Not much new today or over the weekend. We held an ultimate med ball game and had about 40 of our clients participate. It was a lot of fun and a lot of arguing. There is always going to be arguing when you have competitive people playing. It kind of makes it more fun. If lets you know that the other team wants to win and so do you. There were four teams of 10 people and 7 could play at one time. We played three games of 30 minutes duration. It was a lot of sprinting and a lot of burpees. It was especially a lot of burpees for those teams that didn’t do too well as each team had to do 10 burpees every time they were scored on. I think we are going to try and hold another tournament in early spring and maybe go two tournaments a year. If you haven’t tried it out, you definitely should.
Going back to my earlier two posts. I should hope that no one thinks that I am selling out. I love CrossFit. I don’t think that anyone knows how much I love CrossFit. I guess you could even say that I love the met-con and its convenience. I don’t care for the longer, lighter met-con but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be included. As a matter of fact, those that love to go heavy probably have a deficiency within that realm. Vice versa, those that always go light and longer are probably weak. I mean really weak. A good measure would be to look at our CrossFit affiliate blog and see how you would stack up. If you don’t even know where to begin, then I would say that you have a long way to go before even thinking of using the term strong and yourself in the same sentence.
I will never stop utilizing the met-con. I will never stop utilizing strength development. I will never stop doing a lot of things. What will change is to what effect I use each one. Which gets more priority. It’s a gamble to some degree. You plan as much as you can, trying to achieve certain goals and then measure how well you and to what degree you attained those goals. If you didn’t get what you wanted or you got it but not to the extent you wanted, you have to go back to the drawing board. You have to also realize that when you go back to the drawing board, it’s not about overhaul but more about localizing single aspects of the plan and changing that. Obviously, the more times you have done this, whether succeeded or failed, the better you get at it. You also have to take into consideration, sickness, family, running a business, injury, etc. You take the science and it turns into an art. It can get tedious. Now if you are just wanting to get stronger and you aren’t strong, that’s easy. Taking a person who can squat 150 pounds to a squat of 300 pounds is not hard but taking a 600 pound squatter to a 650 pound squat is so much tougher. And if you can’t squat over three hundred pounds yourself, how are you going to convince a person that can squat 600 pounds that you are going to get them to 650? Good luck with that one.
Onto the relationship between met-con and strength. Some, okay a lot, of people fail to realize that you can’t just get strong and expect to blast through met-cons just because the weight being used is a fraction of what you can lift. I wish it were that easy. If it was that easy, everyone would just be lifting heavy until the cows came home. You have to learn how to make that newly developed strength into a strength that is usable. Let’s look at some terms along the force-velocity curve: Absolute strength, strength-speed, power, speed-strength, and speed. The force-velocity curve states loosely that as force rises, velocity drops and vice versa. If we look at all this in absolute terms, we can assume that as we build extreme strength, we spend more and more of our time in a low speed environment, correct? To some extent, this holds true along a number of other training aspects as well. There is also a force-endurance curve as well as a velocity-endurance curve. You can take these three curves and show how all three can play into what can effect your ability to CrossFit positively or negatively. You must train strength, speed, and endurance specifically and then tie them in together generally.
I would say that strength is the easiest to specifically train because most lack it. Speed is of less importance but still useful in terms of improving your ability to compete. This is what it comes down to: You need to build the most amount of strength you possibly can but must never let yourself stay on that side of the continuum only, because everything that force production is inversely related too will suffer. A 300 pound thruster will lend itself to making a 95 pound thruster feel as light as a feather but it may not be of use to you if the endurance has not been addressed. What if you have never spent time in high velocity instances? You may move 95 pounds slow, as you do 300 pounds because you don’t know how to move weights fast. You have to get strong but you must also work lighter loads at longer durations, go faster at medium endurance durations, use more weight at moderately faster speeds, etc. There are many variables. You have to take the time to convert strength into a usable form. This is why CrossFit is more of an intermediate program. I mean, if used for performance. If done for life improvement, then getting someone to move and move correctly is also a must. Still, strength is a must as well. As an intermediate program with a solid foundation of strength, you can then focus less on strength in of itself and place emphasis on usable strength within the actual met-con itself.
I can do this by utilizing a wide variety of met-cons. I can do 5 rounds of: 1 Back Squat (95% of 1RM), 2 Dead-lifts (90% of 1RM), 3 Presses (85% of 1RM) or I can do Linda. These are two very different workouts for me. If you look at the beginner who is weak. The first workout is of good use to them but the second, they cannot come close to prescribed weights which is where most of the potency comes from. Now you could work them up to prescribed over time or you could just modify the reps. In either case, if strength is the desired trait, you can make it work. In other words, focused strength development will get you there faster but you can use the met-con to get there as well, you just need a good plan and actually know what you are doing.
I will talk more on this subject on my next post.
Sunday’s WOD (091108)
Clean 4×1 @ 92.5% which is 252.
followed by,
For time:
400 meter overhead walk with 98 pounds. Lots of incline.
Penalties: If brought down behind the neck, perform 5 rack thrusters prior to continuing.
If brought down in front, perform 5 regular thrusters prior to continuing.
If dropped to the floor, perform 20 Air Squats and 5 thrusters prior to continuing
Brought it down 4 or 5 times. This workout sucked ba**s. I don’t even know my time. Maybe around 7 minutes.
Tuesday’s WOD (091109)
Bench Press
5 rounds: (rest as needed)
Bench most amount of weight for most amount of reps.
Penalties: if ten reps to 19 reps, 5% deduction off end total. If 20 reps to 29 reps, 10% deduction of end total, etc.
