120322

Posted on by

WOD 120322:


Rest day.

12.5 isn’t new, surprised? You shouldn’t be, dummies-it’s simply a data point. Compare this year to last year and see if you’re better. Is it sexy? Not particularly, but at least we don’t have to test Fran next week.

Just finished 19 hours on the road, so you’re not getting any excessive words, just squats.

This is officially the biggest squat I’ve ever seen a non-specialist woman get. It’s Lauren Brooks and it’s THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN POUNDS. When I say “non-specialist” I mean she’s not a competitive powerlifter or weightlifter, as a matter of fact, she’s top 50 in the world in the Open. Side note: She’s probably gonna be pissed at me because she hit 320# but I felt it was a little short.

Jay Rhodes @ 440#. This is a 15# PR @ a body weight of 171#.

BP @ 455#

47 thoughts on “120322”

  2. Nice job Brooks! I definitely got the most fired up watching Jay bounce around on his toes and then throw the rhino off his back at the end though! I on the other hand will enjoy my rest day and take my back squat envy out on Fran on roids in TX this weekend…

  3. Hey Rudy, and I guess all the other Outlaws out there, I just wanted to thank you for this programming and let you know I hit 275 tonight. Thats a 15lb PR from my last PR that I hit at the beginning of march when you programmed it as percentage work. I’ve got no hopes of going to the Games, I just wanna get stronger and thats happening by following this programming. While its no 440 (Jay, your compilation video is still one of the most inspiring videos I’ve see to date) I’m pretty proud of it for having ZERO athletic background before starting crossfit. Heres the video of my last three reps [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT0ack8Qpi4&w=420&h=315%5D
    Any feedback is appreciated. I dont know why I popped my knee out before hitting that last rep but I still got it. And before any of you start pulling up the HQ store page – NO. I’m not wearing the new Reebok Games shorts. They’re my FedEx shorts. Oh yeah and I got this after 12 hours of work.

    TLDNR – Weaksauce following outlaw hits 30lbs of squat PR’s in a month. Cool story bro.

  5. That 440 squat was a 15# PR, (hit 425 on our 103% day)
    Prior to that my best was 415 the day after the Games last summer. I also had an SI injury from Sept – Dec. No squatting, olympic lifting, deadlifting, etc. for 3 months.
    Based the Hatch cycle off 385# in the beginning, Then moved up to 400, then eventually up to 420.

    Conclusion…..it fucking worked. Way better than I had actually expected it to.

    • Jay, when I started CF 2 years ago my back squat was 230. Then, as my strength progressed I ranged anywhere from 250-270 right before this cycle. That was around a 60# PR for me!! CRAZY!!

    • Yeah man that’s fucking legit. I was all stoked on a 20# gain since starting this cycle but apparently I need a handband or Chuck Taylors or something.

  6. I know Thursday and Friday are rest days, but do you recommend or does anybody have any theories about taking a week off or anything like that once a year or a quarter or something?

    • In my experience, unless you’re injured, it’s probably not a good idea to take a week completely off. Even if you have minor injuries, if you can “work around” the injury, that would be ideal. We work in cycles, so there will be periods of lower volume in which your body can recover, but it’s definitely active recovery. Avoiding exercise altogether just leads to tightening up and getting weaker. With that said, if you’re feeling really overworked, you can lower your own volume a bit, but keep moving/running/stretching/doing mobility during that period, because if you’re not progressing in some area while your body recovers, you’re probably regressing.

      Just my 2 cents. Feel free to correct me if I’m way off…

      • No that is what I do I was just wondering. I usually have a hard time taking 2 days off a week. Makes me feel lazy.

    • Alright, I’m going to reveal my inner nerd – don’t rip me a new ass hole for it.
      “From a metabolic viewpoint, even short-term inactivity implies an increased reliance on carbohydrate metabolism during exercise, as shown by a higher exercise respiratory exchange ratio. This may result from a reduced insulin sensitivity and GLUT-4 transporter protein content, coupled with a lowered muscle lipoprotein lipase activity. These metabolic changes may take place within 10 d of training cessation. Resting muscle glycogen concentration returns to baseline within a few weeks without training, and trained athletes’ lactate threshold is also lowered, but still remains above untrained values.”
      Cited:
      Mujika I, Padilla S. Cardiorespiratory and metabolic characteristics of detraining in humans. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2001:33(3):413-21.
      Basically, when you cease exercise you can see decreases in the gains you’ve made in as little as 5-10 days. Realize the decrease seen is only a decrease in the progress you’ve made, not your initial fitness level. If you are a highly trained individual, the decrease may be more dramatic. So like Jason said, keep moving/stretching/mobilizing in order to minimize/eliminate the decline. But for fucks sake, listen to your body and tone it down if needed. The last thing you want is to legitimately overtrain – you will hate life if you reach that point.

