Training day

Coach Burgener and Drew Barnhill



Snatch Balances 3-3-3-3-3

Then

3 rounds for time of
15 pull-ups
40 situps

Post loads and times to comments.

Training day

Norb Schemansky executing a split snatch, a technical nightmare.  If you're new to the lifts don't do this one unsupervised.

Complete the following for time:
Row 1000m
50 burpees
50 box jumps (24/20)
800m run

Post time to comments.

Training day

This is an illustration from Rippetoe and Kilgore's indispensible text "Starting Strength."  The caption reads: "Bar position ultimately determines back angle, as seen in this comparison of the front squat, the high-bar squat, and the low-bar squat.  Note that the bar remains balanced over the mid-foot in each case, and this requires that the back angle accomodate the bar position.  This is the primary factor in the differences in technique between the three styles of squatting."

Front squat 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

8 minute AMRAP belly suicides (25, 50, 75, 100 is 1 round)

Post loads used and rounds completed to comments.

Training day

 Pyrros Dimas of Greece, celebrating a successful lift.  Look at the air he gets.

10 minute AMRAP of
12 wall ball shots
5 ground-to-overhead

Prescribed weight for men is 155# and for women is 105#.  Post rounds completed to comments.

In other news, our very own Drew Barnhill passed his Olympic lifting certification with Mike Burgener this weekend.

Training/rest day

If you feel like getting a WOD in, come by today and do this one:

"McGhee"

30 minutes AMRAP of
5 deadlifts @ 275# (or 70% of your 1RM)
13 push-ups
9 box jumps

Post rounds completed to comments.

A friend asked me about CrossFit once.  He said it sounded to him like low weight/high reps, in other words, like any common pre-contest bodybuilding program.  I explained a little about the "Constantly varied functional movements executed at a high intensity" and how it wasn't just doing biceps curls as quickly as possible.  Metcons and strength work are a necessity in any kind of true fitness program, and CrossFit cannot neglect either, or the net effect is minimized and no one gets stronger or fitter.  There's also base of strength you have to build in order to do the WODs as prescribed.  "Light weight/high reps" is an inherently flawed way to look at it, when you consider that a workout like Fran  makes you move 95# up to six feet 45 times in rapid succession, and your entire body's weight must be moved through space using mainly your arms for the same number of reps.

When my friend finally tried a WOD, we had to scale it back for him so he could finish it.  It was not a shameful thing, it just caught him off-guard.  He expressed his surprise at the level of difficulty he encountered and at how weak he was.  I suggested a squat, overhead press, and pull-up progression for him to get stronger, and told him to stay away from heavy WODs or ones lasting more than thirty minutes until then.  He progressed rapidly after two months of strength training and moderate conditioning, and now does prescribed WODs without undue difficulty.

My friend had to have the courage to get stomped by a prescribed WOD in order to see where his weak points were.  He was ignorant not just about CrossFit but about his own level of fitness to complete a certain amount of work.  Sometimes that still happens to me, and if it happens to you, it's important not to be ashamed.   Have the courage to get stomped, to push hard and fall short, and finish the workout anyway.  You get knocked down, so stand back up.  Every time.  These times expose your weaknesses, but once exposed, you can patch them up, and you have the maturity and resolve to do so.  It takes moxy to get worked over and keep coming back stronger, and that's what fitness is all about: stress, fatigue, supercompensation.  Without a struggle, nobody would get stronger.

Training day

Courtesy of Drew Barnhill, torturer-in-chief for today:

20 minute AMRAP of
400m run
20 med ball cleans
10 burpee pull-ups

Post rounds completed to comments.

Training day

Shoulder Press 3-3-3-3-3

Then 3 rounds for time of
15 Box Jumps
400m Run

With the press, a key element of correct execution is keeping your abs and glutes tight!  The whole body is engaged in this exercise, despite the specificity of its name.

Post times from the metcon to comments.

Training day

"Karen"

150 wall ball shots for time

With this WOD, try to remember to let your legs do most of the work.  Post times to comments.

Training day

  

"Annie"

50-40-30-20-10 for time of
Double unders and situps

This vicious cycle is named after veteran CF athtlete Annie Sakamoto, pictured above.

Training day

The legendary George Frenn, a powerlifter and Olympian, seen here with 800# or more on his back.

Back squat 5-5-5-5-5

Rest 5:00, then:

1 round for time of
800 meter run
25 burpees
35 box jumps

Maintain good form on those back squats! Then only one round of pain for time today, everybody.  Post your time to the comments.

Training day

 Rich Froning Jr., the Fittest Man on Earth 

15-12-9-6-3 reps for time of
Power cleans
Bar-facing burpees

Prescribed weight for power cleans is 135# and 95# for women.  Post time to comments.

