From Shirley
2015 was my fourth year participating in the Open, and the first time I submitted a zero for a workout. It’s not like me to leave a task unfinished, and in the beginning it wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision.
Friday was my first opportunity to submit a 15.5 score, but after a week of being sick and sleep deprived I decided to wait until Saturday to do it. Saturday came with a sick kiddo, so off to the doctor and then home to administer medicine, wipe a runny nose and give lots of snuggles. Sunday is family day for us, non negotiable. Monday still sick, sleep deprived and with a kiddo finally on the mend I chose to stay home and enjoy a finally smiley and laughing toddler’s shenanigans. It was then that I peacefully accepted my Open fate.
About 16 months ago, CrossFit was pretty much everything to me. I would spend all day at the gym if I could, not just to workout, get better and get stronger, but to enjoy the community we are a part of. Shifting roles and responsibilities has placed CrossFit into a different priority slot now a days. I’m lucky if I can make it in 3 days a week and quite often it’s the only piece of sanity that I get in my day. It’s my time to recharge my battery and focus on my mental and physical health. It’s also my social outlet; I’m thankful to have such a great network of friends here. Any parent will agree that the moment you decide to have children is the moment you forever put someone else’s needs before your own. Gone are the days I yearned for my muscle up and was proud to RX a workout. Now I yearn for little giggles and sloppy toddler kisses and I’m proud to be a dedicated wife and mom. For me, life is more about balance now. Those of you who come to class early to work on mobility and stay late to get a little extra skill or strength work in, I look at you with a little envy and a lot of respect. If those days ever return, that will be awesome, but if I never get back there that’s ok too. I’m still in love with CrossFit, just more in love with my family.
Above we have a couple of ropes to choose from - the beaded rope that brings back memories of grade school, and the wire rope that all the pro’s use. Which rope should you choose and why?
The beaded rope is a heavier and thicker rope. The heaviness and thickness (thickness provides air resistance) of the rope is going to make you work a little harder in spinning the rope over your body. It makes the muscles involved work a little more, which will make them burn a little sooner. The benefit of the muscles working and burning is that you FEEL this and it creates a feedback loop on WHAT muscles are burning. In proper jump roping technique, your arms and hands should be held down and close to your sides and the rope should be spun primarily using the wrists and elbows. If your jump roping technique is still inconsistent and/or underdeveloped, you are likely holding your arms too wide and trying to spin the rope with muscles at your shoulders versus your arms, and you will FEEL the shoulders burn very quickly. This BURNING provides the athlete with the “feedback” to relax the shoulders and use more wrists and elbows to spin the rope. The wrists and elbows have better leverage in spinning the rope and will be able to last much longer. If used frequently, the beaded rope will help to teach the athlete better position on the jump rope, and will also condition the appropriate muscles for extended sets of jump roping.
The wire rope is what is also called a “speed” rope. Some wire ropes have a thin coat of plastic covering them, which makes them a little heavier, but they are still considered “speed” ropes. Wire ropes are usually very light, and as a result, have the ability to spin very fast with very little effort. Due to the lightness of the rope, it is very easy to get the rope to spin two times under the body without a proper position of the arms and hands. This ‘incorrect’ technique will work for a little while, but ultimately be flawed when the athlete tries to do large sets of double unders. Also, because the wire rope is so light, there isn’t a feedback loop…the athlete can’t feel the rope or the muscles involved in making the rope spin. I’ve seen this many times over, where athletes can do 1-5 double unders, but they never seem to improve. They continue to miss the rope over and over, never changing position to correct the problem. It’s almost like they are waiting on the “double under gatekeeper” to magically grant them access if they make enough attempts. Unfortunately, there is a reason they continue missing their 2nd, 5th, or 10th consecutive double under, and no amount of attempts with the same position is going to make a double under happen.
If you read above, it should be pretty clear that the beaded rope is perfect for someone that still needs improvement on their double under. If I were to give a concrete answer, if you cannot grab a rope and do 50 double unders, you should be working on a beaded rope. The beaded rope will help you correct your form and condition the muscles. If you cannot do 50 double unders and you have always been using the wire rope, immediately switch to using the beaded ropes. Once you can consistently do 50 double unders with the beaded rope, switch to the wire rope and it will be ridiculously easy to string 100+ together. Good luck!!
