Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Extremely Hard

37 squat cleans at 185/135 lb is a brutal combination of high skill, heavy load, and significant volume. Squat cleans demand technical proficiency under fatigue, and 185 lb is near-maximal for many average athletes. Unlike Grace (30 clean & jerks at 135), the squat clean adds a full squat each rep, compounding leg fatigue. The rep count of 37 ensures no pacing strategy prevents severe muscular failure. Most average athletes cannot complete this as prescribed.

Benchmark Times for John Giordano

• Elite: <5:00
• Advanced: 6:15-7:45
• Intermediate: 9:30-11:30
• Beginner: >28:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Flexibility (8/10): Squat cleans demand significant hip, ankle, thoracic, and wrist mobility. A full squat catch position requires excellent flexibility throughout the entire kinetic chain to execute safely.
• Power (8/10): The squat clean is one of CrossFit's most explosive movements, requiring a powerful triple extension to elevate the bar and a fast pull-under. High power output repeated 37 times.
• Stamina (7/10): 37 squat cleans at 185/135 lb demands significant muscular endurance across legs, back, and shoulders. Athletes must manage fatigue across many challenging reps under substantial load.
• Strength (7/10): 185/135 lb squat cleans represent a heavy, competition-level load for most athletes. Each rep requires substantial force production through the pull, catch, and squat phases.
• Endurance (5/10): 37 reps at heavy load creates moderate cardiovascular demand. The workout is short enough to avoid true aerobic endurance but long enough to elevate heart rate significantly throughout.
• Speed (4/10): For Time format incentivizes efficient cycling, but heavy loads force deliberate pacing and rest between reps. Bar cycling speed matters but is secondary to managing fatigue and technique.

Movements

• Squat Clean

Scaling Options

Weight: Scale to 155/105 lb (approximately 80% of Rx) for athletes who are proficient with the squat clean but need load reduction, or 135/95 lb for intermediate athletes. Beginners should work at 50-60% of Rx (95/65 lb). Movement substitution: If the squat clean is not yet in an athlete's toolkit, substitute power clean + front squat as two separate movements, or use a dumbbell squat clean at an appropriate load. Volume: Reduce reps to 27 or 21 for athletes who would exceed 20 minutes at Rx volume. A rep count of 21 preserves the stimulus while keeping the workout in a manageable time domain.

Scaling Explanation

Scale this workout if your 1-rep max squat clean is under 225/165 lb — you should be working at no more than 80% of your max for a workout of this volume. If you cannot perform at least 5 technically sound squat cleans at the intended weight when fresh, reduce the load. Prioritize technique over load every time — a squat clean that turns into a reverse-curl-and-press is both dangerous and ineffective. The target time window is 8-18 minutes. If you anticipate going over 20 minutes, reduce reps or weight. Athletes newer to Olympic lifting should always prioritize movement quality and use this workout as a skill-under-fatigue session rather than a max-effort grind.

Intended Stimulus

This is a moderate-to-long grind lasting roughly 8-20 minutes depending on the athlete. The stimulus is a heavy barbell cycling workout that taxes both your strength endurance and mental toughness. Expect a hard, sustained effort — this is not a sprint, but you should never feel comfortable. The primary challenge is threefold: the squat clean is a technically demanding movement, 185/135 lb is a significant load, and 37 reps is a volume that will expose any weakness in your pulling mechanics, squat depth, or mental resolve. The energy demand is a sustained hard effort with repeated bouts of high-intensity output broken up by necessary rest.

Coach Insight

The number 37 is odd and psychologically heavy — respect it from the start. Do NOT go out hot. Athletes who open with sets of 5+ unbroken almost always blow up by rep 20. A smart opening strategy is singles or doubles from the very beginning if the weight is near your threshold. If the weight feels manageable, consider 5-4-4-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 or similar descending clusters. Key technique cues: keep the bar close on the pull, use your hips aggressively to drive the bar up, and meet the bar in the squat rather than muscling it up. Avoid the temptation to power clean and then front squat — true squat cleans are more efficient at this rep count. Rest your hands on your thighs between reps to recover your grip. Common mistakes include letting the bar drift forward off the floor, catching with a high elbow position that collapses under fatigue, and rushing singles without resetting your breath and bracing. Treat each rep as its own lift — reset, breathe, brace, pull.

Benchmark Notes

37 squat cleans at 185/135 lb. 185 lb is about 80% of an average athlete's max, so every rep is a single. L5 (11:30-14 min) takes one about every 20 seconds. L10 (under 5 min) cycles quick singles at about one every 8 seconds.

Modality Profile

Squat Clean is a single barbell weightlifting movement. With only one movement and it being entirely in the Weightlifting modality, the breakdown is 100% Weightlifting.

Similar Workouts to John Giordano

If you enjoy John Giordano, you might also like these similar CrossFit WODs:

• David Weiss (91% similar) - AMRAP in 10 minutes 5 Front Squats (225/155 lb) 9 Deadlifts (225/155 lb) 5 Squat Cleans (225/155 lb)...
• Kevin Smith (89% similar) - For Time 30 Snatches (155/105 lb)...
• Richard Kelly Jr. (89% similar) - For Time 30 Power Snatches (80% BW) Then, 1 rep max Snatch...
• Joseph Maffeo (88% similar) - 10 Rounds for Time 1 Clean-and-Jerk (185/135 lb) 3 Overhead Squats (185/135 lb) 5 Push Jerks (185/13...
• Vincent Princiotta (88% similar) - For Time 30 Squat Clean to Shoulder-to-Overheads (185/135 lb)...
• Kenneth Phelan (87% similar) - 5 Rounds for Time 5 Deadlifts (155/105 lb) 5 Power Cleans (155/105 lb) 5 Front Squats (155/105 lb) 1...
• Daniel Harlin (87% similar) - 4 Rounds for Time 3 Squat Cleans (185/135 lb) 6 Front Squats (185/135 lb) 12 Deadlifts (185/135 lb) ...
• John Marshall (87% similar) - 5 Rounds for Time 3 Overhead Squats (155/105 lb) 6 Clean-and-Jerks (155/105 lb) 12 Bar Facing Burpee...

These WODs similar to John Giordano share comparable training demands, time domains, and movement patterns.