042 : 003 Complexus XVI

Session 16

‘Brokeback’

Breathing ramp up
Warm-up
Then...
In a 15 minute window build to the maximum weight possible for the following complex:

2 x front squat
3 x romanian deadlift
4 x conventional deadlift 10sec hold below the knee

*eliminate movements from complex the round after you fail to hit prescribed reps Then...

At the final weight you were able to complete the entire complex with, perform a 12 min AMRAP of:

2 x front squat
3 x romanian deadlift
4 x conventional deadlift Max hold below the knee

Each time you drop the bar perform

15/12 cals ski/bike/row 20 air squat

Immediately after 12 min AMRAP, for each round you accumulated perform 3 x that number in burpee pull-ups (ie 6 total round equals 18 burpee pull-ups)

Feel free to use straps/chalk throughout.

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 and maintain a strong brace and powerful intra-abdominal pressure in a compromised position is vital to weathering this workout. Think on that here. Picture your trunk as a barrel. Fill it up. Create pressure from the inside. Hold it strong.

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

Immediately into...

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

The Complex

As in previous weeks, this complex consist of movements that ramp up from the least mechanically advantageous, through to the most, with reps increasing commensurately (as well as centra fatigue), this essentially means the relative ‘difficulty’ of the complex should be consistent throughout, meaning that no single movement comes at the detriment of any other in the complex, nor the complex as a whole. I hope this element of programme design is very evident by now, and that you’d be comfortable in intuitively creating your own complex, that would get you to the same place.

Much more lower body-centric this week, versus last week, we’re going to hit the entire posterior chain, once we’ve biased the quads by front loading a squat pattern. The final part of this complex (the hold) however will test your entire body, and you ability to make your body work as a cohesive unit.

The complex itself is pretty simple, hit 2 front squats, lower the bar to the waist (don’t drop it), and perform 3 Romanian deadlifts, pushing your glutes to the back of the room and actively seeking that stretch in your hamstrings. Lower the bar to the ground (again, don’t drop it) get tight and perform 4 deads. After your final dead, lower the bar down into the soft spot just below your knee cap and hold it here for ten seconds. This may feel like an extremely compromised position, so get tight and stay tight.

Add weight each round and drop out movements as you fail to hit the prescribed reps; but as ever don’t ramp up so quickly that you barely get a look at the front squats. Take between 6-8 total rounds to build to heavy here. We want to keep the complex together for as long possible.

This section ends at the heaviest weight you can deadlift for 4 reps before performing a 10 second hold— again, the hold is part of the complex; if you hit the reps but not the hold, you failed the complex. Lighten the load and go again.

This is a great exercise in fostering positional awareness without having to worry about pulling up into a clean or snatch afterwards, all you’ve got to worry about is creating tension, building safety and stability through the system, and holding it. Make that your focus. Create ballast in your trunk against external forces. Lots and lots of ballast.

Use straps, this isn’t a forearm exercise.

Complex conditioning

Rest appropriately and strip the bar down to the final weight you were able to complete the full complex with.

Now this part is going to take an extreme amount of self-accountability. In 12 minutes your goal is to perform as few rounds as possible, whilst also performing as many rounds as are presented to you. What I mean by that is— the goal at the end of each complex is to maintain the below the knee hold for as long as possible, each time you drop the bar you’ll perform your cals and squats. Now, at this point, you could simply take your sweet time getting back under the bar, using this dead time to simply allow the clock to run itself out. There is an incentive to do this, the fewer rounds you accrue, the fewer burpee pull-ups you’re going to incur at the end (these are meant as an incentive to maintain the holds for as long as possible). However, you have to ask yourself as you’re recovering after those squats ‘what am I here for?’ Do you want an easy time, or a

transformative time? Resting longer may result in fewer burpee pull-ups, but do you want this workout to give you what you want, or what you deserve?

When you reach the end of those burpee pull-ups, ask yourself:
“Did I actively earn the reps I performed? Or did I actively dodge the ones that I didn’t?”

We’re here to make life a little harder for ourselves now, so that it might be a little easier for us later, aren’t we?

Recovery/ Down Regulation

Immediately after the 12 minute 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.