12-07-28: ECC Throwdown Part 2

Elm City CrossFit Throwdown Part II WoDs

Shoulder to overhead, in this case using a shallow split jerk to drop a little under the bar.

Another shallow split jerk. Hard to tell from the picture, but his back leg doesn't seem "soft" enough, but the picture may not be from the actual catch, but when he was starting to transition to the full standing position in the third frame. If he can lift those weights... I assume he's got good form.

Ground to overhead with Sage Burgener. The final final frame would be with the weight held overhead, legs and hips fully extended. For the purposes of the throw-down, there was no requirement to ever get into a full squat position. For that matter, it didn't have to be a snatch, as pictured, but could have started with a clean to the shoulders, and then any form of shoulder-to-overhead. Anything goes...

Buck furpees.

Kettlebells with CrossFit Games former Champion Kris Clever and two time Champion Annie Thorisdottir. (CrossFit Games)

Box jumps. woot! (happilives.com)

How to do a wall ball. My only tweak would be in the final frame: It would be way more efficient to catch the ball with the forearms closer to vertical and the elbows bent a little more (more like the position in the first frame.) Cushion the catch by bending the knees, cycling straight into the next rep. The more you can maintain that form, the faster you can go. (CrossFit 714)

A scaled version of handstand push-ups. I opted for this scaling, knowing I wouldn't have 45 reps of band-assist in me, even with the stiffest bands. If these look easy, you've apparently never tried them. (Unless you do have unassisted handstand push-ups, in which case these probably are pretty easy. Shut up.) Note the nearly vertical torso. A common error is to have the hands out too far, turning it into an elevated regular push-up. Still a nice exercise, but not targeting the shoulder girdle or core in quite the same way. (Snoridge CrossFit)

---

WoD I

• 21-15-9
  
  • Deadlift @ 185#
  • Handstand Push-Ups (scaled to knees on the box)
• 10-8-6
  
  • Shoulders-to-Overhead @ 95#
  • Burpees

WoD II

• Wallballs til broken
• 3 minutes after last finisher
  5 rounds for time
  
  • 7 box jumps 30"
  • 5 Ground-to-overhead @ 95#

If I had written this two weeks ago... I might remember details other than ARGH! Owwie! It hurts!! I do remember my decisions on the scalings. Knowing that we were starting out with a workout named Diane (21-15-9 of 225# deadlifts and handstand push-ups), followed by another couplet involving the same bar (with a weight change), I decided to scale both weights by 40#, which would allow me to just slide the 45# plates off both sides of the bar between couplets. I also scaled the handstand push-ups to box handstand push-ups, knees on the box. For 45 reps, there was no chance of being in the bands and EVER finishing this workout! Our score on the WoD would be affected by the number of scalings, in my case, three.

For the second WoD, I went completely RXed, with my only nod to not killing myself being the decision to only complete 10 wallballs, rather than trying to do a ton of them, then finding my legs too crushed to actually complete the couplet. So, whatever time I got had ten seconds taken off (the number of wallballs completed counted as seconds to be subtracted from your total time... so if you did 90 wallballs and did the workout in 2 minutes, your total time would be only 30 seconds. Pretty sweet, if you have the motor to crank through a ton of wallballs, then recover enough to perform the workout well!

Comparatively, I don't remember details like my times and whatnot. All in all, it was an awesome showing from the ECC community, and great fun.  Even better was the barbeque afterwards, and showing off the newest member of our family, little baby Abby. It was also a nice opportunity to try some great paleo fair. Turns out that a burger without a bun, but cradled in a romaine leaf is *really freaking good.* A burger without a bun sticking to the back of your teeth is kind of a revelation! (Yup, I remember the food better than the workout. Go figure...)

12-07-26: Running, box jumps and pull-ups

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet makes running look easy. (CrossFir Games)

The box jump. Make that box twice as tall and you're onto something...

Heather Bergeron shows exactly why non-strong people struggle with pull-ups: They really do require almost every muscle in your body to be working. (crossfit.com)

---

WoD: 8 Rounds For Time

• 200 Meter Run
• 3 Box Jumps 30"
• 3 Dead Hang Pullups

Another workout that looked sort of easy on paper, but quickly degraded into a battle to the finish. We had the option of rowing 100m rather than running, and started out the session with a nice tutorial and quick coaching from Coach Larry, a varsity crew rower during his days at Syracuse U. (Can I say "our days" if I was somewhere on campus at the same time, even though I didn't know him then?) As always, for someone like me who taught himself for a few years before finally joining a gym and getting real coaching, there were plenty of cues and pointers to pick up, and the brief coaching/trouble-shooting he provided definitely highlighted and fixed a few problems I hadn't yet sorted out... or realized were problems. Tight shoulders? Who'd have thought?

After that, we set-up our boxes and pull-up stations, and then got to work. For the first few rounds, I felt pretty good, but it was definitely warm and muggy out, and I started having trouble controlling my breathing on the runs, meaning I was gasping by the time I got back for the box jumps, and 30" is a pretty tall jump to try to hit completely fatigued out. I tried to keep all the jumps more or less chained together (the standard was to stand up tall on top of the box, then step/hop down.), which I was fairly successful at. Then came the pull-ups. Each round, I alternated between pull-ups (palms facing away) and chin-ups (palms facing me), for the dual benefits of giving different muscles a break, and helping me keep track of what round I was on (pull-ups on the odd rounds, chins on the even ones).

