Category — Training Protocols and Strategies

Congratulations, all!

And some good food for thought and further discussion: What Is Your Version of a “Good Workout”? from CrossFit Oakland, and A Sermon on Caution from CrossFit West Santa Cruz. Read and discuss.

Three weeks ago I competed in the 2011 NorCal Open Weightlifting meet in Snatch and Clean & Jerk. I made 5 of my 6 lifts, placed third in my weight class, and PR’d my Clean & Jerk at 74 kilos (162.8 lbs.) which I was very happy about. On our goals board earlier this year, one of my pronounced goals for the year is to compete twice in weightlifting. Well, I’m halfway towards meeting that objective, thank you very much, and I plan to PR some more. It’s only June!

That competition was in my training calendar long before the 2011 CrossFit Open was announced. Little did I know that in the Open I would qualify as one of sixty women in Northern California to compete as individuals at the CrossFit NorCal Regionals. Remember, I came in 60th place, so I was truly the underdog. Thirty-one women ended up registering to compete as individuals (the rest most likely went to their boxes’ teams) so I entered the competition as #31 out of 31. Was I intimidated? Absolutely. Scared? Yep.

I ended in 21st place out of the 31 women, so I moved up ten spots from where I entered the competition. I was the second oldest individual female competitor (turning 37 this month) and one of only a handful of women in their thirties. Furthermore, I am an almost-full time single parent of two young children (ages six and nine) and own and run this box on top of that job.

If I can do it, so can you. If you think you’ve got some good excuses why you can’t train for competition, think again, because I’ve got you beat. And those things I listed above are only what I’m willing to publish publicly – I’ve got more.

So let’s talk about two upcoming opportunities for you to compete, to push yourself harder, to give your training a specific focus and purpose:

Femme Fit 2o11 – August 13th

Registration will open soon…this is a CrossFit-style competitive event for women only, held in Walnut Creek at CrossFit Sweatshop. Please let me know ASAP if you are even the slightest bit interested in this; it sold out very quickly last time, and I want to make sure that anyone who wants to get in this time does. See this promo video HERE.

2011 Redwood Empire Weightlifting Meet – August 27th

This is easily the most fun weightlifting meet around, and is in our backyard: Cotati! It’s outdoors, has hay bales for seating, and Lagunitas beer flowing. Remember that last year both Emily and Thomas competed at the Redwood. Then this last February we debuted our weightlifting team at the Friendly City Open.

Now it’s time to grow Team CFSR! Any of you who are interested in improving your Olympic-style weightlifting are encouraged to train for and perhaps compete at this summer’s meet on August 27th. Following the upcoming Snatch clinic, we will be announcing the addition of a weightlifting program at CFSR with its own classes, programming, and coach. More info to come…but I hope this piques your interest and you’ll consider joining.

Below is a video of my second CJ at the NorCal Open last month. Following that is a clip of the 205 lb Deadlift/24″ Box Jump couplet at the CrossFit NorCal Regionals – in the rain! Even though both of the other women visible in the video beat me, I was happy with my time – 6:13. A big thanks to all of you that came to watch or sent me emails and texts. I really appreciate the support!

To see more videos (actual professional ones) from the NorCal Regionals, go here.

One of our warm ups last week called for a ten-second handstand against the wall. Janet refused to do it. Janet refused to even try it! A few days later we had rope climbs in the workout, and she did the modified rope climb. So come Friday, when Janet had her weekly private training session, we set out to conquer her fears. With some one-on-one coaching and her own mental fortitude, she picked up these skills and is now able to practice them. Congratulations Janet!

Handstand!

Rope Climb!

If you’d like to make a date to meet and greet your goats, or simply get coaching in movements or skills that you want to work on, feel free to schedule a private session with Shane, Emily, Majid, or Joanna. Our schedules and availability differ; just call the office and we’ll let you know who’s available when.

