Joe Tolles CrossFit Series: December ’23
Joe wraps up the year and the dumbbell portion of the series with the Dumbbell Snatch.
More Than Our Story
Joe Tolles CrossFit Series: December '22
Workout Of The Month
Barbell Complex
Every 2:00 for 5 sets:
Deadlift
Clean
Hang Clean
Push Jerk
DT With A Spin
5 Rounds For Time:
12 Deadlift
9 Hang Power Clean
6 Push Jerk
12/10 Calories Echo Bike/Rower
*115/85 pound barbell men/women
What Was My Approach With This Workout?
(Fitness Building Day)
The complex was actually from the CrossFit open a couple of years ago, but I like adding the jerk to it. Most of the time you’re not going to deadlift, into a clean, into a hang clean, into a jerk, because it makes you really focus on your technique, especially when you’re going heavy. Because if your technique isn’t great, you’re not going to lift anything heavy just because there’s so much repetition and time under tension that it’s never going to go that well. As your technique gets better, and you’re more efficient at it, your weight will go up for sure.
Today’s WOD (Workout of the Day) was based on DT, but I wanted to add in a machine, but I also wanted to make it a little lighter, which people are going to break it up less, so it’s going to be harder. Everybody thinks about a strategy… How am I going to break this up? And the weight dictates that, your strength dictates that. 115/85 is a barbell weight that should go unbroken for pretty much everybody. It becomes a question of how bad you want it. Do you really have to break it up? Probably not, but it going to hurt. 155/105 – the weight dictates the workout, 115/85 – the barbell is light enough that it’s the person that dictates the workout.
DT is a traditional, old school benchmark CrossFit workout:
5 rounds of: 12 deadlifts, 9 hang power cleans, 6 Jerks @ 155/105.
Whereas some of the traditional CrossFit workouts are less relevant today as the average CrossFitter’s skillset has increased so much - some workouts like DT, maintain. It’s hard, no matter how fit you are.
What Do You Expect To Be Challenging?
For me it was knowing that I wanted to be under 10 minutes. So knowing that I needed to be under 2 minutes a round to finish and not letting myself slow down on the machine because it’s so easy to let your foot off the gas, not letting it slip. You actually have to have that internal fight with yourself. That’s kind of what I love, when I give you guys a workout, it’s like a math problem, and you have the ability to solve it, it’s up to you how you’re going to do it. Sometimes with workouts, things like muscle ups or the pegboard, its the movements that dictate the workout. But with a workout like today’s – you dictate the workout. How bad do you want it? You can go fast if you want to hurt that bad, and that’s all grit and mental toughness. Those are my favorite types of workouts. But to coach, as a coach and an owner, I love ones like today where I can see it in people’s faces. When they get on their fourth round, finish the fourth round, they’re on the bike – I can tell, I can just know right where they’re at.
What Do I Expect People To Like About This?
I think this is a workout that a lot of people enjoy because it’s not super long, but you can hit it hard. I think that the fine line for CrossFit is that most people hate workouts under 5 minutes, and hate workouts over 15 minutes. So that like 9-15 minutes is the sweet spot where people enjoy it. Also the movements, deadlifts, cleans and jerks most people can do. A snatch, some people can’t do it well, so they don’t enjoy it. Say you come in and it’s muscle up/handstand walk day – for people that can do that they love it, but for people who can’t… So with a clean almost everybody can do it, and everybody can do the bike. So people feel like they’re more on an even keel.
I debated it. These are the kinds of things that go through my head when I’m programming. Should I leave the weight? Should I leave the weight at 155, even 135? I ended up deciding that would just make people break it up more. So when adding in cardio, which most people don’t like, they’re just going to break up – it gives you an out. I think that’s the one thing with defining the proper stimulus that’s the beauty in programming. Most people that don’t focus on programming don’t understand. They just read the board and they do the workout. But if you really dive into it, you’re always trying to find the perfect way to challenge people enough, but not hide behind a heavy barbell. It really depends on the day. Sometimes it’s one deadlift at 405 pounds and that’s just what you’re looking for for the day. But with today’s workout, the goal should be your time. The goal should be like ten-12 minutes, maybe 15 if you’re challenging yourself a little bit. But like if you’re 18, 20, that just means that you went too heavy, you went too slow.
That’s the beauty of CrossFit and I’m always trying to test you guys with this – there’s always this group that goes way too light because they’re afraid to go heavy, and there’s this group that goes way too heavy because they’re afraid to go fast. Your goal, and how you achieve your fitness, is getting in the middle of that – where it’s heavy enough to challenge you, but it’s light enough where you can send it.
I’m in my head I'm thinking: How are people going to do this? How would I do it?
It helps, because I do all the workouts, so that helps me program.
What Modifications Are Applicable?
I would adjust the weights or the calories. For some people 15 calories on the rower going hard is like 30 seconds, but for some it’s closer to a minute. It’s important to know your athletes and not have them on the machine for so long – I wanted it to be like 30 to 40 seconds of cardio. If it was taking you 2 minutes, you missed the point.
Difficulty Level?
2.5/5
Today’s workout was pretty average for once – I’d say two and a half out of five. I think this was a nice little Monday workout. Start out with some heavy lifting then transitioning into some good cardio. Nothing crazy, but excellent.
North Shore Athletic Club
Joe Tolles
Joe Tolles is a semi-retired, professional hockey player, CrossFit gym owner/operator, and organ donor. He is a down-to-earth person whose work ethic and motivation are infectious.
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Joe Tolles
Joe Tolles is a semi-retired, professional hockey player, CrossFit gym owner/operator, organ donor, and inspiration to others.