Today is our heavy day for the week. Last time there was a really heavy barbell in a workout, some important questions were raised in some of our classes. People who looked at the Rx weight and were frustrated with how high it was asked why would I program something so heavy if only a handful of people in the gym could complete it Rx. I thought that the conversations I had with these people were so beneficial that discussing it in a blog post might help you when approaching a day like today.
When I program a heavy barbell, the intended stimulus is all that matters. Thinking about how certain weights change how many reps people can connect, how long the break people take in between reps are going to be, and what kind of physiological response the body is going to have. Yes, a barbell like today should only be attempted by the strongest 10% in the gym. In order for it to achieve the correct stimulus, men with a clean and jerk between 265 and 285# (65%) and women with a clean and jerk between 180 and 190# should be the only ones attempting this workout Rx.
If I were to lighten the load so that more athletes could “Rx” the workout maybe make the bar 155/105#, less people would be inclined to scale, the stronger athletes would go too fast and those who simply put the Rx weight on the bar might go way too slow. Meaning everyone would miss the stimulus. Making the weight heavy, forcing you to think about your bar, and approaching it with an educated idea of what the workout should feel like helps everyone.
Warm-up
Spend 2 minutes in Z1
Then, :30 of work, :15 of transition time. 3 times through.
Hanging – knee tucks – T2B
Deadlifts – hang cleans – cleans
Front squats
Press – push press – jerk
Mobility
Hips, hamstrings, shoulders and wrists
Strength
Clean and jerk – complete 2 heavy reps E:90 for 8 min total
*any form of the clean and the jerk
This is as simple “conceptually” as it can get. 2 big time olympic lifts every :90.
So much can be done here from a practice standpoint. Bad at the split jerk, make both a split jerk. Weak in the squat clean, make them both a squat clean. Or use one lift to practice your strength and one to practice your weaknesses. Even better mix ’em up.
example – 1 power clean and split jerk + 1 squat clean and push jerk
WOD
“Jackie Chan”
15 min AMRAP
1 rope climb
3 clean and jerks (185/125#)(155/105#)
5 OtB burpee
This will be our heavy barbell for the week, so make sure that is the case. The weight should force you to go to singles eventually. That doesn’t mean that some won’t start off with triples, even though looking at the workout, that might not be the best idea. Since the reps per movement are so small, you could do three rounds in the first 2 minutes of this workout. That won’t bode well for the longevity of the workout and will make the 15 minutes feel like 45 minutes.
