Terminology and Tempo
We’ve done some pause squats in the past, and they’re great for making sure you stay tight at the bottom of your lifts. We’ve also done tempo work, particularly for a 6 week cycle on our pullups and pushups.
Today we’re doing a little of both in our Strength work, and this is as good a time as any to talk about the terminology of tempo.
The lift is written as HBBS 32×1. What does that mean? Let’s break it down:
HBBS = High Bar Back Squat. Bar resting on the top of the shoulders, thumbs fully around the bar.
3: The number of seconds you spend in the eccentric (descending) phase of the lift. Count to 3 as you go down. This is SLOW.
2: The number of seconds you spend at the BOTTOM of the lift. This is the “pause” in your squat. Do it.
X: The number of seconds you spend coming UP from the bottom in the concentric (ascending) phase of the lift. Yes, X. This is not a number, but it emphasizes that the drive up out of the bottom should be powerful and fast.
1: The amount of time you spend standing at the top before starting to go down again. 1 second is a VERY SHORT amount of time. Just enough to be sure you’re reset and start going down again.
So for today, what this all adds up to is a very challenging triple of back squats – one that will not come close to your traditional 3-rep max in all likelihood, but will be very useful for spending a lot of time under tension and increasing your tightness and power. Let’s get after it!
For the WOD, just another double-up. It’ll be fun. Scale those pullups to jumping pullups if you need to go in order to go fast and keep moving…
Strength:
HBBS 32X1
3-3-3-3-3
WOD:
AMRAP 5
15 pull ups
15 jumping air squats
2min rest
AMRAP 5
15 Hang power clean (95/65)
60 Double unders
STR: 185#
WOD: 4+12 @ jumping pull ups, 1+12 @ 85#, singles