Training day

Coach Mike Burgener behind his son, Olympic competitor Casey Burgener.  Coach Mike is the face of Oly lifting in the CrossFit community. 

Split jerk 3-3-3-3-3

Rest 5:00

8 minute AMRAP of
5 KB snatches w/ each arm
10 push-ups
15 squats

The split jerk is referred to as max effort or ME work in the Olympic lifting world.  The idea is to get as much weight as possible overhead, while minding the technique you use to get it there.  Today is also a great day to fine-tune your KB snatch technique and get help with anything you feel is weak.  Prescribed weight for men is 35#, for women it's 26#.

Training day

For time:
50 situps
150 KB swings
50 situps

The Secret Service has a signature physical ordeal all of its candidates must live through.  It is the Secret Service snatch test, and it involves a 24kg kettlebell (16kg for women), a ten minute timer, and all the determination you can gather.  This legendary test of strength and willpower only asks that you do as many snatches as possible in the ten minutes you are allotted.  A total considered "good" is 200 completed reps, but many aim above and far beyond this total.  It's not a good test to do if you are new to training with kettlebells, but if you're getting 30+ reps of snatches per hand and are hungry for a challenge, this one is more than worthy.

Above is a good instructional for the KB snatch, and you can come to either of the Drews or Jeff to get some fine-tuning on technique.

Training day

5 rounds for time of
15 deadlifts
15 toes to bar

Prescribed weight for men is 185#, and for women it is 135#.  3-2-1 GO!

Training/Rest day

If you've got an hour or two and feel like knocking out a quick WOD, come by and join us!  Last call at about 4 o'clock.

Here's an excerpt from "FIT: An Unconventional Guide to Using Conventional Methods for Creating Fitness for the Real World" by Lon Kilgore, Michael Hartman, and Justin Lascek:

"Lots of people have a seemingly simple goal of  'toning up' when they start to exercise.  Strength training is the best way to accomplish this...When you train with weights, especially heavier ones, you are conditioning your muscles to produce tremendous amounts of electrical activity.  The baseline amount produced at rest increases and baseline muscle tension increases as an adaptation, thus producing the desired 'tone'--firm and athletic."  (Fit p. 26)

Strength also pays dividends to endurance athletes by allowing them to go further before exhaustion and decrease event finishing times.  There is also correlational evidence that being strong increases a person's overall chances of survival (Fit, p. 25).  Sadly, there is no causal evidence for this interesting theory, but that's no reason not to get strong.

Video Extra

This video was taken this afternoon. Superior Training personal trainer Mike Cadle lands a 51-inch box jump.

What are you proud of today?

Training day

7 rounds for time of
7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
7 kettlebell swings
7 burpees.

Prescribed weights for mens' and womens' kettlebell swings are 53# and 35# respectively.

The world record for most pull-ups in one hour belongs to Stephen Hyland of the UK, who completed 1,009 reps in the alotted time.

Training day

A recent WOD.  Do not be frightened.

5 rounds for time of
7 hang power cleans
20 box jumps
400m run

RXed weight for men/women is 135/95#, and box heights are 24/20".

Training day

We hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend!  Today the action gets started with a bang:

Nancy
Five rounds for time of
400m run
15 overhead squats

Prescribed weight is 95# for men and 65# for women.

Training day

5 rounds for time of
40 Double Unders
30 Box Jumps
20 KB Swings

If you can't do double-unders, do 160 single-jumps.  KB swings are 53# for men and 35# for women.

Training day

Today the WOD is CrossFit's trademark manmaker: FRAN!

21 - 15 - 9 of:
Thrusters
Pull-ups

Mens' weight is 95#, womens' weight is 65#.  Is Fran in your kitchen?

I remember the first time I ever saw someone doing this WOD.  Somewhere on the internet a grainy video exists of two men doing thrusters and pull-ups at a breakneck pace.  I couldn't begin to describe how ridiculous it looked: the plates on the bar were too big to be light and I had never seen bumper plates; so to me that was at least 135# they were slinging around.  No one could do that.  And the pull-ups, well...I was good at pull-ups but I couldn't do what they were doing.  None of it seemed possible, but these two guys were repping it out like pros.  Like they did this all day.  Like it was light weight.

People were all around them, and the video was taken from about thirty yards away.  I saw this video in perhaps my first semester of college and wrote it off.  They were fake weights, those dudes were on steroids.  It wasn't possible for a regular human like me.  It wasn't until a couple of years later when I heard about CrossFit for the first time that I was able to put that memory into perspective.  A few months afer that I tried it for the first time.  It crushed me.  But the realm of the possible was opened to me the day I saw that video, and everything I did afterward would be judged in its shadow.