Well, there you have it. The CrossFit Open has taken another dramatic step forward…Well, depending on who you ask. For the first time ever, Dave Castro announced that 15.3, the third workout of the 2015 CrossFit Open would require Rx’d athletes to be able to do a muscle up.
For the past 5 years, the CrossFit Open has been made up of CrossFit’s basic movements - wall balls, box jumps, deadlifts, burpees, and so on. Never has the muscle up been required in order to get a single rep, until now. The reason for bringing in the muscle up now? Well, this year is the first year they offered a scaled division. Meaning, participants had the option of doing the workouts as Rx’d or Scaled. There was some buzz about the possibility of the new Scaled division changing the approach Dave Castro and CrossFit Hq would have toward the announced workouts. But, most people assumed that it would be similar to years past, where if there were muscle ups or a more difficult presented, it would be toward the end of the workout and wouldn’t be required to be able to score reps.
The Open Rx’d division is now legit. Muscle ups are a legit movement that only a small percentage of the CrossFit population have. Greg Glassman admits that the muscle up is a “very, very difficult movement to achieve.”
So, how do you do a muscle up? I’m going to break it down for you in simple steps:
1. You start with a false grip on the rings. If you’re not familiar with a false grip, it’s basically a grip where you are putting the majority of your hand over the bottom of the rings. The palm should be flat to the ground and the heel of your palm will be on the top of the rings. If your palms are anything but over the top of the rings, you don’t have enough hand on the rings.
2. Next, you pull the rings as low to your chest as possible (toward your belly button). Basically, this is a pullup, but a very high one. You’ll want to keep the rings as close to your body as possible. You’ll also be squeezing your gut very tight as you pull yourself up.
3. The transition is the next step and will take a lot of attempts. Upon pulling the rings as low as you can to your chest, you will roll your upper body over the bottom of the rings. Think of your elbows driving down in front of you during the “pull up”, then up and behind you as you transition over the rings. Again, keep the rings as close as you can to your body. Also, the back of your thumbs will trace a c-shaped line from your collar bone, just over the nipple, and finish at your armpit.
4. The final and “easiest” part is the dip. Once you’ve caught yourself in the transition, perform a dip and lockout your elbows at the top.
Well, there you have it. It is by no means something that you are going to get in a single day. It is going to take practice. Don’t be surprised if it takes you several weeks or more just to be able to hang in the false grip for more than 5 seconds.
Remember, if the muscle up were easy, everyone would have them!
If you don’t have a muscle up, or have gotten one, but don’t remember how you got it, our coaches are more than happy to work with you privately to teach you the basics. It’s a much better process having a coach guide you through the steps and providing feedback along the way.
References:
The Muscle Up, Greg Glassman. CrossFit Journal, 2002
Some helpful Muscle Up video tutorials:
http://gymnasticswod.com/content/false-grip-progressions-pt1
http://gymnasticswod.com/content/false-grip-progressions-pt2
http://gymnasticswod.com/content/false-grip-progressions-pt3
http://gymnasticswod.com/content/strict-muscle-progression
by Ben Yates
Working out is an amazing way to change your body, mind, and outlook on life. Day in and day out you show up with your water bottle and favorite pair of shoes ready to accomplish the task given to you. Sometimes the workout of the day (WOD) can be long and grueling, short and sweet, or even challenge your memory of what was the worst pain your body has ever felt. By the end your muscles are burning and your lungs are screaming. You are utterly and completely exhausted. In that moment you are your proudest, knowing that you gave it everything to perform the workout in THAT time or picked up THAT weight. You look around to see if others noticed your great effort and secretly smile in your heart when you get a high five or a, “great job.” Many athlete keep coming back for that and would hate to knowingly give anything less. Sometimes the knowledge of giving less than 100% can be destructive to your mental wellbeing. There are several irritating and unnecessary injuries covered in this article you can avoid to continue working out with full steam ahead.
