Warm-up:
1 & 1/4 squat (high-bar; to 4x135, 2x3x185#)
hang power snatch (to 2x95)

2-2-1 hang power snatch (105,115 [f1],115)
5x5 floor press (145,4x155)
3-3-3-3-3-2-2-2 weighted pullups (5x60,3x75# DB)

standing broad jumps: about 8 attempts, best = 8'9.5" (~268 cm)

1 & 1/4 squats are a nice warm-up. Done as a front squat I can easily imagine how these would help clean recoveries. Unfortunately, today I had no speed or coordination for the O-lifts, so I did some slow lifts instead. Pullups were pretty easy, hardest part was keeping the DB between my feet.

I remember doing the standing broad jump way back in junior high. Got some funny looks in the gym. I will try them again when my legs are fresher. Distances for players from the February NFL combine:

Warm-up:
good mornings
plate swings
back squat (high-bar; to 2x245,2x255)

5-5-3-2 overhead squat (95,115,135,145)
tall snatches (bar)
hang power snatch + power snatch (65,85,95,105)
snatch (115,120)
3-2-2-2-2 deadlift (hook; 315,4x335 [belt])

3x8 glute-ham raise (self-assist)
3x8 glute-ham situp

Snatches were feeling slow, so I cut them short to work on deadlift form. Loss of back extension was acceptable at 335#, but failure to take the slack out of the system before lift-off left me with my shoulders too far back again. Classic mistake that you can see in most videos of people deadlifting.

Glute-ham situps were improvised using a swiss ball and a conveniently placed bar. I took it easy with these for fear of cantaloupe syndrome.

Hips too low = scapula too far back = shitty start (first frame is set-up, second is when the bar actually leaves the floor). Note how far my shoulders drift by comparing their positions relative to the picture on the wall:

Warm-up:
back squat
good mornings

10-8-6-4-2-2 overhead squat (45,65,95,115,125,135)
hang power snatch + hang snatch (to 115#)
6x1 snatch (115 [f4])
3x8 RDL (135)

Snatches were a bit off. Two obvious problems: 1) feet not moving to landing stance, causing my balance to be fairly precarious in the bottom position, 2) back angle changes due to hips rising faster than shoulders. More snatch balances for 1), and I think I see why Coach was using the cue to pull the shins back in the first pull. I think I may change the back angle to allow the bar to clear my knees; if I pull the knees back to allow the bar to pass (perhaps flaring them as well), I may get away with a better back angle?

The first pull of the fifth snatch (some video here):

More back squat comparisons

In a previous post, I had linked a great video comparing the low-bar and high-bar back squats. The video has been removed from YouTube, so I figured I would make my own since that post gets a fair number of hits. Cobbled together from a couple of warm-up squats at 225#.



Image below is from the bottom position, where it's a bit more obvious that in the high-bar squat the torso is more upright, the knees travel further forward bringing the hips closer to the ankles. Note that my stance is a couple of inches narrower for the high-bar squat, and I could probably stand to get my torso more upright and get a bit more depth by letting my knees drift forward more (click image for a better view, the white line indicates my knee position relative to my toes). I have to be really careful doing that since it's easy for my hips to tuck under when I sit on my ankles (not sure this is true for everyone).

Another illustration from the Performance Menu:An Olympian's high-bar squat:That's Natalie Woolfolk (photo from mikesgym.org). Instructive photos of Aimee Anaya and Greg Everett high-bar squatting can be found here.

PMenu WOD, Day 5, Week 1, Bulgarian 2

Warm-up:
back squat (high-bar; to 2x2x225#)
snatch pull + power snatch (to 100#; video of last couplet here)

Performance Menu WOD 111508
3x1x90% snatch (120#)
3x1x90% clean & jerk (160#)
2x2x90% back squat (high-bar, belt; 250)

Warmed up with a bunch of snatch pull + power snatch to try and keep my heels down a bit longer. Didn't seem to work, and the two pulls don't look the same. Will video more of these to make sure I'm not janking my mechanics with the pull.

Squat snatches felt good. I warmed up with singles to 115. Only managed to catch the first rep at 120 on video cause someone wanted to use the bench, but all three felt very similar. I can see a bit of a donkey-kick, but more worrisome is that fact that the barbell separates from my body fairly early (I think).

