Workout Description

Why This Workout Is Hard

The combination of moderately heavy power clean and jerks (155/105) with chest-to-bar pull-ups creates significant fatigue due to the continuous nature of the couplet. The barbell cycling taxes the legs and shoulders while immediately transitioning to a high-skill pulling movement. With 5 rounds and no programmed rest, grip fatigue and shoulder fatigue compound throughout. Most average CrossFitters will need to break up both movements by round 3.

Benchmark Times for Liquid Cocaine

• Elite: <5:00
• Advanced: 6:00-7:00
• Intermediate: 8:00-9:00
• Beginner: >16:00

Training Focus

This workout develops the following fitness attributes:

• Stamina (8/10): High-skill movements performed for multiple rounds tests muscular endurance, particularly in shoulders, back, and grip. Fatigue accumulates significantly across rounds.
• Power (8/10): Power clean and jerks are explosive by nature. Chest-to-bar pull-ups require significant power to contact chest to bar.
• Endurance (7/10): Five rounds of complex movements with minimal rest creates significant cardiovascular demand. The combination of Olympic lifting and gymnastics maintains elevated heart rate throughout.
• Flexibility (7/10): Clean and jerk requires good mobility in ankles, hips, shoulders. Chest-to-bar demands excellent shoulder flexibility and thoracic extension.
• Strength (6/10): Moderate-heavy power cleans and jerks require substantial strength. The chest-to-bar pull-ups demand significant upper body pulling strength.
• Speed (6/10): Quick transitions and cycling between movements is important, but weight and movement complexity limit all-out speed.

Movements

• Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up
• Power Clean and Jerk

Scaling Options

Weight reductions: 135/95, 115/75, or 95/65 based on 1RM clean and jerk (should be ~70%). Sub regular pull-ups or jumping CTB. Advanced scaling: keep weight but do 3 rounds. Beginner scaling: 3 rounds of 3 clean and jerks with 3-5 ring rows or banded pull-ups. Target similar time domain by adjusting volume rather than intensity when possible.

Scaling Explanation

Scale if unable to perform 3+ unbroken clean and jerks at prescribed weight or 5+ strict pull-ups. Technique on clean and jerks must remain solid - any press-outs or power loss indicates need to reduce load. Goal is to finish in 8-12 minutes while maintaining safe, efficient movement patterns. Better to scale load/movement and keep intensity high than grind through with compromised form.

Intended Stimulus

Moderate-length glycolytic workout (8-12 minutes) with significant strength-endurance demands. Tests ability to maintain power output on technical Olympic lifts while managing upper body pulling fatigue. Primary challenge is maintaining clean and jerk technique under accumulating fatigue while executing explosive pull-ups.

Coach Insight

Break power clean and jerks into 2-3 reps early to maintain quality. Quick singles are better than grinding triples. For CTB pull-ups, sets of 3-4 are optimal - avoid going to failure. Rest 10-15 seconds between movements rather than longer breaks between rounds. Watch for deteriorating jerk technique as fatigue builds - reset position between reps. Common mistake is rushing first round then hitting wall by round 3.

Benchmark Notes

This workout is most similar to DT (5 rounds of barbell cycling) but with chest-to-bar pull-ups added. Using DT as our anchor (L10: 360-420s male, 430-510s female): Breakdown per round (male elite): - Power Clean & Jerk (155): 5 reps × 3s = 15s - Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups: 10 reps × 2s = 20s - Transitions: 5s Base round time: 40s Fatigue multipliers: - Rounds 1-2: 1.0x (40s each) - Round 3: 1.2x (48s) - Round 4: 1.3x (52s) - Round 5: 1.4x (56s) Total elite time: ~240s + transitions = 300s (5:00) Compared to DT anchor: - Higher load (155 vs 135) - Added gymnastic element - More total volume Justifies ~20% slower times across all levels Female scaling follows standard 15-20% slower pattern due to load/gymnastics combination. Final targets: Male L10: 5:00-5:30 Male L5: 9:00-10:00 Male L1: 16:00-18:00 Female L10: 6:00-6:30 Female L5: 10:30-11:30 Female L1: 18:00-20:00

Modality Profile

The workout contains two movements: Power Clean and Jerk (Weightlifting) and Chest-to-Bar Pull-Up (Gymnastics). With two movements split across two modalities, this results in a 50/50 split between G and W, with no M component.

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