Smashby's Training Blog

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?

I call this one: Fran Domination!

Athlete Result:
Clayton (65lb barbell thrusters, unassisted pull-ups): 10:29!!

That’s a 10+ MINUTE PR!!! Awesome job, Clayton!

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!

Athlete Results:
Clayton – 1k Row (Damper at 5.5)- 3:50.6
“DT” (75 pounds)- 9:58

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!

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!

Athlete Results:
Strength (5X5 Overhead Squats)
Kristin (modified due to shoulder issues)
Clayton- 55 / 65 / 75 / 85(f) / 85!

1/2 Murph
Kristin (3 bands for pull-ups / knee push-ups)- 23:00
Clayton (Rx’d!)- 29:00

Great job today, guys!

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

It was just Kristin today, and instead of having me stand over her and yell at her since there was no one else there, she asked that I work out with her. Therefore, there are no pictures from today’s workout!

The workout she did tonight was a modification of a classic CrossFit “Girls” workout. The workout she modified was Eva. This workout takes many (most?) people over 40 minutes to complete, so in the interest of time, we made a few changes for Kristin.

Workout of the Day:
AMRAP 30 Minutes 1/2 Eva-
Run 400m / 15 Kettlebell Swings / 15 Pull-Ups

Athlete Results:
Kristin (12kg Kettlebell / 2-Banded Pull-Ups)- 7 full rounds in 30 minutes!

First Sunday after vacation, and it felt good to be back! Today’s workout ended up being a 20 minute AMRAP. That means the athletes were to complete the exercises listed, in order, as many times as they could until the clock hit the 20:00 mark.

Workout of the Day:
AMRAP in 20 minutes of-
Row 250m / 20 SDLHP (Sumo Deadlift High Pull) / 20 Double-Unders / 20 Back Extensions / 20 K2E (Knees to Elbows)

Clayton injured his shoulder this weekend, so as always, we modified the workout to something that he was able to do without pain.  The modification was to simply have him do a Sumo Deadlift.  This meant that his arms would stay straight at the top of the lift, versus pulling the barbell up to underneath his chin.

Even 95lbs gets heavy at 20 reps per round, but good form!

Athlete Results:
Clayton (95lb Sumo Deadlift / 60 Single Jumps / 20 Knuckles to Toes )- 3 Full Rds + 250m Row
Kristin (35lb SDLHP / Rest as Rx’d)- 2 Full Rds through 20 Back Ext of 3rd Rd

After this was completed, I gave them 4 minutes to recover. The last thing they did today was a test set!

Test Set:
2 minutes – As many reps as possible – Box Jumps
Clayton (24″ Box)- 32
Kristin (20″ Box)- 38

Great job, guys!

First day back from vacation and it was a great day in class!  We had 5 athletes, and one of them was a first-timer, and another member of the Solsbery family.  Welcome to Denver, Nadia!  We’re looking forward to having you join us for the next month you’re in town!

After a light warm-up and some reviewing of form, we got right to the workout. Today I woke up with the desire to do one of my personal favorite CrossFit workouts, Helen, so that’s what we did!

I like this workout because it involves some pretty basic movements (running, kettlebell swings, and pull-ups), and only requires 3 rounds to complete. But like most (all?) CrossFit workouts, the ones that look “easiest” are usually ones that can hurt the worst.

Workout of the Day:
Helen
3 Rounds for time of-
400m Run / 21 Kettlebell Swings / 12 Pull-Ups

Awesome form #1

Awesome form #2

Awesome form #3! BOOM!

The video of the class shows everyone swinging the kettlebells during the first round… I was really impressed by everyone’s form, especially given that Jamie has only done CF a handful of times, and it was Nadia’s first day ever. Awesome work, guys!

Most of you have heard me “coach” you during KB swings, especially when you start to get tired, to use more hips! I explain that without powerful hip extension, the swing becomes more of an arm/strength movement, and that’s not what we want to do at all. As in every movement, we want to be as efficient as possible, right?!
Here’s Clayton (who did the workout completely as prescribed!) using a 1.5pood kettlebell (about 55lbs) during his LAST round of the workout when he was the most tired. This was inspiring to watch how powerful he was during this set!

Athlete Results:
Kristin (12kg KB / 3 bands)- 12:00
Nadia (8kg KB / 3 bands)- 12:40
Jamie (16kg KB / 3 bands)- 16:39
Clayton (Rx’d – 1.5 pood KB / Unassisted Pull-Ups)- 18:39
Boomer (12kg KB / 4 bands)- 19:57

Moment of the day:
Boomer pushing through that last set with the rest of the class cheering her on to complete the workout in under 20 minutes. Final time… 19:57. BOOOM!