Buy In:

Pull-Up Tech Practice (Kip/Butterfly)

Power Snatch Tech

WOD:

21-15-9

Power Snatch 115/85

Ring Dips

*Scale up: 135/95

Cash-Out: 

Stretch

 

For today’s buy in we are going to spend a little time on practicing the pull-up.  We are going to cover the basic kipping pull-up and the butterfly kip.  If you are struggling with strict pull-ups, then we will use this time to practice banded pull-ups, however we will add an element of a “kip” to assist.  For others that have a solid kip, we will practice the butterfly kip.  If you can perform both of these movements, then you are awesome and you can play with bar muscle ups and ring muscle ups.

There has been a general consensus in the CrossFit community that one should have a solid strict pull-up before they learn to kip.  On one hand, this is sound advice.  The idea behind this train of thought is that one should be able to support themselves (muscularly) under a ballistic load.  On the other hand, sometimes practicing the kipping pull-up, which is more skill development vs. strength development, can lead to the ability to perform strict pull-ups.  For a few members in our gym, practicing and mastering the kip, eventually gave them the ability to perform strict pull-ups.

My view on this subject takes both thoughts into account.  You should be able to hang from the bar with an activated shoulder (not a passive hang, but drive your shoulders down) and a tight midsection. I find that most people can do this, whether its for a second or a minute.  Regardless of how strong you are, it takes an active effort to remember to keep the shoulders activated to keep them safe and healthy.  From there, you should be able to perform at least a few pull-up negatives (that is to slowly lower yourself down from the top of the pull-up to a controlled bottom).  Performing a pull-up negative is tough work, but it shows that you have control of your body weight on the descent.  This is important.  If you cannot control your bodyweight on the descent of a pull-up, you can cause damage to the soft tissue that surrounds your shoulder.  No bueno.  Even if you can control your bodyweight on a pull-up negative, the ballistic swing of a kip can still be pretty devastating.  So, if you are learning the kip, keep the volume LIGHT but frequent.  That means… try a few swings every day or every other day.  Don’t do it for very long.

Christy is a GREAT example of this.  She has set a goal for herself to get a pull-up (kipping and strict).  Almost daily, Christy has jumped on the pull-up bar and practice pull-up negatives, and banded pull-ups.  Recently, she just got 2 kipping pull-ups in a row.  Short, frequent training gave Christy the strength to eventually get her kipping pull-ups.  More practice will eventually get her strong enough to perform strict pull-ups.  Then, before you know it, she will be performing strict muscle ups to handstands.

Today’s workout will consist of a 3 round triplet.  The first round consists of 21 Power Snatches and 21 Ring Dips.  The second round consists of 15 PS and 15 Ring Dips.  3rd Round is 9 and 9.  Simple enough right?  This workout mimics a CrossFit benchmark WOD called “Elizabeth”, which consists of 21-15-9 Power Cleans and Ring Dips.  For some, this will be a quick, short workout.  For others, like myself, ring dips will ensure this workout will be long and painful.

Tips:
Power Snatch:  Keep the bar close.  Drive up aggressively with your  hips.  Drop under the barbell with speed and drive those arms up.

Ring Dips:  Keep the rings in close.  Vertical forearm.  As you descend in your dip, hips should descend as well.   If you are kipping, drive your knees to your chest at the bottom to propel you upward.

 

 

 

Buy In:

3 Rounds of “Cindy”

Power Clean Technique

WOD:

AMRAP 10 Minutes

12 Wallball 10ft/9ft, 20lb/14lb

6 Power Clean

*Go as heavy or as light on the power clean as you feel comfortable.

Cash-Out:

Stretch
Last week I overhead Coach Chris telling a his morning crew that he needed to get them performing “rounds of cindy” again as part of their warm-up. If you are not sure what Cindy is, it is a benchmark workout which consists of as many rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. Chris’s goal is to get his athletes comfortable with simple gymnastic movements, maintaining a good well-rounded warm-up (in addition to our leg swings and inchworms), and improving on calisthenics.

This is a variation of a concept called “Grease the Groove” was first introduced by Pavel Tsatsouline, famed russian kettlebell expert. In Pavel’s book, Power to the People, he discusses how training to failure is counterproductive. So he recommends performing to sub-failure, which can create a strong neurological response to adapt to the new stresses. In a way, we play with this concept in our strength building buy-ins, in that we hardly ever go to 1 rep maxes.

The greasing the groove concept has been employed by CrossFit HQ, especially in their early creation of the official “CrossFit Warm-Up”. CrossFit HQ’s official warm-ups include a series of squats, push-ups, pull-ups and other mobility drills.

