30th June 2010: Top squat, bottom squat, he squats, she squats, we (should) all SQUAT

Two very effective movements tonight to build all round strength.
The upper body squat – aka ring dips , and the all king lower body squat - barbell back squat.

Worked on stability skills on the ring. Worked through progressions to full ring dip aiming to achieve full range of motion on the movement...full extension at top and getting nice and deep into the dip, below parallel like.


Rings Dips
5 x max reps

Back squat

Warm up
3 x 5 reps

Having our BeaverFit cages makes the world of difference to how the members are squatting. To have the confidence to squat in safety is a huge reassurance enabling us to get below parallel. Took time but those squats are getting to where they should be now. It’s important that the feeling of that load on the back is not an alien feeling.

Thursday 29th June 2010: Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

...Well, knees to elbows actually but there you go.


Started with:

Hang Snatch

5x3

Then WOD:

AMRAP in 20 minutes

Burpees x 10
Knees to elbows x 10

Scale K2E as required – leg raises/knee raises

Guys and gals making some great improvements on snatch technique. The WOD...much hand cream and hand care kneeded (sic) after this one.

27th June 2010: Sprint 2km, with a bit of rest in between.

Five new member tonight for the On-Ramp, arrived in time to see the 6pm session doing some of the things what laid ahead once they completed their On-Ramp.

First was 5x5 Push Press.

This was followed by:

5 rounds
400m sprint 2 minutes rest.

This was an excellent effort from members tonight, making the most of the beautiful weather. World Cup, what World Cup?

26th June 2010: Oly, Oly Oi Oi Oi,

Olympic lifting workshop today to help introduce fitness fanatics to the Clean and Jerk and Snatch.
Great fun and fully attended with some friends coming always from Wales and other stange places, as well as our good friends from BeaverFit. Ramsey, a former top level Rugby player said it was one of the best course he’d been on, and we didn’t twist his arms to get that comment…wouldn’t fancy it either if you saw the size of him (see pic above)!!!
We’ll be telling you more about our friend Tom Beaver and BeaverFit in future logs, so look out for the posts as well as updates on upcoming workshops.

Shame the footy result spoiled the rest of a great day.

25th June 2010 OPEN DAY

The sun was out. Our friends came, new friends were made. We threw kettlebells, drank beer and ate We had a nice time! Thanks to all that attended.
More on this later when we get some pics.

Friday 25th June: Old New Friends and New Old Friends

The 6.15am session brought back our new travelling friend from that country very up North, Scotland. We were very pleased to see Damien. Also at our doors was our old friend David Hebden, who had gone awol for a while for private matters, but was back for a short while, and at our new box for the first time. We always welcome back our old and new friends who will be our old friends.

Started with some skill work with Hang power snatch then overhead squat, focusing on stability, speed and range of motion.

This was followed by some tyre flipping work.

Some ring dips to assess dip skills.

We then finished with a modified variation of Elizabeth

21,15,9

Power Cleans
Ply-clap push ups

As all workouts, they are as intense as you make them, and we do prefer to aim for the INTENSE end.
It was an awesome effort for so early in the morning and David was certainly welcomed back…everything back up, if you get my gist.

Well, tomorrow is the open day, so come down and join the fun.

The day after that the Olympic Weightlifting workshop (which is already booked up – but look out for other workshops in the months ahead).

Thursday 24th June 2010: 'Can I do this?' YES YOU CAN!!

Busy early session (6pm) tonight with our regular members as well as a guest from some far away land joining in the fun. Yes we welcome friends from forums to drop and PAYT …as long as you’re confident with the movements due in that session.

Lots of people, lots of sweat, the box was warm tonight.

For the second session, Amy, who is shaping up for married life, brought a friend, Jo, along. One of her first words when Pull ups were on the menu were, ‘I can’t do that.’

At CrossFit Reading, yes you can.

We scale movements so that people of all abilities can perform them or movements like them. All we ask is for the desire to succeed.

This was tonight’s session

Pull ups 5-6 rounds max reps

Use bands to assist as required

Worked on some kettlebell, high pull clean and snatch skills

WOD

Tabata intervals (20 seconds on 10 seconds rest x 8) –Twice through

Kettlebell snatches (scaled to swings for first timers.)
Thrusters (scaled accordingly)

So 8 Tabata rounds of Snatch, then 8 Tabata of Thursters.
Repeat.

BBQ also got delivered by dad to be, Jimmy, for Saturdays Open Day….yes, there’s an open day, 12-5pm. Come down, check us out and makes some fit friends.

Wednesday 23rd June: 6.15am session - working the tyre...to get a flat tyre.

On this glorious morning, the ever dedicated Nutrition PhD to be Mister C was going solo. He doesn't have a tyre, but you get what today's session is about.

We started with Deadlifts 5 x 3.

Conventional stance was used on this occasion.

Working sets started at 130 and maxed with 150. Focused on preventing that back arching forward, which meant being honest about what is seen, even though lifting more was possible, we went for just 5% slop today.

