Dont Forget to Bring in Some Goodies for Tom's Box!

Whether you specialize in Olympic weightlifting or find yourself wanting to improve in some of the difficult positions like the overhead squat, front squat rack position, and the deep squatting, Kelly Starrett and Diane Fu of San Francisco CrossFit provide some mobility drills to incorporate into a warmup session that help do just that. Observe how Diane has four “core” mobility drills that she feels make the most impact on her lifting. She hits those four mobility drills just about every day prior to her lifting session and it takes her 15 mins or less to see significant change in her range of motion (ROM). It also helps to get in the habit of testing your ROM before each drill to baseline your position, and retest afterwards to see if you were able to elict change. It’s scary how much ROM Diane regains just after a short time.

Start piecing together your “core” mobility drills, and make time each and every day to accomplish them. If you can’t make it into the gym early to do your mobility homework then try ways to do them at home or work. You’ll get the most out of it just prior to your training session as long as you don’t tire yourself out, so engage your coaches for mobility ideas, make time on Thursdays to come in and learn more mobility drills, or simply pick through the wealth of knowledge that is the Mobility WOD (MWOD) website also run by Kelly Starrett.

A very special happy birthday shoutout to Jason B. Jason has had a busy year highlighted by the birth of his daughter. “Coach” Jason is best known for his false starts in workouts, cutting through parking lots on his warmup laps (and trying to coax others to do the same), his incredible words of encouragement to others, and his ability to push others to dig deeper than they thought they could (i.e. Alice’s strict chin-up post workout). Happy Birthday Jason from all of us here at Intrepid!

WOD 12.17.11

“Standards Workout”

4 Rounds:
10 Wallball shots
10 Pushups
10 Box Jumps
10 Push Presses

Athlete: For every “no rep” you will do one Prowler push Post-WOD
Judge: For every “no rep” you don’t call on the athlete you will do one Prowler push Post-WOD

Many of us are planning on travelling this holiday season and working out can oftentimes take a back seat. Using myself as an example I use every excuse in the book while I’m on the road: “I didn’t sleep well”, “I slept on my back weird”, “I think I’m coming down with something”, but mostly “I don’t think the gym has the equipment I’ll need” or “They might not take kindly to the sight of weights being jumped around or the sound of plates clanging as they’re lowered”.  Whatever the excuse more often than not I’ll talk myself out of getting a workout in, even if I’m not feeling 100%.  You’ve likely read about our previous travels over the holidays to “Globo” gyms here and here, but this year I encourage all of you to see your travel as an opportunity to mix up your training a bit, especially if you’re limited on equipment. Every great athlete appreciates a change of pace or the opportunity to work some new movements/modalities into their training to keep things fresh among many other reasons. While on the road this year, or even while Intrepid is closed, use it as an opportunity to try something different in your workouts, but just make sure to get off your butt and do something active if you can’t make it to a gym.

One way that I’ve found works well for me while I’m on the road is Olympic Style Lifting with Dumbbells, introduced to me by my college Strength and Conditioning Coach Allen Hedrick. During college all the athletes thought he was coming from left field with many of our workouts, but as I’ve learned and tried more both as an athlete and coach, I’ve come to appreciate not only the value of Olympic lifting but also the benefits of using “odd objects” such as dumbbells in a strength and conditioning program.  Here’s Coach Hedrick’s take on the advantages of dumbbell training:

• Dumbbells require more balance than training with barbells or machines. This increased balance requirement is of value in terms of enhancing athletic performance, a significant consideration in fitness programs, and can lead to greater muscle fiber recruitment.
• Dumbbells require more muscular control than barbells, enhancing kinesthetic awareness.
• Dumbbells allow unilateral training (training one limb at a time), which can provide the opportunity for emphasizing greater movement specificity in the training programs of athletes and greater program variety for bodybuilders and those training for fitness.
• Dumbbells promote greater recruitment of the stabilizing muscles, enhancing joint stability and hypertrophy.
• Some exercises can be performed with a higher degree of safety with dumbbells than barbells. For example, when performing step-ups.
• Finally, dumbbells provide greater variety in the training program. Greater variety leads to less opportunity for physiological and psychological staleness in the training program, enhancing the opportunity for continued growth.

