Tiny Bubbles

Workout date: 7/6/17

My closet is usually a mess.  About every 6 months, the built up clutter gets to me and I go on a purge.  I spend a day going through all of my clothing, determining what I still wear and what can be donated to Goodwill.  I think I'm probably due for one of those "spring cleanings" again soon.  When I do take the time to take inventory of my closet, I'm always amazed at how many t-shirts I find that have somehow gotten lost in the bottom of a drawer or the back of a shelf when they used to be staples of my wardrobe.  How the heck did I forget about these gems?  I need to get them back into the rotation ASAP!

On Thursday, I rediscovered a Crossfit movement that I had forgotten about in recent months.  Let's go back in time a bit.  I used to always end up in class with Matt B whenever WODs with clean and jerks were programmed.  The two of us always approached our cleans the same way: use a power clean until the barbells got really heavy, then switch at the last moment to a squat clean and pray that it all worked out.  It rarely did.  You can't just start squat cleaning at some super heavy weight.  You need to get a few squat cleans in along the way to prepare yourself for that heavier weight.

My top clean and jerk has been 225 pounds for quite some time.  The problem lies in my clean as I've always been able to jerk more.  At some point, I got sick and tired of always failing when me and Matt got to the squat clean portion of the WOD.  So I decided that I was going to squat clean more.  Eventually "more" became "all of the time".  Even during my warmup reps, I would squat clean my barbell.  All of those extra reps made me feel more at ease when I had to squat clean a heavy barbell. Did it give me over the hump with regards to my 225 pound clean and jerk?  Well no.  I've squat cleaned as much as 235 pounds, but even though I've been able to handle these heavier weights, standing up with those barbells has taken so much out of me that I've failed on the jerk.

When I saw Thursday's WOD, my initial reaction was "oh yeah".  Not the way the Kool-Aid Man says it.  More like the way your grandfather would react if he went to leave the house and you reminded him he was still in his robe.  The first part of the WOD had us trying to find our 1RM power clean.  Power cleans?  I almost forgot they existed!  After we were done working on power cleans, we would have a familiar sounding cash-out with a Dave Castro-esque twist.  Here's Thursday's WOD:

Thursday's WOD:
Find a 1RM power clean
Cash-out: "Dumbbell DT"
5 rounds
12 deadlifts
9 hang power cleans
6 push jerks
*RX weight of DBs is 50 for men, 35 for women
**Time cap: 12 minutes

DT is a common WOD that we perform at the gym, but this would be the 1st time I'd be doing it with DBs.  In this year's Open, Dave Castro seemed fascinated with using DBs instead of barbells in the workouts.  And what weights were those DBs?  50 pounds for the men, 35 pounds for the women.  I can't recall DB workouts showing up all that often in KOP's programming prior to this year's open, but we've had quite a few DB workouts since March where the RX weights were 50/35.  Guess we're being trained for the return of DBs in 2018.

Coach Giulz had a huge turnout for her 6:30 class with 15 people showing up to participate.  She asked us all to grab a rower for our warmup.  I politely waved my classmates in front of me to grab a rower from the back.  As the supply began to dwindle, I joked that there might not be a rower left for me by the time all of my classmates had grabbed one.  I didn't think that would really be the case, but the joke ended up being on me.  There were two rowers left when the crowd in front of me had disappeared, but each of them had a note on them saying that the monitor was broken.  Oops.  My 14 classmates got their rowers set up, while I asked Giulz what I should do instead.  She told me the ski erg was an appropriate substitute for the warmup.

Giulz gave us some target numbers for the warmup.  She wanted us to try our best to hit 372 meters on our first row/ski.  Usually we'll be asked how close we came to that number, with the difference being the number of reps we'll need to do of the next movement in the warmup.  The meters on my monitor came to rest at 384, so I figured I'd have 12 reps of something awaiting me (please don't let it be burpees), but Giulz wasn't doling out punishment today.  Trying to hit the target was more of a lighthearted game to break up the dynamic stretches in the warmup.  There would be a shorter second round where we were supposed to hit 112 meters and I was on the high side yet again by nearly the same margin (123 meters, missed by 11).