As the rounds wore on, my prep time before the pull-ups/chins started to get longer, and after only a few rounds, I was down to grinding out singles anyways. The average time per round, which had started at a little over a minute, started to creep up, and by the final few rounds, the pull-ups alone were taking me that long. Still, drenched in sweat, I finally finished somewhere around the 13 minute mark, having done the entire workout RX'ed, even to the point of not using any bands for the pull-ups (though perhaps I should have.)  I had figured that it was just three at a time with enough time in between sets to rest... forgetting that between the running and pull-ups, there would be no rest. Silly dumbass.

12-07-13: Friday the 13th Triplet

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday the 13th, July 2012

The overhead squat (shown to not-quite full-depth, though as always, it could just be a timing artifact, and she's .1 seconds before or after hitting full depth). As always, the hip crease should be BELOW the top of the knee. Way easier said than typed...

Former CrossFit-trainer and Paleo-guru Robb Wolf coaches the proper bottom position of the OHS. (crossfit)

This is how we got the bar into position, with the addition of getting the bar behind our heads BEFORE jerking it overhead, so that it would go straight up into the right position. We also didn't drop it and celebrate as soon as we got it up there... Natalie Burgener was really just doing a classic clean & jerk. 

Sage Burgener demos more proper clean & jerk technique. The other difference to note is that, when using this as the set-up for the OHS, the hand position ends up quite a bit wider, and the final foot stance stays closer to that in the 4th frame (top right), rather than closing up after the jerk to get the bar overhead. (crossfit)

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet showing awesome overhead squat positioning down in the bottom.  (CrossFit Games)

Original Firebreather Greg Amundson shows off perfect form coming out of the hole. (CrossFit)

CrossFit HQ's trainer Nicole Carroll looks way too comfortable in the bottom position. (CrossFit)

Proper box jumping, though I'd say the trunk lean in the very first frame might be a bit excessive. Still, going into and out of the slight squat, his trunk is kept mostly upright (as compared to having that much lean in the 4th frame), which saves considerable energy and wear-n-tear on the back.

Banded pull-ups. A necessary evil, I guess... Must get stronger, dammit! 

Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet mid-muscle-up, proving exactly why ring dips are so obviously crucial to the movement! (CrossFit Games)

---

WoD: 3 Rounds for Time

• 2 Overhead Squats @ 75% of Bodyweight or 1RM OHS = 95#
• 5 Box Jumps 30"
• 7 Dead Hang Pullups (blue band)

As I'm writing this, I'm also watching the 2012 Reebok Crossfit Games. It's refreshing to remind myself just how far I have to go if I ever want to pretend to compete on that stage (having paid my $20 get immediately eliminated in this year's Open leading up to the Games.) Damn impressive, even if, as usual, the chuckleheads posting on the live stream are (at least some of them) among the very worst that CrossFit has to offer. (As a side note, this week saw the shutting down of Beast Modal Domains, aka the Conscience of HQ, and the epic ignoring of CrossFit Mean Streets proving themselves to be the biggest d-bags on the planet...) I may yet end up writing a full opinion-piece on all of that... with the reminder to my few readers that, though I'm affiliated with a gym, I'm not an employee and my views are my own. (In other words, HQ can piss up a rope if they think they can shut me down by pressuring my affiliate or by sending anonymous packages to my employers. That post will actually be called "In Defense of CrossFit," but it will NOT be a kool-ade zombie defense...)

OK, back on topic. After a few days off, it was time for my first quick burner in some time. Overhead squats, limited more by my 1RM than my bodyweight, box jumps, and pull-ups. The only scaling I opted for was a band on the pull-ups. 7 rounds of 3 I would have done unbanded. 3 rounds of 7 is just too many at once. (Have I mentioned lately that I really need to tighten way up on my diet? It'll make things like pull-ups MUCH easier...) My overhead form on the OHS is getting much better, and I felt pretty solid warming up to my game weight of 95# (75% of my 1RM of 125#).  For this workout, we had to clean it from the bar, get it behind the head, then jerk it up overhead into the OHS squat position... more on that later.  Box jumps were no sweat. Banded pull-ups... well, they'll always annoy me.

First round went pretty much to plan. Annoyingly, in the second and third rounds, I struggled to keep the weight overhead on the 2nd OHS rep of each round. Though I didn't get no-repped, I decided then and there I would be doing some extra work after the WoD to make up for it. I finished with a total time of 3:58, with at least a minute of that coming while dealing with the barbell. I was usually able to get it cleaned up to the shoulders pretty quickly, and then behind the neck. After that, there was usually a (seemingly eternal) struggle to figure out hand placement and foot position. I kept trying to put my feet too wide or angled too far out, but then knowing that from that position, I'd set myself up for some severe knee caving action. So then the feet would have to come back in prior to starting a rep. All in all, it left me really distracted for the actual lifts, so in that light, its not surprising I was dumping to the front coming out of the second rep.

After the workout, I worked with Coach Greg for a bit on hand and foot positioning, and then banged out a set of 5 reps at 95#, all of which felt better than ANY of the reps in the workout. Hm, in hindsight, that does actually raise a complaint for me: I truly believe in the CrossFit approach of Mechanics -> Consistency -> Intensity. Given that, at the first moment I started struggling with form, I probably should have shit-canned the WoD for myself, and just focused on putting in solid work on the OHS all by itself. Dammit...

