Crossfit Linchpin - D71

Main - DT
5 rounds of:
12 Deadlifts, 70kg
9 Hang Power Cleans, 70kg
6 Push Jerks, 70kg

13:03 - 52.5kg

Accessory 1
Clean Pull: 5-5-5-5

80, 85, 85, 85

Accessory 2
OHP: 12-12-12

41, 41, 41

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I paced DT pretty well. My rounds were 2:06, 2:39, 2:48, 2:45, 2:44. Average HR 183, new WR max of 195! Every round was 11DL, 1DL+4HPC, 4HPC, 1HPC+6PJ. The likely finishing time was 12:30, so I scaled perfectly. There's not much to say except I would like to do this at 60kg in under 15 minutes at some point. RX is still a long way away. It's a solid test.

Clean pulls were fine. I was playing around with different things. I tried to delay the 2nd pull and it looks like I'm leaning back a lot. Let's see what my coach says.

I added 1kg to 40x12x3 from a while back. The last set was RPE 9.5

My cheat day from Saturday was pretty spectacular. Breakfast and lunch was good (eggs, toast, veg for breakfast, rice, salmon, veg for lunch). I then had at least 1000cal of chocolate. I had a slice of cheese to change the taste in my mouth and I hate cheese. After a while, I had a protein bar and then some plain cereal (300 cal?). I was obviously not hungry for dinner, but I have never skipped a meal. So I did the obvious thing and ordered a burger and fries for dinner. It was a humongous portion of fries. And that was followed by me saying ****it and going allout and finishing 3/4 a jar of nutella. So much fun, but I woke up feeling horrible. It's back to the grind now.

I used to love DT. 60 was the best fit for me although I have done it RX. The shoulder to overhead really saps at 70 tho.

I used to do 11DL and then rest too and then always rest before the last HPC. Really important to go unbroken on the S2O if at all possible. Takes too much time and is too sapping otherwise. You can actually rest a little on the DLs

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Arjun, what diet do you follow the rest of the time when you’re not cramming Nutella ?

just watched parts of the vid.

two observations.

1. you're push pressing with a tiny wiggle rather than push jerking with any kind of dip, drive and drop which is making those reps far more difficult than they should be. I know you have a coach who should be telling you the same thing, but it really feels like you can be way more explosive and then dropping more under the bar each time, which will lessen the ROM and make it easier to cycle through the reps with less effort.

2. you'll be able to take minutes off your time if you can cut down on the rest times and get back on the bar earlier. Particularly during the deadlift section but all the way through really. (your heart rate is high, so you're obvs at close to max effort but it's really notable watching it) I counted 24 seconds from when you dumped the bar at 4.49 after a set of jerks until 5.13 when you started the deadlifts. that's a **** ton of time to wait before doing a set of 50kg DLs which really should be very easy with your strength. or if you are gonna take that long/almost that long, you definitely should be able to cycle through the 11 DL at that weight before resting before you begin the cleans (which was a 16 second delay in that set I watched)

It is of course easy for me to say and way harder to train with this intensity when you're training on your own without the adrenalin of being in a gym competing with other people and a coach shouting at you (ours was always 'GET BACK ON THE BAR! as soon as we stood away) but with your strength numbers, I think you've got a way faster time in you

honestly, watching you do that almost made me think about doing it - medium weight, medium length barbell wods with 0 gymnastics was my wheelhouse and I used to love that wod

Crossfit Linchpin - D72

Main
Run - 5x50m, 3x400m, 1x800m, rest as needed

9:02 - (0:09, 0:11, 0:10, 0:11, 0:10), (1:28, 1:33, 1:35), (3:31) -- 2:00 rest after the 50s, 2:30 after the 400s

Accessory 1
Side Plank: 2 minutes per side

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I'm enjoying this week, despite the lack of a heavy day. Yesterday was only weights (DT), today only running, and tomorrow only gymnastics (Cindy). I took the 50m sprints pretty easy to avoid injuring myself and used it as strides and a warm up after my warm up jog. I did not pace the 400s well as I got slower and slower. That left me with not much left for the 800. Better pacing would imrove my overall time on this.

I have never followed a diet. I have an idea of how many calories I want to eat and then I make sure I get enough protein (at least 150g a day).

Yeah, my push jerks just look so ugly. Training at home has been eye opening, since I can record every single session. I never realized how bad my push jerks are. It is definitely something to work on. I need to use my legs more and stop pushing with my upper body. And then drop under fast. Easier said than done.


I really don't think I can take minutes off my time. Sure, at any point I could have got back to the bar sooner. But that would have increased the risk of not going unbroken on the push jerks. If I did 4 and set the bar down, that's an additional 30 seconds to my time + snowball effect in future rounds. I actually think I paced it perfectly because my last 3 rounds took 2:48, 2:45, 2:44 and I hit my max HR in the last round. I could have tried to get more aggressive and cut my rest period, but I think that would have led to a worse time. I'd definitely be interested to see you doing DT. Or a 2k row. I've been warming up my popcorn for a while now!

