041 : 012 Complexus XIII
Session 13
‘Push, Carry, Curl’
Breathing ramp up Warm-up
Then...
Work to heaviest possible ladder complex (using either barbells or dumbbell) 3-2-1 reps of:
-Push press (or jerk) w/ controlled eccentric
-Hang power clean
-Bent over row Then...
AFAP complete bodyweight (in KG) in calories on airbike (or ski/row) Beginning at 0.00 and EMOM thereafter complete:
-20m farmers carry @ 40-50% bodyweight in each hand
-Add an additional 10m to carry each round
Then...
100 wall leaning bicep curls with empty bar
Perform 15 close grip pushups on bar @ every break
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
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
This complex employs a ladder format, meaning you’ll perform 3 reps of each movement, then immediately continue on with 2 reps of each movement before finishing with a single of each. This is one round of the complex. 6 reps per movement, 18 reps in total. The low reps should allow you
to push up to some fairly heavy weights, whilst alternating between pushing/pulling movements, as well as ballistic/ controlled movements and descending difficulty should allow for brief local recovery between each ‘rung’ of the ladder, so long as you don’t succumb to central fatigue. Work up to the heaviest weight with which you can complete an entire round (all 18 reps) unbroken. Use dumbbells or a barbell, pick your own poison— use both if that puts the jam in your doughnut.
Get the weight from shoulder to overhead by any means possible, BUT secure the lockout and control the eccentric as best as possible on all reps. Keep the hang cleans ballistic, but try to minimise the drop under the bar until you reach higher weights— think of this as a muscle clean for as long as possible. Perform the rows with your torso as parallel to the ground as possible, but don’t allow the weights to touch the ground ala a Pendlay row, keep the weight in the air and let it drift slightly in front of your shoulders to create a stretch through the lats, pull explosively up into the hips and squeeze your upper back hard, attempting to pause for a split second at the top of the rep.
The Conditioning
There isn’t much to add to this one. Performing carries as part of a ‘death by...’ protocol, rather than a traditional resistance movement allows you to go all in without overly worrying about technique; you really can just light the fuse. You calorie target is your bodyweight in kilograms (divide your weight in lbs by 2.2), this is a good leveller for ergs/ the air bike. If you have access to a bike, a ski-erg and a rower, pick the one that scares you the most. Use the heaviest dumbbells or kettlebells that you access to, but aim for around half of your bodyweight in each hand. If you don’t think you could cover 20-30m unbroken with this weight, bump it down slightly.
Measure out a 10m track, start a running clock, pick up your bells and shuttle forward and back once, covering 20m, immediately get on your machine and pull the pin. At the 1.00 minute mark get off and perform 3 x 10m carry shuttles, sprinting back to your machine as soon as you’re finished and opening up again. Continue in this fashion adding another 10m shuttle carry each minute until you’ve completed all of your calories (or can no longer fit the carries into the minute).
As ever, focus on your breathing throughout. There’s no good place to ‘recover’ here— this is a sprint from start to finish— but this doesn’t mean that breath conservation won’t serve to optimise your performance. Keep each nasal inhale powerful, deliberate and conscious, before exhaling just as deliberately and powerfully through your mouth. If you notice you’re panic breathing, just come back to those deliberate, powerful inhales and exhales.
Curls and Push-ups
Take as long as necessary to recover after the ride and carries, then grab an empty olympic bar, or a pair of dumbbells that you think you could curl four around 20 reps (with impeccable form). Lean your upper back against a wall and start performing bicep curls; explode up, lower under a two count. Flex your triceps at the bottom of each rep to ensure your biceps are lengthened. Once you can no longer complete a rep without a bit of body English, or control the weight back down, stop and perform 15 close grip push-ups, gripping the bar or your bells. Continue in this fashion until you reach 100 total curls.
Recovery/ Down Regulation
Immediately after the buzzer sounds, 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.
