Smashby's Training Blog

Another full house for the 6pm class! Since Jamie did Overhead Squats yesterday, the rest of the group went through them tonight. (Jamie focused on form with simple Front Squats)

The workout for tonight definitely put a high level of importance on more “Skilled Movements”. It was a workout that has been posted on http://www.crossfit.com a few times, most recently last week on 1/21/11.

The first movement was an L-Pull-Up. That is exactly what it sounds like, a regular pull-up, where your legs are out in front of you in the air. Very hard to do, especially in the event that someone has limited range of motion in their hamstrings.

The other movement was a One-Legged Squat, aka the Pistol, (demonstrated here by Adrian Bozman who works at San Francisco CrossFit and for CrossFit.com) is a very challenging movement that requires not only strength, but increased balance and flexibility as well!

Denver CrossFit All-Star (and all-around nice guy!), Kevin Montoya, shows us how to do this entire workout properly. He is one talented athlete!

So since these movements are so challenging, there were plenty of ways to scale or modify the movements as you’ll see in today’s video. The important thing, though, is to spend time working on these movements so you can IMPROVE them. Even over the course of this workout, people were improving their form by seeing what did and didn’t work for them. Great job, guys and gals!

Workout of the Day:
21 L-pull-ups / 20 One legged squats, alternating legs / 18 L-pull-ups / 16 One legged squats, alternating legs / 15 L-pull-ups / 12 One legged squats, alternating legs / 12 L-pull-ups / 8 One legged squats, alternating legs

Athlete Results:
Overhead Squat 3 Rep Max
Clayton- 135lbs
Jamie- Worked Front Squat Form, same weight)

WOD
Clayton (Dead-Hang Pull-Ups / Pistols back to stack of weights)- 12:45
Jamie (2-Banded Pull-Ups / Weighted Air Squats (15lbs)- 13:11

Jamie came in after a weekend of friends in town and was ready to get back to CrossFit! After a warm-up we were off to hit Overhead Squats, working towards a 5-rep max. We’ve been working on Jamie’s flexibility, and even with room for improvement, when he gets down in the hole, his shoulder strength really helps him push that bar all the way up in the air! It’s looking better every day, Jamie! (Just make sure we keep that weight back on our heels, as that helps improve everything… Chest Position, Knees Out, Bar Overhead, etc)

The workout for the day would be a new variety for Jamie! There were three rounds, each one lasting 5 minutes. The goal was to complete a 500 meter row (with the Damper/Resistance set at 10!) as fast as possible. Let’s say that took 2:00, then he would have the remaining 3:00 of the 5 minute round to do as many Wall-Balls as possible. The goal of the workout is to complete as many Wall Ball Tosses as possible! I’m not sure if you’ve ever hopped off of a rower (hard “pulling”) and ran straight over to Wall Balls (hard “pushing”), but it’s a pretty gnarly combination. Great job, Jamie!

Workout of the Day:
3 5:00 Rounds of-
Row 500 meters / As many Wall Balls as possible in remaining time

Athlete Results:
Overhead Squat – 5 rep max
Jamie- Final Set 80lbs

WOD
Wall Ball Tosses by round-
Jamie- 27 / 25 / 38!

These weekday classes are so much fun! The house is packed, and the energy is so positive.

Today’s workout started off with some Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (SDLHP) as the warm-up/strength portion of the day. It’s an exercise that is not used as often as some others in CrossFit, but you’ll be able to see by watching Clayton in the video, it’s definitely a full-body movement. Thanks to the trainers at CrossFit Headquarters, one of the things I try to tell athletes when performing it is to imagine someone is recording you doing the SDLHP, and go back and play the video forwards and backwards. When done properly, it should look exactly the same played in either direction. No pausing at the “hang” position. This video shows that very concept! Clayton did this really well!

Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for Time of-
15 Power Cleans / 18 Box Jumps / 21 Kettlebell Swings

I just noticed that the video has the wrong date! I’ll fix that tonight!

Athlete Results:
5 Rep Max Sumo Deadlift High Pull
Clayton- 135lbs

WOD
Clayton (65lb Power Clean / 16kg KB)- 21:39

Tonight was a big night at the gym. We just combining the evening classes, so my traditionally smaller Monday Nights (usually Kristin, Jamie and Clayton) now turned into a 12-person class that Orion and I coached together! What a change, huh? The energy in the gym was great, though, and I think everyone had a great time!

The first part of the workout was 5 sets of 5 back squats. The folks who used to train with me usually had an entire rack to themselves, but tonight worked in with 3 or 4 other athletes. Again, despite the change, everything seemed to go very well from my perspective. I think we even had some pretty big numbers put up, too!

Workout of the Day:
3 Rounds for Time of-
50 Air Squats / 10 Power Snatches / 15 Pull-Ups

For some of my folks, it was their first time doing more high-rep snatches in a workout, and I think that you all did an awesome job! Also, breaking down the rep schemes for higher rep Air Squats really seemed to help make the workout manageable. I was proud of you all for doing so well in front of such a large audience.

Athlete Results:
5×5 Back Squat
Kristin- 95lbs x 5
Jamie- 155lbs x 5
Clayton- 175lbs x 9!

