Ben Plotnicki

AB 10 min building intensity, faster every 2-2:30, ending around threshold effort

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AB as long as ‘comfortable’ at ending point of step test from last week

rest walk 90 sec and pick back up until you accumulate 150 cals at that speed

(‘comfortable’ here will mean no compensations in form/posture/breathing/facial expressions, if you feel yourself lose quality of any of those or jsut really having to ‘grind’, then stop and walk)

16:36 on bike – lost overall count of how many sets. Right around 29/31 cals first 2 rounds, assuming the comfortable and all the notes on comfortable meant don’t force the issue, so after the first 2 sets of cals went a little more conservative so that each bout felt sustainable. Only once in the middle round did I give my self a time mark to hit, the rest of them I didn’t look at the time counter and just tried to wait her stare at the wattage or the horizon. 

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AB 10 sec ramping sprint (be at a full sprint by the 6 sec mark)

slow spin 2:20 x 4

Was able to get into the low 1300’s by the last split second. Really tried to get higher than that but just couldn’t generate the power today. 

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Ido portal squat routine in full

Split the movement work and did this two at home

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Thoracic bridge flow x 6-8 min

done

Throwdown

81 reps on c2b/fran – I broke up the round of 21 c2b into 12/9 – and in hindsight I wished I would’ve gone for it. In the back of my mind I was a little worried about the pull up volume from Friday training, and was more afraid of what 21 unbroken was going to do to me in the set of 15. Was able to do 15 unbroken, what really got me here was the transition from the 15 thruster to the 15 pull ups, I just really didn’t want to suffer enough to jump up and go for the pull ups. I did have a sense of urgency to pick up the last 9 thrusters and finished with no time to spare. this sense of urgency definitely effected me going into the ascending rep scheme piece.

72 reps – survival was the name of the game here and I had to try and play mental games with myself here just to try and not rest on every single burpee box jump over. I did not have a good warm up, and these are the workouts I fear for in warm ups, I know how much I need to get my heart rate up for them and my desire to really get after in the warm up was ok for one round but not for multiple warm up rounds. overall it was a fun challenge and I really wanted to finish the first part, but got in my own head and had a little bit of self doubt. this also would’ve been a good one to have some mutual suffering with someone.

EMOM x 16-20 @ 80% effort throughout, aerobic and sustainable, adjust rounds/reps as needed within this range

Min 1 – 12-16 alternating DB box step ups (single 50lb DB, hold however)

Min 2 – 8-12 strict pullups

Min 3 – 8-12 dbl DB thrusters 50/hand

Min 4 – 12-16 chest to bar

Had all the intentions in the world to keep the numbers on the low end and do 20 minutes, but into the 4th round, i felt like I had the potential to lose aerobic pace. My heart rate went up more on the box step ups, I know this is a weak movement for me so was trying to work on a high speed of movement here through all reps, and then the pull ups got too me a little, was just sure this had more to do with bracing throughout the movement. Tried a wider stance on my thruster and definitely sped up my movement speed, and this was the perfect scenario to practice that. 

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EMOM x 20 @ 80% effort throughout, aerobic and sustainable

Min 1 – 45 sec bike

Min 2 – 45 sec bar facing burpees

MIn 3 – 45 sec row

Min 4 – 45 sec DU’s

Something about the 4th round today, was pretty solid through 3 of maintaining the paces I was shooting for but going into round 4 was a little work. 13 on burpee was my goal – man why was the extra 5 seconds so much harder

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Back squats – 4 sets of 8, 255lbs. rest 3 min

Was a grind at this point but got it

Front squats – 4 sets of 5, 205lbs. rest 2 min

A little bit easier than the back squat

A. Squat Snatch Gauntlet; start at 70% of your 1RM, add 5# every min until failure

Missed 200, was a little tired today and just didn’t feel super snappy. Also felt like my hips were shooting up too early on the first pull and started to feel this happening around 175/180 I believe. The miss at 200 was I just didn’t finish my hips

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2 min working window, 30 sec rest/transition

19 wallballs + row cals

Males start at 17 row cals, females start at 13 row cals.

If successfully complete work in 2 min window, rest 30 sec and repeat, adding 2 row cals to next set

Continue in this fashion adding 2 row cals after every successful set completed inside 2 min until you fail to hit the target number

19 into 31 – some really fun and cool things happened in this one. The first 3 rounds was of course “gaming” it slightly, but was making sure that my pace was around 1200. The other big thing I was practicing was quick transitions and trying to get into my target pace within 3 strokes and within 7-8 seconds of the last wall ball rep. So I even though I gamed the first couple sets a little I was trying to move quick and only slowed down the last few cals. The set of 23 cals on the rower I started going unbroken on the wall ball, not that I needed to but I went from “that gaming” to I kind of flipped a switch that it was time to attack this workout. From that point on still prioritizing the quick transitions I was trying to row around a 1300 clip at a minimum. The set of 27 row cals kind of felt the best of transitions and rowing efficiency. On the set of 29 was when I really had to get after it and knew it was going to be close, finished with about 2-3 seconds to spare. 30sec was definitely not enough time for me to recover today to repeat that effort at the next set, but instead of calling it and I knew I wasn’t going to finish 31, my goal was to go ub on wall ball of course, then get to 1100 as quickly as possible on rower and go no lower than 1100 so pretty happy with myself that I didn’t give up, set a tough but realistic row pace goal and hit it even though I was feeling spent.

