I need to get caught up here between workouts. To recap:

Last Thursday's kb amrap. I was smoked from the morning wod and I barely got 12 rounds in. 20kg for 5/5/5/5: R/L press,R/L snatch. Previously I got 13 + 10 and 13 + 16. Although I claimed to have gotten 15 rounds with Amir one night, I suspect that represents an off-by-one error.

Tuesday's strength session at Cutting Edge; I worked only on my bench as I got some impromptu coaching. I warmed up with:

95 x 5 x 2

115 x 5 x 1

135 x 5 x 1

Work sets:

144 x 3

163.5 x 3

185 x 5

Singles:

205

220

230 (PR)

240 - miss, blown bar path.

Worked on high arch, foot position closer to bar end of bench to support the arch, bend bar down/up during eccentric (down)/concentric (up) phases, lowering bar slowly to the solar plexus. 

This week we've been doing a sequence of wods with opposite gender partners. Today we 15 minutes to get to 1RMs of DL/Squat/O-head press (5 minutes each). Short version: get sweaty,partner up,grab plates and...it didn't go too bad. Ran out of time on the DL & squat, getting 365/345 with seconds left. So, bonus points for me for going 365 and not ripping anything and also, the squat felt super. Went very deep, no bounce and came up out of the hole quick and strong. Today makes me very optimistic for a 400lb+ squat very soon.

Tonight the kb amrap went better than it has in a while, 14 rounds + 5. No idea what day 4 of the throwdown is yet, not posted. As long as it doesn't have a run, I'm good.

Sumo is King

It's been 2 weeks since I tore my right hamstring while deadlifting. The bruise is fading and the swelling and tightness is greatly diminished. After the injury I continued to train but babied the leg quite a bit. What I found pleasantly surprising is that I could squat decently even on day 1 after the injury. Swinging kettlebells has been a bit dodgy though, as well as anything that causes my leg to straighten fully. So this morning when I looked at the WOD I felt some hesitancy as we were scheduled to work up to a 2RM on the DL. 

After the warmup (500m row/spidermans/inchworms), Chris W and I partnered up as usual. The idea was to take a few minutes to warm up the movement, then the balance of the time to hit 3 sets of heavy doubles. If I was uninjured I would have targeted 345/365 but I had no idea what to aim for and try not to tear this again. I decided to follow Chris as I guessed he'd be a bit under where I'd normally be. We pulled 135 and 225 for warm ups, then began adding weight. Doubles at 255 & 275 felt like nothing. Work sets at 295/305 also felt very light and that's where I packed it in.

The next part of the WOD was a 6 minute amrap of 3 hang cleans/9 kb swings. I would have preferred to use the prescribed 32kg kb, but I couldn't find one so I used a 24kg. Prescribed weight on the cleans was 155 but I went light at 115 and that was heavy enough by my last 2 or 3 sets. I finished with 6 full + 10 and I definitely should have pushed harder with the selected weights or sucked it up and gone heavier.

Last set was 3 minutes in plank position on the rings which felt pretty good. (60/60/30/30).  

While Chris was pulling I watched from the front and side as he tried to assimilate the coaching from Dean. First, I think Dean is great and I liked what he had to say and second, I think Chris was doing a good job putting the input into practice. In light of all the above, I think most people, maybe everyone, should spend some time learning to pull from a sumo stance. The plus side is that it is easier (I believe anyways, and it certainly is for me) to get the back more erect. This is more efficient and safer. Everyone I see pulling conventionally (although I do need to pay attention to the more seasoned lifters) has a deficit where their hips rise several inches before their shoulders do. Often the lifter's back comes close to parallel before the bar begins moving. Some video work and self-review would likely help here as well. 

For me, the sumo stance is King during the DL and squat and anyone in Crossfit aspiring to lift 1.5x body weight or more should give it some attention in favor of the conventional stance.

For reference, here are 2 images of Julia Ladewski. These are screencaps from a video on YouTube (Ultra-wide deadlift 225x5).