11.29.2009



When you look at PR's you can't always look at the last time, check out the video above and think about or remember where you were a year ago...

W.O.D. 11.30.09


Strength:

Front Squat
3-3-3-3

Conditioning:
3 Rounds for time of:
10 Front Squats (at or about 60% of your 3 RM) or (135#/95#)
7 Dead Hang Pull-ups
7 Knees to Elbows
10 Burpees

Video:
Functional Movement and CrossFit by Coach Greg Glassman, CrossFit Journal preview video ... [wmv] [mov]


A few reasons why Front Squats are good:

1. Get Better Quads – The front squat is an EXCELLENT movement to get bigger, stronger quads–probably the best exercise there is. Because you’re position is more upright, it emphasizes the quads more.
2. Get Stronger, Better Core – Because you’re holding the weight in front of your body, and you must remain upright your entire core gets a great workout trying to stabilize the weight and keep you upright. If you find you’re leaning forward a lot when you back squat, you’ll quickly get stronger and fix this problem if you switch to front squats for a while.
3. Makes Your Other Lifts Better — Because the bar is placed in front of you, on your shoulders, the front squat is a lot like other exercises and strengthens the “base” of those lifts/presses. Power Cleans, Overhead Presses, Overhead Squats, etc all share the same “starting” position as the front squat. Getting stronger and more comfortable with Front Squats will help you in those exercises too.
4. Bad Form Gets Self-Corrected – If you’re back squatting with bad form you can complete the exercise at the expense of causing injury to yourself. The good thing about front squats is the form is self correcting: If you’re not straight enough you’ll drop the bar… if you’re not holding the bar right you’ll drop it… if you don’t keep your elbows up you’ll drop it. It’s an exercise that pretty much forces your form to be good.
5. Natural Spine Position – You’re more upright with the front squat… your spine is in a more neutral “straight” position.

Quote:
Difficulties are opportunities to better things; they are stepping stones to greater experience. Perhaps someday you will be thankful for some temporary failure in a particular direction. When one door closes, another always opens.
-- Author Unknown

Results:
Kara 9:14 & 70
Donkey 9:32 & 65x2
Megan 9:19 & 35
Steph 11:04 w/90 & 150
Megs 7:12 w/63 & 105
Jerry 8:07 w/95 & 125
Aimee 6:07 w/95 & 170x1
JZ 8:24 w/100 & 165
Jaime 8:44 w/40 & 65
Ditty 10:15 w/70 & 115
Cliff 8:35 w/95 & 155
Nikki 8:04 w/90 & 150
Dorothy 9:58 w/57 & 95
Kristen 9:25 w/51 & 85
Han 11:01 w/45 & 150x1
Todd 7:13 w/115 & 190
Laura 9:26 w/65 & 100x1
Curtin 11:05 w/95 & 145
Miranda 10:47 w/95 & 150
Jeff 7:38 w/105 & 175
Cindy 9:37 w/45 & 95
Trish 9:15 w/65 & 105
Jen S 11:17 w/75 & 125x1
Nicole 8:38 w/65# & 100
Liz 9:14 w/45 & 90x2
Chris S 9:36 w/135 & 225x2
Joe A 16:30 w/185 & 275x2
Rob 6:53 w/135 & 195
Sam B 5:17 w/85 & 145
Kerry 9:46 w/75 & 115
Jim C 9:31 w/135 & 205
Shawn 6:55 w/135 & 225

Level 2 WOD:
AMRAP in 30 Minutes...(no rest)

AMRAP in 10 Minutes
25 Burpees
15 Back Squats (body weight)

AMRAP in 10 Minutes
15 Double Unders
10 Wall Balls 14/20#
5 Ring Dips

AMRAP in 10 Minutes
5 HSPU
10KB Swings 70/55#
15 Squats

Level 2 Results:
Sam 14
Aimee 12
Cate 10
Lisa 10


12 comments:

Nikki said...

Yay for a heavy legs day! I need more of these. I'm starting to formulate my goals for 2010, and I already know they're gonna center on lower body strength... deadlifts and front/back/OH squat.

On the topic of goals, I'm really happy that I've met 3 of my 4 goals for 2009. All that's left is getting a 95# snatch. I have one month left to get it!!

Which leads to a good discussion topic... How are all of you doing on your goals for 2009? Have you met them? Still working on it? We have a month left to this calendar year so let's not give up! It's time to kick it up a gear and meet those goals.

Let me know how I can help!

Dorothy said...

I just removed my goals from the refrigerator yesterday and threw them away. They involved things like being a certain weight and pant size...which I did not accomplish.

