K-Star points out in this post the difference between mobility work and warming up. Any joint work or rolling done before your work should target focus on prepping the body for the work to done or to relieve muscle stiffness. BUT, this work does not replace a thorough, dynamic warmup. K-Star explains this in the attached video, and also shows how to integrate his drills into your dynamic warmup to recover tissue.
Stretching: The Truth from the New York Times. This article is from 2008, but you can see some of the stretches we use on the left side of the page.
My $.02. I do basically the same dynamic warmup every time I workout. I do different mobility recovery and joint prep every time, depending on the work ahead. I usually roll and do band work before my warmup, to recover muscle tissue and see how tight my joints are. Then I do my dynamic warmup, and go back and usually hit the joints again with band work (or the squat test).
Workout Of The Day
For time:
Run 800m
30 Thrusters
30 Pullups
Run 600m
20 Thrusters
20 Pullups
Run 400m
10 Thrusters
10 Pullups
Men - 95, Ladies - 65
For the 10am Advanced WOD
Part 1 Heavy Jerks and Lateral Burpees (3-10min workout)
Part 2 ???
Grace Challenge
Thursday, July 07, 2011
US Army Cuts Off Five Fingers, Bangs Head. I'm going to beat up the Army a bit here. I found my time in the Army (which was peacetime, pre-9/11) to be incredibly frustrating, for reasons much like the Five Fingers ban. The emphasis on appearance over performance was something that affected over daily lives, almost hour to hour. That's one of the reasons I appreciate Crossfit so much: performance is absolute.
K-Star mobs the lower leg. I don't mob my calves enough (I spend most of my time on back, hips, glutes). But the lower leg is sooo important, probably because that's were we connect to the ground. Over 10 years ago, I had a serious ankle sprain in the Army, and I wasn't able to recover. Everyday we did the same WOD, run fast for 5 miles. This constant exercise, which I wasn't really allowed to deviate from led to serious compensation issues. My ankle pain and decreased mobility led to longer term hip and knee problems, with decreased performance. The only recovery work I did was to trace the alphabet with my toes. In my opinion, this injury, which occurred in '99, took me until '07 to fully recover, when I was doing Crossfit everyday.
Workout Of The Day
"Grace"
30 Clean and Jerks
RX 135/83
Scaled 95/55
Post time to complete to comments.
Curbing my enthusiasm for the TV.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Remember to sign up for the Grace Challenge! We'll begin baseline tests Friday (Grace will be the WOD all day Friday). If you miss Friday, we'll schedule a make up for you. It only takes a couple of minutes
Are DVR Boxes Worth the Energy They Waste? I am the first to admit: I love cable TV and I'm a DVR Junkie. Alison has been poking at me for years to consider dropping cable, and I keep coming up with excuses. C'mon Al, there's a new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm coming up on HBO!
But in truth, the amount of energy (figuratively and literally) we waste entertaining ourselves is staggering. If I have a "big picture" concern for my children and future generations, this is it. How much of your day is spent thinking about how you entertain yourself? Have you ever sat in front of the TV while your surfed the internet? Post thoughts to comments.
Hollis Molloy of Crossfit Santa Cruz teaching Mikko Salo how to use the Wrap and Stomp. It looks like Mikko is a master of the Scoop and Stomp, but doesn''t know how to wrap. One of the keys of rope climbing in "feeding" the rope to the ground, taking out the slack. Hollis demonstrates this to Mikko by showing how to "wiggle" the slack out of the rope.
Workout Of The Day
Strength/Skill
Snatch
1-1-1
Quickly build to a heavy single.
Post score to comments. FYI - there are 42 reps in each round.
Feel free to post your favorite episode of "Curb" to comments if you have one. Mine's "The Car Pool Lane".
Summer tips
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Welcome to Summer. Notice how the explanation for heat cramps, the first stage of heat injuries, is caused by lack of salt from excessive sweating. Do you add some salt to your water? Post to comments.
Since the heat has cranked up, I've notice my hands have been more fragile. It is essential to keep your hands dry. Dry hands are more important than chalk. We supply hand towels, but seem to run out quickly. I would recommend bringing your own towel so you're guaranteed something to dry off your hands during rest breaks.
It's a little late for the big grilling sessions of the 4th of July, but there's plenty of summer left: 10 Foods You'd Never Think To Grill. Definitely would like to do eggs/breakfast and pizza.
Greg A., the original Crossfit Firebreather does 100 Burpee Pullups (known as "GI Jane") at the original Crossfit in Santa Cruz.
Workout Of The Day
Strength/Skill
Front Squat
5-3-3-1-1-Heavy Single
Metcon
3 RFT
12 Front Squat 135/95
12 Burpee Pullups
For RX: Men - Pullups on highest bar, Ladies pullups on middle bars. The momentum from your jump CAN follow into your pullup.
Grace and getting comfortable on the rope
Monday, July 04, 2011
Don't forget to sign up for the Grace Challenge, which starts Friday. Grace is 30 Clean and Jerks for time. For years, this was my favorite Crossfit WOD. Fast and explosive. The cool thing about the Challenge is that is gives you money off the Olympic Lifting Seminar on July 23 with Coach Schmitz and Curry.
I have 2 training tips for Grace. First, being efficient with your Clean and Jerk is very important, and getting the biggest possible set out of the gates will produce the fastest time. That means you have to hold onto the bar. The second you begin to do singles, you will hemorrhage time.
Second, your grip becomes the limiting factor. Just hanging onto the bar past rep 21 is a battle. We'll talk more about grip (and train it) over the coming weeks. Weighted walks like last week, and farmer's walks with KB, DB will develop that grip stamina needed for a big set. I am treating grip work similar to core work: something to be done after my main work everyday. For Grace, I would be conservative on that first set during the initial test, but I want to see someone get 30 straight Clean and Jerks in 6 weeks!
Speaking of grip, we did a little bit of rope climbing on Friday. Any rope burns? The video below displays 3 techniques to climb a rope.
The 3 techniques are: 1) the Crimp, 2) the Scoop and Stomp and 3) the Wrap and Stomp. The 4th technique, which I don't need to teach is No Leg climbing. All arms, baby!
My $ .02. I am a long time Wrap and Stomper. It is the most secure, and for me, the most intuitive. It also produces nasty burns. I gotta be honest, I almost never recommend the Crimp. It's not secure enough, and can quickly devolve to the 4th technique. The Scoop and Stomp appears to be the fastest, and has the least opportunity for a burn. I did a bunch of rope climbs with my compression tights on Sunday using the Wrap and Stomp, and I still found a way to burn my legs.
On climbing ropes. Some people will tell you it's all technique, but folks, you still need to be able to pull your body weight. The pull can be like a kipping pullup, but depending on your technique, upper body strength is required. Like any technique, PRACTICE. I never practiced the Scoop and Stomp. Guess what? I can't do it.
Also, once you've made it up, getting down is a major consideration. Going down hand over hand may help reduce rope burns.
One more observation: I went into my YouTube search hoping to find a good, non-Crossfit rope climbing video. Maybe some Army guys or Marines explaining the different techniques. Maybe I should have looked longer, but the best video I found was from Crossfitters. The video below from BeastSkills.com was easily the most in depth look I found.
Workout Of The Day
Strength/Skill
Clean
1-1-1
Quickly build to a heavy single.
