Chest to deck on the push up with a barbell waiting in the background. Are you able to focus on the movement you are doing at that specific time, or do you worry about something ahead of you in the workout?
BOTH 7 AND 8 AM CLASSES ARE A GO!
WOD
"Mr. Joshua"
5 rounds
Run 400 meters
15 Deadlift (250)
30 Sit-ups (abmat with soles of feet together)
Comments: Well, do you dread specific exercises during a workout?
Now that's a big antique dumbbell, It probably weights about 2 Speal!!
WOD
Thruster
3-3-3
Then
6 Round Tabata Mash-up of:
Dumbbell Hang Squat Clean
Chest to Bar Pull-up
Push Jerk (95/65)
Comments: Do you prefer barbells or dumbbells?
It sits in the corner all by it's lonesome. What the heck is it? An atlas stone, little devil is heavy. How heavy, we don't know? Just heavy. Try a wall ball with that sucka!
Some times and people in the classes yesterday.
WOD
7 Rounds
10 SDLHP (95/65)
15 Push ups
10 Knees to Elbows
Comments: Do you have friends that are interested in CrossFit but have a hard time coming through the doors? What is the number one thing that keeps people from giving it a try?
Boomer doesn't stop despite the busted achilles. Looks like he is desperate for some grub!
Progress and Motivation
by Eric
As many of you know, coming to CrossFit Park City is a great way to train. It’s “fun”, it’s tough, it’s varied, it increases your work capacity across broad time and modal domains and most importantly you get to hang out with EXTREMELY cool trainers…admit it, you think we are cool!! Many of you have talked about the improvements you have seen in your life and sport, but there may be others who are not be sure of how to assess your progress or time in the gym and you may be a little unmotivated at times. Here are some ways that you can track your progress or if you are feeling stagnated, can set up some goals to keep you motivated.
Assessing your progress; these are by no means the only options that you have but they are a good start:
1) How do you feel (beyond the soreness)?: Your body is likely the most important assessment tool that you have. How do you feel? Are you able to be more energetic in your day-to-day life or keep up with the kids easier than you have before? Are you prepared to tackle any of the challenges the day may throw at you? Addy told me a story about how his plow came off of his truck while plowing his driveway, so instead of putting it back on he decided to shimmy it back to his garage by deadlifting it. What was great about this story is that he recognized that he might not have been able to do this in the past. This area of assessment is often overlooked, so think about how CrossFit has benefited you in your every day life.
2) Are you moving better? This is an important assessor of your progress. I have to tell you that it is motivating for me to see people that could barely get into a squat position when they started and then a few months later they are squatting easily with no pain. This is an incredible achievement and I have no doubt that those individuals are able to move better and function better at other tasks they may encounter when not at the gym. Brian has talked about how focusing on doing movements better has been a great asset to his ski racing.
3) Recreational Activities (5ks, mountain bike, ski): Do you see progress while doing the recreational activities that you love outside of the gym? I have heard some people talk about how much easier their hikes are or that they are climbing up the hills with ease on their bikes. For those of us that love the outdoors, take some time to notice if those climbs are easier or if your legs aren’t as fried while skiing as they have been in the past. To some surprise we have had some people compete in 5k races and set PRs without doing any run specific training…think CrossFit had anything to do with that?
4) Progress in the gym: Do you know how to test your progress in the gym. You see us throwing in Benchmarks Workouts (named WODs) from time to time. If you performed better on a certain workout than you have before then you have most likely increased your fitness in that area and domain. For example: Last week we did “Diane” and Lavinia had a nearly 4 minute improvement in the workout over time…think she’s progressed in that area/domain? I think so!! Another way to assess your progress in the gym is during the strength workouts. Your “absolute strength”. If you are able to handle more weight than you have in the past then you have gotten stronger. We all know that this is beneficial and some of you are lifting more weight safely than you ever thought you could. Relative strength: Are you able to do more reps on a bodyweight exercise than you could before? Some have started and were afraid of the pull-up and now you are cranking them out with ease. This is why we give you log books when you get into the gym, not just to write workouts down, but so you can look back and see how you have progressed.
