Ben Plotnicki

this was a weird kind of day, but the perfect day for today. Going on 40 hours without electricity or water, so haven’t been sleeping well. Heavy slam ball bear hug carry 100ft + 6 bear hug squats, rest 2 min x 4

used an old punching bag that is probably around 70-80 lbs not as heavy as I would like for the challenge, but extremely akward. 

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Bent over forward sled drag bent over with straight legs x 100ft, rest 30 sec

Backwards sled drag x 100ft, rest 3 min x 6 sets

bent over walk was a good stimulus, at weight used, but should’ve added a little more for backwards 

+

Dbl farmer carry 30 sec on, rest 30 sec x 5

only access to 2 poor kb’s today 

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HS rebalancing against wall x 30 sec, rest as needed for quality x 5

Done 

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Band series – https://www.instagram.com/p/BT1wKq7F6Rd/
done

All of this was super fun, and challenging. Glide kips were awesome as soon as I found the right rhythm and control of surface. Piked handstand walks are stupid. Face pull with press, loved it, I can see where I will benefit from this a lot. Bands I used for C were too much assistance, so just focused on peak tension 
A1 – Glide kips with slide assist x 5-6 reps (keep active hollow, pull with straight arm through lat – https://www.instagram.com/p/BTWfJa2BvBw/), rest 1 min

A2 – Banded face pull into external rotation into OH press from seated x 6-8 controlled reps, rest 1 min x 3

B1 – Piked HS walk around the world x 2/direction, rest 90 sec

B2 – Band assisted Front lever pulls x 3 controlled reps, rest 90 sec x 4

C1 – Band assisted tucked planche x 15 sec, rest 1 min

C2 – Band assisted L-sit from floor x 15 sec, rest 1 min x 3

+

Row 75 cals @ 25 s/m, rest walk 1 min x 3 sets

4:02

3:57

3:57
Set 1, tried to hard to focus on 1 cal per pull at rx pace. First 4th of set 2 was same until I said fuck, just focus on pace and let everything else just happen. 

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Ido squat in full

done

A – Squat snatch cluster 1.1.1 x 3, rest 15 sec/2 min185-195-200

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For time, 5-4-3-2-1

Squat snatches @ 185

Ring MU

8:11

Here’s the shit kicker for me today (seems like I’m having a lot of silky fuck ups lately) started to video and use timer on video but it crashed 2 reps into my muscle ups, everything felt good. So quickly I decided to stop instead of guessing the time because I wanted to do all muscle ups unbroken, 

So waited about 3 minutes and started again, so missed snatch #3 or 4, and so the story goes. No more misses after that but muscle ups felt solid. Kipped out of the dip of all, timing for this felt better for going into the next rep. Kip and tension feel great, so all of the gymnastics and lat activation work are feeling great here. 
+ (rest 6-8 min)

For time, 10-8-6-4-2

Sandbag/slam ball ground over shoulder

Burpee box jumps to 30in

7:26

100lb d-ball

Just didn’t want to push hard on the burpee box jump. Just chipped away and wasn’t comfortable in the heart rate here. 

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B1 – 1-arm alternating KB sots press x 6/side (can elevate heels as needed to provide balance), rest 90 sec

check 

B2 – Band resisted KB rows x 12 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9fgktlrE0/), rest 90 sec x 3

check 

C1 – DB side bends x 6-8/side

C2 – Banded Y’s from hollow x 6-8

C3 – Banded pulldowns from hollow x 6-8 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BSB6zCnhNmW/?hl=en), rest as needed x 4 sets

D – Sandbag half moons from tall kneeling x 5/direction, rest 90 sec x 5 sets

C&D done a slight bit later. 

