You’ve got the power

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Allison Bojarski

Wednesday 110601

Power clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

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Post-Elements WOD w/Rickke @7:30pm:

A.
Power Clean 8-5-3-3-3
(Increase weight each set while maintaining good form.)

B.
As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes:
5 power cleans
5 burpees
400 meter run
(Use 60-70% of final set of 3 power cleans for AMRAP power clean weight.)

Lifts and duels
Fair chase
Peppery, not-so-hot but very tasty sauce
Know pain, know gain
Keeping things in perspective

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GREG J.!

Bringing the pull-ups (from left): Christine D., Nikki, Jackie:

  • http://allisonbojarski.tumblr.com Allison Bojarski

    (Via Brand X:)

    Today, everyone is a Big Dawg. If you are unfamiliar with the lift be smart and stay light to work on your technique.

    http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/power-clean.wmv

  • http://about.me/williamlanier William

    Reis – the CrossFit gods have answered your prayers!

    • http://wodalmighty.blogspot.com Reis

      Let this be a lesson to you Dr. Will…my words are a pipeline straight to HQ. I’m suddenly feeling like we should be doing more dumbbell hang split snatches. You’ve been warned…

  • keller

    forgot to post last night:

    snatch: 65×2, 85×2, 95×2, 105×2, 115×2, 125×2 – first time in months doing actual snatches instead of the power version … kevin / avery / nicole session is very helpful and would recommend people attend for form reminders

    L pull ups: 9, 7, 6

    7 rounds of max handstand holds, 10 supine ring pull ups: 1 minute, 1 minute, 0.47, 0.45, 0.42, 0.46, 0.47 – ring pulls were all unbroken but shoulders were fried after the snatches, L pulls and ring pulls

    wednesday = rest day huzzah! goat to work on = pistols

  • mike r

    there were some comments yesterday about hand tearing and I just wanted to bring it up again… I feel that ripped hands means you didnt scale appropriately… i think grip style and callus maintenance are only a small part of the problem… I still occasionally tear my hands but that is only after total and complete exhaustion (aka didnt scale appropriately)… I dont think wods arent designed to tear your hands… so unless your in a competition, it should happen

    • mike r

      wow… that last sentence should read

      I don’t think wods are designed to tear your hands… so unless your in a competition, it shouldn’t happen

    • http://www.self-aggrandizement.com Josh Newman

      Tears are in small part a scaling problem, but in larger part a technique problem; as people fatigue, they tend to progress towards poorer and poorer form, which in turn makes them more likely to rip.

      If you look at your hands, you can see where you bear weight while holding onto the bar: it’s where you have calluses. Yet most people tend to grip the bar initially with the weight in the middle of their palm, and then ‘rev’ their hands into place. That revving smushes the calluses upwards, which is why people always tear their calluses upwards, too.

      Fixing the problem is simple: learn to place your calluses on the bar and then close your hand, rather than place your palms on the bar and then rotate your hands into place.

      Talk to any of the coaches about this for a demo with a PVC pipe if that description is unclear, as learning to grab the bar correctly goes a long, long way towards rip prevention, and general CrossFit success / happiness.

      • mike r

        right, proper grip technique deteriorates as people fatigue. so thats why I ask if people are scalling appropriately. if youre grip, forearms and back completely fail halfway through a workout, all you have is the kip. this increases your “reving,” causes friction and you rip your hands… i think people ignore scaling because no matter how ugly a pull up is, they can get their chin over the bar with a big enough kip. therefore they focus on grip, improving grip, wrapping their fingers, priding themselves on shredding their hands beause it looks like they really killed a workout and no pain will stop them from elite fitness blah blah blah… i believe people can benefit from examining their pullup workouts where they tear their hands and identifying if certain muscles have failed early in the workout… crossfit doesnt advocate poor form, I feel like kipping pullups get away with it

    • Jason W

      Hmm. . . I’d take a different approach to “scaling appropriately” here. I was fortunate enough to not suffer any tears yesterday. I got away with a mere blood blister. However, I will say that the skin has a certain resiliency which is a function of the fact that it is human tissue. That resiliency, for most people, will give way at 100 pullups and I’m a pretty firm believer that the only way to get past that 100 pullup barrier is through switching up/resetting your grip, proper callus maintenance, and reducing friction.

      Knowing that I was going to be doing 150 pullups, I made the conscious decision to use a thicker pullup bar and to not use any chalk. You *could* construe this as scaling because using a thicker pull-up bar meant my forearms gave out sooner than usual which meant that I could only knock out X amount of pull-ups at a time affording me the opportunity to reset my grip often and preventing me from hanging on for dear life. I prefer to think of this as using proper tactics to help me execute my strategy.

  • Jeff

    This article may shed some light on what Josh is saying:
    http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Larsson_Handcare.pdf

  • Jeff

    Here’s another article (requires a subscription to the CrossFit Journal) on the same subject. I haven’t read this yet.
    http://journal.crossfit.com/2008/04/hand-rips-causes-treatments-an.tpl

  • Jeff

    My personal experience matches Jason’s. Kelly Starrett also anecdotally remarked that many people’s (hand) tissue tolerance seems to reach its threshold around the 100 rep mark too.