After my remedial OHS work, I set up some rings, which I haven't been on in a fairly long time, and put in some time working ring dips and ring rows. At some point (again, after finally getting food and diet stuff locked in, and some gut-padding shedded), I'd really like to start working towards a muscle-up. Finally. ;)  One thing I can't wait for is this: Finally buying a house (cleared for closing and mortgage stuff) in August. I'll finally be able to set-up the garage gym, and *this* time I'm planning on making full use of it. Rings, olympic bar and all. w00t!

12-06-06: Short chipper disasterpiece

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

The chipper. Perfectly good wood goes in. Shattered pulp emerges. PERFECT analogy for this workout. (zombiehunters.org - Making Dead Things Deader Since 2003)

---

WoD: For Time:

• 3 Rounds
  
  • 20 Pullups
  • 5 Box Jumps [24"/20"]
• 2 Rounds
  
  • 20 Toes to Bar
  • 5 Pushups
• 1 Round
  
  • 8 Clean [full squat] and Jerks @ 75% Bodyweight

There is no rest as you move between rounds and movements.

Right from the get-go, this was a disaster. 60 pullups, followed by more grip-centric work, culminating in clean and jerks, which require tons of wrist mobility and grip strength, both of which were already gone? Yikes. Used a heavy blue-band for the pull-ups, and maybe should have gone even stronger for this number of reps. For the third round, I tried to add a second blue band (ie, the only nearby one to grab), and realized it was MUCH stronger than the one I already had, and using both would have spiked me like a dart into the ceiling. I went back to my original blue band and kept cranking out singles and doubles, alternating between chin-up and pull-up grips. The box jumps were easy and quick compared to that...

The toes to bar (scaled to knees to elbow) were kind of terrible, as my grip and lats were so smoked already that I could barely hang from the bar, much less add a full core contraction to the mix, at least not very easily. Slowly but surely I chipped away at them. The push-ups were easy and quick compared to that...

My first attempt at a clean and jerk nearly ended in disaster. When the bar made it to my shoulders (in a full power clean position, requiring an "elevator ride" down the bottom squat position), both pinkies slipped over the bar. I can recover ok when one slips out of the grip... but both? I tried to over-jerk the bar so that I could "catch" it overhead. Failing this, I instead guided the accelerating bar back to the ground with a minimum of injury. That one could have been bad.  After that, I took a minute or two to roll out my forearms and triceps, knowing that the accumulating tension in both areas would make my grip in the rack position less sure. I had no more huge issues, and was able to get the grip situated while still in the rack position before split jerking the weight overhead.

Total time: 17:00

12-05-xx:The Big Catch-Up Post!

Over a month's worth of WoDs from Elm City CrossFit

Ok, holy crap, its been over a month since I updated this thing. In rapid order, and with no record of times or accomplishments, are the WoDs I've been a part of since April 27th, my last post.


12-05-01: Running, Chelsea/Cindy, MORE Running!
WoD: For Time

• 800m Run
• *50 Pull-ups
• *100 Push-ups
• *150 Squats
• 800m Run

*done as 10 sets of 5-10-15

If you're CF savvy, you'll spot that this is a variation on either Chelsea or Cindy (both of which involve sets of 5-10-15 pull-ups, push-ups and squats. Only kicker? The bookmarking 800m runs. Needless to say, the pull-ups kicked my ass, the push-ups caught up with me, the squats were easy, and the first run was waaay easier than the second. Second one was actually harder because my arms were too shattered to help me with momentum... ugh. Slowest time of the day... whatever it was.


12-05-02: Kettlebells, Stiff-Legged Deadlifts, and sprints
WoD: 3 x 3 for time:

• 5ea SA KBS
• 10 SLDL @ ½ BW
• Crack Dash

1 minute rest between each round (so after every 3rd crack dash (means sprint to you and me...)

This started easy and got AWFUL really fast. Definitely a pain in the butt a day after a full body burner. Ugh.

12-05-04: Pull-Ups and Bear Crawls
WoD: For Time 75 Pull-ups *unbroken
*every break equal one bear crawl loop


Sheer awfulness. Used a nice heavy band, and still ultimately lost count of how many bear crawls I did. Enough that I could barely bear crawl OR do pull-ups by the end. The only band stiff enough to get me up and over the bar with ANY sort of form is the black band, which is so taut I can't actually hit full extension while standing in it: Not an option. I'm more likely to spike myself into the ceiling like a rivet with that thing!

12-05-08: Cleans and sprints
WoD: 7x 90sec to complete:

• 3 Cleans
• Crack Dash

Not a bad workout. I don't remember my clean weight, but it was heavy, but not undoable. The problem with waiting a month to actually write it up (yes, it IS in a notebook... at the gym!)

12-05-09: Rope Climbs and Double-Unders 
WoD: 15min AMRAP

• 1 Rope Climb
• 20 Double Unders

Thank god for the knotted rope. Made a bunch of ascents (maybe 8?) before having a panicky moment near the top when it felt like my grip was really giving out. Transferred over to doing 10 ring rows for the final two rounds, which was where it  became obvious that my grip WAS completely gone, as I could barely do a rep or two before sliding off the rings, just no grip left. Most of the jumping was single-unders, but I mixed in as many double-unders as I could. Might have gotten more rounds with just single-unders, but that would have reduced my rest time between climbs, so that just would have been me hitting the grip wall even faster. Likely amounts to about the same.

