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Rowing with Robin

Robin recently joined us and brings a wealth of rowing experience with him. A former competitive rower over the “pond” in England, he and wife Lucy are beginning their CrossFit journey and no doubt the rower will be a strength for both of them. I was able to get a little video of him warming up on the rower and ask some questions around technique and coaching tips.

Here’s a short video and demo:

Ashley rowing hard!

"The Squatch"

3 Rounds for TIme:

800m Hill Run with 50# Sandbag

5 Muscle-Ups

10 Kettlebell Swings (70#)

15 Overhead Squats (95#)

Squatch dropped in today for a WOD with me. As most of you have caught some sort of bug (Michelle included) I had to go it alone. It was just the sort of WOD he likes and it kicked my butt! This grinder will become our very own benchmark WOD. Don’t worry, it’s all scalable… except for the hill.

“Dirt Angel Aftermath”

Tomorrow we will be at CrossFit Tacoma attending the “Better CrossFitting: Movement Mobility and Maintenance with Kelly Starrett” clinic. This clinic is designed to teach understanding of how the body works in functional movement, how to increase flexibility, increase our range of motion, and treatment and prevention of common sports related injuries. We look forward to sharing our knowledge with all of you.

Boxes and Bells

No it’s not Christmas! But this WOD is our gift to you.

For Time:

Run 400m

21 Box Jumps (24″/20″)

21 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)

Row 500m

15 Box Jumps

15 Kettlebell Swings

Run 400m

9 Box Jumps

9 Kettlebell Swings

Row 500m

Travis and Deb made up Dueling Thrusters from yesterday. As a married couple the duel was appropriate and pretty much a draw for them. The rest of you did today’s WOD (including Michelle and I). It’s interesting to see how there is a good split between those who like rowing and those who like running. What’s great is we ordered another rower so that means you will get to see more of the rowing soon to balance out the running. This weekend the topics of the daily posts will cover rowing and double under tips. Stay tuned.

Tom coaching Lyndi on the rower:

Sherry swinging away:

Notes:

Parking request: If you see the driveway is full please park around the corner of our cul-de-sac. We suggest parking on the street that is past the mailbox on the left with no houses built yet. It’s the street that is directly at the 400m Run turnaround. Then you can jog up as part of the warm-up! This avoids stacking cars past our driveway which blocks emergency vehicles that may need to turn around in our cul-de-sac and allows us to be more respectful of our neighbors. Thanks for your understanding.

Dueling Thrusters

Add 1 Thruster (95#/65#) for each minute on the minute.

1st Minute = 1 Thruster, 2nd Minute = 2 Thrusters,

3rd Minute = 3 Thrusters, 4th Minute = 4 Thrusters…etc.

Complete as many minutes as possible until you are no longer able to perform the RX’d number in that minute. Score total minutes plus reps completed.

Everyone got to “duel” a partner for most minutes and reps completed. Except poor Amanda who got to duel herself. But at least she won!

SnoRidge CF abroad

Travis completed the Mt. Hood Scramble ’09 race in Oregon this past weekend. The race was a 10k that covered mountains, rocks (big ones), trails, rivers, mud, steep climbs and more. This off-road trail race is a tough one that tests not only your running capability but also your capacity for enduring the elements as Travis said he forded rivers and climbed sections that meant pulling and clawing your way up. Running, pushing, pulling. Almost sounds like a CrossFit WOD. Sounds like a blast and let’s put a team together next year!

Jim was able to drop-in and visit CrossFit Santa Barbara while he is on the road. They welcomed him in their box yesterday for a Tabata Something Else WOD and even reviewed some fundamentals with his nephew that he brought with him. Great to see the community looking out for a traveling CrossFitter. Get back soon Jim!

