Our past meeting had us looking at elements of the Clean and various progressions, working from the deadlift, through the front squat, up to the pulls of the clean itself. The finish to the workout was a full session of tabata front squats with a 45lb bar.
This coming week, we'll be looking over gymnastic elements of the rings, parallel bars, and the floor.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Pull-ups and Oly-lifts
This past Saturday, we took a look at pull-ups, from the simple jump to the butterfly, and followed that up with a run at Cindy, doing as many rounds as possible of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats in a 20 minute period. We had a great push from everyone that came, especially the new guys.
Sunday, Ben and I went to Richmond to attend an Olympic Weightlifting seminar, headed up by Chris Wilkes and assisted by his sons. The seminar was absolutely great; everyone got tons of reps on all the major lifts (snatch, clean, and jerk), all of them critiqued by a top coach and his three sons, all national medalists. Hopefully we'll get a chance to show you guys some of the material we learned in the coming weeks...
Taught by this man (right)
His second oldest
And his two youngest
Sunday, Ben and I went to Richmond to attend an Olympic Weightlifting seminar, headed up by Chris Wilkes and assisted by his sons. The seminar was absolutely great; everyone got tons of reps on all the major lifts (snatch, clean, and jerk), all of them critiqued by a top coach and his three sons, all national medalists. Hopefully we'll get a chance to show you guys some of the material we learned in the coming weeks...
Taught by this man (right)
His second oldest
And his two youngestSunday, September 14, 2008
Deadlift mechanics
This past Saturday, we met and looked at some cues and fixes for squat and deadlift mechanics, and then broke in the new Pendlay bar and Olympic lifting plates at Rocky Top on deadlifts, working our way up from 40kg all the way up to 160kg! Cooling down included some tomfoolery on the rings and parallel bars. Great efforts from everyone!
Drive
Lock out
Don't forget to yell
Drive
Lock out
Don't forget to yellTuesday, September 9, 2008
Moving Along
Great job to everyone last Sunday! We hope everyone enjoyed the workout as much as we had fun encouraging you guys and watching you guys put it all out! The workout for this week will be indoors, in anticipation of some possibly bad weather.
Class will be held at 11:30am this Saturday at Rocky Top Rec (here). There will be an instructional portion first, looking at barbell mechanics and exercises, followed by a workout.
Something we've also been discussing is sport-focused training. Though Crossfit centers on general fitness, it is also endlessly adaptable to improving specific modes of activity. If there's a sport you play that you want to be in better shape for, be sure to mention it Saturday. Also, on your own time, consider if there are particular things you'd like to improve. If it's a sport that involves on-the-ground movement, are you concerned with agility? Maybe long-term endurance or ability to generate many small bursts? Think about your athletic demands and where you'd like to see your own gains.
Class will be held at 11:30am this Saturday at Rocky Top Rec (here). There will be an instructional portion first, looking at barbell mechanics and exercises, followed by a workout.
Something we've also been discussing is sport-focused training. Though Crossfit centers on general fitness, it is also endlessly adaptable to improving specific modes of activity. If there's a sport you play that you want to be in better shape for, be sure to mention it Saturday. Also, on your own time, consider if there are particular things you'd like to improve. If it's a sport that involves on-the-ground movement, are you concerned with agility? Maybe long-term endurance or ability to generate many small bursts? Think about your athletic demands and where you'd like to see your own gains.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Starting Up
We'll be kicking things off for a new school year, this time starting off with an introductory group workout at the UVA track (http://www.virginia.edu/webmap/FUHallAndAthletic.html - Lannigan Field). The meeting time is 4:30pm on Sunday, September 7. Wear comfortable clothes and tennis shoes. No previous experience is required, and anybody at any level of fitness can participate; everyone will get involved in the group workout!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Gearing Up
The school year is fast approaching, and things will be getting started soon. Things will be a bit different this year: Jon's gotten a level one certification, and we may have some new things going on in terms of the facilities and equipment available to us. Hopefully we'll be able to make good use of it all and everyone will be able to get some benefits and make some advancements. I thought I'd start things off with a thoughtful piece on training written by Rob Shaul, owner/trainer of Mountain Athlete, in Jackson Wyoming:
"When the roads are dry enough, I favor a running-based, power endurance effort over a rower, or gym based effort. One of the many conflicting things I find in the literature from the "experts" is the transferability of cardio-modes to one another.