10 rounds, x extra ring rows


12-05-14: Front Squats, Overhead Squats and Snatches
WoD: 3x7
Front Squat @ 75%
Followed by: Heavy Singles of overhead squat or snatch

Completed every round of front squats unbroken, only had grip issues on the first set (finishing it with the silly California front squat grip I so hate and rely on sometimes). After banging those out, I opted to work on my overhead squats. After getting in several heavy singles on them, I also started to mix in the occasional snatch, but was having trouble getting fully under the bar in a full squat, so went back to the overhead squats to help myself get more comfortable in all ranges of the motion with the bar overhead.

12-05-16: Skill/Max day!
5 attempts each:

• Max Weight Dead-hang Pull-Up (no-kip)
• Max Height Box Jump
• Row 500m

This was a fun day (other than Coach Kimmie racking herself on a box jump and ending up with awful lumps on her shins. Fortunately they were merely superficial!)  Managed a deadhang pull-up with a 35# kettlebell attached. Made a few attempts to best that with the 44# 'bell and just couldn't manage it. Next time. Box jumps were another story. 24"? Easy. 30"? Easy. 36"? Easy. 40"? NOT easy... but I made it. Tried to make it to 44" but just couldn't get over the fear factor. Every attempt at that height was pathetic, with my feet not even making it over the seam of the bottom box (two boxes on their sides, one 45# plate on top), so its not like I was just missing. I was completely psyching myself out.

Rowed an ok first attempt on the 500m, and was more or less happy to leave it there. However, after the crappy attempts at the box jump, I decided to crank out another 500m, and shaved a good 10s off my time.


12-05-18: Jerks and skills
WoD: 20 Singles:
 - Jerk (front and/or back) @ 80%
Sellout: Skill work

Jerks out of a weight rack are so much more fun than off the floor... though, to mix things up, I did do a few reps as clean and jerks, just to mix it up. Jerking from behind the neck is so much infinitely easier (you don't need to move the head out of the way of the bar path, so its a simpler movement overall). Weight?

12-05-21: Wallballs, mountain climbers and crab walks
WoD: 2x 6min on: 3min off

• 3 Wallballs(20#, 10' target)
• 10 Mountain Climbers (1to1)
• 1 loop Crab Walk 

I don't remember how many rounds I completed... all I remember is that the wallballs were easy, the mountain climbers were fast, and the crab walks devastated me.


12-05-23: Bench presses and max-rep push-ups
WoD: Rounds of 5-4-3 reps, then 3s till failure (If you miss a 3, you're done!)

• Bench @ 85%
• max rep push-up

Round of 5 was easy, 4 was ok, first round of 3 totally sucked, but at that point, the push-ups really tapered off, and stopped being such a drain on the bench press. Managed 4 rounds of 3, failing on the final rep of that fourth round. I almost made it too... right up until the bar changed directions and had to be caught by the spotter (Thanks Vin!)


12-05-25: Interval kettlebell swings and box-jumps
WoD: 4x

• 1min Kettlebell Swings
• 1min Box Jumps (step down only)
• 1min Rest

My only goal was to try to maintain reps from one round to the next (count was total number of reps across both exercises each round), which I managed. I don't remember now which version of the swing I did... though it was probably the traditional/Russian swing out in front, rather than overhead. I believe about this time I read an article discussing the differences, and have started going overhead. This workout may makr the last time I did traditional swings. Ah well.


12-05-28: Memorial Day Team WoD!
WoD: For time (entire team)

• 400m weighted run 35#
• 50 squats
• 25 pull-ups
• 100m run
• 50 burpees
• 25 weighted sit-ups 35#
• 800m run 

Six 3-person teams squared off to tackle this beast of a workout, dreamed up on the spot by Coaches Vin, Bobby and Kimmie (mostly Vin and Bobby...bastards).  Every member had to to do every rep, and move from movement to movement together as a team. However, 1 person from each time could move ahead and complete the entire workout on their own, then swing back to help a struggling teammate with whatever they were chipping away at.  My team was Woody, Azaria, and myself: clearly Woody was going to be the sprinter on this one, and indeed he was. There were two things that made me excited about this one: it was my first team WoD, and it was also the first time Jen and Emma had come out to meet the crew and watch me compete. Nerves!!!

Long story short, we came in last, mostly because I got mud-stomped by the pull-ups, and Z got mud-stomped by the burpees. Woody came back around during the burpee phase, helping Z out with her final reps while I went on to sit-ups. As I struggled through them (its really hard to breath during sit-ups with a 35# plate on your chest... I felt bad for those who did it with the Rx'd 45#!), Bobby offered me the option of scaling the run to 400m, just 2x around the parking lot. I declined, and struggled through the full 800m, but was determined to complete the WoD as written (other than using a band on the pull-ups. I think I forgot to mention that... Meh.) Awesome day, and a great time was had by all!

12-05-30: Chipper Disasterpiece
WoD: For Time:

• 15 Pull-ups
• 30 Push-ups
• 45 Squats
• 2min Rest
• 9 Deadlifts @ 225#
• 9 Hand-stand Push-Ups
• 2min Rest
• 400m Run
• 15 Overhead squat 95# 
• 2min Rest
• 50 Double-Unders 150 single-unders
• 50 Sit-ups

Holy crap did this one suck. Especially two days after the Memorial Day chipper, to hit another epic full body disaster really kind of hurt! The only thing that kept it interesting was knowing that each couple/triplet was a round of one of the named workouts, so that was fun. The workout was HARD. One big upshot was doing all the weights as Rx'd easily, and even though I subbed out single for double-unders, I completed all 150 jumps unbroken. So, that was kind of awesome.