Cleans felt much better than jerks. I warmed up with singles to 155. Based on the set of videos, I focused on getting rid of that stupid double pump thing in setting up and shrugging hard at the top.

It's probably time to post to the PMenu forums to get some advice on improving things.

PMenu WOD, Day 4, Week 1, Bulgarian 2

Warm-up:
back squat (low-bar & high-bar; to 2x2x225#)
power snatch (to 2x85, 1x95)

Performance Menu WOD 111408
4x1x80% power snatch (105#)
2x(1x70%-1x80%) clean & jerk ([135,150])

3 rounds for time:
500 m row
10 cross-chops (45# plate)

2x1 (per arm) TGU + windmill (20kg KB)

Power snatches just sucked, no pop among other problems (second rep felt the best). Video shows that my ankles start extending immediately after the barbell passes my knees. This seems totally wrong, as I'm on my toes during the knee rebend (which seems exaggerated, but I've never thought about it intentionally). In this video Everett doesn't start extending his ankles until the barbell is near his hip, which seems correctly timed to maximize power. Not sure how to fix this?!? I also seem to be jumping backwards a fair bit.

Ended up mangling the jerks by trying to shorten the dip. Maybe I should just keep it the same for now?

Power snatches:

Virtual coaching (Clean & Jerk)

Yesterday was the first time I managed to get video of my clean & jerk. Despite having watched a fair number of lifting vids, I realized as I was reviewing my own that I wasn't very good at picking out the errors. What I needed was a set of videos with detailed critiques so that I could learn what to watch for. Such a resource exists for the low-bar back squat, but not the clean & jerk. So I headed over to the Crossfit and Catalyst Athletics forums looking specifically for posts with video and critique of the clean & jerk.

A number of posts are helping me analyze my own lifts, so I thought it might be useful to collect the gems for others. Note especially the comments by Greg Everett, Glenn Pendlay and Lincoln Brigham.

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=31084
layback, coming forward, jumping backward

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=26588 (corresponding video)
staying over bar, early scoop

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=25184
starting position (dynamic), keeping bar close

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=24075
submax loads

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=24021
aggresiveness, keeping bar close, slow dip

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=7160
thigh brush

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=7176
critique of more experienced lifter

http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=7289
releasing hook grip

http://performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3368
bar crashing, rack position, too forward

http://performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3361
forward slide on jerk dip

http://performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3260
leading with hips, shifting forward during 1st pull

http://performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2744
leading with hips, getting elbows into clean rack position, clean vs. jerk rack, jerk foot timing, overhead position

The following article may also be useful:
Common Errors in the Clean and Jerk, by Mike Keelan

PMenu WOD, Day 3, Week 1, Bulgarian 2

Warm-up:
back squat (high-bar; to 2x2x225#)
power snatch (to 95#)

Performance Menu WOD 111208
3x1x85% snatch (110)
3x1x85% clean & jerk (150)
3x2x85% front squat (2x205,135)

4x1 (per arm) TGU + windmill (20kg KB)

Caught the second snatch as a power snatch. Lost the make up snatch forward, just not aggressive enough getting under the bar. C+Js felt good today, although they weren't super consistent. While lifting, I noted coming up on my toes on the second lift, and a soft bottom position in the final lift. I may need to lengthen my stance in the jerk, and I definitely need to shrug more at the top of the second pull (extension in general should be stronger). Any comments on the video would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and my warm-up squats can be seen here, if only for entertainment purposes (and no, not just cause it's a shot of my ass). Some woman let out a porn-star moan right in the middle of my second rep (crank up the sound at 00:13). As you can imagine, it took all of my willpower not to dump the weight to see who it was.

1x135#, 3x1x150#

Snapshots from the last lift.

Low-bar versus high-bar back squats

I thought it'd be useful to collect some links to forum discussions, the informed opinions of smart people and some video regarding the distinction between low-bar and high-bar back squats.

Two interesting threads on bar placement over at the Crossfit boards (first and second). Lots of crazy talk to wade through, but the first is notable for a good discussion between Greg Everett and Mark Rippetoe, and the second is rescued by a thoughtful pair of posts by Glenn Pendlay.