A – Narrow stance box squats to parallel @ 21X1 tempo 4 sets of 10, rest 2 min (good concentric speed)185-215-235×2
B1 – Clean grip deadlift x 10 TNG reps, rest 2 min (+10lbs from last week)

205

Still light but if the focus is lat activation then were still on target 

B2 – Hanging low L-sit x 10 sec into bent knee L-sit x 10 sec, rest 2 min x 6 sets

much better here this week, I would say from set 4 on, 8 seconds were solid and the last 2 of the l-sit were a fight, not as much quad cramping this week either, and that’s still with solid pointed toes 
C1 – Band resisted KB rows x 6-8, rest 1 min (https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9fgktlrE0/)

C2 – Banded high rows from straight leg seated x 12-15, rest 1 min x 3 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BNKKfnhBXrc/)

done 

D1 – 40 sec sorenson hold, rest 20 sec

D2 – 20 sec dbl KB front rack hold in bottom of squat (tough load per hand, breathing and bracing work), rest 1:40 x 4

Done – breathing and bracing in the position was a very valuable tool to use, liked this a lot. 

A – Strict press – build to tough single quickly170

didn’t’ have much more in the tank than this, but was excited because I think the last time I tested a press was 165. And this broke gravity well and was a consistent grind but kept moving

B – 50 strict HSPU for time

5:50
So kind of pissed at myself here. Right after the press was warm and ready to rock, then I got into a debate with someone that delayed my training time, completely my fault and I cooled off a little. I want redemption with this sometime soon. Proper warm up, and staying warm I know I can perform much better than this

+

E4MOM x 4 sets

Row 40 cals, into

Set 1 – 20 back squats @ 135

Set 2 – 20 front squats @ 95

Set 3 – 20 wallballs @ 30lbs

Set 4 – 40 air squats with weight vest

(each set starts with row, only change squatting variation)

Um, was this supposed to feel like death, because this heavily sucked. On paper, I thought, oh this shit will be hard but fun. No where near as fun as I thought.

Back squat was about 3:02

Front squat 2:59

Wall ball 3:00

Air squat was 3:40

all rows were right around 2 minutes, set 3 was much harder than the first 2, and set 4 was a fight to stay at the same pace. My calorie per pull dropped off drastically and got in my head a little. Previous rounds I was consistent with that pacing, form was not as efficient on 4, didn’t know if I was supposed to row with a vest or not. Can’t wait for the progression of this one. Bring it on, I can’t believe I’m saying that.

+

Easy bike and hip flow cooldown

Done, was still careful about hip flow with some my position ivy issue still hanging around. 

3 min row @ 1:50-1:52, rest 1 min3 min bike @ 325-350 watts, rest 3 min x 4 sets

Row’s were consistent within pace, except for round 4, felt mechanics breakdown a little, or more accurately focus/discipline on using proper technique get a little lazy. Fought a little harder on set 4 to keep near the 1:52, more mental errors but gained it back when I started counting strokes. Expanded a little more effort than I should’ve but stayed aerobic.

325-350 is a very small margin of error based on the RPM’s and the big wattage shifts but the cool thing today was that I felt a good cadence and could predict based on that cadence if I was going to dip 316 watts and could get it back into the desired zone immediately 
+

10 min hip and thoracic bridge flow work

Been suffering with poison ivy for the past week so I had to complete this at home. Wasn’t going to roll around on a the mats to spread that shit.

+

5 min breathing

Done

Row 500m @ 1:34-1:37 pace12 1-arm alternating DB snatches @ 60lbs

4 hang squat snatches @ 165lbs

rest as slow spin on bike 3-5 min x 2 sets

Rowers stayed on pace in both rounds, fought a little more for the 2nd set

Didn’t have 60lb DB, so used 70 on set 1, missed first rep at 165, when I picked it back up wanted to do only 2 and drop it, but made myself stay in it.

