- Randy Pausch
I've enrolled myself into the Essentials Program at my CrossFit gym. It's a 6-session program over 2 weeks that familiarizes people with all of the major movements in CrossFit exercises. Today was the first day.
Started with warm-up exercises, mostly dynamic stretching:
I've enrolled myself into the Essentials Program at my CrossFit gym. It's a 6-session program over 2 weeks that familiarizes people with all of the major movements in CrossFit exercises. Today was the first day.
I started at 6:00am sharp, which meant a 5:10am alarm clock to give me enough time to walk the dogs a mile before leaving for the gym. I only had one other classmate, however the regular class was surprisingly full, with about 12-15 people attending.
Started with warm-up exercises, mostly dynamic stretching:
1. Deep lunges with both hands down on the floor positioned ipsilaterally of your calf, transition to calf stretch with hands on either side of your forward knee, then stand up and pull opposite knee into body. Alternate sides as you move forward across the room.
2. Grab your ankle and pull it up toward your abdomen while leaning back a bit to stretch posterior hip flexors and glutes. Alternate sides as you walk across the room.
3. Start in a plank position and take baby steps forward while leaving hands in their initial position. Body transitions from plank to acutely angled downward facing dog. Then walk hands forward until you return to plank position. This was pretty tough on the shoulders (anterior deltoid).
4. While holding your hand out horizontally in front of you, palm down, kick your opposite, straightened leg up til you connect your toe with your palm. Alternate sides as you walk down the room.
After the warm-up, which admittedly (shamefully?) made me break a sweat, we grabbed a medicine ball (the big cushy kind, not the rubber roly poly kind) and a tube of PVC piping. Mara, our trainer for the day, proceeded to teach us the basics of classic squatting. She explained the squat is probably the most fundamental and important core functional movement for almost any physical activity and certainly for any CrossFit activity. That said, she was a pretty big stickler about our form and execution.
Not to say that I haven't done ANY squats since college, because I have, but I have certainly not done any heavy squatting (150+ lbs) since then. I tweaked my back in college and chalked it up to an injury, but according to the trainer, my form tends to break down at the bottom of the squat. I begin to tuck my tail under my body when I should be striving to move the hip further out and maintain a curve in the small of my back. If that's the case, that would certainly explain a lot pain in lower back while under load.
We practiced 3 types of squats: back squat, front squat, and overhead squat. I haven't done front squats since college and have never attempted overhead squats before. With, at most, a 15 lb training bar as my load, none of the movements felt particularly challenging.
The overhead squat was interesting. Amounting to what is basically the latter half of a full snatch, Mara encouraged us to focus on, in addition to proper squat form, keeping our shoulders shrugged and applying rotational pressure at the pinky end of our grip. These minor adjustments supposedly help lock the shoulder and back joints in order to provide maximum support for the weight suspended 8-10 inches above our heads.
We only did 5 of them with the 15 lb training bar, but even that short bout indicated that overhead squats could get very difficult very quickly as you load the bar.
Next, the actual work out. Mara had us do "Cindy". Strictly, Cindy is a 20-minute workout in which you rotate through the following routine: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats. The aim is do as many rounds as possible in a 20-minute period. Mara only had us do 10 minutes and emphasized form over speed for this workout, so I didn't want to push too hard. I only got 4 rounds in 10 minutes. As a benchmark, elite CrossFit athletes can usually do 15-25 rounds in 20 minutes.
In my next post, I'll discuss lingo and philosophy.
I am beyond curious to see what the change in your form does for your back. Do you do any straight leg deadlifts? If I recall correctly, you also had a tendency to curl your back over at the bottom of the motion on those.
ReplyDeleteYou're flexible enough to do 4? I have lost so much flexibility I can't touch my opposite toe anymore.
How did you get in position for the overhead squat? Clean and press? That... swinging up thing? From the Crossfit videos I've seen, the bar is well behind your head, which sort of freaks me out. I feel like my arms would rip off if I'm not super careful with the weight.
I've not seen SLDLs at this gym. Since CrossFit emphasizes power generation and functional prowess, my guess is I'll never do them, but rather focus on regular deadlifts (and any movements that extend from it -- snatches, cleans, etc.)
ReplyDeleteSo for the overhead squats, we were simply using a 15 lb training bar, so getting the bar above my head was trivial. For heavy weight, I believe it is expected that we'll either clean and press it or just do a straight snatch.
ReplyDeleteFunny you mention this, because I was just talking to a coworker who regularly does olympic style lifting and I explained that I was scared of tearing my rotator cuff right off my back. She explained, in not so many words, that the motion is athletic, so it does require some coordination and ability, but the movement as a whole can be broken down into more familiar movements, none of which are dangerous on their own. I.e. a clean & press is simply a deadlift followed by an upright row followed by a jerk followed by a squat and an overhead press. The bar itself should travel pretty much in a perfect vertical upward line, so there shouldn't be any backward momentum of the load to rip your arms out of your sockets. Combined with what CrossFit coaches call an "active shoulder", the grip and locking of the shoulder blades *ought* to prevent the bar from falling backward or causing some kind of injury.
I hope.
Trust me, Steve, my flexibility is terrible. "Dynamic" stretching lets you "cheat" in that my leg is only at full stretch for but a moment when it touches my palm. It's easier than you might think and a lot easier than sitting on the floor and trying to lean forward.
ReplyDelete