R1 – 196 x 9 = 1764
R2 – 213 x 9 = 1917
R3 – 208 x 9 = 1872
R4 – 218 x 8 = 1744 (got greedy)
R5 – 147 x 18 = 2646 (went for 19 and failed.)
Total = 9943 x .95 (for penalty) = 9446
CrossFit Omaha is a few weeks out from finishing a strength program that started on the last day of August. We used a two day on two day off schedule for strength training and a three day on one day off schedule for met-cons. This meant that on day one and day two, there was both strength development and metabolic development going on at the same time, day three metabolic development only, and on day four we rested. I like how this worked out/is working out but I would also like to try a strength program where there is actually full strength development on one day and just met-con on another day. Maybe a two day one day off schedule where we utilize accessory lifts on strength days and just met-con on day two.
I really just want, for myself, is a full-time strength program with met-con intermittently dispersed. I am going to finish this program and then go back to just lifting heavy full-time with a met-con here and there. I haven’t decided what I am going to do but I will probably go Mon/Tues/Thur/Friday, take Wed and Sat off, and a full blown met-con on Sunday. I’ll probably even throw in some type of met-con (sprints, couplets, triplets, etc.) on Tues. and Thurs. This will mean that those two days will have to be shorter in regards to accessory lifts.
My goals are to improve my hamstring strength at it’s insertion point or as a knee flexor, improve my squat strength, improve my pressing strength (both vertical and horizontal), horizontal row a lot more (db’s, barbell, inverted pull-ups, etc.), and just try and get bigger. I haven’t quite decided where I want to be. It’s going to be a bit of a testing period for me in the fact that I have to see what works for me. Initially, I am thinking around 160 to 165 but I gotta make sure that works for me. I need to be able to keep my ability to do body-weight stuff at a high level. I have been eating a lot more and drinking milk more often. I guess I have done this more so for my son because he needs the stuff and he wasn’t drinking it. He’s really scrawny and just with all the playing he does, he needs those growth properties that lie within milk. I would also like him to get more involved with lifting but I think I will hold off another year. I am not talking a periodized program but just picking stuff up and throwing stuff around. Jumping on stuff, climbing up stuff, and all that jazz.
We’ll see how all this works out for me. I have seen some differences in my strength coming from the current programming but its not enough for me. I need more focused work by utilizing a lot of special exercises. I hope that you all know that I didn’t start CrossFit and got strong doing CrossFit. (Ha-ha, strong is such a relative word. I am by no means strong in absolute terms. My strength lies within relative terms. I am strong relative to my body-weight.) I spent the better part of 5 to 6 years focusing only on squatting, benching, and cleaning. I also did a bunch of rows, hamstring work, pull-ups, and so on. I never snatched that often, I never overhead squatted that often, I never did a lot of things I do now. I just squatted, benched, cleaned, and anything else that would help improve those lifts.
When I found CrossFit, because of the strength base that I had, I was able to mesh right in. I started to do some of the other stuff and was good at it because I was already a fairly strong lifter, relatively speaking of course. I mean, at a body-weight of 150 pounds, I was able to squat over 300 pounds, bench about 275, and clean about 260. My lifts have gone up a little since then plus I don’t bench anymore. I am a much better dead-lifter than I am a squatter and I don’t really care to dead-lift that often. I am still a relatively weak squatter at about 330 pounds or so, I can press about 160 to 165 pounds, I know I can still bench quite a bit because I have just always been good at that, and my clean is at 273. I can snatch 200, I can power snatch about 175/180 or so, I can power clean about 230/240, I can split jerk about 260/270, I can push press about 230, and I dead-lifted 452 yesterday. So CrossFit has helped me quite a bit in this area but I want more. I want to snatch 230 and clean and jerk 300. I want to dead-lift 500. I want to press 180 and eventually 200. I want to bench 300. And I want to finally squat over 400. I will reach this and I will keep the ability to do massive amounts of pull-ups and handstand pushups at a high level.
Man, I love this shit. Why would anyone want to be weak? Why would anyone be content with being frail? I look at people all the time and see despair and disgust. I can see that they are tired of where they are but don’t know what to do. Some of them don’t want to pay what it will take to get where they want to go, whether that is money or blood, sweat, and tears. And the women who are scared of being strong because they have this, excuse my french, fucked up view of what a woman is supposed to look like. They complain, my thighs are too big, my shoulders are too broad, or any other nonsense like that. You don’t have any where near enough testosterone to even look remotely unlike a woman. Those changes you are seeing are what women are supposed to look like, be like. Strong, lean, and with child rearing hips. Hour-glass and not pencil. Oh well, to each his own.
Anyways, back on topic, I plan on pursuing strength and competing in CrossFit, my way. I am not going to be mis-lead into thinking one way is superior to another. I will still CrossFit because I love to CrossFit. It is my sport, but my development will shift towards strength training and sprinting. (By the way, I hate sprinting. It is hard.) I will CrossFit too but it won’t be the emphasis of programming for myself. It will be supplemental. I will use it to sharpen my edge. Who shares this passion with me?
