Ben Plotnicki

AM/middayA – Squat clean doubles, no more than 12 sec bt reps. rest 3 min bt sets x 5 tough

245×2-255-265-275

So today felt a little better, the 275 had more than 12 seconds b/t lifts. Did not feel fast off the ground, speed under was the only thing that saved me. Last week I really didn’t feel confident going above 245 with the triples so slowly gaining some confidence back. 

B – TNG clean grip deadlifts x 7, rest 3 min x 5

280-300-310-315-320

Felt much stronger here today than last week. Grip did not become an issue until set 4 @ 315 around rep 5, so happy with that. 

C1 – KB pitcher curl x 6 + bottoms up OH press x 6, rest 15 sec bt arms, 45 sec after both

26

these things still are tricky, more exposure is helping but man they are tough 

C2 – Weighted pullups x 6 (rest 15 sec) + Ring hinge row x 6, rest 90 sec x 4 sets

26×2, 31-35

Ring hinge row is always one of my faves, tough but good today 

D1 – Banded hollow pull throughs with PVC x 8, rest 60 sec

done 

D2 – Sandbag/bumper plate half moons from kneeling x 8 (4/direction), rest 60 sec x 3 

bumper plate 

PM

For time

20 thrusters @ 115

40 row cals

60 box jump step downs 24in

6:07
Done with thrusters around 43/45, 

First 10 seconds on tower were moving with a sprint star and letting my mind and legs get settled in. Row stroke was about 22/spm at 1150-1200 cal/hr. Found a cue on my rowing that I had never really dialed in today until warming it up, I always knew the sequencing of the drive to the finish but today something clicked with hip extension before finishing the pull instead of pulling a hair too early. Made me feel like I was pulling slightly higher power with less effort. Pulled back the last ⅘ cals because I knew I was not going to let the box jumps get me. Roughly 2:08 on the rower 

Don’t remember exactly what time I got on the box remember looking early on at 3:33. Goal was to keep moving at around 2-3 seconds/rep, legs/hip extension became the limiter here. 
I will say overall, this was a good one from the fact that my breathing was high but I was comfortable with it and didn’t let that slow me down. So even though my strength does not feel great I have been more comfortable being uncomfortable with the higher respiration rate. 
+

Hip flow as cooldown

done

A – Squat clean thruster x 1/Split Jerk x 1/Front Squat x 1/Split Jerk x 1 – 5 sets to build to tough effort235 as a tough 

B1 – Tough front squat x 3, rest 15 sec

265

B2 – 10 thrusters for time @ 115lbs, rest 15 sec

20-20-20

B3 – 10 bar over burpees for time, rest walk 4 min x 3 sets

24-23-24

+

AMRAP 15 min

55 double-unders

15 chest-to-bar pull-ups

5 hang power cleans @ 155lbs

455

I have nothing but my own personal ownership into not doing better here. 

First 3 rounds I did 6/5/4, then I did 8/7 in rounds 4&5. Felt my skin in my hands separating in round 4 put gloves on for 5, separated on rep 5 in round 6, wasn’t going to quit so I did all singles. This ate up a ton of time. Feel I was on pace at that point to top last years score with a much more casual approach. Hindsight, I feel I could’ve held 8/7 after I got going. 

Didn’t have time to do an ideal true competition/workout warm up. Lats were so smoked going into this, was afraid 1 round was going to be all I got, lol j/k. But they were so sore and my grip in my right hand/forearm was super tender. 

+

10 min bike easy pace, full inhale/exhale

Done 

10 min easy bike, full inhale/exhale with each breath+

15 min, steady effort

Flat tuck front lever from rings x 10-12 sec

Parallette L-sit with depressed scaps and external rotation x 15-18 sec

Pistol practice (work some counterweight airborne lunges and some deck squats to single leg)
Last were super sore so front tuck was tough but good. 

L-sit was a bitch today 

Actually got about 6 reps in of double 35 kb pistols when playing around with all the different variations 
+

5 min easy row, 2 breaths/stroke

Done

+

15 min, steady effort

Sumo deadlifts x 4-5 at steady tempo

Wall assisted shoulder stand rebalancing on parallettes x 10-15 sec

1-arm DB squat snatch skill work (do some power into squat, then progress into catching at full depth)

Shoulder rebalancing – al the paralletes weren’t high enough to create a ton of head space but it actually worked it to benefit for holds. Could go to a head balance as well and push off and keep feet off wall as well. Found a ton of value in it and I loved it. 

