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We rang in the New Year (well the end of this one anyway) with five new sets of rings. So, the only way we could think of to celebrate was to do a workout with a lot of ring dips! "Elizabeth" was just the WOD we needed: 21-15-9 rep rounds of cleans and ring dips. Happy New Year everyone!
Van and Andrew breaking up the cleans.
Van and Andrew at the end of "Elizabeth."
Jill and Kristin looking a little better than Van and Andrew at the end of their "Elizabeth."
"Jackie," a surprisingly hard WOD, consists of a 1000m row, 50 thrusters with a 45 pound bar, and 30 pullups. It's one of those WODs that looks easy, but leaves you on the floor when you're done. Yesterday, it left about 35 people on the floor at CrossFit Ocean City. Way to go everyone!
Van doing his thrusters. Van had great form on the rower and pushed through the trusters and the pullups. Shown here, Van's finish is not quite overhead where it belongs. He's slightly in front of the frontal plane. To correct this, he just needs to extend his shoulders a bit, push his head through his arms, and press to full lockout.
Working through "Diane" (21-15-9 rep rounds of deadlifts and handstand pushups). Proper form on the reps are paramount. Keeping the back extended and setting up for each rep is vitally important to preventing injury. Can you spot the improper position for deadlift in the photo?
We often pack the house for our workouts. This is great! When it's cold (and I mean really cold out), or raining, we're just not going to train with the doors open and run or take the weights outside. It's fun to then get creative with our WODs by running heats and turning each of you into "assistant coaches." By pairing you up, you each get the benefit of having someone push you, count reps, and correct each rep if needed. If you're the one coaching, it helps to develop your own sense of correct form, bad form, and how to motivate others. Plus, it's just plain fun to have a motivated group of people out there training hard together!
Yes, it is the Season. A happy and joyous one. But it's also a time when colds and illness can derail your training. The big question when you get sick is whether you should train, or take some time off. I say, "Keep on working out." And I'm not alone. Click HERE to read an article from the New York Times that addresses this same issue and offers some great advice.
The bottom line? For head colds, keep training at your normal intensity. For congestion in the chest, back off just a bit, but keep on training. If you have flu-like symptoms or a fever, you might want to take a day off. The consensus is to keep training unless you're just incapacitated. Otherwise, catching a cold could add to your list of barriers to exercise and become just another excuse not to train.
Hal showed up at a 5:45 a.m. workout last week running a fever. After a few reps, his fever broke and he felt better. Too bad the rest of us caught a fever (just kidding).
Is CrossFit a cure for illness, or a way to at least make you feel better? What's your experience with illness and training?
We've had several teachers train with us over the years, but two of the hardest working are Jess and Shelley. Improved fitness across all ten general physical skills and eating right are the two areas these educators understand. Having no exposure to proper weightlifting prior to CrossFit, both Jess and Shelley can now snatch, clean and jerk, deadlift, squat, and press loads overhead!
The load comes off the floor as Jess performs another deadlift rep.
Shelley at the Ultimate Fitness Gift announcement. BTW, Shelley reached a new milestone recently! Pullups! Congrats on getting off the band.
As Coach Burgener says, "There's nothing quite like a good snatch!" We agree. Working the snatch takes time, focus, patience, and a lot of determination. The warm up work with the Burgener Warm-up and the skill transfer exercises, like the pressing snatch balance, heaving snatch balance, and snatch balance, develop the proper motor-recruitment patterns necessary to perform the lift. When that load comes off the floor and you power through the triple extension then stick the landing in a full squat with the arms locked out and the load overhead - well, there's just nothing else quite like it!
Kristin with perfect snatch form. Check out those active shoulders!
Check out Stephanie's depth!
One of the craziest things I think I've seen was looking up at Duane Phillips in the middle of a WOD and seeing a round disc protruding from his upper left chest. Duane was pushing hard on a WOD and I almost stopped him because I thought something was wrong. Ever see the movie "Aliens?" I looked over my shoulder thinking I was about to come eye to eye with the mother Alien, but it was only Kelley. She was running the workout that day and I just happened to be there working out next to Duane. I had never met him before and, unlike Kelley, I was unaware of his need for a pacemaker. To say I was concerned would be an understatement.
Anyway, what I've learned is that Duane needs his pacemaker to keep his heart from stopping; however, it only fires when needed. During the past two years, Duane has gone from "needing" the pacemaker to fire 99% of the time to just 3% of the time. Duane explained to me a few weeks back that his doctors were amazed at the transformation in Duane's health. The doctors made some adjustments to the pacemaker and Duane told them all about CrossFit. Not sure how much CrossFit contributed to this improvement in Duane's pacemaker requirements, but I will tell you that six months of CrossFit have made Duane stronger, more flexible, and better conditioned to handle his regular job as an Ocean City firefighter.
Duane swings his kettlebell as Ann looks on.
Mike Quillin came to us with knee problems that limit his running, lunging, and a few other moves. Fortunately, CrossFit's scalability allows us to adjust the WODs for such things and, in some cases, "rehab" weak muscles to compensate for bad joints. Mike has no lifting background, but he used to be a competitive rower, among several other sports, before injuring his knee. He understands intensity and how to push to the limits of his abilities. Along with his increased intensity on the WODs during the past six weeks since he began CrossFitting, Mike's improved his strength, stamina, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. Keep pushing the envelope, Mike!
Knee problems? Next time you see Mike, ask him to tell you about his knee. Also congratulate him on his 255 pound back squat. A lot of people without bad knees don't get this deep! He took off his knee brace because it limited his range of motion.
