Friday, December 14th
A.
STAMINA SQUATTING: Final week, and final iteration of our stamina squats. Alternating "On the Minute" x 12 (6 Rounds): Odd Minutes - 1 Front Squat Even Minutes - 3 Back Squats *85% of our estimated 1RM Front Squat.
B.
METCON:
“Babs”
3 Rounds for Time: 10 Bar Muscle-Ups (scale: choose hardest gymnastics movement you can do) 20 Handstand Push Ups 30 Sit Ups 40 Wallballs (20/14)
A balance of gymnastics and simple conditioning, "Babs" is a three-rounder where we have the chance to test our capacities in these movements over a moderate amount of volume. A beneficial takeaway from today's effort will be to debrief internally how our gymnastic movements fared from round one through round three. As in, which repetition breakup strategy we took in round one, and how did that compare through the workout.
Stimulus wise, we are looking for a count on these handstand pushups that allows us to complete ~20 unbroken when completely fresh if we tried. Inside the workout, we may break up the first set into 3 rounds for strategy purposes, but it's a manageable difficulty that can be completed in sizable sets throughout all three rounds.
If we are not completing kipping handstand pushups today, a weighted substitute can be the dumbbell push press (one bell in each hand), with loadings that allow us to complete ~20 repetitions unbroken when fresh.
Something we can all relate to, is "hitting the wall" on handstand pushups. A movement that cycles very well when we are fresh, but a movement that can also deteriorate quickly if we do not manage our efforts properly. Take conscious note in our mind as we move through the workout how we are breaking these sets up, so that we can learn from today's piece.
Naturally, strategy will lie in how we break up these gymnastic movements to start. Visualizing the fatigue in round three, we can start to think through what our repetition scheme will look like on those two movements in that final round. Is that a single break, or two on the bar muscle-ups? Are we thinking four quick sets on the handstand pushups? The breakup strategy we think we'll be employing in round 3 is something we want to consider for round 2, and often even in round 1. It's when we open big and dramatically fall off towards the latter parts of the workout where we lose handfuls of seconds.
The wallballs add the grit to the workout. Knowing we have bar muscle-ups and handstand pushups to follow, a conservative breakup strategy here is a wise move. Based on our capacities on the front two gymnastic movements, our aim is to pace the wallballs accordingly. If we thrive on gymnastics, let's push the wallball sets. If we struggle - let's pace out the wallballs just a bit more so that we can enter rounds 2 and 3 with our best effort on the movements that challenge us.
