Flat Back - Dead Flat

Protect your back! One of my favorite descriptions of the deadlift is that the trunk is the "transmission for the engine that lies below the waist." The concept is that a rigid trunk transmits the force generated by the hips and legs into a lifting motion. Back protection includes avoiding a rounded back - it is properly engaged to maintain a lordotic (concave) curve or, at minimum, flat back. Karen, James and Andy demonstrate that concept here.

Battle of the Bankers!

Friendly Competition: What happens when two people of similar abilities make a hard run at the same event. Andy and Rob, both bankers, have been chasing after these workouts for over a year now and are in really good shape. Their pace on the "Diminishing Returns" workout was neck in neck to the end, when they finished simultaneously. 'Course, Andy waited until after the workout was finished to point out that he used a 53 lb KB instead of the prescribed 44 lb one..........But this last pic makes it clear that they both pushed intensity and experienced "physical and psychological discomfort."

Eccentricities

Two kinds of muscle contractions: concentric and eccentric. Concentric muscle contraction is just that - contraction of the muscle so that it shortens (like a bicep curl). Eccentric work occurs when the muscle generates tension, but allows the muscle to lengthen under control (like lowering a heavy object). Eccentric muscle contractions generally create more strength changes, as well as soreness, so it only makes sense that we'd look to employ eccentric work in training. Who doesn't want to be sore, anyway?

Here's Carl demonstrating the eccentric phase of KB swings - as the weight moves from the highest position to the lowest point, his body and the KB drop under control, are stopped, and then a reverse movement occurs.

There are interesting things to explore about the rapid concentric contraction (hip thrust to raise the KB) occurring after a fast eccentric contraction (controlled descent of the weight) - plyometric training utilizes this method - but we'll save that for another discussion. For this post, the focus is the eccentric phase of work - controlled lowering, or controlled muscle lengthening.

Either concentric or eccentric contractions can occur fast or slow. For instance, bodybuilders like slow contractions to develop hypertrophy (literally lots of growth), or greater cross sectional area of the muscle. In other words, big muscles and accompanying gains in strength. For power production, faster contractions, particularly faster eccentric contractions, provide a very high return on the effort. This is the reason we utilize KB swings - good hip power development with cardiorespiratory work thrown in as an added bonus. Olympic lifts develop power in the fast catch phase of the clean, jerk, and snatch. As you work to explode up and then under the rack in a clean or jerk, or the overhead lock in a snatch, fast eccentric loading occurs, and voila! - you change neurally, in the architecture of the muscles, density of bones, tensile strength of ligaments and tendons, etc, etc. The end result of that exercise is strength and conditioning, which makes us all harder to injure, maim or kill.

12 Days of Christmas

Start with 1 burpee,

then 2 knees to elbows and a burpee,

then three pullups, 2 knees to elbows and a burpee......just like the song that always ends in "and a partridge in a pear tree."

Progression as follows

1 Burpee

2 KTE

3 Pullups

4 Frog jumps

5 Russian Hops

6 Pushups

7 Situps

8 Box jumps

9 KB swings

10 DB Push Press

11 DB Overhead Squats

12 Double Under jumpropes

Here's some pics and the times

Tuesday: Strength Day

Today's workout (not for time):

30/20/10 reps of:

Front squat - pause - push press (male: 1/2 bodyweight, females: 1/3 bodyweight)

Pullups

Record weight on the bar and type of pullups employed.

MetCon Monday

Hi crew: Still out of town Monday for the funeral of a close friend at 3PM. Appreciate all of you flexing around this tragedy, I'll be back on Tuesday.

Here's a great way to attack the week - Post your times under the comments section & make it just another Metcon Monday:

1/4 mile run

50 Russian Hops (50 each leg)

1/4 mile run

50 pushups

1/4 mile run

50 dumbbbell push presses - 1/4 body weight total weight

1/4 mile run

1 lunge lap: top deck (bodyweight only)

The original cart dog

Thought I was making it up, didn't ya? (see previous post)

Cart Dogs and Burpee balls

Named after a paraplegic dog I once saw with a little wheeled cart under his hindquarters motoring down the sidewalk, this exercise is alot tougher than it looks. And the floor winds up a bit cleaner to boot. Feet are on a small towel, hands walk forward.

And while we're at it, let's get some burpee balls going as well.

Today's workout was 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 of:

Burpee Balls

Knees to Elbows

mixed with a 25 foot Cart Dog in each round.

