Ben Plotnicki

A. Squat Snatch: Work to a tough single for the day

200 – my right side felt like it was not punching up against the bar very well at all. Don’t know if I rushed my warm up and not getting things activated appropriately but was just missing some confidence the receiving position.

B. Back Squat: 10,8,6,4; rest 2-3 min – 65,70,75,80% 

235-245-265-285 – definitely not true percentages, and all flet decent except the set of 4. Maybe couldn’ve grinded out 2 more reps at that load

C. Squat Snatch: Build to 90% of A

175, first few reps were not pretty but cleaned it up but definitely the right side and feeling like thoracic, rhomboid struggling to fire aggressively and sequentially. 

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For time:

100′ HSW 

rest 15 Seconds 

20 Ring Muscle Ups AFAP (start with amrap unbroken set)

Some good things happened here that I was pretty happy about. 1:47 on hs walk, had a really good mind set going into this and wanted to attack it, the first 75ft was done in 49 seconds, came down turned around and kicked right back up with confidence, but it was the 70th feet that things got a little sloppy. I started to lose control and was pretty confident I was going to make the 75 but i did start to stumble and started to drift out of my lane and fell across the line. This slowed me down to kick right back up into the last 25ft, so rested, maybe a little long for sure. Then rmu was 4:48, hit 6 for my first set, then 3&3 at that point I decided I was going to do sets of 2’s to finish, and my next set of 2 felt great and thought this is a great rep scheme I feel great and I’m going to take a short rest and hop right into the next set of 2 with a short break, then I jumped back up and after the first rep I had that feeling that my hands were not sliding over the rings well so I only did 1. Then did 2 and 3 to finish.

rest 3min 

Assault 90 Seconds @ 350-375 watts

50′ DB FRWL @ 50/hand

8 Squat Snatch @ 135lbs

2 Squat Snatch @ 185lbs

Were the good things happened from that gymnastics work, this wasn’t as good, just felt like breathing was hard. For all the feelings of being better yesterday, I’m wondering how much breathing with the barbell and the tension and rigidity is still affected when there is not that level of tension on machines. Time – 7:18 (oh yeah missed 2 lifts, 2 at 135 and 1 @ 185, and actually the first rep at 185 felt better than all @ 135 so I think I rushed my second rep more from a technical perspective then recovery

rest 3 min 

Assault 90 Seconds @ 350-375 watts

10 DB Box Step Ups @ 50lbs

8 Hang Squat Clean @ 155lbs

2 Squat Clean and Jerk @ 225lbs

3:41 – felt a little better here, a little higher step up for the step ups more out of convenience because the hardest part about this workout was knowing that I had a shit ton of stuff to clean up, so that was a slight more grind than a 24” would be. 5/3 on the hang and the 225 barbell was tough, didn’t feel strong at all and the first jerk was shaky but 2nd one felt so much better. I’m being patient and putting in the work, but damn I want my strength back.

Every 3 min x 10 sets @ 88-90% effort

Bike 15 cals

Row 15 cals

rest walk remainder of window, start around 2:00-2:05 finish time and try to get a little faster each set

I will do my best to remember each set as exact as I can…..2:05 – 1:52 – 1:48 (started resetting my bike every set after this) – 1:45 – 1:42 – 1:40 – 1:38 – 1:34 – 1:22 – 1:09 – I really felt great and back closer to my normal self today. – I know it was written for 88-90% effort, but I was feeling so close to where I think we need to be I wanted to push the boundaries a little to see how I would feel and recover.

3 min clock

20 1-arm alternating DB snatches @ 50lbs

50 DU’s

AMRAP burpees over DB in remaining time

(rest 2 min)

3 min clock

20 lateral burpees over DB

50 DU’s

AMRAP 1-arm alternating DB snatches in remaining time

(rest 2 min)

3 min clock

15 bar MU

AMRAP DU’s in remaining time

Amrap burpee -> 31 (my goal here was 30 burpee, I was pretty confident I could hold a 3 sec burpee, i felt like I started slowing down with about 30sec to go but was able to keep moving) –

amrap snatch – 26 (this was pretty tough, burpee were done at 59 seconds, quick transition to rope but clipped on rep 1, so I took a deep breath and then got into my rhythm and then clipped on 49, broke twice on db work, felt like I was going to throwup at one point during this rest time. –

amrap dubz ->126 my original place was to do sets of 3’s on bmu to force myself to take small sets and “semi-short rest” I adjusted on the fly but didn’t get too crazy, did sets or 4-4-4-3, plan was to start a new set every 25sec, in hindsight, I wished I had tried starting a new set every 20 just to speed it up and see how it went and try and force myself to go when I didn’t want to. Quick transition to rope and got 25 reps right away and then took a break and starting at the 2:10 mark with goal/hopes and should be able to finish unbroken for the last 50 seconds. For the most part I was pretty happy with this portion as the shorter sets of bmu is a mental weakness because I would rather do the bigger set so I can rest longer. But this was good for me.

