Smashby's Training Blog

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

Athlete Results:
Kristin- 45lb Squat Cleans, 10lb Wall Ball

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.

Athlete Results (Total Reps for Jumping Pull-Ups / Sit-Ups / Air Squats = Total Score):
Kristin- 107 / 102 / 126 = 335
Clayton- 90 / 79 / 117 = 286
Nichole- 75 / 95 / 90 = 260

I had a really fun time going through today’s class and hope you all did, too! After a warm-up which included quite a bit of stretching (which is something we’ll be doing more of), we spent a very good chunk of time working on our squatting position. The “Air Squat” is a critical stance in most of our power movements as we discussed, (air squat, back and front squat, clean and jerks, snatches, wall balls, etc.) so becoming very comfortable down in that position is critical for CrossFit…. and for life!

The other reason we were going through a lot of squat work was because the skill we worked on today was the Squat Clean. While we only used PVC pipes today, in the 15-20 minutes we spent breaking down the parts of the movement and then combining it, you all improved significantly! After that, it was onto the workout!

(Side-note: One of the movements we used tonight in our workout was the Ab-Mat sit-up.  He started all the way with his shoulders touching the ground, and came up to where his chest touched his quads. Well done, sir!)

Perfect form on those Ab-Mat Sit-Ups, Andy!

Workout of the Day:
15 Ball Slams / 20 Ab-Mat Sit-Ups / 25 Wall Taps / 800m Run
10 Ball Slams / 15 Ab-Mat Sit-Ups / 20 Wall Taps / 400m Run
5 Ball Slams / 10 Ab-Mat Sit-Ups / 15 Wall Taps / 200m Run
(The Wall Tap we used was simply standing in front of the wall and jumping high on the balls of the feet to reach a certain target height. No squat was necessary in this movement.)

The best part of the workout tonight was that everyone ended up using a slam ball! In the past we had scaled this movement to a Medicine Ball to make it easier, but today, no one needed that scaling. Can you say…. “We’re becoming better athletes!!” So cool.

Clayton and Andy each used a FIFTY pound slam ball. If you haven’t picked one up yet, give that a shot. The ladies all used 30 pound slam balls, also no easy task, and 500% heavier than the medicine ball she used for the same exercise last month. FIVE HUNDRED PERCENT!

One of the highlights was that last round, when both Clayton and Kristin were in from the run before their final 5 ball slams, I suggested that Kristin catch the ball on one bounce like Clayton had been doing for the entire previous 25 during the workout. She did, he did, and it was awesome to watch. Check it out!

Athlete Results:
Kristin (30lb slam ball, caught them on the last 5)- 13:18
Clayton (50lb slam ball, caught them all)- 13:23
Andy (50lb slam ball, no catch)- 14:01
Nichole (30lb slam ball, no catch)- 15:21
Boomer (30lb slam ball, no catch)- 15:40

I can’t express enough how impressive it is that you all stepped up your game on those slam balls. That is such a full-body movement, and the speed with which you guys learned how to perform the movement was great. That’s how we increase our performance, by becoming more efficient while trying to create more power! Great job!

Today before the main workout, we did a few running drills outside, then came back inside and worked on learning the “Kettlebell Snatch” movement.  After that, it was straight to the workout.

Workout of the Day:
2 Rounds for Time of-
400m Run / 30 KB Swings / 30 Mtn. Climbers / 30 Push-Ups (Hand Release) / 30 Squat Jumps

As always, perfect extension overhead!

This workout proved to be more of a bruiser than expected, but both athletes did a great job pushing through.  I’d say at a lower rep count per round, Kristin is pretty close to doing all full-plank push-ups, too.  Especially on hand-release sets!

Full Lock-out every time

Athlete Results:

Kristin (12kg Kettlebell / Knee Push-Ups)-14:54

Clayton (16kg Kettlebell)- 20:53