Brutal.

AMRAP 20 with KBs

Kettlebells - a cannonball with a handle, the Russians answer to dumbbells. Today's workout included 'em:

AMRAP 20 (As many rounds as possible in 20 mins)

1/4 mile run

25 Kettlebell swings

25 situps

Here are Jerrod and Rob swinging the big weights (62 and 53 lbs respectively) as well as the scores today.

A blizzard? No kidding!

From the Arizona Daily Sun tonight:

Though other storms have come close, this has been the first blizzard declared for Flagstaff in a least a decade....To qualify, a storm must have three hours of continuous heavy snow, sustained wind of 35 mph or more for three hours, and have visibility of less than a quarter-mile for that long. In all, the storm was still predicted to bring 12 to 28 inches of snow to Flagstaff by Tuesday afternoon.

What this means is that the CrossFit classes are not meeting tomorrow morning - I'm planning on holding class in the afternoon at 5:30. For those of you who decide to brave it and were not there this morning - feel free to grab the workout posted on the board upstairs and post your time. Carrie & Karen - you deserve a day off!

Or, grab a shovel and while your neighbor is worried about dying of a heart attack clearing his/her driveway, you can get after it with the clock running. 3, 2, 1, GO!

Is snow Day to skip a Workout

I already received a couple of emails today that some of you might not make it into the gym given the snow dump we're getting today. Ain't life in the mountains grand?

Now, it is only fair to mention that Karen K, Carrie B and I went after it hard at 6AM before the snow started down. Yes, without you, and we kicked some serious butt for about a 1/2 hour.

So, here's the prescription - rather than calling this a rest day, let's call it an "active applied functional fitness" day. Okay, we'll call it a play day. Choose one of the two activities.

1. Take a picture before you shovel off your driveway, start the clock, take a picture afterwards. Heck, shovel off your neighbor's driveway for round two and take the pics then. Send me the time and pics. Best pics and time gets posted on this site.

2. Alternate activity: make a snowman. Some of you may remember my snowman from last year. Make a better one and I'll post it here. If you can!

Lumberjack 20

It has been one month after Major Nidal Hasan's attack at Fort Hood that wounded 43 and killed 13, with 4 of the dead and 11 of the wounded assigned to the 20th Engineering Battalion, home to Lumberjack Crossfit community. We participated in the hero WOD fundraiser and contributed to the fund earmarked for the families of the fallen ad the future needs of the survivors. At the end of the weekend, over $43,000 dollars has been raised from the CrossFit community.

Scaled for the group this weekend, and modified with stair climbs tossed in for good measure as there is no way around the extra work of running up and down the stairs to get from the platforms (first floor) to the treadmills (second floor) :

20 Deadlifts (80K men, 60K women)

1/4 mile run

20 KB swings (44# men, 35# women)

1/4 mile run

20 Overhead Squats (40K men, 25 K women)

1/4 mile run

20 Burpees

1/4 mile run

20 Pullups

1/4 mile run

20 Box jumps (24 inch for men, 20 inch for women)

1/4 mile run

20 DB Squat Cleans (50# men, 40# women)

1/4 mile run.

Times (and yes, you guys all smoked my time when I did it later - nice going).

Andrew W - 32.41

Krista D - 33.19

Molly P - 33.42

John T - 38.25

Weighted Frog Leaps

Tough new exercise for the group as part of the workout today: Weighted Frog Leaps. Under this roof, "frog jumps" are done in place for reps and "frog leaps" are conducted for distance. Today's distance was 70 yards with the 10 pound dumbell touching the ground before a leap, raised overhead mid leap and then back to the ground.

Much tougher than it sounds, here's a demo:

strong girl

Workout today was "two ships" format: descending reps of dips (25/20/15/10/5) matched against ascending front squats (5/10/15/20/25 reps with 40K for guys, 30K for the girls).

Karen demonstrating both - she came into the workout group over a year ago with a strong cardio base - workout history tilted toward treadmill, stepper, biking, running, etc. Still has it, to be sure, but carries a great deal more strength and power.

what a crew

Here's some of the evening crew. What a good looking group. Back row, right to left: Chris G, Rob G, Andrew, Chris H and Krista front and center

Here's the workout they just finished.

They look good, really good, considering the 25 minute workout they just finished. What a crew.

