Keep your ‘power lunches’ and stuff your ‘power hours,’ we’ll take power cleans any day of the week (which happened to be a Thursday this particular week).
Done in groups of two, where P1 went on the minute and P2 on the half-minute. Thus, while your cleans were done on the minute, you only had 30 seconds to make both lifts – enough time to reset and make sure each was explosive and powerful, but not enough time to dawdle.
Remember our post from the beginning of June on Cleans and Triple Extension? If not, go re-read it, and then come back. By this time, the points made in that post should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind whenever either of the Olympic lifts come up in class.
This was especially important during the Power Clean Combo, where you should recognize that the hang-power clean purposefully omits the 1st pull. Doing so demands that you generate all your momentum from an explosive 2nd pull combined with a lightening quick 3rd pull.
Choose one plate to use for the entirety of the workout. For the plate burpees, position the plate in front of you, perform your regular burpee, but instead of jumping and clapping, simply jump on to the plate and then back off again. For the OH lunges, pick up and press the plate overhead, and then keep it pressed out overhead for all of the lunges (lunges could be forwards or backwards). Finally, for the side plate hops, put the plate back on the floor, and then hurdle the plate sideways for 36 reps (1 rep = 1 jump, as opposed to an over & back jump). All for time.
Great work everyone. I know cleans aren’t everyone’s favorites due their technical nature and motor-pattern recruitment demands, but I see a lot of determination and a lot of improvement. Don’t give up!
Be sure to wish Sara the best of luck as she competes in the inaugural Lift Like a Girl Open hosted by the CF Fairfax Weightlifting Club this coming Saturday (click on the link or check out the poster above for more info on time & location). Sara’s been putting in a lot of time working on her Olympic lifts, so if you have the time, stop by and cheer her on.
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What was the standard on the plate burpees? Did you have to come to full extension while standing on the plate, or could you come to full extension while jumping off the plate back to your burpee? I plan on trying this workout tomorrow.
I love Dan’s face behind mine in the picture. I liked this workout (there was jumping involved) and I worked on a lower weight with the cleans because I was fighting off a cold earlier this week and because I wanted to work on form.
I felt much better on how I was getting under the bar and also how I got my elbows around, not catching the bar on my wrists. Also, after Tom told me to jump with the bar the weight starting flying up.
Fun workout.
@ Sebastian: treat it as a box jump and hit extension either on the plate or while coming off, provided you are above the height of the plate-really tho, its such a short distance you’ll probably hit extension just jumping onto the plate (just watch your head/face coming down…)
@ Max: odd how Tom relates something to jumping and then it all works much better for you? Seriously tho, nice work on the cleans, they’ve come along way and you are looking really smooth and proficient.
Thanks, Salty. I’m curious to see which plates people used and to some times that were posted.
Cleans are one of the lifts I’m most comfortable with so I was happy we got so much work on them. Thanks to Sara for convincing me to try the Hook Grip. I didn’t think I could get my hand all the way around that way, but she shamed me into it by showing me that if her hands can do it, mine definitely can.
The side hops in the met-con took more out of me than anything else. I get the feeling I’ve neglected those muscles in my workouts. @Sebastian I used a 25lbs plate and took 5:30 (one of the longest times in the group). Make sure you lock out the plate on the lunges, it makes a big difference.
Ha yeah, nice faces in the background, both Dan and Chris.
That was a different metcon and it looked fun.
It was really cool to see Dian doing more side hops to help Reggie finish his reps. This is what CFDC is about, right?!
Scott was flying on the side hops and in perfect form staying over the center of the plate. Well done!
Good workout… if time had allowed it would have been nice to go in heats, that way one one partner could watch while the other lifted… with the relatively quick turnaround it was hard to give feedback.
This metcon was definitely tough for me… huge props to everyone, this one was a gasser, especially to Alden, Chris, one other person whose time I heard called out at least a solid 30-40 seconds before me, who absolutely smoked the wod. I think I could’ve done better on form and making sure I was going through the full range of motion… in a comp I probably would’ve had a bunch of no reps… gotta keep working on the mind set of keeping things high quality. See you all Sunday!
Way to go Dian! And nice job Reggie and Tom A. – fighting through to the very end.
