What better way to close out a week of cooler weather than with the return of the plate push? The drier air and dusty floors primed the gym for a good bout of quad burn.
It was about a month a half ago that we worked through a 15min time block of 3-rep hang power snatches. Thursday’s program replaced the time block with 6 sets, but still of 3-reps at a time. To make sure everyone was properly primed for the working sets, we worked through the following two prep sets:
Prep #1: 1 x 5 Hang Snatch Hi-Pull + 5 Hang Power Snatch w/ bar only
Prep #2: 1 x 2 Hang Snatch Hi-Pull + 3 Hang Power Snatch w/ light weight
Any reps taken after the prep sets were considered working sets; no in between sets or further warm-up. Additionally, once the bar was off the ground, it could not touch the ground until the after the completion of the 3rd rep. The grip could be reset in the pocket of the waist, but if the bar was dropped or a rep missed, the set was over.
The idea behind taking multiple reps from the hang is to overtax the arms and shoulders. If you’re still trying to muscle the bar into place overhead with your upper body, you will quickly lose the ability to perform multiple reps from the hang position. The Olympic lifts are about utilizing the explosive power of the hips, and multiple reps from the hang really help to emphasize the importance of using the hips over the upper body (sadly, tapping into the explosive power of the hips still doesn’t relieve the hands of their burden – that just takes time to adjust to)
After everyone had completed their snatches, it was on to the promised plate-pushes. Each plate push equaled a trip to mid-court and back. These were combined with full range HSPU (head to the floor) in a 5-down-to-1 rep scheme. Scaling replacement for the HSPU were 3x as many push-ups (or 15-12-9-6-3) – no ab-mats or wall walks allowed. Of course, in the handstand position, gravity doesn’t pull on the mid-section quite as bad as it does in the push-up position. Doesn’t seem like a big deal until after your first set of plate-push and realized tightening up the lower half of your body to maintain that nice plank position meant tapping back into your quads and glutes. Mmmmmm, toasty legs!
Awesome work for those of you who decided to skip out on watching the Nationals game or getting home late for the VP debate. See you all on Sunday.
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Holy leg burn indeed! It was really hard to keep the legs locked for the push-ups after the plate pushes. Thanks for Andraea for putting up with my slow ass on the plate pushes, especially the first round of 5!
Good to work on some snatches last night. I worked with Andraea, who made the snatches look way too easy, and Amelia and Erica. Thanks, ladies! It was fun!
Looking forward to Sunday and then brunch at 1:30 (couldn’t get a reservation for 1)!
Snatches felt pretty good last night. Honestly, I surprised myself. I need to stop being such a chicken and add more weight to the bar.
Thanks Jessi for being my such a patient and gracious partner on the met-con. Jessi kicked butt. As for me, I was the slowest on the court. I must say, however, that my effort last night was considerably better than the last time we did plate pushes when I abandoned my plate mid court and crawled back to the end line. My poor partner at the time had to finish up the plate pushes. Accordingly, last night was a major improvement.
See everyone on Sunday.
Last night was fun – great to close things out with plate pushes. And Dian, you did great! It’s so tough to get back on the plate. Way to keep hammering!
Missing class SUCKS, especially when I missed snatches and plate pushes! Boooooooo. Luckily I’m feeling mostly better, so I’ll be there on Sunday. If I can still sign up and there’s room, I’ll be at brunch, too!
There’s ALWAYS room for you, Katie! Glad you’re feeling better! See you Sunday!
Snatches felt kind of off for me. Went up to 103lbs but that didn’t want to work out for me so dropped back to 83 before jumping back up to 93 again. Bar jst felt like it kept getting away from me. Knees out cue from Chris after my second to last set made a huge difference on the last set.
Great metcon. Everyone knows I love plate pushes. HSPUs were ok but still not great.
I also got 3 rope climbs in before class. That doubles my lifetime total count.
I’m pretending like the first 3/4 of class didn’t happen because snatches make me angry.
I love plate pushes because few other exercises make you hurt like they do. And as hard as the plate pushes felt, holding the push up position after pushing the plate was also crazy tough. Meels and I used the 35# plate