We are working on the posterior chain today: posture, hammies, lumbar curve. I often get asked how to mobilize the lower back. This is a hard question because your back pain is usually caused by something else. Has your back ever hurt after doing deadlifts? Or box jumps? This might not be because of direct impact on your back, but of an elusive little booger called your psoas. You have to mobilize it through the torso, so it may be counterintuitive to the posterior chain although it's anatomical connections can yank on lots of stuff. Get to know this guy because it can contribute to rotated/tilted hips, back pain, and worst of all, overextension. Overextension is the reason you can’t get into THE position, the hollow. Loading your body up day after day in a compromised position can do some damage over time.

We are going to stick with posterior chain basics in classes today. But consider mobilizing your psoas as well. Now everyone will know you're mobilizing, not humping the floor. So have at it!

Spring has sprung, and we are cleaning up our act. We have done some work on the hips and shoulders so far. Today, it’s all about those joints: ankles, knees, wrists. (Insert painful groan here.) These little guys can have a major impact on the rest of your anatomy, affecting your movements in the gym. The video above provides some insight into how ankle impingement can cause problems in your squat.  Be careful to pay attention to the less obvious culprits. The foot affects the ankle that affects the knee that affects the hip, and then finally the back. Follow your pain/impingement to see where the trigger is, and attack!

 We are here to coach CrossFit, guiding you to the most efficient and safest movements possible. There is one caveat though…we are not you! You feel your pain, your impingement, and your aches. That’s yourself talking to yourself. Our hope is that these mobility tools we are presenting to you will become habit, even outside of class. We may not hit your mobility needs in each class, so take on the challenge to treat your body right with some foam roller, lax ball, and band treatments at home.

We are also fortunate to have a couple docs in the house! Mary Finck, PT, has been a huge help in this week’s programming.  If you need further attention to anything, she’ll have valuable insight:  dolm32v@aol.com

Dr. RJ Gelinas has been Team MBS’ faithful chiropractor. Check out his website for more info.

Jacob hitting a solid box jump.

The next couple of days are going to involve a lot of squats and C2B pull ups. And you are going to be judged. When your friend calls you out for a no rep, here are some friendly reminders why. We value integrity, quality, and measurability at MBS. Most of you do an awesome job of getting the job done the way the workout prescribes. But if we're honest, it's awfully tempting to short change movements at times. Especially in the heat of a competition moment. Rushing, panicking, and caring more about the score than the work will make fluid, full ROM movements questionable, if not blatant "no reps." The Open is a chance to rise above and challenge yourself to hit every single rep right. Let's commit to that as a community. Let people call you out. That's why you are here and not at a globo gym. Friends don't let friends squat above parallel.

Range of Motion (ROM)
Range of motion refers the distance a joint can be moved through. Full or functional ROM is the entirety of the distance a joint can move. For example, full ROM of the elbow is the distance allowed between your arm fully flexed where forearm touches bicep, and arm fully extended where elbow is completely straight.

Functional ROM
The CrossFit protocol is 1) constantly varied 2) functional movements 3) across broad time and modal domains. We like to think of functional as being a movement that can be applied “out there” in your everyday life. If you are a police officer and you only ever squat to half depth on the back squat, what is going to happen if you have to squat down to a deeper depth to pick a fallen comrade onto your shoulders? You are going to be in a pretty compromising situation if you haven’t trained squatting down low.  The aim of CrossFit is to make you more functionally capable and that is only done through using our joints to their full or functional ROM.

ROM increases flexibility and work capacity
In addition to increased functional ability, working joints to their full ROM maintains flexibility. For members that spend the majority of their time at a desk, doing full-depth squats and pushups to the floor will maintain the flexibility of the hips and shoulders. For athletes that have old injuries that have led to decreased flexibility (the shoulder is a common one), working the joint to its fullest ROM will often increase the flexibility. Just ask any physical therapist what they do to recover patients from hip, shoulder, and knee surgery – they rehab with increasing ROM exercises!

 

The Last Friday Night Fights at 6 PM tonight!

BBQ at MBS following workout on Saturday! Bring a sidedish and your own drinks. RSVP to comments!

CrossFit Games Open 12.5:

Men
Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
100 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 15, go on to 18. If you complete 18, go on to 21, etc.

Women
Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
65 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chest to bar Pull-ups
65 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 15, go on to 18. If you complete 18, go on to 21, etc.

MBS Open 12.5:

Men RX
Do the same as CF Games

Women RX
Do the same as CF Games

Men Scaled
Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
90 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chin over bar Pull-ups
90 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chin over bar Pull-ups
90 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chin over bar Pull-ups
90 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chin over bar Pull-ups
90 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chin over bar Pull-ups
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 15, go on to 18. If you complete 18, go on to 21, etc.

Women Scaled
Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
55 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chin over bar Pull-ups
55 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chin over bar Pull-ups
55 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chin over bar Pull-ups
55 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chin over bar Pull-ups
55 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chin over bar Pull-ups
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 15, go on to 18. If you complete 18, go on to 21, etc.

We will be hosting and juding the WOD on Friday during all classes and Saturday at 9 AM.

The final installation of Friday Night Fights will be at 6 PM. We hope to see some returning champs duke it out!

After you smash the Open one last time, LET'S CELEBRATE! You've worked hard, so it's time to grab your brew, your foam roller, and a friend. As a special treat to you WOD Mongers, James will be playing the tunes during WOD 12.5 from 9 am to 11 on Saturday. After everyone completes, we will hang out and grill some burgers for lunch. Bring a sidedish and your own drinks.

Finish Strong, MBS!

The group getting limber on the tarmac. This photo was taken by Kenneth during last Friday's evening classes as they hit the 12.4 WOD. Check out the rest of his album here.

If you saw last Monday's post, you are probably looking forward to next week's spring cleaning project. We are going to be slowing down on the workouts in order to refocus on proper movement and mobility. After hitting 5 weeks of hard workouts during the Open, this will probably be perfect timing for many of you. So, here's what you can look forward to so you can plan your schedules accordingly.

Our coaches will cover each joint/area and instruct a handful of stretches and self-massage techniques to help mobilize the area. We will also follow up with a movement/workout for us to test our capacity.

Monday: Hip mobility and squats.

Tuesday: The shoulder and pullups/muscle ups

Wednesday: Ankles, knees, wrists and the front squat

Thursday: Posterior chain and the deadlift

Friday: Soft tissue, nerve glides and running

MBS Open
Men RX
1. Doug F.-249
2. Scott N.-247
3. Hoss-246

Women RX
1. Sherrie Pasko-240
2. Rachel K-220
3. Cheryl Falbow-182

(NOTE: We have been trying our best to keep track of the MBS Open Scores via the whiteboard and the judging slips that get filled out on Friday and Saturday WODs. Please make sure you and your judge fills those slips out so we can read them. Also, if you scaled or modified any of the Open WODs, you will be competing in the scaled division of the MBS Open. We will post the current scores for scaled division as soon as we get the list together.)