Heavy Fran

[Adam Kurland]

I'm pretty sure there are references to this in earlier posts, but I couldn't find any in a few minutes of searching:

my fran time has stalled (~3:50), and I'm thinking a few go-rounds of heavy fran (more weight on thruster, at least) will help.

Has anyone used a protocal like this? If so, how was it structured and to what results?

Thanks.

[Júlíus Magnússon]

How long have you been stalled? And how often are you doing Fran? It's been more than a month since the last Fran...

[Adam Kurland]

Stalled for about two months. After following the WOD pretty religiously for a while, I felt like a change- and my lifting days have pretty much consisted of a Dan John "from the ground up" workout (basically power cleans, front squats, shoulder press) with a weekly CF metcon worked in- usually Fran, since that's a great way to get in CUs given serious time constraints (workday usually is about 6:30-7:30, with a fairly regular push to the right, so I have to get to the gym around 5 to have any consistency).

[Shawn Hultquist]

Adam this happened to me. On regular Fran days I would do Fran in my bunker gear and this seemed to help. I was able to knock a whole minute off. I am down to 4:30 now hoping to get to sub 4.

[Alex Reynolds]

I think the heavy fran would help. Just getting stronger in general will help. Post like this really make me have a lot of faith in the Starting Strenght and/or ME black box programs. More and more I am beggining to see that your strength is where its at when it comes to dominating some of these workouts. When you can get where 21 thrusters is like throwing a broomstick you will kill this workout.

[Júlíus Magnússon]

Speaking of Fran... I think I smell her just around the corner.

[Adam Kurland]

Thanks to all- though with a little more effort I could've, admittedly, used the search function more efficiently.

Heavy Fran this morning (115# thrusters) = 7:00, as opposed to ~4:00 +- normal time. I definitely saw the impact of the increased leg/upper body fatigue on my cu's. I had no idea what a difference 20#'s can make.

To put things in some context ( and reiterating Alex's earlier post)- I shaved about 90 seconds off my Fran time doing 3 months of SS while deployed (so not exactly optimal sleep/recovery time)

[Dave Laemers]

Originally Posted by Adam Kurland

Thanks to all- though with a little more effort I could've, admittedly, used the search function more efficiently.

Heavy Fran this morning (115# thrusters) = 7:00, as opposed to ~4:00 +- normal time. I definitely saw the impact of the increased leg/upper body fatigue on my cu's. I had no idea what a difference 20#'s can make.

The "official" heavy fran workout is thrusters @ 135# and weighted pullups at 45# with reps 15-12-9. There are videos of it in the exercises and demos section. I am currently working up to being able to do that as prescribed. My last attempt was 125# thrusters and 35# pullups in 19:42 (regular Fran sub 6).

Another good one we've tried is the workout "Lynne" except subbing the bench press for heavy thrusters. Killer on the forearms.

Best of Luck!

[Júlíus Magnússon]

When you say Heavy Fran, are you talking about just adding weight to the thrusters and/or pull-ups or are you talking about this?

[Júlíus Magnússon]

Originally Posted by Dave Laemers

Another good one we've tried is the workout "Lynne" except subbing the bench press for heavy thrusters. Killer on the forearms.

That sounds like an awesome workout. I don't think I'd be able to do much more than a single body weight thruster, though... Are you still going with the whole body weight thing or just going as heavy as you can?