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

12-03-10: CrossFit Open 12.3: Too Much Everything

CrossFit Open WoD 12.3


Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:

• 15 Box jumps, 24" box
• 115# Push press/jerk, 12 reps
• 9 Toes-to-bar

Nothing here that doesn't suck. (Wow, parse all THOSE negatives!) High(ish) box jumps. Heavy(ish) push presses/jerks. Toes to bar. Nothing good. Nothing fun. After watching the first heat go through the workout, I jumped into the second heat. Not by choice... I assumed all the judges from the first heat were going to go, but apparently not. So, I jumped in. I had warmed-up and stretched as well as I could. My only concern was that my abs were still kind of tight and sore from Thursday's sit-ups/double-unders couplet, but that didn't really become much of a factor during the workout.

My only goal was really this: go steady and slow. 18 minutes is way too long for me to sprint, or even quickly jog. If I didn't sprint out of the gate, I would probably be ok. Matt Chan did a video on box jump efficiency, and two things I tried to take from it were not look down at the box, since that puts you in more of a compressed position after landing on the box, requiring both more time and effort to stand; and to jump down from the box, bounce off the floor back onto the box, utilizing the stretch-shortening cycle inherent in that landing to do some of the work, and to rest on top of the box. Stepping down, my usual MO since all the issues with my knees back when, actually requires more effort overall than the bounce, so provided there are no active injuries involved, jumping down and bouncing back up is actually the easier option, as well as being faster.

As a result of Mr. Chan's advice, I was actually the fastest through the first set of box jumps, and in total, they weren't as awful as I thought. I think I managed to keep that first set unbroken, but I might be wrong. After that, it was on to the "shoulder to overhead anyhow" movement, with 115# on the bar. That's a pretty light weight, until you're doing it for 12 reps. I don't think I saw anyone who didn't struggle with it, even the big guys. Even if you were well within your strength capacity for getting that weight overhead, doing it while suffocating because that weight is also crushing down on your chest and lungs will make anyone stop and take notice. That took two sets to get through, I think. Possible it was unbroken, but that's kind of unlikely.

On to the toes-to-bar. I hate these. I just can't chain them together very well, and lack the upper body strength to muscle myself to the bar to make a close rep a good rep. T2Bs were the only movement I got no repped on (though I may have missed a landing on a box jump... I don't really remember). I did a pretty good job of getting through the first round, but the next two rounds, and specifically the T2Bs, would be my undoing.

Back to the boxes, then to the bar. Each was broken up into several mini-sets to keep chipping away at the totals. At this point, I was in total oxygen debt (or, it certainly felt it), so I was taking short breaks, 2-3 seconds, to blow out some CO₂ and get some fresh air in. Funny to have people yelling support when you've only just paused, and you have a plan for restarting. The second set of T2B were... not fun. My judge, Sheri, did a great job of no repping me when I failed to make contact with the bar, which became much more common. I made sure to drop off the bar and recover for a second or two before attempting another rep after a failed one. No need to dig myself into a hole by trying repeatedly for something that I can only get while kind of fresh in the first place! Third round was just like the second, only more so, in all aspects.

Finally, with time running out, I made it back to the boxes for the 4th round. I tried to stay unbroken, but just could not breathe for the life of me. I only wanted to get through the push-presses, having no illusions about my ability to crank out more T2B at this point with the time running out. I got on the bar, and dammit, but I couldn't complete the initial clean, to get the bar onto my shoulders, without an annoyingly long recovery. I think the issue is that I'm still not rock solid on the clean, so it still scares me to try to do it completely gassed. After finally getting it up to my shoulders, I started trying to crank out push-jerks to make up for that slowness to start. There's no way I was unbroken, and honestly, I don't really remember. All I know is that I hit the tenth rep just as time ran out.

Completed rounds: 3 Extra reps: 25
Total Reps: 133

12-02-08: Bodyweight Squats

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Karianne Dickson works backsquats with Louie Simmons and the rest of the Westside Barbell crew. In other words, there is much awesomeness in this pic.

More back squat awesomeness.

Box jumps. Der!

---

Strength: 5x

• Max Rep Back Squat @ Bodyweight (185# (Ideal BW))
• 3 Box Jumps
• 2 minute recovery

 A good simple strength workout. As many reps of back squats as possible (capped at 15), followed by three quick box jumps. Slow powerful movement followed by explosive movement. Awesome. The first round, I was glad for the rep cap, though I'm not really sure how many more reps I could have done... I just wanted to max out at least one round. The three box jumps after that were  murder, but they were nothing compared to the squats that followed! I managed to gut out 10 reps in the 2nd and 3rd and rounds, but everything kind of caught up in the 4th: 6 whole squats before I nearly fell over coming out of the bottom.

Its funny how the body recovers, though. Having only done 6 reps meant that I had less to recover from during the two minutes of rest, letting me jump back up to 10 reps for the final round. The only thing that kept me going was that I wanted more than "the next big round number," in this case 9 reps, which would have brought me to just 50. I'm a sucker for a big round number, so getting past it before crapping out was kind of a small victory. I'll take it!
 