Some articles:
The Olympic squat by Tommy Kono
The Squat, or How I Learned to Stop Leg-Pressing and Use My Ass by Mark Rippetoe
Specifically speaking by Lon Kilgore
High- and low-bar squatting techniques during weight-training by Wretenberg et al.
The myths of the squat by Rob Wagner
The squat: Hip vs knee by the Fitness Crew
Do you know squat? by Brian DeGennaro
Olympic vs. Powerlifting Squats by Geoff Neupert and Mike Robertson
A case for the upright squat by Jon Gilson
The 411 on back angles and torque when squatting by Tracy Fober
Notes on the full squat from lectures by Charles Poliquin

It's rare to find videos of the same lifter doing both squat variants with heavy weight (if you know of more, please post links to the comments). The videos below are interesting since while both compare low-bar and high-bar squats, neither lifter has a remarkably wider stance when executing the low-bar squat (the first has gone missing, you can find my own here). This is worth noting since people often associate the low-bar position with a wide, powerlifter's stance. When you only change the bar position, the visual differences between the lifts are pretty subtle.




To the future:
The first video went missing, so I made one of my own, posted here. Another set at different loads here.
Added link to Rips article (see above) 12/23/09.

Geekery

Decided to step back and take a look at the progress I've made over the last 10 weeks on the Texas Program. The squat is the only lift that I was consistent with from week to week (rotating press and bench as well as deadlifts and power cleans and rows) so those are the numbers I plot below. For reference, my last CFT was about one year ago, with my back squat at 225#, and that number had been essentially stationary until I initiated this intermediate program.

The bands demarcate Rippetoe & Kilgores' standards for max lifts, and only apply to the red data points. The widths of these bands delimit R&Ks' standards at the ranges of my bodyweight over the last 10 weeks (linear interpolation from R&Ks' table).

Up until the last couple of weeks, progress was essentially linear on the 5x5s, and the heavy singles creeping up towards 2xBW. Looking over the logs, I think the slowdown is actually due to overzealous deadlifting and a failure to eat enough to keep up with the volume. I'm gonna dial the volume down a hair this week, eat like crazy, and see where that gets me.

How fast could Usain Bolt have run?

A group of physicists make some predictions (via New Scientist):Find the full text arXiv.org: Velocity dispersions in a cluster of stars: How fast could Usain Bolt have run?, H. K. Eriksen, J. R. Kristiansen, O. Langangen, I. K. Wehus.

Texas, week 10, recovery

Warm-up:
front squat (triples to 135#)

3x3 front squat (190)
3x5 shoulder press (95)
3x2 deadlift (315)

Finished with some front tuck levers (about 15 seconds for the longest hold), planks and foam rolling.

Second set of front squats. I could get a bit deeper by narrowing my stance a bit, although I need to check my clean catch position to see if that adjustment would be beneficial. Bar path good on the first 2 reps, but takes an 'S' trajectory on the last rep. A thoughtful piece on the front squat from Crossfit SF that offers insight into what is happening on the third rep. Not really a bad thing, but probably shouldn't happen on weights this light.

Second set of deads. These are pretty ugly; video exposes all sorts of nasty habits. Two obvious defects: 1) silly bouncing around before the first lift fucks up the start position and prevents me from setting my back well, 2) as a consequence of 1), I lose thoracic extension right off the bat (this is less terrible, but still apparent, in the second rep).

Texas, week 9, volume

Warm-up:
back squat (to 5x155#)

5x5 back squat (215)
5x5 bench press (130)
2x2 halting deadlift (315)
5x3 weighted pullup (60# DB)

Squats were very tough, and I had to take longer breaks between sets (3-5? minutes). If I were smart, I'd stay at this weight next week. Bench felt good, but bar speed a bit slow on the last set.

Last set of squats, at a better angle to see knee travel (video runs out on the last rep, but I made it, I promise!). It's probably obvious that I'm tired, but the wheels really come off the bus on the last 2 reps (forward drift), so focus on the first three. What say you Scott? FWIW, I have tried to compare to many of the videos that Rippetoe himself has critiqued, but body dimensions are different enough that I can only recognize the major problems he points out in those videos.

Here's the second set from the back, better for seeing the hips and back.