Thursday’s WOD 091105
For time:
100 Double Unders
50 Cleans @ 164 pounds
100 Double Unders
Time: 9:57
Wednesday’s WOD 091104
Dead-lift 1RM – 452 (seven pound pr)
followed by,
For time:
400 meter run
50 chest to bar pull-ups
400 meter run
Time: 4:52 (I sprinted. I got a little of the black lung after this one)
Tuesday’s WOD 091103
Snatch 4×1@92.5%
1 x 186 pounds (miss)
1 x 186 pounds
1 x 186 pounds
1 x 186 pounds
A couple of responses from people. I am in the middle. I am a power-lifter, Olympic weightlifter, wrestler, crossfitter, etc., etc., at heart. I don’t think anyone should follow any one program. I don’t think anyone should leave out any one person. If the desire is there, take them in and use the right tool for the job. If that is CrossFit then that is CrossFit. If it is Olympic weightlifting, then use Olympic weightlifting. If it is weight loss, then use a combination of many disciplines. What I want is for people to think for themselves. CrossFit has its merits and for me, it is my sport but that doesn’t mean I will use it for every case. I am smarter than that. I know how to get people strong. I know how to get people fit. I know that I need people to learn technique. I know when the notch needs to be turned up. If you are CrossFit only, then you have another thing coming. If you are power-lifting only, then you have another thing coming. Don’t fight, use from each other and accept that different tools are used for different jobs. Nothing John said offended me. We as humans are weak. Look around you. Everywhere, there are humans that couldn’t fight off a small child. I even train some cops that I would not be scared of on the street if I ran into one of them. That is not good.
CrossFit has done wonders for a lot of people. Its a great program. I love it. It’s my sport. Some say you can’t compete at exercising but I wonder how basketball started. And how come you can compete at power-lifting, aren’t those exercises? Nevertheless, I am a big believer in CrossFit but I also know better that it is not the end all, be all. Very rarely do I allow athletes to engage in high rep Olympic lifting. I’d rather they go heavier and do much less volume per round. You get more out of it and become a better athlete. I believe in a strength bias too. I feel that you need a strength component to your programming. A dedicated one, not just one where you do 5 sets of 5 every now and then. It’s a disservice if you don’t work towards getting your clients stronger. The met-con will always be there. I wish the situation was ideal for Joe and I. I would definitely put clients on a dedicated strength program with no met-con for at least a month. In this fashion, I could strengthen the squat and dead-lift technique. I could get clients to improve their upper body strength which is sorely lacking. This would improve the client ten-fold. Then when I start to introduce the met-con, they have a solid foundation of which to improve. I could produce some monsters this way.
Unfortunately, this situation is not ideal. In order for me to survive as a business owner and get solid work completed in one hour classes, I need CrossFit. I am a good enough coach to make it work. I can push the strength component and keep the fun part of CrossFit intact. This is huge with women. Women are scared of strength training. They think they will get bigger but it just doesn’t happen. If anything, its the met-con that gets them bigger. They feel like all the sweating is making them smaller but in reality, a workout like Karen with a 150 squats, is actually providing an environment where hypertrophy can occur. Throw in workouts with high reps and heavier weights and now you really have a situation where hypertrophy can occur. All in all, women just don’t have a suitable amount of testosterone to get them that big. It’s usually a case of genetics. If big hips runs in your family, then you are going to be stuck with big hips. It’s not the weightlifting that is causing that. Also, a lot of it stems from diet. Believe it or not but the food you put in your mouth has a lot to do with how you look. Anyways, I can push CrossFit because it does work, it’s fun, and if the person doing it puts enough work into it and buys into improving diet and rest, they will get really fit. Once they start buying into it, I can then start showing them other forms of fitness. We can start looking into strongman, power-lifting, and Olympic lifting as an individual sport. We can keep using the met-con to keep work capacity high but they can then specialize in the sport of their choice. For example, focus their efforts on improving the Olympic lifts only, if that is what they want to do.
All in all, I am on both sides of the coin. I do want people to get stronger and stop doing hour long workouts. I don’t need a 5K all the time to be good at distance. If you love doing it, then that is one thing but doing it for fitness is wrong. On the same token, CrossFit is CrossFit. Make fun of it all you want but it is a much better way to workout than what is going on now in the fitness industry. To many trainers don’t know what the hell they are doing. They have a sheet and walk you from machine to machine. They are now using CrossFit methods because they don’t have to think. They can just steal a workout or make a stupid random one up and put a client through it. That’s not really CrossFit. But at least they are doing real movements. The more people we get doing CrossFit, the better off we all are. Use it as a vehicle to bigger and better things. Its getting people excited about working out again. I am training people that never saw themselves as the working out type. People that never wanted to workout. They are working out now. Its fun and physically and mentally rewarding. This exercise or way of working out has been around a long time. They were being performed long before CrossFit ever came around but Coach G packaged it up all nice and neat in order to get the masses to try it and now love it. Its just like an insurance adjuster. They usually won’t insure something because its dangerous but if you can just get one of them to try it and see that it isn’t, they will give in. This is what Coach G did. He made it seem different, new and fresh. Once they stepped in and tried it, they fall in love with it.
So you can see, I am on both sides. I won’t bash either side. There’s no room for it. I want, at a bodyweight of 150 pounds, a 900 pound back squat. I want to be able to dead-lift 5 times my body-weight. I can only do 3 times but its a start. I want to be able to press a lot. I want to be really strong. If you know what you are doing, then you also know that isn’t specializing. Strength is so general in nature, it can’t be specializing. I also want to be able to run fast, do handstands, Snatch 250 pounds and Clean and Jerk 325 pounds. I want to be able to do a lot of pull-ups. I want to vertical jump 35 inches. I want a lot of things. And why can’t I have them? I believe I can, if I put in the work. Its about having fun and doing what you love. If you want to run 100 milers, then do it but lift heavy weights too. I mean lift really heavy weights. Be the odd man out in your sport. Show them that you can do both. It’s healthier.
I love human performance. I won’t be weighted down by one discipline. Life is too short. Open your mind. Learn about H.I.T. Training. Even if you don’t think its right. Learn about all disciplines and use the right tool for the job. Don’t try and fit a square peg into a circle just because you want to be right. Learn how to get results for your clients using the right tool. That is how you separate yourself from everyone else. Isn’t that what C-R-O-S-S-F-I-T really is? Use all disciplines, right?
