12-20-12

Snatch

2 x 2 @65%

1 x 2 @75%

Clean & Jerk 

2 x 2 @ 65%

1 x 2 @ 75%

Back squat - heavy single (1 heavy rep)

Rack Jerk - heavy single (1 heavy rep) 

No more heavy lifting until Wednesday when you will you will find your 1RM for the snatch, clean & jerk and back squat. Merry Christmas.

CrossFit Games continued:

If you’re doing this program you probably have some interest in competing in the crossFit games open. It’s pretty simple for the open the only exercise that can be used include a barbell, pull up bar, rings, med ball, plyo box, jump rope and your body weight. These are the basic pieces of equipment that you need to crossfit. But the exercises especially the barbell movements are not so simple. For the barbell alone you have the clean, jerk, press’s,OHS, deadlift, front squat, thruster, back squat and snatch. 

You have a lot of exercise to cover so how do you prepare for each one? Easy, the olympic lifts. The Clean and Jerk and the Snatch cover every single one of those exercises in some way. Also the accessory lifts that you do to improve your C&J and Snatch are those very exercise’s I listed before. So there you go, barbell work done.

So now you have T2B, pull ups, muscle ups, wall ball, box jumps, double unders, push ups, and squats to concern yourself with. T2B, Pull ups and muscle ups are all basically the same movements. For those movements master your kipp or butterfly swing and they all become easier. Double unders and Box jumps are a pure cardio event where efficiency, skill and a good pair of lungs come in handy. For push ups practice hand release push ups in longer triplet AMRAP’s. Squats are just mental so push through the pain. Lastly Wall Ball, I hate wall balls and thrusters. Apparently my body doesn’t like squatting and then pressing something above my head. Wall balls more often then not turn into a mental game where you just have to shut your brain off and stare at the wall.

So pretty easy. Now that you know what exercise you have to do the rest should be cake, right? F@#&K NO! This is the hard part now. I like to think of it as how long can you go during a WOD with the pedal on the floor. How long can you ignore that little voice in your head when it’s saying “ slow down, this hurts, take a drink of water, go put chalk on your hands and take a breather”. How hard can you push yourself? 

If you have any intention of doing the CrossFit open and you stop during the WOD to take a drink of water you are wrong. That little bit of water will not help you, getting a drink is a classic stalling or resting tactic. Don’t do it! instead of getting a drink take a deep breath and keep moving. Taking a deep breathe will serve you better and waste less time. 

                                                 At least she didn't stop to take a drink.

Now we talk about chalk.  Why do we use chalk? I know! I know! to look cool, right? Yes, you do look cool with chalk on your hands but not when your covered in it.

                                     What some of you look like going to the chalk bucket.

 Chalk is used to dry wet or sweaty skin. When your hands are wet they’re slippery you use chalk to provide friciton to your skin so the bar doesn’t slip out of your hand. So should you apply a lot of chalk to your hands when they are dry? I hope you answered no. If you apply a lot of chalk to your hands when they’re dry you will create more fricition between your hands and the bar and thus causing your hands to rip. 

     If you rip your hands soak them in a bucket of half bleach and half water and you'll never rip again

The last thing I want to talk about is staying relaxed. Before a WOD you should try and calm yourself down. There’s 

no need to psych yourself up and get you heart rate jacked up before a WOD. Your heart rate will get elevated during the work out so before the timer goes off relax, breathe and smile. The other beneift to relaxing before the timer goes off is to prevent you from brain dumping your technique. Very often the timer goes off and people forget what they're doing and their form goes to sh!#. Backs get rounded on deadlifts, pull ups turn into a full body dry heave. When you hear 3-2-1 go take a breath and relax.

                                                    3-2-1 Go!