Olympic
EMOM 10:
Even: 4 Push Press
Odd: 2 Hang Power Snatch
*Compare to 4/4/18.
Conditioning
18-15-12:
Hang Power Cleans (135/95)
Wallballs
Calorie Row
*Rest 3 Minutes between Rounds
*Compare to 6/27/17.
“Murph” is coming up next Monday the 28th, Memorial Day. We will have a semi-structured class with heats starting every 30 minutes, so jump in and get to work wherever you fit in. The Gym will be open from 8:00 – 11:00 AM. See you here.
Reminder: “Murph” is coming up next Monday the 28th, Memorial Day. We will have a semi-structured class format with heats starting every 30 minutes, so jump in and get to work wherever you fit in. The Gym will be open from 8:00 – 11:00 AM. See you here.
Strength
10-8-6-4-2:
Back Squat
*Rest 2 minutes or less between sets.
“4” set should be equal to or heavier than 5/1/18.
Conditioning
400m Run
25 Pull Ups
25 Push Ups
400m Run
20 Pull Ups
20 Push Ups
400m Run
15 Pull Ups
15 Push Ups
400m Run
*Reps are scale-able where appropriate.
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
a) Double Handle Row x 10 Reps
b) Straight Arm Banded Lat Pulldowns x 10 – slow tempo
The Following is a post from December 7, 2012. I though of this watching all of the great deadlifts during today’s classes. I’m re-posting it here because it’s a good reminder for all of us…
There’s 2 points I want to make today.
First, since there’s deadlifts in today’s workout, I want to address some issues. Lately, we’ve been deadlifting very little. Because of this, we’ve lost a bit of capacity in our midline stability when deadlifting. This is a reminder that, when you deadlift, you have to do it right.
This is our unofficial stance on deadlifts: “There is absolutely zero long-term advantages for deadlifts with less than optimal form. Deadlifting improperly not only increases your chances for injury, it instills improper habits that are difficult to re-learn down the road. As an athlete, maintaining a stable midline is the most important skill you can learn. No CrossFit Merced athlete is allowed to compromise good deadlift mechanics for the sake of load, time, or ego.”
We want our cake and eat it too! We want you to lift heavy stuff, but we don’t want you to move poorly. Often, the answer is simply slowing down. Take a few more breaths to give yourself time to stabilize. Other times, the answer is unloading the bar or scaling the movement to something else (lifting from a positive, changing stance, etc.). Be sure to listen to your coaches today.
Second, I’ve recently had several conversations with members who had questions about our programming, that is, the workouts we chose to prescribe. They asked how and why we chose to do what we do.
Without giving away our secrets, I’ll give you a little bit of insight: We follow a carefully planned program for which the primary focus is on 4 things: Snatch, Clean & Jerk, Back Squat, and high-skill gymnastics. Because the ultimate goal is a broad, general, and inclusive fitness, we focus on these 4 things for very specific reasons.
Snatch/C&J:
“The mere practice of the Olympic lifts teaches an athlete how to apply large amounts of force. Part of the extraordinary abilities of an Olympic lifter arises out of his having learned how to effectively activate more of his muscle fibers more rapidly than others who aren’t trained to do so. This becomes extremely important for athletes who need to remain at lower body weights for athletic purposes but need to learn how to apply greater force. – Artie Dreschler
We’ve been over this before, but I’ll repeat it again: If you get good at Oly lifting (Snatch, C&J), you’ll be good at EVERYTHING. The power, speed, coordination, strength, and accuracy required for a bodyweight snatch are going to translate to any other physical endeavor you chose. There’s no other method on earth that is as effective as Oly lifting. We program workouts in 4-week or 6-week cycles of the Snatch OR the Clean & Jerk. The strength work and conditioning work within those cycles is meant to compliment that movement.
Back Squat:
The squat is the key to strength and conditioning. It is the sine qua non of barbell exercises. I tell many new trainees that if they are not going to squat, they should not even bother to train. No other exercise changes so many things about the body in so short a time as the squat. To omit squats because some uninformed fool said they were “bad for your knees” indicates that you probably didn’t want to do them anyway, so it’s just as well.