I’ve recorded every single workout I’ve done since 2008 so I went back and checked my times from when I was cross fitting.

My best times were 8.26 at 60kg and 12.50 at 70kg, although the 70 didn’t seem to be when I was as fit as at other times - it was a year after I’d left the CrossFit gym. 70 I remember being really sapping for the overhead portion, although these days I might struggle completing a set of 9 HPC at 70 as well.

It’s the type of workout I think would be managable to complete now for someone who hasn’t done a WOD in 7 years given it’s low skill and barbell focused so I’m up for it.

I’m aiming for a 2k row tt tomorrow so I don’t want to mess it up, so I might aim for it on Friday morning before I go on holiday. Probably safest to do it at 50kg.

One thing I’m not sure of is whether I’ll be able to record and post it. I’ve never filmed myself for longer than like 10 seconds but I assume the i phone just keeps going? But not sure how I’ll post the vid - happy to PM or text you something for you to post or for you to lol at

That's really neat that you have recorded every workout. I had every crossfit workout recorded on wodify, but then our gym changed to wodboard and a bunch of stuff was lost in the transfer. Everything from the start of this log is recorded here though. I just searched for DT on wodboard and I logged it in Nov 2016 as "did 3+16 and got time capped in 10 minutes, 37.5kg. Too heavy". I know I did it once after that, maybe at 40-45 and got time capped again. It's pretty cool to see long term progress.

I would definitely be interested in watching your DT video. I just recorded it with my phone without doing anything differently and it worked. It only stopped around 9 minutes because I didn't have any space left. I just deleted a bunch of old videos and I'm good to go now. If you can't figure out how to upload it, then yeah text/whatsapp would work. Good luck with the 2k!

I'm just letting you know that you could have posted this in Russian and it would have been more clear to Feelers what needs to be done. I love the man but he is a 49 yo with the tech savvy of my deceased grandmother.

I'm a feel player, not a math guy! just a total 'avoid instinct' in my brain for anything technical. Like even with my rowing, all the guys are 'sign into the C2 website and link your app to the machine and xxxx' and my eyes just glaze over and go 'nup'

yep, I remember the first time trying DT as well. it was when I was self taught and training at a globo gym with a buddy before I ever joined a crossfit gym - so probs like 2009. we had no idea how hard it would be and our technique sucked. I think it was over 20 mins to do it at 60kg and I remember thinking it was the hardest workout ever

re the video..thanks! as Slim so kindly pointed out, I'm not the greatest with tech, so while I'll aim to video it all, I'll snap the gym clock too at the beginning of the workout. I've never watched a video of me doing a workout, so I'm sure I'll have a load of technique issues...particularly given how long it's been. should be fun though

just a simple old excel worksheet on my laptop for me to record my workouts. I create a new one page every three months and track various metrics for my business & personal life on a weekly basis, so I just list the workouts, times, weights etc. It's pretty cool to be able to go back and look

Crossfit Linchpin - D73

Main - Cindy
20' AMRAP:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats

16+6 - 3 strict pull-ups per round

Accessory 1
DB Front Rack Lunge: 20, 18, 18 (with 22.5s)

Accessory 2
Farmer's Carry: 90m, 90m, 80m (with 22.5s, 2' rest)

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I added my previous Cindy results, but doing this with strict pull-ups is like comparing apples and oranges. I started out aiming for 18 rounds and tried to do a round every 1:06. I was on pace for 8 rounds or so and then fell behind when the push-ups got harder. Round times were (55, 67, 61, 66, 65, 69, 68, 72, 83, 73, 80, 80, 82, 87, 84, 78). Average HR 173, max 188. My lungs were not the limiting factor in this, it was push-ups. I was never out of breath because I could rest a little between push-up sets. Pull-ups were all unbroken and very easy. Perhaps I should have just done 5. I broke up the push-ups 4-3-3 and that lasted maybe 10 rounds and then I broke them up further. Air squats are a PITA. It's a shame I couldn't do this RX and compare my results from ages ago. Even if I did though, it would just be a push-up comparison.

I added 2 reps (1 per leg) to the first set of lunges and added 10m to the 2nd set of farmer's carries. I started out doing these accessories at a reasonable RPE. I have since tried to beat my previous results and now they are becoming way too hard. The lunges were horrendous, it reminded me of 15+ rep squat sets. High HR, heavy load, getting faint, no fun. I am going to dial it back on the accessories and manage intensity, which should be beneficial to my overall training.

