Inaugural Functional Strength Challenge

Inaugural Functional Strength Challenge

10 men kicked off the inaugural Functional Strength Challenge (FSC) with grit and determination this morning.  No one knew exactly what to expect or what they could achieve.  Most, if not all, left the AO with a PR or two, and no, not just because it was our first event.  They were just that good.

The Thang

Disclaimer – quite thorough.  (This is a CSAUP, after all)

Overview

• Participant categories – Pax (open to all), Meathead (experienced KB users), and Respect (50+)
• Events – deadlift, pull-up, snatch
• Max reps in each event
• Pax are ranked within each event.  Ranks are tallied across all events to determine the finishing places for each category.

COP – aka Warmup

• Mosey – quite the #crowdpleaser
• SSH
• LSS
• Merkins
• Mosey back

Main event(s)

• Deadlift – max reps
  • Meatheads led us off with max reps of 2 x 48 kg (total 212 lbs)
  • Respect followed up with their reps of 2 x 40 kg (total 176 lbs)
  • Pro tip:  next time, wear long socks.  #chaffing
• Pull-ups – max reps
  • Meatheads again led us off, this time with body weight as the only thing holding us down.
  • Respect brought up the rear.
• Snatches – max reps
  • This is the big one.  What we’ve all waited for.  The separator of men from boys.  Let’s get on with it.
  • Again, the Meatheads were first and set a mighty standard with their volume of 24 kg (53 lb) snatches.
  • The Respects held their own with a similar high volume of 20 kg (44 lb) snatches.

COT

Moleskine

“A good time was had by all.”  OK.  No one really said that, at least out loud.  But more than one expressed an interest, not only in doing this again, but more than annually.  YHC considers that a success and was already thinking of doing this semi-annually.  Keep your ears open during COT for an announcement this Fall.

Full results are online, but suffice it to say, everyone put up impressive numbers.  All exceeded what we see in typical workouts and even more than we saw a few weeks ago during our logistical dry run.  As an example, for a KB certification, the snatch test requires a minimum of 100 snatches in 5 minutes.  8 of 10 participants exceeded the standard, and of the remaining 2, one was new to snatches while the other had just completely dominated the deadlifts!  Deadlifts and pull-ups were equally impressive.

Looking forward to the next event (although I’ll admit dreading the snatches already…hopefully it’ll pass).

Aye.