Also, was really pleased with this effort/output today as I didn’t feel 100% but I didn’t need any longer rest than was written and was able to find a way to keep moving. The only place I really struggled with the keep moving was the db snatch. 

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15 min bike ride @ 200 watts, controlled breathing throughout, decompression focus

Was hard to get into the 200’s without feeling like I was working too hard, but stayed mostly around 196 watts

tttTD (row/pistols/MU)

17:26 – 7:21 on row – finished pistols @ 9:49

I still don’t feel 100% but this is the closest I have felt in 3 weeks. The biggest indicator was that I just couldn’t maintain the effort on the rower of the pace where I wanted to be. I did find find in warm up that jefferson curls really helped me get loose in my spine, before I felt really stiff and struggled to get a good position there. I also did’t feel as enduing as I would like to on pistols but I did find a good rhythm and pushed well at certain parts. I did mostly 3’s and 2’s on rmu. I did miss one around rep 24 I believe. I also did rest way too much.

Bike 100 cals, steady

Around 7

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10 min flowing through

10 banded X walk/direction

10 banded psoas march/leg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Z9ncB69eI 

10 calf raise w/ 4s eccentric

10 donnie thompson banded ankle drill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GSI4R2rc6s&t=39s

This was good stuff

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A1 – Banded psoas march from standing with hands on wall x 20 alternating steps, rest 45 sec

A2 – Single leg deck squats x 6-8 alternating reps, rest 90 sec x 3

B1 – Single leg DB RDL to muscle snatch x 6/side, rest 30 sec

@ 35

B2 – Sandbag bear hug good mornings @ 100lbs x 6-8 tempo reps, rest 90 sec x 3 sets

Couldn’t find the 100 pound bag in the gym today so I had to use the 150 yuck – so I stayed on the low end @ 6

C1 – Banded TKE x 30/side with VMO squeeze at top of each, rest 30 sec

C2 – Loaded wall sit at parallel with narrow stance x 45 sec, rest 90 sec x 3 sets

26lb kb

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Bike erg 100 cals, steady, slightly faster than warmup

Around 5:30

How much could a day like yesterday effect today. Yesterday was all machine based with around 24 minutes of work on the machines. Today just felt like I had a hard time from creating a high amount of tension in the hole of my cleans and front squats. I would receive the bar or lower to the bottom of the squat and felt like I couldn’t explode out of the hole. We know strength is down a little but just noticed that creating effective tension was harder and curious of the role of yesterday’s session.

Squat clean tech;

– 10 reps @60%

– 10 reps @70%

– 10 reps @75-85%

* rest as needed bw reps, focus on technique and speed

175 – 205 – 225 – 225 felt a little easier than the 205. Something else that this was really good for, at times I felt my chest staying forward and lifting with more of a hinge, I thought about the ankle/calves classroom and thought if that’s my strategy that’s fine but I shouldn’t be doing it at such a light load, but not having a time clock and having some good awareness allowed me to focus and fix/correct be dialed in with these issues

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3-4 Rounds for times:

5 Front Squat @ 65-70% 1RM from the ground

20 Bar Facing Burpees

Rest as needed

1:10 – 1:10 – 1:07 @ 185 – I also tried on set 2 and 3 to start from a “starting mat” which make it a little more unique and fun. Finished the front squats around 13/14 and started the burpee at 15 so was happy with my burpee speed. On the 3rd set, my thought wasn’t pushing fater per se but how could I improve my speed and i tried to get down and up off the ground quicker. 

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Cossack Squat: 5 reps/side x 5 sets; rest 1 min – barefoot, working deep end range

done

Not sure if you have any progressions off of this. Was thinking this might be a good barometer for when my cardiac output gets back to normal. High end intervals were much easier than the low end. Mentally wanted to try and find closer to sustainable efforts in order to keep the rest intervals the same and be able to come out of them and still attack the high end. 

Ski 10 cals @ 1300+ cal/hr

Ski 20 cals @ 1000+ cal/hr

rest 2 min

Bike erg 12 cals @ 1600+ cal/hr

Bike erg 24 cals @ 1200+ cal/hr

rest 2 min

Row 14 cals @ 1800+ cal/hr

Row 28 cals @ 1300+ cal/hr

rest 2 min x 4 sets

Most high numbers were attainable or close to attainable. Ski was in mid to upper 1200’s, and lows were 900’s. Bike high effort was on low interval was in the 1100’s with frequent dips into the 12’s. Row was “easy” to hit 1800but was struggling to stay in 1100’s on longer cal interval.