5) Scientific testing assessments outside the gym (PEAK Performance). We also have a good resource available to us that can assess different areas that we can’t do at CrossFit Park City. Kenzie works at PEAK Performance at the U and I had heard her mention some info about the place and just out of curiosity, I recently went down to get some testing done. Some of the testing that you can have done is: Bodyfat testing via the BodPod (this is an extremely accurate and easy way to assess your bodyfat percentage), VO2 max testing, Resting Metabolic Rate Testing, and Cholesterol Screening. If you are interested in fat loss, which has been talked about lately, then I recommend getting the BodPod Testing done and then in a couple months get it checked again to see how you have progressed. This is a more accurate indicator than using the scale or the “do my clothes fit better” assessments. There are a variety of options here so feel free to ask her about them or I can get you in contact with her to schedule an appointment.
Need help staying motivated? Then:
Have Goals. Set goals or plan events (5k Races, etc) for areas that you want to see progression. Goal setting can be a valuable asset to keep you motivated over periods of time. A personal example for me was wanting to increase my strength in certain lifts that had been stagnate for some time and would benefit me for preparing for the CrossFit Games. After 8 weeks I did some testing and was pumped up to find out that I had achieved my goals. This was extremely self-motivating for me and gave me some newfound confidence in those lifts.
1)Goals should be specific – saying I want to lose bodyfat is ok, but saying I want to lose 2% bodyfat by May 1 is a more specific and measurable goal.
2) Make goals realistic – saying I want to lose 45 lbs in a week is a) unhealthy and b) not realistic
3) Make short and long-term goals and stick with them. Don’t be disappointed if you miss a goal.
4) Every couple months or so look back and see if you have achieved your goals and if you have, then set new goals to achieve over the next couple of months, if you did not achieve a goal then set a new plan of attack to achieve it.
5)List some objectives to help achieve your goals. For example, a common goal in our gym is “I want to do a pull-up”. Design a plan of attack to achieve this goal such as: Step 1 - I will have 1 pull-up by May 1st. Step 2 - See Chris/Eric/Doug for some help on learning the kip progressions. Step 3 - Take 5 minutes daily to practice kip progressions during warm-ups with and without band assistance to become better at the technique, also do some strict pull-ups with a band and decrease band tensile strength over time to increase general pulling power, Step 4 - Take a look at your nutrition to see if it can help you…this could be the 1st step as well, Step 5 - Do the dang pull-up.
6) - After you achieve a goal, celebrate it, be happy, enjoy it and share it with us (this is not bragging)!! We LOVE hearing about goals that you are achieving and the progress you are having. It is motivating for us as trainers and lets us know that we are on the right track to help you achieve your goals. It’s actually a great way for us to assess ourselves as trainers and program planners.
Stagnating? Do you feel like you are starting to plateau a little? This can be frustrating, but after a while this is bound to happen in some areas. Here’s what I recommend doing: Start a logbook and record what you are eating, your workouts, how you are sleeping, how you feel physically/mentally and what your stress level is daily. Do this for a couple of weeks and be honest, write down the good and the bad; eating 5 donuts and not writing it down because it’s only 5 donuts and nobody saw you do it is not being honest!! Do this for a few weeks and then go back over it to see common trends and areas where you can improve. Low stress levels, quality sleep, and quality nutrition can be key to breaking through plateaus. Also, listen to your body and know when to back off a little bit or when to start pushing yourself harder in the gym; if you are unsure of how to do this then ask for our opinion as to whether you should scale down the workout or not. Scaling down a workout is not wasted time!!
Hopefully you found this a helpful way to notice how you are progressing and to help you stay motivated over a long period of time. If you have any question or would like help in figuring out some goals that would be good for you to achieve then ask one of the trainers or talk to a friend to help you out. Having some extra support from the people around you can help to keep you motivated!
