Ben Plotnicki

Thoracic CAR’s from kneeling x 3 circles/direction
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Lightly loaded jefferson curls from deficit x 3 sets of 5 reps
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Serratus anterior wall slides with full breath cycle at each iteration of range, rest 90 sec x 3
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Mini band psoas march from supine x 5/side
Banded good mornings x 15
rest 90 sec x 3 sets

(Workout prep)
4-5 sets
1 min bike w/progressive build with last 8 sec hard
5-7 double kb snatch + 20-30ft oh walk
Wanted additional warm up that would simulate an open workout. The only thing different I will do is make the warm up a little longer and spend some more time in a higher elevated heart rate zone for a bit longer. But with this warm up in the 4th set on the bike it was pretty easy to hold upper 400+ watts within that minute and I thought that was a good indicator of not to waste much more time in warm up.

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10 min window
4 rounds of
30 cal row
15 toes to bar
AMRAP in remaining time
25ft HS walk lengths (make a halfway line at 12.5 feet, and that will be your reset point if you come down)
8:52 on couplet + 25ft handstand
Last round of t2b was 14-1 all others unbroken (I think I got in my own head like go for it you no you can do it, then the negative thought crept in, like maybe should break because there’s no way.) so I should’ve at least attempted to fight for rep 15. Row was 1500+ first set, 1200+ 2&3, and 1100 on most of last, (took a few seconds to get going though)
Really wanted to push some limits here because I knew there wasn’t going to much time to dick around.

Grip was gone and was a struggle to keep fingers on my left hand straight. When inverted ring finger kept getting bent definitely effected mentally and physically.
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10 min easy bike flush
done
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10 min mobility work on
done

Not the best and highest quality sleep last night. Caloric intake was a little lower than I would’ve liked. Didn’t make myself eat.
A – Snatch x 1/OHS x 5, rest 2 min x 5 sets (moderate loading)
145-155-165-175-185
B – Clean x 1/Front squat x 3/Jerk x 1, rest 2 min x 4 sets (moderate loading)
185-205-215-225
C – Clean pulls 3×3, rest 3 min
235 across

Snatch + OHS felt heavier than it should’ve so being aware of poor sleep quality decided to be way more conservative with clean work.

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EMOM x 12
Odd min – 15 row cals
Even min – 4 burpees + 20 DU’s
Was happy here that kept most of my row’s in the 1600-1700 cal/hr range. Even spent a few sets in 1800

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EMOM x 12
Odd min – 12 AB cals
Even min – 8 burpee box jump overs @ 24in (footwork practice)

I watched and paid alot of attention to everyone on Saturday and the different db facing burpee style, I know box and db are drastically different, but it gave me a good framework and things to experiment with. ¾ turn with feet together was the fastest but without a doubt jacked up the heart rate the most. The other style i liked was the one that caused me to eat the box, but that was more my fault for halfwar zoning out on rep 7. But this was good. Would love to get a little more practice with some of this work next week.

15 min bike, steady
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Low intensity movement quality work – 20-30 min
examples below
Hip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH0b7T_LSkY
Thoracic – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhhUZUKPHB4
Locomotion – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufAUAYrxfIY (without the bridge walks)
Ido squat – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbozu0DPcYI

Did a bunch of hangs – mostly 1-arm, handstand fun, shoulder extension work on paralletes and weighted carries.

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15 min bike, steady
done
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Tabata bent knee hollow holds x 10 rounds
This hurt and was terrible
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Partial ROM GHD hip extensions x 12 into sorenson hold with neutral spine x 20-25 sec, rest to recovery x 4 sets
done
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6 min supine breathing @ 3152 tempo with head supported and feet elevated
done

A – Snatch balance x 1/OHS x 2 – rest 2 min x 5 sets
175-185-205-225-235
B – CO Sym snow angels x 4 from standing and 4 from squat, rest 90 sec x 4 sets
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done
E3MOM x 5
Row 40 cals
1:54.7 – 1224 – 23spm
1:51.7 – 1249 – 24spm
1:34.7 – 1493 – 29spm
1:45.7 – 1344 – 28spm
1:46.6 – 1324 – 26spm
After the first 2 I decided to stop dicking around and see if I could maintain high output after really getting after it. As can see I dropped over 1000 watts after really trying to get it, so it was good feedback and awareness of what I could sustain at higher end power.

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E3MOM x 5
AB x 36 cals
1:55
2:00
2:04
1:55
2:00

Wanted to quit, wanted this be over in the worst kind of way. Played around with different pacing/strategies to make this less painful (you know how we are, gaming everything). Bottom line it hurt but what I did find out from set 4 & 5 was that I could hold 550-650 Watts longer than I wanted too.

