Old Skool

It was a zoo at the gym yesterday with a veritable queue of jocks lined up at the squat rack to do bicep curls.

Wanting to do some more box squats, but not being a big fan of lines or banter like "How many sets you got left" or "You mind if I work in, brah," (The answers "I don't know yet" and "Yes" are never well received) I had to develop a different strategy.

During my current preferred warmup (stretching, mobility drills, hang clean and press, and some hang snatches), I built a platform in the corner of the gym and dragged over a barbell and a couple of rubber weights. So it would be: Clean and Press the weight, lower weight into position for a back squat, and complete a set of box squats.

It wasn't until I had the weight nestled across my shoulders that the thought of "this is going to be a bitch to get back to the ground without a) just dropping it or b) killing myself" occurred to me.

Fortunately, my meager clean and press kept the weight light enough so that I wasn't in too much of a bind pressing the bar up off of my shoulders again. I didn't like push pressing with the bar in that that position, but I was out of options, on a limited amount of time, and not a fan of the line at the squat rack.

It turned out to be good technique work with the light weight, and I really pushed to hold good form on the squat and not just let my ass drop to the box. All told, a fairly productive, fairly risky workout. Jolly good fun.

Box Squats w/clean and press

2 x 6 @ 45
4 x 6 @ 115
2 x 6 @ 45 w/ ~1.5" lower box

Did some stretching and called it a day. I've been a little sick, it's been brutally cold and crappy out, and, to be honest going through the full range of motion with proper form on a squat is taking a lot out of me.

I added 2 x 30' and 1 x 45' sessions on the bike at recovery to easy aerobic pace when I had some time.

Done and done. 105' on the bike, 45' at the gym, 150' total.