Squats make knees stronger. Squats make athletes better. Squats are good for kids, teenagers, adults, elderly people, and anybody else who can perform them correctly. Squats are the functional expression of human skeletal and muscular anatomy, and the human body is designed to do them. The squat is the way that God has made the bipedal human body to lower itself to the ground. It is the position in which half the population of South Asia spends the afternoon. And when done weighted, it is the best exercise in existence for strength, power, coordination, joint integrity, bone density, confidence, discipline, intelligence, and charm.
*Adapted from Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”*
We do back squats once a week (usually on Tuesdays), and follow 4, 6, and 12-week back squat cycles (the majority of which are High-Bar-Back-Squats). All of our cycles will conclude with a test – usually a 1RM before the next cycle begins.
Gymnastics:
Gymnastics training is tremendously effective as a foundational fitness program for any physical activity. This specific training develops strength, flexibility, body awareness, and agility that cross over extremely well to other physical activities. The degree of control and body awareness cultivated in gymnastics training is unrivaled. Gymnastics develops functional movements that are often otherwise neglected but are extremely useful in other sports and in everyday activities. The kids in any schoolyard that consistently outperform their peers in fitness tests (frequently by large margins) are usually gymnasts.
It is well known that repeating the same exercise for long periods of time will reduce its effectiveness. Gymnastics continually introduces new movements and new stimuli to training. These varied stimuli ensure that trainees will never “just get good at training” but that the training will truly improve their fitness for all tasks.
For our purposes, running is considered gymnastics. There is no more functional movement in the world than running. We love running, but because running requires lots of recovery, we intentionally manage volume and dosages to avoid over-training.
Our Format:
We’ve chosen to structure our classes into 2 parts: “Strength” and “WOD”
Our “Strength” session involve some form of barbell or gymnastics (see above) in an untimed, intentional setting. The goal here is twofold. We want you get get strong, and we want to teach you proper lifting technique while you’re not working at a frantic pace. We won’t allow you to lift heavy weights until you’ve shown to us that you can move them properly. As coaches, this is where we do most of our technical coaching, and less cheerleading.
Our “WOD” (Workout of the Day) is where we do our metabolic conditioning (known in CrossFit Speak as the “Met-Con”). This is a short, intense workout primarily designed for you to develop your anaerobic capacity. Because we’ve been teaching the techniques in our Strength-sessions, we can give you simple cues in the WOD that aren’t going to slow you down. For example, when one of the coaches yells “KNEES OUT!” you know what he’s talking about because we’ve spent lots of time addressing body positions during our strength work.
The question I’ve gotten most is “What’s more important, the Strength, or the WOD?”
This is an interesting question. The answer depends on your goals. If your goals are based on a long-term approach, the Strength session is more important. Getting stronger will allow you to have a more functional body with more overall capacity. i.e. If you get stronger you can do more stuff! This process is slow. The techniques can take years to become proficient at. But, years from now, if you’ve continued to get stronger, our strength work will give you a body that can do more, from water skiing to tree-trimming, to loading lumber. Getting stronger tends to have long-lasting effects. Once you get strong, you (generally) keep it. Also, I’d like to add that getting strong DOES NOT mean getting big. Many of our female athletes have apprehension about doing strength work because they are worried about bulking up. This is simply not the case. If it were, we’d all be huge. A month ago one of our ladies told me “The heavier I squat, the skinnier i get!” I responded, “Yeah, we get that a lot.”
If you are focused on short-term results, the WOD is more important. Conditioning workouts will get you mobilizing oxygen in your metabolic pathways better. This means that you get less tired when you do stuff. If you are trying to get ready for boot camp in the Marine Corp, or if you just want to get ready for bikini season, the WOD is your primary focus. The results of our conditioning work are shorter-lived. You can get into (or out-of) conditioning shape in a couple months.
