CrossFit Challenge – Week 6: Humbled by Overhead Squats

Another week and another 2 wicked CrossFit workouts from Katie at Nanaimo CrossFit. This week definitely had tough workouts and I really gave everything I could. It got me thinking about how hard I was trying with the workouts and how hard they (might) sound in my writing about them.

You Choose Your Workout

Tuesday’s WOD was 4 rounds of 4 exercises with the plates we usually put on the bars. I grabbed the 35 pound plates for these exercises. The recommended weights were actually different for each exercise but I just used the 35 pound plate for all mine to keep things simple.

So we had 4 rounds of 20 Overhead Weighted Lunges, 20 Plate Sit-ups, 20 Plate Thrusters and a Farmer Carry to do.

Overhead Weighted Lunges are a lunge with the plate over your head, elbows locked and knee to the floor.

Plate Sit-ups are a sit-up with the plate over your head the whole time, elbows locked.

Plate Thrusters start with the plate held in front of you shoulder height in a squat stance and then rising out of the squat stance and using that momentum to get the plate up and over your head.

A Farmer Carry is just carrying 2 plates 20 metres. We were able to put our fingers through the holes instead of gripping the edges of the plates like some workouts make you do (killer!).

I really liked this workout especially the Plate Thrusters. My arms were toast by round three so I really had to concentrate for the last 2 rounds on getting the momentum from my legs and carrying that through into the plate and getting it above my head. There was no muscling it up with my arms any more, they couldn’t do it on their own. All the power had to come from my legs. I wish I had known that early on and saved some energy for the other exercises.

The Plate Sit-ups are killer. I’m not great with a sit-up as it is if no one is holding my feet down but 4 rounds of 20 of them with a plate above my head. Wow! Intense workout. I was down to 1 at a time by the end of it. 1, rest, 1, rest.

Everyone gets cheers

Even the coaches are working their tails off when they participate in the WODs. They aren’t in this to look good, they’re in it for a killer workout. Adam was hurtin’ on the Plate Sit-ups just like I was but we were cheering him on as much as we could after we finished our rounds.

Humbled

Thursday’s WOD was the hardest one yet.

The first section to the WOD was a partner row and 200 metre run. One partner rows while the other runs. When the runner is back, they switch off. After 4 rounds our time was taken in combination with our total rowed metres for a score. My partner and I did pretty well. I was saving a little bit for the next part of the workout though.

This is the part where I get humbled trying to do 100 Overhead Squats.

An Overhead Squat is an exercise with a bar (or a PVC pipe if you’re just starting or warming up). You Squat Snatch the bar (and weight if you have some) over your head and then drop down into a squat, then come back up. The squatting and raising of the bar is the Overhead Squat and you have to 100 of them. But there’s a catch.

The hard part comes in when you’re deep into your squat and your body is tilted forward. That weighted bar above your head has to be directly above your body. So that means when your body is tilted forward, your shoulders have to be wide open while supporting the weight above your head. Your elbows have to stay locked the whole time. If you can, give it a try right now. Grab a broom with a really wide grip above your head with straight elbows. Squat down keeping your knees above your toes until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Make sure your arms stay perfectly vertical even while your body comes forward with the squat. Not so easy.

Now do 100!

I just used the bar for this one which was 45 pounds. I probably could have used the lighter bar for it to. By the end, I was doing 1 or 2 at a time to be able to do it. The mobility in my shoulders to keep my arms straight up while weighted just wasn’t there. If I pushed my hands out further on the bar my wrists couldn’t hold the weight. It was a workout of balance.

But I did it. I was last through and everyone was cheering me on. I couldn’t give up. I managed to push through and just finish off the last one.

I have found my new Goat.