Dumbbells challenge one’s midline stability in ways much differently than a barbell and I think the case can be made that they’re almost equally important for this very reason. And for this reason the amount of weight used will be much less than what would be used with a barbell and dumbbells should definitely not completely take the place of barbell lifts, simply supplement them.  Very seldom outside of the gym will one ever be lucky enough to lift something as balanced as the barbell so it pays to be able to support, move, and catch loads efficiently and in positions that aren’t balanced from one side of the body to the other. Since most gyms now-a-days have at least dumbbells available, I’ll introduce you to some new ways you can use dumbbells to not only to improve your explosivity and mid-line stability, but also help keep things fresh in your training.  And don’t worry if the dumbbells don’t progress very high in weight where ever you might end up for a workout, as you’ll see it doesn’t take much to really challenge yourself.

In his T-Nation articles Olympic Lifts and Dumbbells: A Winning Combination and Advanced Dumbbell Training, and also in this NSCA Journal article entitled Power Training with Dumbbells written by one of his former assistant coaches, Coach Hedrick breaks down a variety of dumbbell movements. I’ll only touch on the clean here in this post and try to cover the snatch and jerk in a future post if there’s interest, but please check out his T-Nation articles or other NSCA articles if you’d like to read more about the topic or others he’s written on.

DB Clean
This movement can be performed from the hang position or the mid-shin position if one wishes to simulate the height of the bar when performing Olympic lifts with a barbell.  Your feet should be more or less under your hips in a comfortable jumping stance.  Start tall with a dumbbell in either hand by your sides.  Dip to initiate the jumping action by pushing your butt back and flexing your hips.  Don’t lock your knees straight but make an effort not to bend the knees much.  Keep your chest up and keep the dumbbells along the sides of your legs ensuring your shoulders stay ahead of the dumbbells and the dumbbells don’t drift forward as you dip.  Once the dumbbells reach about knee height or slightly higher, explode upwards like you’re jumping making an effort not to pause at this bottom position.

Start Position (Hang version)

Once you reach triple extension (full extension of the hips, knees, and ankles) forcefully drive your elbows up to the ceiling keeping the dumbbells close to the side of your body. The elbows should be kept high above the wrists as you pull the dumbbells upward alongside your ribcage with the idea of pulling them to your armpits. As you pull keep the dumbbell oriented in the same position as it was in the start with your palms facing your sides. As you reach the peak of your pull, and as you fatigue and/or increase in weight, the upward pull with your arms not only generates more height in your pull but should also pull you down to meet the dumbbells at the height your were able to “jump” them.

Extension & Pull (1-arm version)

In my experience, the catch is the trickiest part of the DB Clean and can make or break the attempt. Our catch position is very similar to that of its barbell counterpart, however the ease of the transition is much different using dumbbells. The main reason is that when using a bar the spin of the bar and the ability to momentarily loosen one’s grip facilitates the transition to the rack position. However, we do not have the same luxury when using dumbbells. You have to maintain a firm grip on the dumbbell and rotate it as one unit with the arm as you rotate your elbows from the high and outside position of the pull, under the dumbbell, and finally in front of your body so that the tips of your elbows are pointing at the horizon and the dumbbells have settled on the meaty portion of your shoulders or your deltoids. When its all said and done the dumbbell has rotated roughly 270 degrees, and it’s this rotation that makes the DB clean more challenging especially if the dumbbells are large and bulky. However, if you master the transition with dumbbells you will probably never have much on an issue whipping your elbows around on a barbell clean. You might find it more comfortable to allow the plate of the dumbbells to rest on your delts rather than holding the dumbbells like Michael in the picture at the top of the post (in his defense he was performing thrusters and that position was more ideal for that particular movement than the one I’m describing here). The clean can be caught in the power position or a partial front squat, or in a full depth front squat which typically allows heavier weights to be used.

