Video and Media – Page 255 – SNORIDGE CROSSFIT

"Pat"

Quote of the day: “This illustrates all my weak points.” ~ Graham on the Snatch

As Many Rounds As Possible in 20 Minutes of:

200m Run
3 Burpees
11 Squat Snatch (75#/55#)

Results

Birthday week continues. Happy Birthday to Pat!

I read this quote yesterday and it summed up my view of Pat.

“Some guys play with their heads. That’s okay. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more important, you’ve got to play with your heart–every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.” – Vince Lombardi

The snatch or squat snatch is the most technical of lifts. It is one of the lifts used in competition of Olympic Lifting (the other being the clean and jerk). It requires the utmost in skill, concentration, speed, coordination and at the heaviest loads a lack of fear. Mastering this movement is a benefit to almost all athletic movement, as it requires total stimulation of the central nervous system due to the use of almost every major muscle group in the body during a repetition. As you pull up off the floor you are accelerating upward with force and speed and then reversing direction to pull under the bar into a full squat while catching the bar overhead. To commit under the bar at a 1 rep max snatch is not easy. There is no lift more difficult on the mind than this. With a deadlift you either pick it up or you don’t. The power clean? You just drop it as you pull for triple extension and don’t get it. Press? It stops and falls back down. Squat clean? Scary but less than a snatch (the second toughest lift to commit to).

Practice the progression (or the Burgener Warm-up) with a PVC religiously. Make it a part of your warm-up. Work on shoulder flexibility, it is vital. It will pay off in all your other lifts. Remember the basics: elbows out, standard stance, hips and shoulders rise off the floor together, tight core and back, accelerate over the knees towards your “pockets” while pushing the hips forward and pull the bar overhead while slipping under it quickly into a FULL overhead squat. Ideal form to strive for at the bottom means full lock out, weight on heels, knees aligned with feet and not tacked in. The end position looks like Maria below.

Watch all three of the following:

“Learning the Snatch” from Coach Burgener [wmv] [mov]

Burgener Warm-up [wmv] [mov]

Mike Burgener on the Snatch, CrossFit Journal Preview [wmv] [mov]

Note: Coach B is a Marine (cause once a Marine always a Marine) who has 32 years of experience in coaching Olympic weightlifting. He is also the SME (Subject Matter Expert) for CrossFit that runs the O Lifting Certs. He has an affinity for burpees (Yay Burpees!). I experienced this first hand at a clinic with him that I flat out loved. It was like having a drill sergeant for a day.

Notes:

Get ready for race day on Saturday! St. Patty’s Day 5k means we will be closed Saturday and running the race here on Snoqualmie Ridge with the majority of you! Gather near the registration/start point for a group photo on Saturday morning around 0845.

"Nate"

“Nate: In honor of Chief Petty Officer Nate Hardy, who was killed 2/4/2008 in combat operations in Iraq.”

As Many Rounds As Possible in 20 Minutes of:

2 Muscle-Ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 Kettlebell Swings (70#/53# or 2 pood/1.5 pood)

Results

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View this photo

Ryan with the Muscle-up and Mike with the 2 pood beast:

I was not so sure about when to program this WOD in. I have been wanting to add it for some time, but was holding off deliberately due to a few reasons; the intimidation factor, the fact that it has multiple advanced skills, and that I really wanted at least one person to be able to do muscle-ups RX’d. For the past couple months we have slowly but steadily worked on things like gaining confidence getting inverted, holding handstands for time, then scaling handstand push-ups. We have dramatically increased the number of people doing kipping pull-ups and doing them consistently so that ring pull-ups as a scale could be added in. Last we have worked strength WOD’s and hip extension on a constant basis so that several of you could move up in kettlebell weight.

Today it paid off! I was able to watch and help Michelle coach the late classes and it was so motivating. Everyone was scaled appropriately to enable them to complete 20 minutes of hard ass work. Whether you were on the rings, the bar, the band, or jumping over the bar it was all designed for pulling. Handstand push-ups with different levels of AbMats underneath, piked push-ups off the box or even piked on the floor provided a shoulder load. For those who have become very proficient in their kettlebell weight it was time to step out of the box and move up a weight. A few of you got to taste the difference 10 to almost 20 pounds makes in a swing. Before you know it I’ll have to add more rings and we’ll be having handstand push-up challenges.