On the Goals Board I wrote that I’m aiming to compete twice this year in Olympic weightlifting. Ugh. To tell you the truth, I kind of hate competing. And yet every time I do it, I walk away a better athlete.

Preparing for competition gives purpose and focus to my training; it forces me to pay attention to the sleep, eating, and stress patterns in my life and to give time and effort to my recovery; and on game day, competing pushes me to move faster or lift more than I ever imagined I could. I have to be in that very moment and no other. No thinking about what will be for dinner that night, and not even thinking about how the other athletes are doing. At the end of the whole process, I know I’ve done the best I can on that day in that event, and that itself is a great reward and provides a deep satisfaction. A new PR or a medal are simply icing on the cake, and are by no means necessary for feeling accomplished.

I encourage each of you to consider competing as well. I’m not talking about our daily WODs – that’s training time. I’m talking about a sporting event. I know that training for and competing in an event will push you forward, whether in your athletic development or simply your confidence in yourself.

In the sport of CrossFit, there are competitions popping up all over the place. Femme Fit 2011 was last weekend, the CrossFit East Sac Throwdown is this Saturday, and the NorCal 40s Event at TJs in Novato is Sunday. Ok, ok, so we’re too late for those. But what’s coming up in CrossFit land, just around the corner? The 2011 CrossFit Games, of course.

Last year the CFSR crew that competed at the Sectional qualifiers for the CrossFit Games had a great time. I was looking forward to doing it again, but we now know that the qualifiers for going to Regionals will be quite different this year. Beginning Tuesday, March 15th (soon!), CrossFit Headquarters will announce one WOD per week for six weeks. Affiliates who have the necessary equipment for the WOD can register to be a host for that week, and will be responsible for upholding movement standards and validating the scores of any athletes who show up. The individual athletes are then responsible for reporting a score by the Sunday of each week. You must complete all six weeks, unscaled. For a team, we need at least 3 men and 3 women to complete this process as individuals.

CFSR will likely register as a host for some of the qualifier WODs. These will not be during regular class times. The qualifiers will be special events. This is not training; it’s competition. For that reason, I encourage any of you that would like to compete in the qualifiers to leave your usual training grounds (here) and head out to another affiliate. Your performance will be better. I’ll keep you updated on the process.

As for other sports, keep your eyes and ears open for what interests you. Have you heard about the 2011 NorCal Tough Mudder at Squaw Valley in September? Were you inspired by the Friendly City Open? Perhaps you’d like to join Team CFSR and compete in August at the 2011 Redwood Empire Championships? Or…a half marathon?  A sprint triathlon? Think about it.

Following my last MWod post, Tom D. asked a good question in the comments section, which I’d like to address here. Tom asked if too much shoulder flexibility might be a bad thing while lifting heavy weights.

Yes, you need appropriate ROM (range of motion) to lift heavy weights. Yes, you can overstretch without firing the muscles up before a lifting session. We’ve always advocated active stretching at the beginning of class to warm the muscles up, increase ROM, and decrease chance of injury. Dynamic (active) stretching uses active muscular effort to bring about a stretch. MWod’s tend to be more static-type mobility (holding in the end range) and are most appropriate after class. You’ll notice that we’ve ended up placing the MWod at the end of class.

NOW….here’s where I tell you to pony up. You know your body better than anyone else (or should…). Effectively using your body as your vehicle for an exuberant life means knowing where you historically have issues. And then addressing ‘em. If you already have good flexibility in your shoulders, but tend to get tight in the hamstrings….well, you need to focus on your hams, not ‘yer shoulders! You don’t need to overstretch an area if it’s already okay.

Also, for whatever it’s worth (I think everyone tends to struggle with the committment that a daily practice takes…physical, musical, meditative, etc), trying to embed stretching into a daily routine is going to be most effective. A surprising amount can be accomplished while sitting at a desk. Or while standing in your kitchen waiting for food to cook. Or while sitting in your car at a stoplight. So, coming into the box and addressing your tissue issues (like that one?) for only 5-10 minutes out of your 24 hour day is less than ideal. I’m no saint myself….I’m just saying, lets all strive toward more frequent maintenance.