Gone Hunting

Andrew has been away from training for a handful of weeks as he recovered from a back injury. All he kept telling people was how much he missed the workouts, how eager he was to return, etc, etc. So back he comes with a vengeance into the first Metcon grinder, eager to hit it hard.

Hard enough to leave him assuming the "post serious intensity" position. He's back, allright. Good to have you back in the mix.

Farmer's Carry

Grab a couple of heavy weights, one in each hand, and walk. Sounds pretty easy, right? Check out the expressions - some have intensity on display and some have intensity well disguised.

The tough guys:

Happy and the Whistler:

who CrossFits with us?

CrossFit has a well deserved reputation for growing superhuman performance with individuals who live, eat and breath training - weighing every gram of protein, carefully journalling every workout, memorizing the details of every aspect of the CF culture. I call them firebreathers, and I respect the hard work they sustain to create rare levels of athleticism. And then there are people I class as functional athletes - working out two, three, maybe four times a week, looking to wedge training time for a broad, inclusive, general level of fitness in the middle of a busy schedule. Not all that mindful of records and comparisons to other people's performance, not ramping up for the CF games, just seriously aware that the road ahead is best taken with strength, power, endurance, etc.

Here's one: Chris G - teacher, mother, wife, and classy addition to the group with a background in dance. She's embracing intensity with deadlifts and farmer's carries to develop and maintain BIG (broad, inclusive, general) health. We love having Chris in the group.

Hand Jivin

Line up a bunch of obstacles - assume the pushup position and start shuffling your body sideways, moving your hands alternately onto the obstacles and back to the ground. Shuffle to the left, then to the right. What you wind up doing is what we call "Hand Jivin" - part of a workout brought to a gym near you today - and, once again, this exercise looks alot easier than it really is. Group was smoked at 20 mins, 1 sec.

Full workout: 20 min AMRAP of:

Round trip of Hand Jivin' (left shuffle, right shuffle)

15 KB swings (44 lbs men, 36 lbs women)

15 knees to elbows

15 mountain climbers.

The paraplegic dog drag

Yup - that was one of the exercises in the big group room on last Friday morning. Here's the group in action.

Snatching the weight overhead

Form practice on the snatch - not a terribly easy move, but it was time to revisit last week.

Here's a couple of pics of the action courtesy of the early morning class.

Veteran's Day

The eleventh month, eleventh day, eleventh hour marked Armistice during World War I, key to why we celebrate Veteran's Day on this day - history of Vet's Day here. Tell a Vet thanks today.

We promote intensity in workouts as being key to the gains produced, despite a long history of recommendations from medical and fitness experts that almost any activity that raises your heart rate constitutes exercise. Intuitively, this shouldn't make sense to the most casual observer, despite the commercials that prompt you to purchase a Nintendo Wii gaming device with the "Wii Fit" program as an effective fitness program.

Even the American Council on Exercise (ACE), a robust proponent of all things aerobic, has recently released a study that calls the Wii Fit workouts "underwhelming." In the ACE study, caloric cost (an indirect measure of intensity) was evaluated for different Wii Fit games, and the highest intensity game produced a whopping 165 calories. For us here at StrengthDoc, that constitutes a great warm up for all but the most sedentary.

In what sounds like a lame effort to be polite, the study concludes that Wii Fit "burns twice as many calories as normal video games." That reminds me of the compliment one of my cohorts concocted on prompting by his mother to "say something nice about your cousin." Best he could come up with was "she don't sweat much for a fat girl."

Tuesday - strength day

Slower pace today, not for time, opportunity to work on form and strength development with the following workout that involves lots of Cleaning and Pressing away from the laundromat.

7/7/7 reps of Power Clean, Front Squat, Push Press

5/5/5 reps of Cleans and Push Press

7/7/5/5/3 reps of Thrusters

High Performers use 1/2 bodyweight

Functional Athletes take on 1/3 bodyweight.

High Performers are those training in the group eager to achieve very high levels of strength and conditioning - typically to bring more fight to a sport or outdoor endeavor. These folks are eager to develop warrior class fitness.

Functional Athletes are those who want to move through life with greater strength, stamina, endurance, etc but are not necessarily chasing down optimal fitness at any level of suffering or soreness. These folks are eager to develop high levels of health and wellness.

Both groups are welcome to workout side by side, modified and scaled to capabilities and goals, and encouraged to embrace productive suffering (aka intensity) during the workouts. Like Mike G is doing below.