Catch (2-Arm Version in Power position)

Catch (2-Arm version in Full Squat)

The DB Clean can also be performed using one arm at a time to further challenge your midline stability. The difference being as you reach your triple extension and begin the high pull, only one arm will pull while the other keeps the dumbbell by your side (as pictured in the pull section above). The catch will resemble the photo below with one arm in the front squat rack position while the other dumbbell remains by your side.

Catch (1-Arm Version)

I honestly wish I could find a video to show you how all the pieces mesh together but I couldn’t find one I felt was worthy of posting. In the T-Nation article they included a video that gives you the gist of the movement but please don’t mimic her movement as you see it. Stick to the points I laid out here, and sooner than later Intrepid will have dumbbells of its own and you’ll likely see more dumbbell movements like the clean in the future, so start practicing now.

WOD 12.14.11

Deadlift 1×5/Wendler

“DT”
5 Rounds
12 Deadlifts
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 Push Jerks

This week the 2011 Pan American Games are taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico.   This is one of the major tune-ups for athletes with aspirations of competing in the 2012 Olympic  games taking place in London.  We like to keep tabs on the U.S. Weightlifters and tomorrow marks the first day of lifting!  You can check here to see the schedule of lifting and which weight classes compete on which days.  3 weight classes will compete per day with Thursday being the final day with the super-heavyweights.  If you’re curious to know who will be lifting for the U.S. you can see the roster here.  Some names to watch for the men are:

Chad Vaughn (77kg)                               Kendrick Farris (85kg)                             Pat Mendes (105+)

and for the women:

Kelly Rexroad-Williams (48kg)                 Chioma Amaechi (75+)                        Sarah Robles (75+kg)

Television coverage is somewhat sparse, but I’ve seen tidbits of the Pan Am Games being televised on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.  USA Weightlifting  (USAW) posted this link to watch some of the Pan Am action, so hopefully it will stream the weightlifting events when they are in progress.  You may also be able to find a site streaming coverage online if you’re lucky.  Check out the USAW Facebook page found here, like the page, and keep tabs on our lifters’ progress and achievements.

Happy Birthday shoutout to Angel! Angel joined Intrepid a few months ago and has been kicking butt day in and day out at the 7:30am and 12:00 classes. Have a great birthday Angel, and keep up the impressive progress!

WOD 10.22.2011

Back Squat 3×5 or Wendler

AMRAP 5
30 Double Unders
10 Hang Power Snatches
Rest 2 minutes
AMRAP 5
10 Weighted Lunges
5 Handstand Pushups

The main reason most people don’t like front squatting is because it’s hard. The numbers they put up are nowhere near their back squats; it hurts their wrists; and did I mention it was hard? Kelly Starrett of Mobility WOD lists what is required for an athlete to excel at front squatting:

1) Rigid, rock hard mid-line stabilization. A fence post like spine.
2) Freaky huge quads to handle the load given up by the hamstings.
3) Terrific ankle flexibility to handle the forward driving shins during the vertical torso phase.

Usually the biggest hurdles in the front squat include the following:

1. You can’t keep your elbows up. This usually means you need to strengthen your rotator cuffs, which help you bring your elbows up and in to create that bed for the barbell to sit on. Try this drill from a previous post as well as these drills in this T-Nation article by Eric Cressey.

2. You can’t keep your torso upright. Marcus wrote a great article a while back about mobilizing your upper back to get a better rack position. Also you can try these drills on Mark’s Daily Apple.

3. You can’t keep your torso tight enough. This one is harder to spot and can attribute to the upper two problems. The key is to try to make your torso like a closed soda can. Take a huge breath, push out against your ribs, and tighten up. Activate your lower abs like you’re performing a strict crunch. And hold. Do more strict crunches, hollows, waiter’s walks, farmer carries, and pallof presses.

