Thrusters are great.
I have been Crossfitting for the last 4 years. For Crossfit i am a veteran. Something i have just recently decided is that thrusters are great. If your goal is fitness, Thrusters are great. I am going to say something really bold but i will stand behind it 100%. If i could have one movement to get me more fit… It would be a Thruster. Let me explain:
Everybody hates thrusters. They are miserable but why?
In one movement they can move a relatively large load an insanely long distance and very quickly. You can lift large loads, light loads and moderate loads. Light loads (65 lbs) will give you a sufficient amount of muscular endurance as well as a huge kick in the nuts metabolically. Moderate loads (fran weight) will Fuck you up! Add this to any workout or just do it as a workout (100 thruster for time) and you will have a workout that people are terrified of! Heavy Loads (135-155lbs) will give a new experience during a metcon. Its that inadequate pathetic feeling of not being able to lift a weight over your head after about 5 reps. Max Loads (anything over 155 lbs) will make you strong. Not in a powerlifter immobile kind of way but in the way you want to be. A way that will allow you to move large loads long distances quickly.
Anybody agree? Disagree? Thoughts?
Fully agree. Nothing seems to sap metabocially like thrusters. Wall balls and thrusters are so similiar, but with dumbbells or a barbell and increased weight, everythign changes fast!
definitely agree
actually i would contend that full c&j would give a run for the money but with a slower cycle time-longer distance though-what’s the thought on that?
mark,
It was a hard sell to keep me from picking an o-lift. I think it is too easy to rest on a clean and jerk. You can handle heavier loads and it does move a longer distance but the cycle time is a big deal breaker for me.
I am gonna count on you to experiment for me. Try 30 clean and jerk (squat clean of course) and 30 thrusters and let me know which one gets a better response. You pick the load just make sure it is the same on each movement.
I agree for one reason I have seen one of my team mates (Carlos) transform his abilities after a two man “Fran” at 2:56.
Here is the story every now and then there are competitions held at various CF gyms so our first one was in Hoboken New Jersey and one of the events was a two man “Fran” one person on thrusters and one on the pull-ups.
One person could not start until one finished. So we were still deciding who was going to do what. So I asked Carlos a few times are you sure you could do this and was yeah but I wasn’t convinced so I asked again are you sure and he got a little pissed and said hell yeah then I was sold so off goes the stop watch 3,2,1, GO!!
Carlos took off like a man possessed and did not stop to breath until he got to 21 then he fell over and he was bleeding from his nose he had scraped on some skin from his nose while he was thrusting.
Second set 15 thrusters Carlos gets up right before the other man does his pull-ups and he is off again possessed, finishes his 15 and falls back to the ground. Third set 9 thruster boom he is off and when he was done he laid in the corner for 15 mins.
Something must have clicked that day because after that all his o-lifts and his snatches were a thing of beauty.
What I have determined is that the thruster teaches you how to connect your body for a more fluid motion just as the o-lifts do, however with the thruster is such a simple movement that you get the advanced understanding of how to connect your body to move heavy load without all of the technical difficulties that we all run into.
I think it is a close call between thruster and C&J. I had a similar thought about usefulness of the C&J a few weeks ago, having been exposed to thrusters a little less often. Thinking about it now, the break argument seems valid and makes certainly for a more vicious if not more useful exercise. The thruster is definitely more disliked in my book so if that is an indicator for usefulness, you have a good point there!
I agree…but that doesn’t make me hate them less. We did Tabata Thrusters a few weeks ago. Completely humbling!
I like thrusters! They are a total gasser, but was one lift I could do when I was flying solo at the globo gym. I did them often and really like them. Definitely agree they are a good test of wills/endurance, as well as muscle builder. Plus, I think they can be a big confidence booster at times – the first time I did “Fat Fran”, I thought I had done something really special – it took like 15 mins., but I was more excited I finished.
bodyweight or bodyweight + thrusters are the best
i will add to this and say that the 1st time (only thus far) did my version of fat fran which was:
155 lbs thrusters for 15/12/9 (155 is 5 lbs over bw)
and ctb pullups for 24/18/15
14:38
it was one of the most gratifying feelings ever!
thrusters are the worst…
With light loads, they are also a very useful as a diagnostic tool. How is the bottom of your front squat? Are you balanced on your feet? Maintaining lumbar and thoracic arch? Solid rack position? How about over head? Locked out all the way? etc
Brett
,
Great point about the use of thrusters as a diagnostic. Dave werner
Sorry about that. Dave werner claims that the first time that skills are important is the 35 thrusters at three quarters body weight.
Hi, my left shoulder prevents me from going overhead too often with a heavy weight. With a kettlebell I can do presses much more easily, and they have had a great rehabilatative effect as well. What is your opinion on doing thrusters with KB’s (Db’s work, but I find the KB provides a better fit owing to the way the weight is distributed) vs. a barbell? Regardless, Thrusters do, in fact, suck…but they are effective!
Tony,
Kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, medballs, big rocks, babies…
Thruster any thing you can find. If it doesn’t hurt… do it.
I agree that thrusters are the toughest. no workout kicks my butt than Fran or anything with thrusters in it. anytime a workout has thrusters………I am like F*ck, because I know it is going to be rough.