Snatch was solid but not amazing until my hips and ankles loosened up 
+

6 sets @ 80-85%

30 sec bike, rest 30 sec

30 sec row, rest 30 sec

30 sec bike, rest 30 sec

30 sec burpees, rest 30 sec
Bike was old schwinn so my measurements was RPM’s, kept them above 66/67

Row was b/t 1:40-1:44

Burpee were 10-10-10-11-10-10

8-10 min bike, easy pace+

Foot/ankle drills 1 time through, 20ft/movement (walk on toes, walk on heels, walk toes out, walk toes in, walk on outside of foot, walk on inside of foot, high knees, butt kicks)

20ft is way better than the 50 on the link 
+

Glute airplanes x 3/direction/side

Quadruped rockbacks x 4-5

Frog stretch x 20 sec

Pancake stretch with side bends x 4-5/side

2-3 times through

done 

+

14 rounds

Run 90 sec @ high aerobic but sustainable pace

walk 45 sec with belly breathing

got the chance to do this on a true form today. Goal was to keep speed above 7, below 10/9mph. 

Was good until interval 11-14. This was the point where I became noticeably inconsistent in my running mechanics 

+

Ido portal squat routine in full

still super jealous of Ido. 

8-10 min AB @ warmup pace+

Tumbling play – 10 min or so

Forward rolls from squat + landing in squat x 8-10

Forward rolls from standing + landing in squat x 8-10

Forward roll out of a tripod headstand x 4-5

Diving rolls (alternating shoulders) x 8-10

Backward rolls over shoulder (turn head to side) x 8-10

Cartwheels (alternating lead hand) x 8-10
Rolls were much easeir than the last time we did gymnastics play
+

12 min AB spin @ just above conversation pace, off every 45 sec to do 1 deadlift @ 225lbs

Tried to stay above 330watts

+

12 min row @ just above conversation pace, off every 60 sec to do 1 push press @ 165lbs

Tried to stay below 1:51/:52

+

4 rounds, not for time

50ft seal crawl, active hollow position

30 sec GHD sorenson hold, active hollow 

Seal crawls suck

+

8 min breathing @ 3152 tempo, varying positions

done

A – Jefferson deadlifts x 3/side, rest 30 sec bt sides x 3 sets, light load, just use to open up hips135

B – Power clean – 1 rep every 20 sec x 20 (build every 5)

205-215-225-235

C1 – Lat flys from pullup bar x 4-5, rest 60 sec

love these now 

C2 – Hip CARs from quadruped x 2 rotations/side, rest 60 sec x 3

+

Foot/ankle drills – 1 time through (http://www.coachr.org/the_foot_drills.htm)

felt so awkward with what to do with my hands on some of these as I was focusing so hard on keeping my feet in the right position. 
+

4 rounds for time (set up station, practice transitions, work on breathing and control)

9 thrusters

35 DU

3:24

Here’s what I learned today. A thorough aerobic warm up is imperative. Squatting efficiency and mobility is a must. Spend some time on rack mobility. Anywhere energy can spill over must be avoided. Elbow felt hot today, but it created no limitations in the 4 rounds. Get appropriate amount of blood flow in the legs for the 90/350 reps, and shoulders as well. Some of the work today felt good for my thoracic mobility 
Overhead position felt good, even with the pause for a breath overhead. Not too worried about the pressing and lockout component (4 rounds is a decent enough indicator of seeing into the future for 6 more rounds.) The legs felt a little bit today, but not an ideal warm up for them so that will be a major difference tomorrow. Double unders felt a little more labored than normal, I attribute that as much to warm up, not as much on shoulders. 
Side note, I wore some compression pants today, (didn’t have anything else with me) this is the same pair I wore last year during 16.2 that I felt very restricted, so was just wearing them today, and it was a reminder why not to wear them, I almost felt limited and restricted with them.
+ (rest to full recovery)

Row 60 sec progressive intensity, faster every 12 sec, rest walk 2 min x 4 sets

goal was for the 5th interval to be around 1:35/:36 and the last to be round 1:30/:31 and achieved that. 