Reps: 15/10/10/6/10 = 51

12-01-02: Backsquats, box jumps, jump and shrugs

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Squat. All the way down. All. the. way. down. Otherwise, NO REP! (Paleo Now)

Box jumps. For this WoD, the height wasn't too high, to encourage faster cycling and explosive rebounding back up onto the box. Note the low reps to support that (High rep box jumps are now known to blow out Achilles tendons, which is becoming sadly common in CrossFit circles...) (Motor City CrossFit)

The triple extension: ankles, knees, and hips all opening to propel the bar upwards. Note that the arms are still fully extended, "showing off the triceps," allowing/forcing the much stronger lower body to do all the work. The "jump and shrugs" mimic exactly this portion of the lift, going from a slightly contracted angle in all three joints to full extension. The arms never bend, and the weights never rise above this height. (CrossFit)

---

Strength: 4x6

• Back Squat @ 80% (Calculated to 250#, then dropped to 250# for rounds 3-4.)
• Each set followed by:
• 3 Box Jumps
• 10 Kettlebell “Jump and Shrugs”

Ah the joy of figuring out calculated weights using OTHER calculated maxes to work from. I apparently managed to lift 265# for a set of 5 a month or so ago, so a calculated 1 rep max was 315#. So 80% of THAT would be 250#. So, 4 sets of 6 reps. Easy! Well, as it turns out, not so much.  I warmed up at steadily increasing weights, noticing that the bar felt REAL heavy at about 225#. I finally moved up to the 250#, and prepped for the WoD itself.

I struggled mightily on the first set, but made it through. After each set of squats, we had three box jumps (20") and ten kettlebell triple extensions (aka "jump and shrugs") (36# per kettlebell). Well, feeling crushed by that first set, I stumbled through the rest of the round. After resting up a bit, I re-approached the bar. On this set, the first 3-4 reps were tough... the fifth was awful... on the sixth, about 2" out of the bottom, I suddenly realized I was on the knife's edge of completely failing out, and I had no idea how I would get rid of the bar in that position. Between my not-great shoulder flexibility, and my completely squashed up position, I just didn't know what to do. Sucking in a great breath, I did the only thing I could think of: I stood up under the weight and managed to rack the bar amidst a haze of spots in front of my eyes. Not fun. After catching my breath for a few seconds, I finished the round and started considering dropping the weight to complete the workout.

Meanwhile, everyone else was already racking their gear, since my warm-ups took me into their second or third sets. Bah. After dropping back down to 225#, I went back for round three. By now, I was so annihilated by the first two rounds, even the lighter weight was almost too much, but I made it through, and completed the round. At this point, I actually considered cutting the workout short. Everyone else was done, including the person I usually give a lift to, who had other things to get going on that morning. No one else would notice... no one but me. Seriously, I could walk away, and no one would be any the wiser. I was tired, I felt broken, it would have been perfectly ok.

Bullshit. I re-addressed the bar, got my ass under it, banged out six more reps. The last two sucked almost as bad as the one that nearly wrecked me in the second round, but with the rest of the class cheering me on (well, those who were still there...), I made my way through it, and banged out the rest of the round. I'm glad I didn't give in to the temptation to cheat the workout, the coaches, and most importantly, myself. What's the point of spending the money, and taking my time and everyone else's, just to quit when it gets hard. What's the worst that happened at that point? With a lighter weight I fail and dump the bar and end the workout there? Who cares? At least I tried! And having successfully finished it, all the better.

11-12-16: Box jumps and double-unders

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday, December 16th, 2011

High box jumps. We didn't go anywhere near this tall, but worked in with double-unders, that makes total sense. (CrossFit Roots, Denver CO)

Double-unders. Its just jumping rope... I don't know why Brandy Richardson needs to make it look so much harder than it is. Show off. (crossfit.com)

---

WoD: 3 Rounds for Time

• 1 Box Jumps (30")
• 10 Double-Unders
• 2 Box Jumps
• 20 DU
• 3 Box Jumps
• 30 DU
• 2 min Recovery

Some days you have double-unders, and others you start getting grateful for a single rep that doesn't result in you whipping the rope into your toes. Not so bad the first time, but the hundred and first time... well, its gotten old by then. This morning was a trainwreck, highlighting my need to do double-under work far more regularly, either as part of my warm-up or cool-down. I apparently don't have them strongly enough to put them away for a month, then come back and expect them to be there.

The first round started well enough. Easy big box jump, followed by 10 broken up double-unders, nothing too bad. Two more jumps, then a chain of 20 double-unders. Boo-yah, I'm back! Three more jumps, then a slightly broken up set of DUs, probably something like 6, 20, and 4 reps to get out of the round. My split time for the round was 2:15. It would be the last split I noticed.

The second round was... bad. After waiting 2 minutes, I jumped back in. Again, jumps weren't too bad at all. For this round, I think the most reps I strung together on the DUs was two... maybe three. Not bad for ten, but getting awful on the set of twenty, and sheer torture on the set of thirty. Little did I know that the 3rd round would be even worse.

