12-04-09: Stiff-legged deadlifts, presses, and more running

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Monday, April 9th, 2012

Midway through a stiff-legged deadlift (it starts at the top, with the hips fully open and extended). Note the very flat lower back (which looks like its probably about to start bending... hard to tell in a still pic whether there's already bend in the upper spine, or if that's just a heavy enough weight to pull her out of perfect alignment while not indicating full trunk failure...)

CrossFit Original Firebreather Gregg Amundson shows just how much core strength and overall flexibility go into a great overhead squat. Jerk. (CrossFit)

Nicole Carroll just makes overhead squats look easy. (CrossFit)

Shit. More running.

Shit shit. More backwards running, too!

WoD: 5 minute AMRAP

• 10 Stiff-legged Deadlift 135#/95#
• 7 Overhead Squat

Sellout: Forward and Backward

• 800m Run

This marked my first time back in the early bird class in quite some time... cripes was it ever early! 5:30 am early, to be exact. Yikes.  After a new warm-up routine (and introducing myself to the three people going through the on-ramp program), it was time to get to work. I opted for a lower weight for the WoD, since I would be limited by my ever craptastic overhead squat form. Its coming along on those workouts where I can focus on it, and take the time to really lock the upper body into place and support through my entire body. Coming off 10 stiff-legged deadlifts? Not so much...

The workout was easy enough. 10 stiff-legged deadlifts, 7 overhead squats, repeat as often as possible for 5 minutes. Given the short time domain, the workout was designed to be a quick burner, with no time spent staring at the bar, or praying to Fitness Jesus to save us. That said, we were encouraged to scale the weights to our abilities, since an overly difficult overhead squat would lead to exactly those outcomes. 

The first round was easy enough, and I managed to keep both exercises unbroken. However, in the second round of overhead squats, I ended up dropping the bar after the 4th rep, because it had floated forward and out of my control. After pausing a second to shake out my arms and shoulders, I got it overhead and finished the round. In both the third and fourth rounds, I got called out for rounding my lower back AND letting the bar go out in front of me, rather than keeping the bar close to my legs, and protecting my lower back at all costs. I was striving for speed, and had sacrificed form and safety. Ultimate mistake in anything in life. Fortunately, I avoided an acute injury on the spot, and a day later, I'm more sore in my hamstrings (the targetted area) than in my back, so that's a good sign that I dodged a very ugly bullet. 

The third round of overhead squats fell completely to shit, with either 3-4 drops, I can't remember which. No good, but I was pretty gassed at this point, and my already iffy form was being asked to do waaay too much! 10 craptastic SLDLs later, and we had finally made it to the sell-out: more running, half of it backwards again! This time, instead of short runs alternating forwards and backwards, it would be just two runs, each half a mile, one forwards, one backwards. We all opted to do the backwards run first to get it out of the way. It sucked just as much as you might imagine. coming on the heels of that, the forwards run was just as bad, if not worse, with lots of joints lighting up to tell me how pissed they were at me, primarily both ankles and knees. Ugh. Stupid running. (Apparently I need to read Born to Run again... perhaps this time in memory of Caballo Blanco, who apparently went missing and is feared dead. Lame. RIP, Micah!)

12-04-05: Running and box jumps

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Thursday, April 5th, 2012

I didn't look like either of these guys today. I could only wish.

Am I the only person who sees this and hears the "Weird Al" Yankovic version of "George of the Jungle" going through his head? 'Watch out for that treeeeeeeee!'

Box jumps, including the all important opening of the hips on top of the box. In a non-Games environment, this can also be accomplished while jumping down from the box. I prefer the opening ON the box, because it slows me down and keeps me from hitting the wall 5 jumps in. 

WoD: 10 RFT

• 200m run (alt. forwards and backwards) 
• 2 box jumps 20” 

Man, running backwards sucks. SUCKS. Especially when you haven’t ever done it… and it seems its just not really as worth it if you’re not trying to throw a spear or fire an arrow at an animal trying to eat you. I guess it makes sense in that case… in this case, it just sucks. In other words, they’re a perfectly awesome workout addition. Grrrr….

The first run (200m forwards) was easy enough, as were the first two box-jumps. The first round running backwards almost ended in tragedy: it can be hard to avoid parked cars in the parking lot when you can’t see them. Either way, I avoided it, and almost had a bigger tragedy: its damn near impossible to do a box jump after running 200m backwards; the legs don’t know how to listen, or the brain can’t easily work out the change in direction. I ended up jumping almost too high, and nearly crashed on the landing. At the same time, I watched another athlete not quite jump high enough onto his 30” high box, and barely catch himself in time. Fortunately, neither of us died, which is always a good thing. After that, each backwards round required a bit of a mental muscle check. “These are my quads, these are my hamstrings, these are my calves…ready to jump!”

Total time: 13:17