AM

10 min bike, low intensity

+

10 min self directed flow/locomotion (hip flow, ido squat, lunge matrix, GHD variations)

+

10 min ski, low intensity

+

10 min self directed flow/locomotion

(try to include some hanging/crawling variation in the flow work to help decompress the back)
PM

5-10 min easy bike

+

3 times through not for time

3/direction/arm teacup rotations

3-4 inverted trap 3 presses

5-6 lat flys with foot assist

+

3 times through not for time

6/side 1-arm russian swings @ 53lbs

6 hip extensions on GHD

3 wall walks with 5 sec hold at top of each

50ft sandbag bear hug carry + 3 squats

+

3 sets

6 deadlifts (break 6/6 each round, use 135-185-225)

6-12 wallballs

6-12 row cals at game pace, focus on breathing here with rhythm of stroke

6 HSPU (broken 2 sets of 3, time your rest)

active rest on bike or walking for 2-3 min bt sets

+

1 time through for time

24 deadlifts (broken as 10/7/7)

30 wallballs (broken as 20/10)

36 row cals

24 HSPU (broken as 8 sets of 3, time your rest)

+ (rest to recovery)

4 sets of 27 row cals @ 90% effort, rest walk 90 sec bt sets

1:10/1:10/1:09/1:14
This was the perfect scenario tonight, one I did not feel strong at all, so I’m glad we did not go for it, I would’ve gotten sore just to learn what to do and what not to do.
One thing I want to do different in warm up when it’s go time is something to hit the CNS a little more, some moderate power cleans OTM or something along those lines in warm up, didn’t like that set up this evening from 135/185/225. Everything else prior to that was pretty solid, so slight adjustment for that.
A couple of memories came back to me from doing this, on last years repeat, and tonight’s 10/7/7 Deadlift made me dizzy as shit.

Another piece of info, even though I had everything in my notes, to take 3-4 breaths between sets, as soon as my clock started I completely forgot. Caught up in the moment, so that mistake will not be made again.
I was way off in my wall balls tonight, not completely sure why, but I will tell you that it is one of the few movements that hurt my elbow, both on that catch and the throw, I was constantly playing with grip to try and minimize the discomfort. I’m sure this threw off my rhythm, but i will take my 30lber for warm up as well, (if you don’t get your timing right with that it hits you in the face). 
Rowing, my measurables were around 1290 – 1320, in tonight’s piece my firsts pull on the handle was at 2:38 and last pull was at 4:21 (1:43 for 36 cals) , that was work but very sustainable, could have easily done that for 19 more cals, so on game day will shoot for the same if not a little faster.
Handstand push ups 8 sets of 3, I know notes called for time your rest, and I kind of did that, but here is where the value came in, of timing “sort of”

All times of handstand push up start times were when my hands hit the ground to kick up

Set 1 – 4:38 – 4:44 – rest 8

Set 2 – 4:52 – 4:58 – rest 9

Set 3 – 5:07 – 5:13 – rest 10

Set 4 – 5:23 – 5:29 – rest 12

Set 5 – 5:41 – 5:48 – rest 12

Set 6 – 6:00 – 6:07 – rest 18

Set 7 – 6:25 – 6:30 – rest 18

Set 8 – 6:48 – 6:55
Set 5, rep 13-15 was when these went from easy to work,set 5 or 6 was also the set I noticed that I controlled the first negative instead of being quick in and out of the kip.

I guess a good plan would be to start with 4 sets of 3, and then go to 2’s, with calculated rest of around 6-7 seconds, to keep myself fresh, and then when I know I’m close, whatever is in the tank, if it its 3’s, staying with 2’s, or singles whatever will keep me moving the fastest based on time left and knowing my skill set around 15-20 hspu in, also knowing I was consistent with 2 sec/rep. 

A – Ring trace transitions x 4-5 controlled reps (with feet on ground) into bottom of dip support hold ALAP, rest 3 min x 3 setsThese were a lot harder than I expected

B – Top to top DB alternating OH press x 16 reps (8/side), rest 2 min x 4

40-45-50 x 2, I used to love these when we did them frequently. I felt more in control of good thoracic position, it wanted to overextend, good fight to not let that happen, this was the only reason going up 5 more pounds would’ve been hard. 

C1 – Banded reverse flys x 10, rest 30 sec

Done

C2 – Planche lean on rings with active protraction and hollow 15-20 sec, rest 90 sec x 3

Done

+

AMRAP 12 min

6 burpee box jumps to 24in

12 C2B pullups

36 DU

6 + 3

Had a horrible double under day, broke on every single set. Even clipped the box with my shin, just a bruise, no cut, on a bright note I did do all C2B’s unbroken. 

Took this at a sustainable pace, had to share pull up bar space and work around athletes re-doing 17.3 so I was curtious. 

+

AB 12 sec progressive intensity, last 4-6 sec are HARD, slow spin 1:18 x 8

Tried to hit 1100+ every set, if I went 4 seconds I wasn’t able to get the output that high, so for 6 out of the 8 at 6 seconds to get the wattage there.