Halting deads

Warm-up:
0.5 mi run

Crossfit WOD 083008
4x400 m runs (treadmill, incline=1.5, 1:1 work:rest)
1:38,1:34,1:32,1:31

3x3 Zercher squats (2x155,175)
4x2 halting deadlift (225, double overhand)

Runs felt great, and the heartrate hit 214 bpm on the last run! Played with 2 exercises I'd like to rotate in. Kept the weight light since I'm a bit fried from yesterday. The Zercher squats are nice, similar to front squats, although I felt it a bit more in my lower back. Halting deads (Rippetoe describes them here) are perfect for working the starting deadlift position, which has been causing me grief at the heavier weights.

Video of the third set of halting deads, with some analysis below.
The starting position looks good for the first rep, but I blow it for the third (and to a lesser degree the second) by setting my hips too low. Watch how my shoulders come forward on the third rep before the barbell moves vertically. You can see why this happens by comparing the images below:
In the first image, the dashed vertical line passes from the scapula directly through the barbell (or at least my best guess of where it is). This puts the shoulders in front of the bar, and produces a slight angle between the arms and vertical, just as Ripptoe argues is the correct starting position. In the second image, the hips are lower, pulling the scapula back, and the dashed vertical line is now roughly parallel to the arms. This causes the hips to rise faster than my shoulders when I start pulling, and they continue to do so until I achieve the position in the first image after which the barbell actually really starts to move. The difference between these two positions is pretty small (at least to me!), and they can be compared better when overlayed:

Texas, week 8, recovery

Warm-up:
back squat (triples to 185#)

4x3 back squat (205)
3x2 deadlift (315)
3x5 shoulder press (85)

3x10 towel pullups

A day early cause I plan on climbing tomorrow. Everything felt fine, although I had some residual soreness from yesterday's volume session.

Video of the last set of squats (low-bar). Comments on form much appreciated.

Monitoring health by counting heartbeats

It's often the case that high-intensity workouts (like Fran or Tabata sprints) cause your heart rate to skyrocket in order to meet the metabolic demands of active muscle. Remarkably, the flow of blood to active muscles may increase to four or five times that of resting cardiac output. Just as remarkable is the fact that your heart rate will typically drop 40% five minutes after exercise completion. These dramatic changes in heart rate are controlled by the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system; sympathetic activation increases cardiac acceleration, contractility and coronary constriction whereas parasympathetic activation promotes cardiac deceleration and coronary dilation. Your heart rate response to exercise is largely determined by the balance of these two systems.

Being a sucker for numbers, I'm always on the lookout for simple, predictive physiological measures. There are a few based on heart rate that are strongly predictive of mortality and turn out (not surprisingly) to be modifiable by training. The first is resting heart rate, which the American Heart Association suggests should be between 60-80 beats per minute (bpm). A fast heart rate is associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular as well as noncardiovascular causes (Hjalmarson, 2007; Palatini, 1999). Even within the recommended range (60-80 bpm), a lower resting heart rate is significantly associated with decreased risk of dying from any cause, especially heart attack (Jouven et al., 2005).

The second measure is heart rate reserve, the difference between maximal heart rate and resting heart rate. A smaller dynamic range is associated with increased risk of death from any cause, especially heart attack (Jouven et al., 2005), and a failure to reach predicted peak heart rates during graded exercise is predictive of increased mortality and coronary heart disease incidence (Lauer et al., 1996).

Finally, the last measure is heart rate recovery, the difference between maximal heart rate and heart rate measured some fixed time after cessation of exercise (usually 1 or 2 minutes). The failure to drop at least 30 bpm within 1 minute is associated with increase risk of heart attack. A smaller decrease in heart rate suggests a dysfunction of the parasympathetic system, since the decrease in heart rate immediately following exercise is primarily due to parasympathetic reactivation (Imai et al., 1994; Raymond, 2004).

The above figure bins together all the data below 25 bpm recovery, but if you look more closely at lower ranges, an association with risk of death is even more apparent. For all you stats geeks, below is a conditional trellis plot (click the figure to see a larger version) that illustrates risk of all-cause mortality as a function of age, fitness, peak heart rate and heart rate recovery (Ishwaran et al., 2004). Age is a binary grouping indicated by the orange bars (left column is younger than 45 yo and the right column is older than 45 yo). Fitness is a categorical variable indicated by the green bars (least fit in the top row proceeding to most fit in the bottom row). Peak heart rate and heart rate recovery (measured 1 minute after ceasing exercise) are plotted for each subject for whichever panel they correspond to (age x fitness). That's five freakin variables!

