11-08-05: Burpee, Knees-to-Elbows, Stiff-Legged Deadlift Triplet

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday August 5th, 2011

As Coach B says: "Yay Burpees!" Easy enough. Stand up. Then get your chest on the floor. Then get your feet off the ground and your hands clapping overhead. What you do in between is your business, unless strict burpees are called for, which require push-ups, squat jumps and that sort of thing. Either way, these things are HARD. (games2008.crossfit.com)

Eva Twordokens doing a pretty serious knee-to-elbow. To envision a supine variation, everything would look the same, except the bar would be over her head (ie, to the right, in the picture), and she'd be on her back. Get it? (crossfit.com)

Michelle Mootz from CrossFit Santa Clara demonstrating a perfect stiff-legged deadlift. The move starts from the fully standing position (requiring a regular old deadlift to get the bar into position), then you kick the hips back, and keeping the bar stuck to your legs (knees slightly bent), and keeping your back arched, lower the bar as far as you can without rounding your back. Super flexy? Do it standing on a platform that lets you lower the weight further. Old and stiff like me? Go as low as you can and come back up. (crossfit.com)

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WOD: 12min AMRAP

• 8 Burpees
  
• 4 Toes to bar (Supine)
  
• 2 Stiff-Legged Deadlift 155#
  

Bonus Round: 10 min
 - Work on under developed skills & progressions - ring work, dips and L-sits

[Prelude]
ZZzzzzZZZzzzzz. Stupid alarm clock. Stupid gym. Stupid cats sitting on my head waiting for me to get up and feed them! I'll just go back to bed... nah... maybe I'll feel better after rolling out and warming up at the gym. Maybe.
[/prelude]

It turns out I DID feel much better after the basic warm-up routine. Who would have thought? The soreness (in most areas) dissipated, the tightness (in most areas) evaporated. The urge to go back to bed? Not so much. I could still go back to bed now, 2 hours later. Sigh.

Pretty much any WoD, and especially any AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible), that includes burpees is going to suck. This was no exception. I tried to maintain a steady, non-frantic pace on them, but they just kick my ass so fast that by the end of the first round of them, I was already sucking some serious wind. Comparatively, the K2Es and SLDLs were downright easy.

I opted for the supine variant of the K2E's (lie on your back with your head towards your barbell, grab it like you were on a pull-up bar, and bring your knees to your elbows. Sort of like Ye Olde Reverse Bench Crunch. My hands have been really sore this week, and I didn't want to run the risk of tearing my callouses (again), so this seemed like a good option for maintaining the full-body aspect, while also protecting myself. Plus, it meant I got to keep lying down in the middle of each round. Sheer bliss.

By the third round, I was completely unable to string any burpees together, so the final 7-8 minutes of the workout were filled with slogging through burpees, then nailing the other movements pretty quickly. However, the burpee thing really killed my time moving from round to round.

Total rounds: 7 + 4 burpees

For my extra work, I focused on ring dips and ring L-sits, just trying to really maintain good support, body position, all that jazz.

Heather Bergeron (CrossFit New England) demonstrates all the many muscles required to make this happen. I don't think I can even get my legs parallel to the floor without leaning back in the rings. (crossfit.com)