Monthly Archives: November 2009

Find a Clean & Jerk max

Knees-to-Elbows are hard…

“Diane”
21-5-9
-Deadlifts, 100kg
-Handstand Push-ups

Scaling or this workout should be noted in you WOD journals. Make a special note of how you scaled your Handstand Push-ups. Acceptable scaling ranges from repeated kick ups into handstand position, using plates/AbMats as a depth gauge or even doing shoulder press. Unless you are graceful, please use the concrete wall. Deadlifts can make this a fast gasser or a long struggle. Let’s make if fast today.

Brittany loves the 24” box!! She uses great technique and jumps every rep.

AMRAP – 15 minutes
-12 Hang Power Snatch, 30kg
-12 Box Jumps, 24”

Lots of things to post about today…

ON-RAMP CLASSES
I am planning to run an On-Ramp Series starting November 23rd. If you know someone who wants to try CrossFit this is the best place to introduce them. Since coming into the gym is the hardest part, feel free to come with them and show them how it’s done. There is no commitment on their part. The purpose of the first class is to get people interested or curious about CrossFit into the gym, meet a few people and experience a workout. If they love it they can continue, if they don’t like it at least they tried it.

If giving CrossFit as a Christmas gift is on your mind (and why wouldn’t it be?) the On-Ramp Series would be a great idea. If you like that idea talk to me about what I have in mind as a “Holiday Special”.

FIRST CINDY IN THE NEW GYM
What a fabulous workout with the new pull-up bar! We had three ladies kip their way through the WOD, Colleen going chest-to-bar for over 11 rounds. Yikes! We will be practicing our “kips” a lot in the next few weeks with a goal of getting more of you off of the assistance bands.

When you kip just remember a few things.

1. Forget your legs, let them dangle, they will go where they are supposed to if you concentrate of your shoulder action

2. Stretch your shoulders REALLY well before jumping on the bar. Having stiff, cold shoulders when you are learning to kip is a great way to injure or inflame your joint.

3. Push and pull yourself through your shoulders. Pull your chest as far forward as you can and then push yourself backwards as far as you can. Forget about the pull-up and concentrate on your swing.

4. When you have a good rhythm start to use your legs to help make the pushing/pulling more aggressive.

5. With aggression comes momentum. At some point you will feel “weightless”, this is when your horizontal momentum is transitioning to the ventricle plane. That’s when you pull.

6. Once your chin is over (as in sitting on top of the bar) push yourself away from the bar to start the kip for your next pull-up.

ARE THESE YOUR PANTS?

Please take them home!

CROSSFIT FOR TEENS
I am about to announce a CrossFit training program aimed at “teens”. This will focus on the special needs of the young and aspiring athlete. This program is for kids in the 11-16 (or there abouts) year range who would need an educational focus in their training. The program will run 2-3 days a week with the goals of perfecting form on all lifts and learning how to participate in a training environment. Once I am convinced a young person has developed the skills and demonstrates the discipline required, I will invite them to join some of our regular Group WODs.

See the “Teen Program” page, or download the flier, for more info…

CrossFit Total
Find 1 Rep Max for:
-Back Squat
-Shoulder Press
-Deadlift

Meet Jeff Ford. Jeff designed and fabricated our new pull-up bar. If you look around the web you can find lots of CrossFit gyms that have pull-ups bars pieced together with spare lumber and various pipe configurations. While these probably work, I don’t have a lot of confidence in a lot of what I see out there. The bar Jeff built for us isn’t something you can order from a website and it isn’t a one size fits all solution. Jeff custom designed our bar for our space and with consideration for the tolerances that will be demanded of it. Thank you Jeff for your great work. We will do our best to pull it down, but I don’t think we stand a chance.

The last bolt goes in…

A quick test run…

5 Rounds for time
-3 Snatch, 95lbs
-15 Overhead Squats, 95lbs
-Run 400m

Let me highlight one of our hardest working athletes today. Actually, two of them.

Right from the beginning I knew Elaine would love CrossFit. She just jumped at every new move, pushed hard in workouts, wanted to learn proper technique and frankly sometimes scares me with how willing she is to try new stuff and just give things a try. Elaine is a couple months from giving birth to her first child and continues to hit her workouts with husband Bret and the 6qm crew. Elaine is very in tune with her body and is an experienced CrossFitter so I give her some leeway in what she does but we scale movements that are difficult to perform due to pregnancy issues and have lightened her weights considerably and she just keeps going. Jumping, running and other high impact exercises are no longer a part of her program but there are still more exercises she can do than she does not do. That doesn’t stop her from doing handstands and our definition of “light” deadlifts differ by a plate or two but through good communication and keeping an eye on Elaine’s energy levels we have a healthy mom who makes our gym a better place and a baby that is awaited with great anticipation.

This Saturday Elaine rowed four 1000m intervals. Each time was faster than her previous best time.

I couldn’t be more proud of Elaine and I can’t wait to get that kid CrossFitting! J

Mama and baby on the box and pressing the barbell.

AMRAP – 12 min

1:5 – Clean:Front Squat, 75% BW

10 Chest-to-ground push-ups

15 Box Jumps, 24"

I’m so excited about this WOD I may have to do it with you!

You know how much I like to mock silly workout stuff. Well I am going to pick on the Ab Coaster today. For only 4 payments of $99.99 plus and initial trial payment of $14.95 you get The Ab Coaster, the usual DVD program, an exercise plan, a fast track meal plan and a 14-day express program. For only $420. Now if you are convinced that a single use machine aimed at giving you a six-pack is worth the money, you have not been paying attention to anything I have been saying about training and should go quit CrossFit and do Hip Hop Abs. Six packs are pretty. They are also mostly genetic, are nutrition dependent and aren’t particularly functional in and of themselves.

You do more (AND BETTER!) “ab work” every time you are in the gym. Hold a plank for two minutes (no slumping) or walk around the gym with 100# over your head. That’s real “ab work”, the kind that includes all the other muscles that stabilize you. Now quit eating all that crap I keep hounding you about and in a month or so your 6-pack will be really sexy.

A fool and his money are soon parted…

Complete for time
25-50-75
-Squats
-Push-ups
-Pull-ups
-Sit-ups

We regularly perform WODs that are named after fallen service members of our military, fire departments and police. This a simple thing we do to honor those that give their lives so that others may continue to live freely and safely. Each of the men that are honored this way were avid CrossFitters and many of them were in specialist groups that require not just good fitness but elite level, world class, fitness. These are not the people today’s article is talking about. With the trends seeming to be less and less healthy these days it’s not a shock that so many would be unfit to serve.

75 Percent of Young Americans Are Unfit for Military Duty

The latest Army statistics show a stunning 75 percent of military-age youth are ineligible to join the military because they are overweight, can’t pass entrance exams, have dropped out of high school or had run-ins with the law.

So many young people between the prime recruiting ages of 17 and 24 cannot meet minimum standards that a group of retired military leaders is calling for more investment in early childhood education to combat the insidious effects of junk food and inadequate education. [link]

Stephanie soars to the top of the 24” box.