Whenever I get into a conversation at the gym about what things I'm good at in Crossfit, I often jokingly say that it is all the stuff that only shows up in programming every six months. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the point still holds. Rope climbs and overhead squats are movements that don't get scheduled all that often. And pistols show up about as often as unicorns do. So there is extra incentive to show up when one of my rare favorites is programmed. Tuesday night featured a strength test that I had only done once before in 3+ years at the gym: a 1RM overhead squat.
It was fitting that this was scheduled during Dudes After Dark because that meant Rachel would be coaching and she did this workout with me the one and only time I had done it about a year ago. She had talked me into taking a 6am class and we took a bunch of attempts at the 1RM, eventually spilling over into the 7am class as we started having more and more success at higher weights (thanks Coach Steph for letting us get in some extra lifts!). I ended up getting several big PRs that day, both for my split jerk and for my overhead squat. Why had it taken us so long to start hitting successful lifts that day? I didn't remember until Cline and I started doing this WOD Tuesday night.
Yes, Dudes After Dark was even smaller than usual as Cline and I were the only participants. Well, we were the only participants in the 7:30 WOD. Rachel had come up with, ummm, let's call it a unique warmup. It started with a vote as Cline and I would have to choose between Eat Me or Drink Me. Sorry, I got that mixed up. We would have to choose between Boring or Fun. I chose Fun, Cline chose Boring, and the two of us were unrelenting when it came to changing our votes. So Rachel asked Miss January to vote and she chose Fun.
Fun required four people and a tutorial from a non-dude. Rachel had four of those paper origami, chinese star, fortune telling thingamajigs that little girls played with in elementary school to tell them who they would marry, or at the very least, who they should sit with at lunch (commitment-phobes!). You flip the four-sided oracles back and forth based on the number of letters in a word written on one of the sides of the paper and eventually you get to a point where you flip open a tab to see a name. Or in this case, a movement for the warmup. Since Rachel, Cline, and I needed a fourth person, John McHugh came over to play. Rachel explained to all of us how to hold these mini-ouija boards and how you settled on which flap to open up. When all was said and done, the warmup would include a 20 second plank hold and 22 air squats (a 7 second one-legged stand was nixed from the warmup). After the first plank, we would do walking lunges down the gym while holding a KB overhead (Cline and I chose poorly and used 44 pounders). Then after the 22 air squats, we would return down the gym doing walking lunges with the KB overhead in our other hand. For rounds two and three, the air squats were reduced to 11 and 5, respectively. Things I learned during this warmup: never choose a 44 pound KB for overhead walking lunges, I should loosen up my left shoulder before doing overhead walking lunges or I will end up in pain, and Rachel will not keep time for me while I'm doing a plank.
With that done, Mr. McHugh bid us adieu and Cline and I got ready for some heavy overhead squats. We were supposed to make at least 7 attempts and I had the 7 weights I wanted to use already figured out in my mind: 95-135-165-185-205-220-230. Why that progression? My PR for this was 225, so I wanted to attempt 230 if possible. But I knew this wasn't something where I could start particularly heavy. I needed to begin with a lighter amount, get the feel of things, and bump up the weight in spurts. As I neared 230, I would need to ease back on how quickly I increased the weight. So six increases of 40-30-20-20-15-10 felt right to me.
I wasn't sure how well I would do in this workout mainly because I haven't practiced my split jerk very much recently. I have definitely made gains in my push press, but if I was going to put 230 pounds over my head, I needed something more powerful than a push press. The split jerk gives you the best opportunity to get the most weight overhead, but it's a bit technical and requires some faith. You have to get your feet into the proper position quickly and you have to be willing to drop underneath a heavy barbell in a somewhat awkward position, with the belief that once you have stabilized the weight overhead you can bring your feet back together. It's not the easiest move in the world. And the part I had forgotten was that it feels even more awkward when you're starting with the barbell in your back rack (behind your neck) rather than the front rack (on your collarbone).
I knew I wanted to practice the split jerk starting with the very first attempt at 95 pounds and I instantly realized that it was going to take several reps before I felt at ease performing the split jerk from the back rack. It's definitely a strange movement when you only do it once per year. I was comfortable with the lower weights of the first few attempts, so even though my split jerks left a lot to be desired (and I'll be honest, they didn't get that much better later on), I never felt concerned about getting the weight overhead. The other thing that took some getting used to was getting my breathing right. When I come in for strength workouts (like for my front squat program), I set up my breathing and go. If I'm only doing one rep, I usually only have to set up my breathing once. That was not the case here. I needed to set up my breathing, split jerk the weight overhead, reset my breathing again, and then do the overhead squat. As the weights got heavier, it was crucial to get that second breath ready as quickly as possible so that I wasn't holding that barbell overhead any longer than necessary.
