2nd-6th of August: New month, new targets

So, into what should be the month of summer and start of a new cycle for us, this week sees us establishing some 1rm benchmarks which we will look to better. As a benchmark, we used the CrossFit Total lifts of, Squat, Press and Deadlift.

31st July: CrossFit Reading Gymnastics Workshop

This Saturday saw us close shop as all CF coaches and some members, along with others of the CrossFit and functional fitness community gathered at Basingstoke Gymnastics Club, Basingstoke Gymnastics Club, The Active Life Centre.

There was much awesomness.
And that was just the demo from the resident coaches who had international calibre knwledge to bestow upon us as well as some amazing (rings skills in particular.

There was a lot of knowledge gained which could easily see this workshop run for longer. Ultimately it was a fund day as we all got to enjoy the £6 Million facility. Handstands, rings, bars, and pits for flips and such were order of the day and were so much FUN, even though some of us landed on our faces.

This workshop is going to be the first of many, watch this space.

29th July 2010: BIG little Chief

Today, we did a variation for the CrossFit WOD The Chief.

BIG little Chief:

3 Power cleans

6 Push ups

9 Squats

Amrap 3 minutes

1 minutes rest

10 Rounds (30 minutes work total, 10 minutes rest built in)

Load was scaled down to deliver the full 10 rounds.

OMG!!!

28th July 2010: We know your pain, so...JUST...DO IT

PERSEVERANCE LEADS TO SUCCESS

27th July 2010: Broken

Hang Power Snatch
5 x 3

Weight was light to allow for technique focusing on full hip extension, minimal arm pull and keeping the bar close to the body.

WOD was Isabelle or Grace broken with 400m in between depending what athletes had done this month and also skill level on snatch technique:

Run 400
Dead Lift 30
Run 400
Hang-Cleans 30
Run 400
Front Squat
Run 400
Push Jerk 30

Isabelle variant replaced movements with snatch grip variations (snatch grip deadlift, snatch high pull, hang power snatch, overhead squat)
Grace variation could also be done with dumbells.

26th July 2010: Love Your Hands

Front squats 5 x 3

Focus on keeping back flat and also those elbows, up, up, up!!!

Little Angies

5 Rounds
Pulls ups x 20
Push ups x 20
Sit ups x 20
Squats x 20

The purpose of this segmentation was to break the pull ups into manageable amounts.
Pulls were scaled to enable everyone to be able to do the full range of motion of the push up movement.

HANDS...
One of the issues that the WOD highlighted was hand tears that resulted from doing the pull ups.

Torn hands are not something we care to brag about as the injury can prevent you doing certain aspects of training. But sometimes it happens.

This is through not holding the bar correctly. Ideally the grip should site in between the crevice of the palm and start of the fingers). For various reasons, such as bar size and comfort, people sometimes grip the bar in the middle of the palm. This creates a larger area of flesh that is pushed against the bar, but also gives a greater area for rubbing, leading to blistering and tears. The risk of tears is also increased with people who do bigger kips as the hand movement against the bar is greater. Bar texture will also influence degree of risk to hand tear.

Some great advice can be found at CrossFit Virtuosity on hand care and management for training. Read it and follow the advice:

http://www.crossfitvirtuosity.com/articles/ive-got-to-hand-it-to-you-part-1/

23rd July 2010: A Great Day

Today was a great day as new members, Ben, Chris, Eddie, Rachel, Sameer and Zack all passed completed their induction. Well done everyone!

To celebrate, some of the guys then did:

Grace

30 clean and over head anyhow: 60kgs

22nd July 2010: Pull, Pull, PULL!!!

Push Press 5x 3

WOD

3 Rounds

Skip 200
Pull ups x 20
Ring Rows x 20
SDHP x 20

Actually, the Sumo Dead Lift High pull is not dominantly a pulling movement. It's placement as the end movement in this sequence requires that an aggressive leg drive and hip extension in order to 'pull' the bar to the required height following the pull ups and rings rows.

This WOD highlights why we don't use isolation arm movements...try it and see what we mean...

21th July 2010: Back and Abs

To start:
Dead lift 5x5

To finish:

4Rds
Run 400
Sit ups 40
Swings 40

Simple but effective.

Run can be subbed with double unders.

A real gasser, but a great one for the core to tie in with the deadlifts.

The guys loved this for some reason...and it wasn't because it was easy...it isn't.

19th-20th July 2010: Knowing the ropes... when trainers train

19th July
Started with Overheads squats 5x5

We can all run, but lets add in a co-ordination skills element...

WOD:

4Rds
400m run
40 Rope Doubles/100 singles

20th July

Snatch high pull 5x3

Today, CrossFit Reading Trainers also got the chance to jam together, first time in a while.

It's a good opportunity for us to test run the WODS to be done in the sessions and also try some new things.

