Becca and Ryan get a piece of D.T.
D.T.
5 rounds
12 Deadlifts 155/105
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 Push Jerks
I think that the burden of this workout fell onto the grip, and when the grip fails, everything gets harder. There is some connection between hand and brain that tells the brain not to lift if the hands won’t grasp. It was kind of heavy too, so that had an impact.
Props to Anthony and Andrea who smoked D.T. like cheap crack, and swatted everyone else who dared challenge them.
Kristi
I feel overly familiar with this workout. Still, it’s a good one, especially when you get the hang of double-unders. A lot of people still struggle with them and there isn’t much I can advise but to relax, most of you are jumping too fast. You’re getting ahead of the rope and since double-unders are all about timing, too fast is as bad as too slow.
To clear up any confusion: we will have class as normal on Saturday July 4. Since I don’t anticipate a large group, we’ll only have the 9am class, not the 8am Firebreathers. Also, since I expect to be small, we’re going to do one of the less popular benchmarks. Maybe one where you wear a weight vest, or run backward for half a mile, or lift three bars of death, I haven’t decided yet. Either way it’ll be fun.
Jason and LaDonna
aka Positive Muscle Failure, aka Push-ups are hard. After the last couple of days, we wanted to stick with the upper body today. J.T. is definitely that. The tendency is to look at the handstand push-ups and dips, and overlook the push-ups. The irony is that it’s the push-ups which get all of the complaining because by the time you get there your shoulder are fried and what should be relatively easy has become maddeningly hard.
I got a chance to teach the morning classes today which was a treat. I don’t normally get to see the early birds so I made sure to take lots of pictures. Results will be posted tomorrow. Read more
David H, Becca, Tom K
People were saying that Elizabeth is mental and as true as that is, I find Jackie to be mentally taxing. At about 400m into the row, you’ve lost that fresh effortless feeling and you start to wonder about keeping up the pace. Then, winded, you move to the Thrusters. The light weight makes you think you should be able to do one more, but your legs are dead after the row and you can’t catch your breath, and now your shoulders start to burn. It’s hard not to put the bar down, even though you know you can do another one. Then when you get through that, you’re left with heaving breaths staring up at that bar.
Maybe it’s just me, but Jackie kills me.
On Saturday, there is a group of people going to the Ft. Lewis Mud Run. Tomorrow is the deadline to register for the “race.” Cost is $30 for civilians. Race starts at 9am.
On another note, I’ve put up Record Boards with benchmarks, names and results. If you don’t find your name up there, let me know and I’ll get on it. If you know your time or weight, go ahead and put it up there. I expect to add some more results from this week since every day is a benchmark.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to write when I get home, so I’m doing this on the office/storage closet computer which means it’ll have to be short with no pictures.
Elizabeth was hard. The end.
In lieu of a normal Saturday workout a group went to Stadium and ran stairs. It sounded like a good time, but I was busy with last minute preparations for the Starrett seminar. We had 24 people, 70% of whom were coaches and gym owners, coming from as far away as Oregon and Bellingham. Kelly talked for about 8 hours, covering the purpose of stretching, methods, and resources. We spent time learning stretches for systematically working through the body.
Some things I took from this. First, there were no big surprises, nothing new that made me think, “I’ve gotta incorporate this into our program!” In fairness that may be because I’ve watched and read everything Starrett has put on the Crossfit main site. But the encouraging part, as Leon pointed out, is that it means we’re not missing anything. We’re doing the right things to be the best gym, the best fitness program possible. (Even if we’re not there yet, we’re getting there.)
Second, I liked how he described lack of flexibility as a vampire. It sucks away your strength, your speed, your stamina. A great demonstration of this is to lie on your back and have a partner lift your femur to vertical with the knee bent. Now the partner lifts the your foot, straightening your knee. Full range of motion, without resistance, is to extend to 5 degrees off of vertical. However, most of us felt resistance far from 5 degrees. That means that for movement passed that point, the muscle and connective tissue is working against you.
If you were to have freer movement through that range, you would be able to move faster and do more work. As an example, Leon can press a lot more overhead than I can, but he is also tighter through the shoulders. When we did the Rainier competition last weekend, I ended up doing more push presses in bigger sets. I wasn’t fighting the same structural limitations he was. The lesson: flexibility will free up your strength and endurance.
Third, the whole point of getting flexible, as illustrated above is to be able to do more work. Getting bendy for the sake of being bendy is pointless. We want to be more capable.
Lastly, midline stabilization is something that is essential to what we do. It is our ability to keep a neutral spine while moving or lifting. We have coached this, but Kelly gave us some refining to do and emphasized the importance of it.
Here is how you do it: 1. Pull your belly button in towards you spine (don’t get hollow, just pull it back by flexing). 2. Raise your pelvic floor (contract your sphincter, pretend you have to stop yourself from peeing). 3. Take a deep breath into your belly. 4. Squeeze your abs and compress that breath. 5. Keep your lower back engaged but not over-extended. 6. Keep your neck neutral- don’t look up or down, look straight ahead.
You’ll hear us harping on that in the days ahead.
Other attendees, I’ll be interested in what you came away with.
Two things we don’t do many of: bench press and strict pull-ups. I thought it’d take a little longer than it did. Then again, that worked in concert with the equipment. With only two benches we ran the workout in pairs. Sometimes I wonder whether to program a particular movement knowing that it cause logistic complications, but I generally feel it is better to do so from time to time so that we’re never completely ignorant of a movement. All that to say that I’m going to do what I think is best for us, even if it ends up taking all day to get through it.
Have a fun stair climb tomorrow. Those of us learning from Kelly Starrett will tell you all about it Monday.
This workout was Lisa’s creation, it didn’t look too bad at first. Until I saw the times that were going on the board. It’s been a while since we’ve done a longer one like this. Perhaps we should add some more in the future? It’s good for you.
There seems to be some more interest in a running group which is good to see.
We’re CLOSED SATURDAY in order to host Kelly Starrett who will be giving a clinic on “Mobility and Maintenance” which will be about how you can better understand your body, how to prepare it for the beating Crossfit gives it, and keep it thriving. I selfishly invited Kelley to come to Tacoma a few months ago after seeing excerpts from this clinic and wanting him to come show me. I haven’t talked much about it, partly because I think of it as being of most interest to other coaches. However, if you’re interested in attending, I cannot encourage you strongly enough to do it. It will deepen your knowledge of your body and blow your mind with how deep Crossfit goes. There is a link on the sidebar.
In lieu of a normal Saturday, there is a group meeting to run stairs at Stadium. Meet at the gym at 7:30am. The info is also written on the board.
That is freaking awesome. Greta and Alicia.
I thought this one would be hot, and was not disappointed. Ladders are an interesting format, one that I’ve always included but am just starting to appreciate. You start slow, gradually increase the work load and decrease the rest until you’re doing the movement as fast as you can. The last few minutes are a especially hard mentally, because you know if you get through this round, the next one is even harder. I liked how so many people went into their last round knowing they wouldn’t get through it, but not quitting.
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