What exactly am I talking about?  NO the CF Intrepid trainers don’t have some weird fetish or anything.  This past weekend I attended the CrossFit Olympic Weightlifting Certification held at CrossFit Balboa with Coach Mike Burgener, owner of Mike’s Gym.  One of Coach B’s new cues when performing lifts overhead like the Snatch, OHS, Jerk, etc. is to, “show your armpits.”  For almost 30 years Coach B has coached his athletes on the importance of keeping the shoulders active with weight overhead, but it hasn’t been until recently he’s begun to focus on incorporating a little bit of external rotation of the shoulder to make the position more stable.  Not only are we going to ask to you to keep your shoulders active but you’ll also hear the trainers start asking you to show us your armpits, which will help keep your shoulder from rounding forward and into an unstable and injury prone position.  If you’re a visual learner like me, take a look at Stephanie’s beautiful OHS form in the above picture.  This cue should help those of us with shoulder inflexibility issues ensure we are not compromising our shoulders to keep the weight overhead.  Next time we perform an overhead movement try and practice this…unless you’re Chuck Norris who would snap the bar like a toothpick.

WOD 02.24.10

Press 3×5

4 Rds
400m Run
Rest b/n Rounds

C/O: 3 Sets of Max Strict Pull-ups