Wednesday 13.11: push press emom, 2012 Open wod 12.3

Wednesday. Push press emom, 3 reps @ 70-75kg, for 10 minutes. Metcon, 2012 CF Open 12.3. Result 7 rounds + 15 box.

My shoulders are killing me! There was somewhere around 7.000kg push presses today in total. No wonder my shoulders were getting numb towards the end. First, a perfect shoulder strength workout: every minute on the minute presses. Then I took a metcon from the past, this was last year's Crossfit Open's workout number 3, an 18 minute amrap.

Strength. Press emom

• Every minute on the minute, for 10 minutes
• 3 reps, push press
• 3x70, 3x72.5, 4x75kg

I love this one. Presses and jerks in general are awesome tools to increase shoulder strength and this specific one has really improved my strength levels and technique this year. Plus, it puts focus on metabolic conditioning at the same time.

So there were 3 reps per minute. For the first 3 minutes I had 70kg on the bar, then I added it to 72.5kg and for the last 4 minutes there were 75kg on the barbell. Push jerk was not allowed, this was clearly a push press movement. The last reps were tougher and needed good concentration to get them done. I had no doubt in my mind about getting the reps done. The weights were correct for me this time.

Metcon. Result 7 rounds + 15 box

• 18 min amrap of:
• 15 box jumps
• 12 push press, 52.5kg
• 9 toes-to-bar

I'm telling you, bouncing that barbell up and down 84 times after having done a tough push press emom… It's gonna get to you. Start with 15 box jumps, then 12 push presses @ 115lbs, barbell laying on the ground. You have clean it for the first time each round. No rack allowed. I've done this workout once before. Then, I used rack and my box jumps were not completed along Games standards. I remember utilizing a technique where I jumped off the box even though I had not straightened my entire body on top of the box. I straightened it after having jumped off the box (while on air, over the box). That is not the Games standard. You must stop on top of the box, have your torso in a perfect vertical alignment and then jump down again. Otherwise it's a "no-rep".

So I've improved my standards this year greatly and the movements are following the Games. I don't want to do half reps at all. Don't want to catch myself on a video and doing something I can't be proud of.

This workout has a cruel nature. I did everything unbroken which surprised myself. Prior to the wod I thought the box jumps would start becoming the issue because of the high-rep number. The barbell was not that heavy so I reckoned it's not gonna be any factor. Hmm, how wrong did I think about this… Of course it's gonna start becoming heavy, there's 12 reps in a row every round! After 3 rounds it needed my full attention to get them done without breaks. I tried to stick along that game plan for as long as possible. Try to go unbroken because if you drop the bar, it's gonna be so much tougher to get it back up. At least there would be time consumed in vain.

Box jumps fired my legs up, no doubt about it. It was challenging as legs were screaming and lungs were trying to catch breath. T2b's were maybe the easiest part of this all. It took some time to recover after the push presses, before I was able to grab on the pull-up bar.

This was crossfit at it's best. Really, my guts were burning from inside, it was difficult to get breath and muscles were going numb because of all the work being done. There's a strong mental side of this all. I'm able to do these movements unbroken so it's the time between action that makes the difference. No wonder this was Crossfit Open workout. Great programming from Dave Castro =) The workout included 120 box, 84 presses and 63 t2b's.

Take a look at Toni's new PR, 100kg split jerk from rack. Congrats man!