Occasionally, in between strength days, we play with Greasing the Groove concepts. We have used other terms such as “volume training” which is a similar variation of the same concept.

We are going to start incorporating expressions of this concept in our buy in’s on off strength days. You may see ” X rounds of cindy” or “x rounds of push-up/hspu/ring dips”. Some days we may ask for strict pull-ups or strict handstand push-ups (if possible).

For the rest of the buy in we are going to work on Power Clean technique. Then, work up to a weight you would like to perform during this workout.

Some quick tips on the Power Clean:

Set Up:

Grasp the bar so your hands are just outside shoulder width. Place the bridge of your shoelace in line with the barbell.

Keeping your torso tight, and butt high, slowly lower your butt until your your shins reach the bar. This will give you an upright torso and low butt position. Your back and hammy’s should feel “stretched”.

1st Pull:

“SWEEEEEEP”

Extend your legs by driving your knee’s back. As this happens the bar should rise as the same speed as your hips. Keep pulling the bar back into you. (Visualize sweeping the bar back into your thighs). Shift the majority of your weight back into your heels. This first pull is not a violent pull, it is a squeezing pull, that is just slightly faster than a deadlift.

Transition/Scoop/Double knee Bend:

With the weight in your heels, lean back with an upright torso to finish the sweep.

2nd Pull:

Staying in your heels, “HUMP”/”POP”/”JUMP” the weight up. Whichever cue works for you. To get an idea of what this feels like, stand upright, dip down slightly and give yourself one of these cues. The “hump” cue really accentuates the violent hip extension, and the full torso extension. The “pop” cue really focuses on speed of movement, which is where we reach our velocity max. The “jump” cue focuses on the full opening of the hips and violent hip extension.

3rd Pull:

“DROP”.

As the bar is traveling up after your violent hip extension, pull your body underneath. Your feet should land shoulder width apart, in a partial squat. Elbows will come back and around to allow you to catch the barbell across the shoulders in the front rack position. Keep your elbows as high as possible on this catch so the bar can rest comfortably on the shoulders/chest.

In other words… SWEEEEEP, POP AND DROP.

Results

• Britt posted on May 21, 2013
  Thanks Brian but we got it covered. Appreciate the offer!!
• Brian posted on May 20, 2013
  Britt, I've got one you are welcome to use. It's an 8 person tent so it's good size but not ...
• Britt posted on May 20, 2013
  Does anyone have a tent that Kip and I can borrow this weekend? Kip is running a 24 hour race ...

Buy In:

Bench Press

5 X 5

WOD:

5 Rounds

10 Ring Push-Ups

20 Double Unders

Cash-Out:

Stretch

For today’s buy in we are going to perform the bench press.  Double or Triple up and help spot each other.

The bench press is an excellent strenght building exercise.  We don’t perform this often, because it’s functionality isn’t prevalant in all functional movements, but it holds a lot of value.

Set Up:  Place your feet flat on the floor, while your hips, back, and head touch the bench.  Keep your feet shoulder width apart and drive into the ground hard.  If you cannot reach the floor, use plates to place under your feet.  If your torso is tight, and your hips and pressing into the bench, you can use the drive with your legs to help with the bench.

Arch your lower back.  As the back is not loaded, it is acceptable to create a space between your lower back and bench.

Retract your shoulder blades together as tight as you can.  This will help shorten the distance of the barbell AND limit opening of the shoulder joint at the acromion (bony part above the shoulder).

Place hands on the barbell a little wider than shoulder width.  A power lifting style lift will start extremely wide.  This helps the power lifter lift a greater load with a shorter distance of bar travel.   A narrow grip will engage the triceps more, but it will be much harder to lock out at the top.  In other words, a narrow grip will give you a good push from the bottom of the bench, but the power generated will decrease greatly as the bar is rising.  A wider grip will have less power generated initially, but more overall.  Athletically, we want maximal power output, but we also want functional strength.  Try a grip just outside of shoulder width to meet in the middle of the wide vs. narrow grip.

When the bar is taken from the rack, should be just over the shoulders.  It is common for most people to keep the bar hovering above their face. Do not do this.  This is not only dangerous, but it will result in an inefficient bar path.

Imagine you are breaking the bar, and lower the bar to the sternum.  From the side view, your forearms should be vertical.

Once the bar touches the sternum, immediately press the bar up in a straight bar path.

For the workout we are going to perform ring push-ups and double unders.  Practice the EXACT same technique that you had on the bench press for the ring push-ups.

Results