Smashby's Training Blog

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

Happy Presidents’ Day, everyone! Many of you had the day off… I hope you spent it… celebrating President’s.?.?

Coach Orion getting the group warmed up

Tonight’s workout started off with some Overhead Squats (OHS). The OHS is a lift that rewards those with hamstring and shoulder flexibility, and really tight cores. If you lack even one of those, you will be able to tell pretty quickly! With the risk of sounding like a broken record, there were even more breakthroughs tonight. Most notably (since I was working closest with them) Wes and Pete absolutely crushed their sets. For the first time I saw FULL range of motion from both of these guys, and it seemed like something just “clicked” in their heads to wear form looked awesome. GREAT JOB, gentlemen!

The main workout included a nice combination of simpler movements and more complex ones. Knees to Elbows are a full-body movement that require coordination and strength, but thankfully there are many modifications that can be made to sub for this. Tonight, one of the more common mods we made were “Leg Raises”. Remember, in CrossFit it’s about constantly varying what we do, so if you subbed with Leg Raises today, try something else next time! Our goal is to build up the capacity to eventually get to do Knees to Elbows!

After those it was onto the Push-Ups. We’re getting a lot stronger with these, and it’s great to watch so many people go all the from their chest to the decks to locking their arms out at full extension at the top! Finally, we did some Pistols. These are definitely a more complex gymnastics movement, and as you can see CFHQ Trainer Adrian Bozman demonstrate, the key is to keep your weight back on those heels the entire time, and not let yourself rock forwards. The modifications we used for these were either squatting back onto a box, using rings to support ourselves, or simply hanging onto the pull-up rig to support our getting out of the “bottom” position.

Throughout the workout form really improved after folks heard some “key words”, so great job, team!

Greg is so good at these, cameras can't even see him!

Workout of the Day:
3 Rounds for Time
10 Knees to Elbows / 20 Push-Ups / 30 Pistols (15 each leg)

Sunday Funday was more like Sunday Full House tonight and I loved it! I can’t think of the last time we had 7 people in for a Sunday class. It was a lot of fun!

After warming up, I explained the workout to the group. I wish I could say everyone was excited, but there were definitely some groans when I announced that Med Ball Tosses and Box Jumps would be a part of it! What we did was a workout similar in structure to Fight Gone Bad. We had 4 stations set up where the athletes spent 1:00 at each one. After all 4, there was a 90 second rest period. The cycle is completed 3 times, leading to “only” 12 minutes of actual work. I’d like to think the athletes there tonight would still say it was a challenging one, though!

Finally, we ended the day with a 3-minute test. How many Slam Balls could you complete in 3 minutes? Instead of having everyone work alone, we paired most people up with a partner, and only one person could work at a time. It was incredible to watch, because nobody stopped for the entire three minutes. Great job, everyone!

Athlete Results:
WOD
Ben (6lb Med Ball / 16″ Box)- 61+76+68= 205 Reps
Lesley (10lb Med Ball / 20″ Box)- 81+85+88= 254 Reps
Mel (10lb Med Ball / 20″ Box)- 82+79+73= 234 Reps
Andy (14lb Med Ball / 20″ Box)- 101 (missed a station)+107+92= 300 Reps
Casey (14lb Med Ball / 20″ Box)- 73+77+70= 220 Reps
Jamie (20lb Med Ball / 24″ Box)- 66+74+64= 204 Reps
Wes (20lb Med Ball / 24″ Box)- 73+64+23= 190 Reps

3 Minute Slam Ball
Ben (6lb Med Ball / No Partner!)- 53 reps
Lesley and Mel (20lb Slam Ball)- 60 reps
Andy and Casey (30lb Slam Ball)- 59 reps
Wes and Jamie (50lb Slam Ball)- 50 reps

Talk about a close one! Can’t wait to see you guys next time!

The best crew in the land!