4. You don’t have the wrist flexibility. This one’s a bit tougher. However, barring a anthropomorphic problem (ie your forearm/humerus is too long/short) there are temporary solutions (using straps) as well as an abundance of stretches and warm ups to get you there.

Check out other tips for the front squat here and here.

We front squat because it’s hard. We front squat because it strengthens your entire body. We front squat because we want to be like Dimas.

WOD 10.18.11

Front Squat 3×3
Deadlift 1×5 or Wendler

Cash Out with 5 rope climbs, focusing on using your footwork coming back down.

A unique (not to mention extremely beneficial) part of the training we get at Intrepid is the focus on strength training. As all of you have noticed, we do a lift almost everyday, and while it isn’t traditional CrossFit programming, many elite CrossFit athletes have adopted this as a part of their training.

Recently, the CrossFit Games website had an article by the Olympic lifter, Chad Vaughn with his comments on the Games. In case you aren’t familiar, Chad Vaughn is a 2-time Olympian, 6-time national champion and the American record holder in the clean and jerk at 429 lbs (85 kg division). Within the last year he has added CrossFit to his training and has become a big fan of CrossFit.

Below are highlights from the article that we could all stand to learn from whether we plan on competing or not. His major points covered technique, leg strength, and power (explosiveness):

“Technique and leg strength will be necessary for optimal efficiency through workouts with barbells set at low weight for high reps. Using more core, hips and legs during low weight/high rep barbell workouts – and less extremity and arms…”

During a WOD, the less we use our extremities doing lifts, the more energy we’ll have when performing the rest of movements. This will certainly apply to those of you planning to compete when you’re doing multiple workouts in one day.

“To improve their efficiency, ability to conserve energy, and performance in one-rep max efforts, athletes must learn proper positioning and movement of the bar and their body. Ideally, to lesson the use of extremities, the bar will stay close to their body throughout the lift and contact their body upon completion of extension. …powerful, controlled hip extension is – as we CrossFitters know – the base of all athletic ability and crucial to success…”

The last bit of advice applies to those of you really looking to build your leg strength:

“If you weren’t blessed with a lot of natural leg strength – as many of the competitors this year were – you better regularly add extra squatting to your programming. It may even be necessary to go through cycles with periods solely focused on strength training. Later, when you return to met cons, I believe you will have more overall potential while still maintaining your physical memory of the met con. Just my opinion, of course.”

Obviously Chad Vaughn is biased towards strength training, but with any sport, I have found it useful to pull advice from experts in any field. Hence, I love the exposure we get to strength movements, pose running, gymnastics, etc. at Intrepid. We’re a lucky group!

REST DAY 09.04.2011

Last week during “Jeremy” (21-15-9 OHS & Burpees), many of you expressed concern about wrist pain while holding the bar overhead for the overhead squats. To help explain some of the finer points about the overhead position I’ll reference Greg Everett’s article written last month on the Catalyst Athletics website entitled “Overhead Stability in the Snatch”.

According to Greg, “When it comes to supporting weight overhead, proper structure is the most important element. Strength is required to reinforce that structure, but we’re not relying on muscular strength directly.” For example, we can support much more weight overhead with our elbows completely locked out than we can with elbows bent.  By locking out the elbows we create a bone lock and transfer the load to our skeletal structure with our muscles providing stabilizing and supplementary support.  For those of us familiar with the movements, I’m sure you can have felt the difference locking out the elbows makes.