The MWod’s have been incorporated recently to give folks some tools for addressing their ROM issues. I won’t be posting new ones indefinitely, and so remember the ones that have helped you most and use them as you need. Do dynamic stretching before your splendid feats of athleticism, and static stretching throughout your day and/or at the end of class.

Ever heard of “S.M.A.R.T.” goals? It’s an acronym with several variations, but here’s one version:

Specific Strategies
What smaller steps do you need to take to achieve this goal?
Measureable
How will you know you’ve met the goal?
Agreed Upon
Who’s involved and has everyone agreed to their role in this?
Realistic
Do you have the resources and time to reach the goal?
Time-bound
What’s the time frame for meeting the goal?

Earlier this week, O’Nell, who’s been training at CFSR since October, posted in the blog comments that her goal in joining had been “to play around in the snow for hours without having an asthma attack.” Well, she spent these winter holidays tromping around in the snow with her man, breathing easy. This was only a piece of her larger goal, though, of completing a NOLS course in backcountry skiing later this winter. It has been awesome to see O’Nell push herself each day with this goal in mind. In fact, if you’ve trained in class with her, you might be surprised to find that this badass lady was only planning on doing CrossFit until the course! CFSR has been a specific strategy for reaching her goal. (I’m hoping we can convince her to stay, of course.)

So while most people make their resolutions for the new year, we at CFSR like to make goals. Of course, there’s no reason we can’t make goals at any other time of year. And surely there isn’t any point to stating your goal and then not carrying out the work needed to achieve it. But the first step, no matter when or how we do this, is to think about what it is you’d like to achieve as an athlete at CFSR. What are your performance goals?

Use the SMART goal acronym as a framework. It’ll help. For example, it’s futile to simply say “I really want to get my first pull up” and not figure out how exactly you’re going to do that. What are you going to do to get your first pull up? What role will your coaches play? How long do you think it will realistically take? These are all questions you need to ask yourself in order to make a plan.

We’re going to carve out a space on the whiteboard for you to post your goals, so you can declare them to the CFSR world. Scary, I know. But guess what? Other members might have advice and strategies to offer to you, and their support is only going to help.

Now, here’s Nelly and her snowcation:

Your CFSR coaches have been inspired. By Kelly Starrett. Starrett is the quirky and entertaining owner of San Francisco CrossFit as well as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. When it comes to flexibility and mobility, and their impact on athletic performance, injury, and pain, he knows his stuff.

He says that: “Every human being should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves. You know what to eat, how to train, and what to do if you have a cut; you should also know how to fix your tight hips, painful knees, and stiff shoulders, and how to make yourself faster and more powerful. It’s too much to mobilize everything, all the time, everyday. Start somewhere.” So he started posting mobility WODs on his new blog, that are “intended as a jump off point for athletes to systematically begin to address their nasty tissues and grody joint mobility.”

This is just what we need.

So, we’re going to be adding mobility work to the beginning of our regular classes. The first ten minutes of class are for the regular warmup that we have on the board, followed immediately by about five minutes of mobility work. The mobility exercise(s) will be the same for a whole week at the beginning of class and we will post video and description for you to check out here on the blog.

Starrett’s approach to mobility is that we do mobility therapy to see results. So, along with all the mobility exercises, he does a “check and recheck”. Usually this is a movement or lift to check what your range of motion is in a certain direction. This is done at the very beginning of the mobility WOD (or “MWod”). Then, you do the MWod that addresses that range of motion, and recheck after to see if you’ve improved. Visible results, just like raising a PR or getting faster!

You may run into some words that you don’t know. There are a lot of muscle names, anatomical directions, etc. thrown around. This is a chance for you to get more educated about your body. Look in the anatomy books we have for you at the gym. Look up the muscle name on Google or Wikipedia, and use the dictionary for words like “adductor” and “posterior” if they’re unfamiliar. It’s awesome to know new things about that miraculous vehicle you live in! Enjoy!