    For WODs with well over 100 pull ups, think about using grips.

    You can also consider doing fewer pull ups per subset.

    But if I’m going to suggest anything first it’s that you learn about proper hand care and callus-ripping prevention. Along with the comprehensive CF Virtuosity article Carlos posted, you can google an article from CF Invictus on the same subject.

  • Jeff

    Go buy yourselves a callus rasp. It’s a more worthwhile investment than your Lululemon shorts, cable jump rope, Inov-8s and SKINS compression suit combined.

    Also, take the time to actually learn how to make permanent tape grips. You’ll save money by not having to constantly buy tape. You’ll save everyone’s time because now the class won’t have to wait for the WOD to start while you do crap job winding half a roll of tape around your palm. You won’t make the gym look like a mess when you tear off all that tape in frustration after your third rep when you realize that your meticulous tape job does nothing. And you won’t irritate your fellow gym mates by bleeding all over the place.

    • MC

      Sounds like you have some history here…

  • Court

    To prevent hand tears, the mnemonic to remember is “Spear & Hook” not “Smear & Pinch”. When you grip the bar, the goal is to hold it in a way that stretches the skin the minimal amount possible. When people first learn kipping, they tend to “swing” a lot, which causes people to grip harder, leading to grip fatigue and more friction and stretching. When you “hook” the bar(setting your grip) and your kip becomes more efficient, your hand doesn’t move as much. You do need to practice some degree of mindfulness while in the middle of a high pullup WOD; if you feel your hands starting to get “hot”, you may need to let go for a bit to recover your grip, apply some more chalk or possibly decide to call it if you’re close to a bad rip. Hand rips most frequently happen towards the end of a long set when people are fighting hand fatigue for a faster time, so that’s the time to be vigilant. Of course, good callus maintenance is important and Jeff’s suggestion for a callus shaver would be a cheap investment in hand health. Otherwise you become the CrossFitter who can’t do WODs for days at a time due to your hand injuries or you become the weirdo on the train who starts unconsciously gnawing on their hand.

  • Jeff

    As far as courting rituals go, “Spear & Hook” is still a preferred method to “Smear & Pinch”.

  • avery

    Mike r I agree with some of your points about scaling but know early on in my crossfitting days I always used to rip no matter how carefully I scaled.

    It wasn’t until I developed grip strength, basic technique of holding the bar (which is not easy if your grip is weak to begin with), and learned to break pull ups in appropriate sized sets of reps that I stopped ripping so much.

    General callus maintenance is key and totally agree with Jeff’s point about skin tissue breaking down around 100 pullups. Same thing seems to happen with Kettlebell snatches and other high volume barbell workouts. So I’d have to say the solution is not simply scaling. If you want to do high rep volume skipping pull up workouts eventually you have to start doing them. Mist people destroye their hands and lose valuable training time because they do not address simple issues of hand maintenance and grip technique.

  • avery

    Thanks to autocorrect on my phone for skipping pull ups lol

  • Jonathan P

    Calluses will get too big eventually, so just take them down yourself regularly. Even after constant attention, yesterday was still a lot of volume. A layer of paper towels between my hands and the bar got me through it at the end with just a tiny blister. It reduces the speed and amount I can do and offers some skid protection. Ideally I would use a shirt, but I didn’t bring a spare and don’t have Carlos’s body.

    On a different topic altogether, if anyone is looking for or knows someone who is looking for a room or two rooms for the summer, my two roommates are going to be away at music festivals June-August and are looking to sublet. We have a three-bedroom with a kitchen and living room (with grand piano) directly on the Hudson in Washington Heights. It’s on the first floor in the NW corner with lots of trees on both sides, no roads, and the river. 187th.

  • Jonathan P

    If you want to contact me about the apartment, find me in the gym or email me, jonathan.daniel.payne at gmail.

  • Eric

    Power cleans:
    135, 155, 155, 165, 175, 180, 185 (PR)

    Great class by Avery. After my 135 lift, she had me try the same lift from the hang. This most definitely helped me feel my legs and hips explode in the movement. In general today, I felt easier than I have ever felt cleaning something from the ground.

    I also trusted that once I lifted to my hips, I had the explosion necessary to get the weight up .

    I second the Spear and Hook technique, although I always seem to remember in hindsight (:

    I hate pouring hydrogen peroxide on exposed hands. OUCH

  • Jeff

    16 swings (2 pood), 4 ring rows
    12 swings, 8 ring rows
    8 swings, 12 ring rows
    4 swings, 16 ring rows
    8 swings, 12 ring rows
    12 swings, 8 ring rows
    16 swings, 4 ring rows
    10:27

  • Mike K

    PC up to 265. Very close on 275. Definitely have that next time

  • kevin p

    Yes mike you have 275. Just bend your knees.