It's been more than 3 months of Linchpin now, and I think I have 2 glaring weaknesses - olympic lifting and bench press/push-ups. I've been working on oly, but not on bench. It might be time to add it back in. The programming is so comprehensive though and maybe the lack of benching is justified by it just not being important in crossfit. Idk, I'll mull it over.

@bw - I really thought I was dumbing down the explanation!
@fw - 20 minutes at 60kg is probably where I would be now with DT.

Not entirely clear to my addled old brain - you did Cindy with dead hangs or with kipping here?

* I think you’re saying you did it with 3 dead hangs instead of 6 kips per round but here but I could be wrong

Really fun workout once you get into the swing of it. Can’t even imagine doing that now - the quad cramps I’d get would be obscene

In awe that you did lunges after all those squats

I did kipping previously and 3 strict pull-ups today (no room to kip at home). Yeah, my legs were toast after the lunges. They were so wobbly during the farmer's carries!

I love Crossfit but think Kipping is the worst of it. Id rather see every WOD with strict pull ups

Are you signing up for the games?

Kipping is perfectly fine/safe as long as you have the prerequisite strength (maybe >10 strict pull-ups). It is people who do 50 kipping pull-ups in a metcon when they can only do 5 strict and get injured, who give it a bad name. Strict pull-ups are also so much harder to judge.

I just signed up to the open, are you going to? I'm not making it a priority like other years though, because gyms here are unlikely to be open and I'll probably do a mix of RX and limited equipment/no equipment based on what the workouts are. I use it as a test to see where my fitness is at and with the equipment issues, it won't be consistent.

Boxes still closed here and a few have gone under not sure I even would if they are open
I heard its only 3 events? Not sure on that but there will be different aspects. One part of the workout will be bodyweight only
Curious to see the WOD's

The FW guarantee is that the first wod will be a low skill metcon with little/no equipment to get as many people in as possible to register

Could even just be max burpees. Maybe A pure body weight one with squats push-ups sit up etc or a combo with that, maybe double unders and maybe one simple high rep barbell movement like deadlift or power cleans

Crossfit Linchpin - D74

Extra Snatch Practice
Hang Snatch + Snatch: 45, 45, 45, 45, 45

Main - SQT
3 rounds for time:
10 Ground-to-Overheads, 43 kg
200m shuttle run (4x50m)

6:46 - 40kg G2O/250m row

Accessory 1
400m run - 1:12.74 (95% effort)

Accessory 2
SLIPS

Scales - Front and back, 2x20s each
L-Sit - 3x25s
Inversion - Handstand hold practice
Plank - 2 minutes
Stretching - might do yoga later

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It was a really fun/productive day. For the first time in history, hang snatches felt great and snatches felt off. It's because the bar is getting stuck around my knees when I pull it from the floor. I tried knees out and a wider stance in my last set and it seemed to help. Overall, I think I am making really good progress with snatches. They feel so much better.

SQT was such a good workout. FW, I would be interested to see your time if you ever want a quick, short, and painful metcon. My round times were 1:57, 2:21, and 2:28. Snatches were unbroken! in the first round, then 5/3/2 and 4/2/1/1/1/1. I knew going in that I would fall away a little if I went unbroken in the first round, but I wanted to test myself a little to see where I was at. My snatches felt HORRIBLE in round 3, but they don't look that bad when looking at the video. I need to keep my knees out so the first pull doesn't stall at my knees. If I were to strategize this to get a better time, I would do 5+5 throughout. The rows were not crazy, except for the last one where I left it all out there. Average HR 181, max 191.

The run was a nice surprise. 73rd percentile. I measured it on 3 different sites and added 10m to be safe. Slightly uphill and a straight run. SLIPS were k. Beneficial, but boring.

Crossfit Linchpin - D75

Main
For time (or not):
100 Single Unders
50 Tuck Jumps
25 Low Ring Muscle-ups
50 Toes-to-bars
25 Front Squats, 60% 1RM - 71kg
100 Single Unders

20:50 - not for time/8 low ring muscle ups/50 strict toes to bar

Accessory 1
40L Pistols - 7,7,7,7,6,6
40R Pistols - 7,7,7,7,6,6

Accessory 2
50 burpees for time - 2:30

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Solid day. I once again enjoyed the somewhat heavy day at a somewhat high heart rate. I did the ring muscle ups without a box this time. My feet were on the floor and they felt pretty good. I think this is close to a strict ring muscle up, but not quite. The next step is to have my feet off the floor, which would be a strict L-sit muscle up. I could then retire from crossfit. Strict toes to bar were 8,7,7,7,7,7,7 and front squats were 7,6,6,6. Round times were SU (1:26 and 2:00), tuck jumps (2:32), LRMU (4:30), TTB (5:50), and front squats (4:30).

The pistols have always been prescribed as 20-40 reps per leg. I started off with 20 and finally hit 40 today. There were no failed reps. I'm going to drop the reps again for next time and do them without my weightlifting shoes to increase the difficulty. There is pretty big progress here.