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E3MOM x 5
Ski x 32 cals
1:55
1:59
2:00
1:55
1:49

2&3 were a feel of muscle endurance. Aerobically I felt fine but lats and tris were done and didn’t want to push as hard as I wanted to. And then I found a mental way to try and focus.
Mindfulness practice on the last 2. It worked really well in this scenario. (Closed my eyes and only listened for my breath and the flywheel. For much of it I didn’t even count the strokes just focused on those small details, opened my eyes every so often to see where I was at.

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10 min mobility work
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10 min breathing

A – Power clean – 1.1.1 x 4, rest 8 sec/2 min
235-240-245-255
Barely made 3rd rep on the last set.
B – Power clean x 10 @ 175lbs + Front squats x 10, rest 4 min x 2 sets for times
1:24
1:12
C1 – Glute airplanes x 3/direction/leg
C2 – Cossack squat flow x 3/leg
C3 – Banded psoas march x 6/side
C4 – GHD hip extensions x 8 @ slow tempo
rest as needed x 3
done

15 min power work (*include 5-8 reps of slam balls, vertical throws, AB sprints, Ski erg Sprints, Etc. Get your CNS really fired up.)
This was really good – should’ve got more aerobic build up in too

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Open workout 17.1
15:10

Db portion
Switched hands in the air during the 10-20’s- and majority of the 30’s
40’s had less hand switching in air
Way more low back work when switching on ground, had very little transition time bt burpee work to pick up db

Burpee
Really felt the fatigue after the set of 40 db snatch – kept telling myself how close I was but at that point just tried to keep moving. I felt I was fairly steady but did noticably rest more in the set after 40. Maybe a little after the set of 30 but not much. Rest was on belly.

Looking back
Could’ve grinded through a few more db air switches but not sure how that would have carried over for the burpee. The new standard is a game changer, it is what it is, but it’s stupid.

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15 min bike flush
Done and probably about to do another night time flush
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6 min breathing tempo work with feet elevated and head supported
Same as above

A – Banded speed deadlifts – 3 reps EMOM x 8 (moderate load, good speed)
185
B1 – 8-10 strict HSPU, rest 15 sec
B2 – 12-14 kipping HSPU (open standard), rest 3 min x 4 sets
10-10-8-8
14-14-14-13

C1 – 30 sec active hollow hang from pullup bar, rest 10 sec
C2 – 100ft dbl DB farmer carry unbroken and tough, rest 180 sec x 3 sets
95 on farmer carry
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For time hard effort
30 cal AB
30 toes to bar
(rest 8 min)
For time, hard effort
30 cal row
30 dbl DB thrusters @ 50/hand

2:29
1:09 @ roughly 600+ Watts whole time
21-x-9
My hands were a little tender when doing the hollow hold so I turned into a little bitch, didn’t man up and went with extra padding for gripping. Big mistake. I felt like I was having to readjust my hands every rep, this was the only reason I came off the bar at 21, jumped up immediately and couldn’t grip. Ripped off grips and then fought for the last 2 reps. My flexors were pretty lit up so not sure I could’ve hit 30 ub but damn sure wanted to try.

2:52
1:20 on row – stayed right around 1475-1500 cal/hr, about 2-3 breaths before I picked up db’s because the plan was to go all the way
29-1
Failed rep 30 @ 2:40
Left bicep started cramping up at rep 26 in front rack, tried to minimize it and take a quick breath in lockout, rep 29 used a ton of energy to jump it out of rack rep 30 could not extend the elbow lost it and dropped it, tried to pick it up as quick as I could but db’s bounced too far away.

Effort and want to were high today. A couple of minor errors that we can not have happen on gameday.

Had a great warm up and some really good db skill exposure and was hyper focused on prepping for the conditioning piece that when I looked back at the day and was pretty close to forgetting about A & B. Well damn, so hit those up and didn’t have time to go through the whole warm up again for the conditioning at that point.
DB skill exposure (low volume work in same patterns as last week)
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A – Front rack reverse alternating lunges from deficit x 16 (8/side, work from a 3-4inches), rest 2 min x 4 sets
135 across
B – Snatch grip single leg RDL x 8/side, rest 90 sec x 3 sets/side
75 across
Much better balance and control this week.
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AMRAP 12 min
50 dbl DB shoulder to overhead @ 50/hand
40 C2B
30 deadlifts @ 225lbs

