Back in Action

After a sabbatical of sorts I'm back and ready for action. I have to appologize to my regulars ( if there are any) for keeping you waiting. I've had some unfortunate events happen over the last week that I had to deal with.

Last week we left off on Remembrance day. Well the following WOD (November 12) was a strength day WOD of 5-5-5-5-5 front squats. So 5 sets of 5 reps working to a 5 RM or 5 rep maximum weight. I worked my way up to a 165# (bodyweight) 5 RM which I'm ok with. My legs are my weak link so to speak, I believe it's from the years of running making them week.
Now in Crossfit the is one of the most, if not the most important functional movement in crossfit. Without a technically sound squat you cannot properly do wallballs, front squats, squat cleans, thrusters etc. you get my point I hope. Flexibility is key, you need to be able to sit like you are sitting in a chair with a STRAIGHT TORSO. Your flexibility has to allow you to keep your torso vertical while you sit so your hips are below the crease in your knee.
Notice torso is vertical and hips are at or below the crease in the knee. Bar position in the front squat is right up against your throat sitting on your shoulder muscles NOT your collarbone!!
Feet are shoulder width or a bit wider and feet pointing slightly outwards. The reasoning behind the feet is to activate your outside hip muscles when you make your hip thrust (pop) motion at the top. The more muscles activated in any lift makes it a bit easier. The hand position (bar just resting on the fingers) allows you to keep your elbows straight out. The elbows are pointing straight out and acting as levers, this is very important in helping you keep your torso straight when standing up. The tendancy is to lean forward if your elbows start to drop, this takes the bar out of your center of gravity and puts alot of stress on your lower back when you start leaning forward. So remember to push those elbows out and up on your way up. When you get near the top you pop your hips outward firing your hip muscles for a little extra drive. And you thought a squat looked simple!!

I took the next 5 days off as mentioned above and went back in on November 18th. This WOD kicked my ASS. I'm sure it was because of the stressful weekend I had and a combination of no sleep and a less than favorable diet. The WOD consisted of:

5 Rounds for time:

15 Wallball shots
15 Double unders
15 Kettlebell swings (55#)
Time: 9:56

I got through the first 3 rounds no problem, then I'm not sure what happened, I gassed out ,hit the wall, died any of these will do. First time in along time gassing out on a sub 10 min WOD with no heavy weight in it. No matter how hard I fought the brain had a stranglehold on my body, it wasn't letting me continue at the good pace I had completed the first 3 rounds. I should have been done around 8 min but "should have" gets you nowhere in crossfit. That's one of the beauties of crossfit it humbles EVERYBODY sooner or later.


So Thursday we did a Push/pull day again. We did the Shoulder Press and Weighted pull-ups. The format looked like this:

3 reps of Press
90 sec rest
3 reps of weighted strict pull-up (Palms faced forward arms AT LEAST shoulder width)
120 sec rest
repeat 5 times

Working to a 3RM or 3 rep maximum.

I surprised myself this day pulling a 3RM on the press which was my old 1RM, imagine that. I successfully pressed 132# three times in a row. I also achieved a new 1RM of 134# which also made me happy. If only my legs could start making gains!! As for the strict pull-ups, I went super wide using as much of my lats as possible because on my regular pull-ups my hands are just wider than my shoulders. Coach brought a point up to me a few weeks ago that the wider your hands are apart the less distance you have to pull up therefore less work done. I'm pretty good at my physics......but honestly never thought of it that way. So this is why I'm trying to widen my arms when doing pull-ups and get more lats involved. Anyways I got to about 26# plus bodyweight with the extra wide grip.

So that brings us up to date once again. Tonight I may do a WOD from last week I'll see how I feel when I get home. A clean and jerk/pullup ladder perhaps??

Until next time SEAN'O out!!