Ben Plotnicki

3/27

A – Double barrel front squats 6 sets of 6, build as you go, rest 2 min

155-175-185-190-192-194 – the 30sec less rest made a huge difference and i really felt it going from the 2nd and 3rd sets so i started being more conservative

B1 – 30 sec lightly loaded wall sit, rest 30 sec

B2 – 30 jumping air squats for time (not full depth on squat, stop just above parallel, ensure you get some clearance and full hip extension at top of each rep), rest 3 min x 3 sets

32-33-31

C – Rounded back GHD hip extensions x 15-18, rest 90 sec x 4 sets (scale to bench glute kickbacks with towel/shirt under hips to keep low back neutral)

Had to do later as i was at home and used a ghd later in the day

D – Single leg quadruped banded kickbacks x 15-18/side, rest 45 sec x 3 sets

done

E – Banded reverse squats from supine x 15, rest 90 sec x 4

Ouch

3/25

Class overlap

For time

50 ski cals

80 box jump over @ 24”

60 deadlift @ 135

50 bike erg cals

40 lateral burpee over bar

20 front squat @ 135

50 row cals

20:07 – really wanted sub 20 here, but had a couple of hiccups on the box jump over, could’ve had a better work/rest strategy in the deadlift and had a poor transition to the rower to finsih

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25 min zone 2 bike erg

done

3/22

2 sets

3 min row @ 2:00/500m pace, directly into

Quadruped positional breathing with forearms on ground x 4-5 breaths @ 3152 tempo. push into protraction and slight thoracic flexion, and try to push arms into more shoulder flexion with each exhale as long as you can maintain good rib/pelvis orientation. goal here will be to try to breathe ‘into’ your upper back, filling the space between shoulder blades, and actually using the pressure to get some mobilization on T-spine

+

2 sets

3 min bike @ 300 watts, directly into

Supine overhead wall press positional breathing with hip flexion, 4-5 breaths @ 3152 tempo. apply some solid force into wall overhead, set rib cage down and pull tailbone off floor slightly. scoot very minimally away from wall as able to challenge.

+

2 sets

2 min ski @ 2:05/500m pace, directly into

Pronated grip foot assisted hang from pullup bar positional breathing, 4-5 breaths @ 3152 tempo. will mimic an overhead squat position, allow lats to relax and lengthen but keep rib cage down and butt tucked under.

These breathing pieces definitely put my system into a panic, wasn’t able to fight for all of them on 3152, the exhale was so uncomfortable. The foot assisted hang was the first one i really felt like a could relax a little more. The quadruped position was good because i could feel the ribcage expansion where we were looking for but man i was not comfortable, supine overhead press to wall was a little better but it was hard to keep pulling tailbone off the floor

+

3 times through, not for time

Side lying GHD sorenson hold x 15 sec/side, neutral head posture

Supine leg whips x 4/side

Glute airplanes x 3/side

2 counterbalanced shrimp squats/side (light DB’s outstretched in front of you to allow for better posture and more control of tempo)

done

3/23 – OFF 

Got in 90% of thoracic rotation and extension mobility work from Habdo. It was really tough but it felt good. Looking forward to making this part of my routine. Might not be able to get it on all thursdays but will definitely prioritize this 

3/24/2023

PT work (external rotation isometric, wall slides, abduction isometrics)

+

A – Close grip bench press @ 3131 tempo x 5, rest 2 min x 4 sets – isometric pin press x 10sec

isometric pin press was a good alternative, going into lockout is very weak and slightly painful but the pin press at a height/angle of about 90 degress felt really good

B – 2 position halting Trap bar deadlift x 3, rest 2 min x 4 sets (2 sec pause 3 in off ground, and again at knee height. controlled lower to ground and reset, no TNG)

Used a rogue trap bar, not sure how much the bar weighs but warmed up to and loaded it at 225 and might have been a bit heavier than i was expecting but i wasn’t backing down because i did hold the positions. 