The sport of CrossFit has made it harder and harder to distinguish between strength and Cardio. When you think about it, though, in nature there is no regard for such a distinction. There is unlimited crossover between the two – one compliments the other. We want you to get it all. Get strong so you can move yourself (or something else). Get conditioned so you won’t get tired when you do it. Do Clean & Jerks, Snatches, Squats, and Gymnastics to get there.
Olympic
EMOM 10:
1 Power Clean
“Rankle”
U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant John Rankel, 23, of Speedway, Indiana, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1 Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Pendleton, California, was killed on June 7, 2010, while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He is survived by mother and stepfather Don and Trisha Stockhoff; father and stepmother, Kevin and Kim Rankel; and brothers Nathan Stockhoff and Tyler Rankel.
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
6 Deadlifts (225/155)
7 Burpee pull-ups
10 Kettlebell swings, (70/53)
Run 250 meters
*Compare to 3/29/17.
Auxiliary
3 Rounds
a) Yoke Carry x 100′ (50′ down/back)
b) Strict GH Raises x 8-10 Reps
c) Russian Twists – slow x 40 Seconds
Skill/Stability/Strength
3-4 Rds:
a) Land Mine Strict Shoulder Press x 5 each arm
b) Weighted Hip Extension x 8-12 reps
c) Lying flutter kicks x 30-40 seconds
Conditioning
5 Minute “Cindy” – Strict
@5:00, 800m Run, then at 10:00
“5 minute “”Cindy”” – Strict”
Auxiliary
4-5 Rounds:
a) Suitcase Deadlifts x 5 each side
b) Dumbbell Bench Press x 5-8 Reps
Olympic
EMOM 20:
1 Hang Clean – Climbing
Conditioning
Death by Lateral Burpee Over Bar
* Begin Each Minute w/3 OHS (95/65)
Auxiliary
3 Rds:
a) Tall Clean x 3 Reps
b) Halting Pull Up to failure (35/25)
*2 Second Pause @ 90 degree elbow
Olympic
EMOM 20:
1 Hang Snatch – Climbing every 3-4 minutes
Conditioning
800m Run
30 Push Press (115/75)
500m Row
20 Push Jerks (135/95)
800m Run
Auxiliary
3 Rds:
a) Halting Snatch Deadlift x 3
*2 Second Pause @2″ off floor
b) Halting Weighted Pushup to failure (35/15)
*2 Second Pause @1″ off floor”
Then, 2 sets of DB chest flys x 8-12 reps
Skill/Stability/Strength
20 Rep Back Squat
Attempt at ~75% or more
Conditioning
Alternating EMOM for 14 Min
Even: 10-20 Wall Balls (20/14)
Odd: 10-20 KB Swings (53/35)
*Post Lowest Scores for Wall Balls and KB Swings
Compare to 7/22/16
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
a) Strict HSPU x 30 Seconds ME
b) Banded prone hamstring curls x 8 reps each leg, w/2 second pause at full flexion
*Rest as needed between sets
Skill/Stability/Strength
3 rounds:
a) Dumbbell Death March x 50′
b) Upper Body Sled Drag x 60′
c) Seated 1-Arm Dumbbell Press x 5-8 Reps
Conditioning
For Time:
3 Rounds:
3 Bar Facing Burpees
6 Power Cleans (185/125)
9 Strict Pull Ups
12 Push Ups
[Advanced: 4 rounds]
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
a) Good Mornings x 8 Reps
b) Jerk Balance x 4 Reps
Conditioning
250m Run
40 KB Hi-Pulls
250m Run
40 KB Swings
250m Run
40 KB Goblet Squats
250m Run
*Compare to 6/28/16
Skill/stability/strength
“Bulletproof Shoulder Complex”
4-5 rounds of 8-10 Reps of each movement:
-Front Raise
-Lateral Raise
-Reverse Fly
*After 4-5 Rounds, finish with 2 sets to failure:
DB Arnold Press
*All movements should maintain midline stability and should be slow/strict. Use both arms simultaneous with dumbbells, kettlebells, or steel plates. Start light on your first round and build if possible, but strict positioning and tempo are priority over load.
