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: October '22
Workout Of The Month
Strict Press
8 x 3 @ 80% of 3RM
2K Row Test
2000 Meter Row for time
*Goal times for this would be sub 9:00 for women and sub 8:00 for men.
What Was My Approach With This Workout?
Testing Day
The 2K row test is as much endurance as power. You can be very cardiovascularly fit, but if you’re not strong this workout will be a struggle. It’s definitely a test of strength and capacity in terms of your lungs and your power output. It’s a fair amount of time to be pushing at that clip.
What Do You Expect To Be Challenging?
Workouts like today’s are such a good mental character builder. The rowing machine exposes your character. What happens when it gets tough? When it gets hard? When it gets difficult. How do you fight that? How does your body respond to that? How does it handle stress? When I see a workout like this, I get excited. You’re getting fit, you’re building capacity and testing what you’ve been doing, but, you’re also revealing something about yourself.
What Do I Expect People To Like About This?
The Strict Press
I think everybody likes a good strength and bodybuilding cycle. I also think strict press is more fun as a whole, because when we do clean or snatch progressions we are all at different levels – some people love them, some people hate them. But with the strict press, we’re all on a more even footing. All we’re doing is pressing, there’s not a lot of technique involved, and unless you’re injured, there are no mobility issues that can hinder you. People like these kinds of strength cycles – strict press, bench press, deadlift, squatting – the more basic stuff.
2K Row Test
I also think we all like tests like this. In the moment it sucks, sure, but then we do it one time and we get motivation to do it again, to go a little faster.
What Modifications Are Applicable?
There are some cases where I may shorten the distance, but the biggest modification I would make is if there’s a person in my class that I’m unfamiliar with their fitness capacity. Because of what this test can do to your body, the stress and pain that it can cause and the effects afterwards – I would cap the test at 5 minutes. The ‘pain cave’ that we often talk about, needs to be trained, it doesn’t mean they’re not capable, they just haven’t been exposed to it before. So when people are new I give them a good workout, but I don’t want to put them in a position like that.
The ‘pain cave’ that we often talk about, needs to be trained, it doesn’t mean they're not capable, they just haven’t been exposed to it before.
Difficulty Level?
5/5
This was the hardest workout I’ve done in a long time. Short, but nasty!
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 is a semi-retired, professional hockey player, CrossFit gym owner/operator, organ donor, and inspiration to others.