Oof.
Here’s the description of this one from CF Ithaca:
5 rounds of the Bear Complex at ascending weight with as much rest between rounds as necessary. There is no time component to this workout.
Each round is 7 reps of the complex:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press
The bar will touch the floor on each power clean, but resting the bar on the floor constitutes failure. You can rest and regrip with the bar on your shoulders or at your hip. You can combine the movements (thruster), but you cannot do a full squat clean and skip the front squat. You can jerk the weight overhead if necessary.
I pushed too fast on the weight increases, and it really hit home the last two rounds. I didn’t get through all seven reps on either one, and I’ll note the exact breakdown below:
65 x 7
75 x 7
85 x 7
90 x 4, 3
95 x 4, 2, 1
These kinds of movements really mess me up; for whatever reason, workouts like this bring me closer to nausea than any others, even the long metcons. I was glad to get through it, if frustrated that I let my eyes get bigger than my muscles this go-round. Still, a lot of it felt solid, and playing around with doing thrusters vs. separate squats and push presses vs. squats and push jerks was interesting in a “getting to know my body” kinda way. I’ll do this one again.