Olympic
“The Thumb Taper”
EMOM 5: 4 hang Power Snatch – Across
Rest 5 Minutes
EMOM 5: 5 Hang Power Cleans – Across
The ideal load is one that is challenging in the beginning and brings you near failure on the fifth minute. While loading “Across” is preferred, adding or reducing load is ok if it is more appropriate for this stimulus.
Conditioning
For Time:
Row 1k
50 Push Ups – Perfect
50 Toes-2-Bar
800m Run
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
A) Ring Roll Outs x 10 Reps
B) Russian Twists – slow x 45 Seconds
C) Dumbbell Chest Fly x 10 Reps
Skill/Stability/Strength
EMOM 20:
A) DB Strict Press x 8-10 Reps
B) GHD Sit Up (or V-Up) x 8-10 Reps
C) Ring Row x 8-10 Reps
D) Weighted Plank x 30 Seconds
Conditioning
For Time: 21-15-9:
Alternating Dumbbell Snatch (50/35)
Burpee Box Jump Over
Compare to 5/31/17
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
A) Double Handle Bent Row x 10 Reps
B) Walking heavy sled Drag x 60 Sec.
Skill/Stability/Strength
EMOM 10:
Back Squat x 2 Reps
*Start at 70%, climb if possible
After 2-3 Minutes Rest, perform 1 set ME Back Squats @ 70%
Conditioning
250m Run
20 Box Jumps (24/20)
40 KB Swing (70/53)
20 Box Jumps
250m Run
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
A) Strict GH Raises
B) Swimmers Press x 10 Reps
C) Banded medial/lateral hip abductions x 10 each leg
”Decathlon 2.0”
2 minutes work, 1 minute rest for max reps:
1) Tire Flip Jump Through
2) Clean and Jerk (115/75)
3) Dips (box or handle)
4) Front Rack Step Back Lunges (45/35)
5) Dumbbell Snatch (50/35)
6) Pull UPS
7) Deadlift (225/155)
8) Wall Balls (20/14)
9) Shuttle Run (50’)
10) Burpees to target (6” above reach)
This is a variation on a loved/hated workout, the Haiti Decathlon. Move through movemens knowing you get 1 full minute of rest after each. Let’s have a great Monday!
“Wes”
For time:
Run 800 meters with a 25-lb. plate
Then, 14 rounds of:
5 strict pull-ups
4 burpee box jumps, 24-in. box
3 cleans, 185 lb.
Then, run 800 meters with a 25-lb. plate
*Compare to 4/24/17.
U.S. Navy Lt. J. Wesley “Wes” Van Dorn, 29, of Greensboro, North Carolina, died on Jan. 8, 2014, of injuries sustained in a helicopter crash off the coast of Virginia. He was a member of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 14 at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia.
Van Dorn was a well-rounded and skilled athlete. According to his friends, he “prided himself on his ability to lift huge weight with the big guys and run with the smaller ones.“
Van Dorn is survived by his wife, Nicole; sons, Jaxton and Maddox; parents, Mark and Susan; brother, Max; and sister, Cara.
Skill/Stability/Strength
Overhead Squat: 12 Minutes to work to a 3RM.
*Aim for higher than last week.
Conditioning
For Time:
250m Medball Run
25 Wall Balls (20/14)
250m Medball Run
20 Wall Balls
250m Medball Run
15 Wall Balls
250m Run
10 Wall Balls
250m Run
*Compare to 3/27/17
Auxiliary
5 Rounds:
A) Tempo Strict HSPU x 5 reps
B) Tempo Pistols (slow descent, 3 sec hold @ bottom) x 5 reps each leg
Skill/Stability/Strength
a) Land Mine Strict Shoulder Press x 8 each arm
b) Weighted Hip Extension x 8-12 reps
c) Weighted Strict Push Up x 8-12 reps
Conditioning
Athlete’s choice –
For Time: 100Kb Snatches (53/35)
*Snatches may be done from the hip; no requirement for alternating. Dropping a kettlebell results in disqualification per RKC.
