A Rob Orlando-Like Moment

Didn’t Drop The F-Bomb This Time

Today, I was a little more considerate. I didn’t drop the F-bomb today during our 1 rep max power clean session, but the intensity was still there.

So here’s what we did today:

A) 4 sets of single rep power cleans, the last set being a 1 rep max test, rest 2 minutes
B) 4 sets of 3 rep shoulder presses, last set being a 3 rep max, rest 2 minutes

WOD:
8 min AMRAP
80% of 1RM power clean
15 air squats after every 3 reps of the clean

A pretty brutal load for the hour, although it’s more of my type of workout. No running or annoying bodyweight movements, aside from air squats in the WOD which are nothing to me since the squat is my thing.

I Just Wanted To Fuckin Clean

For real, once the workout was posted the night before, all I could think of was that 1 rep max power clean. I was visualizing in my sleep. I was practicing the movement in my kitchen. Although, no, I wasn’t waking up with my arms in the rack position haha.

When we started the strength portion of the workout, I didn’t really care too much about the shoulder press. I pretty much PR’d that 3RM, although that’s not saying much at 115#. I just wanted to rip that barbell off the floor.

I started things off with a few reps of 135# to warmup. The weight just shot up there without having to dip down to catch the bar, so that was a good sign. My body wanted this. Bad. For my first set, I did 185# and since it was quite a bit of a jump from the warmup, I felt a bit uneasy. I didn’t let that phase me.

Then I did my first shoulder pre…fuck it. As I said, the shoulder presses weren’t important to me lol.

For set #2 of the power cleans, I did 205# and it felt good. The bar landed perfectly on the meaty part of my shoulders, although I landed my feet rather wide.

In between sets, I was just amping myself up. Once in a while, I’d chitchat with some people in class, but I was honestly listening to every 3rd word someone said. I just wanted that PR. Bad. I’m normally a really happy person, so I tried finding any sliver of negativity in my mind to fuel my last 2 lifts. What did that consist of? I think it’s better that you don’t know lol. Maybe this is something you can try out since shit…I was in the motherfuckin zone.

Lift #3 of 225# went up pretty nice, with only a slight walk forward to center the bar on my shoulders. Okay, I felt good to go. Then and there, I knew it was on.

Minutes later, for lift #4, I put a bit of chalk on my hands, just enough for a solid grip. Too much of it will increase the chances of rips FYI. A lot of people don’t realize this, and I used to chalk up like crazy when I started. Anyway…I stepped up the bar, aligned my laces with the barbell as usual. Looked up at the clock. 10 seconds to go.

9.
8.
7.
6.

I gripped the bar with both hands, got into the ready position, and counted the last 5 seconds in my head.

5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

Rip that shit.

The bar carrying 235 pounds shot up there like never before. It was like everything was happening in slow motion. The mechanics. All the stuff I read in Starting Strength. All the countless times the coach would recite the cues for the clean. In that moment of slow motion, it’s like I was able to check every aspect of my form. Everything came together perfectly.

I dropped my body slightly into a quarter-squat position. The bar landed on my shoulders, and time went back to normal. Noticing the bar still needed some care to complete the rep, I walked forward. I yelled out AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. One step. Another step. Straightened out my core.

Success.

Once I realized I pulled off the 235# power clean, a 10# PR from November, I couldn’t help but break out into a “Rob Orlando-like moment”. Oh…what exactly is that? In the 2010 CrossFit Games Northeast Regionals, Rob did 3 reps of a 300# clean and jerk. Get an idea of my celebration from this part of the vid.

I was yelling out YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Did a Tiger Woods-like fist pump. Shit, I even jumped up in the air a bit cause I was SO amped.

Then I ran to our “PR bell”, rang it like crazy, and let out one last yell.

The owner of the box was cracking up. He was loving it. As I said in my F-bomb article, that’s so out of character for me. Coach was just like, “Whoaaaaaa! Where did all THAT come from?”

After a few moments of simmering down, Coach walked over to me as I was stripping off the weights, and said, “Look at you. When you first walked in here, you were a shy kid. Look at you now. Good job!”

The little things like that mean a lot. I felt really good after that, and I’m sure he was stoked as well. Just imagine how fulfilling his business is? To see people grow and mature over time like that? It must be great.

And That’s Not All..

We still had the 8 minute AMRAP.

Okay, this is the sad part. I fucked up my math for 80% of my 1RM. Someone was using the calculator at the time, so I just wrote it out on the whiteboard. After years of relying on a TI83+ and Excel for math at school, I felt like an idiot struggling with a simple multiplication problem haha. I couldn’t focus after that lift as well, but yeah, enough with the excuses.

I was supposed to use 188# for the WOD, but did 205#…needless to say, I still managed to get 16 reps in those 8 minutes 🙂 It wasn’t until the end that one of my friends pointed out the weight I was using. Oh well…it was a weight I didn’t think I could stick with for the whole 8 minutes, but I pulled it off. Man, today was an awesome day.

Happy Monday!