The ski ergs are located against the wall at the far end of the gym just to the left of the locker room doors.  I started class all the way back there and I would remain in that location for the entirety of this WOD.  Before we got into the power cleans, Giulz went over both that lift and the movements involved in the cash-out.  She wanted us to have our DBs nearby so that we could transition right into the cash-out once the power clean segment was over.  With regard to "Dumbbell DT", she wanted us to really focus on the hang power clean piece of it.  When we use a barbell and perform hang power cleans, we're told not to do "reverse curls".  With the DB, we were told to avoid simply swinging the DBs up to our shoulders.  The principle was the same: keep the object close to your body rather than looping it to its destination.  We all tested out a round of DT with light DBs before settling on a weight for the cash-out.  Neil was my neighbor at the far end of the gym and the two of us both decided to go with the RX weight of 50 pounds.

You might think that Neil and I were coordinating during the power clean portion of this WOD as well, but we actually weren't.  I guess it's possible that Neil was keeping an eye on what I was putting on my barbell (I doubt he was), but I wasn't paying attention to what was on his.  Well at least not after his warmup lift.  Being a big, strong guy, I was expecting Neil to put up a very big number on his power clean.  That is why it was so surprising to see him start with 75 pounds on his barbell.  (For context, I was starting with 135 pounds on my barbell.)  I gave him some grief about his conservative starting weight.  Giulz came over and looked at Neil like he was crazy.  She let him know 75 pounds was way too light for him.  Neil did one absurdly easy power clean with the 75 pound barbell before ditching his 15 pound plates for 45 pound replacements (135 pounds total).

My plan was to try and reach a PR of 230 pounds on my power clean.  I realized that it was unlikely I would do so given that I hadn't focused on power cleans for such a long time, but if I somehow was able to power clean that much weight, it would give me a lot of confidence that I could finally break past 225 pounds on my clean and jerk.  My progression was going to be 135-165-185-205-220-230.  We weren't given a specific amount of time for our power cleans, but I figured I could easily complete 6 lifts before we'd have to get ready for the cash-out.  I would probably have enough time to make an additional attempt or two at 220 and 230 if I missed those heavier lifts.

I didn't have any problems with the power cleans at 135, 165, and 185.  Between lifts, I was chatting mostly with Esra, Raj, Alan, and Neil.  I didn't think I was spending a lot of time gabbing though.  I spoke with Alan the most out of that quartet.  I usually see Alan working out on his own, so it was good to see him in our class.  I asked him what his top power clean was and he said he didn't know, but it looked like he was moving his barbell rather easily during his first few attempts.  I told him that he needed to put some weight on his barbell, but I quickly changed my tune when he told me his shoulder was starting to bother him.  Definitely didn't want him getting injured because some idiot was telling him to go heavier.

The lift at 205 was where things began to get heavy for me, but my form still felt good and I successfully hit my power clean.  I added 15 pounds to my barbell and waited for a few of my neighbors to make their lifts before giving 220 a try.  My form was not nearly as good as it had been on the previous lift.  My "waterbed" technique (the one where the barbell hits some portion of my torso than rolls through my cellulite up to my shoulders) was back on display.  I only rolled the barbell a little bit during my attempt at 220, so I didn't think 230 was impossible.  All I knew was that it wasn't going to be pretty.

Between attempts, I had been chalking my hands like crazy.  It was extremely warm in the gym (surprise!) and I couldn't afford to lose my hook grip during the power clean.  As I made my way through my lifts, the chalk helped less and less.  I was trying to get a nice layer of it on my hands, but the sweat on my hands was preventing that from happening.  Between the lifts at 220 and 230, my hands felt extra slimy.  I looked down and saw a bunch of tiny bubbles in the palm of my hand.  It was almost as though the combination of my body temperature and the warm barbell had boiled the chalk during the lift.  I would need to wipe off my hands completely before the attempt at 230.