9/8 (ES step test)

AB 3 min @ 150 watts

AB 3 min @ 200 watts

AB 3 min @ 250 watts

+ (rest walk 2-3 min)

AB 1 min @ 250 watts

AB 1 min @ 300 watts

AB 1 min @ 350 watts

AB 1 min @ 400 watts

…

(continue in this fashion, adding 50 watts each successful step until you cant hold the prescribed pace for the full minute. if you drop below the pace momentarily but can recover, keep going. if you fall below and cant get back above within 5 sec, pull the plug)

500 – (for the record I am counting 498 close enough to count) – spent a good chunk of the time around 498, and there were a couple moments that it dipped to 480 but was able to get it back up within 2-3 seconds but those efforts to get the wattage up and with the last 15-20sec having to kick and stay around 516 and up knew that 550 was probably not going to happen. I really wanted to finish the full minute at 500, and I was super determined, didn’t know if it could in the beginning but when I got there I refused to not make it

+ (rest to recovery, 5-6 min)

2 sets

AB as long as comfortable at the last completed pace from above. RPE should never exceed 8/10, once you are really having to grind then pull the plug and record the time. rest 4 min bt sets

1:24-1:17

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6 sets of walking hypoxic drills, rest 2 min

It has been a while since we did these, I don’t remember much about my breath holding last time but this time, each breath hold I took 15 steps and tried to walk slow and each walking breath hold was about 20 seconds give or take a second.

EMOM x 16-20 @ 80% effort throughout, aerobic and sustainable, adjust rounds/reps as needed within this range

Min 1 – 12-16 alternating pistols

Min 2 – 12-16 kipping HSPU

Min 3 – 12-16 wallballs @ 30lbs

Min 4 – 12-16 toes to bar

16 reps across for 16 minutes. Was super easy and aerobic 2 times through. And a few of them got a little dicey in the 3rd round and kind of forgot my intended effort. Zoned out, became stubborn and determined to push them and the last round was ok on pistol and hspu, but wall ball was a grind and definitely got me out of 80% effort. 

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EMOM x 16-20 @ 80% effort throughout, aerobic and sustainable

Min 1 – 40 sec bike

Min 2 – 40 sec bar facing burpees

MIn 3 – 40 sec row

Min 4 – 40 sec DU’s

Ended up doing 20 minutes here, was finding some good footwork practice with the burpee and was liking that I was hitting 12 reps pretty easy and didn’t feel like I was working that hard to get those 12 reps. Was hitting 75 dubz per 40sec – really need to get that a little more over 80, i guess now is the time to trim the rope a few milimters to see about that. 

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Back squats – 4 sets of 8, building as you go, leave 20lbs in the tank on last set. rest 3 min

245 – at the end of this day, 255 might have been the best finishing load, i don’t think 265 would’ve left 20 left in the tank

Front squats – 4 sets of 5, same load across, fast and crisp, rest 2 min

185 – more so went here because of convenience but was fast and crisp, 205 I feel would’ve been fast and crips but maybe not for all 5 reps

9/1/2020

I wanted to get the volume in from cutting the muscle up handstand walk piece short, so I cut off 1 rep and 10ft to get that work in

E3MOM x 9-12 (3-4 times through as you see value and have time for the day)

Set 1 – Row 500m

Set 2 – Ski 400m

Set 3 – AB 30 cals

(aerobic effort for all sets)

Got 3 rounds in as my time was cut short more because I had to stop my clock and close all the bay doors as it started dumping rain. By the time I got done too much time had passed that I saw some relevance in going through one more time. Skiing at 400m was nice because I felt like I was staying aerobic @ a good pace.

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EMOM x 12

Min 1 – 20-25 sec hollow rocks

Min 2 – 20-25 sec arch rocks

Min 3 – 20-25 sec hanging active arch/hollow from bar

Min 4 – 30 sec parallette shootthroughs

done

9/2/2020

Ischemic preconditioning warmup

Bike erg 3-5 min with light occlusion on upper legs, directly into

15-20 air squats/lunges/wallballs

I left my knee wraps at home on accident so I had to get creative with occlusion, but really liked this warm up

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remove occlusion and continue a specific dynamic warmup

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Bike erg 2-3 min with light occlusion on upper legs, directly into

15-20 reps of wallballs/heavier wallballs

remove occlusion and move into higher intensity warmup

After this one, I felt so good and wanted to just go right into training. But i knew I needed to get some row prep in, but I did thoroughly like the occlusion work for prep. Wish there was an easy way to occlude the shoulders as that normally gives out long before legs do in higher rep wall ball pieces. 

