Shantai’s Jerk has been the bane of my existence for the last 4 months. She’s cleaned an astronomical 110kg/242# at a body weight of 117# (yes, WAY over double BW), but for weeks at a time hasn’t been able to Jerk anything near that. Finally, a few weeks ago, we started working on something that became consistent and resulted in a 53kg PR for her on Tuesday.
The video below is Shantai’s 98kg/215# “Bouncing Jerk” PR. After watching a ton of videos, I realized she was getting pushed down and forward by the bar in her dip – especially when it was heavy. So we began to try to shorten her dip to make it more reactive, and loaded the bar with a set of clips on the inside of the plates to get it to oscillate harder at lighter loads. This is in no way a “legal” Jerk, but it did teach her the rhythm of the bar’s oscillation, and cleaned her dip up immensely.
Shantai Dickerson – 98kg/215# “Bouncing Jerk” @ 53kg BW:
WOD 141205:
BBG
1) Power Snatch: 5X1 – work to a max single for the day, rest as needed
2) Power Clean & Push Jerk: 5X1 – work to a max single for the day, rest as needed
Accessory/Skill
1a) 5X2 Three Stop Snatch Pulls DEMO VIDEO – heaviest possible, rest 60 sec.
1b) 5X5 Strict Pull-ups + ME UB C2B Pull-ups (stay on bar after completing Strict PU) – rest 60 sec.
Conditioning
Compare to 141008.
Row 5k
Note: The goal is negative splits throughout. Begin at roughly 85-90% of best 2k pace, and try to drop 500m splits by 1-3 seconds each 500m. Your final 500m should be the fastest.
Done today, 141204. De loaded, resting tomorrow for partner comp this Saturday.
BBG
1.) up to 165#, 80%
2.) up to 215#, 80%
Strength/Skill
1a.) done @ 195#
1b.) 5+5 across
Cond
Done, negative splits
/begin rant
If you haven’t seen the most recent changes to the Regionaks format, I suggest checking them out here before reading further: http://games.crossfit.com/article/whats-new-2015
I think this a ridiculously stupid move by Crossfit HQ. Yes, it will ensure that only the best of the best make it to Regionals and by combining the regions, they will get a better representation of the top athletes at The Games. This will allow the marketing of the sport to ESPN that much greater, but it will come at a cost. HQ’s decision to reduce the number of qualifying spots just to make it Regionals from 48 M/F and 30 teams to 20 M/F and 15 teams sucks a huge bag of dicks.
I’m not an elite CF’er. Shit, I’m not even a very good CF’er. However, Regionals would have been my pinnacle, my CF Games, and the prior year’s format was the ONLY chance I had to make it (my team missed it by 5 spots last year). I spend my time training to eventually make it to Regionals…to be recognized for the time, work, and discretionary money I put into this. Instead, the 1% benefit and the rest of us, those who are on the margin, are spurned and told, pretty much, to go f@ck ourselves.
In all honesty, under the new format, I already know I won’t be at Regionals next year. So, why should I still follow this site? Why should I continue to put money into the sport of CF? Am I the only one completely turned off and demotivated by this? This completely ruined the sport of CF for me…
/end rant
Agree with you from a competitor standpoint. Me personally, I just do the games as a gauge as to where I stand and follow this site because it makes me stronger for local comps. It does suck that they have changed the format but as a spectator it will be much better. I go watch mid-Atlantic regionals and one year there was a team gal that couldn’t climb the rope. Makes for boring spectating.
I look at it like rec ball. I play for fun but have no intention of playing in the NBA.
To be honest, I couldn’t care less about spectating. I’m not going to spectate, in person, another Regionals or ever venture to the Games. Sure, for those fans of the sport, this makes it better. However, CFHQ is basically saying to hell with the rest of us. If they didn’t want people at regionals who couldn’t climb a rope, they should have done a better job of weeding those people out. I thought the creation of a scaled division was going to allow for higher skilled movements and more reps of them to weed out all those who can’t do the basic things. Unfortunately, they aren’t improving the process, just limiting the end result.