18 pull ups into 2nd round
Db sto 17-13-
PUp 14-7-12-8
DL – 12-10-8
Sto – smaller sets don’t remember shit. Didn’t really want to finish but told myself you have no excuse. Finished with 38 seconds. Took two deep breaths and jumped on the pull up rig and hit 18 unbroken, dropped off with 6 seconds left and attempted to do one on a low bar and just couldn’t get in s good position.
Had a semi plan but wanted to see if and where I had a pull up breakdown, but my plan was more go off of feel with pull ups and see what I could do on the back end and how I would manage any fatigue.
Hindsight, would’ve done a few smaller sets on first set of sto, pull ups felt good and would’ve had a little more structure but felt pretty good with those two larger sets for me. Also in hindsight I would’ve paid more fucking attention.

AB 6 miles, steady and sustainable
thoughts this was never going to end
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8 min steady movement
20 sec slow arch/hollow iterations on bar
20 sec belly to wall HS hold with steady breathing
20 sec hollow rocks
20 sec arch rocks
good stuff
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Ski erg 2k, steady and sustainable
my lats were smoked, made me a little scared for the pull ups tomorrow.
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8 min steady movement
Cossack squat flow x 2-3/side
Side lying GHD sorenson hold x 15 sec/side
Banded pallof split squats x 5/side
1-arm KB bottoms up swings x 5/side into 3 bottoms up KB windmills
I need to get back to using windmills in warm ups.
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Row 1k, steady
just end already
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8 min steady movement
Prone scorpion twists x 4/side
Supine scorpion twists x 4/side
1-arm KB arm bars (light) x 4/side
1-arm KB thrusters (light) x 4/side
Good finish to the day. Man I was hella sore.

AM
Row 4 min easy
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Row 3 min moderate
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Row 2 min @ 2k pace
(rest to recovery between each)
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Row 1k in 3:45-3:50, rest 30 sec
Row 1k in 3:40-3:45, rest 30 sec
Row 1k in 3:35-3:40, rest 4-6 min x 3 sets

3:49.6-3:44.8-3:37.9
3:50.7-3:45.2-3:39.4
3:50.1-3:46.7-3:43.7

PM
A1 – CO symmetry snow angels from deep squat x 4 slow reps, rest 1 min
A2 – Seal walk 25ft with feet on sliders, active protraction and hollow, rest 1 min x 4 sets
B1 – Russian baby makers x 4 slow reps
B2 – Alternating sky reaches from deep squat x 4/side
B3 – Single leg quadruped rock backs x 4/side
2-3 times through as needed, just some extra mobility work before the snatches
C – Paused snatch pull x 1 with 5 second negative + Paused snatch x 1 with 5 sec pause in catch position- 6 sets, rest 2 min bt sets
135-145-155-165-175-185
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3 rounds for time
9 C2B pullups
3 squat snatches @ 165
(rest 3 min)
3 rounds for time
12 C2B pullups
2 squat snatches @ 185
(rest 3 min)
3 rounds for time
15 C2B pullups
1 squat snatch @ 205
3:02 – missed 1 snatch because of lack of focus
3:24
Xxxxx
Missed 205 twice in first round, so I wanted to at least get the pull up volume so went on to the next round, missed 205 again and knew I needed to move on due to time

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For time
10 bar MU
20 dbl DB burpee box step overs @ 50/hand to 20in box
30 dbl DB shoulder to overhead @ 50/hand
40 toes to bar
50 AB cals

13:27
Even with being tired, bmu felt pretty good, UB.
Db burpee box step overs took the longest and just didn’t want to push here at all. STO felt fairly easy, could’ve done 2 sets without much of an issue but chose not too for the back end – 13-12-5
T2b – did 6-6-6-6-6-10
Bike took 2:59, for the first minute I was in the mid 400’s, wanted to try and hold that but started dipping and then it became survival.

Was pushed for time quite a bit in the pm session, not enough time to do the appropriate warm up for the session today. Had to go into each training piece without getting any warm up reps, and if so I wouldn’t have been able to complete all my work. Would’ve like to been able to get a couple of warm up lifts at 205 today but had zero margin for additional time.

Yes, doubles on Monday’s are a huge task and challenge if I want to apply the proper warm up protocol and movement prep. But the other thing today that got me, is I was upset about not having enough time and that frustrated me and forced me to hold onto that stress in the session. Instead of focusing on doing the best I could with what I had and the time I had, I couldn’t, I was unable to compartmentalize that and it affected many components of today’s session.