+

E5MOM x 4 sets

Row 40 cals (progressive intensity, second 20 faster than first 20), directly into

Set 1 – 20 back squats @ 155lbs

Set 2 – 20 front squats @ 115lbs

Set 3 – 20 wallballs @ 30lbs

Set 4 – 40 air squats with weight vest

(each set starts with row, then progress to squatting variation)

I didn’t warm up the wall ball so i went into it blind but i wasn’t able to do it. I could get no power on the shot from my left arm, i just couldn’t get the ball to the target and doing a dominant one hand with a 30 wasn’t happening. I completely forgot to write down my times – but i think i was sub 3 on all except for the wall which i went with med ball thruster and vested air squat was around 3:15 or something, transition into the vest of course costs a little time

+

C – 150 russian swings @ 24kg, break when/as needed

done

3/20

2 min row @ 80-85%, 20-22 strokes/min, into

AMRAP 2 min

6 lateral burpees over erg

6 dbl DB thrusters @ 50lbs per hand

36 DU’s

(rest 2 min)

2 min ski @ 80-85%, 36-38 strokes/min, into

AMRAP 2 min

6 burpees with hop to platform

12 dbl KB deadlifts @ 32kg per hand

36 DU’s

(rest 2 min)

2 min echo @ 80-85% (62-64RPM), into

AMRAP 2 min

6 dbl DB bench press

6 pistols right leg

6 pistols left leg

36 DU’s

rest 4-6 min x 2 full times through

+

For time, strong effort, machines set up 25ft apart

18-15-12-9-6-3

Row cals

Bike erg cals

I forgot to write down all of my numbers but a couple of notes i do remember, in the beginning dubz hurt a little but the shoulder got warmed up and was ok. The bench press was a no go, tried one round and just wasn’t happening, the pain is in lockout

I think the machine was around 8:07 or 9:07, i think i remember looking at it and wanted sub 8, but the 25ft transition made it harder to get that sub goal because my legs were not ready to sprint the 25ft for the first several steps

3/15/2023

1-arm landmine overhead press from half kneeling @ 31X1 tempo x 6/side, rest 45-60 secbt arms x 4 sets (some light loading through a controlled angle of shoulder flexion)

+20

+

1-arm landmine meadows row @ 31X1 tempo x 6/side, rest 45-60 sec bt arms x 4 sets

+30 a little achy on the eccentric because I cannot really manipulate that angle like I can in the press 

+

3 sets:

20 Cal Row

20 GHD situps

15 power cleans @ 115lbs

15 shoulder to overhead @ 115lbs

rest 4-5 min actively bw sets

3:22-3:20-3:45 – on the last one the ghd really slowed down and then that carried over to the cleans just a little

3/16 – OFF

3/17

5 min row warmup, display on force curve

Row beep test

Row 1000m, until you can’t finish the distance in the time window

First time window – 0:00-5:00 (5:00)

Second time window – 5:00-9:50 (4:50)

Third time window – 9:50-14:30 (4:40)

Fourth time window – 14:30-19:00 (4:30)

Fifth time window – 19:00-23:20 (4:20)

Sixth time window – 23:20-27:30 (4:10)

Seventh time window – 27:30-31:30 (4:00)

Eighth time window – 31:30-35:20 (3:50)

*time window reduces by 10 sec each step. use an external running clock to track

**if you finish all sets, score = total working time

***if you get capped, score = total distance covered

31:22(total time)______3:58.6—-3:56.5—-3:54.1—-3:55.9—-3:53.8—-3:57.1—-3:43.6 – just told myself from round 4 on, try and stay as sustainable as possible, i know you will get less rest but just be willing to suffer and trust your row technique

+

5 min easy walking cooldown

+

5 min down regulation breathing

done

3/18

A – Double barrel front squats – 6 sets of 6, rest 2:30, build as you go

165-175-185-190-195-205* – did rest quite a bit longer than 2:30 going into that last set I thought I’d rather rest longer and go heavier on the last one. 

