Here’s a collection of links to videos that teach the olympic snatch.
The Burgener Files
Other
Today’s workout was all barbell work. We started, like usual, with a strength workout.
2-2-2 Back Squat (90%)
I did a few warm-up sets, then tried 133#. I’ve done that weight before for one set of 3, so I knew I could do it. It didn’t feel like 90%, so I jumped up to 155#. I did three sets with this weight and felt good about it. New estimated 1RM is 172#.
On to the WOD.
8 Tabata Intervals Each of:
Push Press (75# / 45#)
SDHP (75# / 45#)
Just yesterday, we did a bunch of deadlifting and I was not happy to be doing more. Hillary wrote down my splits, but I forgot the paper at the gym. This one was tough, but I was able to do it Rx without running out of gas or having my heart and breathing shoot through the roof.
Total: 43PP + 43SDHP = 86
Today was another one of those fun benchmark workouts — “Tabata Something Else”
8 Tabata Intervals (20 seconds of work; 10 seconds of rest) each of:
Pullups
Pushups
Situps
Squats
I got a tear on my right-hand ring finger pad on my very last pull-up. I think I lost count on the pull-ups too. Kipping really helped me. I never anchored my feet before on the situps, so that probably accounted for part of my increase there.
my reps were
pull-ups: 41 (+21(!) from last time)
push-ups: 43 (+6)
sit-ups: 81 (+19)
squats: 91 (+2)
overall total: 256
Congrats to my co-worker, Christian, who came for today’s free day.
We had a pretty straight-forward workout today — shoulder-press strength work, and rowing.
3-3-3-3 Shoulder Press (75% of Max)
We did 75% shoulder presses two weeks ago and I used 89#. Did the same today.
3 Rounds of:
Row 500 Meters
Rest 1 Minute
I looked at the whiteboard to estimate what I thought my splits should be. I was shooting for 1:45ish. I went out too fast and, by the third split, I was struggling. Afterward, my quads were so shot that I could barely walk to the car, though I was fine once I rested.
Splits: 1:40, 1:45, 1:57
Our gym started its performance challenge about two months ago. Today was our final exam. I felt like I did pretty well last time. Let’s see if I’ve gotten any better.
1RM Deadlift
I’m still lifting too much with my back and not my legs. I was surprised that my back wasn’t sore the next day though.
Deadlift: 288#
For time:
Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)
30 KB Swings (35# / 25# )
30 Burpees
30 Double Unders
30 Push Presses (45# / 35#)
Run to Stop Sign (~700 M)
I’ve been working on my double-unders, but the burpees had taken so much out of me that I wasn’t able to string them together at all.
Time: 15:03
Since last time, I added 10 k to my deadlift, and took 3:22 off of my WOD time. I’m pretty happy with that.
No strength workout today. Well, I guess I should say it was one big strength workout.
“Linda”
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
1.5x Body-weight Deadlift
1x Body-weight Benchpress
.75x Body-weight Squat Cleans
My max deadlift is 1.5x my body weight, so I scaled as follows. I pretty much halved all of my weights.
I was surprised that, of the three movements, I found the bench press to be the easiest. When I move my weight up next time, I can probably be more aggressive with my bench press weight.
Time: 23:37
Quick workout today. Back squats, push-ups, and pull-ups.
3-3-3-3-3 Back Squats (80% of Max)
I did two warm-up sets, then used 121# for my work sets. I took a big jump in weight since the last time I did 5×3 back squats. This says my estimated 1RM is 151#.
3 Rounds of:
10 Clapping Push-ups
10 Clapping Pull-ups (be careful)
The first round of clapping push-ups was pretty easy. I didn’t even attempt the clapping pull-ups, though I was able to do 3 or 4 chest-to-bar pull-ups the first round, then I kipped the rest. I had to rest between reps a lot more on the second round. On the third round, I had to do the last seven clapping push-ups on my knees, and could only do one pull-up at a time.
Time: 5:00
Today’s workout was thrusters and something new, burpee pull-ups.
5-5-5-5-5 Thrusters (70% of Max)
I’ve never tried to do heavy thrusters, so my choice of weight was a bit arbitrary. I did the sets with 77#.
For Time:
60 Burpee Pull-ups (burpee into a jumping pull-up)
I was able to do all pull-ups from the floor.
Time: 10:17
We did back squats again today. I thought the three reps with a weight of 111# last week was somewhat easy, so I did my first round at that weight. My 5th rep was a little unstable, so I moved down to 99#. I felt a lot more stable on my last sets once I got myself to stop unconsciously leaning forward. I felt good at the end.
The WOD was a little bit of torture.
50-40-30-20-10 reps of:
Push Balls (like a wall ball, but you just push press the ball up)
Situps
I challenged myself on this one and did the first 50 reps with a 14# ball, and the rest with 10#. There’s not much to say about it. Maybe could have tried to do the first 25 of the second round with the 14# ball, so as to done half with the heavier ball instead of a third, but I’m not upset about it.