I disagree with your rec ball comment. Sure, you don’t plan on making it to the NBA, but you sure as heck don’t spend 2 hours a day shooting free throws either. I don’t follow this site for fun. I don’t spend 2+ hours in the gym for fun. I don’t skip time with friends for fun. I follow this site because I felt it best prepared me for the Open and Regionals. Now that I know that those are out of reach, what’s the point of taking it as seriously as we do? While I don’t really care about local comps, you obviously do, so your answer is different and I can respect that. It just really grinds my gears…
Hear ya but CrossFit is growing a sport so they care about spectating. I agree that if you do this all for the goal of regionals then I would stop too. I am a box owner so for me 2 hours in the gym is what I call Monday morning. It sucks that people will be left out and I am on the fence about how this will help market my business. It could either anger people or make them more interested. Time will tell.
Agreed. My team was 1 point and 1 spot from making it in the NW.
Also it’s odd that a company that makes a ton of $ getting people to sign up for a competition they will almost certainly not succeed in would make it an even more difficult prospect. When I first heard Castro talk about the changes I thought he meant regionals as usual with the top competitors from those regionals moving on to a smaller super regional competition and then the games.
Second attempt at this post, the internet ate it the first time.
If the only reason you were following Outlaw was for the stated purpose, and you feel like you can accomplish your other fitness goals with some other programming and spend less time in the gym, then do that. If making Regionals was your only fitness goal, then you need to make a new one, and work toward that. If not being able to make Regionals means all this is wasted effort, I’m wasting my time far more than you are, because Regionals was never even close to an option for me. I started following Outlaw because I saw it as the best way to get to a point where I could even do the Open. I accomplished that goal, set other personal improvement goals and kept motoring right along.
Now, I too am having some issues with the amount of time it takes to follow this programming. I have been trying to determine what I can do to still continue to see improvements the way I have been while following Outlaw, but in less time. Obviously that’s not going to happen, but I will still need to find something that has some sort of purposeful programming. I’m not just exercising for the sake of it. Even if I will never even come close to Regionals, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be the best me I can be.
Hi guys
All good points. I am in South Africa, and have been following Out law since beginning of the year. Our team just qualified for our regional this year and we were training to qualify again and improve on our position but with the new format only top 10 from Africa qualify. So ye it sucks, it has put a dream that was reachable basically out of reach for a lot of people. CrossFit has turned into a true professional sport and because of this there are good things and bad things that will come of it. I know for us even if we do qualify, the regional will most likely be in Europe some where, this means it’s is going to be very expensive to get to. (International flights, visas, accommodation, exchange rates)
My first reaction when I heard Castro’s announcement was the same as JCheek but after thinking about it I have got more of Justin point of view. We have to find new goals and maybe new local compatitions will just get bigger and stronger. So I will enter the open like thousands of other around the world and throw down in my local box then see where the chips fall. Keep up the trtaining keep getting fitter stronger faster and let’s kick some ass.
Since college baseball ended prematurely, I’ve played in the Cleveland Wood Bat league and played one year of semi-pro football. Two years ago I started CF to get in better shape for the upcoming football season then decided why go get beat up every weekend when I can compete in CF? I, too, wanted to make a regionals push this year. My motor sucks but for my weight I’m decently strong and I had a huge improvement last year following Outlaw.
I’d also been turned on by WL as well. I’m a technician at heart. I have a chemistry degree with a math minor (should’ve been a math degree) and analyze the hell out of everything. This has given me a pretty decent understanding of the lifts, and the fact that I REGULARLY get under weights I cannot stand, lets me know I’m doing a few things right and I’m just a wimpy American who needs to squat more.
I too have basically given up the idea of CF as a sport. HOWEVER, like football brought me here, CF is taking me to WL. I may actually play football again next year (at 31 and 180lbs? maybe I’m nuts), but as soon as my knee is back 100% I’ll be going straight into barbell here, and perhaps into other programs since my deficiency is just [leg] strength at this point. Think about competing in another sport? Well, everything is everything so if you want to get better at it, you’ll keep coming back like the rest of us.
Why keep following Outlaw? Because it really is the best. I don’t believe for one second that you don’t enjoy this. This is life man. Work your ass off for months on end to add 5lbs to your snatch, 10lbs to your C&J, 15lbs to your squat. Life is about the journey, not a destination.
I’m agreeing with you about CF, I didn’t even think about how much money they’ll lose. Sure I’ll still compete in the Open but I know there’s a bunch of people in the 100-500 range that have worked to get here and will likely move on.