Just my two cents. Post comments if you have any.
Wednesday’s WOD (091028)
“Isabel”
30 snatches @132 pounds
Time: 2:19 (Ha-ha, I couldn’t believe I almost broke the two-minute mark)
Today I want to cover a very serious topic. There have been a few people that have left the CrossFit family for good. Some of the main reasons have been because of what they call a lack of progressiveness in the the teaching of movements used as well as a number of other areas. I mean we are talking diet, training, business, lack of concern for an individual’s desires and goals, and many other things that come into play when referring to being an elite training center.
As some of you may already know, Coach Rip, who will be in our gym this weekend, will no longer be a part of or associated with the CrossFit name. He has chosen to move on with his own cert. A few people have left or are leaving with him as well. I fully respect Coach Rip and what he has brought to the game. He deserves this respect and has been involved in the strength game a long time and has a right to voice whatever opinion he chooses to say. As a matter of fact, there are some things I agree with him wholeheartedly. I am not in this business to go against CrossFit or how they run things globally. That is their business and they will choose to run their business however they see fit. This does not really concern my business. Joe and I, and how we conduct ourselves, our continuing education, and our training, will determine if our business succeeds or not. I feel strongly that Joe and I have a special gift for training people and getting results that are desired or wanted. We are good at teaching and helping. I also feel, though, that CrossFit is a program that gives us an opportunity to get people fit from all walks of life.
With this being said, everyone starts from a different point, some worse off than others, and this causes them to take longer to get to said results than someone that starts out with a solid foundation of activity and/or strength. Its as simple as that. The program itself is basic. We use it under the premise that we want you to get moving and moving correctly. It is not entirely concerned with how you look. If you are over-weight, let’s face it, it will take you much longer to look the way you want to look, doing CrossFit alone. For personal goals, such as getting better, getting stronger, getting faster, losing weight, etc., you will need to take on personal sessions. You have goals and those goals will be better met on a one to one basis. If you need to get stronger, we will need to entail a much more specific program. Don’t get me wrong, CrossFit will get you stronger. You will be stronger than you were before but it also depends on where your fitness is currently. If you are new to the game, CrossFit will work wonders for your strength level but if you have been lifting for a long time and are pretty strong to begin with, you will need special programming and special exercises to reach an even greater strength level. Same goes for losing weight and what not.
So what I guess I am trying to say is that, there are a lot of things I may not agree with on what CrossFit is or isn’t. I know that the Level I is not perfect and that HQ may or may not be progressing at getting it where it needs to be but its a start and it’s what we have. I also know that a lot of affiliates are suffering out there and a lot of those suffering affiliates think that its HQ’s fault. I, personally, don’t think that’s the case. If you want my opinion, you have to understand that you get a very low level education from the Level I cert and a little more from the level II but it really comes down to you continuing to try and gather as much experience as possible. At the same time, you need to read outside of CrossFit’s methodologies. If you only eat, sleep, and shit CrossFit, you won’t get the full picture. Part of not succeeding will come from the economic status of the country but there are some people out there making some crazy dollars in this same economy. Most failure will come from the inability to coach, motivate, and provide the service that separates you, I mean truly separates you, from everything else that is available in your area.
You can be a good salesman too but if you get a bunch of people in your gym and you don’t deliver, they will all take you for a fraud. Learn how to coach and learn about strength and conditioning, not just about CrossFit. Learn how to get people stronger. Learn how to help people lose weight. Learn how to change a person’s life. Learn how to answer to the goals and desires of your clients. Its a must. I do wish that HQ’s would make it harder for a new affiliate to form as there are a lot of people that just aren’t ready but it is what it is. I wish this on two levels. One, because the market is getting flooded and most of the flooding is by people that don’t know a damn thing about training people. Second, if you have 5 affiliate gyms and 3 of them aren’t good gyms, you will be associated with those gyms because of our names are the same. Again though, it is what it is and everyone deserves a chance at living the American Dream. I wish them good luck but if you don’t know what you are doing, and I don’t mean just CrossFit (I mean the ins and outs of strength and conditioning and human performance), then either stay away or take the time and put in the work to make yourself the most knowledgeable coach you can be. Learn, learn, learn!!!!!!
CrossFit Omaha is a legit gym that runs CrossFit classes but that isn’t all we do. I can make you stronger, faster, and help anyone to lose weight if that’s what they want. I can’t guarantee that doing CrossFit only because you get what you put into it and for a lot of people, that is just too much for them to handle. I can guarantee it working one on one but that is why we charge what we do for one on one. Don’t associate me with every CrossFit gym out there because that is not what I am or what my gym is. We stand on our own. We aren’t the best coaches there are, not by long shot, but we understand what it takes to get there and I know who some of the best strength coaches are. I read them and understand them.
At the same time, I believe in HQs and what they are doing. I think they are working towards getting it right and even so, there will always be things that I don’t agree with. This is why I choose to be an affiliate and not a franchise. It’s my gym, not headquarters’. I will do my best to succeed despite what they are doing. If all else comes to fail, at least I know who gave me my start in this business and who put my name out there. Thanks Coach G and the people of HQ’s (Tony, Dave, Nicole, etc.)