Greg specifically hits on many points regarding proper structure regarding the overhead position for the snatch and overhead squat:

• The shoulder blades must be fixed tightly in a position that prevents movement, allows the arms to rise as needed to the bar, and allows positioning of the weight and body to maintain balance over the feet. This can be achieved by completely retracting the shoulder blades and allowing them to upwardly rotate enough to open space for the humerus. I find the easiest way to accomplish this position is to imagine pinching the top inside edges of the shoulder blades together. This is not a shrug, although the upper traps will contract and bunch up.
• The bar should be in the palm slightly behind the centerline of the forearm. The hand and wrist should be allowed to settle in so the wrist is extended; do not try to hold the wrist in a neutral position. Again, if the bar is in the proper place in the hand, this will not place undue strain on the wrist, because it’s not way behind the wrist as some mistakenly hold it. However, the proper hand and wrist position does require a good deal of mobility, which should be worked for diligently to allow the athlete to hold the proper positions as quickly as possible. If the athlete is flexible enough, the hook grip can be maintained overhead, but the grip must be relaxed to allow the hand and wrist to settle in properly.
• The bar should be positioned over the back of the neck or the top of the traps with the head push forward through the arms somewhat. If the head is straight up or tucked back as some try to hold it, the shoulder blades cannot be held in the proper position and the arms cannot be oriented well to support the weight.
• The width of the grip is another factor to consider. Ideally the grip can be such that the bar contacts the body in the crease of the hips.  Additionally, as the grip gets wider, it becomes more difficult to extend the elbows forcefully. A balance needs to be found between proper bar positioning during the pull and the ability to support and stabilize the bar overhead.
• Overhead instability can arise from the lower body entirely at times. Most commonly this is due to inflexibility, but can also be due simply to improper positioning. Most obviously, if an athlete has insufficient range of motion in the ankles and hips (or thoracic spine), he or she will not be able to establish a sound, upright squat, and as a consequence, he or she will not be able to establish the ideal overhead structure described previously. This may be because the trunk is forced to incline forward too much, the weight of the entire system is out of balance forward, or likely a combination of the two. Adequate flexibility throughout the body must be a priority for all lifters.

These are just a few of the nuggets from Greg’s article.  Read the entire article here.  While at the Greg’s site check out his monthly journal The Performance Menu which is one of the Intrepid coaching staff’s favorite reads.  Every month Greg and his team put together informative articles on olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, powerlifting, CrossFit, nutrition, recovery, recipes, and a host of other topics relevant to improving your health and performance.  It’s the best $30 you’ll spend and you’ll get your money’s worth within the first few issues.  Put some of Greg’s tips to practice in the overhead squat portion of today’s workout and see if you feel a difference.  The overhead position is a very difficult position for many people, so keep in mind it takes practice and patience.

WOD 08.03.11

AMRAP 20
6 Kettlebell Swings (heavy)
8 Overhead Squats
10 Chest to Bar Pullups
200m Run

Courtesy of "Strength+ Magazine"

You’ve all been there.  You’re warming up toward your work set.  You’ve got a 25# and 10# on each side.  You want to go for 135#, but here’s your dilemma:  do you grab two 10# plates, or remove everything and reload with 45′s?   Well, shucks, you don’t want to tire yourself out, so you opt for the path of least resistance and before you know it, you have the entire collection of 10′s and 15′s loaded on your bar.

Well, believe it or not, there is a rule for proper bar loading, particularly with weights that you intend to drop (i.e. cleans, jerks, snatches, and even deadlifts).  The above pic was created by Strength+ Magazine to illustrate the common bar-[mis]loading errors and the rational behind it.   Read it, memorize it, and follow it, or be branded a gym kook.

Back Squat

3rds:
400m Run
20 Pistols (total)
12 Pull Ups

Because we did not have enough lifters to separate everyone by weight class, we used a simple equation to calculate who lifted the most for their body weight for men and women. Avelyne

Without further adieu, here are the results (showing Snatch, CJ, and Total):
Women:
1 Avelyne 93 125 218*
2 Steph 88 125 213*
3 Anna 73 115 188
4 Holley 83 110 193
5 Alia 88 125 213

Men:
1 Mike 120 175 295
2 Brian 160 215 375*
3 Drew 170 225 395*
4 Scott 140 200 340
5 Marcus 125 155 280
6 Xuan 125 160 285

