Blog Archive

Wow.. I can’t believe that it’s the beginning of September already! it’s been such a fantastic summer and the weather has been so awesome (up until the past couple days). I’m kind of glad that Labour day is behind us though and that summer is coming to an end because I can re-focus on my training again and set some goals for the upcoming year.

I find it really hard to train consistently during the summer months. We get such a short window of nice weather and only get so many sunny weekends to pack in as many beach days, outdoor activities, BBQ’s and good times with friends as possible. My summer training always starts off well with full intentions of keeping a chiseled beach body for the entire 2 and a half months but by the beginning of August I usually start to fall off the wagon and just try to hold on to my remaining 2 pack for as long as I can!

When September rolls around I’m usually chomping at the bit and ready to get back in the gym and find it a great time to set some personal goals for the year. Here are a few of my goals for the next few months.

1. Enter the Paleo challenge and finish in the “top 5″
2. Train for the StrongFirst kettlebell certification in November
3. Pull a 425lb. deadlift (best DL last year was 405lbs.)

So if you feel like you’re training has maybe been a bit off or you’re not feeling quite as strong or as fit as you were a couple months ago, don’t fret because you are not alone! I promise there will be plenty of people around you that will be feeling the exact same way that you do!

Give this some thought, set some realistic, attainable goals for yourself (whether that means losing 10lbs., training 20 days in a month or making a new paleo recipe once a week), enjoy the next month of programming by Chesty and Tom and go crush some PR’s!!

Ben

Wednesday’s Lesson Plan:

Warm up: 3 rounds or 7 minutes

10 t-spine bridge

30 second plank

6/6 kettlebell halos

Technique: start tech by 15 min past the hour

Set the clock for 20 mins

In as few sets as possible perform

50 strict pull ups for men

35 strict pull ups for women

If you need a band pick one that will allow to grind out at the most 7 strict pull ups in a row. Don’t get to eager here though, just because you can fight for 7 doesn’t mean you should go to failure on every set. Leave 2 to 3 reps in the “tank” during this piece. Chase performance  here not fatigue. This is your leaderboard today. Score is number of sets.

Workout: start workout by 40 past the hour

16 minute time cap

5 rounds

15 dumbbell snatch (at roughly 35% of your one rep max snatch)

30 double unders (or 1 minute of attempts)

5 barbell roll outs (share barbells for this folks)

There were a few ripped hands during yesterdays workout, I just wanted to let you guys you know that this will be a tough month on your hands and your grip.

Do your best to maintain your hands, not just this month but all the time. I’ll admit that I avoid shaving my hands more than anybody else; seeing as I never do it until its to late.

There will be a few griptastic workouts as well as some that require very little grip at all. It’s usually kipping pull ups that lead to the rips, and Ill let you guys in on a secret, you will be seeing more strict pull ups than kipping in the coming weeks. Is that good news or not? Depends on who you are.

So if you do happen to get a rip. My advice is to leave it. Apply some new skin liquid bandage and avoid tearing off that ugly piece of skin. There is the option of purchasing Ript Skin System, which is sold in the vending machine, it comes with a hand care kit and a guide on how to care for your hands.

The best way to avoid ripping, is to get the meat of the palm of your hand on top of the bar to allow for a hinge at the wrist, rather than jumping up somewhat carelessly and allowing a ton of friction between your hand and the bar.

If I rip, I rip, I don’t let it hold me back from another workout, sometimes taping your hands is a good preventative measure to avoid making tears worse, as are gymnastics grips, I have even super glued my hands if  the tear is large enough, I often just tell myself its part of the game and its something that I know may happen going into certain workouts.

Still, don’t be like me, do your best to maintain a healthy callus by shaving them or sanding them with a pummel stone. Even applying a small amount of chap stick daily can be a good thing.

Tom

Warm up: 4 rounds or 6 minutes of the following

1 length of figure 4 hip stretch

1 length of coaches choice

8 nice and controlled box jumps. practice landing nice and tall

Technique: begin EMOM at 25 after the hour

Warm up the clean

Every Minute On the Minute (EMOM) for 10 min @ 60%-70% of 1 rep max full clean

1 power clean+1 hang power clean

2 power clean+2 hang power clean

3 power clean+3 hang power clean

try to add a rep to each the power clean and the hang power clean each minute. If you fail a round, or just feel you need a round off, do so, and then continue on from where you left off. (ex: rest on the 5th minute, take the 6th minute off and start with 6 reps of each at the 7th minute)

Workout: start workout by 45 past the hour

13 min time cap – (pick a weight you can constantly do 5 power cleans in a row at)

21-15-9

Power cleans 145/100

Sit ups

Thanks to Benny and Billy for August. Big love.

The month of September; Brought to you by Tom and Chest. We are excited to unveil our month to all of you. Our focus if anything is, well, focus.

Chesty says: Validate where you are, in life, and in your training. We have all come so far; just remember the first day. It requires a quality level of integrity to draw yourself out of the stubbornness and self defeat. Know the community you are all apart of and the energy you are responsible for bringing in. It’s the love that will carry us through to the future. Sometimes you just need a good workout; However, anyone can make you sweat.

Tom says: Enjoy the technique sessions, what drew me to a CrossFit affiliate originally was the idea of constantly being coached, not during a workout but prior to. Remember back in personal training when your coach spent most of the session teaching you a new movement and breaking down all the little pieces of the deadlift and the clean & jerk? I believe the same rules apply in a class setting, coaches love to coach and students want to learn, so lets let both happen. The value is in learning the lifts, we have a ton of coaches with a ton of experience, use it, you don’t pay coaches to say 3, 2, 1 Go! Students pay coaches to hone in technique.

Chesty says: The slop will not do. There’s a no-rep, and then there’s just no-regard for your well being or progress. Doing 100 movements poorly compared to doing 3 beautifully will get you very good at sucking. The rep range will vary; These are the times for you to ingrain quality movement patterns. Correct muscle recruitment and joint mechanics allow you to approach simple or complex movements without thinking; These must be trained. Old habits die hard. General Adaptation Syndrome may improve your work capacity over time and stress, but you can also generally adapt to sucking more. Take a breath, put the bar down, and focus. Performance, health, and longevity are the same thing. Get on track.

Tom says: Workouts are built to hit certain metabolic pathways and certain time domains. Yeah, the first time you do Fran it may take you nine minutes, that’s fine. To let your third or fourth Fran be the same means you are missing the point. Fran is ideally a 3 to 7 minute workout just like Murph is a 35-45 minute workout. Scale the weight, use a band, no one is judging you. Chest and I have tested every workout you will see this month, we know how long they should take. Time caps are in place to let you know how hard to push and what the time domain should be. The time caps are slightly inflated, so don’t worry. My point here is, at no time during the month of September should any coach here the words “I might not finish this workout”. Capiche?

Strength/Power and Endurance/Hypertrophy. Acquire the skills.

Front Squats. Pull Ups. Anaerobic Threshold. Time Caps. Volume. Quality.

Get some.

ChesTomatic

Warm up: go through the following movements for 7 mintues

5/5 bird pickers

1 length of samson lunge

10 glute bridges

Technique: Start technique by 20 past the hour

5 rep max deadlift

warm up with a set of 10 at light weight, 5 at 40% of your goal 5 at 50% of your goal, 3 at 70% and 2 at 85%.

if you have no idea what your capable of lifting for 5 heavy deadlifts, that’s fine, today will be a good learning day!

Workout: Coaches start workout by 45 past the hour

12 min time cap

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 of:

Kettle bell swings

Pull ups