This was followed by:

5 rounds:

1 minute very big tyre flip

Run 400m

1 minute sit ups

At max, the tyre was flipped 10 times in 60 seconds.

400m runs averaged 2 minutes

Sit ups were around 40 per round

Alot of work in all. Good job Mister C.

Consistent work rate, and even a lovely sweat angel, though I think it looks more like a cow's head with horns. Sweat cows head with horns...hmmm not quite the same ring.

Tuesday 22nd June: Right over our heads

Yesterday, we got stuff of the floor. Today, it was about getting that bar over our head.

Push Jerks 5 x 3

WOD:

5 rounds

Push Press x 10
Burpees x 20

So put another way, 50 overhead push presses, and 100 Burpees. Or the another way, the good old , 5 x Overhead, 10 Burpees 5RDS, doubled. Twice as much work,twice as much sweat.
Rx over head is 60kg for men, 40kg for women...scale as required, but do so honestly.

Mon 21.6.10 MU Progressions, Cleans and Sprints

Crazy intensity at the box tonight. Lots of fun and some pb's set.

Started with muscle up progressions. Jules got her first muscle up and it looked like the weekend of practice had definately helped. Well done girl. Then cleand 5 x 1 working to 1 rep max. Some outstanding work on these and Thong got a new pb of 87.5 while Dan Cooksley nailed 80kg with some great technique. Dan Usher got 70kg on his first session of cleans after graduating from the on ramp. Jules nailed a 42.5kg and Sian smashed a 50kg and looked like she could have gone heavier.

We finished with 25m sprints x 20 working on static start and stride. Some great improvements from everyone.

Mon 14.6.10 Squats then Deads, HPC and Push Press

Sorry for the lack of posting for the last week. Been a manic week after the strength and power meet but we are back to it now.

We welcomed 4 new guys on to the new on ramp and David joined us for his first free session.

Started with 5 x 5 squats @ 80% of 1 rep max. Guys making good use of the new power racks, so much so that Alex split his beloved shorts.

Then on to a short sharp conditioning triplet.

Deadlifts x 7
Hang Power Cleans x 7
Push Press x 7

7 rounds for time

This should be around a 10 - 15 minute met con so scale appropriately.

It was an intense one and as a good friend of mines alwaays says "if there's no sweat angel, do another round"

Sat 5.6.10 The Strength and Power Meet

After months of planning, late nights, long phone calls and crazy sponsor organisation the CrossFit Reading Strength and Power Meet in Association with FKUK was finally here. Chet from FK and Thong from CrossFit Reading along with a little bit of help from Andy Craig had put so much effort in to the build up and organisation. Turning up in the morning with the events laid out was just amazing.

There will be a full write up at a later date but suffice to say CrossFit Reading was well represented on the day and put through some strong performances with 3 people going through to the finals.

Just seeing people pulling trucks, using the yoke and loading heavy kit on to a van is just the most amazing thing. Everyday folk doing stuff you only seeing monsters doing on the t.v.

Well done to all the competitors and a massive thank you to all the CrossFit Reading supporters. You enthusiasm and commitment to your friends and family really helped. We hope you all had a great day and we can't wait for next year.

Fri 4.6.10 Rigs, racks and done

So, the pull up rig and hhhhheavy duty power cages arrived from Beaverfit. The guys drove down from Shropshire with this and all the equipment for the strength and power meet. Crazy traffic meant they were held up but as soon as they arrived they had everything up in no time.

Members arrived for CrossBox and were just blown away.

The place is looking amazing and thanks to Beaverfit for all their help and support over the last month. The kit is amazing and we can now get on with the job of building unparalleled fitness.

Thursday 3.6.10 Hang Cleans, Sprints and Push Press

We welcomed Sonia for her first taste of CrossFit. Worried at the start, she needn't have been as she learnt techniques quickly and smashed the sprints.

We started with hang cleans 3 x 3

Then

50m Sprints with walk back recovery x 10

Then finished with

Push press. 2 sets of max reps at 50% of bodyweight.

Some outstanding numbers on the push presses.

Wed 2.6.10 Power snatches and ssshhhhhhwing and burp

Don't know if it's the weather or the flooring but there is some serious atmosphere at the box.

Started tonight with some power snatch triples, 4 sets.

Followed by

30 russian kettlebell swings
30 burpees

5 rounds

For time

Guys are definately making use of the new lifting platforms and there was some serious conditioning going on in the met con.

Tuesday 1st June: Same-Old-New

There were some new faces tonight completing the first CrossFit Reading On-Ramp/Induction of the month. Our usual old members, with new inductee Matt Honeyball got to hit the new flooring over two sessions.

The team started with:

Behind the neck thrusters (Cheerleaders)
7 x 1

This was followed by:

3 rounds of
1 minute station 30 seconds recovery on:

Ring rows
Wall ball
Sledge hammer strikes
Skipping

The session was rocking. Heavy stuff lifted and everyone was pumped. Awesome work guys