Why I resigned my Affliation with CrossFit – John Sheaffer (Greyskull Barbell Club)
John, by the way, is a great guy so don’t judge. He has a great point in what he is saying. I may not agree with everything he says but I do agree with a lot. The only difference is, I don’t put the blame on HQ’s. They need to keep progressing and getting better with the certs and stuff like that but it is what it is. I may get associated with CrossFit as a whole and there are a lot of people who see CrossFit as a bad thing. They see it as a business that is headed towards the very thing they said they despised. But Joe and I are working hard towards getting our names out there as a gym for affiliates to turn to for help. We aren’t the most successful but we are a gym that, at the moment, does only CrossFit classes and is profitable. We don’t have extra revenue streams like CrossFit Central and HyperFit. Plus, Joe and I have an extensive foundation of training and experience that we would love to pass along. There are some good coaches out there. Seek them out and ask questions. Real questions. I’m here to help.
WOD’s
Filthy Fifty – 18: something
Dead-lift and Running – 12:30
Some other stuff. Ha.
I hope everyone got something out of my last post as well as the article. Its something that must be taken seriously and for some people, its a must if they want to continue to train. Its boring stuff, I know but its gotta be done. Foam rolling and icing is so very easy and can produce results. It can diminish swelling and improve the connective tissue and blood flow. This just doesn’t go for the shoulder either. If you have a bum knee or low back pain, you need to notice the obvious. Don’t look to the knee or low back to try and fix the problem. Well, let me rephrase that. You do need to work on strengthening the abs and learning how to properly stabilize the mid-line under duress but other than that, if you have low back pain, don’t focus your efforts on the low back. Focus your efforts on hamstrings, quads (namely, the rectus femoris), the muscles surrounding the hip such as the iliopsoas, TFL (tensor fasciae latae), and maybe even the sartorius muscle. If these muscle groups are given enough attention to in terms of mobility using methods such as foam rolling or even proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), the back pain can and will go away.
But who has time for that right? Hopefully, you do. Its that important. Its the difference between being able to workout and not being able to workout. Its the difference between being a so-so athlete and a great athlete. If you are looking for that edge, look no further. Spend 15 to 20 minutes a day on this stuff and notice the difference in your workouts and life in general. This goes the same for the knees. If knee pain is existent, take a look at your calves, your hamstrings, your quads, your adductors, your glutes, etc. Improve mobility in these areas and pay attention to how you are squatting. You may need to change your squat for a bit to accommodate knee pain which means that the weight may have to come down a bit. Check the ego and bring it down. You will really have to look at keeping those knees back or even box squatting maybe even taking out full catches in the Olympic lifts (You can still do power catches so long as there is no pain). This is okay right? There are a million other things you can do until you heal yourself to keep your fitness up.
I’ll tell you what, if you are having joint pain and don’t know where to begin? Let me know. If you are in the area, I can physically look at you and we can both try and locate the problem areas. We can put a plan in place to try and alleviate these problems by focusing our efforts on mobilizing. If you aren’t in the area, I would love to consult through email or by phone. Sometimes these problems are too far beyond what can be done outside of surgery but in most cases something can be done to alleviate pain and/or eliminate it. Believe me, it is usually faulty movement patterns that cause pain, impingement, and finally injury.
With all this being said, I don’t just do this kind of consulting either. I hope that all of you know that I would love to and am available for personal training (specialize in teaching the Olympic lifts), nutrition consulting, programming considerations, and of course mobility and injury prevention. Don’t be afraid to email me or even call me (402-315-8101) as I am confident we can work something out. I love working with people one-on-one. This is where the most results can occur and it gives me the opportunity to really enjoy my passion.
Today’s WOD (091015)
Back Squat 6×3 (176-203-227-252-277-302)
ss w/
Push Press 6×3 (130-142-160-176-196-208)
Rested about 3 minutes between supersets.
followed by,
AMRAP in 4 minutes of:
7 Muscle Snatches @ 98 pounds
15 Double Unders
Rest 1 minute. Repeat Cycle for a total of 4 times.
Total Rounds Completed: 12 Rounds (back is tight as heck, muscle snatch is not really a good exercise to do for a long time or a ton of reps.)
I may yet and try and hit running squats this evening. We’ll see. I took Tuesday and Wednesday off.
Does anyone have shoulder pain from impingement out there? Does anyone know what impingement in the shoulder is? I ask because I am a nerd when it comes to corrective movement. When I say corrective movement, I don’t necessarily mean awesome technique, although it has something to do with it. I am talking a little more along the lines of posture first and then bodily movement second.
For instance, bad posture can lead to different injuries over the long run if not corrected. It cause the body to move in a way that it was not supposed to move. After time, the body breaks down and pain occurs. Where the difference of technique and corrective movement comes into play is when an exercise like the front squat requires the body to move in a specific way to be successful but doesn’t mean that movement is healthy for the body. In order for me to clean a barbell into a full squat and then stand up with it, I am going to need to have the elbows high and the torso as vertical as possible. This may put me into a position where my knees shoot forward even though my heels are firmly rooted into the ground. If you have the capacity to sustain these forces, your body will be okay. This doesn’t mean it won’t injure later on but only that at the moment your body will be okay. On the other hand, if you don’t have the capacity or if you already have knee pain, that forward translation of the tibia pulls on the quad (rectus femoris) which crosses the knee joint and inserts into the tibia (shin), in a manner which is not consistent with proper function or movement. This is where the pain comes from. In order to alleviate this pain, we need to refrain from squatting like this until the injury heals from icing and proper movement. I am not stating that the clean and front squat are not safe. I am just saying that if knee pain already exists, you need to squat in a more efficient way of having the lower leg perpendicular to the ground so that the quad has some slack and doesn’t pull on either its origin or insertion point on the bones.
Long story short, I put together an article of sorts on shoulder impingement. I took some stuff from Kelly Starrett and did research of my own. I have been interested in corrective movement for a long time. I have always believed that if pain exists, you can more than likely look elsewhere on the body to heal yourself. In other words, if you have low back pain, the last place you’d probably pay attention to is the low back. It more likely exists from hamstring tightness, in-active glutes, quad tightness, and weak abs. Same goes for the shoulder. Shoulder pain usually exists from tight hips, weak abs, poor posture, and in-active glutes. Anyways, click on the link below for the article.