Huge congrats to Mike for getting his first muscle-up today before the WOD. He surprised everyone including himself on his first attempt by getting up and almost locking out. After we got the camera out he nailed it (Will post a short video clip soon). Ryan also was the first person to complete a WOD with muscle-ups which was completely cool to see. Everyone should be proud; all of the movements were hard and not even a month or two ago most of you were not able to do what you did today. Stay focused, stay confident, stay positive about what you can do (like Bonnie, Sangeeta, and Laura did last night in moving up in box jump height) and believe that if you put the work in, it can happen.

Getting inverted is fun:

Notes:

Welcome Aaron who completed Elements today. Judging by how you crushed your mini-Fight Gone Bad workout you are more than ready!

6am Class with Moe tomorrow. Be there or it’s burpees for you. Wait never mind, tomorrow will be burpees for everyone!

Highlight video from the 2010 CF Games Ohio Sectionals at the Arnold Classic [wmv] [mov]

You can all thank Lorri for clueing me in on this video and giving me the idea of how we can use the new sleds. I guess I need to order some rope or straps…

"Rob"

For Time:

34 Double Unders
34 Pull-ups
34 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)
34 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)
34 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)
34 Knees-to-Elbows
34 Double Unders

Results

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View this photo

Happy Birthday Rob:

Don’t blame Rob! Blame me. He simply got one year older, I programmed the WOD. This workout focused on “pulling” from the bar or from the floor. Similar to but shorter than “Dirty 30”, this one packed a good punch. Like all birthday WOD’s, the numbers reflect either the age or day, and the workout includes exercises both easy and difficult for the honoree. In Rob’s case he smokes double-unders and pull-ups, while the 53 lb. kettlebell is a challenge. Hope you enjoyed it Rob!

Notes:

Congrats to Don who started getting butterfly pull-ups today! Great work!

Read “Real Foods vs. Fake Foods” Makes you think about why you would ever willingly choose to eat fake foods.

2010 CrossFit Games Ohio Sectionals at the Arnold Classic with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [wmv] [mov]

By the way, can you guess who wore “Man-Prees” to the box today? These are worse than gloves!

Active Recovery

Hope you enjoyed your rest day! Or used it for some active recovery like a run, ride, or hike! Any sort of lower intensity exercise makes for good active recovery following high intensity workouts or competition.

Next weekend is the St. Patty’s Day Dash 5k and Kids 1k and today was the deadline for registering online. We have a bunch of you who are running. Details are at the link. Plan on meeting up pre-race for a group photo near the registration area (not sure where that is but the start point is listed as the intersection of Center and Kinsey). Wear something green, a CrossFit T Shirt and plan to have some fun! We are still looking for volunteers that aren’t running and are willing to help corral the little squatches for the 30 or so minutes it will take many of us adults to run. Let us know if you are willing!

Race Day Schedule
7:00-8:45a.m.- Bib Number Pick Up & Day of Race Reg
9:00 a.m. – Start of Kids 1k Run
9:15 a.m.- Start of 5k
10:15 a.m.- Awards Ceremony

Notes:

6am Class tomorrow on Monday morning with Moe! The Tuesday 6am class is cancelled this week!

Pics from yesterday (so good I wanted to put them in slideshow format):

Ring Around the Front Squat

For time:

40 Ring Dips
40 Front Squat (53#/35#)

*Post WOD pick a time and complete 3 x Max Handstand Holds at either 15 sec/30 sec/45 sec/ or 1 minute

Results

View this photo (WOD Results)
View this photo (Elements Results)

“With this ring I thee dip…” ~ Jorge and Jana ring dips for fiance’s

Part two of a “taste of the Sectionals”. Rather than forty handstand push-ups, today we paired ring dips with heavy front squats. Using the bands to scale ring dips allowed full range of motion while giving just enough assistance to tax the arms, shoulders, and chest. Forty reps straight proved tough and left the arms a bit noodle like before tackling the barbell. The squats should have felt heavy but still allowed proper form with the weight in the rack position with the chest and elbows up and the weight on your heels.

Avoiding your weaknesses inhibits athletic development. Following the WOD it was skill time with some basic instruction on handstand holds and getting more comfortable being inverted. For several of you it went from “I can’t do this” to nailing holds of 15, 30 and 60 seconds at a time. The handstand hold is not meant to be a parlor trick or some step toward becoming a gymnast. It’s a movement that will strengthen your core, develop a stronger overhead press, teach balance and agility, and develop confidence. It’s the first part towards handstand push-ups, an incredibly taxing exercise that we will see more of. Like anything else it can be scaled so get comfortable getting inverted and have fun. Don’t worry, we will be there along the way to teach, coax and catch you. One handstand at a time.