Had a much better mindset going into today and just the acceptance. And knowing that I need to be flexible. I do think this feeling just put me in a better place

EMOM x 6

Odd min – 8 thrusters @ 95lbs + AMRAP C2B until 30 sec mark

Even min – 8 bar facing burpees + AMRAP C2B until 30 sec mark

8&6/9&5/11&4 for sets 3-6 went on a modified emom structure. Did 3&4 as written but rested 2:30 after 4 and did 5&6 as written. Set 1&2 had a theoretical rep scheme in mind and rested 1 min after thruster/c2b and just wanted to see how I felt with the 30sec window. 

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EMOM x 6

AMRAP 30 sec 1-arm alternating DB hang clean and split jerk @ 70lbs

8’s across and whoops I forgot to split jerk. 6 sets every 90 sec with 30 sec window of work 

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EMOM x 6

Odd min – 8 power snatches @ 95lbs + AMRAP toes to bar until 30 sec mark

Even min – 8 OHS @ 95lbs + AMRAP toes to bar until 30 sec mark

Power snatch – 5-5-6 OHS – 9-11-10 – did clock on every 2 min with still the 30sec window

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EMOM x 6

1 snatch @ 185lbs + 3 ring MU

Started a new set every 2:30 minutes. – this was really good with the feeling of both movement. What I haven’t told you yet is I didn’t do the throwdown on saturday because I didn’t have a partner and jumped in with michelles work, and it was a lot of gymnastics work so I’m super happy with everything today and being a little sore with everything. 

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3 rope climbs for speed

rest walk 2 min bt sets x 3

This felt really good too, goal was to complete the reps of 3 under 30sec and with using the new footwork i felt semi efficient going up, still use a little too much bicep but the descent feels so so so much better.

Squat clean and split jerk – 1 rep every 45 sec x 12, build in load every 4, last 4 should be tough to keep this time duration but no misses

225-230-245 – really discouraged at how tough this felt today. Coming out of the hole on 245 was focusing on position with good elbows but was not as fast as I want or need to be. 

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Clean grip deadlift – take 5 sets to find a tough TNG triple, rest as needed

325 was the heaviest of 3, after 325 went to 355 and got 2 reps in, they were slow but felt strong and started feeling losing the bar around my shins/knees – just wasn’t going to fight to save it, I do think I could’ve fought a little harder for it but just didn’t think it was worth it

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3 rounds for time

15 deadlifts @ 275lbs

15 box jumps to 30in

(rest 6-8 min)

3 rounds for time

25 cal AB

12 burpee box jump overs @ 24in

8:07 & 9:43 – the deadlift didn’t feel terrible but wished I could’ve done at least one round unbroken. 2 sets in round 1 and 3 in round 2&3. Only reason I broke into 3 sets in those rounds was I really wanted to make sure I had the deadlift bar in my hand within 4-5 seconds after last jump. Box Jumps were just slow and probably was what was hardest for me in this piece. On bike and burpee, first round was sub 3 but don’t remember by how much. Getting back on the bike was painful. So from there I decided just survive on the bike and make sure you are about 50 seconds on the remaining rounds of burpee and I found a rhythm to make that happen.

HSW skill

50ft bear crawl with straight legs and straight arms

50ft crab walk, try to keep hips high

50ft inch worms, arms straight throughout

50ft walk with swing into handstand

Worst warm up/skill work ever. I thought a 50ft inchworm was going to be bad but the crab walk was by far the worst. I mean absolutely horrible

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Accumulate 60 alternating shoulder taps from wall facing HS hold, controlled shift of weight, try to move slowly without jerking

Really focused on pushing my toes to the sky each time I shifted my bodyweight. I also noticed as I got tired my hands trying to get away from the wall so at least felt that was losing a little bodyline position.

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6-8 sets @ high/repeatable effort:

10 Bar Facing Burpees

50 DU’s

10 toes to bar

Bike erg 500m

Rest/Walk 90 sec bt sets

2:32-2:28-2:26-2:24-2:27-2:33-2:30 (I did rest an extra 90sec after set 6 to 7 and was not a natural effort to keep the bike over 2:00/1000m and that’s when I knew I needed to call it. Main goal whole time was to keep the set of burpee under 30sec. Only missed on double under in the first round. Also pushed rest on every to 105 sec bt 2&3, and 4&5.

Last note/data point, bodyweight consistently before trip was 202-205, this morning I hopped on the scale out of curiosity and it said 194 and that was with pants on. Doesn’t tell us much but definitely says something. But I will say there were times I felt a little heavy and was thinking that I’d like to be closer to 200, didn’t really want it to flat out fall off but maybe a blessing. One thought it for the whole vacay trip and a few days since back was no creatine in my days and that could be the cause and effect.