Wednesday's Workout: Sumo Fran

There's no better way to start a morning than with a workout named after a 1930s strongman, the national sport of Japan, and a nasally-voiced nanny from Queens.

Strength Skill:

• Zercher Squats (3 sets of 3, 2 sets of 1)

By the end, I thought I'd PR'ed, given the effort it took for me to complete the final rep. But then I checked my notebook and saw that I managed to squat 30 more pounds back in December. I guess that's the target for next Wednesday.

Metcon:

Time for some Sumo Fran -- essentially Fran, but with sumo deadlift high-pulls in place of the thrusters.

For time:

• 21 SDHPs (95lbs)
• 21 pull-ups
• 15 SDHPs (95lbs)
• 15 pull-ups
• 9 SDHPs (95lbs)
• 9 pull-ups

In a word: Awesome. I can't feel my forearms any more, but it was totally worth it.

Result: 5:35 as RXed. My Sumo Fran time's about a minute faster than my regular old Fran time -- probably 'cause I suck at thrusters. But I also prefer Sumo Fran because: (1) I can dump the bar between reps without losing a ton of time, and (2) it gives me an excuse to poorly Photoshop Fran Drescher's head onto a female sumo wrestler's body.

Wednesday's Workout: Zerch & Destroy

Back in the 1930s, you couldn't exactly roll into your local Dick's Sporting Goods and pick up a squat rack for your home gym. Even big-name competitive powerlifters and professional strongmen like Missouri's Ed Zercher didn't have one.

So Zercher did the next best thing: He loaded a barbell on the floor, deadlifted it up to mid-thigh, squatted down and balanced the bar on his quads. From there, he reached his arms under the bar and grasped it in the crook of his elbows -- and stood up.

This combo came to be known as the Zercher Squat. For decades, it's been used across the globe by lifters looking to improve their squatting; more than almost anything else, it boosts strength in the deep squat position, where folks are generally weakest and least stable. An added bonus: Zercher squats are fun. In the ten months since I joined CrossFit Palo Alto, we've done a few Zercher cycles, and they've been among my favorites.

We don't do 'em from the floor, though. (Why? Probably because Tim doesn't want to put everyone in traction. Go figure.) Instead, our Zercher squats are done from racks. They look something like this:

As you can see, they are awesomely awesome. And we got to do them again this morning.

The details of today's workout, after the jump...