The first class of 2011 brought a new face to CrossFit Lakewood. Andy had been wanting to come check it out for a while, and only a short while after his shoulder surgery, here he was!
The first class spent a lot of time discussing the basic movements of CrossFit, and then establishing some cues on how to practice that good form. Andy didn’t take very long at all to look very solid, so after a pretty thorough warm-up, we were ready to roll!
Workout of the Day:
21-15-9
Overhead Squats / Wall Ball Tosses / Ab-Mat Sit-Ups
Followed by 1 down and back sprint after the round of 21, 2 sprints after the round of 15, and finishing the workout with 3 down and back sprints!
Aside from Andy doing an amazing job on his first CrossFit Workout, it’s also another first…
A New Year equals New Technology!! We now have the ability to record in HD!! That will certainly make for some more fun videos as we enter 2011.
Tonight’s video is a step in the right direction. Enjoy!
To start class today, we not only foam-rolled, but we busted out the baseballs for some added fun. If you’ve never rolled your legs out with a baseball or a lacrosse ball, give it a shot….
After that was done, I told Clayton that we’d be doing a “quick met-con” to loosen up. This quick little warm-up was:
3 rounds for time of-
15 burpees / 200 meter run
It’s definitely not a normal thing to start class with something like that, but we’re constantly varied though, right? Clayton pushed hard through this workout, actually making his last round, the fastest one of all!
Athlete result:
6:20
After that, we spent a bit of time working on the Push Jerk lift. Monday we talked about Clayton doing the Snatch Balance, and not getting his hips to full extension. Tonight, he made huge strides, keeping his back more vertical, and getting a big jump to help throw that bar off of his shoulders before dropping down. Awesome!
Finally, the mystery WOD was announced. After an intense burpee/run warm-up, then a shoulder/jump intensive skill session with a barbell, Clayton was going to do….
FRAN!!!
It turns out this was the first CrossFit workout Clayton ever did about 5 years ago, and when he did it then, he used 65 pounds on the bar. His time back then (when he used a completely different style of training!) was over 20 minutes. Tonight, we decided to stick with the 65 pounds to draw a direct correlation between his fitness level then, and his fitness level now. Check out the video below of his last 4 reps of the Thruster. TRY to tell me he’s not using that aggressive hip extension to get that bar overhead. GREAT intensity, Clayton!
Remember, the last time he did this 5 years ago, his time was over 20 minutes; he thinks maybe even over 25 minutes. Tonight, you’ll love how fast he completed the most popular CrossFit Workout! Aside from his killer time improvement, guess how else I know the workout was a success?
Yesterday Clayton worked on the holding the bottom position of the squat, and the full lock-out of the arms overhead. What did that mean? Today’s Strength workout would focus on the Snatch Balance lift! After some handstand work (again, really focusing on maintaining the active shoulder) we made our way to the rack and got right to it.
Since this drill is still relatively new, I only wanted him to work on jumping that bar off of his back and landing in as close to a full squat position as possible. Clayton is getting stronger all the time, and as the video shows, he has a solid landing at the bottom with the weight. The big thing for him to work on in this particular clip is ensuring that he gets full extension of his hips before dropping down. That will provide much more power, and in the Snatch lift, power is key! The other things are little nit-picky items that he often perfects. The full hip extension, though… critical!
Workout of the Day:
3 Rounds for time of-
300 meter row / 100 Single Jumps / 15 Knees to Elbows
The kip that Clayton is starting to develop for his Knees to Elbows will translate beautiful as we continue to improve his kipping pull-ups!
Athlete Results:
Clayton- Snatch Balance technique work 95lbs
WOD- 18:18
Clayton the Crusher came in tonight, and given that it was the day after Christmas, I was really impressed with the workout he put together!
For his skill work tonight we did some air squat holds and pull-up bar dead-hangs. Holding an air squat in the bottom position really lets the athlete focus on some of the key points of the movement: Weight on the heels, chest high, knees out, lumbar curve… The purpose of the dead hang was to really drill in the concept of the active shoulder. Anytime we go overhead (Snatch, Overhead Squat, Press/Jerk) it’s critical to ensure that our arms are simply a connected piece to that super tight core, creating that straight line from our heels up through our hands. Holding the hanging position allows you to get really comfortable with your arms fully extended overhead.