Personally, I love the new changes. Granted, I’ve never even remotely had a shot a making Regionals, so it doesn’t really impact me, but I’ve seen too many people go to Regionals, especially on teams, who have no business being there, and eliminating that is a good thing. Moreover, I’ve seen a lot of people completely lose focus of why they do CrossFit (or exercise in general) because their completely unrealistic expectations of making Regionals were crushed when reality came knocking.
As for why I follow this site, that’s easy: I love weightlifting, and I enjoy most metcons, and Rudy’s programming gives me the best mix of this. Additionally, while I don’t enjoy competing against others, I do enjoy challenging myself, and following this programming for nearly 3 years has certainly been an enjoyable challenge, physically and mentally.
With the creation of a scaled division maybe we will see higher skilled movements (HSPU’s, pistols, etc) and heavier weight and less of the engine skewed workouts which should only benefit us.
+1 hoping for this!
Its understandable why you are discouraged because of the changes. I too was a little bummed about the top 20 rule. My goal like yours was to qualify for a regional and I was very fortunate enough to do so (thanks to the programming of this site) last year after being so close in ’12&’13. After regionals it made me hungry to give it one last push for another trip this year (Iam pushing 36 with a career, wife and two youngins). Can i crack the top 20? Maybe. Iam going to give it one hell of a try! If i dont I still hope I improved from last year. That is the outlook we all should have. Make top 60 your goal or even top 48. Keep building on that. This sport is now at an elite professional level. Placing in the top 60 hell even top 100 of your region is like being on an NFL practice squad or a triple A ball player all things being relative. If you are on tbaan NFL practice squad you are still a pretty fuckin good football player. Keep pushing and training hard bud!
BBG:
1.) 175, 185, 195, 205xfullish, 215xfull
2.) 205, 220, 235, 250, 265f, 265*PC PR f jerk
Acc:
1a.) 225, 235, 245, 255, 265
1b.) +7, +10, +11, +11, +13
Conditioning:
18:56.4 (-0:40)
1:53.6/500m avg couldn’t maintain negative splits the entire time, only to about 2k mark but didn’t get slower either
53kg PR??
Outstanding!!
He meant it was a PR at her new BW of 53kg. Shes jerked more than that I believe but it was at 58kg BW.
Crossfit HQ does not care about the “little people” anymore. Its about the money now. As stated, it will be much easier to market the televised portion with an even more elite lineup of athletes. They dont care about those that could barley qualify for regionals. Just the same as they dont care about the affiliates enough to avoid granting affiliation to corporations like Anytime and other globos lookin. To get their slice of the hot Crossfit pie. The corporations will charge less for membership, they will staff with underpaid, undertrained trainers, injuries will result and Crossfit will get an even worse rep for injury rate than it has now. Meanwhile, the smaller boxes will mostlikely have to cut their own throats to compete with membership rates at the globos. Many people (especially around new years lol) are just sheep jumping on a bandwagon and will just shop price. Many people told me i had a legit shot at regionals. Til this year. HQ doesnt care about any of us.
BBG
1) 5X1@135, couldn’t do shit. I tried, but hips weren’t moving and it just wasn’t there today
2) 185/205/215/225(funky jerk)/225(nailed it, +20PR) have never push jerked over 205 it was fun. And now my push jerk is 15lbs under my split jerk, like Shantai I would probably be a nuisance.
Accessory/Skill
1a) 5X2@185 I literally couldn’t get into a good starting position without my shoulders dipping and back straight. Rough morning.
1b) 7/5/2/7/4
Conditioning:
19:02 butt hurt
Complaining post, shit.
As for Regionals, it makes for good debate. I am very happy of the quality of athlete that will make Regionals because hopefully they will also increase the video requirements for these individuals. It was a shame to have to watch an overweight male individual competitor not be able to legless rope climb after 5 rounds but yet he posted a solid enough score on the C2B workout to make regionals?
My team finished in 31st after the Open then once individuals made team choices we were down to 21st so we made Mid Atlantic Regionals and then at Regionals we finished 9th or something like that because we were more well rounded than the people in front of us because we only had 6 good athletes (3 male 3 female) who contributed to our team score unlike some boxes who had 20 good athletes yet each one had a weakness so when they went to regionals with 6 ppl they had to choose and they chose people with a weakness that was exploited and it made their team fall down leaderboard. I think to fix this issue they need to make people choose team or individual BEFORE the Open. Now that’ll make things really interesting.
