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
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!
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!
Yesterday was a big day for us, as Clayton and I competed in the “Earn Your Turkey Challenge” at MBS CrossFit. You should see the posts on the event below, as there were a lot of pictures taken and posted!
Today for Clayton, he just came into the gym to do some active recovery. Brian MacKenzie, of CrossFit Endurance, stresses that in order for the body to recover faster, an active warm-down following a big event, or the day after, will aid the muscles faster than taking the next day off. So he came in and just went through the prescribed workout at his own pace. It seemed he was more recovered the following day, which was great!
Clayton getting through some pull-ups to help recover
For Kristin, even though she was there all day to cheer on the CrossFit Lakewood team yesterday, she was ready to lift at speed. We started off with some Deadlifts, working up to a 5 Rep Max. Kristin made her way up to 115lbs for 5 reps, which is only 10lbs shy of her 1 Rep Max. Great job, Kristin!
Strong lift, Kristin. Especially for 5 reps!
For her main workout, Kristin completed a 10-minute WOD, where the time left-over each minute was used as rest before going into the next round.
Workout of the Day:
Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes-
4 Squat Cleans / 6 Wall-Ball Tosses
The “Earn Your Turkey Challenge” is only three days away, so today was Clayton’s last workout before his first ever CrossFit event! He wasn’t alone, though, since Jamie came back for his second CrossFit workout as promised!
As I’ve been saying for the last few weeks, we’re putting a much stronger emphasis on stretching and mobility nowadays, so the first 10/15 minutes of class were spent stretching and foam rolling. I’m hoping in the coming weeks that athletes start to notice significant improvements in their performances due to our increased range of motion!
We finished stretching and then worked on Back Squats for sets of 5. Clayton kept the weight light because of the event this weekend, and Jamie was working on form since it was his first time doing Back Squats with us. Both went to full depth and kept their weight on their heels with their chest high on every rep. Full range of motion every rep….
That attention to detail gets a BOOOOOOM from me!
Awesome job tonight, guys!
Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for time of-
200 meter row / 15 Knuckles to Toes / 10 Squat Jumps / 15 KB Swings
Check out Jamie crushing his last set of Kettlebell Swings. Awesome hip extension, even when he was tired!
After a group warm-up and about 15 minutes of Mobility Work with Foam Rollers and Baseballs, (thanks for the motivation, K-Starr!), we had Clayton and Kristin complete a 500 meter row, as fast as possible.
The trend continued today with having a Classic Main-Site WOD, and with the original work-out rep count to be 150. Yesterday Kristin tackled “Annie“, today, the two of them took on “Karen“. Karen is 150 Wall-Balls for time.
There is nothing easy about this workout, as it does quite a number on your lower back. But as a precaution to ensure they were going all the way down to full squat depth on each rep, we had both of them squat back to touch their butt to a med-ball each time. Clayton did the workout as prescribed, using a 20 pound med-ball, and throwing to a 10-foot target. Kristin threw a 10 pound ball to an 8-foot target.
Full hip extension makes the movement more efficient!
Athlete Results:
500 meter row~
Clayton- 1:45.0
Kristin- 2:07.0
Kristin was the lone ranger tonight, so after warming up, we spent some time working on pull-ups. Her goal is to be able to do unassisted pull-ups, and we’re going to get her there. When that skill work was done, it was onto the Workout of the Day!
Most of the time the workouts we do are original, however, I love finding great workouts from other affiliates from time to time and throwing in a Main-Site Classic every once and a while is key! Tonight I wanted Kristin to work on her ever-improving double-unders, so her workout was a slightly modified “Annie“. The prescribed “Annie” is 50-40-30-20-10 of Double-Unders and Sit-Ups. That means you do 50 Double-Unders (jump rope where the rope passes under your feet twice per jump) and then 50 sit-ups. After that, 40 Doubles and 40 sit-ups, and so on.
The only modification I made was to eliminate the round of 50. 150 Double-Unders is a lot, so making sure that Kristin only counted her successful doubles as jumps was more important than her doing a full 150.
