A Higher Power

Today at CrossFit Asheville we did Turkish Get Ups for strength and a hardcore weightlifting WOD called “Overhead Power” (last performed on September 26th), involving a total of 90 reps of six different weightlifting moves (Hang Power Snatch, Overhead Squats, Hang Power Cleans, Push Presses, Hang Squat Cleans, and Push Jerks).

Warm-Up

A medley of jumping rope, including work on crossovers and double-unders, with agility ladders, cones and crawling, followed by stretching, then push-ups (20), sit-ups (20), overhead squats (20), and pull-ups (13 total; all dead hang; actually I did three after the WOD so they weren’t warm ups, were they?).

Strength: Turkish Get Up

I didn’t do much volume.

Results: 3 x 35 lbs each arm, with kettlebells. Then, using a lightweight olympic bar: 3 x 15 kg (33.06 lbs) bar; then 2 x 20 kg with the bar. The bar was a nice challenge.

WOD: Overhead Power

Last performed on Sep 26th.

A progressive multi-stage WOD, for time:
3 rounds of:
5 hang power snatch (70% of your snatch or OHS weight not to exceed 95/65lbs)
5 overhead squats
then 1 minute rest

3 rounds of:
5 hang power clean (70% of HPC or push-press weight not to exceed 115/75)
5 push-press

then 2 minutes rest

3 rounds of:
5 hang squat cleans (70% of your power clean weight/push jerk not to exceed 135/95)
5 push-jerk

Subtract 3 minutes from your overall time and post to white board or comments.

I went up in weight from last time, substantially, mainly due to my recent gains in the departments of the overhead squat and the hang power snatch.

Results: Round 1, 65 lbs, end at 2:29 (2:29); Round 2, 85 lbs, start at 3:29, end at 5:40 (3:11); Round 3, 105 lbs, start at 7:40, end at 13:34 (5:54); official time: 10:34.

Comparison with last time: (a) Volume skyrocketed: 5,850 vs. 7,650 (30% increase), a substantial improvement; (b) Time also increased, by 2:35 (33% worse), substantially less fast; (c) Power analysis: 733 pounds/min vs. 724 pounds/min, slightly worse (1.2% decrease in power).

Analysis: I had a 1.2% decrease in power, but a 30% increase in overall volume. I would have to say that, training wise, I accomplished more today than I did 5 weeks ago. I know that I pushed myself harder in terms of the technical skill required to move the weights, and the amount of effort required to move the weight through each individual rep (i.e. volume also represents the average weight per rep, which was also up 30%). But the comparative slowness is an issue of mental toughness that I would like to address. If I had only gone a little bit faster, I could have seen an improvement in power.

I’ll rock it next time.