040 : 017 Complexus X

Session 10

‘Leg Work’

Breathing ramp up
Warm-up
Then...
Work to the heaviest weight possible of following complex:

2 x Front squat

4 x Romanian deadlift

6 x Deadlift

Then...

@ 50-60% of finishing weight complete one round of complex every two minutes, with an additional 2 x burpee over bar after deadlifts. Add two more burpees over bar every round (ie. 2, 4, 6 etc...) Workout finishes when you can no longer complete prescribed work in 120s, or you give up.

Immediately into...

Walking or seated down regulation Until you reach a comfortable nasal: 4-6-8-0 breathing cadence.

The Ramp Up

3 rounds of-
5 x Triangle breathing 7:7:7:0 20 x Power breathing 1:0:1:0 1 x Full inhale
1 x Max hold
1 x Full exhale
1 x Max hold

Your ability to create a good ‘breath economy’— bringing yourself back to a slower cadence after each round of complex and burpees, will largely determine how far you can make it through this workout. Rest better= recover faster= move quicker= rest longer. That’s the name of the game. So pay attention to your breath mechanics here; get to know them intimately so that they become easier to access and manipulate, even under duress.

Inhale, focus on filling from the bottom up; use your nose an breathe deep into the bottom of your trunk and lower back, before working your way up into your chest and then your upper back. Your rib cage should expand in all directions. For power breathing execute a quick but full and powerful inhale through your nose, then simply open your mouth wide and ‘dump’ the air out on the exhale. Get into a quick rhythm. After 20 reps perform 1 final full inhale through the nose, filling your trunk, and then hold. Pay attention to air hunger cues— little tremors, swallowing, fidgeting. Before they get too strong, perform a long exhale under control through your nose, completely emptying the tank, then hold until you feel strong air hunger. Return to triangle breathing and repeat for 3 rounds.

The Complex

If you have access to a rack, feel free to use it if you think the clean will become a limiting factor. A very, very simple complex without much cueing for me to add here. Hit your two squats, drop the bar to your waist (without dropping it) hit four Romanians, really focussing on pushing your hips back, controlling the eccentric and searching for the deepest stretch in your hamstrings. Your knees don’t need to be locked out, they should have a slight bend, but maintain the same knee angle throughout, prioritise stretching your hamstrings over getting the bar all of the way to the ground. In fact, the bar shouldn’t touch the ground; if you have the length in your hamstrings/ the mechanics to get there easily whilst maintaining the same knee angle, then stand on plates or a block. Avoid the floor to keep the tension on those hamstrings. Slowly down; snap back up. After your final Romanian, unlock your knees and switch to conventional deadlifts to keep the party moving. Build to the heaviest weight you can complete a full complex with, without dropping the bar. Use anything/ everything you have to aid your grip (chalk/ straps etc). The strength and dexterity of your lower body and posterior chain is what we’re testing here, not your forearms.

If you can, bring friends and have fun with this.

The Complex Conditioning

Rest as necessary after your final lift then strip the bar down to 50-60% of your finishing weight, or the closest convenient integer. As ever, don’t short change yourself here, if you know that you’re very good at maintaining rep after rep very near your 1rm, go heavier. Start a running clock and complete one full round of the complex, immediately after your final deadlift perform 2 x burpees over the bar and come into rest. You have up until the two minute mark to recover, at this point that is a lot of time. But don’t just passively wait— pay attention and actively rest. At two minutes perform another complex, and this time complete 4 burpees over the bar. Again come into a conscious rest period and attempt to bring yourself back into a ready but recovered stated. Continue in this fashion, adding another two burpees every two minutes and attempting to optimise your recover between rounds. As I said up top “Rest better= recover faster= move quicker= rest longer”. This sounds incredibly obvious, it IS incredibly obvious, but how many of us actually action it? How many of us see that ticking clock as no more than that, and simply hope that we’re recovered enough once the buzzer sounds? As better people than I have said— ‘hope is not a good plan’.

Once you can no longer complete a full round of prescribed reps, call it a day.

A note on the definition of ‘quitting’: in a ‘death by...’ format such as this, I think most people ‘quit’ in the round before the one that sounds the death knell. The round where you know you’ll have to push hard to get any sort of rest to be able to operate properly in the next round. That’s the round that’s make or break, or more accurately, make or pace. If you slow down before the cliffs edge, you’re definitely not going to make the jump. Give yourself the opportunity to fail at the edges of your physical capacity, not your emotional capacity.

Recovery/ Down Regulation

Come into laying or seated position with your hips raised above your knees if you can. If not, simply move slowly and deliberately as you transition into whatever’s next in your day. Wrap your full attention around your breath, observe where it’s at and begin to slowly nudge it downwards with a gentle but deliberate inhale, creating a little bit of space at the top of the breath, before slowly letting it back out under full control. Aim to work towards a breathing cadence of 4-6-8-0 and spend as long here as you can spare.