The only thing I’m hoping for from a competition stand point for me personally is that they incorporate maxes into the Open like they did team series such as Establish a 3RM Front Squat in 3:00 then at the 3:00 mark complete a For Time workout consisting of a strict movement and a barbell. Instead of forcing stronger well rounded athletes to do 100+ burpees before getting to a heavy barbell snatch. Just let us snatch something heavy then test our lungs.
+1
Shawn – There are numerous things HQ could have done and could do to properly weed out those athletes that shouldn’t be there. Change the team format to what was done for the team series. Make the Open more difficult. Give the top 20/region a bye into the Super Regionals and make the next 50 athletes compete in a mini-regionals for the remaining spots. All things they could have done while still keeping
Shawn – There are numerous things HQ could have done and could do to properly weed out those athletes that shouldn’t be there. Change the team format to what was done for the team series. Make the Open more difficult. Give the top 20/region a bye into the Super Regionals and make the next 50 athletes compete in a mini-regionals for the remaining spots. All things they could have done while still keeping the system fair, and more importantly, fun.
BBG
1) 165, 175, 190, 200, 210 (+5) for power & full. I now have power snatched more than my full snatch…so there’s that :/
2) 215, 225, 235, 245, 250f jerk, 250(+15)
Finally something clicked on my push jerks, I wasn’t really clearing the ground and slamming my heels with authority before. Doing so made a huge difference today.
Strength and conditioning later
Strength
1) 235, 245, 250, 250, 250
2) 5 + (28, 17, 17, 15, 11)
Conditioning different
Class wod
Barbarian requirements
6 min cap
5 MU
45 ring dips
25 pull ups
55 push ups
5 MU
5:38 ~ You may now refer to me as Aaron the barbarian 🙂
I go by Aaron btw
Feel your pain! Although my full is still more than my power (210# vs. 195#), I feel that on power days I am more explosive and just feel better moving the weight. I think mine is just a mental thing doing power snatches to get the bar higher vs. trying to get out of the mindset of racing to the bottom when doing full snatches (working on catching and riding down more). Gonna start just mentally approaching all snatches as if they were power and see how that goes.
Yeah, I think it’s fatigue for me. By the time Saturday rolls around and we actually go for a max, I’m running on fumes from hitting it hard throughout the week. I know I can snatch more than I have, just haven’t tried while truly fresh.
No word in the announcement on how Masters are going to be handled. I was hoping, perhaps wishfully, that at least the 40-44 and 45-49 age groups could participate in Regionals.
I was hoping for a 34-39 age group too
+1
So what your saying is we just need to follow main site now?
BBG
1) 190
2) 245 missed at 260
Strength/Skill
1a) 265
1b) 12-12-10-12-12
Cond
19:25
31/M/175#/NorthEast
IG: goalie858
BBG:
1) 155/165/175/185/(195# a smig below 90)
2) 205/215/225/235/(245# ox)
ACCESSORY/SKILL:
1a) 255/265#x4
1b)25/26/20/21/17
COND:
Felt way better pacing this time even though I was :14 slower… 19:38
BBG:
Power Snatch 225lbs
Power Clean + Push Jerk 265lbs
Strength:
3 stop snatch pulls 320lbs
C2B
5+11, 5+11, 5+3 (tried butterfly), 5+10, 5+12
Conditioning:
5k row 20:50 previous time in October was 19:38. Highly upset because I have noticed a trend in my WOD times going down with my strength going up. Yes this is good and I know we’re in the last loading phase but my biggest weakness is just being in cardio shape. I’m hoping we hear something about this because if I add in a cardio session in the am to the rest of this I’m going be on the brink of hurting myself. Would love some healthy feedback and some ideas in what I should look forward to and if I’m on the right path. I love the programming but I know in the CrossFit world it doesn’t mean dick in the open if I can snatch a lot just as long as I can do a lot of Burpees and to me that’s not finding a (true athlete) Bo Jackson isn’t winning a 7min Burpee contest (I dunno maybe he would but I think you get the point)
Everyone is ranting so I decided to open up and rant to.
Rob – my suggestion is two-fold: 1) Make sure when you do the conditioning, you’re not just going through the motions. If that means you break up your sessions, and if you have the ability to do so, then I would do an am and pm session, and 2) Once this loading phase is over, hit the conditioning hard. Treat it like the open. At first, you will feel way behind, but by the time the Open hits, you will be peaking.