And just for kicks, the figure to the right plots some data from the last time I did 400 meter sprints. There goes (220-age) as a predictor for my maximal heart rate! There are better ways of estimating maximal heart rate (e.g., see Joe Friel's work).

It's worth pointing out that these heart rate measures are not independent (Jouven et al., 2005); in fact they're highly correlated, suggesting that they may be different measures of the same disorder. And while the mechanism(s) underlying the association of these heart rate measures with increased mortality and heart disease remain unknown, the data are consistent with the idea that autonomic system imbalance predisposes people to life-threatening arrythmias (Jouven et al., 2005).

Aside from their utility for predicting death, these measures are also interesting because they can be modified by training. Following training, heart rate recovery is accelerated (Darr et al., 1988; Imai et al., 1994; Sugawara et al., 2001) and resting heart rate is decreased (Wilmore et al., 2008). Changes to maximal heart rate are less clear, with some evidence for a slight decrease following endurance training (Darr et al., 1988; Wilmore et al., 2008). So if you're bored, or looking for another way to track progress, break out the stopwatch or heart rate monitor and start logging! Indeed, Levine (1997) showed that the total number of heartbeats in a lifetime is remarkably constant across a wide range of variation in mammals.If we take seriously the idea that a human heart is physiologically predetermined to beat ~3 billion times in a lifetime, perhaps it wouldn't hurt to make reducing your resting heart rate an objective.

Lookin' for something to do...

workout (see 062007 and 052007)

10 rounds for time of
15 deadlifts (135#)
15 push-ups

KL: 17:40
SS: 27:09

Went to fit in a quick metcon at Coles, this fit the bill but was a grind to get through. Not a great choice for a posterior chain injury (still have swelling along my tailbone, glute still catching under any reasonable load, a 135# dl for example). Really thought about quitting at 5 rounds after gritting through the first round, but saw Scott plugging away so I kept at it.

Went fast out the gate but was brought to my knees (literally) by the pushups by the 3rd round or so; DLs broken 8-7 starting at round 5. Scott shaved a good 6 minutes off his previous time!

My rounds:
0:51 1:02 1:04 1:19 1:55 2:09 1:59 2:18 2:29 2:30

Started off faster but really could not hold on in the end, kept getting slower and did not plateau like previously.

Before you drop that cash for a new shell...

Here's some interesting data from Phil Gibson (Army Materials Science Team) comparing one measure of breathability across several well-known fabrics as a function of relative humidity (constant humidity gradient). The details can be found here and here.I couldn't resist the chance to plot another data set from McCullough et al. 2003, A comparison of standard methods for measuring water vapour permeability of fabrics (from their Table 1). They compared various methods of measuring breathability; the top four panels show measures of water vapor flux so bigger is better (the fourth, ASTM F2298, corresponds to Gibson's test at a higher humidity gradient and relative humidity); the last measures evaporative resistance so lower is better.These data are consistent with the word on the street that eVent is king of the hill in terms of breathability (not sure where the newer Gore fabrics fit in here). Unfortunately, the use of eVent fabric seems to be more popular across the pond, with Rab and Montane making all sorts of nice shells (you can however buy this stuff through ProLiteGear). Wild Things also makes a nice shell (in the US no less!).

More relevant reading: Mar Verber's essay on Outdoor Clothing; Andy Kirkpatrick's article on Breathable waterproofs.

CFT

Came back to the CFT today, improvements all around compared to the last time we did it.

Crossfit Total, 3 max attempts each of:
shoulder press
back squat
deadlift

Here are our scores:

Rippetoe and Kilgores' standards can be found here and CrossFit North's Athletic Standards can be found here.

Extension

The Olympic lifts engage triple-extension of the hips, knees and ankles to generate power. Athletes train with the Olympic lifts (and their variants) in the hopes that this extension will transfer to their sport (jumping, sprinting, exploding off of the scrimmage line, etc.). Below is a sequence illustrating direct transfer of the second pull in a MMA match (note the double knee bend in frame 3-4 followed by an incredible extension): Kevin Randleman (~205lbs) cleaning and slamming Fedor Emelianenko (~230lbs). A very nice gif of the slam alone is here (slow motion smashing of head into mat), and the full fight is here (commentary is pretty funny).