B1 – Single leg wall sit x 20 sec/side, rest 20 sec

B2 – 30 jumping air squats, rest 2 min x 4 sets

30 jumping air squats UB are hard

C1 – Low box hamstring bridge hold x 30 sec, rest 30 sec

C2 – Russian swings x 25 @ 24kg, rest 2 min x 4 sets

done

D1 – 1-arm alternating shoulder taps from front plank x 20 reps, rest 30 sec

D2 – Russian twists with medball or light KB x 20, rest 90 sec x 4 sets

Shoulder taps were slightly painful but only around a 2 or 3 so I didn’t change it because I know thats an ok range.

3/13

TTT gait prep

done

+

Dynamic running prep

done

+

Run 800m @ 5k pace

Walk 200m

x3 consecutive sets

20:10 done on assault runner. I do not like the assault runner for longer distances.

+

Walk 20 min @easy pace

done

3/14

A1 – Wall sit at parallel x 40 sec, rest 30 sec

A2 – Paused jumping squats x 4 singles, rest 3-5 sec bt reps, rest 2-3 min bt sets x 4 sets

Done – don’t feel like my bunnies are great jumpers anymore

B – Dbl DB farmer carry walking lunges x 50ft @ 50-60lbs/hand, rest 60 sec x 4 sets

50’s

C – Frog pumps x 25 + Hip Thrusts from supine x 25, rest 90 sec x 3 sets

Done and dang good burn

+

6 total rounds for max reps:

45 Sec Max Burpee

rest 15 seconds

45 Sec heavy cable DU’s

rest 45 seconds bw rounds

Burpee – 13-13-17-14-15 – dubz – my heaviest rope hurt my shoulder buy my RPM “heavy” rope was ok – 37-65-63-59-54

AGQF simulation

3/10

“QF Simulation Weekend

Event 1:

In 12 minutes, complete:

50 Cal Row

300′ Farmers Carry @ 70lbs (25′ lengths)

40 Cal Row

200′ Farmers Carry @ 70lbs (25′ lengths)

Max-rep Rope Climbs in the time remaining

12 – the rope climb felt a little painful when i reached straight up so it forced me to try and pull and lay back more so i wasn’t getting as much shoulder flexion

Event 2:

For time:

50 OHS @ 95lbs (replace with front squats if needed)

40 GHD

30 ski cals

40 back rack Walking Lunges

30 GHD

20 ski cals

30 STOH (replace with 100ft HSW OR 30 ring pushups)

20 GHD

10 ski cals

*20 min cap

18:42 – could have been a little more aggressive with OHS, didn’t get a great warm up to tolerate the stress of that, only took about 90 minutes between tests. Somewhat happy with this overall, ghd i was more pleased with than i normally am

3/11

Clean and Jerk Ladder:

9min Clock:

10 Clean and Jerks @ 135

rest 1min

10 Clean and Jerks @ 185

rest 1min

10 Clean and Jerks @ 225

rest 1min

Max Rep Clean and Jerks in Remaining time @ 245lbs

32 reps – 2 @ 245 – kind of mad at myself here that for a brief moment in the first part of the workout i paced it as if it was a 10 min workout and not 9, and then it hit me in the 225 that it was 9, so i had to push a little faster than i wanted there, i was hitting 1 rep every 12 seconds or so for the first 5-6 reps @ 225 and that slowed me down for the back half, but finished that set of 225 around 7:30 so i only had 30 seconds for the 245 bar.

*remove jerks here

Event 4:

11 min AMRAP:

30 Double KB thrusters @ 24kg/hand (replace with just front rack squats if needed)

…Into AMRAP Remaining Time

14 Double KB DL @ 24kg/hand

11 pistols holding single KB in goblet (changed from chest to bar)

8 Box Jump overs @24in

5+4 I couldn’t even press out a 26lb kb on my left side from a standard kb front rack so no way the 24kg was happening, but a 50lb db was fine. And i really really didn’t want to do kb goblet pistols so i powered throught c2b, and what actually was slightly more painful was the arm swing needed for the box jump, so just had to keep that left arm in tight so that didn’t cause any problems. Not a large break between these 2 sessions. Didn’t have great mental toughness in this workout to push when it was hard.

