These Squatch Kids know how to play hard then rest:
This past week was a first for a couple folks. Rona got her first pull-up (plus 2 more) then Don got his first Muscle-up (plus one). Congrats!
First Timers from Tom Nugent on Vimeo.
Category: Video and Media
"Squatch"
3 Rounds for time:
Sandbag Run 800m (50#/25# with hill)
5 Muscle-Ups
10 Kettlebell Swings (70#/53#)
15 Overhead Squat (95#/65#)
Results
And they’re off…
Ryan and the hill: Love the shadows:
Our very own official benchmark workout for our box. I did this last year when we were still in the garage and used the hill in the woods behind the house. Today we brought this one out for all to try and incorporated the hill out front and the sandbags. For those who don’t have muscle-ups yet we subbed muscle-up progressions, ring pull-ups and even tried something new by using a band assist with the rings which worked well. This WOD mixes a little of everything (running, ring work, barbell, odd objects like sandbags and heavy kettlebell) and for only three rounds makes a good challenge especially with a hill on each run/trot. For those who missed this you will have to simply have to wait until next time and “Watch for the Squatch”.
Speaking of muscle-ups, Don got his 1st muscle-up today POST-WOD. He actually got two (No Travis I am not BS’ing you). Travis was joking that lately it seems like every couple days it’s someone getting a muscle-up and that Ashley is next. Muscle-up fever! Congrats Don!
Notes:
Great Friday 5pm class turnout with Moe. We are stoked you all showed up and took advantage!
Cinco De Mayo 8k and 1/2 Marathon: If you are running either race register at the gym to get $5 off the entry fee. If you are running the 1/2 marathon then register by March 31st at our gym before entry fees increase starting April 1st. The 8k price will go up later in April. Either way don’t procrastinate! Details are here.
Squat clean pain: The “Serious 7” from the 2010 CF Games New England Sectionals [wmv] [mov]
Rugby and CrossFit: Training the “High Hang Snatch” with Owen Franks of the New Zealand All Blacks (Rugby Pro Team) with Coach Mike Burgener [wmv] [mov]
"DT"
In honor of USAF SSgt Timothy P. Davis, 28, who was killed on Feburary, 20 2009 supporting operations in OEF when his vehicle was struck by an IED.
5 Rounds for time:
12 Deadlift (155#/105#)
9 Hang Power Clean
6 Push Jerk
Results
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Sangeeta honoring “DT”:
Coaching Sequence:
Jana demonstrates the barbell lifts of DT. The deadlift has a good set position and open hips at the top. The hang power clean keeps an upright chest and straight arms as she initiates the bar to travel down to above the knees before reversing direction and generating momentum in an explosive upward shrug. Note the triple extension in her hang clean and that the arms have bent only after the knees and hips and ankles have extended. This is outstanding. The hang clean finishes with high elbows. The push jerk starts with the elbows dropping towards the floor (but in front of the bar) as she dips vertically and then drives upwards to a landing back in the 1/4 squat (not shown) before standing up and locking out fully overhead. Great job Jana!
Notes:
Tomorrow weekly 5pm Friday classes are “game on!”
Lorri’s goodbye party is also tomorrow. Join the gang after the WOD and raise a glass at Finaghty’s Pub tomorrow night!
Recipe ideas running short? Consider “Paleocookbooks.com”
Push, Pull
7 Rounds For Time:
5 Handstand Push-Ups
5 Deadlifts (225#/135#)
Results
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Short and sweet. This WOD is a quick one that with full handstand push-ups gasses you midway through and taxes the shoulders. We underestimated the effect scaling would have on this one and the shortened ROM (range of motion) for handstand push-ups did not adequately train the shoulders. Chalk it up as a learning experience. Future WOD’s with handstand push-ups will be stricter in using the pike push-up on the floor or pike off a box as a suitable scaled exercise rather than allowing 3 AbMat’s for a HSPU. For those who can get inverted and easily knock out HSPU’s with 2 AbMats we will lower that target slightly by using a 10# bumper and AbMat. The goal is to make the range of motion an equal challenge and load on the shoulders as a full ROM handstand push-up requires. This will increase overall strength in the shoulders much quicker.
Congrats Travis for PR’ing your double-unders with 48 straight tonight. Impressive hops! Also a big burpee welcome to John and Cathy who are completing Elements this week and Tara who just started. Don’t worry, you three will find out what burpees are soon…
“The Triplet” Highlights from the 2010 CrossFit Games Carolina Sectionals [wmv] [mov]
Notes:
5pm Friday afternoon class begins this week.