M/22/161/NorCal
BBG:
1. 135,145,155,165(f),165(f)
2. 185,205,215,225(f),225(f)
Strength:
1. 235 for all
2. 5 strict + 10 C2B for all
Conditioning:
19:30 (PR for how much volume I did this week)
Strength was not there today. Dejavu doing this because I did last Friday’s Monday morning this week so that went a lot better than today did. Overall good day though.
BBG
1) wrist still hurting
2) 175, 185, 195, 195, 200#
A/S
1a) 210#
1b) 16,8,7,4,5
Conditioning: 20:38. 29 seconds faster than last time. Could actually hold the decreasing pace this time.
Conditioning
Rowed yesterday as a recovery
Decided to Ski 5k on the SkiErg
21:31
BBG: Snatch – 200 PR
Clean & Jerk – Only 5 sets at 225. . . wrist started to act up.
Strength: 1) 5×5 14/8/7/4/3 Pull Ups sucked today
2) Ended at 350
Conditioning: 20:04 My First 5k Row! =D
BBG:
1) 205 – 215 – 225 – 235f – 235f
2) 225 – 245 – 265 – 275f – 275f
Accessory/Skill:
1a) 225 – 235 – 245 – 255 – 265
1b) 5/8 – 5/5 – 5/5 – 5/4 – 5/2
Conditioning:
19:59.7 (+14 from October; +21 from PR) — Felt fairly good when finished: just couldn’t get myself to really push today.
28/170#/5’9″/M/CenEast
@GoBlueAlum08
1/1/1
PSn: 150/160/170/180/190F/190#; +5# from last week and +1# from 3RM
PCln&J: 195/205/215/225/235#; +5# from last week
Sn Pull: 235#
C2B: skipped
Conditioning: 5 rds – 1 minute on, 2 off, row for cals – 25/25/24/25/24
Snatch 205
Cj 265, cleaned 275 missed jerk
Strength skipped
Con-run or row 5k tmro
Open wod 11.2- 10rds+30
Power snatch: 80kg
Power C& power J: 96kg
3 position snatch pull: 90kg
Ub c2b reps:12,10,10,9,9
79kg BW
M/48/155
On Thursday, I did snatch 5×1 and hit a 10lb pr of 165.
Did class wod of 15-12-9-6 DL 225 + pull ups with 200m run and 2 rope climbs each round. Finished in 914. then it was 3x400m run with 1min rest. Slowest time was 1:47.
–
Friday AM was
Incline press/3 worked up to 64kg
back squat/3, worked up to 301lbs
Friday PM
pc&j up to 210 for a 15lb pr
Then class wod of 50 du, 40 kb swings 30 box jumps 20 pc 155 and 5 mu. 718 and mu were unbroken.
1. 185, 205, 215, 225, 235 (under but not quick to stand up)
2. 225, 245, 265, 285, 315
5k: 1833
Jump rope, box shoulder stretch- 2×25, 20s
P sn- bar, 50,60,70,80,85,90, 95 (+5). Pretty sure this was power, felt like it
PC&PJ- 70,90,100,105,110, 115 (+5)
Hands/Feet Hollow Hold- 2x1min
Strict + kipping Pullup- 5+3, 5+1
Ab circuit- 2x22reps each (regular crunches, left, right, v-ups)
3 pause SN dl- 2×70, 80, 90, 100, 110 (+10 I think)
BBG
1) 135
2) 165
A/S
1a) 150-190
1b) 10,8,4,7,1
Cond
Had to shorten to row 10:00 for distance. 2105m
BBG
1) Power Snatch: 5X1 – 210/215/220/225/230-pr
2) Just Power Clean No Push Jerk: 5X1 – 245/255/267/275/285-f, not there tonight
Accessory/Skill:
1a) 5X2 Three Stop Snatch Pulls DEMO VIDEO – done, up to 260 tonight
1b) 5X5 Strict Pull-ups + ME UB C2B Pull-ups (stay on bar after completing Strict PU) – done 5+12 across
Conditioning: Row 5k- 19:52, about a :30 pr, not a great rower. Pace was set for a 19:08, could not sustain negative splits the whole way tonight.
Note: The goal is negative splits throughout. Begin at roughly 85-90% of best 2k pace, and try to drop 500m splits by 1-3 seconds each 500m. Your final 500m should be the fastest.
M/29/153/California Region
BBG
1. 165
2. 225 PR
Strength
1a. DND
1b. 14-12-8-6
Conditioning
20:00.01