20th July

Elizabeth
Scaled or push up variation
21, 15, 9
Cleans
Ring dips

14th - 16th July

14th July

Hang Snatch 5 x 2

Focus on getting under that bar

WOD

Push Jerk 3 x 5

5 rounds Max Reps Hand Clap Push Ups

15th July

Squat 3 x 5


WOD

Pull Up x 1min
Box Jumps x 1min
20kg Thruster x 1min
Single Unders x 1min
Burpees x 1min

3 rounds for total reps

16th July

Push Press 5 x 3

This spent focusing on technique - with attention to achieving full hip extension to drive the bar up.

WOD

25 Burpees
50 Squats
50 Press Ups
50 Sit Ups
50 Box Jumps
50 KB C&P
25 Burpees

13th July: Legs of fire.

Sometimes there are advantages of writing a blog update in hindsight of a WOD. This is one of them.

The session was :

Hang Clean 3 x 5

This was followed by the WOD:

Lunge 50
Pull up 30
Lunge 50
Push up 50
Lunge 50
Sit up 70
Lunge 50
Squats 90

The set up looks simple, but the impact was beyond expectations.
The lunge movement requires a full range of motion for hip mobilisers, glutes, quads and hams.

This was could be felt the following 2-3 days when everyone who did this WOD experienced muscular soreness.

It is not our purpose to always have soreness (though some people like it). However it did highlight that working the lower body though such a range of motion at a higher volume was something that was lacking in athletes capacity. Doing this for the first time with additional load is not recommended.

Monday 12th July: Heavy mass will be moved....

Day 5 saw the guys work on some hang power cleans. This was followed by some jump rope skills...double unders, the kryptonite of so many.

This was finished with a 100 double under blast...

Start of the week, we had a CrossFit Total.

There was some heavy stuff being lifted.

Some of our newer members also gauged their progress and made some awesome efforts.

You cannot always experience success if you don't fail first.

The Big Man Alex made a point that we needed some denser plates, with 180kg squat, 100kg press and 230kg deadlift. Emile and Seth also impressed with some big lifts...some potential home grown competition brewing here.

It's an inspiring and scary experience to see so much being lifted...and it's not just the guys who lift heavy...watch this space.

Wed 7.7.10 Front Squats and Helen

Tonight we started with front squats and while the group class got on with it 4 of the on ramp guys were testing out. Congratulations to Nicki, James, Steve and Lee who all passed the on ramp.

After the front squats we tackled

HELEN

400m run

21 kettlebell swings @ 24kg

12 pull ups

3 rounds for time

3 of the guys from the on ramp also decided they wanted some of Helen and awesome effort by them and the other guys tonight.

Tues 6.7.10 Push Press 5 x 3 and run & clean & jerk

We welcomed Amy to CrossFit Reading and saw the return of Sameer.

Big boys were in tonight so it promised to be impressive lifting. Taff who has just come through the on ramp worked up to 90kg for 3 and then managed 100kg for 1. Alex managed 110kg for 1 after working his 3 rep to 100kg.

After the push press we went through

200m run
5 x clean & jerk rxd 70kg

10 rounds for time

Some scaling on the met con but OUTSTANDING effort by all.

Mon 5.7.10 Snatch and Cindy

Monday saw us start to introduce a few of the ladies to CrossFit Reading.

Started with Snatch 5 x 3 working to 3 rep max followed by

CINDY
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

AMRAP 20 minutes

Outstanbdind effort by all. Emile with a new pb, Jules doing as rxd and getting 12 rounds and Jimmy getting 13 rounds with a 10kg vest.

Insulin resistance! It's bad

Here is an article to help understand insulin resistance, how bad it is and how to help prevent it. Get off the processed foods!

http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/insulin.htm

Sat 3.7.10 Deads & Burpees, a goat and a new friend

Saturday morning saw 7 of the regulars rock up for some met con fun.

15 x deadlifts 60/40kg

15 x burpees

10 rounds for time

Once they had finished they had 5 min rest and then had to tackle their main goat (weakness). Awesome end to the session that saw Jimmy nail the rack position, a number of the girls working on overhead and asome flexibility work going on.

While the guys worked out I had the pleasure of meeting Isa. Isa is from Birmingham Alabama and he does a lot of missionary work in Israel. Isa is staying with one of our members for a few days while he travel the UK and he wanted to come down and have a workout with us.

Isa is more used to Cybex machines but he threw himself straight in to a little met con consisting of kb swings, burpees and shoulder press. After this he tackled some ring push ups and some tyre flips. Impressive for a newbie? even more so given the fact that Isa is blind. While I was concious his other senses would be more developed it was amazing to see him learn how to swing a kettlebell without seeing the demo and how his sense of proprioception worked as he moved between each station without any help.

A truly amazing experience for me not just because of the training but to speak with someone that is obviously such a positive person. We hope Isa will visit whenever he is back.

1st July: Fran...

FRAN!!!

21, 15, 9
40kg Thrusters
Pull ups

What's to say? This is what introduced me to CrossFit.

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.