Smashby's Training Blog

Andy and Jamie came through for today’s Sunday Funday. Today’s workout would consist of Rowing, Kettlebell Swings and Ball Slams! All three of those movements, when done most effectively, require a very “violent” extension of the hips in order to move whatever the stimulus, as efficiently as possible.

With rowing, really leaning back to reach full extension ensures that the fan is spinning for as long as possible, is key. On the ball slams, keeping that chest high when picking the ball off of the ground (like a deadlift), guarantees that we’re “deadlifting” the ball and not lifting it with a rounded back. Finally, for kettlebell swings, getting full extension on the hips helps to send that KB overhead through momentum. When that happens, we really don’t need to “pull” the weight up in the air at all. The best part about these “cues” is that almost every single athlete can instantly tell when they do these movements “right” v/s “wrong”. The right way is simply easier!

Workout of the Day:
1000m Row / 21 Ball Slams / 21 Kettlebell Swings / 500m Row / 15 Ball Slams / 15 Kettlebell Swings / 200m Row / 9 Ball Slams / 9 Kettlebell Swings

Now, as you watch the videos from today, before anyone loses their mind… USUALLY the expectation is to catch the Ball Slams on the bounce in order for the rep to count. Today’s workout did not require that portion of the movement, so they were both doing them correctly!

Athlete Results:
Jamie (40lb Ball / 16kg KB)- 16:17
Andy (30lb Ball / 12kg KB)- 14:41

Today should have been called “Main Site Monday.” Orion liked the workout that was posted on the CrossFit website yesterday, so he let all of us give it a shot. Simple movements (wall balls and pull-ups), ten reps each, a seven-rounder. Ready, go.

Workout of the Day:
Strength
Overhead Squats

WOD
7 Rounds for Time-
10 Wallball shots / 10 Pull-ups

Athlete Results:
Strength
Jamie- 115lbs x 3 reps

WOD
Lucas (10# Ball / 2 Bands)- 12:52
Jamie (20# Ball / 2 Bands)- 13:04

Sunday Funday is back! Ben, Andy and Jamie showed up on the first day with an extra hour of daylight of 2011.

The workout introduced a new exercise to some, with “Knees to Elbows”, or an appropriate modification of that movement. What became very clear early on in the workout, was that without a tight core, these things are much more difficult to do! Tight core, people! 🙂

Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for Time-
200m Run / 15 Wall Balls / 10 Burpee Box Jumps / 5 Knees to Elbows

Athlete Results:
Jamie (20# Ball)- 20:31
Ben (150m Run / 6# Ball / 5 Burpee Box Jumps / Hanging Knee Tucks)- 15:57
Andy (14# Ball / Hanging Leg Raises)- 17:02

This week has done a pretty good job of crushing people! I think we’ve all just hit it really hard since the gym wall was knocked down. Either way, the folks who showed up today pushed hard!

Tonight’s workout was a good one. Running. Double-Unders. Thrusters. That was it.

Talk about head-to-head competition!

Great job for you guys who fought the urge to rest during that last round. It was pretty incredible to see your finishes!

Workout of the Day:
3 Rounds for Time-
Run 200m / 50 Double-Unders / 25 Thrusters

Today was another installment of “Weakness Wednesday” at the gym. Most people, to my surprise, chose to work on Handstand Push-Ups and Pull-Ups. After we spent about half of the class on those movements, we moved onto the workout.

It was a pretty simple triplet that was centered around fixed time intervals. That meant athletes were to complete 10 repititions each of Wall Ball Tosses, Box Jumps and Push-Ups in 90 seconds. If time remained during the 90 seconds, it was used for rest before starting the next round! If a complete round of all 30 reps was not completed, athletes were still to finish that round, and rest for the remainder of the next one.

Basically, if you moved through all 10 rounds in under 90 seconds each, you were done fastest. If you missed one round, you would finish the 10 completed rounds of your workout 90 seconds later, and so on. This one started to get to people around the 6-8 minute mark. Great effort today, everyone!