After skill work we did a TIME TRIAL!!! Today’s beast: a 1000 meter row, for time. Clayton does this thing where when you think he’s going to get tired and slow down, he switches into this 6th gear of intensity. As he reached the end of his row, instead of slowing down like most people, he held the final 75 meters or so at a pace faster than 1:40 per 500. That is fast. Great finish!
After a short recovery, I explained to Clayton that he would be completing another CrossFit “Hero” WOD tonight. “DT” is a workout “in honor of USAF SSgt Timothy P. Davis, 28, who was killed on Feburary, 20 2009 supporting operations in OEF when his vehicle was struck by an IED. Timothy is survived by his wife Megan and one-year old son T.J.” (CrossFit.com)
This workout consists of 12 Deadlifts, 9 Hang Power Cleans, and 6 Push Jerks, only you do that 5 times through. It’s definitely a grip crusher. We decided that the goal tonight was to try and do the sets unbroken, or without needing to break up each lift. After the clock counted down the 3, 2, 1… GO, he was off. Clayton didn’t break the plan once, and actually finished his entire last round in under 90 seconds!
First off, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas weekend! Hopefully you were able to spend time with loved ones, family and friends.
As we shift our minds back into CrossFit mode, let’s talk again about where we want to take ourselves in the coming months/years. In order to get there, we will need to create a plan, and then execute it. The good news, is that we don’t have to do it alone, and best of all, it can (should!) be FUN to get better!
There is so much amazing footage out there of incredible athletes doing awesome things, and doing them right. Today I’ll be sharing a video of some very strong weight lifters. These guys have near-perfect form, their lifts are efficient and powerful, and the numbers they put up seem almost super-human. I’ll tell you what, though… these athletes are very much human.
Like anything else in life, to continue to improve you need to do one thing; Put in the time and practice required so that good habits become second-nature to your body and your mind.
So as we prepare to enter yet another calendar year, ask yourself what it will take for you to get stronger, thinner, healthier, faster. Think about what you will need to put forth in order to have more energy and be more productive in your day to day activities. Create a plan for how to achieve your “attainable goals”, and stick to it.
In CrossFit, and in life.
I’m sharing this video today just to provide some visual examples of some of the things we talk about every day at class. Little details that translate into a made lift, or a miss. Small cues that can help simplify even the most complex movements. Look for them in these attempts, and hopefully seeing them will help you continue to improve, as well.
Here are some of those cues!
Chest high / Weight in the heels / Knees out / Tight core / Active shoulder
The Holidays are upon us, and that means people working late, people getting sick, and people leaving town to visit family. What it also means, is smaller class sizes, and a greater chance of athletes getting 1 on 1 coaching. Tonight’s winner: Jamie!
Jamie is still relatively new to CrossFit, so tonight was a perfect opportunity for him to get a personalized introduction to one of the most complicated movements in all of weight lifting, the Squat Snatch.
Most of our time was spend on just learning the form using a PVC pipe, and after skill work, and many progressions, Jamie was already consistent enough in his form to increase the weight. For a 30 minute session, you picked up the movement very well, sir!
After that, we completed a quick little lung-burner of a workout, and I sent him out the door for an awesome Christmas with his family!
Workout of the Day:
As Many Rounds as Possible in 6 minutes of-
3 Pull-Ups / 6 Hand-Release Push-Ups / 9 Air Squats
Full range of motion on every rep!
Athlete Results:
Jamie (UNassisted Pull-Ups!)- 7 full rounds
Jamie was at 6 full rounds at 5:15. After a lot of yelling and loud music, he turned on the after-burners and crushed that final round, finishing his last Air Squat with only 1 second left. What a great way to start vacation!
Had the honor of meeting and working with so many more athletes
Competed in 3 more CrossFit events, and helped convince others to compete in their first!
Learned a lot more about training, the human body, nutrition and CrossFit in general
My goal of maintaining this site is to make this blog fun and entertaining, but most importantly, a USEFUL resource for all of you. Hopefully with your continued help and input, this blog will continue to grow into site you visit daily!