Preventing and/or Decreasing Shoulder Impingement
Today’s WOD (091012)
“Nate”
20 minutes of:
2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Pushups
8 2-pood KB Swings
Rounds completed: 17 (gotta get better)
Sunday’s WOD (091011)
Pull-ups
2 rounds at 75% of max reps pr. PR is 60 reps so 74% is 45 reps.
Did one round without breaking up. Didn’t attempt the second round.
followed by,
“2 minute defense”
5 rounds of:
1 Power Clean
3 Hang Squat Cleans
2 Jerks
200 foot run
After the five rounds, rest 2 minutes. Repeat once more.
Total time: 8:43
Saturday’s WOD (091010)
Overhead Squat 6×3 with last set being 92.5%
Last set was 208
followed by,
42-30-18 reps for time of: (did this with a team of 4 other people, they all did 21-15-9 reps)
Box Jumps, 20 inch box
Burpees
Ball Slams, 20 pound ball
Our team finished in 9:2something (didn’t break up anything except for one drop on the ball slams)
I felt like I was going to throw up.
I have taken today and yesterday off just to give myself a break. I haven’t really been there mentally and so I listened to my body and mind and just rested. I might still do something today but it won’t be much. Maybe just break a sweat or something.
This past Saturday, I competed in a small games type event called the Next Level Games. It was in Lawrence, Kansas. I took a group of about 10 people from my gym who also competed. It was a lot of fun and we did really well. As a matter of fact, we dominated the event. I am guessing the crew who put it on practiced most of the events or at least had access to the events prior to it taking place. We had no preparation other than CrossFit. The Thursday before, we dabbled a little in pushing a car and even practiced farmer’s walking some barbells but that was the extent of our preparation other than normal programming. This being the case, we still dominated.
There were three events. Each event was separated by 5 minutes. Meaning that after I completed event one, I had exactly 5 minutes before I started event 2 and so on. The first event was a small strongman competition. We had to pull and push a vehicle for a certain distance, then flip a tire for a number of reps, and finally farmer’s wall some barbells through a zig-zag type course. Nothing was too hard but it went quickly and that has its own difficulties. The second event was an obstacle course that included climbing, running through, jumping, swinging, shuttle running, etc. It was a short course that was a lot of fun. The last event was a prowler push for a specified distance. A prowler being a special sled that inflicts pain on anyone who pushes it. haha.
Our gym did really well and took most of their prizes. In the men’s division, which there was an amateur and a professional level, overall, we took the top three place finishers and had every other guy place high in their age group. On the women’s side, overall, we had three girls in the top 6 including the overall winner. The rest of the girls placed really high in their age groups as well.
Both myself and our third place guy, which was the top amateur, took home 500 dollars. Our second place guy took home an Eco-drive Citizen watch and a lot of our other members took home some sort of prize as well.
It was a fun time and I am on the lookout for more competitions to participate in as well as people from my gym because you can’t beat playing and winning prizes for it. I mean I worked out for a total of 2 minutes, all events combined, and took home $500. It was a day well spent.
Not much today. Actually there are a few subjects I would like to write on but I am going to wait until after this weekend. I want to talk about the new MEBB from coach Rutherford which actually isn’t new at all. Its funny how what goes around comes around. CrossFit began as a certain way and now people are wanting more and more and so with that comes a return to how Joe and I were programming and training college athletes.
He talks about tiers, obviously, the effort tier that everyone has grown accustom to implementing into their programming along with met-cons. Now he introduces a speed tier and a volume tier. This is a little off of Westside but not really. Westside Barbell and Louis Simmons are more in line with conjugate or block periodization whereas tiers relate more to concurrent periodization which is more specifically explained in one of the books I recommended, The Coach’s Strength Training Playbook written by Joe Kenn. Joe Kenn is a well respected strength coach, depending on who you ask, who started his career (became better known is what I mean) at Arizona State University. He has now moved on to the University of Louisville. This book explains more in depth the tier method and concurrent periodization. There is also an article he wrote for EliteFTS.com titled, Maximum Effort Training for the Front Seven that explains the effort tier a little more in-depth as well. Because you have an effort tier, a speed tier, and a volume tier, that is only half the battle. What goes in those tiers in terms of periodization is what’s really important. How do you periodize an effort tier, what kind of volume is in the volume tier, and also what exercises are used within the volume tier? What are the major differences between exercises used within each tier? Are you supposed to use or not use certain exercises within each tier?
I guess since I have begun writing and now caught up in it, I will explain this a little more. There are numerous ways that you can utilize the tier method with. There is no real wrong way except for a few simple rules that must be followed. The different tiers are appropriately named because hopefully that is what is being emphasized. Effort tier emphasizes absolute strength or at least strength-speed depending on the programming used. Speed tier emphasizes speed-strength and/or power depending on the exercise used and the set/rep scheme. And the volume tier emphasizes hypertrophy, capillary density, connective tissue strengthening, and strength-endurance. If the reps and sets don’t reflect these tiers then they are not what they are called. Does that make sense?
