Pressed 190lbs x 2, then got another single. I could have pressed it for more reps. I felt good for the warm-ups and smoked 180lbs pretty well as my last warm-up, intending to go for 190 x 3, but I guess I was too ambitious. I’ll take three reps total at 190lbs though, and I may just attempt this again next week and do some reduced volume afterwards for the press.

I snatched like a fucking loser today, worked up to 195lbs + 1 snatch from below the knee hang. I missed 205lbs and 215lbs from the below the knee hang. I could be a better athlete.

Today was one of those rare days where my jerks felt as good as my cleans, and I hit 265lbs pretty well then went to 290lbs to attempt a +5lbs PR. My cleans were not feeling that strong but I felt I had it in me to jerk a PR – 290lbs was a touch out in front, but otherwise felt pretty doable. I was feeling aggressive and mildly depressed and loaded the bar to 295lbs and thought about things that make me want to fucking kill myself and managed to do this:

Front squat 365lbs x 1 and got stapled on the next rep. Did two sets at 315lbs for 5 and 4. This could have been a lot better, like, I could have fucking done 365 for a triple, but I guess I could have been fresher before attempting a front squat PR.

Weighted ring dipped up to 90lbs x 2, couldn’t power through the last rep for the triple. I’ll try this one more time on Thursday after my intensity bench, if it doesn’t go I’ll see what I can do for a 5rm PR.

I just want to say that I fasted for like, 18 hours prior to this workout. I mean, I fasted for 18 hours, ate a lbs of rump roast and some carrots and two small red potatoes, had a waxy maize/protein shake and a Starbucks mocha.

Here is a video of Saul’s 480lbs deadlift PR from Saturday.

Saul had missed 455lbs like twice before attempting 470lbs and 480lbs successfully with trap slaps.

Hey guys – this is a message from brobility wod.com. Look – if you’re not trap slapping your athletes, you’re robbing them of pounds off their lifts. We need to think about blood flow and circulation and it’s relation to psychological excitation. When we slap these traps hard enough we get this really nice erythema. Do it hard enough and you get a hand-shaped tattoo. Depending on your level of sexual deviancy, you might be able to compare this to a mushroom tattoo. That nice, subtle tingly sensation you feel after good traptual contact? That’s a sudden influx of capillary blood flow. We look for the same thing when we want to ice hot spots. We already know the benefits to a sudden dilation of capillaries as far as the recovery process. What we haven’t looked at is it’s relationship to raising the excitation level of our athletes. Humans respond to pain. If you tickle me, do I not laugh? If you prick me, do I not bleed? If I enter the pain cave with a lacrosse ball lodged in my external rotators, do I not make a pain face (note – you shouldn’t). We need to start thinking about gearing our athletes up for max-effort attempts. We can start with the very basic tool of trap slaps. Let’s activate those nerve-endings, get the athletes thinking about setting their upper back for the pull, have them respond to pain, and get them pulling at full capacity. So today’s homework: have a super friend slap your traps for your worksets or your heaviest attempts. Experiment with severity, observe erythema. Do I pull better? Do I “feel” these muscles more? How does it affect my performance? That’s all for today, this is brobility wod, we’ll see you tomorrow.

Patrick asks:

Question. About your training layout. Lascek says you follow a loose framework week to week. What is that framework/layout?

Saul answered in the comments, it’s basically Texas Method with no light days and not on a set schedule. Except recently I’ve stopped doing TM for back squats and front squats and just alternate between each and try to hit a topset, then back off and so some volume. I do the oly lifts as many training days as I can if time allows, and I just work up to a single or two, though I’ll try to vary the movements i.e. doing work from the hang or boxes or focusing on the power snatch/clean variants to keep from burning out and to reinforce positions. I also do a volume week and intensity week for pressing, i.e. 4×5 press and 4×5 bench one week, then go for 1-3rms in press and bench the next. I’ve improved my pressing quite a bit and pretty consistently with this. I rotate my pulls each week, going from oly snatch/clean pulls and shrugs, to snatch-grip deads, to RDLs, and I’ll be doing legit heavy dead-stop deads after the oly meet in Houston.

Brian asks:

are there a lot of fobs in your area? i live in a concentrated area of south east asian fobs (mostly vietnamese), though i rarely meet any younger fobs my age. it seems that most have already assimilated pretty well.
which makes me wonder, how do you feel about how asian americans have assimilated into american culture? how do you feel that im asking how that feels?
oh and have you ever tried pho?

Yes, there are lot of fobby Koreans in Plano. I’m not friends with any of them.

I get along best with Asian-Americans who are at least as assimilated as I am. If I like an Asian girl, she is a lot more assimilated than I am. Should I talk to someone about this? Do I have a problem?

I love pho. I haven’t had it a long time but I could be convinced to not cook for a meal to go eat a bowl of pho pre- or post-workout (assuming it’s a volume day).

hamburgerfan asks:

Brent: when do you mob, relative to your workouts? I can’t mob before, or I will be too loose. I can’t mob after, or my muscles will start cramping in an out of control manner.

There are some mobs that I love pre-workout, though not necessarily immediately before. I do them at home over the course of about half an hour, then drive 20-30mins to go train and do a separate warm-up. Couch stretch, hip flexion + external rotation, best shoulder mob ever, double lacrosse ball to t-spine, peri-scapular death, and rolling out my high hammies and glutes half an hour before training always make me feel pretty fucking good. Suprapatellar tack-and-stretch and the distal triceps analog are good the night before, I also prefer to do hip approximation the night before. I haven’t tried to do anything immediately post, if I do mob post-workout it’s typically close to bed time.

Karibot, I’m happy you squat high-bar. In fact, if anyone else squats high-bar, please report in the comments.