You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘back squats’ tag.
1800 PCF WOD
Back Squat
5-5-5-3-3-1-1
225-235-245(4)-240-240-265-265. Jon recently enlightened me to the right approach to strength days. They have to be your least favorite WOD because you’re pushing so far up against your limits. Instead of treating the sets of 5 or even 3 like medium/light warmup sets, start heavy and get heavier. Fail close to or at the end. I tried to take that approach tonight and this progression was really difficult. I thought I’d hit 265 by the last 3 set at the latest, but wasn’t quite ready for that. This felt like when I switched from 5×5 stronglifts to 3×5 starting strength and jumped the weight up. On a couple reps I was seeing stars.
1700 PCF WOD
“Crossfit Total”
1 RM Back Squat – 265
1 RM Press – 140
1 RM Deadlift – 345
CFT: 750
All PRs. Attempted 275, 145, and 355 respectively but didn’t get reps at those weights.
Previous CFT was 645 (215, 125, 305)
Strength work at Jared’s garage gym
WOD A:
5×5 back squats: 165
5×5 strict press: 100
5×5 deadlifts: 225 – was able to really keep my back tight better than usual
5x to failure weighted pullups: 7,6,5 @ 15#, 5,5 @ 10#, 5 w/ no weight
3x to failure pushups*: 35,15,12
*subbed pushups for knees to elbows b/c we were running out of time
This was great – learned a lot and got very specific coaching. Powerlifts included back squat, press, deadlift and hang power clean. Established reliable 5RM for the press and hit a new 1RM in the power clean. Specifics:
Back Squat
Focus on keeping head neutral. Eyes on a point about 4 ft in front of me. I always have trouble tracking knees out over toes – just push extra hard and know this is important to keep from impinging on hip movement. Big chest = tight thoracic curve in back, not just pinning shoulders back. It feels almost like a pinch at the base of your back. Big chest is a side effect of getting your back tight. Hip drive can be demonstrated by having someone put their hand on your lower back while you’re in the bottom of a squat and pushing up with your hips, not your chest. It always means NOT shoving your hips forward. When you get under the bar on the rack, put it just under your scapula. It’s higher than you might think. Breathing is extremely important, do the Valsalva Maneuver each and every rep. Never pause at the bottom – be thinking about driving back up before you get there. In the back squat, don’t try to stay as vertical as you would in a CrossFit air squat. Keep your back tight, but you’ll start a bit more bent over if the weight’s heavy, and when you go down literally just shove your butt backwards and you’re gonna incline your body forward. Lastly, my depth is way low – good for building strength but at the very bottom it could also be loosening my back just a bit.
5 rep max: 175 – same as last time I attempted this
Press
Hadn’t worked on this much, I always seem to miss WODs when this is the strength work. Important things: when you address bar, grab it from the top, with an overhand grip coming directly down on it, then rotate your hands. This eliminates tendency to bend wrists when you grab the bar. Wrists straight, hands not too wide, just wide enough so that your chest is open and your elbows can travel freely. Elbows in front of bar, forearms perpendicular to the ground. Clench everything: hands should be super tight, legs, core, glutes, everything should be clenched tight to transmit force directly to the ground. Initiate by moving head back to get it out of the way and pressing straight up. Bring head back forward to give some momentum to the last push. You should be able to make a plum line from the bar end through your hips to the middle of your foot. In multip rep sets, breath in before the first rep, then breathe out and back in at the top of each rep, and only then. At the bottom of the press, literally bounce it – use that momentum. For me specifically – don’t overextend at the top – bar should be directly overhead. Keep your core tight, keep elbows up at the bottom of the press, in front of the bar.
Got 5x 115 easy, could only press 125# 4 times.
Deadlift
Teaching points: Stance, Grip, Shins, Chest, PULL. I have tight hamstrings so I have to really focus on getting my butt up and shins more vertical in my stance. It helps to think about tightening your back to the point where you almost feel a pinch at the base of your thoracic curve – this makes it possible to get a big chest and start with a tight back, even with the butt up higher and hamstrings tight at the beginning of the pull. Use double overhand grip, not hook, on multiple lighter reps – this builds grip strength and you can switch to hook at the higher weights. Personally, I need to focus on keeping my back tight, but also dragging the bar across my legs at all times especially at the top of the pull. I tend to let it get out in front of me once it’s over my knees.
5RM – only did 255# this time, I’ve done 275 but wanted to focus on form.
Powerclean
We learned the powerlifting power clean, which is different from the Oly clean in that it’s a deadlift assistance exercise (not sure if this just means difference b/t hang and squat). Quickness is key to getting the most out of this. We practiced from the top down – always using hook grip as it releases tendons in the forearm according to Rip. Sets of 3 are the norm when strength training this movement. We found the jumping position first, which means just sticking your butt back to go down, rather than bending your knees to go down. Knees should only bend enough to help the hips go back and the bar should end up just above your knees. Memorize that point on your thigh because that’s where you jump from. We then practiced jumping from that position off the ground keeping our arms straight. Don’t remember doing that specific practice move but it helps. Hit a new 1RM with 175#, last time got 165# (but also jerked it).
0630 PCF WOD:
Back Squat
5-5-5-5-5 – 135-145-155-165-175
-Rest-
8 Rounds
Tabata Situps – 113
Compare to Sat, 6/20/09 and Wed, 6/17/09 for tabata situps. Compare to Sat, 6/20/09 and Wed, 6/10/09 for back squat 5×5’s.
Warmups consisted of dumbell snatches, dumbell OHS, and db something else. I don’t know if I’m going too heavy but I almost always tweak my neck/shoulder on the right side when we do dumbell overhead work. Not a problem with the bar. Today was no different, so I’m not doing db overhead work even in warmups until I have time to get to a Dr. and see what this existing injury is. Doesn’t bother me any other time, which is why it hasn’t come often enough for me to realize it’s a pattern and not just me tweaking me neck every once in a while.
Back squats felt solid, like the last time at Gold’s and much better than the last time I did them at PCF. Tabata situps continue to improve.
Food:
B: eggs, melon, almonds. 5P/3C/22F
L: grilled fish, veggies, almonds. 4P/3C/22F
4pm: Clif Builder bar. 3P/3C/5F
D: fish, beer, veggies, almonds. 5P/4C/22F. Been goin a little over on carbs lately b/c of a lot of post-work silver bullets. Need to start looking at vegetables as stress releiving.
Couldn’t make it to the box for one of the scheduled classes before going out of town so went to Gold’s instead and worked on back squats. This time felt much better than the last. It helped to do them in front of the famous Gold’s gym mirrors so I could actually watch my knees, etc.
Back squats 5-5-5-5-5
135-145-155-165-175
I was struggling with 165 last time but got all 5 solidly this time. The last couple reps at 175, I came forward on my toes but completed the reps. These were all generally much smoother than last time. It was easier to keep my knees tracking over my toes instead of buckling in, and I didn’t have problems with sticking points on my way up.
Then I worked on squat cleans a little bit. Did 4 or 5 reps of 135# to work on the jump and shrug. It’s coming along, slowly.
Finally, did tabata situps and pushups to make sure I got a good workout before heading out of town for the weekend.
Tabata situps: 104 (no abmat, anchored feet)
Tabata pushups: 78 4 more than when we did them this past week. Nice.
ZACK GETS CROSSFIT 