Being a board coach is a very tough job. You have to look at the board. You have to figure out what your pupil is good at. And then you have to stand there while they work their ass off trying to obtain a score good enough to be one of the top three in the gym. Super demanding. But nothing takes a greater toll on a board coach than when they are asked to come in for a 6am class. That is clearly well before normal office hours. In fact, I'm pretty sure humans weren't meant to be up before the sun. I digress...
Anyway, over the last few months, I have become Rachel's board coach. Really tough gig. I tell her to go jerk 185 pounds and she jerks 185 pounds. Job well done Dave. There are 36 different movements/workouts listed on the white board in the gym and Rachel is on the board for 4 of them. I am holding steady at 0 (still 6 more months to make it happen!). I let her know that I thought the overhead squat should be her next target. She was leaning towards the 500 meter row, but you don't pay for a board coach (ok, it's pro bono work) and then ignore the advice he's giving to you. Luckily, today's WOD was focused on establishing a 1RM for the overhead squat. Rachel asked if I could make the 6am class and I begrudgingly said yes, on the condition that she definitely make the trip worthwhile by getting her name on the board a 5th time.
God bless the folks who come to these morning classes with a good attitude. Every time I come to one of these, all I can think about is how much I'd rather be home in bed, but the rest of the class always seems to be eager to take on the day. Once I see that, I try to get my act together so I don't stick out like a sore thumb. We did a little bit of a warmup before we got going on the overheads. Rachel loaded up a cart with a bunch of weights that we could share down at the far end of the gym, which is where the racks were that we chose to use. The WOD said we should be doing 7 lifts and I planned it out as follows:
95-125-155-175-195-215-225
This seemed like a nice progression for me. 215 on the 6th rep would be a PR, but last time I did manage to jerk the weight and squat down with it overhead. I simply lost control of it on the way up and didn't have time to make any additional attempts. As long as I woke my groggy ass up, I thought I could manage 215. 225 was a more aggressive goal. I have never jerked more than 215 before, so this would be double PR territory. And when we take the bar from the rack, the jerk comes from behind your neck rather than from the front of your body, so I did not have a good idea of how well that was going to go on a PR attempt. Let's just try and get 215 first.
After doing some overheads with just the bar, I got started. The first three lifts weren't terribly difficult, but I was having issues with my hand placement. Normally when you do a jerk, your hands are closer in than they would be for an overhead squat. So in order to have your hands in the correct position for the overhead squat, you need to have your hands wider than usual for the jerk. I think I was splitting the difference a bit, as I kept feeling the need to adjust my hands post-jerk. Not exactly the greatest of ideas, especially as the weight gets heavy.
At 175, I probably should have started split jerking in order to prepare for the later weights, but I forgot. Hand position continued to be an issue, but the weight still wasn't too bad. I looked over to see how Rachel was doing and she was struggling. This had happened the last time we were trying to find a 1RM overhead squat as well. She failed at 135, but eventually was able to be successful at 170. I didn't know how much she had on the bar, but she was really out of sorts, shaking noticeably as she tried to hold the bar above her head in anticipation of the squat. After doing this a couple of times, she calmed down and began having successful lifts.
For 195, I remembered to split jerk, although I would call it more of a baby split jerk. It wasn't super aggressive. It was more of a "I can push jerk this weight, but I need to get ready for split jerking soon" kind of mentality. The amount of weight on the bar had definitely become heavy and I was slower on this overhead squat than I had been on my prior attempts. And once again, my hand position felt off. But I managed to complete the lift. And from this point forward, I resolved not to think about my hands again once I had them set prior to the lift.
Before attempting 215, I checked in on Rachel again and she was struggling with the weight now on her bar. I'm a firm believer that people get stuck on numbers (I know I do), so if they hear that is how much is on the bar, they begin locking themselves into a mindset that they can't do it. When Rachel was testing her 1RM jerk recently, I loaded the bar for her and when we got to the higher weights, I didn't tell her how much was on the bar. We were at the same point here. She didn't know there was 165 pounds on the bar, which was a good thing because she probably would have been more pissed than she was at failing with it several times. After all, she had managed 170 last time. She wasn't even attempting the overhead squat because she couldn't jerk the weight, which made no sense after recently jerking 185. I told her she needed to use her legs a lot more as she was barely using them at all. On her next attempt, she jerked the weight, but then had this "OMG! OMG!" look on her face while holding the bar over her head and then messed up the squat. If she stayed composed, she was going to be fine.
I focused on my own personal challenge, which was the 215 pounds sitting on my rack. I knew I could do this, but I had to remain confident throughout the lift. I grabbed the bar and did another baby split jerk, but once again it was good enough to get the bar over my head. After setting my feet, I went down into my squat and then began to come up. Last time, I had completely lost focus at the bottom and was forced to bail. On this lift, things went as smooth as could be. I stood up, dropped the bar, and felt a little amazed about what had just transpired. I had gotten a PR of 215. Bring on 225!
Rachel attempted 165 again and this time she jerked it over her head with an expression on her face that she was all business. She took her time to get balanced, then slowly lowered into the squat and slowly stood back up. Looked easy. Must have felt somewhat easy too, because she was ready to bump up the weight some more. How much? I told her she needed to add 10 pounds to the bar if she was going to fulfill her duty of getting on the board. So she grabbed 10 more pounds and added it to the bar.
