Workout of the Day

AMRAP 15

10 Overhead Squats (95#/75#)
10 Box Jumps

Dress warmly!

WOD 25 Mar, 2013

Low Bar Back Squat
3-3-3-3-3

Increase load to the maximum weight that can be succussfully lifted for 3 consecutive repetitions.  Post load to comments.

WOD 22 Mar, 2013

6 X 800 meter Run

*Rest for as long as the previous 800 meters took to run; e.g. first 800 meter run takes 3:09, rest 3:09 before starting the second 800 meter run.

**Keep each round within 10 seconds of each other.

***For every run that is not within 10 seconds of the previous round, there is a 10 burpee penalty.

Post times to comments.

Meet the Girls

As we’ve briefly discussed, and will discover with time, Crossfit programming is an art within itself. Ensuring that Workouts of the Day are engineered to fit the needs of providing general physical preparedness for the unknown and unknowable while being symmetrical, exciting, intense, and measurable is almost a skill in itself. To help us measure our fitness, which will help you track your improvement and your performance, certain workouts have been deemed “benchmark WODs,” some of the more famous being “The Girls.” We just experience our first girl, “Chelsea,” last week, and it won’t be long until we are introduced to the rest: Angie, Barbara, Diane, Elizabeth, Fran, Grace and Isabel. 

“The Girls” refer to a set of benchmark WODs that represent the most ideal definition of “classic Crossfit” (functional movement at high intensity across broad range and modal domains) and are notable for their varied metabolic demands, their blend of elegance, simplicity, and obvious impact. Whether it’s a series of body-weight movements executed at a high intensity interval or a couplet that contains a gymnastics element paired with a weightlifting element, “The Girls” are universal to all Crossfitters as a measure of proficiency, skill, and dedication. Much like typical gym-goers inquire about each other’s bench press, Crossfitters are more likely to ask, “What’s your Fran time?”

These ladies do more than just intensify our workouts; they give us a clear path to improve our fitness through Crossfit. Being able to perform these benchmarks as prescribed will not only simplify your goals (being able to do unassisted pull-ups, handstand push-ups, being able to RX the thrusters, deadlifts etc.), they will help you measure progress through your varied aerobic and anaerobic modes.

I do stress that these benchmark workouts are meant to be used to guide progress, not as a complete Crossfit regimen; we perform these workouts every so often. It would not be wise to complete them all in a month. Stay patient and stick with a Crossfit program, and I ensure you will get your chance to meet with these ladies.

For your reference, I’ve listed out “The Girls” for you below:

Angie

For time:

100 Pull-ups

100 Push-ups

100 Sit-ups

100 Air Squats

  

Barbara

5 rounds for time with 3 minute rest between each round:

20 Pull-up

30 Push-up

40 Sit-ups

50 Air Squats

Chelsea

Each minute on the minute for 30 minutes:

5 Pull-ups

10 Push-ups

15 Air Squats

Diane

Rounds of 21-15-9:

225# Deadlift

Handstand push-ups

Elizabeth

Rounds of 21-15-9:

135# Clean

Ring Dips

Fran

Rounds of 21-15-9:

95# Thrusters

Pull-ups

Grace

For time:

135# Clean-and-jerks

Isabel

For time:

135# Snatches

(Note: There are “new girls” in Crossfit benchmark WODs, but these are the classics that you are almost guaranteed to encounter throughout your Crossfitting. Why were they named after women? I won't get into that, but Greg Glassman has explains his explanation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAT6AFMiL14)

WOD 20 Mar, 2013

Push Press

3-3-3-3-3

Increase load to the maximum weight that can be succussfully lifted for 3 consecutive repetitions.  Post load to comments.

Workout of the Day

Crossfit Open 13.2 WOD!

AMRAP 10:

5 Shoulder-to-Overhead, 115#/75#
10 Deadlift, 115#/75#
15 Box Jumps, 24"/20"

We will be substituting box jumps with plate jumps and bench step-ups to give you a little flavor of the open.

Workout of the Day

"Chelsea"

EMOTM 30 (Every minute on the minute):

5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats

Today is our first "Girls" benchmark WOD!

Dress warmly, we will be outside.

Workout of the Day

For load:

Bench Press

2-2-2-2-2-2

We will be testing our absolute strength again. Make sure you join in so you can build a bases of strength that will help you create your Crossfit goals!

WOD 8 Mar, 2013

For time,

22-16-10

Dumbbell Thrusters (45#/30#)

Pistols

Post time to comments.

WOD 6 Mar, 2013

Front Squat
5-5-5-5-5

The purpose of this WOD is to establish the maximum weight that can be successfully lifted for 5 consecutive repetitions.

Post loads to comments.

WOD 4 Mar, 2013

For time,

8 rounds

6 Goblet Squats (50#/35#)

7 Hand Release Push Up

8 Knees to Elbows

Post time to comments.