Either way, look for yourself, and tell if you think she’s getting better at them. Amazing job, Kristin!
Tonight brought another newcomer through the doors of CrossFit Lakewood. Jamie and I had been talking about getting him in for a while, and tonight was finally the night!
We started today with some basic form on squats and really focusing on keeping our weight back on our heels, and Jamie picked it up almost immediately! Once that work was done, we got into the workout.
Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for time~
15 Box Jumps / 15 Wall Balls / 15 Push Press / 15 Weighted Sit-Ups
Athlete Results:
Kristin (20″ Box / 14lb Wall Ball / 45lb Bar / 10lb Plate for Sit-Up)- 15:26
Jamie (20″ Box / 14lb Wall Ball / 45lb Bar / 10lb Plate for Sit-Up)- 18:43
Looking good, you two!
For a first-time CrossFit workout, Jamie did better than most people I have ever seen. It was so great to watch how he broke down his reps in order to maintain form when he was tired. Great job, Jamie! Hope to see you again soon!
Today we started with strength, focusing on working up to a 3 Rep Max Back Squat. Clayton is competing in the Turkey Challenge in less than two weeks, so I wanted to focus on some strength work a few more times before the event.
Athlete Results (5 sets of 3 reps Back Squat):
Kristin- 85lbs for all 5 sets
Clayton- 155 / 165 / 185 / 195 / 205lbs
After that, we did a 15 AMRAP. That means in 15 minutes you get through the following list of exercises, in order, as many times as you can.
10 Ball Slams / 20 Back Extensions (on GHD) / 10 Push-Ups / 20 Ab-Mat Sit-Ups / Run 100 meters
Athlete Results:
Kristin (30lb Slam Ball, catch on bounce)- 4 Rds + 10 Ball Slams + 3 Back Extensions
Clayton (50lb Slam Ball, catch on bounce)- 4 Rds + 5 Ball Slams
After a quick group warm-up, tonight’s class started with something I have been trying to schedule in for a long time; Stretching and Mobility work! CrossFit Subject Matter Expert Kelly Starrett has created a daily Video Blog called the Daily MWOD, (or Mobility Workout of the Day) where he gives athletes ideas for increasing their flexibility and range of motion, in turn making us all more effective athletes and stable human beings, and also helping us prevent injury.
His daily blog can be found by clicking here, and I highly recommend adding it to your daily hits. In 5-10 minutes per day, if you follow his suggestions, I can assure you that you will be hitting Personal Records more regularly, but more importantly, you will be feeling more comfortable in your own skin and your range of motion will increase *significantly*.
So we started today with Foam Rolling for our legs and Band Stretching for our arms and shoulders. I’ll tell you what, I haven’t seen this many strained faces in a long time! I promise that by doing these exercises more often, your overall fitness will improve, guys and gals. Trust me 🙂
Clayton and Kristin Foam-Rolling
After that we did a 3-person WOD. After 1 person flipped a tire two times, a second person did a burpee after jumping through that tire. The third person did 3 Goblet Squats with a Kettlebell after every 2 flips. Once this was done 10 times, every did 10 Jump Squats (with a bar on their back) and 15 Dips each. This entire sequence was done 3 times, so each person had the opportunity to flip the tire, do the burpees, and complete Goblet Squats.
Athlete Results:
Clayton (12kg KB squats / 45lb Bar for jump squats / Dips w/ feet elevated on box)
Kristin (8kg KB squats / 15lb Bar for jump squats / Dips w/ hands on box, feet on ground)
Nichole (8kg KB squats / 15lb Bar for jump squats / Dips w/ hands on box, feet on ground)
This workout took the team 10:45 to complete
As soon as this was done, we went straight into a THREE-Tabata exercise circuit.
That meant , of each of these exercises:
Jumping Pull-Ups / Sit-Ups / Air Squats
While I gave athletes 1 minute rest between exercises, this was still a killer way to end the workout.
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