      • This nerd appreciates your research… Thanks! I did my own research out in the field once when I took a week completely off. I came back feeling like I had regressed months. Of course it could have been that I was conducting my study in Key West too, but we’ll leave that there!

      • We are actually learning this exact thing in Exercise Physiology right now.

        Speaking in terms of mitochondria, more mitochondria = better use of oxygen = more fit/better conditioning.

        By taking a week off and doing nothing, your mitochondria number will decrease by about 50% and it can take an extra 4 weeks of training just to get back to where you were before you took an off week.

        I am a nerd, I love anything to do with the body or exercise.

      • Oh yeah, ex phys is great. Working on my MSED in Exercise Phys right now actually. Here’s some more nerd fuel, I have a feeling I’m getting carried away now:

        “The adaptation of mitochondrial ATP production rate (MAPR) to training and detraining was evaluated in nine healthy men. Muscle samples (approximately 60 mg) were obtained before and after 6 wk of endurance training and after 3 wk of detraining. MAPR was measured in isolated mitochondria by a bioluminometric method. In addition, the activities of mitochondrial and glycolytic enzymes were determined in skeletal muscle. In response to training, MAPR increased by 70%, with a substrate combination of pyruvate + palmitoyl-L-carnitine + alpha-ketoglutarate + malate, by 50% with only pyruvate + malate, and by 92% with palmitoyl-L-carnitine + malate. With detraining MAPR decreased by 12-28% from the posttraining rate (although not significantly for all substrates). No differences were found when MAPR was related to the protein content in the mitochondrial fraction. The largest increase in mitochondrial enzyme activities induced by training was observed for cytochrome-c oxidase (78%), whereas succinate cytochrome c reductase showed only an 18% increase. The activity of citrate synthase increased by 40% and of glutamate dehydrogenase by 45%. Corresponding changes in maximal O2 uptake were a 9.6% increase by training and a 6.0% reversion after detraining. In conclusion, both MAPR and mitochondrial enzyme activities are shown to increase with endurance training and to decrease with detraining.”
        Wibom R. et al,. Adaptation of mitochondrial ATP production in human skeletal muscle to endurance training and detraining. J Appl Physiol. 1992:73(5):2004-10

        This study looked specifically at endurance training, but as far as I know theres no-one willing to fund a crossfit study…
        Basically found after 6 weeks of training, mitochondrial ATP production rate increased by 70%. Wilbom et al., measured various markers looking at enzymatic activity, found increases across the board. They found that the mitochondrial ATP production decreased 12-28% with 3 weeks of detraining (changes in the gains made, not base level like the study before), though not significant for everyone (everyone is different…). Largest increase was seen in cytochrome-c oxidase (78%). In other words, the final enzymatic protein of the Electron Transport Chain increased which should lead to more ATP (since ATP production is the final goal, with some H2O production). More ATP production leads to more available energy and hopefully faster recovery between bouts or lifts in our case…

      • Eh …. this is exactly what I’m battling right now. Took 7 weeks off due to injury. It’s been 17 days since I’ve been back. My strength #’s have dropped A LOT and it’s been complete hell getting back into it. I’m on the Paragon team and have to be as ready as can be by Regional time. I have 1 more month to go …

        Prior to injury, my body was asking for a break and I chose to ignore it. I wish I did take just an active 1 week rest break ….

        Oh and Lauren …. I just went to Sams to buy a case of peanut butter. That was bad ass!

  7. Jay & BP, what are the knee supports you use? I’ve got knee wraps but constantly re-wrapping is a pain. Thanks in advance.

    And Jay, a 440 squat at 171 is fucking absurd! makes me feel like quite the pussy. I’m 180 and hit 315# yesterday (10# PR though). But shit, I was stuck at 305 for the longest time so i’m happy the programming is working.

    • Mine are Rehband neoprene sleeves. Not supportive really at all like knee wraps. I love the feel of them though they warm the joint up really quick. $60 or so for the pair.

    • I use my redband neoprenes and knee wraps for 3 reasons:

      1-my quads are bigger than rudys
      2-provide support for my old knees (cause I squat literally everyday)
      3-there cool looking and all crossfitters have them (atleast cool ones like Jay)

    • I hope this isn’t a dumb noob question. I’m def new to weightlifting. My knees creak and bother me when I do heavy squatting. Are the knee wraps/sleeves something I should look into?

  8. hopefully i will get to 400# someee dayyy!!!!! well, need to work on my sq,, great job ….any comment about 12.5?

    • It was on CBS This Morning and the Huffington Post as well. I scouped all these mainstream media bitches.

Comments are closed.