The burpees were no fun. It is 77th percentile though, with 95% effort and after a lot of work before. I tried to stick to 3 seconds per burpee and held that pace. The first 20-25 were fine and it then started sucking.

My weight loss has completely stalled. I was good in January and lost 1kg. February has been a few good days and then a few bad days. I feel so terrible physically after eating a lot of dessert that it needs to stop. I am committing to eating well for 40 days or so starting today. If I lose another 1-1.5kg, it would have been a good 3 months.

Crossfit Linchpin - D76

Extra Jerk Practice

Split Jerk: 60x3, 60x3, 65x2, 65x2, 70, 75

Main
5 rounds, 3:00 rest:
6 Power Cleans, 60% | 54 kg
6 Shoulder-to-Overheads, 60% | 54 kg
18 Lateral Burpee Over Bars

9:24 - 1:46, 1:47, 1:53, 2:04, 1:54

Accessory 1
Barbell Glute Bridge: 70x10x3

Accessory 2
Overhead Carry: 40m, 30m, 30m (with 22.5s, 2:30 rest)

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I got in some extra jerk practice since that's one of my weaknesses. I tried to drop under aggressively and they definitely felt better. I felt forward though in the catch and my coach said to keep my heels down as long as possible. I'll try that next time.

The metcon was truly vile. Max HR at the end was 191. I went unbroken for 4 rounds, and then had a quick 3-4 second rest after the 5th power clean in the last round. That actually made me go 10 seconds faster in that round! The intervals were basically spiking my HR after the barbell stuff and then hanging on during the burpees. Vile. I was getting pretty close to failing a jerk in the last 2 rounds and that forced me to drop under the bar a lot more. More technique gains in a metcon.

I added 10m to the first seat of OH carries and cut the rest time down by 30 seconds. The last set was too close to failure though and I'll cut the distance down next time.

Crossfit Linchpin - D77

Main
Death by Shuttle Run
10m in minute 1, 20m in minute 2, 30m in minute 3, and so on

14+14

Accessory 1
Landmine Twist: 30x12x2, 32.5x12

Accessory 2
Double Under Practice: 12 double unders every 30s for 10 rounds (2 trip ups)

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That was an annoying day. I've had close to 0 pain in the 3.5 months I've done this programming and today my lower back started annoying me during the shuttle runs. The standards were to have both feet past the 10m mark and one hand touching down. I guess all that bending irritated my back. It wasn't bad (maybe 2/10) and I've felt a lot worse, but it made me slow down just that little bit. I actually finished the 15th round, but didn't bend down to touch the ground in time!!! So annoying. The pain isn't anything to be worried about, so I'll keep grinding away.

I choked in the 9th set of double unders. I said I'll increase the reps in this everytime I finish it with 1 trip up or less. I tripped on the 1st round and then couldn't get it across the line!! Relaxed hands and arms close to my body are my cues.

I hope Boris lets you all work out in real gyms soon.

Crossfit Linchpin - D78

Extra Snatch Practice
A load of reps at 45 (12-14?) with some pulls and liftoffs as well

Main
21-18-15-12-9:
Overhead Squats, 43kg
Pull-ups

12:30 - 37.5kg OHS/14-12-10-8-6 strict pull-ups

Accessory 1
Front Squat: 80x7, 82.5x7, 85x7

Accessory 2
Farmer's Carry: 3x70m (2' rest)

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Phew, that was a long day. It was same old with snatches. I was jumping forward at first and corrected it by the end. Weight evenly distributed, loose grip, bring the bar high up to hips, explode up and drop under quickly. It's a lot to think about. I do feel like my positions are a lot better since I started the video coaching and the extra practice.

I'm pleasantly surprised with the metcon. 12 minutes was the likely finishing time, so I scaled pretty well. OHS were 12/9 - 10/8 - 9/6 - 12 - 9. Pull-ups went from sets of 4s down to singles at the end. 75 OHS and 50 strict pull-ups in 12:30 is something I could not have done before starting this programming. I've done strict pull-ups 19 times in 78 days and it's showing. I think I have a big PR in me (18-20?). Average HR 170, max 181. My max wasn't high since there was small amounts of rest between pull-up sets.

Front squats as accessory, love it! I was pooped by now, and planned on doing an easy/tired 80x7x3, but 80 went up so easily that I increased the weight. Last set RPE 6?

I followed my instructions from earlier and didn't make the farmer's carries max efforts. RPE 8 on the last set with a rep being 10m. It was a long day, but tomorrow is a rest day.



April 12 seems to be the provisional date. TBH, I can do most things at home now. The things I can't do are any kipping, bar and ring muscle ups, anything with a box, assault bike, and heavy olympic lifting in case I fail. It's not a big deal but I am itching to go back.