Mobility: Last week we started working to increase our mobility.  We are going to continue that effort this week with more exercise intended to increase your hip flexibility.  The video below is short, but provides very good information about why we want to improve hip mobility.

Why do we snatch?

Today, our Crossfit class introduced the snatch, which is lifting a weighted bar from the ground over your head in a violent but fluid motion. It is the one of two Olympic lifts that are practiced in Crossfit.

Olympic weightlifters spend their entire careers working on this movement. For many decades, the snatch was unknown outside the weightlifting world; it was deemed a move that was too dangerous to be done by “the casuals.” But Crossfit has brought on a renaissance to Olympic lifting and has been able to capture the attention of “the casual” and elite athletes into the discovery, practice, and routine of snatching.

“To snatch” means “to seize something quickly,” and it is apparent how this quickness translates into success when faced with a heavy, external object.

You might wonder why, in strength and conditioning program that emphasizes “functional movements,” we include this technical, skill-specific Olympic lift so regularly into our routine.

Well, here’s my take:

The ten recognized physical skills are cardiovascular and respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. As you balance and become proficient at all of these, you will become fitter and increase general physical preparedness. (I liken it to a video game character; you don’t want the character who has top speed but no strength, nor the one with awesome moves but no accuracy. You want the one with the leveled attributes who can fight any opponent and exploit their weaknesses.)

Unique to the snatch is the necessity to be competent in most, if not all, of the ten physical skills. Right off the bat, you need strength, power, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy just to complete the lift once. When you’re doing 30 snatches for time (we named her “Isabel”), you’re going to want cardiovascular and respiratory endurance to get you through.

But here’s where the snatch captures our attention; we can’t become good at the snatch just by repetition. We must build other areas of strength; deadlifts, cleans, overhead squats, front squats. We must build other areas of flexibility; mobilization of the joints, balance of the weight, coordination and finesse of our pulls. We must build more elements of power; training our nervous system, improving our agility, transferring momentum to an external object. But the “quickness” comes with proficiency in the clean, the deadlift, the overhead squat, the hip drive and power, coordinating a vertically-flying bar with your body, being able to receive and balance the bar over your head; to do that, you’ll need the diligence to constantly seek improvement in all ten physical skills.

The snatch then is no longer the end-state, but becomes a collateral achievement of our progress in other realms of fully functional fitness.

To some beginners, I like to give some words of humble advice:

As we all experience, Crossfit is a lot more about lifting things up and putting them down. There’s a lot of technical skill, mental fortitude, finesse, and down-right primal fighting instincts involved during a grueling WOD. But, unlike yoga or pilates, it doesn’t get easier with time. Diane and Fran will always kick your ass; thrusters and burpees will always suck; and AMRAPS and chippers will always leave you humbled, gasping for air. But you will get stronger. And you’ll crave the suck. As long as you keep with it...

Leave your ego behind. Stress mechanics before weight. Stress form over everything. Make checklists in your head and always run through it before each pull. Not only will dialing in your technique prevent bad habits, it will protect you from injury, provide you finesse and elegance, and help you progress in weight a lot quicker than crappy snatches will ever.

Find an expert to watch you, critique you, and give you cues. You won’t get this looking in a mirror. Don’t forget that people get paid big bucks to get this lift right; you’re not going to get it perfect, but having someone to coach you through and lock the technique into your head will have you progressing faster.

In the beginning, the snatch will elude you. You’re going to have to get up and keep trying. You’re going to have to convince your mind what your body already knows. You’ll spend your time rehearsing your movements and dialing in your technique, countless hours watching Olympic weightlifting videos online, critiquing everyone else’s snatch, making videos of your own, and practicing variations on boxes, with bands, your broomstick, medicine balls, kettlebells. You’re going to try to front squat and power clean weighs almost double someone’s body weight just to hit a snatch that is barely three-quarters of yours.

But have faith; if you put patience, determination, and diligence into improving all elements of physical fitness, you will be rewarded with a snatch of finesse that brings pride to your efforts. Find good resources, trust in your coaches, and let the knowledge of others guide your way! That’s what this community is for, isn’t it? We don’t have to be going to the Olympic Games in 2016 to learn this majestic movement; we just need to be present, in mind and body, and we need to get out there and do what it takes!

I won’t be competing in Olympic lifting events anytime in the near future, but it always reminds me to look introspectively into my strengths and my weaknesses. It build my confidence and tracks my progress and keeps me dedicated to the chase; not for a perfect snatch, but for a holistic style of fitness and strength I’ve never experienced before Crossfit.

I won’t be standing on any podiums anytime soon, if ever, but for now it keeps me humble, constantly digging for improvement, inspires to give it all everyday, and stay wholeheartedly dedicated to the art of Crossfit.

Keep snatching, fellow athletes. Keep Crossfitting!