*lifter got 6/6 lifts

The meet was a huge success not only because of the PRs achieved but also because of the hard work we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks in the gym. Some of you put extra time into working on your form and it showed in your numbers today. Others gave a little more attention to nutrition and rest. All of you came and performed incredibly well in an arena that is unfamiliar, with rules (lock-out) that you’re not used to, and in a format that is very different from what you are accustomed to. Not to mention the little detail about yesterday’s smashing success of a soiree being less than ideal for pre-meet activities! (Big thanks again to Wendi and the Intrepid ladies for their hard work throwing such an incredible party)

On a side note, after we plugged in the numbers into the equation (and checked my math), we saw that Mike took Brian by a margin of 0.06!!!! Also Steph beat Anna by a margin of 0.75. It was a close race overall and I can’t wait to see what will happen at the rematch!

We hope this meet drums up some interest in the lifts and on skill work as I’m positive that every lifter today had tons to add to their totals with just a little more work on technique. Some of you got the opportunity to meet Aileen, who will be coming to coach the WLC on Saturdays. She’s one of Bob Takano’s lifters and has a wealth of knowledge to share with us!

WOD 02.14.11

Bench Press 3×5

5rds:
7 Overhead Squats
12 Box Jumps
100m Farmer’s Carry

Come out and cheer on our athletes as Intrepid hosts our very own in-house weightlifting meet today!  Weigh-ins begin @ 11:00am!  If you need a refresher on the run down or how to game the event, visit Ruth’s post.

Just how many of you were affected by Team Sabotage at the party last night?  Did Alia’s ice-cream freeze the competition?  Who’s placing their bets on whom?  Will there be a dark knight?  Last minute mystery competitors?  Are the new kids up for the challenge?  Are the veterans bringing their A-Game?  And, will Marcus compete or won’t he?  DUN-DUN-DUN!!!

GAME ON INTREPIDS!!!

REST DAY 02.13.11

Jake lifting 6 for 6 at his first meet!!! And getting mad props for his form!

Those of you who participated in the September Challenge may remember the rules regarding the Snatch and C&J, especially regarding the lock out on the snatch and jerk. If you weren’t here, go back and review this post for more details.  You get three attempts at each lift and your lifting order all depends on what weight you plan on lifting.  There’s a whole lot of gaming involved in a meet, so that should come naturally for most of you!!  ;)

Ordinarily, we would place you in weight classes and have you compete only with those in your category, but since we have a small group participating, we’ll go ahead and forego that.  Here’s how the day will go:

11:00am Weigh in, sign up, and declare your first attempt for each lift
11:05am Warm up as needed
11:30am Snatch
12:00pm 10 min break
12:10pm C&J

The lifting order goes by lightest lift to the heaviest. So, if Sandy Sandbagger plans on snatching 65#-75#-85#, and Wanda Wodshop plans on 70#-90#-95#, then the order would be:
Sandy 65
Wanda 70
Sandy 75
Sandy 85
Wanda 90
Wanda 95

There’s a continuously running clock and you have one minute from the time your name is called to begin the lift. However, since Wanda has to follow herself from the 90 to 95# lifts, she will get 2 minutes to begin her 95# lift.  Now, once you go up, you can’t go back down (ie Sandy 65-80-75), so choose your weights wisely.

The tricky part is how to time your warm ups so that you take your last warm up attempt with enough time before your first lift so you can recover, but not so long that you get cold. That will boil down to having an idea what your fellow competitors are planning to lift.

Congratulations to Mike and Anna for winning the January Cindy Challenge with 19+ and 14+ rounds, respectively!!!  Awards will be handed out today in the gym (Mike will have to trust Steph to accept it on his behalf!).  Big honorable mention to Jason who busted out 18 rounds with most excellent range of motion, which is all the more impressive at his height of 6’4″.

WOD 02.8.11

Snatch Skill Work

5rds:
2 min work/1 min rest:
4 Pull Ups
5 Box Jumps
6 Kettlebell Swings