Carried A Yoke
“The yoke you wear determines the burden you bear.”
--Edwin Louis Cole
I wanted to try another workout from Rob Orlando’s site StrongmanWOD.com. This one involved a piece of equipment I’d ever tried before. It’s called a yoke, and like the yoke put on an ox’s back, it’s a bar that lies on the back.
The workout I did, called “Logan”, was this:
As many rounds as possible in 8 minutes:
Yoke walk 50 feet
Axle clean and press, 5 reps
Once again, I went to San Francisco CrossFit (thanks Carl Paoli and Kelly Starrett). They actually have two yokes there. The one I used was 180 lbs. I added another 100 pounds to it for the workout.
A few months ago, I used the axle to do continental-style cleans, but today I did regular power cleans with the thick bar. The bar I used was around 110-115 lbs.
I started the workout and the weight was heavy but manageable. The first round was not too bad, even though I was pretty much just getting used to it.
The biggest problem I found was that the faster I tried to go, the more wildly the yoke was swinging. It made it so much more difficult to control.
Taking many smaller steps seemed to help level it out.
I definitely struggled in the third round. I didn’t realize the yoke would be such a difficult core workout. My midsection was getting tired and without the ability to engage it properly, carrying the yoke was so challenging.
By the time the clock ran out, I’d made four trips with the yoke. Since it was my first time, I didn’t know what to expect, but now I think I can do much better than that next time. That was a fun exercise and an awesome piece of equipment. Here’s a video of the entire workout:
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