Used 50 lb db on the 2nd set

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Bike 120 sec @ 425-450 watts

12 burpee box jumps @ 24in

6 ring MU for time

rest as slow spin on bike 3-5 min x 2 sets

1 – 42 sec – 4/2

2 – 30 sec – 6 ub

In hindsight wish I would’ve gone for UB on set 1

This is the best tension I felt on the muscle ups during the kip, I felt in complete control and connected with the rings, and that my tension was relative to the kip and was truly expressed through the rings, felt really cool to know my tension in the kip was improved

+

Run 400m with vest

25 air squats with vest

15 ring dips with vest

2nd set of dips was a grind but survived and even came down to singles on the last 4 reps.

rest as slow spin on bike 3-5 min x 2 sets

+

Ido squat in full

Done

A1 – KB goblet hold front to back lunges x 3/leg, rest 30 sec2 pood

A2 – KB alternating cossack squats with low hips x 3/side, rest 30 sec

35/hand

A3 – Prone scorpion twists x 3/side, rest 30 sec

A4 – Supine leg whips x 3/side, rest 90 sec x 2 sets

All done
B1 – Front squat x 5 fast reps @ 205, rest 30 sec

B2 – Thruster x 10 reps @ 135, rest 30 sec

B3 – Wallball x 20 reps @ 30lbs, rest walk 3 min x 3 sets

Front squat felt good, not great but good. The thruster wasn’t too bad, being able to control cycle time made this manageable with breathing. The first 12 of the wall ball felt easy, then the legs and shoulders felt it. This was fun overall! 
D1 – Planche lean with feet elevated 35 sec (active protraction), rest 60 sec

D2 – Reverse table plank hold 35 sec (active hip extension), rest 60 sec x 5 sets

The best these have felt
E – KB breathing ladder 1-12-1 @ 2pd

It has been about 6-7 years since I have done a breathing ladder. Traps became tired on rep 11 on the way up, at times I was thinking so much about breathing during rest that I wasn’t as natural with breathing during swings. Also, tried some tempo work, long exhale and quick pause before inhale, but this let to a quick inhale throwing breathing patterns off.

A – Banded strict press @ 21X2 tempo x 6, rest 2 min x 6 sets (same setup as last week, same tough load across)Completely different gym as last week so same setup was hard to duplicate exactly. 

85 across

This was super tough, actually had to fight the urge to push press rep 6 on the last two sets

B1 – Parallette HSPU negatives x 3 @ 3-5 sec eccentric, rest 5 sec bt, 15 sec after 3

B2 – Strict HSPU AMRAP (-1), rest 30 sec (stop when you lose speed on the concentric)

6-4-3

B3 – Kipping HSPU AMRAP (-1), rest walk 3 min x 3 sets (try to get more reps again on B2 and B3)

14-11-9

C1 – 1-arm alternating KB sots press x 5/side (can elevate heels as needed to provide balance), rest 90 sec

26 w/no elevated heel. Wanted to change the challenge and this was hard

C2 – Band resisted KB rows x 10 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BT9fgktlrE0/), rest 90 sec x 5

These were awesome, setup was tricky finding the best and most effective way

D1 – DB side bends x 6-8/side

70×8 across

D2 – Banded Y’s from hollow x 6-8

D3 – Banded pulldowns from hollow x 6-8 (https://www.instagram.com/p/BSB6zCnhNmW/?hl=en), rest as needed x 3 sets

Both of these were fun and challenging. Enjoyed the challenge they provided.
E – Sandbag half moons from tall kneeling x 5/direction, rest 90 sec x 4 sets

Had to do later, not enough time in session.

A – Narrow stance box squats to parallel @ 21X1 tempo 4 sets of 10, rest 2 min (good concentric speed)I completely misread this so I fucked up this one

B1 – Clean grip deadlift x 10 TNG reps, rest 2 min (same load across, tension in lats not elbows)

185

This was light, but the lighter loading helped me keep the lats active and engaged.

B2 – Hanging low L-sit x 10 sec into bent knee L-sit x 10 sec, rest 2 min x 5 sets

These were sneaky tough.

C1 – Piked front lever on rings to inverted x 6 controlled reps, rest 1 min

Quality starts to be a fight at rep 5

C2 – Banded pull throughs from sumo stance x 10, rest 1 min x 4

Done

D – Outdoor sled drag 1000m, steady walking pace

Not enough time to complete all 1000m in time

Did get a ton of EN2 work in at home plus a good kayak session in for about 30 minutes