Notes:

Schedule Change for next week only: On 3/9 next Tuesday there will be NO 6am class. Moe will swap that class and teach on Monday morning at 6am (3/8). No change for Thursday.

SnoRidge CF WA Sectionals pics on Flickr. Thanks to all who have shared their pics! I’ll keep adding more and more from the many CD’s we received!

Also Rainier CrossFit posted pics to Flickr of the weekend.

Fight Gone Bad-ish

“A Taste of the Games” this week!

Compete 3 Rounds of 1 Minute of max reps of each of the following exercises:

Wall Ball (20#/14#)
Power Snatch (95#/65#)
Box Jumps (20″)
Row (For Calories)
* Rest 1 minute between rounds

Results

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View this photo

The 2010 CrossFit Games WA Sectionals SnoRidge Competitors:

(More pics to be posted soon)

This week some of the WOD’s will either be directly from the WA Sectionals that occurred this past weekend or will feature similar programming or movements. We wanted to give you all a “taste” of what some of these felt like while mixing it up a bit with a different movement here and there. Unknown and unknowable! Why not make it a little different? If you are so inclined to relive the Sectionals feel free to take a day off later this week, then come to each class time and knock one of these out all day long. To make it even more realistic, sit outside in the cold and we will tell you each WOD about an hour or two before you have to do them!

Sectionals Recap:

I consider this weekend one of the best in my life. It was an amazing experience that was a culmination of weeks and months of consistently hard training and strict nutrition. It was an experience not just for me but for 9 of us fellow SnoRidge CF’ers. Moe, Sherry, Lucy, Lorri, Travis, Pat, Curtis, Michelle and I all competed in the 2010 CrossFit Games WA Sectionals this past weekend at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA. There were a total of 162 male and female athletes who competed in five WOD’s over two days. Five tough WOD’s designed to repeatedly stress the body and test each competitors overall fitness level. For all who competed and completed these WOD’s each came out a victor. To do that much work under that high of pressure was no easy task. Everyone did their best, set new PR’s, and carried their chins high. We saw old friends and made new ones, and resolved to work on our weaknesses and improve upon our strengths.

Here are the five WOD’s:

Saturday:

WOD #1 – Every minute on the minute for 8 min. run 100m then complete max reps of shoulder to overhead (155#/105#)

WOD #2 – For Time (12 minute cap): 40 Handstand Push-ups in 5 minutes or less followed by 40 Front Squats (155#/105#)

WOD #3 – Fight Gone Bad-ish: Same as above only wall ball for women was a 10# ball to a 10ft. target

Sunday:

WOD #4 – 5RM Deadlift: 3 attempts in 20 sec. each for a 5 rep max of deadlift. (Loads were iron plates and load could not be adjusted down if you failed) Any attempt outside of 20 seconds was a DNF

WOD #5 – 5 Rounds for Time of: 100 ft. Sled Push (135#/95#), 18 Double-Unders, 4 Muscle Ups (2 MU for Women)

WA Sectionals 2010 Results

These workouts taught us about our limits, about our mental and physical capacity, and about the incredible support of the CrossFit community. I have played sports and competed and raced in my life and at no time have I ever been apart of a community where each competitor will finish and then cheer the person on next to them even if it means that by cheering them on that person may end up beating them. It happens without question. All weekend strangers and competitors tried like hell to beat one another while at the same time screaming their lungs out for each other, exhorting one another to pick up the bar, push the sled, row faster or pull more off the ground to get a faster time or one more rep. Think about that. Have you played a sport where while you were playing you would tell the other team or athlete to score a goal or basket, throw a deep pass, or sink a putt against you? Does that even make sense? One of the many things of CrossFit that I love is that even in the sport of CrossFit, while all of us want to beat the next person; the majority of us practice sportsmanship at its best. We pick each other up off the floor and encourage the next person to finish and finish faster, even when we know it means we may get beat.

The pride that both Michelle and I feel over having been able to bring a great group of us to represent our box can’t be described. That group not only included the 9 who competed; it included the group who volunteered, cheered and supported us. That is a testament to what we all have built. Not too many boxes brought such numbers and certainly not many who have been around for as short a period of time as we have. I already can’t wait until the 2011 Sectionals! In the meantime let’s keep training for Regionals.

