The folks at Again Faster constantly provide useful information to CrossFitters and athletes everywhere on their website. Today’s video that they reposted on RECOVERY and Foam Rolling is no exception.
Many of you have had a few lessons in the gym in regards to some helpful foam rolling techniques. This short video provides not only the HOW to do several exercises, but also some critical reasons as to WHY we want to spend time with this training tool. Check it out, and let me know if you have any additional questions.
Many of you are familiar with Pat Barber, CrossFit Monster. He is the first person I had ever heard being called a Manimal (yes.. a man-animal) for his incredible feats of athleticism! He has been conducting this series on advice on how to hit the workouts for the 2011 CrossFit Games Open, and then feedback on how he thought they went after his first attempt. This one, appropriately enough, is his advice for Workout 11.4.
I like watching them, so I figured some of you might, too.
Rope Climbs. The last time I had thought about climbing a rope was probably in middle school. I just knew I wasn’t very good at them, and quite frankly, the thought of falling from a height didn’t seem too appealing to me. In fact, the last gym where I worked actually had it’s own rope, and I still didn’t climb it once. Instead I let the “Fear” stop me.
Well, fast forward to November of last year and MBS CrossFit’s “Turkey Challenge”. We ran a 5k outside for the first event, did the CrossFit Total for the second and then they announced WOD #3.
Ground to Overheads, fine. Burpee Wall Jumps, fine. ROPE CLIMBS?!?! FIVE of them!?! Needless to say, it caught me off guard, but I just had to buckle down and do them.
Had I practiced them beforehand they would have been much easier, so I am hoping that this video (which also features an awesome performance by Chris Spealler) gives you some ideas on how to be a better rope climber.
The moral of the story:
Don’t let your “FEARS” determine what you stay away from. Find a weakness, or an “Area for Improvement” as I prefer to call it, and spend some time making yourself better at it! One CrossFit motto is “You’re only as strong as your weakest link”, right? Get stronger.
When it comes to trying to control your safety as much as possible while in the gym, there is a very simple, yet often overlooked, skill you need to practice. That skill is how to get out of the way of a missed rep.
We get so excited, so nervous, so focused on lifting the weight/doing the squat/snatching the bar, that it’s not uncommon for a person to forget to actually let go of the bar if they are about to miss a rep! Even when you ARE trained properly (National Champion, properly…), it can be hard to get out of the way of the weight, sometimes. Check out this post I did a few months ago sharing the amazing story of Zach Krych!
So, how do we start training our bodies to learn how to get out of the way and let go of the bar? By doing exactly that!
Watch the video below from Coach Burgener, and over the next few days, your homework is to grab a PVC pipe while you’re warming up in the gym, make sure no one is in front of or behind you, drop the bar (both forwards AND backwards) and GET OUT OF THE WAY!
If you’ve never even tried it before, what makes you think your body will know to do it when you’ve got 250lbs on the bar and you’re trying to clean it off of the ground?
Make sure the space is clear around you, and do your homework! Seriously! Awesome video.
For many people, the Muscle-Ups seems like an elusive goal!
A Muscle-Up, for those of you who don’t know, is “the highest pull-up you’ve ever done, into the lowest dip you’ve ever done.” There’s a video to show you what it looks like when done properly!
Through this episode of our “WOD Tips” series, I’m sharing a link I saw Tom Nugent and my friends out at SnoRidge post recently.
These progressions that are shared in parts 1-4 of the video series can be used and scaled by anyone, for anyone.
The guys over at Gymnastics WOD provide tons of incredible tips and information on how to become a more efficient athlete. Take a visit to their site when you have a chance!
If you have any questions as to how to do these movements, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
The three ways to move weight from our shoulders to above our heads are the:
Shoulder Press
Push Press
Push Jerk
This is old news for most experienced CrossFitters, but for those who are not as familiar with those movements, it can be hard to conceptualize the difference in your mind. CrossFit Headquarters often times puts together instructional videos on how to perform movements properly, and this is certainly one of them.
Watch how “Original Firebreather” Greg Amundson (who also runs CrossFit Amundson with his wife) shows the difference between the three exercises listed above. As you move to the right of the video, the movements become less based on purely strength, and more about producing a powerful and efficient force to get that weight up and locked out over your head.
If you have any questions on this video or these movements, feel free to leave them in the Comments for this post!
Clayton gave me a call today to ask me something about improving his grip strength, and whether or not he should buy a product to help. Grip strength is required for many movements in our type of training whether it’s to hold onto a barbell, pull-up bar, kettlebell, etc. the list goes on… My answer was that I didn’t think he needed to spend money on a specific item, and that there were other (cheaper) ways to improve grip strength.
This conversation made me think of a great series of posts here that I’m going to name: “CrossFit WOD Tips” These posts are going to include suggestions or ideas on how to improve different skill sets that will translate into more effective WODs (or Workouts of the Day).
Thanks for starting us off with the first topic, Clayton!
The video below comes from the “Baseball Performance” YouTube channel, and demonstrates a great circuit of movements anyone can do by simply working with rice. Many athletes from baseball players, to rock climbers, to martial artists use rice as a method to strengthen their grips, and it translates into more effective and more stabilized movements in almost any athletic endeavor! Enjoy.
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