In the effort tier, the most widely used periodization is a linear/undulating mix with the use of your most complex, compound movements or maybe even movements that the most amount of weight can be utilized. This set/rep scheme usually follows what we call the 5-3-1 method or in other words week 1 will see 5 sets of 5, week 2 will see 5 sets of 3, and week 3 will see 5 sets of 1. This is straight forward linear progression but works tremendously. You can make it undulating by throwing in a down week or a recover phase prior to the 5 sets of 1 week. Maybe it is a 3 sets of 10 during week 3 and moving the 5 sets of 1 to week 4. It really is a preference. Try both ways and see what works best for you. I tend to think that if you are only working one tier into your programming (only effort), that you need to throw in that recover week. If you have a speed tier and a volume tier then you might just want to rotate what is emphasized. Maybe the volume tier becomes the emphasis for a period of time. Anyways, most of the exercises used here will be like squats, presses, cleans, snatches, and so on. It might even be limited range of motion lifts so that more weight can be used such as dead-lifts off of pins, high box squats, goodmornings, squats with different types of bars, etc.
With the speed tier, we are looking at speed strength and/or power. We are looking at lots of exposure to a lift or in other words a lot of first reps. These first reps allow us to be more explosive and somewhat fresh. We also look at taking a shorter rest period between sets. It might look something like 12 sets of 2 during week 1, 10 sets of 2 during week 2, and 8 sets of 2 during week 3. This whole time increasing the percentages used from week to week. Usually for power-lifts or non-Olympic lifts, we will utilize a percentage of around 45 to absolutely no higher than 60% of your 1RM. For the Olympic lifts, the percentage will gravitate more to around 75 to 80%. For speed strength or the speed tier, exercises used are usually the main lifts themselves. The box squat may be used in lieu of regular squatting but usually you can work full clean, full snatch, full dead-lift, full everything.
The volume tier will mainly be geared towards hypertrophy and mostly use isolation movements since connective tissue and joint integrity is what is focused on with the volume tier. As you can probably assume, less sets and more volume within each set is utilized. I, nor a lot in my field who know what they are doing, shy away from using compound lifts within the volume tier (other than CrossFit met-cons, which basically is a version of the volume tier). You will see things like rows (bent over, cable, db, etc), pressing (benching or overhead), glute ham raises, basically any exercise where you isolate a muscle region or movement pattern. The programming here can follow a basic linear model as well. Week 1 will see 3 sets of 10, week 2 will see 4 sets of 10 (or you can stay with 3 sets of 10 and move the weight up), week 3 will see 5 sets of 10 (or again, 3 sets of 10 with moving the weight up). You can go as high as sets of 20 if you like. The key here is volume and some form of isolation.
Lastly, and I mentioned this above briefly, you can do some rotating of different sorts in order to make the program run smoothly and to emphasize not only different aspects of the force-velocity curve but also emphasize regions of the body such as full body movements, lower body movements, and upper body movements. This can be broken down into doing the effort tier first in your workout, the speed tier, second in your workout, and the volume tier, last in your workout. From here on Monday, you can do a full body movement for the effort tier such as the full clean, a lower body movement for the speed tier such as box squats, and finally an upper body movement for the volume tier such as presses or pull-ups or both. Then Wednesday rolls around and now for the effort tier you will go with a lower body movement such as front squats, for the speed tier you will focus on the upper body such as doing clap pushups, and finally for the volume tier the rotation would say to use full body. It gets a little tricky here but you could throw in high rep db box jumps or similar. Finally on Friday, the rotation is effort and upper body, speed and full body, and volume with lower body. Make sense?
The last type of rotation would be looking at the season as a whole or the yearly model and rotating the tier based upon where you are in terms of when competition is. Very early in the season, the first tier of any workout would be volume and you could use compound lifts here if you so choose. This may be the only time that I would recommend that too. Second and third in the workout would be the effort tier and finally little attention is paid to the speed tier. As the season approaches or the midway point from competition and when you began training, you could rotate your tiers to reflect effort first, speed second, and volume last. Finally as the competition nears and the time for strength development is short to non-existent, the emphasis should now be on speed strength and utilizing the strength we have created to become fast and powerful. We would then follow workouts that start out with the speed tier, followed by the volume tier, and finally, little attention is paid to the effort tier.
I know this is a lot of information but it really is an interesting method and one, if you’re like me, that would increase your knowledge base and help out with CrossFit programming. Especially, if you are looking into adding strength development into the mix more often by way of MEBB (Max Effort Black Box). Its just better to educate yourself. You may never need this much advance knowledge but it will open your eyes to different styles of programming and how to get athletes to peak at the right time.
If you have any questions concerning this stuff or need something explained a bit further, don’t hesitate to ask.
BTW, I was reading a blog of another post and their disagreements with CrossFit and what it is and what it isn’t and I think it is safe to say that not everyone who believes in CrossFit is a black eye to the strength and conditioning community. I think they think that we all come from endurance backgrounds or other cults. (ha) I am a strength coach first and a Crossfitter second. I know my shit and laugh in the face of CrossFit’s detractors. I see everything from both aspects or both sides and there is truth to both sides. No one is right and no one is wrong. Its a fantastic program that really works. I also think that not every CrossFit affiliate should be teaching the Olympic lifts, especially, if they don’t understand the movements fully themselves to begin with but that is for another post another day. All CrossFitters should educate themselves in the science and art of performance enhancement, exercise phys, biomechanics, motor learning and performance, anatomy and physiology, and just straight up programming. Learn all you can everyday that you can. Don’t let them tell us we don’t know what we are doing. Be smart about how you program. Have a plan. Be able to explain why you are doing what you are doing. If you can’t answer how your programming unfolds then you are just guessing and it really is random and I can safely say that you don’t quite get it. Don’t let that be the case.
Wednesday’s WOD (090930)
As many rounds in 8 minutes of:
12 Front Squats @ 132 pounds
12 Burpees
Rounds completed: 6 (holy shit is all I got to say.)