Saw this quote on an email from Lauren at lululemon: “There is no separation between health, family and work. You love every minute of your life.”
"Box Jump Annie"
50/40/30/20/10 of each of the following for time:
Box Jumps (24″/20″)
AbMat Sit-ups
Results
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Jeremy and the GHD:
Weak Sauce: Defined by Urban Dictionary as “an event or object that lacks intensity and/or fails to fully accomplish its purpose”. I would add to this definition to include: “whining, complaining, or generally approaching the CrossFit Warm Up with a lackadaisical attitude; going through the motions or trying to shortcut it.”
The warm up has a purpose. It is movement preparation and injury prevention. It warms the muscles and overall body temperature, which increases muscle elasticity and reduces stiffness. It dilates your blood vessels and allows more oxygen to travel through the blood in your muscles enhancing endurance and performance. It induces the body to cool itself more efficiently. The warm up improves range of motion around your joints and triggers the release of hormones in the body that drives your body to release carbohydrates and fatty acids to be used for energy production. Finally, the warm-up signals the mind to get ready to get work done.
When you come in, leave the weak sauce at the door and approach the warm up as a chance to focus on movement prep as well as a chance to improve technique with a PVC and perfect your range of motion. It will pay dividends in the WOD and in your overall fitness.
If you want the exact opposite of weak sauce, then go watch two of the top CrossFitters in the world in “Speal vs. Khalipa” on the CrossFit Journal [wmv] [mov]
Notes:
Congrats to Zach for getting his 1st Muscle Up today after the WOD! Also congrats to Lucy, Pat and Jeremy for running the Mercer Island 1/2 Marathon this weekend. Warriors all of you!
Lorri’s going away gig is this Friday night! If you didn’t receive the Evite let Lucy know or drop us an email. We don’t want her to move so this is our last chance to change her mind!
Beyond the Whiteboard posted some major changes recently. Go read the link for some in-depth explanations around some of those new features.
Paleo/Zone Challenge Update: The Body Fat Truck will be back April 10th at the conclusion of the challenge to conduct a follow up test. Stick with the diet changes and make them lifestyle changes. For those who have been weighing in weekly we have seen weight dropping, and for many performance and recovery improving. Rachel has lost 13 pounds so far!
Schedule change: Starting this Friday we will have a 5pm class each week with Moe! Whoo hoo!
Max Effort Rest
"Eva"
5 Rounds For Time:
800m Run
30 Kettlebell Swings (70#/53#)
30 Pull-ups
Results
Grip it and rip it:
For many of us that is what we did. Gripped it and subsequently ripped it. Needless to say pull-ups will take a backseat while the hands rest for a few days. Don’t worry though there are PLENTY of WOD’s that don’t need pull-ups or an ironclad grip.
Who is Eva? If you are curious Eva T. is a former US Ski Team member and Olympic medalist. She is one of the OG’s of CrossFit. She is an affiliate owner who has a reputation for being extremely fit, strong and an all around beast of an athlete. This WOD is fittingly named for her.
As far as the “Girls” benchmark WOD’s, I think this is absolutely the toughest of them. Hands down. It’s a grinder, a beat down, a chipper of the soul. There was angst around doing this today (myself included) and for that I say it’s a good thing. The reasoning behind me programming this is simply that it gives you perspective. When you have to gut it out for up to an hour in relentless high intensity work you look at those sub 10 minute workouts a little different. Eva forces you to either get work done or give up. If you always avoid the WOD’s that demand high power output for a prolonged period of time, you will only be increasing one relative weakness.
This type of work makes you a little more confident after you do it, thinking “Wow I just did what?!” That alone makes it worth it. Now for what we were all thinking when we were actually in the middle of doing it, simply look at the below pic of Rona for what everyone was feeling:
Curtis and Jason also came in and rowed 5k today (both are a little banged up) and turned in very impressive times of a little over 20 minutes. Thanks to Curtis who helped me with picture taking today during the first wave. Here’s the Eva recap on Flickr.
Notes:
Beginning next Friday we will have a 5pm Friday class with Moe! That will mean 5pm classes Monday through Friday. No excuses now!
Birthday 2 for 1
Happy Birthday to Graham and my brother Jim N.!
3 Rounds For Time:
16 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95#/65#)
19 Knees-to-elbows
400m Run Backwards
Results
Graham busting out some double-unders:
Graham seems to look better off.