WOD
50 Wall Ball
30 DB/KB Snatches
10 One Arm Swings
50 Sit-ups
30 Barbell Rows
10 Clapping Push ups
50 Box Jumps 24"
30 Deadlift (135)
10 Jumping Sit ups
50 Double Unders
30 Med Ball Throws (rotating)
10 Pistols/leg
100 ft OH Walking Lunge
Comments: Do you look at the WOD ahead of time and skip out on the ones you don't like?
A nice barbell is hard to find in a globo gym. Olympic lifters at elite levels will use bars in competitions that can be $1000!
WOD
Grab a barbell and Snatch!
3 Position Snatch
1-1-1-1-1
Snatch High Pull
1-1-1-1-1
INFO: WE WILL BE HAVING THE PROGRAMMING CLASS ON FEBRUARY 17TH AT 6:30 PM. THIS WILL INCLUDE SCHEDULING, REST/RECOVERY TIME, MAINTAINING YOUR CROSSFIT WORKOUTS WHILE IN SEASON FOR YOUR SPORT, AND OTHER TOPICS THAT MAY COME UP THROUGH QUESTIONS. PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON COMING. WE NEED A MINIMUM OF 8 TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
Comments: Do you notice the difference between a nicer bar and junk bar when O-lifting?
Mmmm, sugar!! If you have 10 mins, Here's a link that Erinn sent over that has some interesting info about the Hazards of Sugar and may make you think twice the next time you go into the soda aisle!! This is part 1 of a 9 part series
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjxyjcvW7RE&feature=related
WOD
10 Mins Handstand Push-ups or Strict BB Press
5 Mins Squats
2 Mins Pull-ups
1 Min Push-ups
Score is Total Reps Completed
Comments: Do you find sugar to be addictive?
Getting outside of the comfort zone with some dumbell work. Ugh
WOD
AMRAP 20 min
10 Thrusters (65/45)
10 Pull ups
If you want to change it up and try using dumbells or kettlebells for your thrusters go for it. Never hurts to do some things you aren't familiar with.
Comments: How about Wed, Feb 17th at 6:30 pm for the class on programming? I know it won't work for everyone but this will give us some time to get the word out. So lets plan on it.
Sorry for the blurry pic, but for those of you that are in the pic and participated in the workout we FINALLY have you t-shirts in. They are in the gym so pick one up!
WOD
5 Rounds
21 Box Jump
7 Push Press (135/95)
21 Swings
Comments: Post some things you would like addressed when we have the programming workshop. Here is what we are thinking of. Scheduling, rest days, priority workouts, sport specific workouts. Add anything else you are interested in.
I think we should get one of these set up outside the gym. It can be your warm up every day.
Programming?
-Our community is
different than most in the sense that we look at CrossFit as a means to
improving our other activities. We
have a variety of athletes in our gym, ranging from the weekend warriors to
Olympic hopefuls or previous competitors of the Olympic Games. The common theme throughout the gym is
that the vast majority of us have other sports that we focus on. CrossFit is not our sport. This is by no means a negative thing,
and in fact could be argued that it is a huge part of why people CrossFit. We saw the other week how a greater base
of GPP would provide us with higher performance in our specific sport. But this arises the question of how do
we mesh the two training styles.
In my opinion Park
City residents are your typical over trainers and it leads to less productive
work in the long run. We tend to
think more is better, look to the endurance community for our training
principals when it really may not apply to us, or overwhelm ourselves with the
thoughts that we need to train CrossFit, all our specific sports, go long
duration and short duration, and get in those “long recovery rides/runs” just
to get the miles in.