If you have been in the sport of fitness for over a year it is very likely that you cannot remember how many times you have had a blister or lost skin off your hands. Blisters and torn hands are quite common with the amount of volume and movements you perform. Pull-ups, sledge hammer swings, rope climbs, and using a barbell are just a few of the movements that have the tendency to create friction against your hands. That friction starts when your grip becomes fatigued and you can no longer hold on tightly. Your skin becomes worn, then stretched, then blisters or tears. This injury, however small, is not very pleasant because you use your hands for many things in everyday life, not to mention your next workout. For the next two weeks you spend your mornings and evenings applying Neosporin, Band-Aids, and athletic tape until a co-worker asked what fight you were in. Torn hands takes a toll on your personal life and prevents you from giving your all in workouts. It then turns into, “I could have done better if this… I didn’t have to slow down if that…” Positive and encouraging thoughts turn into a negative mindset, plaguing your go-getter attitude. There are a few things that can be done to prevent blisters and tears. Number one, a favorite, is to shave your hands. Due to the increase of friction your hands see in workouts they develop calluses. Calluses are not a bad thing but simply an adaptation to the work your skin experiences. When your calluses become thicker and thicker the chances of blisters increase. Most supermarkets and convenience stores with a cosmetics department carry a tool to shave calluses. It is simply a curved razor blade with a handle. Soak your hands for a little while to soften the calluses or you can do this after you get out of the shower. Dry your hands with a towel and then shave off the top of the calluses or extra skin. Make sure that you do not go overly deep because you still need some tough skin to endure your next workout. This task can be done as needed or when you feel a callus raising off the skin. There is no set period of how often you should shave your hands but rather go with your gut feeling of when they are becoming thick. The second option to preventing hand tears is to keep your grip tight. If you feel your grip failing but your larger muscle can still perform the work, that loose grip creates extra friction and equates to a blister. Mentally cue yourself to continue gripping tightly based on the movement. Many times with pull-ups or rope climbs, gymnastic movements where your body is the weight being moved, it is easy for the mind to concentrate on other areas such as gross or large movement patterns. You must refocus on your grip while continuing the movement with efficiency. The third and final option to prevent tears and blisters is the most obvious. Simply stop. Hop down from the pull up bar, take a step back from the barbell, shake it out and then continue when the body is willing. Yes this takes away from performing a workout quickly, but so does torn hands take away from your next five workout. Make the decision based on if you are training or testing.
The next nagging injury does not hurt so much but is a rather messy problem. Nicked shins. Many times when performing barbell movements quickly, fine motor skills are lost and the barbell takes a variety of paths up and down the body leading to contact with your shins. As strong as you feel, the shins can open very easily. Your lower leg is made up of your tibia and fibula. The tibia or shin bone is the large weight bearing bone and has little muscle over the front of it making it exposed to splitting. Due to the bone having little protecting it you can give it an extra layer of choice to save your shin. The first option and more cost effective is wearing knee high socks. Knee high sock give a thin layer of fabric protecting you from your knee down to your ankle. Knee high socks provide not only that saving grace but also a style of fashion. There are many websites that have wild designs to match your outfit, interests, or attitude. My favorite website is sockittome.com. Although socks give you a large protection zone, fabric can be soft or become thin with time and may not protect you from movements such as rope climbs or box jumps. A stronger and more durable option for protection is shin sleeves. Shin sleeves are often made of neoprene to protect your shin from the toughest of movements such as deadlifts, cleans, snatches, box jumps, and rope climbs. If you chronically need tape or Band-Aids to clean up your shin you may want to give these options a try. Make sure to check the website before coming to class so that you can come prepared with the right equipment.
