U.S. Krav Maga Association

For those of you who weren’t aware, several coaches took a Krav Maga certification over the last 4 days.  Krav Maga (Close Combat)is a no BS self defense system created by the Israeli’s for their defense force.  The guys from Ohio Krav Maga and Fitness took great care of us.  I’ll tell you up front: It was hard.  The final test was over an hour of fighting skills and drills, alot of it full contact.  I can say without a doubt that Crossfit training prepared us for the heavy work load over a 4 day weekend.

Many of the guys going through the training had some type of martial arts or fight training.  Many of the girls had very little.  My lovely lady Alison has probably never even made a fist in anger, much less struck someone.  But she took the bull by the horns and rocked this test.  She blogged about on her site, Crossfit Mama.  Here’s the three installments, 1, 2 and 3.

We’re going to get back into some strength training, but I’m going to lower the reps that we do, but we’ll be doing temp lifts.  This may actually increase the time the barbell is actually in our hands and our bodies are under tension.

The lift is the deadlift.  Pull from the floor, and lower the weight in 3-4 seconds.
The rep scheme is
5-3-3-1-1-1
Go up in weight each set but start light.  We are not trying to find out 1 rep max, but trying to see perfect form as we control the weight on the down portion.

Metcon - Getting to running
In 2 Minutes run 400m
Rest 2 minutes
In 2 Minutes run 400m
Rest 2 minutes
In 4 Minutes run 800m
Rest 4 minutes
In 4 Minutes run 800m
Rest 4 minutes
In 2 Minutes run 400m

Gloria doing work!

I wanted to share a couple of quick Crossfit related links.
Kelly Starrett in the Crossfit Mobility expert, and now he posts daily workouts to enhance our mobility.  Check this out, as there’s all kinds of good info, links and videos.  (Props to Louis for finding this)
Crossfit Invictus is your standard Crossfit gym, but they do a real good job of posting thoughts and providing links, aside from having cool training.

The 6 workouts for the Weekend Warrior Series Challenge showed me a few things, and I have some directions I want to push the training.  Overall, everyones metabolic conditioning was pretty good, as were the strength movements.  I want to go back to working on the O-lifts 2 times a week, along with 2 days a week of strength training.  That means well be lifting before metcons Monday thru Thursday.  I also think we need some running work.  We’re pretty good for 400m and under, but it seems like we need more work on the running, especially on distances over 800m.  I’m planning on 2 days a week of more running, sometimes mixed in on lift days.  Runs will usually come on Tuesday and Friday.  Two skills I want to work on are the usual suspects: handstand pushups and doubleunders.

For the more advanced crowd, I’d like to block off one session a week for muscleup work, but that will take some planning and discussion.  If you have a muscleup, or are close, talk to me and we’ll try to set up a weekly session.

Strength
I ran this drill last week, and I liked it alot.
5 Sets
Hang Power Clean, Power Clean, Power Clean plus Push Jerk
The abbreviation for this would be: HPC, PC, PC+PJ

Metcon
7 Minutes As many rounds as possible (AMRAP)
5 Power Cleans 135/95
10 Alternating Pistols (one legged squats)
15 Double Unders

Subs:
Definately try 1 legged squats, even using the wall to brace.  If you absolutely cannot meet the range of motion/balance, do 30 squats.
DU: 30 backwards, 60 forwards

Hopefully I don’t look like this after the Krav Maga Cert…

Another reminder, Crossfit Modesto will be hosting a Krav Maga Certification from Friday thru Monday, so 9am classes will be cancelled on Friday, Saturday and Monday.  We will have evening classes on Friday and Monday.

Skill
Find you max box jump
Use the box, and pile on weights until you find the highest box you can jump onto.  Please use a spotter to hold the plates in place.  We have a tape measure floating around, so record your best effort.

Metcon
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Sumodeadlift Highpull 95/65
100m sprint (50, out, 50 back)

Just a reminder there will not be any 9 AM classes on Friday
or Monday for staff training.

This photo is from 3 weeks ago, but it is the BEFORE for the new location for Crossfit Modesto

The Weekend Warrior Series has a deadline of Sunday Night to lock in teams and pay up.  Based on the scores, the RX team is: Brian H, Dave R, Louis, Justin J, Erika, and Josie J.  Right now, people interested the scaled team are Chad, Mitch and Alison (we’re a little short - interest has waxed and waned).  I see 2 major issues.  Time commitment (we have a Olympic Cert scheduled for one of the Comp dates, we may lose a competition weekend).  The second is the money.  Each team is $600, or $100 per team member at least.  Make no mistake, I want to do this, but I want an honest gauge on interest, because we’re going to have to “vote with our wallet” by Sunday night.  Please contact me or post to comments if you have issues, questions or concerns.  FYI - There are other cool events in the Crossfit world, like Fight Gone Bad on Sep 26, Barbells for Boobies at Crossfit Parabellum in Turlock in late October (A “Grace” event!), and the Tough Mudder (I think this is in October - Right Chad?)

What did we learn in our little competition?  We tested alot of things; some skills, different energy systems, general fitness, strength, etc. We tested 1 Classic Crossfit Sprint Metcon, 1 Endurance Chipper, A Short Duration Power event, and an final longer endurance event.  What did you do well?  Where did you feel challenged?  I know I was not impressed with my running, but I was happy with my Fran and Filthy 50.

I want to do a better job of matching your ability levels to the workout.  Each workout has an anticipated time duration, which may be more important the going RX.  For example, Fran shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.  You can slog through a 16 minute RX Fran, but that kind of misses the point.  The point is to go fast, at out absolute lactic threshold for a sprint.  Think about that on today’s workout.

Skill
10 Minutes of Squat Clean Practice.  I like to do sets of 3, and add a Jerk to my final squat clean.  Be smooth and deliberate.

Metcon
For time
25 Squat Clean and Jerks
Advanced 175/125
Rx 135/95
Or scale as appropriate.
You must transition from a clean into the jerk.  NO THRUSTERS.  In effect, this should be 25 single, perfect squat clean and jerks.

I have done this before, and it took about between 9 and 10 minutes.  Use that as a time gauge for scaling