The first three attempts at 95, 135, and 165 were fine. At 185, the jerk was fine, but I didn't reset my breath very quickly and ended up holding the barbell overhead longer than I would have liked. As a result, the overhead squat was tougher than I had expected, giving me some doubts as to whether I could even get to 230. Those doubts loomed larger after an unsuccessful attempt at 205 where everything seemed to be going well, but for some strange reason, I completely stopped at the bottom of the squat and then couldn't regenerate enough momentum to stand up. Maybe I just lost focus or something. The next attempt at 205 was better, but I still needed Cline, Rachel, and Giulz yelling at me to stand the weight up. Then I had my best lift of the night. At 220, my split jerk was shaky, but I got the barbell overhead. Immediately I reset my breath and then confidently went into the squat. There was no stopping at the bottom. I pushed the ground away as hard as I could and stood up with the weight. It was a much better attempt than the ones I had made at 185 and 205.
As I got ready to try 230, Cline was battling with breaking parallel. He was stuck at 125 pounds, but the weight wasn't the problem. Each attempt that he made, he would push press the barbell over his head. And when he reached the bottom of his squat, he seemed to stand the weight up rather easily (this was definitely the case in his last few attempts). The problem was that the bottom of his squat was not breaking parallel. He seemed to be slowly reaching for it (like I do with my head when I'm doing handstand push-ups with abmats). On a couple of attempts, he was moving so slowly that I think it was impossible to maintain his form any longer and he had to dump the barbell. On the later attempts, he was getting just to parallel before standing up. I would have counted those reps, but this explains why I'm not a coach (and why I avoid judging at all costs).
As I got ready to take on 230, one of Cline's favorite songs came on (Robyn's "Dancing On My Own") and Giulz cracked up about how Cline was about to do "that creepy Buffalo Bill dance". Not familiar with that one? Here you go. Just remember that you can't unsee what you're about to watch:
For those wondering, Cline totally nailed the dialogue and the choreography in this scene
With the mood having lightened up considerably, I took a shot at 230. Once again, my split jerk wasn't great, but I got the barbell overhead. It made me wonder how much I could get overhead with a good split jerk. The transition into resetting my breath and doing the squat was not as smooth as it was with 220 pounds. I lowered to the bottom of the squat, began to rise a little, and then had to bail. Giulz told me that I needed to descend slower as I was dropping so quickly that the weight was crashing on me in the bottom, impeding my ability to stand up with it. Both Rachel and Giulz told me I should take another shot at 230, even though it was about 8:25 and we still needed to do the cash out. Cline let me know that he had no problem with staying a few minutes late, so I got ready for a second attempt at 230.
How did the second attempt go? The jerk felt about the same. The transition was about the same. I slowed my pace on the descent and rose out of the bottom higher than I did on my first attempt. But it still wasn't enough. I certainly think 230 (maybe even 235) is possible for me, but I need to work on my split jerk and controlling the speed of my descent into the bottom of the squat.
What was that cash out Cline had patiently waited for? It was another 800 meter run! Only this time, Cline and I would be running in the dark, hoping not to get mugged out by the boat house where the turn around point was located. We could have done two 400 meter runs, but that's not our style. I switched shoes, grabbed a swig of water, and got ready to go. No part of me thought I was going to run 3:04 again like I had on Thursday. And it seemed highly unlikely that I would keep up with Cline. But I was going to give it my best shot.
Rachel yelled go, Cline leapt over the barrier in the parking lot, and we were on our way. Almost immediately, my legs felt heavy and I struggled to get into a comfortable stride. Cline opened up a lead before we even got to Frosty Falls. This is the problem I typically have in WODs that involve rounds of running and squats. My legs seem to tighten up and I can't get them loose again. Only this time they did loosen up at about the 300 meter mark. Cline had ventured off to the darkest part of our run, some 40-50 meters ahead of me. This is also the stretch of the run where the road is not paved and there are lots of craters in the road. Being unable to see the ground, I begun to pray that I didn't take a bad step and thankfully I did not. I reached the turn around point and felt better than expected. My cardio is not as bad as it used to be and, as was the case last Thursday, I felt like I could keep pushing over the final 400 meters. Over the next 250 meters or so, I didn't make up any meaningful ground on Cline, but in the last stretch into the gym, I gained on him a little bit. He still beat me by 10 seconds, but I was happy with how I ran, especially at the end. Final time: 3:16.
Wednesday preview: Early morning lifting and the next step in the front squat program. Down to the 4x4 session, but the weight increases to 245 pounds.
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