Again, jumps were ok. As I struggled through the set of 10 DUs, most of the rest of the class finished. The stragglers were well done before I got out of the round of 20... and it was all me for the round of 30. I wanted to quit. I would have given anything to have been done and recovering. As it was, I had to have single-bounced enough between double-under attempts to have officially completed the scaled version of the WoD (2x singles for each Rx'd DU, so rounds of 20, 40, and 60 SUs.)  Either way, by the time I was done, my lungs were scorched, my calves were unhappy, and my will was crushed. Well, not crushed. Like I said, I know what to learn from this experience: Remedial rope work before or after every WoD, and some work on off-days, unless they are deemed pure recovery.


Total Time: 13:53

Note: While trying to find pictures for this installment, I came across a great post on beastmodaldomains about utilizing box jumps in a WoD, and tackling the issue of massive reps being very risky in terms of achilles ruptures. Suddenly, instead of wondering why we only did 18 total box jumps, I marvel at the intelligence of it. Sweet. Plus, it has several awesome pics, including my new favorite:

11-11-04: Box Jumps, Pull-Ups, Push-Ups and runs

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday, November 4th, 2011

Tire jumps. Jump up. Jump or step down. Repeat. (CrossFit Nyack)

Pull-Ups.  Blargh! (District CrossFit)

Push-Ups. Chest touches the floor on every rep. (Team Gorilla)

Running. Left right left right, right? (Team Gorilla)

---

WoD: 5 Rounds for Time, 30 minute cap

• 20 Box Jumps
• 20 Pull-ups (Band-assist)
• 20 Push-ups
• 200m Run
• 1 minute rest

Yup, pretty much thought I would die on this one. My big mistake (I realized about an hour later) was not scaling the pull-ups correctly. While band-assisted pull-ups might be ok in the 20-40 rep range, they are NOT ok in the 100-reps-in-a-single-workout range. These should have been replaced with jumping chest-to-bar pull-ups. Both easier on the arms, in terms of saving something for the push-ups, but also more work on each of the later rounds. Basically, I got so weak that there was NO way I was getting completely extended at the bottom of the pull-ups, since I couldn't begin to pull my way back out of that hole. So, shitty range-of-motion in an attempt to just finish. Funny, didn't I just write about not compromising ROM for time?! Dammit.

Tire jumps were always not too bad, though I still can't chain them together all that effectively, which means I'm losing a ton of energy and efficiency on each one. However, for all 100, the jump up felt fine, and I jumped down on all of them (rather than stepping down) and my knees feel pretty good right now (about 4 hours later).  Time will tell.

Push-ups were a massive pain in the shoulders, but again, I was hitting them completely noodle-armed after the pull-ups, so no real surprise there. I ended up alternating between sub-sets of regular push-ups and fist push-ups, just to keep the pressure from building up too much on my forearms. 

The runs were basically recovery, though I tried not to hit them *too* slowly, though the final run I completed (round 4) was very much a jog, as I couldn't even begin to get my arms going to balance a faster pace. Seeing that there were only a few minutes left, I rested that one minute, then hit the tire jumps as fast as I could, and got in 4 pathetic pull-ups before time ran out. 

Another thing I realized about trying to go band-assist on the pull-ups: In order to maintain correct position in the band, I was basically doing medium-speed negatives into the bottom position as I got tired, meaning that even on that phase of the pull-up, I was still doing a lot of work. No wonder my arms were smoked. Seriously, coming and going, band-assist was the wrong decision for today's workout. Next time... next time.

11-10-17: O-lift and box jump triplet

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Monday October 17th, 2011

Some women can be scared of learning the Olympic lifts, afraid of becoming big and burly. This is Natalie Burgener snatching far more than I can, and though it looks like she's working hard, she certainly doesn't look big and burly. Just awesome. (crossfitfootball.com)

(videos reposted from the original ECC workout page, because they are awesome)

---

WoD: AMRAP 3 x 4min on:1min off

• 7 Power Cleans 135# 115#
• 20 Box Jumps 24"
• 3 Snatches (full) 135# 65#

I felt pretty good on the warm-up (pvc pipe with re-bar inside) but as usual, the transition to the real bar was intimidating. Warmed up a couple of power cleans and full snatches. Oddly, today the snatches felt better than the cleans, but I soon realized I was having trouble transitioning from the third pull (ankles, kness, and hips open, elbows high and wide, shoulders shrugged) to punching my elbows under the bar, especially on the left side. I tried some extra stretching and mobilization, but nothing really seemed to unlock it. No matter how fast I tried to make the transition, I kept getting caught out of position by the bar, resulting in it glancing/knocking on my clavicle more often than being caught on my shoulders. Basically, ow.

Worked up to the weights I was comfortable using the for the workout, which was just a hot mess of exhaustion. What ended up being nice about the weights I picked was that, each time my form lined up correctly, the weight felt WAY too light. A properly performed 65# snatch felt like I was throwing a stick up in the air. Of course, those perfect reps were the exception, and NOT the norm, but that's ok. It means that the skill is in there somewhere, now I just need to make those correct efforts the norm, rather than the exception.

11-09-23: Squats and a wallball boxjump couplet

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Friday September 23rd, 2011

Karianne Dickson learning squat variations from one of the squat masters, Louie Simmons. (crossfit.com)

Wall-balls. The med-balls help those athletes squat down to full depth. Which makes wall-balls more difficult. I agree with some of the criticism: If I'm 200# and 6" tall, and can hit the target with upper body strength alone, why do I have to squat all the way down?! (Tip of the hat to Drywall Crossfit)(Crossfit.com)

Box jumps.