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3 sets, start a new set every 8 min

Row 2 min @ 50-100 cal/hr FASTER than your 19.1 pace, directly into

60 wallballs for time, start with a big unbroken effort each set

2:43 (35-15-5-5) – 2:41 (33 – 11-11-5) – 3:27 (22-11-11-16) – 1st round on row, help 1300 for about 75 seconds, this was much higher than my intention but I thought just roll with it and see what happens. Second set was closer to 19.1 pace and had to fight to keep getting back to that 50+ area. And 3rd set, I was smoked, It was a huge fight just to keep my effort in the 1100’s and transition the first set of wall ball was not fast, breaks bt sets were longer then they should be.

EMOM x 10

Odd min – 3 power cleans (ascending load: 155-175-195-215-235)

Even min – 15 bar facing burpees AFAP

Wasn’t until the 235 barbell that I had to truly take some time bt reps, burpee started out around 40 sec, and stayed there for 2 sets, then was around 43,45 and then finished at 50

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EMOM x 10

Odd min – 2 power snatches + 4 OH squats (ascending load: 115-135-155-165-175)

Even min – 20 sec ring support hold + 20 sec extended hollow body hold

Not as hard as the first one but was still hard as heck to breathe from the bracing in the gymnastics portion. Was thoroughly pleased how well the power snatch felt but this was not one to take lightly or easy because it snuck up on me

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EMOM x 10

Odd min – 35ft HSW

Even min – 4 burpee ring MU

My stomach has been bothering me all day, and even been through the weekend, but when I got into training that seemed like it went away, but when i got into this one I just didn’t feel good and I think I made it worse on myself by stressing about it so I called it at 6 sets

8/28

3 min window

30 chest to bar pullups

AMRAP row cals in remaining time

44 and 24 – so I probably made a big mistake here, but I wanted to go for it, just to see if I could do it, but it definitely set me up for failure for the rest of the 1st set. I just wanted to see if I could do all 30 UB, and I did, and then getting on to the row, even though my legs felt good, I couldn’t really feel my arms, but this first 3 min window absolutely killed me. 2nd set I started with a set of 12, then 8 and then had to do a several sets of 2, was just in a little bit of discomfort the 2nd time through

(rest 2 min)

3 min window

30 toes to bar

AMRAP bike cals in remaining time

24-19 – my grip was more shot than anything on the ttb and just limited my will to grind and gut it out. The 2nd set I felt like I was going to throw up on the bike

(rest 2 min)

3 min window

30 kipping HSPU

AMRAP ski cals in remaining time

(rest 10 min x 2 times through)

19-16 – survive was the name of the game by the time I got here. First set on hspu did 16-8-4 then the next time through I was just going to do all 6’s but ended up having to hit a few sets of 5’s and a 4

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Run 20 min with weighted vest @ conversation effort

“Run” is a very conservative term here.

8/29

tttTD (2-part BB)

The way things shaked out with my partner we had to do this on friday with a change to his schedule. 

Squat clean ladder – the way the barbell felt at 225 I was a little worried, and then 275 felt he easy, I hit the first rep, he hit the next, I hit the 3rd and as he was getting ready I asked if he wanted me to go ahead and hit it, as good as I felt from the first rep I would’ve liked to have seen how little rest I would’ve needed to hit 2 in a row, but he did end up missing it and i picked it up. I wanted one solid attempt at 315, was just too slow off the ground as I feel the bar pulled me forward a little so I didn’t even attempt to finish my pull. 

12:06 – Even work on the power clean in sets of 3’s, wish we had gone 4’s at the least and probably would’ve been ok at 5’s even, front squats were the toughest part, hit sets no less than 6, even hit a few sets of 8, probably did 34-36 of the 60 reps, and in the sto did no less than 8.

Every 2:15 min x 4 sets

19 row cals

19 wallballs

1:37-1:39-1:37-1:42

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Every 2:00 min x 3 sets

19 row cals

19 wallballs

1:38-1:39-1:42

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Every 1:45 min x 2 sets

19 row cals

19 wallballs

1:44-11 wall ball 

I wanted to pause before getting into the 2 min intervals because I knew it was going to hurt. It was hot and I was tired…..but it didn’t hurt as bad as I expected. So I did try to pull back a little in those 2 min intervals because I knew the last 2 were going to be hard. In the first 4 sets I broke the wall ball into 2 sets w/a really really quick rest, just wanted to see how that looked. In the middle 3, I knew that breaking the wall ball might really cut into my rest so I went unbroken there, really kind of felt the same overall, but output on the rower didn’t noticeably dip until set 7 and that was mostly about trying to sustain my row consistently above 1200. The very last set, the transition killed me, and when I lost time on my transition I just mentally had a hard time getting the rower up to speed of where it needed to be. 8 reps is roughly 15 seconds and my transition didn’t cost me that much, but transition and getting up to working effort did, if I could’ve mentally gutted it out, it would’ve been really hard to finish that set but I would’ve had a fighting chance.