 5 or 10 reps. The goal today is to keep moving steadily as best you can. If you’re totally gassed from the skill work, pick a lighter weight and let yourself slow down and take breaks a little more than you otherwise would.

standard: 16/12 kg
rx: 24/16 kg
sport: 28/20 kg
metcon: 3×4:00 on, 1:00 off

Skill
EMOM for 10 minutes:
Slow pull power clean
Power clean

Today’s clean work is applying the same drill that we hit last week on the snatch; the first rep is there to practice deliberate positioning as you pass the knee and to force you to find your power high up in the lift. The second rep is your chance to repeat that at speed.

Workout of the Day
AMRAP in 12 minutes:
10 lateral burpees
15 thrusters
20 crossovers

We’ve had a lot of fancy formats over the past few days. Nothing complicated about today though, just go light and fast on the thrusters, and do your best to get some crossover work in. This’ll get rough quickly if you go out too hot, so keep in mind that 12 minutes isn’t a sprint. Good luck and have fun!

standard: 45/35
rx: 75/55
sport: 95/65
metcon: 6×1:40 on, 0:20 off