A. Squat Clean and Jerk; 4 sets of 2 reps @ 65-75% (fast, explosive reps)

185

B. Deadlift; 6,4,2; rest 3min build to a moderate effort double for the day (hand release all reps)

315-245-365-+405 was just really curious if i could pull 405 here efficiently and thought if my pain in my shoulder was too much to move forward i wanted some kind of small victory to take away

C. Snatch Pulls: 3,3,3; rest 1:30 – 75-85%/speed focus

195

+

EMOM x 8-12

Min 1 – 8-14 Chest to bar

Min 2 – 8-14 kHSPU

Min 3 – 6/arm 1-arm KB hang snatch @ 24/16kg

Min 4 – 8-14 Box jump overs @ 24/20in (step off far side)

C2b felt so so, slight discomfort but small. Everything else was fine, i was pretty sure snatch would hurt but it actually did not. As long as i got a big drive from my hips but i also tried to stay highly technical with my left arm.

+

EMOM x 8-12

Min 1 – 5 bar MU

Min 2 – 3-6 wall walks

Min 3 – 50ft 1-arm KB OH walking lunge (switch arms at 25ft)

Min 4 – 75 single unders/50 DU’s (alternate each set)

Bmi felt a little sketchy in the turnover to pressout – 4 wall walks – it was the lowering that felt a tad bit of discomfort, to the wall was fine but when i tried coming down in 3 it hurt but 4 i had so much more control and never aggressive loading on the fulcrum (is that the right use here?) lunge and rope work felt fine

+

Doing all of this as a second session

A. Supine 90/90 breathing – 60 sec

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuuKlmdCmw

B. Supine 90/90 breathing with hip lift, balloon and arm overhead – 4 sets of 4 breaths

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuuKlmdCmw

C. Rockback breathing with active elbow reach and roller under ribs (if tolerated) – 4 sets of 4 breaths

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NncpWH0lvWI

D. quadruped thoracic rotations – 2 sets of 8 to 10

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s-JA47jiE4&t=25s

E. Banded Overhead Lat stretch – 2-3 sets of 30 secs or until a change is made

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TTKsMNuzXo

F. Wall slides straight forward and scapular plane (make a Y): 1-2 sets of 10 each*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quvn0pXfdvQ

6 min AMRAP:

2,4,6,8,10,etc…

Strict L-Pull-Ups

24ft HS Walk (12ft down & back)

2 reps into the 10 – i was trying to have a beautiful L that would make a gymnast proud, and that got taxing. Also was very careful on hs walk. I felt it more in my joints than i did in my shoulder

+

3 sets – Shoulder Health:

Seated Elbow on Knee Banded External Rotations @ 2020: 10-12 reps/side

Standing Elbows @ 90 Deg Banded External Rotations @ 2020: 10-12 reps/side

Prone Shoulder Swimmers: 6 reps, very slow & controlled w/very light plates in hand

Rest as needed for quality

Like a mentioned the other day, sagittal plane work is fine, it’s getting out of that and some life stuff that hurts. Elbow on knee was ok and was fine after i got warmed up, standing external started out at about a 6 out of 10, but i got closer with less band tension and that helped with some blood flow that it was down to a 2 on the last 2 sets

+

2-3 Sets @ smooth, sustainable effort:

2:00 Row building from 65-85% effort across the interval

Rest 1 Min, then….

:30 bar facing burpees – 12-13-13

:30 Double Unders – 45-42-45

:30 toes to bar – 16-17-18

:30 Bike for cals – 12-8-9

Rest to recovery

The first set of bike i used the bikes 30sec and that hurt deep in my heart and soul and a little nasty lung burn, so from that point on i decided i would go on the interval clock 30sec (i’m ok missing 3-4 seconds in transition of getting the machine started lol) – TTB first set i didn’t have any chalk otherwise i couldn’ve got more, second set i was losing grip but felt strong on the 3rd

+

10-15 Minute easy cyclical cooldown

done