The final irritating and unnecessary injury that is heard of quite often is achy or injured wrists. In many of the WODs your hands and wrist play a big role and get a lot of action. The wrists can be used through movement or even to stabilize weight overhead receiving compression. The wrist, much like the spine, will feel pain when in a state of extreme flexion, extension, or compression. Adding load multiplies the stress placed on the joint. A position where pain is felt and reported often is the front rack position used in the front squat, clean, and the beginning of the push press or jerk. This pain is attributed to the wrist receiving much of the load when the barbell is not resting on the shoulders or when the elbows drop. The solution is to raise up the elbow creating the front rack for the barbell to sit on and also relaxing the grip so that the barbell can roll back onto your deltoids. If the front rack just isn’t happening for you, grab a green band and mobilize often. It is recommend to mobilize at least 15 minutes for every workout session you perform. Kelly Starrett and mobilitywod.com provide a great starting place to begin your journey to putting your body in the optimum position. Another position when the wrists feel pain is in the overhead position. When taking a barbell overhead it is common to have the wrists extended creating a shelf to hold the barbell. Many well-known coaches and experts recommend this shelf as it can in fact lead to improved performance. Putting the wrists in an extended position with maximal load or for a long period of time or with volume can lead to pain in the joint. It is a good idea for athletes experiencing pain after these situations or if you put large amounts of weight overhead to support your wrists with wraps. Wrist wraps can be found online or even in many sporting goods stores in the workout equipment area.
If any of these injuries sound all too familiar try the solutions listed above. They can keep you up to par and even up your games. In conclusion, it is best to take care of your body through preventative actions to keep you on your game and the fittest you have ever been. If you have any further questions about these solutions or concerning other problems you have encountered, speak with one of your friendly MBS coaches.
Soapbox time, sorry. Just buckle in because here it comes…
Every coach and athlete has their pet peeve. Mine is form. And today I want to address burpees specifically. Good timing, because the Open is about a month away and you can bet on them popping up somewhere during the month.
MBSers are known to have great form. Our athletes get complemented on it at competitions across the Front Range and beyond. As coaches, we drill it into our athletes from the beginning. And as athletes we hold ourselves accountable for our movement standards. Why oh why then, do we continue to accept the form shown on the left as a legitimate rep? You know who you are.
In this example, hips and shoulders are NOT open. What’s the reason for shorting the movement? Do we hope to save fractions of a second off each burpee? Are we simply tired and can’t manage to finish the movement? It does take significant extra effort to stand up all the way, making sure hips and shoulders are open and we clap above our heads as we jump. Our back and abdominal muscles must work to bring the torso to full extension and we must use our lats and shoulders to raise our arms completely overhead. Yes, it’s more work. But isn’t that what we’re here for? Between these two examples also note how closed the chest is in the first picture. This position does not allow the lungs to expand to full capacity. The second image shows chest up allowing the lungs to expand fully, i.e.: you get more oxygen.
The reason for movement standards is to ensure we are getting full benefit from the exercise the way it was intended; working both sides of the joint to ensure work is distributed in a manor allowing our body mechanics to function as intended. The image on the right is how a burpee should finish. Hips and shoulders open, chest up.
So let’s get dialed in and looking sharp because the burpee train is a’comin.
From Shirley:
The holidays are nearly upon us and with them comes travel. You don’t have to leave your workouts behind. With just a little self motivation and preparation you can at least keep yourself ‘current’ so that you won’t be so far gone once you get back into the gym. Of course there’s always the option of finding a CrossFit gym to drop into. Make some new friends and show off your MBS skills.
Most hotel workout rooms have dumbells that can be used for presses, thrusters, squats, man makers and weighted situps. And if you’re staying with relatives you can get creative! Talk about functional fitness! A 40 lb bag of dog food makes a great weight for front, back or overhead squats. Come up with an AMRAP of a log splitting wod. Get the kids involved and see how many pushups you can do while the kids run around the house twice.
What to pack? I always travel with my jump rope and bringing mobility equipment such as lacrosse balls, bands (and if you have room a foam roller) would be a bonus. Here’s a link that I like to use for travel wods along with a list of my favorite go-to’s.
The Traveling WOD website.
*Invisible Fran: 21-15-9 air squats & pushups
*5 rounds: 1 min. double unders, 1 min. air squats, 1 min. rest
*3 rounds: 25 squats, 50 double unders, 25 sit ups, 50 jumping jacks, 25 pushups
*20 minute amrap: 20 double unders, 20 squats, 20 sit ups
*100 double unders, 50 pressing anything you can find, 40 sit ups, 30 tuck jumps, 20 mountain climbers, 10 pushups.