I had added 10 pounds to my barbell when Giulz yelled something at the front of the class.  I couldn't make out what she said because I was really far away from her and because the music in the gym was blaring.  I walked up to Raj and asked her if she knew what Giulz had said.  She told me that Giulz was telling everyone that they needed to be working on their final attempts.  I thought I had time for a couple of shots at 230, but apparently I was only getting one (maybe two if I really hurried!).  Neil was directly in front of me and he was ready to try what I later learned was 235 pounds.  He might have rushed it a little as he wasn't able to hang on to that attempt.  He moved out of the way so that I could make my attempt.  I was genuinely surprised at how similar this attempt felt compared to the one I had done at 220 pounds.  There was definitely some waterbed action going on, but not as much as I've had to do on some lifts in the past.  I stood up with my barbell and had a new PR.  I even felt like 235 could have been possible if I had more time.  For now though, I'd have to be happy with 230.

Neil made two more quick attempts at 235 and each of them ended the same way his first attempt did.  It looked like he got the barbell high enough and he certainly has the strength to stand it up from where he caught it, but he was leaning forward every time.  That lean forward left his elbows under the barbell.  During cleans, you're always told to have "fast elbows", meaning that you move your elbows fast enough during the lift that they come under and out in front of the barbell, creating a rack for it to land on.  If you don't move your elbows fast enough, you end up trying to hold the barbell with just your arms.  Even someone as strong as Neil is going to have a hard time holding up 235 pounds that way.  Despite failing three times at 235 pounds, Neil did get a PR with his earlier power clean of 225 pounds.

We all got our barbells out of the way and moved on to the cash-out.  Neil hadn't beaten me on the power cleans, but there was zero chance I'd complete dumbbell DT before he did.  My grip strength is weaker and I tend to be clumsy when it comes to workouts using DBs.  I will say that I hung with him longer than I thought I would.  And when I got to review the top times of the day on the cash-out, he was among the best, so I couldn't feel too bad about the large gap he would eventually put between us in the latter stages of the cash-out.

The time cap for the cash-out was 12 minutes, but Giulz wanted us to try and keep it under 10 minutes.  Things looked good for me at the end of round 1, which I completed in just under 60 seconds.  You should never estimate your final time based on what you do in round one though and I knew I was still going to have to work hard to keep it under 10 minutes.  I took breaks like one normally does in DT: after the first 11 deadlifts, after the first 8 hang power cleans, and after the last of the push jerks was completed.  In rounds 2 through 5, I broke up those 8 hang power cleans into two sets of 4.  (I strung all 8 in that speedy first round.)  Neil started to extend his lead on me during round three and he would wind up lapping me at the very end, completing his final round just before I got done with round 4.  (I hate getting lapped!)  There was just over 8 minutes on the clock when I started round 5, meaning I had averaged about 2:20 per round in rounds 2-4.  I needed to go faster if I was going to stay under 10 minutes.  The key was taking shorter breaks.  I wanted to rest after the first 11 deadlifts, but I didn't wait too long before picking my DBs up, completing my last deadlift and 1st four hang power cleans.  My classmates who were done began yelling at me to keep going, so I got the DBs back in my hands for four more hang power cleans.  During my last break, I blew out the air in my lungs, told myself this last part was going to suck, and braced myself for the finish.  I picked up the DBs, did my last hang power clean, then knocked out 6 push jerks.  Final time: 9:35.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't really appreciate how good of a time that was until I looked at the scores from home later on.  At that moment, I was just happy that I stayed under 10 minutes.  Did I swing the DBs during the hang power cleans even though Giulz asked us not to?  Guilty.  Although to be fair, everyone else I talked to did the same thing.  Let's just go back to using barbells and make everyone happy again.

Sunday preview: It's time to practice for the Brawl!  LC joins Kris, Raj, and myself as we work through one of the Brawl events.  My master plan for the event turns out to be pretty lousy.  I stick around after Brawl practice to try and get beyond 225 pounds on my clean and jerk.