Tuesday’s WOD (090929)
Back Squat 5×5 (last weight was 276)
super setted w/
Push Press 5×5 (last weight was 192)
(both lifts using progressive sets until last set is 85%)
followed by
7 rounds for time of:
10 below the knee power clean and jerk (98 pounds)
20 rotational slam ball throws against a wall (20 pound ball)
Time: 10:17
Yesterday’s workout was FGB. We, as in myself and my clients at the gym, held our fundraiser to raise funds for Athletes for a Cure and prostate cancer as well as for the Wounded Warriors Project. We raised around $4200 and had 80 athletes do the workout. Most of these athletes were from our gym but we did have about 5 or 6 newbies join in on the fun. It was a good time and well organized. I put in some work in order to make it run as smoothly as possible but it was Jeff Shannon, Jon Day, and Steve Filips who did a lot of work to make it what it was. They appointed odd jobs and organized the counting sheets. They rounded up the twenty counters per heat and talked to them about rules and motivating athletes. They did a fantastic job. All props to them. Thanks guys.
Our FGB champs for 2009 are Addi Kahrs with 316 points and Zach Ries with 362 points. They did a great job and really set an example for everyone that aspires to be a great CrossFit athlete. Congrats guys.
As for me, I took Saturday off in order to run the show and then eat and clean up. I promised that I would do the workout on Sunday and that is what I did. I didn’t really know how I would do and didn’t really want to score anything under 400 points. My pr is 421, which is the first time I ever did FGB and the second time I scored 412. I kept working numbers in my head to try and figure what I needed to do in order to score 400 plus and when the workout started, that all went out the window.
At the last minute, I decided to go 30 wall balls, 20 sdlhps, and 50 box jumps per round and then deal with whatever was in the tank in order to get push presses and rowing. I usually go with 25 for push presses but not sure how things would go down so didn’t set a number for it.
First round was a breeze. I started to feel a little burn on the rower but not too bad. I probably should have tried for a calorie or two more but I kept thinking about that stupid third round. I got my 30 wall balls, but got 22 sdlhps. I also got my 50 box jumps but got 30 push presses and finished with 12 calories on the rower. I just decided to get a few more reps where it wouldn’t really affect me in the later rounds. A rep or two here and there just won’t hurt you but you may regret not getting them when it’s all said and done.
Round 2, I started to feel the burn and it was starting to catch up a little. I got 30 wall balls again plus 21 sdlhps but this time got 53 box jumps. I settled with 25 push presses and 12 more calories on the rower. Not bad but I knew that round 3 was going to suck.
Round 3, I felt like my stomach was going to act up and make me puke. I could really feel my lungs starting to burn. I only got 25 wall balls when I knew I could have gotten 30. I only got 20 high pulls this time, which I was fine with. I really missed out on the box jumps where I settled for 45 when I knew that 50 was in reach. I got 25 push presses again but push on the rower and got 15 calories.
I ended up with 415 points which is 6 points lower than my pr. Six points!. Damn. I only had to do the 5 box jumps and a wall ball, sdlhp, or push press extra to tie. I was not happy about that but was happy about getting pretty close when I really didn’t think it was possible. It was a good workout and I am glad I did it.
On Friday, the workout was pull-ups and then a 5K run. The pull-ups were 68 percent of max reps pr, which is 42, for two rounds. I rested as needed between sets. I didn’t know how this was going to go but it turned out to be pretty easy. I mean I got both rounds without stopping. The 5K wasn’t too bad either. I pr’d on the route which was the second time I ran it. I’ll have to look back through the archives to see what my previous time was. It was a good day.
By the way, I saw that my reading list wasn’t updated for some reason even though I updated it. I realized that there was an autosave but that it hadn’t posted yet. I fixed that if any of you are interested.
Sunday’s WOD (090927)
Fight Gone Bad
Wall Balls, 20 pound ball-10 foot target
Sumo Dead-lift High Pulls, 75 pounds
Box Jump, 20 inch box
Push Press, 75 pounds
Calories on a Rower
Round totals: 144/141/130 = 415
Friday’s WOD (090925)
Two rounds of pull-ups at 68% of max reps pr (Pr is 60 reps)
Run 5K
Time: 21:26
Coming off a rest day and felt pretty good today. I worked out with Kyle today and that was cool. We went head to head in the met-con and he got me by 2 seconds. I sprinted the last half to catch him. I broke up the cleans only twice and I wouldn’t really call it breaking it up as I just dropped it and then picked it back up as opposed to never taking my hands off the bar. I didn’t break up the farmer’s walks at all but I really wanted to. They burned and really wouldn’t have been able to do that if it weren’t for the hook grip.
Two new things on the blog. First off, I uploaded a new video of me snatching from the other day. It was 80% for 3 sets of 3. This is mainly a setup where speed is the emphasis. I mean speed is always the emphasis with Olympic lifts but when percentages are used, the main component is target practice with extra speed. Kind of like over speed. It was a good day of snatches and felt like I picked up on some speed that I was leaving out when maxing out.
The other thing is I gave the reading list its own page. In the links above, where my bio and video links are, you will see one for my reading list. I have added a few things such as nutritional reads and a dvd or two that may be of interest to you. Hope you guys like.
Thursday’s WOD (090924)
Overhead Squat 5×5 (55%/62.5%/70%/77.5%/85%
I got 191, which is 85%, 4 times then dropped it so I picked it up and did the last rep for good measure.
followed by
15 Power Cleans @ 132 pounds
100 yard Farmer’s Walk with 45 pound db’s
12 Power Cleans
100 yard F’sW
9 Power Cleans
100 yard F’sW
6 Power Cleans
100 yard F’sW
3 Power Cleans
100 yard F’sW
Time: 7:11