I had also added 10 pounds to my bar, but in my head, it seemed like 100. 225 has been a sticking point for me. I've tried to clean the weight over and over again, but it's been a lot of close but not quite. I've never attempted to jerk 225 because I rarely take the weight from the rack. And I didn't have the luxury of not knowing what was on the bar. The number I struggled with was on the bar and I was fully aware of it. <Gulp> I tried to pump myself up as I stepped up to the bar. I got my hands set, picked the bar off the rack and went to jerk the weight. And once again, despite a split jerk that left a lot to be desired, I was able to get the weight over my head. PR #2 of the day! Now it was time to see if I could do the overhead squat. I set my feet and lowered to the bottom of the squat. And then I did that thing where I lost all focus at the bottom and had to bail. Damn. Same as in April. Had it, messed it up, and now there wasn't enough time to make an additional attempt.
Except there was! Coach Steph agreed to let Rachel and I skip the cash-out so that we could take a few more cracks at the overheads. Rachel's lift at 175 was almost an exact replica of her last lift at 165. Controlled, patient, and never in doubt. The lift at 175 meant that she would be on the board for a fifth time, as she had tied for the second highest female overhead squat in the gym. I went back to my bar to give 225 another try, but the second attempt was worse than the first, as I didn't even get the jerk, forcing me to bail the bar behind my head. That wasn't a good sign.
Option #5 on the white board
Rachel moved up to 182.5 to try and claim the top spot in the gym, but it was a bit too heavy for her as she couldn't jerk the weight in either of her two attempts. She then took 5 pounds off and tried 177.5, but I think she was fried at this point, as she couldn't jerk that attempt either. 175 was good enough to call it a day. Meanwhile, I knew I was running out of gas and told Rachel that I was only making one more attempt at 225. She responded that I better make it a successful one then. Yes ma'am. Knowing this would be the last attempt, I focused as best I could and got ready for the jerk. I dipped and did another iffy split jerk, but it was good enough. Despite holding 225 pounds over my head, I made time for a tiny smile as I now knew that I could reliably jerk this much weight. Still, I needed to get my head right for the squat. When I felt I was completely balanced, I lowered to the bottom, then began to push up. And I was rising, rising...then walking, walking. Right as I neared the top, I began to lose my balance. What followed was me walking to the side a bit, then backwards a bit, before finally planting one of my feet, then the other, establishing control with the bar at last. 225 was a success! No longer would I be worried about throwing two 45 lb plates on the bar.
So to recap:
- 20 lb PR on overhead squat (205 to 225)
- 10 lb PR on jerk (215 to 225)
- Board coaching success (Rachel's 5th time on the board)
- Woke up at 5am without killing anyone
7 minute AMRAP:
7 overhead squats (50% of 1RM)
7 toes-to-bar
7 GHD sit-ups
Rachel was there for the end of the summer shape-up program, so she decided that she would take this on as well. And since the gym was mostly empty, we decided to go head-to-head on this one. Unlike the other day when it would have been strange facing each other during the workout, this was tailor made for a duel (except I screwed up when I ran to do my toes-to-bar and did them with my back to her...oops). I was using 115 for my overheads while Rachel used 75 pounds. Rachel decided to do her toes-to-bar from the high bar while I was content to do fast singles on the low bar. And we chose adjacent GHDs.
Keith got us going and immediately I messed up. I went to squat snatch my weight for the quick first rep, but I botched it. I made the decision then and there to clean and jerk the bar for the rest of the workout. Despite being pretty fast with my overheads, I was about a rep behind as Rachel made her way over to the toes-to-bar. When I got there, I thought I moved fairly fast, yet when I finished and turned to go to my GHD, Rachel was already approaching hers. Uh oh. I did my GHDs as I did them on Monday night. Wasn't a super fast pace, but they were efficient. Round 1 went to Rachel in this sprint.
Despite getting back to my barbell second, I was able to take advantage of my overhead speed and catch up to Rachel during that movement. I got done with my toes-to-bar just before she did, but once again, she was faster on the GHD than I was. Round 2 to Rachel, but not by as much.
For round 3, I took the lead getting through my overhead squats and then tried like hell to move fast on the toes-to-bar. As I headed to the GHD, I was by myself. In fact, when I got done with my GHD sit-ups, Rachel was only beginning hers. 10-8 round for Dave!
In order to win this matchup, I knew I needed to eventually get to the overhead squats with a lead and finally I had one. I caught a glimpse of the clock and we had about two and a half minutes left. This had felt like a sprint from the start and I could not afford to let up now. I pushed through my overheads and got back to my bar. I finally began to struggle on the toes-to-bar, as my grip was starting to fail. But I was still able to make every rep count, being successful on all 7 attempts. I speed-walked over to my GHD. Moving at my usual pace, I heard there was less than 1 minute to go as I completed rep after rep. Rachel was not at her GHD yet. With time winding down, I needed to get back to the overheads to put some space between us and secure a victory in this head-to-head battle. As 30 seconds left was called out, I got back to the overheads. I was wobbly by this time, but I managed to finish seven reps. With only seconds remaining, I got to my bar and knocked out two reps of toes-to-bar. Final score: 4+9. I had beaten Rachel by 7 reps. It was the third time this week I had beaten her in a workout. Where was this back in March?
Afterwards, Rachel uttered the words found up above in the subject line. And she's right. It has been one of the better streaks of workouts that I can remember having at the gym. My pacing has been good. My results have been solid. And I haven't massively faded near the end of these workouts like I normally do. I can only hope to keep things moving in this positive direction.
Tomorrow: Competitors Class at 7am. Two days in a row of early morning classes? Shoot me now!
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