Today we get in some accessory strength with the Romanian Deadlifts and then move into a short but sweet 3 round couplet that should be right around our ‘Fran’ time domain. (If you’ve done the CFL1 this MIGHT look a bit familiar!) We will get nice and warm on the barbell and then get 3 slow sets of 7 Romanian Deadlifts, working on keeping the back rigid and neutral while getting hamstring and glutes to fire. Then, the couplet is meant to a sprint. Unbroken everything for as long as possible. TIME!

Go out for a 400m jog. On your way back in for the turnaround do some skipping, side shuffling, high knees and butt kickers. Once you’re back, do 10 air squats with a nice long pause at the bottom. Move in to 10 push-up down dogs and 10 mountain climbers. Roll over onto your back and do 10 T-crossovers- lifting one leg and crossing it over the body and the arms are out to the side, shoulders down on the ground. Grab 10 more air squats and then 10-15 PVC good mornings. Take as long as you want on these, keeping the midline rigid and neutral every rep!

Grab you barbell or a light set of dumbbells and work through 10 reps of each, deadlift, hang clean, front squat, push press. Put a little weight on and this time do 10 RDLs, 5 front squats and 5 push press. Rest a bit before picking that same load up for 5-10 thrusters. One more weight change and we should be at the load used for the thruster burpee metcon. Do 5 thrusters at that weight. Now let’s move on to the RDL accessory piece. You will do 2 warm-up sets before deciding on a weight to use for your 3 sets of 7 reps. Rest 90 seconds to 2 minutes between each of the working sets. De-load your barbell or DBs back to the weight you’ll use for the thrusters and lets do a heart rate spike! 10 thrusters and 8 burpees for time. You are now ready.

On the Romanian Deadlifts you want to be very certain you are maintaining rigid neutral spine. The RDL may touch the ground at the bottom of the rep, or it may not. This depends on your ability to stay rigid throughout the midline. This lift starts with a higher hip than our conventional deadlift, you should feel it in the ham strings! Moving on to the 3 rounder… this weight needs to be something that you can go unbroken through at least rounds 1 and 2, maybe even round 3, but that will likely depend on your willingness to continue to push as you get deeper into this workout. On the thrusters, hit full depth and lock that bar out overhead on every single rep. On the burpees you do not need to stand up all the way, but you do need to take off of 2 feet as you laterally jump over your bar. Get down to the ground quick! This is a fast one, see you on the other side!

Go out and walk that same 400m course we started class with. Then spend a minute or more in an elevated child’s pose (arms extended on a table or counter or something) pressing the chest down towards the ground, taking in deep breaths and allowing your heart rate to come back to normal, it may take a while!