10 November 2010

Today’s WOD was a partner exercise, 5 Rounds for reps not TIME

KB Swings 24/16 and Goblet Squats (with a KB in ea. hand) 20/12

The first person in the duo, completes both movements before the partner takes over…doing as many reps as possible without rest before moving on. We tallied up individual reps and the team reps for a final score.

This was great exercise to practice the art of scaling. To find that place where you could have maximum power output, where you could push yourself, challenge and test yourself. Where is that spot where you are at your strongest most powerful without under-challenging yourself. Many of the athletes began the workout and realized that they underestimated what they could do, picking weights much to light.  So they scaled…up. Some athletes found that they picked weights too heavy and had to push back. This is GOOD!

Another subject that always comes up for athletes and coaches, injuries. It seems every week we coaches are talking with yet another athlete about injuries, past present or future. What to do, what not to do, how to avoid, prevent, repair, heal. To take time off from class, to keep at it, what is safe what is unsafe.

It is paramount that we treat our bodies right. Good food, proper form, consistency in attendance, enough sleep, and when it strikes rest when injured. As individuals we must listen to ourselves and what our bodies are calling for, but we also must educate ourselves. Much of what we have been told throughout our lives about exercise and health are lies. Many doctors today are ill-informed. So where do we get good information from? I personally think the CrossFit Journal is one of THE BEST sources for information on our health and fitness, diet and nutrition. It is up to date, has many contributors with the widest variety in backgrounds and it provides a place for discussion.

I recently read in article that I encourage you all to read. it is entitled “Silly Bullshit” by Mark Rippetoe Issue 59 2007 . It is largely about what I was talking about in the precious paragraph. An excerpt from that article:

“It is incumbent on you, yes You, to educate yourself to a sufficient extent that you are in a position to evaluate information issued from a position of authority. You are supposed to be able to recognize silly bullshit when you hear it.”

So before you go….I wanted to congratulate Mona on executing her FIRST unassisted kipping pull-up!!!!!!! YES MONA!

This is Mona after successful completion!

The name of today’s WOD was named after it was programmed…inspired by one of our athlete’s desire to burn off the cheesecake he had eaten ASAP…so he showed up to the 6am class…

“cheesecake”                                                                                                                                                           10rounds for time: 10 wall balls 20/14, 10 box jumps—>

Elite or”Cherry Chocolate cheesecake”            ^                                                                                                   7rounds for time: 3 thrusters 95/65, 4 walking lunges with thruster weight resting across shoulders

ADAPT, MIGRATE, OR DIE….

While scaling here at CrossFit SantaFe isn’t anything new, our development of two workouts a day is. We were faced with the inevitableness ( I know that isn’t really a word!) of either splitting up classes to accommodate beginners intermediate and advanced athletes OR adapt our programming.

This is our first week of our adapted programming…we will continue to develop scaling as a skill as important as proper form. An excellent article in the CrossFit Journal about this, “How Less Can Be More” by Clea Weiss, owner of CrossFit Ithaca in Ithaca, NY. Here is an excerpt from the article….

‘When you do a workout for the first time, pick a weight that ensures you will complete all the reps. Consider 50 percent of the prescribed weight, or even an empty bar. Take a look at your time. Was it as fast and easy as you thought it would be? If so, increase the weight the next time you do the workout. The increase could be just a few pounds or right up to the prescribed weight. It all depends on how you did. Many workouts appear infrequently. You might find you can increase weight on virtual shoveling because your deadlift has improved.’

skill, Back Squat
WOD: AMRAP 9min
5 DL
10 med ball clean
15 push ups
REST 3 MIN
AMRAP 9min
8 burpees
10 KB swings
20 squats
ELITE WOD
AMRAP 9min
4DL 215/155
8KB Power Cleans 20/12
12 Thruster push ups
REST 3MIN
AMRAP 9MIN
6 burpee pull ups
12 KB swings 24/16
24 squats

Today’s Workout was named by the amazing guys you run CrossFit Parma. This was the workout I did with them the day I visited their box. I was the first foreign visitor up until that point. Its a demanding and fun workout, that leaves you wondering how nine minutes can be so long…

One of the things we talked about today (like so many days) was form. How critical it is in everything we do. I encourage (demand) everyone to read the CrossFit Journal article by Dr.John Zimmer entitled “Your Form Sucks”.

