Smashby's Training Blog

Another full house for the 6pm class! Since Jamie did Overhead Squats yesterday, the rest of the group went through them tonight. (Jamie focused on form with simple Front Squats)

The workout for tonight definitely put a high level of importance on more “Skilled Movements”. It was a workout that has been posted on http://www.crossfit.com a few times, most recently last week on 1/21/11.

The first movement was an L-Pull-Up. That is exactly what it sounds like, a regular pull-up, where your legs are out in front of you in the air. Very hard to do, especially in the event that someone has limited range of motion in their hamstrings.

The other movement was a One-Legged Squat, aka the Pistol, (demonstrated here by Adrian Bozman who works at San Francisco CrossFit and for CrossFit.com) is a very challenging movement that requires not only strength, but increased balance and flexibility as well!

Denver CrossFit All-Star (and all-around nice guy!), Kevin Montoya, shows us how to do this entire workout properly. He is one talented athlete!

So since these movements are so challenging, there were plenty of ways to scale or modify the movements as you’ll see in today’s video. The important thing, though, is to spend time working on these movements so you can IMPROVE them. Even over the course of this workout, people were improving their form by seeing what did and didn’t work for them. Great job, guys and gals!

Workout of the Day:
21 L-pull-ups / 20 One legged squats, alternating legs / 18 L-pull-ups / 16 One legged squats, alternating legs / 15 L-pull-ups / 12 One legged squats, alternating legs / 12 L-pull-ups / 8 One legged squats, alternating legs

Athlete Results:
Overhead Squat 3 Rep Max
Clayton- 135lbs
Jamie- Worked Front Squat Form, same weight)

WOD
Clayton (Dead-Hang Pull-Ups / Pistols back to stack of weights)- 12:45
Jamie (2-Banded Pull-Ups / Weighted Air Squats (15lbs)- 13:11

Jamie came in after a weekend of friends in town and was ready to get back to CrossFit! After a warm-up we were off to hit Overhead Squats, working towards a 5-rep max. We’ve been working on Jamie’s flexibility, and even with room for improvement, when he gets down in the hole, his shoulder strength really helps him push that bar all the way up in the air! It’s looking better every day, Jamie! (Just make sure we keep that weight back on our heels, as that helps improve everything… Chest Position, Knees Out, Bar Overhead, etc)

The workout for the day would be a new variety for Jamie! There were three rounds, each one lasting 5 minutes. The goal was to complete a 500 meter row (with the Damper/Resistance set at 10!) as fast as possible. Let’s say that took 2:00, then he would have the remaining 3:00 of the 5 minute round to do as many Wall-Balls as possible. The goal of the workout is to complete as many Wall Ball Tosses as possible! I’m not sure if you’ve ever hopped off of a rower (hard “pulling”) and ran straight over to Wall Balls (hard “pushing”), but it’s a pretty gnarly combination. Great job, Jamie!

Workout of the Day:
3 5:00 Rounds of-
Row 500 meters / As many Wall Balls as possible in remaining time

Athlete Results:
Overhead Squat – 5 rep max
Jamie- Final Set 80lbs

WOD
Wall Ball Tosses by round-
Jamie- 27 / 25 / 38!

These weekday classes are so much fun! The house is packed, and the energy is so positive.

Today’s workout started off with some Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (SDLHP) as the warm-up/strength portion of the day. It’s an exercise that is not used as often as some others in CrossFit, but you’ll be able to see by watching Clayton in the video, it’s definitely a full-body movement. Thanks to the trainers at CrossFit Headquarters, one of the things I try to tell athletes when performing it is to imagine someone is recording you doing the SDLHP, and go back and play the video forwards and backwards. When done properly, it should look exactly the same played in either direction. No pausing at the “hang” position. This video shows that very concept! Clayton did this really well!

Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for Time of-
15 Power Cleans / 18 Box Jumps / 21 Kettlebell Swings

I just noticed that the video has the wrong date! I’ll fix that tonight!

Athlete Results:
5 Rep Max Sumo Deadlift High Pull
Clayton- 135lbs

WOD
Clayton (65lb Power Clean / 16kg KB)- 21:39

Tonight was a big night at the gym. We just combining the evening classes, so my traditionally smaller Monday Nights (usually Kristin, Jamie and Clayton) now turned into a 12-person class that Orion and I coached together! What a change, huh? The energy in the gym was great, though, and I think everyone had a great time!

The first part of the workout was 5 sets of 5 back squats. The folks who used to train with me usually had an entire rack to themselves, but tonight worked in with 3 or 4 other athletes. Again, despite the change, everything seemed to go very well from my perspective. I think we even had some pretty big numbers put up, too!

Workout of the Day:
3 Rounds for Time of-
50 Air Squats / 10 Power Snatches / 15 Pull-Ups

For some of my folks, it was their first time doing more high-rep snatches in a workout, and I think that you all did an awesome job! Also, breaking down the rep schemes for higher rep Air Squats really seemed to help make the workout manageable. I was proud of you all for doing so well in front of such a large audience.

Athlete Results:
5×5 Back Squat
Kristin- 95lbs x 5
Jamie- 155lbs x 5
Clayton- 175lbs x 9!

WOD
Kristin (35lb Snatch / 1-Banded Pull-Ups)- 10:50
Jamie (65lb Snatch / 4-Banded Pull-Ups)- 16:02
Clayton (70lb Snatch / Unassisted Pull-Ups)- 13:48

Today’s warm-up was a bit more intense than usual. First, we started off with 3 rounds of 500m Row and 10 Burpees. That will certainly get your whole body moving, huh? After that, we did a Jump-Rope workout where technique focused on single jumps, alternating legs, 2 hops per leg and finally double-unders. Last but not least, we finished out the warm-up with some agility drills and sprints.

The workout today was a 4-rounder with Wall Balls, Ring Rows and Box Jumps. In order to start introducing gymnastics rings into more workouts, we’ll be starting with two of the more basic movements; Ring Push-Ups and Ring Rows. Note, I said more basic, definitely not “easy”!

Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for Time of-
15 Wall Balls / 15 Ring Rows / 15 Box Jumps

Athlete Results:
Kristin (14lb Wall Ball)- 13:12

When the workout was done, we ended the day with 3 rounds of:
10 Back Extensions / 10 GHD Sit-Ups

Both athletes tonight are looking incredibly strong with their “to-parallel” GHD Sit-Ups. That means in small doses, we’ll be able to start increasing that range of motion to get them closer to touching the ground each rep. Yay for progress!