By "cardio-mode" I mean running, rowing, swimming, biking - or non-gym based ways to make athletes breath.
Part of the goal is to train energy systems. Expert Endurance coaches describe training our aerobic energy system buy doing long, slow, distance training. We burn fat for energy on these efforts, and the more we do, the more efficient we become. This is bad for losing weight, but great for performance on endurance efforts.
Heart rate training experts like Joe Friel, however, note that the aerobic "zone" and other heart rate zones differ between modes. In other words, working hard while running occurs at a lower heart rate than at biking and swimming.
Glassman says aerobic conditioning is definitely "mode specific" - which is why great endurance athletes will "blow up" aerobically when subjected to their first intense CrossFit-inspired circuit which includes a barbell or dumbbell exercise.
So, we need to train mode specifically - according to our sport - in addition to general conditioning.
I've had big guys who could crush the rower, but get crushed by a run. Thing is, rarely do you row anywhere in the mountains. So the rower is a great general conditioning tool, but its transferability to running and hiking uphill is not perfect. And I've had guides who can run and hike uphill fast and forever, likewise "flail" when subjected at first to the rower.
One of the dangers of our programing is we can lose site of the goal. We train in the gym to complement and improve our training and performance in the field, or for our sport. The gym training can become its own "sport" - which can lead to neglect of our sport specific training and practice.
The CrossFit advocates argue that their approach is the best preparation for many sports and they point to how well CrossFitters do in competitions as proof.
They could be right, but this has not been my experience. Hybrid training may take you far down the competition road, but to truly be elite, I believe most athletes need to more and more sport specific in their training the closer they get to the competing season."
He runs a great, thoughtful site, and the url for this quote is here: http://www.mtnathlete.com/id198.html.
Anyways, once we get an idea for when everyone gets back, we can start things up again.
"When the roads are dry enough, I favor a running-based, power endurance effort over a rower, or gym based effort. One of the many conflicting things I find in the literature from the "experts" is the transferability of cardio-modes to one another.
By "cardio-mode" I mean running, rowing, swimming, biking - or non-gym based ways to make athletes breath.
Part of the goal is to train energy systems. Expert Endurance coaches describe training our aerobic energy system buy doing long, slow, distance training. We burn fat for energy on these efforts, and the more we do, the more efficient we become. This is bad for losing weight, but great for performance on endurance efforts.
Heart rate training experts like Joe Friel, however, note that the aerobic "zone" and other heart rate zones differ between modes. In other words, working hard while running occurs at a lower heart rate than at biking and swimming.
Glassman says aerobic conditioning is definitely "mode specific" - which is why great endurance athletes will "blow up" aerobically when subjected to their first intense CrossFit-inspired circuit which includes a barbell or dumbbell exercise.
So, we need to train mode specifically - according to our sport - in addition to general conditioning.
I've had big guys who could crush the rower, but get crushed by a run. Thing is, rarely do you row anywhere in the mountains. So the rower is a great general conditioning tool, but its transferability to running and hiking uphill is not perfect. And I've had guides who can run and hike uphill fast and forever, likewise "flail" when subjected at first to the rower.
One of the dangers of our programing is we can lose site of the goal. We train in the gym to complement and improve our training and performance in the field, or for our sport. The gym training can become its own "sport" - which can lead to neglect of our sport specific training and practice.
The CrossFit advocates argue that their approach is the best preparation for many sports and they point to how well CrossFitters do in competitions as proof.
They could be right, but this has not been my experience. Hybrid training may take you far down the competition road, but to truly be elite, I believe most athletes need to more and more sport specific in their training the closer they get to the competing season."
He runs a great, thoughtful site, and the url for this quote is here: http://www.mtnathlete.com/id198.html.
Anyways, once we get an idea for when everyone gets back, we can start things up again.
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