This Week’s MWod

Watch the video, (it’s “Episode 64: Heavy Met Con Prep”) the stuff we want starts at minute 4:17 and goes to the end.

1. First piece: Shoulder Capsule mobilization. Band doubled over Pullup bar, wrist in band loops. Be sure to rotate the whole arm, wind it inward, then load it. Rotation here is important. Upon loading, we are moving down – arm is mobilizing posteriorly – and including the entire side of the torso…we’re both getting range of motion in the shoulder capsule (as Starrett calls it) as well as stretching the “lat” (latissimus dorsi) muscle on the side. Latissimus Dorsi is a strong shoulder adductor – it pulls the shoulder in and back. Alternate stretching hard and then lightening up on the tension. Both arms, 1 minute each side.

2. Second piece: First and second rib mobilization. Get a lacrosse ball, lay down with the ball nestled between shoulder and neck (right there at the top of your back). This is the first and second rib area. Yup, you’ve got ribs up there. All your thoracic vertebra have ribs attached to them. Once the ball is nestled up there between spine and shoulder blade (scapula), push into the ball. Take the arm on that side and move it up next to your face so that your bicep is right up against your ear. Yup, you’re rotating the shoulder inward again, just like the band stretch you just did. Not only are you trying to get some movement of the first and second ribs, but you’re also working the belly of the trapezius muscle (the “traps”). Work your arm around a bit, find your crunchy, painful places with the ball. Both shoulders, 1 minute each side.

Nice work!

It’s the middle of summer, and many of us have been away – vacations, honeymoons, work travel. Sometimes life gets in the way of our training regimen and we end up with an extended period where we’re not hitting classes, and maybe not getting any exercise at all. Heck, I myself had a three week hiatus from training this summer!

I know that it can be intimidating to return. You’re afraid you won’t be able to do it, won’t finish the workout, will be way too sore afterwards. So maybe you avoid coming back in, telling yourself you need to, but putting it off till another day? Well here’s a little primer on how to return to training after a break:

1. The first step is just to get your butt in here. We love you. We miss you. Chances are that someone here wants to see you, as I’ve been regularly asked, “Where has (insert your name here) been?” You’ll get smiles, maybe some hugs, people will be happy to see you. Get in your car, or on your bike, or whatever, and just show up at a class.

2. Plan extra time for your warm up. Arrive 10 minutes before class, get a general running or rowing warm up in, then start doing some dynamic stretching. If you’re not sure what stretches to do, ask us. Follow the prescribed warm up, then use the foam roller. A really, really thorough warm up is essential to anyone returning to training after a break.

3. Focus on the strength training portion of the class, not the WOD. Depending on what the strength workouts are the week you return, we may modify the rep scheme or the movements to get your body and brain back into the swing of things. This is not the time to go for any PRs; focus on form. The strength sets will feel good, and will fire up your neuromuscular communication so that by the end, you’ll feel ready to go into the WOD.

4. Take it easy! As I already said, this isn’t the time for try for a strength PR or to up your numbers. And if you happen to hit a named WOD, don’t think you’re going to beat your last time. Do the best you can, but stay focused on treating your body right, not on your score. Once you’re in the swing of things and have attended several classes over a few weeks, you’ll get back to your former performance levels.

5. Plan extra time for your post-workout stretching and recovery. Just as you should come in a little early, plan on staying a little later. Stretch with the class after the WOD, and then spend a little extra time on the areas you know will be or are tight. The foam roller is your friend!

6. As usual, drink plenty of water before and after working out, and avoid inflammatory foods – sugars, grains, alcohol, trans-fats and vegetable oils, maybe dairy or nightshades or any foods you know you’re sensitive to.

Ok? We’ll see you soon.

between heavy sets in our strength work.