---

Strength: Squat

• 1 x 10 @ 75% (210#)
• 1 x 8 @ 80% (225#)
• 1 x 6 @ 85% (240#)
• 1 x 4 @ 90% (250#)

WoD: 2 Rounds for Time

• 15 Wallball 20#
• 10 Box Jumps 24"

The squats were heavy, but doable.  I'm still working off a calculated 1RM of approximately 278#, but having not failed on any reps, its possible it should be even a bit heavier. Still, better to get in the workload and build up to a heavier max. It having been a sparse crowd, we all had our own squat racks, so it was nice being able to work at my own speed. Though, it didn't work out when I was the last one done and had to transfer somewhat quickly to the couplet.

Wallballs and box jumps. Ugh and more ugh. 2:20 later it was done.

11-09-14: Overhead Squat Tabata

Elm City CrossFit WoD for Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Original firebreather Greg Amundson shows perfect overhead squat form. Note the depth of the squat on the left, as well as how vertical his torso is. That is VERY hard to accomplish. This lift is as much about flexibility and mobility as it is about strength. Pretty much any nagging area in your body is capable of making you suck at OHS. (crossfit.com)

Nicole Carroll, original "Nasty Girl" cranks out over head squats, and makes them look EASY. Awesomeness abounds. (crossfit.com)

---

WoD: Tabata

• Overhead Squats 65#

Score is reps completed
Sellout: 4x

• 100m Row
• 10 Box Jumps 24"

Score is fasted row time

Wow. That's just a whole lot of suckage in the first part of the workout. Not JUST overhead squats, a notorious goat of mine, but tabata-stylee no less. Ugh. 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, repeat 7 more times. Joy of joys.

Oddly enough, there were times when the OHS almost felt locked in, but then my right forearm would spike in agony, pretty much killing whatever rep I was in dead in the water. Very hard to focus on form and mid-line stability and getting the knees lower than the hip crease when your only *real* concern is whether or not you're going to drop a bar on your head.

Tabata OHS: 25 reps (7 in the first interval, then much less from there on out!)

I really like the sprint-type sell-outs. I'm a good enough rower, and consistent, that when it calls for 100m, I already know that's about 14 strokes, at least for me. I swung for the fences on every round, and managed 18s three times, and 19 on the second round. So, 18s was my fastest time. Box jumps were high, but that was only a problem because stepping down from a 24" box is kinda high, especially as the fatigue builds up. Still, no big worries.

11-09-07: Jerks, runs, and box jumps

Elm City CrossFit WoD for September 7th, 2011

Split jerk. Rear leg could probably be closer to the front, with more of a bend in the knee. But the flag is awesome, so I'm gonna let it slide for now. (crossfit.com)

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet makes running look effortless. Jerk. Actually, things are coming along. I never felt like my heart was going to explode out of the top of my rib cage on this workout, so I must be doing something right. (crossfit.com)

Box jumps. It's hard to tell in motion, but note the rigid lower back, meaning that as she jumped and flexed and opened her hip, that motion was translated directly into moving her entire body upwards, without getting dampened and wasted in a relaxed, bent spine. Efficiency will usually allow you to accomplish more work with less effort... or at least with the same amount of effort! (crossfit.com)

---

WoD: 6 rounds

• Jerk (3x2 @ 90%, 2x2 @ 92%, 1x2 @ 95%)
• 200m Run
• 1 min Box Jumps

Score is total number of box jumps.

After the warm-up, I found a few new ways to try to roll out my wrists and forearms using the "two-lacrosse-balls-taped-together" SMR tool. It was AWESOME. I only had time to really work out the right side, which was hurting the most anyways... but it was completely brilliant. I was finally able to roll all sides of the forearm, including the top (anterior) muscles, which are apparently NOW the source of most of the problems. Nothing like floating, mutating tightness... I didn't have as much time on the left side, which ended up still being sore the rest of the day. Today (the next day from the workout) both are sore again, but neither is in agony... I'm onto something here!

The prescribed weights came out to 135#, 140# and 145#, respectively. After warming up a few sets, we got to work. The idea was to crank through the 2 jerks, run around the parking lot, and bang out a minute's worth of box jumps before taking any rest. My only goal was to try to keep the box jump numbers steady, and I managed to pull it off. I had some issues with my jerk form (I split jerked every rep), in that I ended up leaning back a bit at the waist, probably reflecting shoulder tightness, or just a fear of that tightness. I can usually get a jerked bar into the proper position, so I doubt it was real tightness or inflexibility, just an inexperience/fatigue/fear combination making me unsure of the proper alignment. After having it pointed out in the 2nd or 3rd round, I tried like hell to make sure the weight was directly over the back of my head when overhead, and that I was fully and properly locked out.

The runs were fairly easy. It was brisk out, with a small amount of misty rain, so it was actually kind of refreshing to get outside after each set of lifts! The box jumps were increasingly difficult to maintain speed on, but I just tried to not rush them and set my own pace. I still jump-up then step-down, rather than jumping down, in order to protect my knees. It's possible that if I jumped down, I could have gotten more reps per round, but its also just as likely that I might have gassed out earlier and ended up with the exact same number of reps while putting my knees in harm's way. I think when I weigh a bit less (whenever that happens) I might consider going back to jumping down. Call it at 200#. 

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6
Weight	135#	135#	135#	140#	140#	145#
Box Jumps	25	24	25	25	26	29

Total Box Jumps: 154
Total weight: 1,660#