Time: 10:20
Strength workout today was back squats. I’ve never done them before, so I wasn’t sure what my 75% max weight would be. I tried 133#, but my third rep was pretty hard. I moved down to 111# for the other four sets.
“Half Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 10 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
We did a full Cindy two months ago, and I’ve made some big improvements since then. I did most of my rounds with jumping pullups last time, and this time I was able to do all kipping pull-ups. I didn’t note how many rounds of knee push-ups I did last time, probably all of them. This time I was able to get three rounds of strict push-ups and the rest on my knees. Push-ups seemed to be everyone’s weak spot though. I guess I just need to do a few every morning.
Total: 6 rounds + … 10 squats.
No strength workout today. Just a simple WOD.
“Helen”
Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
21 Kettlebell Swings 56#/35#
12 Pull-ups
I’ve done this workout twice before. Actually my first CrossFit workout was Helen. I never scaled my workouts, so getting through 12 pull-ups was a chore. It’s amazing what an effect “being in shape” has on my WOD times. 
Prescribed weight is 56#, but I used a 35# kettlebell. I had tried using a 45# KB in a recent workout and couldn’t do any more than 10 swings. I guess I could have tried to get as far as I could with 45# before switching, but I was lazy. My body was really blown about halfway through last time. I wanted to be able to go strong the entire way through today.
My hand is still a little torn up from last week’s pull-ups. I found a great video online that shows how to tape your hands so that you can still do pull-ups when they’re torn. I tried it tonight and, while it didn’t remove all the hurt, I was able to get through the WOD without causing more damage. I was able to do kipping pull-ups for the first round, and did three on the second. The rest of my pull-ups were jumpers.
Total Time: 9:43
For future reference — my average running pace was 1:53.
We continued our shoulder press strength workout today, stepping up the weight, and decreasing the number of reps. I did five sets of 3 reps with a weight of 89#. I had poor-ish form, but got every rep, except the very last one. I guess I had the perfect weight. This puts my 1RM at about 120#
The WOD was 5 minutes of Tabata intervals (20sec work / 10 sec rest) on the rower using total calories as the score. I know I’m a pretty strong rower, so I looked at the scores and thought that I’d try to do at least 7 cal per interval. My first round was 8, and I had 9 cal on a few. Total score: 84. Tired but happy.
The workout named “Nicole” is supposed to be 20 minutes: as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) of 400m run and max rep pullups. Today, we did “Mini Nicole”.
As many rounds as you can do in 10 minutes of:
run to truck and back (~200M)
max kipping or jumping pull ups
We did max rep pull ups last week, so I had a good estimate of how I’d do on this WOD. I figured I could do six or seven rounds, with an average of three pull ups per round. I can’t kip, so the strict pull ups would wear me out pretty quickly. I occasionally will do a kipping pull up as part of my warm up, but I’ve never been able to link two in a row. I think a lot of the problem was that I just wasn’t committing to it. Just before the WOD, I claimed my pull up bar and did two kips in a row. Landon saw me and said basically “if you can do two kips, you’re doing all kips”. Damn it! I’m glad I did though.
Here are my splits.
I surprised myself on the first round when I got the nine kipping pullups. Wow! It felt great! I tore a callous during the 5th round of pull ups, and I tried to do a dead-hang on my 6th, but couldn’t get up, so I did jumping pullups on the 6th and 7th rounds. I need to remember to chalk my hands when I do pull ups.
Total: 10:39. 7 rnds + sprinting. 33 kipping + 6 jumping pull ups
Today’s workout started with 5×5 constant weight shoulder presses. Taking last week’s 5×5 shoulder press progression into consideration, Dave L. suggested that 77# would be a good weight. I did two warm-up sets of 35# and 45#, then four rounds of 77#. I Still felt good, so I did 82# on my last set. I heard that we’ll be doing shoulder presses every week, but adding weight each week, so I’m planning to do 5×82# at that time.
21-15-9
Ring Pushups (scale reps as necessary)
Double Unders
I have never done ring push-ups before. They are crazy hard. I can do 25 push-ups easy, but could barely get through 5 ring push-ups. I was able to do the first 21 strict by breaking them into sets, but on the second and third rounds I had to do knee push-ups. I didn’t make up any time on my double unders. My timing was all off.
Time: 10:27
Strength workout today was 3x max reps pull ups. First round I got seven (pretty good for me). After resting, I got four reps on the second and third sets. I’ll have to grease the groove with pullups over the next few weeks.
10 Minute AMRAP of:
5 Hand Stand Pushups
10 Box Jumps
I used a 24″ box, doing knee head stand push ups. Got in 10 rounds, plus all the push ups and 5 box jumps. The box jumps were my weak spot.
The gym followed their regular template today with a combination strength workout followed by a MetCon WOD.
