Seems like a lot of people have been suffering from colds and flu lately, but hopefully the uptick in temperature this weekend will have everyone feeling better, brighter, and ready to put these new bars and bumpers to good use.

*So we might’ve made this one up on the fly, just for something a little different. Perform 1 T, come to the plank, pull the hips up and back, and the perform a dive bomber. Repeat for the opposite side, and you’ve just performed one rep.

To help prep everyone’s shoulders for the day’s work, class broke off into pairs and worked 90 seconds in the bully stretch. The bully stretch, lying supine with the hands overlapped and under the shoulders, is a good stretch in and of itself. However, having a partner slowly and gently apply pressure to the front of shoulders, pushing them back down towards the floor, really serves to increase the intensity.

As it’s been a while without bars in hand, Saturday’s class began by working through a progression of un-weighted practice movements designed to prep an athlete to snatch. This was particularly important for class on Saturday. Although the focus of the workout were OHS, rather than snatches, without racks the only way the bars were getting overhead was by snatching them up.

The progression kicked off with the “hang drag,” which is simply pushing down into the hang position, and then slowly extending back up again, dragging the bar up the thighs while simultaneously pushing the hips forward into the bar. The next step is to add speed with a slight shrug at the top, the shrug acting as way to absorb the power imparted on the bar by the addition of explosive power.

The logical next step is the high pull. However, as we noted in class, the term “pull” is a bit of a misnomer, since the goal is to actually pop the bar up with the hips, using the high “pull” – with elbows high and to the outside – to actually guide the bar, keeping it in close to the torso as it rises rather than floating out away from the body.

Finally, after working through a few practice reps of jumping the feet out in the squat position without the bar, class began to work through some un-weighted snatches, first alone, and then in conjunction with a few overhead squats.

Seeing as how everyone was prepped and ready to not only get the weight over their heads, but keep it there for a few OHS, we set out the days workout: a descending ladder of OHS and burpees. Simple, but effective.

We’ve said it before, but hey, we can stand to say it again. The best workouts are sometimes the simplest, and mixing OHS with any sort of conditioning the gets the lungs heaving, really drives home the point of how important stability – not strength – are to the OHS.

What will tomorrow’s class hold? Well, you can bet it will involve the bars, and since there was no running today, probably not a bad bet that some pavement pounding will be in the mix also. See you then.