Workout of the Day:
Complete 10 rounds of 90 seconds each of-
10 Wall Ball Tosses / 10 Box Jumps / 10 Push-Ups

I was giddy like a little kid driving to the gym tonight because I knew that the wall was knocked down over the weekend. All I’ll say about what I saw when I got there, was that my jaw was on the ground from being so impressed. Click here to see my post showing the new-and-improved CrossFit Lakewood, complete with a NEW Tour, and one from 6 months ago so you can see the changes. GREAT JOB, guys!

The workout tonight was going to be a fun one, and as usual, the athletes didn’t know what to expect until they got to the gym! The main workout was a 3-rounder with 4 movements. After that, things got a little crazy.

Workout of the Day:
3 Rounds for Time-
500m Row / 15 Wall Balls / 15 Knuckles to Toes / 100ft Walking Lunge (weighted)

Check below for fun videos we took after the Main Workout today! We’ll call these the “Bonus Rounds”

First one: While Andy climbed across the pull-up station, everyone else ran in place. If he dropped, 5 Burpees all around!

Second one: While Casey Sprints, everyone else holds Overhead Squats!

Third one: While Jamie Crab Walks and Bear Crawls, everyone holds a plank!

Finally: After a sprint down and back, Ben slams the ball in each column of the pull-up structure. While he does that, athletes either hold handstands or air squats!

Today was another awesome day at CrossFit Lakewood. We’re seeing PR’s daily, and by more than just a little bit, too! Check out the two videos from our “Strength” part of the day. Greg at around 155lbs body weight just man-handles 185lbs on his back for 20 steps of Walking Lunge, and then the father-daughter combo of Casey and Wes show how far they’ve come with their form. Great job, team!

After that we got into the workout which featured Handstand Push-Ups, Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls, and Dips!

While Coach Orion is really good at Handstand Push-Ups as well, I feel that Greg Walker is our resident pro at them. Check out the amazing form as he completes these!

Head to deck

Full lock-out at the top!

Workout of the Day:
Strength
Weighted Lunge 4×20

WOD
5 Rounds for Time-
5 Handstand Push-Ups / 10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull / 5 Ring Dips (30 Bench Dips)

“isuckatthis,aka:Weakness Wednesday”

That’s what Coach Orion called the “skills” portion of our classes today. The best part of all, not a single person viewed this as a bad thing, but rather an opportunity to improve areas of their fitness! Most people that I saw wanted to work on either Muscle-Ups or Handstand Push-Ups. “Weakness”, huh? You’re obviously all fit enough to even CONSIDER doing these movements, so BOOM! to all of you! 🙂

The workout was going to be a quick one, but a burner. In only 8 minutes, most people think to themselves:
“What could possibly be difficult about working out for only 8 minutes.”
People who think that are not CrossFitters.

The two movements we would be performing today were Kettlebell Swings and Thrusters. These are two movements where a violent extension of the hips and knees create so much force that very little upper body strength is really even needed. However, when we start to fatigue, that extension can tend to be “muted” (shortened) a little bit, and things got a little bit more difficult.

What did that mean? All of you who were there tonight got to hear me yell “POP THE HIPS!” about 5 trillion times. The good news, when people would hear me they would, and the movements got noticeably easier and much more efficient! Win!

Workout of the Day:
8 Minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)-
Kettlebell Swing / Thruster

1 Swing, 1 Thruster, 2 Swings, 2 Thrusters, 3 Swings, 3 Thrusters, and so on.
Get as many rounds in 8 minutes as you can!

Today’s Strength segment was Back Squat, 5 sets of 3 reps. Something I’ve been noticing is that people are not only improving form significantly, they’re also putting up more weight.

So let me get this straight:
We’re getting faster, leaner, more efficient AND stronger?

Feel free to post how you think that’s possible in the comments section. 🙂

Great job, everyone!

Workout of the Day:
Strength
Back Squat 5 x 3

WOD
3 Rounds for Time-
400m Run / 15 Pull-Ups / 50 Air Squats / 15 Pull-Ups

Athlete Results:
Back Squat 5 x 3
Jamie- 185lbs x 8 reps!

WOD
Jamie (2-Banded Pull-Ups)- 23:39