Today’s strength workout was 5×5 shoulder presses. We did 15 rep sets last week, so this would give me a chance to boost my numbers up a little more. I’ve never tried for my 1RM, so I’m using this strength workouts to help me get a feeling for what that number probably is. I did warm-up sets at 35# and 45#, then started with my max 15RM of 67#. Since that was pretty easy, I added on 10# and did that for two sets. Now that I was half way though, I tried pushing up a little more to try to find my failure point. I did a 82# set with a little struggle on the last rep, and pushed to 89# for the last set, only getting 4 reps before failure.
On to the WOD.
3 Rounds of:
10 Burpees
20 KB Swings (45#/35#)
I did a few 45# KB swings before the WOD, to see if I thought I could handle that weight. I figured I could get through one round, then switch to 35# for the remainder. By the 10th rep into the WOD, I wasn’t able to keep my elbows straight, so I switched to 35# at that point. In the middle of the second set of burpees, I suddenly felt all my energy drain. I was surprised by the suddenness of it. The rest of the workout was a trial. I was having a hard time with the burpee jump. I remember feeling like I had a pained expression while doing the last 20 KB swings with no break (Thanks Landon and Dave). I didn’t beat many people, but I felt like I gave it my all. That’s all I try for.
Time: 4:28
The trainers have been busy the past few days, making new toys to torture us with. They stuffed a bunch of army canvas with wood chips to make an uneven heavy sack. Today we had to use them in a workout.
First, though, we had a strength workout. Three sets of 15 shoulder presses. I did 35# and that was pretty easy, so I stepped up to 67#. This was a bit too aggressive. I did 10 reps and this was all I could do. After a bit of a rest, I did 5 more reps with this weight, then stepped down to 50# for a final 15 reps.
3 Rounds of:
10 Alternating Sandbag Cleans (5 each arm)
Run to Truck with Sandbag
Kyle suggested that I use a 42# bag and decided to stick with it after a couple of trial reps. I though that the workout would catch up with me even though it felt easy at that time. I should have used a heavier weight, since I cruised through it. The running was difficult though.
Time: 4:27
We started out today’s workout with some strength work – three sets of eight snatch-grip deadlifts. I worked my way up to 177# at which point Landon pointed out some poor form when lowering the bar. I did another two reps at that weight with correct form, and went on to the WOD.
3 Rounds of:
30 Double Unders
30 KB Swings (45# / 35#)
I brought the jump rope I use at home, which is a lot lighter than the ropes at the gym. It is also adjusted almost perfectly for my height. Despite this, I didn’t feel too good on the double-unders. I was only able to string 3 together in a row at the most, where my P.R. is eight with a gym rope. I haven’t practiced double-unders with my rope at all. I only use it for speed work at home. I am planning to bring it with me to the gym and do 30 before every workout in order to get better at them.
For the kettlebell swings, I used a 35# weight. I think I could do a shorter rep workout with a 45# weight at this point, but I knew that 90 reps would be tough for me using a 35# kb.
Time: 10:40
Today’s workout was long, but didn’t leave my body blasted like yesterday’s did.
3 Rounds:
800M Run
50 Situps
50 Good Mornings
Last time I did 3×800, my average split was 3:26 and I tried to keep my pace as close as I could to that time today. The good mornings were a new movement for me.
Splits:
Total: 20:12
My average 800 time was slower by 1 2/3 sec compared to last time, which surprised me. I thought I would be slightly faster. I kept each round much closer to my average though. I felt unsure about the movement on the first round of good mornings, which slowed me down. I didn’t know if I was keeping my lumbar curve as I bent over, and also didn’t know if I was bending over deeply enough. Landon assured me that my form was good and I sped up on the second and third rounds.
It was a longer workout than many, but I felt good afterward. Most 20+ minute workouts have been killers. This one was long, but pretty easy. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
I knew that today’s workout would be quite difficult, but I didn’t think it would knock me down so badly.
For time:
25 pull-ups
50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
50 push-ups
50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
50 “floor wipers” (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
50 “clean and press” at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
25 more pull-ups
I didn’t scale the workout down near enough. I could do any one or two of the exercises as I scaled them, but I didn’t acknowledge the cumulative effect that such aggressive exercise would have. I did Fran last week with jumping pullups, so I decided to do JPU from 1 20# bumper plate. I should have used two, or a 12″ box. I thought I could do 50 133# deadlifts, but moved down to 89# after the first 15. For my push-ups, I did 25 strict, then struggled through 25 knee push-ups. Box jumps on a 24″ box. I can do this height, but it gets slow at the end. Maybe could have done a 20″ box instead. 89# floor wipers, then dropped to 67#. I only did 30 reps before quitting. I felt like I was gonna pass out. My heart was racing. By this time, I was so wiped out that I was doing one or two floor wipers at a time and needing lots of rest between reps.
I’m sure that this one will come up again. I’ll scale it properly next time and I know I’ll get through it.