For today’s Moment of Awesomeness:
CrossFit outlines The 10 General Physical Skills of human performance to be:
1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance- The ability of the body systems to gather, process, and transport oxygen. 2. Stamina- The ability of the body to process, store, deliver, and utilize energy. 3. Strength- The ability of a muscular unit, or combo of muscular units to apply force. 4. Flexibility- The ability of maximizing range of motion at a given joint. 5. Power- The ability of a muscular unit, or combo of muscular units to apply maximum force in minimum time. 6. Speed- The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement. 7. Coordination- The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement. 8. Agility- The ability to minimize transition time between one movement pattern to another. 9. Accuracy- The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity. 10. Balance- The ability to control the placement of the bodies’ center of gravity in relation to its’ support base.
Tell me one of those skills that the guy in the video does NOT utilize to control his body and bike like that! So cool.
THANK YOU ALL for your support. It means the world to me.
It’s the last week before Christmas, and Kristin and Clayton showed up on Sunday ready to go! For the strength portion of the workout, we did sets of 5 of Overhead Squats. The main workout for tonight was a slight modification one of the classic CrossFit Hero WODs, Murph. The full workout as prescribed is: 1 Mile Run / 100 Pull-Ups / 200 Push-Ups / 300 Air Squats / 1 Mile Run. For tonight, we did half of that.
Workout of the Day:
1/2 Murph-
800m Run / 50 Pull-Ups / 100 Push-Ups / 15 Air Squats / 800m Run
What’s cool about this workout, is the middle three exercises (pull-ups, push-ups and air squats) can be broken up however the athlete chooses. If someone wants to do all 50 in a row, then all 100, etc, they can. If they want to break the reps up into 10 sets of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats (like Clayton did), they can.
100 Push-Ups with perfect lock-out
Kristin was out of the gate fast with her running (her strong point) and went straight to the bar to bust out her 50 pull-ups. After they were done, she broke down the push-ups and squats on her own before finishing out with the run. Clayton’s goal during the pull-ups was to not drop at all during each set of 5, no matter how tired he was. Once we get him kipping, pull-ups are going to be a breeze for him!
After a little daily stretching, the group spent a little bit of time working on being inverted. That meant hand-stand work! We made our way over to the wall and did a few drills to begin getting our bodies used to be upside down. Hmmm, could that mean we’ll be incorporating handstands into workouts soon?………..
Three athletes today, so I decided to write a unique style of workout for class. There were both team and individual aspects to it, so there was a little bit of something for everyone.
Workout of the Day:
2 Rounds for time of-
60 Team Front Squats / 30 Box Jumps / 20 Burpees / 10 Ball Slams
Workout Explanation:
The ONLY part of the workout that was done as a team (both rounds) was the Front Squats. For these, everyone had to get the bar into the “front rack” position. From here, only one person could complete a rep at a time. The goal was for the team to complete a total of 60 reps. If one person wanted to do all 60 by themselves, that was fine, but the other two needed to have the bar in that position the entire time. If anyone dropped the bar, everyone needed to do 5 burpees before picking up their bars and starting over. Watch below for an example!
After the 60 reps were done, then everyone had to do the next 3 exercises (30 Box Jumps, 20 Burpees, 10 Ball Slams). When the last person finished their Ball Slams, then the entire group went back to their bars to complete the 60 total reps of Front Squats again.
Only one person goes at a time
After Front Squats came the Box Jumps
After that was the Burpees, and then Ball Slams
For those of you who think this didn’t look like fun, check out how excited they were to move from Front Squats to the Box Jumps. They were thrilled!
***Side Note***
I picked a weight for each athlete on the Front Squats that I thought would be slightly challenging for 20-30 reps, and the group alternated reps through all 60, and didn’t set the bar down once for the first round, which was awesome! Sooo…… while they were on their Box Jumps, I may or may not have walked around and added 10 pounds to each of their bars without telling them. They still did an amazing job on the second round, too!
The team finished the entire first round at 8:00. I gave them :30 to recover, and then they all started round 2 together. Final times represent time when athletes finished the 30/20/10 reps on their own following the 2nd round of 60 Front Squats.
Athlete Results:
Kristin (45# and 55# FS / 20″ Box Jump / 30# Ball Slam, w catch)- 18:10
Clayton (75# and 85# FS / 24″ Box Jump / 50# Ball Slam, w catch)- 19:26
Jamie (45# and 55# FS / 24″ Box Jump / 30# Ball Slam, no catch)- 20:09
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