* Walking lunges anywhere: Around the outside of the house, to the end of the street, around a running track at a park, around the parking lot of your hotel… you get the idea.
Workout of the Day
3 Rounds for Time:
20 Wall Balls (20/14)
20 Burpees
20 Push Press (65/45)
20 Kettlebell swings 53/35 lb.
L3 - Rx
L2 - 16 reps each
Extra Credit/Cool Down:
10 minutes of lower body mobility.
Post your scores to the whiteboard.
We get asked this question quite a bit. It’s pretty typically to suggest our new members to start out with 3x week and give it a month or two before adding a fourth or fifth session to their week. Eventually, if your diet and sleep are on point, I suggest working out on a daily basis, even if it’s an “active recovery” workout. Our bodies are meant to move daily!! Yes, you can take a day off if you need to, but just let those come up as your schedule requires…you don’t need to plan them.
How many times you visit the gym weekly ultimately depends on your goals. If you are trying to get fit quickly, 4-5 times a week is going to be more effective than 3x week. The folks at Beyond the Whiteboard collect thousands of workout scores each day and they have several million data points collected from people putting in their daily wods. They just did a study of their data that proves working out 4-5 times a week is more effective at getting you “fit” than 3x week.
“After analyzing the data, we found that working out 5 days per week week produced 27% faster improvement than 3 days per week. Even increasing from 3 to 4 days per week is associated with 10% faster improvement.”
If you aren’t happy with your current progress, it may be worth adding another day of training to your schedule and trying it for 6-8 weeks. The only thing that I’d recommend is for you to be a bit more aware of the fact that you may be coming in more sore or fatigued than normal. That is ok. What is NOT ok, is to continue pushing super hard and letting your technique or form deteriorate because of it. Scale weights and modify movements as needed and focus on getting good reps. As always, talk to a coach if you have any questions!
Workout of the Day
20 minutes: Fat Bar Deadlift from a 2″ lift (use 25 lb. plates) 1RM
3 Rounds for time:
Run 400
21 KB or DB thrusters
12 Pullups
Rx - 35/25 KB’s or DB’s
Scale weight as needed..you should be able to do each set of thrusters unbroken and quickly.
EXTRA CREDIT/COOL DOWN
GHD Hip/Back extensions, 3×10-15 reps
Post your scores to the whiteboard.
By Rich T
Keeping a logbook is not an option. I see my log book as a tool for me and my coach to track my progress or lack there of. I record my body weight daily so that I can look back and see how my work capacity changes as I increase muscle mass. My log book helps me find the weight at which I perform my best. Writing out my day’s work and then visualizing myself doing it is very motivating for me. This is the biggest reason I keep log book.
Try this - before you step foot in the gym write down all the work you are going to do in your session. I do this just about every day. I also include the percentages of weight I will be lifting in a strength wod. If I do more than what I have written down that’s fine, I’ll just record it as I complete it. Because of my logbook, I know all of my numbers, which keeps me driven to break my personal records. Recording information about how I felt about the workout, my diet, and sleep is also helpful. Keeping a log gives me a feeling that I’m serious about my training.
It works best for me to record one day’s work per page. At the top, I write the date, time, and body weight. Another way is to record a week’s work on one page. This may be helpful to see how much volume is in your weekly program. If you want to see a neat way to organize your book, take a look at Carolina’s. She has a few pages in the back set aside to record PR’s. I suggest that you keep a logbook for an entire year. If you do this you’ll need it to be sturdy.
I’m left handed so I use a notebook with the spiral on top. The pages tear out easily but I deal with it. A book with the spiral down the side is a little better but pages still tear out easily. The MBS log books (not in stock, sorry) kick ass because they have so much useful information inside. Because I usually have two training sessions per day, I don’t have enough room to write the work I do or I would use one. Other choices are a ledger book or a simple composition notebook.