Overloaded…

Strength work of three sets of three reps with the goal of reaching a three rep max (3RM):

Overhead Squat

3/3/3

Followed by

AMRAP in 15 Min. (As Many Rounds As Possible) of:

5 Burpees

7 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)

10 Overhead Squats (95#/65#)

Overhead squats are making progress. The below side by side comparison shows Adriana one month ago to now. The “Before” shot on the left was the first time she encountered OH Squats in a WOD (Nancy). The “After” on the right shows how even though we haven’t worked OH squats with anything more than a PVC during warm-ups her range of motion, strength, flexibility and body position is improving. What will these look like in another month?

A few improvements stand out in the pictures.

“Before”:

1) To support the bar in the squat, she is pushing the bar back behind her head farther to allow her chest to stay up. This is causing the load to put more stress on the shoulders.

2) She used more of her arms to support the bar and you can see her right elbow bent.

3) Her squat depth previously was what you see in the picture.

“After”:

1) She is supporting the bar (which is loaded heavier) in a more stable position that is directly over her midline as she squats. It is just behind her ears and remains there throughout the squat.

2) She has more “active shoulders” which is the upshrug feeling with locked out arms that helps keep the core tight and load balanced overhead.

3) Full squat depth today with each rep (she is rising in the picture here).

Before: After:

Big welcome to Robin who went through his first WOD and Elements part one tonight. Robin and his wife are both former competitive rowers that we are excited to have join us (Lucy begins next week).

"This is hard"

or “that was Hell” or our favorite, in response to asking Greg if he was ready to try 95 pounds: “I should’ve kept my big mouth shut.” All quotes of the day. All six of you had similar observations. Remember hard work produces results.

4 Rounds for Time:

10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95#/65#)

15 Pull-ups

30 Squats

We have a some shout outs today for a couple friends. First off Alexandra Seal from CF No Limits completed her CrossFit Level 1 Certification this weekend down in Aromas, CA. She is front and center on the left side of the barbell. Congrats Alex!

Our good friend Derek from high school was in town visiting for the weekend and we got to throw down a few WOD’s and several PR’s. He’s been CrossFitting since January and has drunk the Kool-Aid. While here he completed Fran as RX’d and a CF Total. He also managed to nail his kipping pull-ups, learn handstand push-ups, power cleans, deadlifts, and most importantly got his first muscle-up! Then he strung a few together for good measure. Here’s a pic and video of that accomplishment. Great effort Derek!

Derek First Muscle-Up Video:

Foam Rolling and Stretching

Why stretch? What is a foam roll? Watch this video from Again Faster. You can pick up a foam roller for little over $20 at Target in their exercise equipment section. This little thing is money well spent to helping roll out the tightness you feel in legs, knees, glutes, back etc. If you have joint issues, IT band problems, adhesions, tight hamstrings, lower back soreness and so on, give this a try in addition to stretching to increase your flexibility and decrease your pain. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.

Foam Rolling: Part I from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

Clean Up

For Time:

Alternate the following exercises in a ladder format.

15, 12, 9, 6, 3 of Pull-ups

3, 6, 9, 12, 15 of Power Cleans (115#/85#)

* For extra credit do chest to bar pull-ups and 155# power cleans.

Derek is a close friend of ours and fellow CrossFitter that is visiting us from the east coast for the weekend. He wanted to get some work in on cleans and kipping pull-ups so after some instruction we all threw down this WOD together.

We just introduced the double under in yesterday’s WOD. For those that this is new territory, it’s a skill that takes practice and patience. Here are some good techniques to help you learn in this video on Double Unders from Again Faster.

Double Unders from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

Notes:

Good luck to Travis who is running in the Mt. Hood 10k Scramble Race tomorrow! Don’t get stuck on the mountain!

Push and Pull

AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 20 Min. of:

3 Deadlift

7 Push-ups

15 Double Unders

Haven’t jumped rope since you were a kid? The jump rope can be an excellent tool for building cardio respiratory endurance as well as stamina, speed, agility and coordination. For those who couldn’t do double unders today then single unders were the sub. Typically you can expect to either attempt the double-under every time or do 3 times the prescribed amount. If singles are easy then move on to doubles. Congrats to Bridget who was able to get her first double unders today!

“Pushing and Pulling” with Neil and Bridget…