But what if we are
dedicated CrossFitters and endurance athletes? CrossFit may not be my sport, but I have seen the benefits
of it and don’t want to lose what I have gained in the gym when I go to train
for my specific sport, which is more often than not road or mtn biking in our
town. You may have experienced two
weeks away from the gym and realized how much it does make a difference and how
hard it can be when coming back in the doors to hit up a WOD. On numerous occasions we have heard our
members/athletes talk about how much CrossFit has helped their skiing, riding, running,
etc. The trick is balancing our
training and finding what works best to maximize our training. Tonight we will take look at a couple
of things to help you work through this.
1. Your body is a
lab:
It is going to take
time to find out what works best for you concerning your training schedule. A good general rule of thumb is
to use common sense. Harder done
than said though. Remember that
old thought of “more is better”.
This can get us in trouble.
Learn to listen to your body and be able to work hard when your big days
are in. REALLY do recover on
recovery rides and don’t turn them into races with your buddies to see who is
fastest. Play with different
scheduling to see what works best.
Experiment with two a days, and always have at least one rest day in the
week so you can truly recover.
Big Take
Away: Be patient and trust that
what you are doing works. Even
“less than ideal” programming can yield some pretty good results. It’s going to take some time to dial it
in.
2. Your sport
matters:
When you are
seriously competing in something you need that to be the priority. So when your season comes around it
means that CrossFit may sit on the back burner. This does not mean that we don’t do it, rather our focus is
our sport. If you have two
workouts set up for one day, one being CrossFit and the other your specific
training you need to put all your effort into the sport specific WOD. When you do come into CrossFit have it
either be after your SS WOD, or scale things down appropriately so you can hit
up your other workout with all you’ve got. When it’s your day to do CrossFit only give it everything
you’ve got. Don’t forget the
importance your GPP plays in giving your more performance in your sport. So take advantage of those CrossFit
WOD’s.
Big Take
Away: If you are serious about
your specific sport that needs to be your focus on the days that you are
training it.
3. Don’t stop CrossFitting:
All too often we see
people come into CrossFit to make gains in the winter and it enhances their
training for the summer. They
assume that when spring comes they need to take time off of CrossFit and train
sports specific only. Long and
slow… again. At the end of their
season they roll back in the doors and suddenly realize they lost everything
they had worked so hard for. Their
strength is in the bucket, and even some aspects of cardio have gone down
depending on the weight and duration of the workout. These people usually fail to return because they are
discouraged and it’s hard to get back to where they once where in their overall
general fitness level. CrossFit
works, and it’s important to our daily health and living, as well as our sports
specific training.
Big Take
Away: Keep CrossFitting, just
learn how to program it in appropriately.
4. How do I blend CrossFit and Endruance
workouts?
Don’t forget
that you need a day OFF. Take time
to rest and recover so that you can hit your workouts up hard. Having said that you can look at www.crossfitendurance.com for a great resource. I think that most people can’t handle
this kind of volume and it leads to overtraining. Some other things to consider would be something like the
following.
Mondy: CrossFit morning, Sport Specific (time trial) afternoon
Tuesday:
CrossFit
Wednesday: SS
(interval day)
Thrusday:
CrossFit
Friday:
CrossFit
Saturday: SS (longer duration ride or run)
Sunday: OFF
This is just one
option to think of and play with for your own programming. There are lots of varieties out there
to consider and you can benefit from each one of them. Find which one works best for you.
Big Take Away:
Program a day off and make sure you maintain similar principles to your endurance
WOD’s that you would for CrossFit.
Workouts should be relatively short and intense, in this case
(endurance) it will be more along the lines of intervals.
This is just a
brief look at the thoughts on maintaining CrossFit while focusing on your endurance
sports. We will be having a
workshop in the next couple of weeks (mid Feb) to help those of you interested
with coming up with some programs.
Please leave a comment if this is something you would be interested in
and we can set up a date and try to get both athletes in the gym and in the
Park City community in for the workshop.
WOD
Squat Clean
1-1-1-1-1
Post:
Max band push ups for 3 sets
Max KB one arm press for 3 sets
Comments: Would you guys or anyone else you know be interested in a workshop on programming CrossFit and Enduance workouts?
Recent Comments