Today, CrossFit Lakewood went after the 4th workout of the 2011 CrossFit Games Open. With a 10 minute cap on the workout, that means a lot of people out there wouldn’t even get close to completing one round. This one requires a LARGE amount of work to be done in not a lot of time, so the goal is basically to get through as much as you can.
Workout of the Day: Strength
Learn the Zercher Squat
Work up to a good 3 Rep Max
Alon looking STRONG! (Bent bar, too!)
WOD
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of
60 Bar-facing burpees
30 Overhead squats (120lbs / 55kg)
10 Muscle-ups
The pace everyone kept throughout all 60 Burpees was really impressive!
As CrossFitters, we also tend to enjoy watching people suffer. Here is your chance to watch me struggle through my first attempt at this workout. The Overhead Squats just KILLED me. Hopefully I can get through 1 full round on Saturday. (Always open to critique of form / No-reps, etc)
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.
HQ released the next workout of the 2011 CrossFit Games Open, and a lot of people in the CrossFit Community let out a collective groan.
Without further ado, here is Workout 11.4:
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
60 Bar-facing burpees / 30 Overhead squats (120lbs / 90lbs) / 10 Muscle-ups
For those of you who may be wondering what a Muscle-Up is, it’s a movement done primarily on gymnastics rings that consists of a pull-up transitioning into a dip! The video here will show you exactly what it looks like and give some pointers!
In my opinion, it’s going to be a lot like the last workout where some people simply won’t be able to complete parts of it. During the first two workouts, most people were able to handle the weight and reps in some form or another, so the differences in scores were simply how many rounds people were able to complete.
Last week, some male athletes simply couldn’t get 165 pounds into a Squat Clean and Jerk. This week’s biggest challenges will fall in one of two categories; either 120 pounds for men (or 90 pounds for women) will be too heavy for some athletes to Overhead Squat 30 times, or they’ll get through them and get stuck on the Muscle-Ups.
The exciting part about involving such a challenging movement in this workout, though, is that there will be HUNDREDS of people out there who will get their first-EVER Muscle-Up during this workout! I hope that CFHQ puts together a video of all of the first MU’s caught on tape from this week’s workout 🙂
The video below is from HQ showing the official range of motion requirements for the movements.
The strength portion of tonight’s session featured the movement Sumo Deadlift. Not only did I see some people pull weight off of the ground safely and hit some PR’s, I also go to see CC do his thing. Look at this man pull 465lbs off of the ground and make it look easy!
After that we got right into the workout, which include jumping for the first time in a while. I’m really hoping that the weather stays nice, because being able to run outside regularly again is such a nice change of pace! I love summertime.
Workout of the Day: Strength
Sumo Deadlift – 85% of 1RM – 1 Rep every minute for 15 minutes
WOD
4 Rounds for Time
400m Run / 20 Broad Jumps / 15 Pull-Ups
Athlete Results: Sumo Deadlift
Jamie- 235lbs? (was it more?)
Alon- 175lbs (was WAYYY too easy, but form looked perfect)
Buckle Up , everyone. Many of you are already seeing how long this post is and are saying “I’m outta here.” For those of you that decide to read on… tonight is a big moment for me and for this blog. If you read through to the end, hopefully it leaves you smiling like it left me after writing it. Getting real and feeling 100% comfortable in your own skin is one of the best feelings in the world and I’m closer to that every day. Fist Pump.
Enjoy…
Do you guys know what I love? Life.
More and more each day I am realizing how much I TRULY LOVE LIFE. That doesn’t mean I love every part of my life, or that life is happy and amazing every minute of every day, but when I really sit… stop… and think, I’m pretty blown away at (and incredibly grateful for) the lives we’re privileged enough to have.
This blog is something that has brought me a lot of joy over the last 9 months or so, too, and I think it’s because I’m learning that this is an outlet to share my voice. Most people like being able to share their thoughts and this is a big way I’ve found to do that. THEREFORE, effective immediately, I am going to devote this blog to being an extension of me and my voice. No matter what.
That was a pretty big epiphany for me, today. And it feels really good.
So, here we go with the “New and Improved” Smashby’s Training Blog.
I like hip hop music quite a bit, and one of my favorite artists is “Aesop Rock.” He has a very unique rapping style, his lyrics are anything but boring and many of his beats and rhythms are one of a kind. I was listening to one of his songs tonight, and the lyrics rang even more true that usual.
The song is called “No Regrets” and talks about a girl who was a bit of a loner. That’s all fine and dandy, but there are two parts of the song’s lyrics that I love. The first passage is the chorus:
“1 2 3
That’s the speed of the seed
A B C
That’s the speed of the need
dream a little dream,
Or you can live a little dream
I’d rather live it
Cuz dreamers always chase
But never get it”
Check out that last part again. “DREAM a little dream or you can LIVE a little dream. I’d rather LIVE it, cuz dreamers always chase but never get it.” WOW. So many of us can sit back and think about things we’ve “always wanted to have/do/accomplish”. How many of us have actually taken the time to GO AFTER IT? Period. Personally… I’d rather live it.
Here’s the other part of the song I love:
“Look, I’ve never had a dream in my life
Because a dream is what you wanna do, but still haven’t pursued
I knew what I wanted and did it till it was done
So I’ve been the dream that I wanted to be since day one!”
I can’t always say this about myself, yet… but I’d absolutely love to. To look back at your life (not at the END of it… at any time) and say, “Yep, I have done exactly what I knew I wanted to, and I have no regrets” would be so peaceful. That doesn’t mean I expect life to be perfect, but there are a lot of times where I didn’t take that risk, or give myself the opportunity to grow, and I’m going to start doing that more! My prediction, it will feel pretty liberating. I’ll keep you posted on how that’s working out for me, and would absolutely love to hear if any of you do that, yourselves.
If you want to hear the song, feel free to check out the video below.
Sunday Funday’s workout this week was a little different. Usually during our workouts the movements are completely varied in terms of how they go, let’s say with one “pushing” movement and one “pulling” movement. Today I wanted to change that up.
We performed both Wall Ball Tosses AND Thrusters. On paper, these movements are very similar (start at the shoulders, stand up aggressively and throw your arms into the sky), but in practice, I wanted the athletes to feel how different it was to throw a round/irregular-shaped object in the air and then need to catch it, versus keeping an evenly balanced barbell safely in your hands. The crew did a great job today!
Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for Time
20 Wall Balls / 20 Thrusters / 20 Double-Unders (or 40 Single Jumps) / 200m Sprint Run
Athlete Results:
Bad Boy Mike (20# / 65#)- 15:46
Alon (14# / 45#)- 24:13
Annie (6# / 15#)- 18:26
Casey (14# / 45#)- 21:48
Andy (14# / 15#)- 16:42
Team CrossFit Lakewood is at it again, this time with the third workout of the 2011 CrossFit Games Open.
One more time, the workout was as many reps in 5 minutes as possible of 165lb/110lb Squat Clean and Jerks.
Two heats of athletes lifted on Saturday, and the energy was high! Check out the video below and see how much fun we have together. Great job, team. Let’s keep it up! WE’RE HALFWAY THERE!
*****Highlight of the day for me*****
Drew Vance, aka Dru-Tang, hit a HUGE personal record for his Clean and Jerk today meeting the prescribed weight of 165lbs. He then went on and did it 3.5 more times! AWESOME!
Then on Sunday I decided that I had a few more reps in me, so I wanted to give it another go. A HUGE thank you to Megan for being willing to head to the gym to be my official judge/counter. (I ended up getting 4.5 more reps then attempt #2!)
Smashby's Training Blog 