Speaking of Regionals, the Affiliate Team will continue to train harder to determine who will be the final 3 men and 3 women who will represent us on May 15-16 as our SnoRidge Affiliate Team in the Affiliate Cup Regional Qualifiers. I also qualified this past weekend by making the Men’s top 20 so I am also eligible for the Individual Men’s Northwest Regionals Qualifiers of which over 70 Men and 70 Women from 6 states will compete for 3 spots each to go to the 2010 CF Games in Aromas, CA in July.

Notes:

Weekly Weigh-in for those who are in the Paleo/Zone Challenge! Make sure either Tuesday or Wednesday you weigh-in at the box and record it with us. Don lost 4 lbs. last week! Stay consistent, keep your nutrition log and stay strict. Don’t waver and give in to eating poorly.

The push-up challenge and the double under challenge are officially over. Many of you saw it through and the results are obvious with improvement across the board. Stick with it and keep that form and set a new PR after a WOD sometime.

In only two weeks we are running the St. Patty’s Day 5k here on the Ridge! Register on the right hand side of the page. Who’s in? (Kid’s too, don’t forget there is a 1k race for them)

Welcome to Rachel, Greg and Kim who all completed Elements last week, and congrats to Lorri who got her 1st pull-up today! I guess Sectionals already rubbed off, way to go Lorri!

"Harder Than It Looks"

5 Rounds for time:

20 Box Jump (24″/20″)
20 Kettlebell Swing (53#/35#)
20 Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift High Pull (53#/35#)

Results

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Rob rocking the KB Swing:

Short post tonight. If you are still in the push-up challenge its time to knock out 100 today! What what?!

Watch Gillian Mounsey (CF Games competitor and gymnast) tackle Fran back to back after putting on a muscle-up clinic for the Marines at Quantico, VA [wmv] [mov]

Off to Sectionals! Best of luck to all the competitors and congrats in advance on a great two days for the CF Community! (If you need info on the Sectionals see yesterday’s post)

3-2-1 Go!

"Running Fran"

For time:

400m Run
21 Thrusters (95#/65#)
21 Pull-ups
400m Run
15 Thrusters
15 Pull-ups
400m Run
9 Thrusters
9 Pull-ups

Results

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View this photo

Who thinks Running Fran is harder than regular Fran? Not me! Still one heck of good WOD though. It was interesting to hear the unanimous opinion that “Karen” was tougher. The forearm “pump” and chest burn was still there just at a lesser intensity. I like this variation. Speaking of variations, we may see more of them. There are many different spins such as “Fat” or “Heavy”, “Uneven”, “Run or Row” and other alternate versions of the benchmark “Girls”. Maybe a Backwards Fran (reps go 9-15-21) or “Rowing Fran” is next.

Props to Laura for moving up a band, Jana for PR’ing thrusters, Fran got 2 kipping pull-ups in her namesake before using the band, and Jorge for gutting it out RX’d and ending strong with some really good pull-ups to a whole lot of cheering.

Jeremy and Jim pictured above doing alternate versions of today’s WOD to accommodate for their injuries and rehab. Subbing exercises, limiting loads or range of motion are just different examples of ways to scale CrossFit workouts. The devil is in the programming though to make it effective and functional.

Tomorrow is the Cross-Box WOD Challenge! CF Advantage picked this month’s workout so come and get ready to row, deadlift, and dip.

Notes:

For those still in the push-up challenge today you need to bang out 75 of them. Keep breaking them up and don’t quit now, there are only 5 days left.

Parents: Please help us keep the Squatch Cave clean by asking the Squatch kids to clean up before you leave or we may see Squatch himself make an appearance. That would be kinda ugly…

We are CLOSED this Saturday! (No Classes on Saturday 2/27) We will be competing at the WA Sectional Qualifiers for the CrossFit Games.

Video:

Watch “Mary’s Story” Pt. 2, A CF Journal Preview [wmv] [mov]

Mary is the mother of a couple of friends of ours who train at Rainier CF. This is the story of how CF is saving Mary’s life. One WOD at a time.

"Tabata Something Else"

Perform 8 intervals of 20 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest for each exercise. This will equal a total of 32 intervals (8 pull-ups, 8 push-ups, 8 sit-ups, 8 squats). There is no rest between exercises:

Pull-ups
Push-ups
AbMat sit-ups
Squats

Results:

View this photo

Tabata Torture:

Partner up and keep score:

Today the CF Games 2010 WA Sectionals announced 2 of the 3 WOD’s for Saturday (Day 1) of the competition next weekend. The WOD for Sunday (Day 2) will be announced at the end of Day 1. They also posted video of the first two here.