Two really cool dudes had birthdays this week so we did a mash-up and this is what we came up with. Grip killing, ab torching, leg burning fun. Who doesn’t like to run backwards? At least it makes the 400m seem way easier when you run forward. I wanted to give my brother (who lives in Austin) a WOD as part of his birthday gift from afar since he follows our programming on his own in his garage when the Army allows him the time. Hope you both enjoyed your birthday gift. If not, well there’s always next year. We’ll try harder!
This weekend Michelle will be attending the CF Olympic Lifting Cert at Rainier CF (they are hosting) with an incredible coaching staff that includes Josh Everett. She’ll spend plenty of time learning the Olympic Lifts with heavy focus on the snatch, more on the snatch, the hook grip, penalty burpees, snatch, more penalty burpees, more hook grip, and maybe a little time on the clean and jerk! Oh did I mention the snatch? It’s an intensive two days that will be a huge benefit for her and all of us. I am stoked that we will have three of us (Moe, Michelle and I) who have attended this cert or clinics with Coach Burgener to learn these lifts and coaching cues to better teach all of you. I am also stoked that hopefully she will get the chance to really practice the burpee as it’s a pretty good group motivation tool for those who attend the Oly Cert. Yay burpees!
Sumo Deadlift High Pull Coaching Tip:
Assume a wide stance and ensure the pull finishes with elbows “high and outside” (like Adriana and Lorri). Fully open the hips to stand tall and explode the bar up to under the chin while pulling those elbows up towards the ears.
Notes:
Rob Orlando of CrossFit Conan wins the Viking Fest Strongman Competition (under 200 lbs.) [wmv] [mov]
Read “The CrossFit Congressman“
"Couples Retreat"
2 Rounds, of each couplet consecutively, for time:
15 Power Clean (115#/75#)
30 Double-Unders
20 Wall Balls (20#14#)
20 Pull-ups
* Performed like “Twins“. (Complete 2 rounds of couplet 1 then move to couplet 2)
Results
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Quote of the Day: “Dude, why are you grabbing my balls?” ~ Jorge to Jim after Jim stole his medicine balls
Jackie and Deb doing Power Cleans:
PR Alert! So first off I have to apologize to Rob for not mentioning his 1 mile run PR yesterday with a scorching 5:35. It inspired several in the gym to get out and try to break it. Pat and Jeremy came in before yesterday’s afternoon WOD to try for theirs and Pat ran a 5:40 while Jeremy ran a 5:57. Then today Don came in and ran a blazing 5:24! I’m now motivated to try and get sub 6. It’s contagious! Rob also PR’d his double-unders tonight with 49 straight.
Speaking of PR’s we are looking at hanging another whiteboard up to track PR’s for several things (like max rep double-unders, pull-ups, handstand push-ups, 400m run, 1RM lifts, etc.). This would be for the top 5 males /females or something like that since we can’t list everyone (which is a good problem). We encourage all of you to take a page in your WOD notebooks and dedicate it to writing down your own PR’s for bodyweight movements, lifts (1 rep, 3 rep, and 5 rep max), benchmark WOD’s etc. Just another way to motivate for us all to work on those skills and push for setting new goals to break.
Notes:
Make sure you weigh in for the week for those in the Paleo/Zone Challenge. Stick with it! April is approaching.
Our Navy Seals use CrossFit, so do several military posts, air and naval bases, various units (both conventional and Special Ops) and our Marine Corps. Now the Canadian Army Combat Fitness Program and official Canadian Army fitness manual is based on CrossFit.
Power Clean Coaching Tip Sequence (Steph, Jim M., and Greg):
The proper power clean means assuming a deadlift stance, followed by and aggressive pull off the floor that reaches triple extension while keeping the bar close to the body, followed by receiving the bar in the rack position with the elbows high and forward.
Hang-A-Round
Strength WOD:
Hang Power Clean
1/1/1/1/1/1/1
* Work up to 1RM (1 Rep Max)
Check Out WOD Immediately After:
One Round For time:
50 Box Jumps (24″/20″)
40 Double-Unders
30 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)
20 Overhead Walking Lunges (45#/25#)
10 Wall Balls (20#/14#)
Results
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Quote of the Day: “I’m having a case of Curtis today.”
~ Eli after a failed HC attempt with no jump or extension
Today the pictures will tell the story.
Notes:
This guy gets my vote! Congressman John Sullivan of OK is a CrossFitter and competed in his Sectional Qualifiers! Read A Vote for CrossFit on the CrossFit Journal.
Nice showing today! This may be a record for one day. Records are meant to be broken by the way…