This week’s lifestyle point is to track your workouts using a logbook, online log, or whatever means you have to record your work. We HIGHLY recommend using a real (one that you can touch with your hands) logbook because the process of writing down WHAT YOU’RE PLANNING ON DOING and then WHAT YOU DID is so helpful. You can visualize while writing down your workout before you do it, then you reflect on what you did after the workout…it’s much more effective process. Way more effective than simply punching a few keys into your smartphone after the wod.
Workout of the Day
No hands, no feet hang squat clean warm up. Build up to heavy 4RM.
20 Minute AMRAP:
10 Hang Squat Cleans
15 Weighted Abmat situps 20/14 lb. (adv. do 15 GHD situps)
20 Wall Balls, 20/14 lb.
L3 - 185/125 lb.
L2 - 155/105 lb.
L1 - 115/75 lb.
Make squat cleans heavier than your usual.
EXTRA CREDIT:
Reverse Hyper, 3×20
Post your scores to the Whiteboard.
The other day we had a deadlift single posted as the WOD. I had this scenerio come up in my class, and it’s a pretty common occurance, so I want to talk about it.
As the class was working up the weight in the deadlift, I noticed a couple athletes beginning to round their backs as they approached their 70%+ 1RM weights. Meaning, it was beginning to get heavy and their form changed from having tight, flat backs throughout the movement, to allowing a curve as they lifted.
Naturally, I gave them the cue to “tighten up” and to “flatten their back” while lifting. Unfortunately, they were already at a weight (70-80%) that they couldn’t keep their back tight while lifting. I had them each try a couple times before we realized that the weight was already outside the comfort range for them to keep the back flat while lifting.
Wait! Let’s make sure we get this right…they were only at roughly 80% of their 1RM and they couldn’t lift anymore weight doing it the right way. However, if they continued to do it the WRONG WAY (rounding their backs), they could lift more weight.
Yes, that is exactly the way it is. Sometimes, depending on the lift, a person can manage to lift more weight the wrong way, than the right way. Does that make it right though???
It depends on the situation.
If you are in a serious competition or a life or death sort of situation, depending on how you feel about the risk vs. reward, it may be OK to round your back and get the lift done. However, if we are talking about a Tuesday afternoon WOD at MBS CrossFit, the situation most likely isn’t calling for you to round your back and get the lift done incorrectly. It is much smarter to use the WOD class as a “training” session to do the lift correctly - with a flat back and potentially a lighter weight.
Here’s why.
You’ll notice the lifter in this snatch has a flat back throughout the entire lift. There is no point where he can afford to round his back, as that would either reduce the amount of force he can put on the bar vertically, or put him in a shitty position to catch the weight over his head. The amount of force on the back is not only the weight on the bar, but it is also the speed at which the lifter is trying to pull the bar against gravity. So, if (for example) there are 200 lbs. on the bar, the lifter’s back is actually recognizing it as 600 lbs. because he not only has to lift it, but he needs to lift it quickly enough to throw it a couple feet above his head.
If you continue to train a deadlift with a rounded back, you are limiting your potential. Not only will your deadlift suffer, but your clean, snatch, vertical jump, and pullups will all fall victim to this nasty shortcut. Nearly every movement we do as humans, especially the fast and explosive ones, requires a strong midline (core), or at least the ability to hold itself in a neutral position, and the deadlift is one of the best exercises to train it. Don’t do the deadlift just to get a big number on the whiteboard, do the deadlift to improve 90% of the movements you do!
So, I hope this point has been made clear. Yeah, getting a 500 lb. or 300 lb. deadlift is pretty awesome. There is a time and place to go big and get that big number…it’s probably going to be at a competition. But, when you are in the gym training…just trying to get better, try to do this lift with the highest degree of perfection that you can. Your hamstrings, glutes, back, and lats will be very happy. Also, your clean, snatch, vertical jump, pullups, and KB swings will all see improvements as well.
Happy lifting. PB
Workout of the Day
Bench Press
2-2-2-2-2 (AHAP)*
Within 20-seconds following each set of bench, do a 50-yard sprint. Take 2-3 minutes after the sprint before beginning next bench set.