OR
For Time: 100 Cal Row
*Compare to 3/31/17 or 12/5/17.
Auxiliary
3 Rounds:
a) Double Handle Bent Row x 10 Reps
b) Continuous walking sled Drag w/ harness x 60 Sec.
c) Banded Russian KB Swings x 30 Seconds AFAP
*Do not conserve energy to perform the Auxiliary work after the conditioning. Each day’s strength/conditioning should require your absolute best effort. It is MUCH better to perform the first parts of the workout with your best effort, and skip the auxiliary entirely, than it is to pace yourself through each portion so that you can complete it all. Many years ago, Greg Glassman said “Be impressed by intensity, not volume.” Intensity (in regard to most CrossFit workouts means an increase in speed or load) will give your a greater stimulus for adaptation than volume (which simply means doing more work). Another way to say this: It’s better to do less work, HARDER, than doing more work while taking it easy. The best visualization of this is comparison of sprinters and endurance athletes: Sprinters are lean, muscular, and flexible, while the worlds best endurance athletes, though amazingly gifted at their craft, lack much of the capacities that life requires, like strength, power, and coordination. This is one of the reasons we prefer CrossFit methods over long, slow, cardio routines. Our short, high intensity work makes your look/feel/function/labor better than endurance training. In the same regard, Auxiliary work is very good, but it’s not as important as great effort during the primary daily prescriptions.
Skill/Stability/Strength
Back Squat: 1 set Every 2 Minutes
2×5
2×4
2×3
*start at 70% of 1RM, climb each set. Work to a 3RM for the day.
Conditioning
For Time:
10 Hang Power Cleans (135/105)
10 Front Rack Step-Back Lunges
250m run
12 Hang Power Cleans
12 FR Step-Back Lunges
250m run
14 Hang Power Cleans
14 FR Step-Back Lunges
400m Run
Auxiliary
3 rounds of:
A)DB Chest Flys x 8 reps
B)Straight Arm Banded Lat Pulls
Skill/Stability/Strength
3 Rounds of
a) Weighted Strict Pull Ups x 4
b) Banded Lateral Walks 10m each direction
c) Bulgarian Split Squat x 8 each leg
Conditioning
Alternating EMOM 15
a) 250m Run
b) Dips x 10-15 Reps
c) Dumbbell Thrusters x 10-15 Reps
Auxiliary
3-4 Rounds
a) Land Mine Twists x 20 reps
b) Superman hold x 45sec
c) Max Effort Pull ups w/15 second negative
Skill/Stability/Strength
10-8-6-4-2:
Overhead Squat, Climbing
Conditioning
“baseline and back”
500m Row
40 air squats
30 Sit ups – Ab Mat
20 push-ups – perfect
20 pull ups – Strict
20 push-ups – perfect
30 Sit ups – Ab Mat
40 air squats
500m Row
Auxiliary
3-4 rounds:
A) 2-arm bent over DB row x 30 seconds ME
B) flutter kicks x 1 min
C) Straight Arm Banded Lat Pulls x 12 reps – slow tempo
Conditioning
10 Shoulder-2-Overhead (135/85)
15 Deadlifts
10 S2OH (155/105)
15 Dead lifts
10 S2OH (185/125)
15 Deadlifts
[advanced: extra round @ 225/155]
*if you scale today, please consider going a little heavier than you normally would. If you scale the weight and go unbroken through your sets, you’ve missed the point.
Skill/stability/strength
“Bulletproof Shoulder Complex”
4-5 rounds:
8-10 Reps with both arms simultaneous, using dumbbells:
Front Raise
Lateral Raise
Reverse Fly
After 4-5 Rounds, finish with 2 sets to failure:
DB Arnold Press (video HERE)
*All movements should maintain midline stability and should be slow/strict