What do we know? They will be good challenges. The movements are ground to overhead, sprints, handstand push-ups and front squats so far. They will be heavy, short and medium duration, and need strength, power, speed, balance, and stamina. Judging by the “bring your own jump-rope” note they will involve agility and cardio-respiratory endurance. No doubt with the other two wod’s yet to be announced they will cover these and more of the ten components of fitness. If you want to test yourself then there’s no better place than the Sectionals. Top 20 men and women will each advance onto the Regionals in May. We will also be competing in May at the Pacific NW Regional Qualifiers with our Affiliate “Team Squatch”. We will select our team of 6 based on the 9 athletes who are competing next weekend.

I know all of us as competitors all feel some level of anxiety and fear over the WOD’s. It’s only natural. Heck Michelle seems stressed out about it, and I am the one who normally does the stressing for the two of us. Bottom line: Have fun. Take it for what it is; a few workouts on Saturday and one on Sunday. This is our chance to compete with a ton of good people who all simply do it to get fitter. It’s our CF Games event as individuals. Come Monday it will be a memory that no one will ever take away. It will make you both physically and mentally stronger. A chance for your friends and loved ones to go cheer for you and for yourself to cheer on others. It will forge elite friendships through mutual suffering. It will be something that if you were to change your mind and not compete would likely leave you feeling disappointment. So why not? Doing it is what makes you stronger. So just do it. We’re as ready as we’re gonna be! Who’s with me?

Rona wrote to me today about the Sectionals (where she will be volunteering with Jana) and I thought I should share it:

“Hey guys,

I just had to follow-up to this morning and talking about sectionals. I totally get how frustrating and nerve racking it is not knowing what’s coming and not being super happy with what you do know. Get that completely.

I definitely think everyone should go, and I know you guys will encourage them to. One thing Jesse was saying from last night, that I thought was really key, is that this is “Our WA state CrossFit Games” meaning make the most of the experience. Go into it with all the heart and excitement and attack the workout with all you got. How can you go wrong with that? Not everyone gets to go on to the next phase and even less make it to the games, but that’s ok. You get to this experience together, with the community that you have fostered and no one can ever take that away. I am pumped!

I know you are all going to kick some ass at sectionals!

Good Luck!!!

Rona”

Notes:

Tomorrow will be our Paleo/Zone Nutrition Challenge kickoff! 7 weeks of eating right! Come weigh-in, check your body fat, take your pics and do a WOD! WOD is 1030 for main group, 0900 for Affiliate Team.

The lulu crew (I kind of like that name) came in today for some more brutal fun.

Yesterday Anthony said he would never do handstands because he didn’t like being inverted. Umm…

Mid-Line Stabilization

Strength WOD:

Overhead Squat
5/5/5/5/5
Work up to 5RM (rep max) in 5 Sets

Immediately after:

Max Effort 1 mile run for time

Results

View this photo

Mike getting overhead with great form:

The key to successfully getting heavier in the overhead squat with good form is a stable and rigid mid-line. To achieve that you need to tighten your core, hold your breath, maintain a proper body position and squat. Point your toes out slightly in a wider than normal squat stance, then send the hips backwards as you squat. When you reach the bottom explode up and push your heels through the floor. Always keep the shoulders active and the bar locked out overhead and inline behind the ears.

After the strength WOD we ran the official 1 mile mark for all of you (thanks Pat for measuring!) and while it may have added a few more meters it gives everyone another yardstick to measure yourself with.

We also had Steven, Nicole and Anthony drop in from lululemon. It was Anthony and Nicole’s first time with overhead squats. After some brief instruction and coaching you can see in the pictures below what flexibility and balance allows you to lift overhead. Glad to have the “lulu crew” coming in more often!

Notes:

55 Push-ups today in our push-up challenge! Also don’t forget to attempt this week’s max reps of double-unders either Friday or Saturday.

Saturday will be the body fat testing by The BodyFat Truck. Make sure you check your time slot and dress appropriately (swimsuit). You will also need to take a “before” picture for the Paleo/Zone Challenge and weigh-in. If you don’t do the body fat test with the truck then you will need to use our less accurate monitor to establish a baseline. Buy-in is $15. Money goes in the pot and the top male and female will split the winnings.

WOD times: Affiliate Team training at 0900 and Main Group WOD will be at 1030.

Can you overhead squat your bodyweight 15 times?