WOD
Kristin (35lb Snatch / 1-Banded Pull-Ups)- 10:50
Jamie (65lb Snatch / 4-Banded Pull-Ups)- 16:02
Clayton (70lb Snatch / Unassisted Pull-Ups)- 13:48

Today’s warm-up was a bit more intense than usual. First, we started off with 3 rounds of 500m Row and 10 Burpees. That will certainly get your whole body moving, huh? After that, we did a Jump-Rope workout where technique focused on single jumps, alternating legs, 2 hops per leg and finally double-unders. Last but not least, we finished out the warm-up with some agility drills and sprints.

The workout today was a 4-rounder with Wall Balls, Ring Rows and Box Jumps. In order to start introducing gymnastics rings into more workouts, we’ll be starting with two of the more basic movements; Ring Push-Ups and Ring Rows. Note, I said more basic, definitely not “easy”!

Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for Time of-
15 Wall Balls / 15 Ring Rows / 15 Box Jumps

Athlete Results:
Kristin (14lb Wall Ball)- 13:12

When the workout was done, we ended the day with 3 rounds of:
10 Back Extensions / 10 GHD Sit-Ups

Both athletes tonight are looking incredibly strong with their “to-parallel” GHD Sit-Ups. That means in small doses, we’ll be able to start increasing that range of motion to get them closer to touching the ground each rep. Yay for progress!

Due to work going late for some, and business travel for others, it was just Jamie again tonight! I told him he just liked the 1:1 attention, and that he told the others not to come in, but he denied it.

Tonight we stayed away from a “barbell strength” movement since the focus for the first half of class was going to be, simply put, “core strength”. Jamie knew right up front that he would be performing 2 mini-workouts this evening.

The first was a 2-rounder, where he had to “accumulate” time in certain positions before moving onto the next part of the workout. After he finished this and had a few minutes rest, I introduced him to another CrossFit favorite: Tabatas!
He’s had a pretty fun two days, huh?

Workout of the Day:
WOD #1
2 Rounds for time of-
1:00 Handstand Hold / 1:00 L-Sit Hold / 1:00 Back Extension Hold

WOD #2
Tabata Intervals for-
Air Squat / Row (for calories)

Athlete Results:
WOD #1
Jamie- 19:25

WOD #2
Air Squat (done holding a 10lb plate)- 12 / 12 / 13 / 12 / 10 / 12 / 10 / 12 – 93
Row (for calories)- 5 / 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 / 8 – 56
Total Score- 149

Jamie came in tonight, and it was a good one. First, we spent some time working on the Hang Power Snatch and Hang Squat Snatch lifts. These can be some of the most technically advanced lifts, and Jamie did a great job driving up through his heels, extending the hips and getting that powerful shrug linked together to get the bar high in the air. Great job!

For the workout, I wanted to introduce Jamie to one of our very own CrossFit “Girls”. As many of you know, CrossFit names many of it’s workouts after two main groups. First are the Hero’s who have died in the line of duty to protect our freedoms, and the second theme of named workouts is Women’s names. The girl that Jamie got to meet tonight… Barbara!

Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for time of-
20 Pull-Ups / 30 Push-Ups / 40 Sit-Ups / 50 Air Squats
Rest exactly 3:00 minutes between rounds

Since it was his first time with this workout, I went ahead and cut it down to only 3 rounds. Barbara can be a “body weight” workout crusher, so we took it a little easy…. (ask Jamie if it seemed too easy) 🙂 The way he pushed through the last 50 squats was incredible. Great finish!

Athlete Results:
Jamie (3 Bands round 1, 4 Bands rounds 2 and 3 pull-ups)- Rd 1- 8:30 / Rd 2 – 7:52 / Rd 3 – 8:37

It seems that with every passing week, you guys are becoming more and more comfortable in the bottom position of that squat. I can’t tell you exactly what it’s from, but I’ll tell myself it’s from the additional time we’ve spending these last few weeks on stretching and mobility with foam rolling and using baseballs to loosen up. Yay for increased range of motion, and the increased strength that is coming with it!

Today’s lift was 5 sets of 5 for Front Squat. Jamie, Clayton and Kristin all did a great job. The video I post will show their final sets. Great effort and form, you three!

Once we finished this, I told them about our workout for the day; A 20-minute AMRAP. This means they complete the movements listed in order, as many times as possible in 20 minutes.

Workout of the Day:
20 Minute AMRAP of-
15 Thrusters / 20 Double-Unders (or 50 Single Jumps) / 25 Jumping Pull-Ups / 30 Ab-Mat Sit-Ups

Even though the Thrusters were only using the bar, once you start to get tired, that full range of motion on each rep gets to be pretty taxing! Great job maintaining proper form and using those hips to help get the bar overhead.

Athlete Results:
5×5 Front Squat (Weight on Final sets)-
Jamie- 135lb
Kristin- 55lbs
Clayton- 165lbs

AMRAP-
Jamie (45lb Thrusters / 50 Single Jumps)- 3 Full Rounds + 28 Sit-ups (2 REPS from 4 full rounds!)
Clayton (45lb Thrusters / 50 Single Jumps)- 4 Full Rounds + 15 Sit-ups (HUGE improvement on the Jumping!)
Kristin (15lb Thrusters / 20 Double-Unders)- 5 Full Rounds + 15 Thrusters (Doubles are getting better and better)