Friday, February 15th
METCON:
20 Minute AMRAP: 30 Overhead Squats (95/65) 30 Box Jumps (24/20) 30 Toes to Bar 30 Calorie Row
Consistent sets from the start of the workout. Excellent chance to hone in our pacing over the 20 minute range.
Opening with 30 overhead squats, it can be tempting to come out with a large set - a set that we would not open the second round of OHS with. Picture yourself in the workout on round two, re-approaching the barbell, and imagine the repetition scheme you would use to move through those second 30. If it is smaller sets (and bigger breaks) than compared to how you envisioned the first round, let's adjust our pacing going into this workout.
Apply this same thought to the box jumps, the toes to bar, and the speed of your calorie row. Visualize your repetition scheme on round two, and apply that to round one. This pacing strategy will allow us to utilize these full 20 minutes to our advantage. In today's workout, it's the middle portion of the time frame, minutes 10-15, where many athletes will fall greatly off pace given an overly aggressive start.
On the Overhead Squats- controlled chunks will be of benefit here. We are looking for a weight we can cycle for 30 reps unbroken if we absolutely had to, but strategy calls for a different thought process. When we bite into too large of a set of OHS, we dance the line of failure (where we start to move poorly, expending extra energy per repetition). Given the 20 minute timeframe for this workout, we want to avoid that. 2 sets of 15, or 12-10-8 are a start here. Metabolic, but something we can recover from quickly to move fluidly into the box jumps. After a near failure set… you can imagine it's more difficult to find your legs for those first few box jumps, effectively cancelling out any time we gained by those larger sets.
On the Box Jumps- slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Practice resting on top of the box as needed. These can be done "unbroken" with a smooth and steady pace.
On the Toes to Bar - Just like the OHS, it is important to visualize yourself on round two. How would we break them up there. The first round will feel good… but hold back and stay with consistent, manageable sets. 5's, or even 3's, may feel like small numbers comparatively speaking to what you could do in that first round, but consistency again is key. Hitting the wall on TTB's can take minutes away from us.
On the Row- don't waste a moment from that last box jump to start that rower fan. Get it going as quickly as you can following that final repetition, but settle into a recovery pace. This is not the place to push. Effort wise, find what you would believe to be your ~5K pace, and strive to hold that pace for all rounds. We want to be able to come off the rower and move right into a set of OHS next.