I did however get much healthier because I quit smoking, ran my first 5K and joined Crossfit (none of which were on my list of goals).

The hardest part for me in setting goals is knowing what is realistic. If I set a specific deadlift goal what would that be? Especially since I don't even know how much I can deadlift today?

I could really use some help.

Anonymous said...

AWESOME Dorothy...for throwing away the weight and pants size goals!!! AMEN!

I also have been thinking about my crossfit goals for 2010.

Evan said...

Jason,
Hows the no-grain thing going for the first day? Did you try any days of IF yet?

Nikki said...

Dorothy - I'm so happy you threw away your weight and pant size goals!! I think it's GREAT that you quit smoking, ran a 5K, and joined CrossFit. You should be proud of yourself!! You're so much etter off having done those things than focusing on weight/size goals anyway. Now, we'll get you set up with some HEALTHY and FUN goals for 2010. What ideas do you have? Some ideas are: doing a pullup, doing X number of pushups, getting an X-lb deadlift, etc. (We'll get you deadlifting one of these days to help you figure out an appropriate goal!) Let's chat next time we're at the box together:)

Nikki said...

Dorothy - for some other ideas for setting your goals, check out the comments from april 27: http://aimeesfitnessblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/w_27.html

donkey said...

dorothy:

congrats on quitting smoking. i'm coming up on 5 years myself. it SUCKED. but so worth it.


all:

maybe we should have a goal setting meeting at the box. i know i'd benefit from hearing more experienced xfitters talk about how they've set goals for themselves and how or if they chose a specific weight or exercise or benchmark. as a person who plays with numbers all day long, i know there's a million ways you could think about skinning this cat (parenthetical side reference to the former and now deceased resident of the box)...do you give yourself a percentage to shoot for, get to Rx on more WODs (is that even reasonable?), etc etc.

for me, i have little goals for now. i try to think in terms of 10 week blocks (don't ask, it's a me thing). but i know i want to be able to do an unassisted kipping pull up. i know i want to improve my benchmark time again. i know i want to try barbara again in another two months to see how far i've come. but even those are tricky, because as you get stronger you can get closer to Rx--but your times might degrade as a consequence.

so yeah, help please!

Jason Lyons said...

Evan, today is going pretty well thus far and I have not felt tired (measured by yawns) or hungry for the most part. I am sure I will have some growing pains along the way but I am working on it. My biggest problem is that I have never weighed and measured so I do not know how many blocks I am consuming unless I pick the same item off of the zone cheat sheet.

For instance, for breakfast I had:
2 hard boiled eggs (2 pro block)
1 apple (1 carb block)
15 almonds (5 fat block)
1 cup tomatos (? carb block)

So I know this was probably not enough for me but I still made it to around 11:15 before I felt any hunger.

For lunch, I am guessing again because I did not weigh but it went something like this.

1 hard boiled egg (1 pro block)
2 tbsp of cheese (? pro block)
2 tbsp of corn (? carb block)
3 slices of cucumber (? carb block)
1.5 cups of carrots/broccoli (? carb block)
maybe 4-5 oz of pork (? pro block)
9 almonds ( 3 fat block)

So, I think I will need to weigh and measure so I get an idea of how many blocks I am consuming but for the most part, I feel fine. Just drinking tons of water hoping that if a hunger pain comes up, it will take care of it.

I have not tried IF yet. I think I will try from Wednesday at dinner until Thursday at dinner. We will see how that goes. I will try for 24 hours but no promises here.

donkey said...

that was a great link, nikki, thanks. very helpful to see how other people think about this.

Anonymous said...

Awesome Jason! My advice to anyone trying to cut out grains and sugar is to really enjoy the foods that you ARE eating. I think this is key. If the thoughts are all about suffering and sacrifice I think it sets us up for failure. Take pleasure in the fueling of the body and miraculously those vedgies start to taste awesome. personally i am not an advocate of weighing and measuring of food anymore than I am of my body. But i guess its a good way to learn in the beginning. its all about Inuitive eating!!

Going grain free (and sugar free), has been the best decision i ever made about food!! i now eat 1000x times more vedgies than i used too!!

Evan, i'd like to hear your thoughts about IF? tried it for 8 hours once. What's my motivation for doing it regularily?

Anonymous said...

I just watched the video of the front squats from the first box....and I just want to say I saw a whole lot of you that have gotten super sexy since then! Apparently crossfit is working. Congrats to all the hotties!

Dorothy said...

Nikki: Thanks for the link. I will work on my own goals during my next boring meeing....ha ha!
Thinking about 6 categories with 1 or 2 goals for each:
-Strength
-Skill
-Endurance
-Nutrition
-Spirituality
-Relationships