The lateral hops were fun! I always feel like I have to ‘wind up’ a little to get going on these, if that makes sense, but they were pretty awesome once I got a better feel for the distance + rhythm.
James – I have to admit, I’ve yet to adopt the hook grip. Shameless, yeah…
I think with the low height of the plate, its better to stand to extension rather than try and jump, but either is legit.
The hook grip is a fundamental part of olympic lifts. Not only will it save your grip, but actually allow you to be more powerful. The clean is all about the explosive opening of the hips, and as that happens you accelerate quickly in a short range of movement. Even a strong grip is pried away from the bar, and your nervous system can sense this. As a result, your body doesn’t fire 100%. This doesn’t mean the hook grip will magically increase your clean. In fact, at first most of what you will notice is the discomfort in your thumbs. In the long run. its essential to the olympic lifts.
Dan, its always great to analyze form in retrospect, but you looked pretty legit last night. The issue for almost everyone was how strict we judged the body moving across the center of the plate (and we didn’t set a specific standard ahead of time).
I think Scott finished first in about 4:15 (25 lb plate), with Chris right behind at 4:21 (20 Kg plate).
Steph, good point on Dian jumping in on extra hops to finish up w/ Reggie, and a great way to repay the extra burpees he did with her a while back.
Good luck Sara! Lift like a girl…I love it.
I’m not very confident doing power cleans especially from the floor. I still do the “intentionally slow” thing with the first pull. I was messing up something because I kept banging my chins with the bar yesterday too (must get tube socks). I’m a little bit more comfortable with the hanging power clean. It was good practice yesterday and I’m glad we did the extra rounds.
Thank goodness we only did a couple of rounds for the metcon. I used a 10kg plate and finished at about 7:18 I think. The burpees always get me. I need to let go of some of my burpee hate.
Off on the times Brose:) Scott finished in 4:12 (25lb plate) and Chris 4:15 (20kg plate).
It was a pleasure doing those extra hops with Reggie. I wouldn’t have been physically able to do that a year ago. Thanks CFDC! You know, the day I do extra burpees might be soon at hand.
Okay, first off, I’m THRILLED that I missed cleans 🙂 Okay, that’s not nice, but it’s still true. That met-con sounded brutal. Although whenever I hear about a wicked met-con, I’m always inspired to try it myself…you guys looked like you really rocked it and I’m really proud/impressed. Amelia and I are planning on bricking tomorrow (bike/run) early in the AM if anyone is up for it!
Cleans: I felt good with my cleans for the most part. I felt so good that I increased the weight on the last four sets (thanks Coach for making us do fifteen sets instead of the prescribed twelve). But I didn’t think that it would really effect my…
Met-con: …which it did. Burpees slammed me; the side hops killed me (and the humidity didn’t help at all). I really could not find a rhythm for the hops. But I made it through; even though, this really kicked my ass.
@Julia: Thanks.
@Dian: Thanks. Now just take over next time, okay? 🙂
I live to fight another day.
“Not too bad for an old man.” -CFDC’s own ODB
@C-Bass (Sebastian): I used a 45# plate and finished in…aw, who cares? I just finished. 🙂
Also “affect” (verb) not “effect” (noun).
I really need some coffee. 🙂
Metcon: 4.52 with 20kg plate.
Went out in world record pace on first round and hit an absolute wall halfway through the second round of lunges. But, I’m definitely starting to build some capacity.
The side hops were unexpectedly hard – something funny happen to my legs after burpees and lunges.
Alden, that’s weird, and nearly unexplainable.
It’s OK, Sebastian, you gave it the good ole college try.
I’ve really enjoyed my time with everyone at CFDC. Looking forward to completing another punchcard.
Hey guys– greetings from Greece! I’m here for a family wedding and am, of course, using the last couple min of internet time to jot down workouts (I just showed my 95-year-old great grandmother some pictures of me from this blog and she made a face that is somewhere between “oh wow” and “I wish my son had never gone to America.”) The strikes have rolling power outages going throughout the country–so I’ll save my comments on older posts until I get back.
I tried to checkout Crossfit Hellas, but it appears coaches are included in the strikes and class was cancelled–Tom and Chris, y’all should unionize, stat. See you guys soon!