Jim vs. Clean & Jerk

It’s been way too long since I’ve done this one, and way too long since I pushed past 90% of my (now very old) PR. So I did both today.

Clean & jerk
100 x 1
120 x 1
140 x 1
160 x 1
150 x 1
130 x 1
110 x 1

What can I say? Bar went up.

Maybe time to go for a new PR.

 

Jim vs. the Split Jerk

I missed the barbells, but they didn’t miss me. What other explanation could there be for my first workout of the year back at Teagle being an exercise that a) I rarely do, and b) is likely to re-injure my shoulder?

Split jerk
95 x 1
115 x 1
125 x 1
135 x 1
145 x 1
125 x 1
105 x 1

I dropped the weight for the last two sets because by set #5 my form was getting iffy and I was getting the occasional shoulder twinge. I’m not in there to injure myself, and even with the lighter loads my shoulders and back and legs feel worked.

Once I’m doing barbell work 2-3 days a week again, I’ll start pushing harder.

Jim vs. The Olympic Lifts

Back to the barbell! And since the last couple of weeks didn’t really have much in the way of ballistic movements, the Olympic lifts seemed like a good place to start.

Snatch
65 x 1
75 x 1
85 x 1
95 x 1

Clean & jerk
95 x 1
115 x 1
135 x 1
155 x 1

I didn’t push for new maxes on these or anything, but I ended up on loads that were at least moderately heavy. They went well, and felt strong, and it’s cool to be back.

Jim vs. the Klokov Complex, Box Jumps & KB Swings

I was gonna do deadlifts today. But while I was poking around Crossfit Virtuosity looking for a new metcon for the second half of my workout, I came across this. First of all, the name “Klokov complex” is totally badass; second, the complex itself looked fun. So I just did the whole CV workout.

Klokov complex
Deadlift, squat clean, front squat, push press, split jerk
65
95
115
135
145*
95

I thought the push press would be my limiting factor, and while it was tough the movement that ended up getting me was the squat clean. That asterisk is there because at 145 I didn’t do a full squat clean; I caught the weight in the power stance, then did a front squat. Of course, I then did a second front squat to continue the complex, and ended up nailing the push press and split clean. But it seemed like that was as high as I could effectively go, so I dropped back to 95 and wrapped things up.

Then I did the metcon CV prescribed:

10, 8, 6, 4, 2 of:
Box jumps
KB swings

I definitely didn’t use 30″ of box, and I only used a 52.5lb dumbbell for the swings. I finished in 2:32, and while that time indicates that I could’ve gone heavier, my lower back was damned tender afterwards. So while I could up the height and weight next time, I’m not ready to tackle this one as Rx’d.

Overall, this was a great way to wrap up a week of non-standard workouts.

Jim vs. Front Squats, Eclipse

Taking a look back at my front squat work, it’s apparent that I emphasize sets of three reps over sets of one or five. In fact, I had a tough time finding incidences of me working towards a heavy single. So I decided to do sets of one today.

155 x 1
175 x 1
195 x 1
185 x 1
165 x 1

After that, I revisited a metcon from my past:

“Eclipse”
Five rounds for time of:
push jerk x 3 (120lbs)
pull-ups x 6
box jumps x 9

Finished up in 4:44, my fastest time ever — including when I was only using 95lbs for the push jerks. That rocks, but I’m gonna track this one as “mid range” for now; researching the workout indicates that I should be using at least 135 for the push jerks. We’ll give that a go next time, or at least work a bit closer to it.

Jim vs. Clean & Jerk, Helen

I meant to get up early and workout this morning, because it’s steam-shutdown week at Cornell. Nothing encourages a home workout like ice-cold showers.

Unfortunately, nothing discourages a home workout like nightmares and restless sleep. So I found myself at Teagle today anyway, determined that if I had to endure nigh-hypothermic showers, I was going to get in both the metcon I’d planned and some barbell work.

Clean & jerk
115 x 1
135 x 1
155 x 1
145 x 1
125 x 1

So that was the barbell work. 155 is 90% of my max; maybe next time I’ll use 95% as my peak.

“Helen”
Three rounds for time of:
400m run
Kettlebell (52.5lb dumbbell) swings x 21
Pull-ups x 12

Knocked this out in 10:48, 45 seconds slower than my PR but almost a minute faster than last time. Cool, especially as I needed to walk through a crowded gym twice each round to get from where I was doing the swings and pull-ups to the door outside.

Jim vs. Overhead Squats, Push Jerk, Bench Press

Ugh.

Overhead squat
120 x 3
110 x 4

No problems there.

Push jerk
145 x 1
165 x 0

And here’s where things went pear-shaped.  Not only did that rep not go all the way, up, but I felt a sudden, harsh tightness across my upper back. Not pain, per se, but… not right, either.

For better or worse, I went on to bench press, but lightened the loads.

Bench press
135 x 5
135 x 5
135 x 5

Honestly, it felt good to just move the muscles a bit. I’ve also been doing some PT moves and taking ibuprofen. It doesn’t feel like too serious, and tomorrow’s a rest day. We’ll see how I’m doing on Wednesday.

Jim vs. Clean & Jerk, Clean Pull, Back Squat

No changes here outside of incorporating more reverse pyramid action.

Clean and jerk
135 x 1
155 x 1

Clean pull
165 x 2
150 x 3

Back squat
185 x 3
165 x 5
150 x 5

Done and done.

Jim vs. Push Jerk, Overhead Squat, Bench Press

Changed things up a bit, as this particular program encourages. (OK, I regularly change up the scheduling of workouts more than the program encourages, but this is the first time I really started trading out some exercises for others.)

Push jerk
140 x 1
160 x 1

Overhead squat
115 x 3
105 x 4

Bench press
185 x 5
165 x 6
155 x 7

First off, the reverse pyramid worked nicely for the OHSs. Second, my bench press seems to be back, to no small extent. Both are duly noted.

Jim vs. Clean & Jerk, Clean Pulls, Back Squats

Not much time today, so I just went with six total sets. But I used the highest weight I did on any exercise’s set last time for each set this time.

Clean and jerk
145 x 1
145 x 1

Clean pulls
145 x 2
145 x 2

Back squats
185 x 3
185 x 3

Huh. Looks like I should’ve been doing sets of 5 for the back squats. Damn.