Crossfit: Elizabeth

"Elizabeth"

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

I mentioned before how I had a mental block about dipping under 135 pounds during cleans. It's like my body thinks it's going to get crushed if I dip under the bar with authority. Never mind that I shoulder press 130 pounds, and front squat 135 pounds easily. There's just some block that makes me dip under the bar timidly and results in the bar not getting to the rack position fully or quickly.

"What can I do to get over that?", I asked myself. "Do Elizabeth as Rx'd.", I answered, "no matter how long it takes." "That seems scary I said to myself." "I've never squat cleaned 135 pounds because of my stupid mental block and now you want me to do it 45 times?" "Yes," I said, "now quit being a sissy."

So that's what I did, as far as the full squat cleans go. 135 pounds, 45 times. At first many reps were really power cleans followed by front squats. My wrist and shoulder flexibility is improving but still tight. As a result, I sometimes don't get my elbows up enough and I don't grip the bar tight enough and this leads to the bar getting in the rack position with my pinky and ring finger slipping off the bar. That makes lowering the bar extra-difficult. After I noticed these errors, I started pulling through on the first pull and dipping under with authority and keeping a good grip on the bar and in the second and third rounds, the cleans got very smooth. Sweet.

As far as the dips go, I was going to bring my rings to the gym but figured I'd just sub bar dips x2 since I was focused on doing the cleans. I've seen suggestions that bar dips sub for ring dips at a 3-1 ratio but I think that's only for muscle ups*. I have rings at home and I know my bar dip to ring dip ratio is 2-1. I believe muscle up ratio is 3-1, as in 3 dips and 3 pull-ups for one muscle up. Because a muscle-up is much more than a ring pull-up followed by a ring dip, more than 2 ring pull-ups followed by two ring dips too. If you don't believe me, try one. I can't do one without jumping into it.

Oh yeah, my time? 35:12

Plenty of room for improvement but at least I kicked that mental block.

*My bad, it is 3-1 sub in the Crossfit FAQs. Damn, I'm going to bring my rings next time. I know for a fact that 21-15-9 rings dips is hella easier, at least for me, than 63-45-27 bar dips. I'm not just guessing either, I've done ring dips, and while they're harder, I know I could do 21 rings dips way faster than 63 regular dips, so be it, I half assed it on dips today. But I did do weighted dips yesterday and bench pressing after the Crossfit WOD because I didn't look at the next day WOD, so it's not a total wuss-out.