Flying through Burpees

Posted on August 28, 2012 by

I finally booked my winter ski trip sitting in the scorching heat of the late summer in Philly. There is CF Endurance, CF Football but no CF Skiing. Yet… I checked. Not a single US Ski resort has a CF box. Vail has one nearby. Whistler has one in Canada and I may have to change travel plans for next year. Also, very few CrossFit boxes realized that destination travel is a major draw of athletes, revenues and can fund the local box. CF Las Vegas gets it, the Black Box gets it but many others do not. No CF at DisneyWorld or the convention areas of most cities.
On the plus side, I’m getting very efficient with burpees and I didn’t think I would ever say this: they can be real fun…
Mobility
15-minute mobility warmup
Skill
Muscle Ups
Strength
Wendler overhead squats 5-5-5 [95#]
MetCon
3 rounds
– deadlift 245 lbs
– dumbbell press 2×45#
[2:45]
Cashout
200 burpees [1,200 of 2,000]

Posted in Skill Training, WOD | Comments Off on Flying through Burpees

Planning Mobility

Posted on August 27, 2012 by

Like thousands of others, I’m a big fan of MobilityWod but have to admit, Kelly Starrett’s daily prescription (should I say RX?) of 15 minutes minimum mobility sometimes (many times) falls on the wayside. I noticed that in my September WOD plan I only had a token mention of mobility next to Burgener…
I’m here to rectify the situation, first because it is recovery day and I do need to recover and second, because I believe I need to program a specific sequence every day to make it stick. Kelly in his Episodes 321/322 outlined a daily mobility routine. I adapted it to fit my needs as follows:

DAILY MOBILITY ROUTINE AS RX

1. Shoulder dislocates, distraction and range flexibility (bands, PVC) – (4 mins)
2. Mobilize thoracic spine and entire back shoulder to foot (6 min)
– upper and lower back roller or lacrosse ball work – 2 mins
– hamstring and calf with roller or lacrosse ball – 2 min
– heel cord with lacrosse ball – 1 min
– sole of feet with lacrosse ball – 1 min
3. Hip flexibility (4 min)
– external rotation stretches with band or foot on box (2 min)
– quad roller or lacrosse ball (1 min)
– deep squat hold with hip flexion (1 min)
4.  Pain point freestyle  (2 min)
– Lacrosse ball on 2 sore points on shoulders, legs, etc – (2 min per area)
The 200 burpees felt like relief after all this… [at 1000 of 2000]

Posted in Mobility, Top Posts | 2 Comments

Setting up a Monthly WOD Schedule

Posted on August 26, 2012 by

Most CrossFit gyms do not publish their WODs in advance to keep their workouts interesting and varied. Since I travel a lot and work out of my home gym and 2 local boxes – it takes more thinking to make sure the programming is consistent and effective.
I decided to to put together a monthly schedule following good programming practicing from the various certs and great boxes I visited.
My program is on a 12-day cycle through a combination of monostructural, gymnastics and weight days. It also integrates the Wendler strength I follow and the CrossFit Endurance time trial and interval training on recovery days.
When I do drop in other boxes I can easily swap out the programmed day and augment any missing element (like lifting). The monthly program will always be filed here.
Skill
Handstand Pushup 5 x 3
WOD
1M run
Cash-Out
150 Burpees [800 of 2,000]

Posted in Skill Training, WOD | Comments Off on Setting up a Monthly WOD Schedule

Burpee as Life Saver?

Posted on August 25, 2012 by

Not quite, but I finally found justification as to why burpees made it to CrossFit’s toolkit. Carl Paoli posted a great article on the CrossFit Journal on the skill transfer of the burpee and the overall holiness ensuing from its practice…

With that in mind I put in some extra goodness in today’s WOD.
Skill
– 5 x 2 muscle ups
– 50 burpees
Strength
– Power Snatch [120#]
MetCon
5 rounds for time:
– 250m row
– 5 power snatches 95#
– 10 burpees
[14:10]
Cash-out
– 50 burpees
[650 of 2,000]
 

Posted in WOD | Comments Off on Burpee as Life Saver?

Getting Efficient

Posted on August 24, 2012 by

We do not talk too much about efficiency in our sport of constantly varied movements. I do think however that when learning the movements, getting more efficient is very important. One way to get there is what I started doing: dedicated an entire month to fix one fault as a warmup. Last month: double unders, this month: burpees, next month: overhead squats. Once you have to do a couple of hundred reps your mind and muscles will figure out how to optimize and avoid the pain. That in turn will pay dividends later.
Back to chest to bars today inspired by my first box, CF KOP‘s programming.
I haven’t done these since the CF Open in the spring.  Don’t love them, yet.
Cash-in
– 100 burpees [500 of 2,000]
MetCon
21-15-9 of
– power cleans 155 lbs
– chest to bars
[12:45 @ 135 lbs]
Cash-Out
Rebuilding the rubber floor in my home gym… Monster Tiles !!!

Posted in Skill Training, WOD | Comments Off on Getting Efficient