He talks simply about the three different sections of our spine and how they work together. He draws the line between common injuries/complaints with poor/lazy/lack of form. He lays out a simple test you can do to begin to correct your posture, and the sometimes harsh and necessary reminder that yes, “your form sucks!”

This was a wicked awesome partner WOD and a chipper…yea baby! We will most definitely bring this one back in the future….

35 Double Unders/balance on one leg
35 Push Ups/hold plank
35 Sit Ups/hold side plank
35 Pull Ups/hold chin up
35 Walking Lunges/hold Samson stretch
35 Box Jumps/hold at the bottom of squat
35 KB swings (24/26)/hold plate O/H (45/25)
run 400m together and finish with 35 burpees

Cleans!

5-3-1-1-1-1

After our heavy partner chipper yesterday, we brought in a day of Olympic Lifting with cleans.

“At the start of any pulling movement, form wins out over speed.” Bill Starr Pulling Techniques Hip it before you Whip it The Cf Journal

While a lot of the athletes got the “basic” idea of the clean, many of you began to loose strength as the load increased. This wasn’t due to increased load per-say but rather loss of form/technique. A good dead lift set up is crucial to executing the clean or power clean. Keeping the bar rising at the same speed of the hips and having it rise in a straight line are two important points to keep in mind when performing this movement.

While we give you the cues to proper form in the basic set up for the clean, we must as individuals find that place in the set up that best fits our bodies. We won’t all look the same at the bottom of our dead lift, but when we go to pull that weight our form follows the same technique. And the core of that technique is that the bar must rise at the same rate as our hips. If we can all concentrate on this as a fundamental, we will greatly improve many of our Olympic lifts. This point cannot be over-emphasize this enough. Be patient with yourself. Focus on a good set up and the rest will follow, if we become impatient or hurried, if we start thinking about how that amount of weight is going to get up to our chest, or we are going to get under it…we’ve already failed.

WOD

5-3-1-1-1-1  O/H Squats….and…

Tabata Mash Up: Thrusters and SDHP 65/45

Wicked workout today, after yesterdays WOD with O/H squats I saw a huge improvement in every athletes’ ability, flexibility, and confidence. The other thing that I noticed was athletes not getting low enough in their squats and or having wobbly knees either on the way up or the way down. This is due to a commonly ignored muscle group the adductors.

The adductors comprise four separate muscles: adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus and the gracilis. They originate closely together high up in the groin on the pubis bone, then swing down and arc over to attach to various parts of the femur, running from the top to the bottom of the long leg bone until the magnus finally attaches to the medial condyle at the knee. This last part is most important.

So when our knees get wobbly it is because of weakness in the adductors, their main job is to pull the upper leg inward and if they are weak they are not able to hold the knees in correct form for the squat. It becomes more apparent the heavier our load.

“Keep in mind that when adductor strength falls behind, it adversely affects every back and leg exercise you do. And that’s a lot of exercises. Weak adductors have a direct bearing on foot speed, leaping ability and endurance. Equally as important to any aspiring athlete is the fact that the adductors play a major role in securing the knee joint, especially the anterior part. Strong knees are critical for anyone participating in any sport, but doubly so for those engaged in contact sports like football, soccer, lacrosse, rugby and hockey.”  From the September 2010 article in the CF Journal, by Bill Starr

So if you want an exercise to do at home try this:

Sit on the floor or a chair with your legs wide apart. Cross your arms and push against the insides of your knees with your hands as you try and pull them together. Hold the tension against your knees for 8-10 seconds, then ease off a bit and allow them to touch and rest. Then do another set.