*AHAP means As Heavy As Possible. Which means you want to do all 5 work sets with the heaviest load you can muster. If you need to adjust up or down during the course of the 5 sets, do so in order to get all five sets of two reps.
Then,
For time:
10-1 Strict pullups (Chest to bar if you can)
1-10 Pushups on low paralette
Extra credit:
Reverse hyper, 4 sets of 10-12 reps
Post your scores to the Whiteboard.
I’ve told this story a few times before, but I think it’s worth repeating. When I first started CrossFitting, one of my biggest joys was coming to the gym to work on a new skill, and then leaving the gym knowing I made some progress. Back then, I pretty much sucked at everything, so I was able to come in 4-5 times a week and have that feeling of accomplishment. Also, when I started CrossFit, there wasn’t a very big group of people doing it, so the fact that I could get just 1 muscle up, or barely string together 10 unbroken double-unders, or get 135 lbs. over my head by way of something that resembled a snatch, was pretty impressive. I didn’t have the pressure of having 10 other people in class that “could do it”, when I could not. I didn’t feel hurried in my practice, and didn’t have expectations set by myself, my coach, or my peers. I was lucky to have started CrossFit in its infancy.
One of the biggest problems I see with beginners is they are afraid to practice skills because they are afraid to fail…likely because they don’t want to stand in the corner, repeatedly missing attempts of a snatch, a double under, a muscle up, or a handstand pushup. Or, they don’t want to wait out the number of failures that it will actually take before they get it…in many cases, it takes a lot longer than expected.
Here are some tricks I’ve used to develop my CrossFit skills.
1. Do it everyday. I love Dan Gable’s quote, “if it’s important, do it everyday.” I’ve told this to many of our athletes trying to learn a new skill. It just makes sense that if it’s important to you, use everyday as an opportunity to get better.
2. Think of it as “practice.“ So, whenever I tell someone to do it daily, they will respond with “well I did dips yesterday”, or “I did snatch yesterday”. What they are saying is that because they did the movement yesterday, they will not be executing the skill under optimal conditions…they are tired. Think of CrossFit as a sport, just like baseball or football. Athletes practice their sport daily, regardless of being tired or not.
3. Give yourself a limit. Whether you show up 15 minutes before the start of class, or set a timer and practice for 15 minutes after class, it’s best to have a limit to the practice session. Its easy to let your ego get control of the session and before you know it you’ve been grinding for 45 minutes and can start getting pissed off. **However, you are the one that knows yourself best and if you feel like your finding your flow, you don’t have to cut yourself short. On the same note, if you are considering quitting Crossfit after 2 minutes of practice, maybe you can just call it a day instead of grinding another 13 minutes.
4. Attack from different angles. Growing up, I had a friend that trained horses and she told me that teaching horses was about “opening doors”. I use that same mindset when I train myself. If, every time I go to train the snatch, I use the same shoes, the same grip, the same stance, the same belt, the same bar, and the same set up, that will offer me some consistency and will help me see some results in a session or two. But, what happens when I hit a wall?? OPEN ANOTHER DOOR!! Change up your shoes (snatch in Nanos), use a different grip (clean grip snatch), a different bar (axle bar snatch), or a new stance (wide or narrow), or do the movement at different speeds and with varied resistances (bands, chains, weighted, etc.). Even the slightest changes will give you a “new look” on the movement and could open the door to new results.
5. Expect to fail, a lot. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it, everyone would have it, and we likely wouldn’t be having this post at all. Good things don’t come easy, so don’t expect it to. Here is the cool thing though…HARD WORK DOES PAY OFF! I’ve seen it hundreds of times in the gym. If you put in the sweat, make the sacrifice of time, it will pay off.
WORKOUT OF THE DAY
Back squat
65%x8, 70%x8, 75%x8, 80%x8
13.4
AMRAP in 7 minutes:
3 Clean and jerk 135/95 lb.
3 Toes to bar
6 Clean and jerk
6 Toes to bar
9 Clean and jerk
9 Toes to bar
…continue as far as possible.
Masters (55+) weights - 115/65 lb.
