We finished this cycle of this week with Monday’s snatch ladder and todays “Fight Gone bad”. We’ve done a lot of EMOTM for snatch, and it looked like it prepared everyone very well for that workout. In CrossFit, we are trying to become as well rounded as possible, which is why for this cycle we decided to do a lift in a ladder format. You need to be strong, but you also have to be fit to get to a high enough weight. This is much more applicable to real life activities than a 1rm. I told this story long ago in a previous blog, so I’ll keep it short. In winter of 2015, Kim and I took the girls to laguna to see snow. We pulled over on the side of the road where people were sledding down a hill. Adelyn and I would go down and I would carry her back up. I looked around and noticed that none of the other dads were doing that. It’s CrossFit, and more specifically, the ability to move a load under fatigue, that makes that possible.
Up next, for our strength/power benchmark, we have the big clean complex. Its a 3 position clean+push press, 3 pos clean+push jerk, 3 position clean+split jerk. You get 6 sets to find the heaviest weight you can get, and no, you can’t put the bar down. We will restest this wod in August. This is both a test of strength and work capacity. In order to get better at this, you can expect front squats, cleans, and overhead work. You will also see more core stuff programmed such as carry’s, Russian twists, and plank rotations. These challenge our stability in different planes of motion. If we only train core stability in one plane, we will have difficulty with anything outside of that plane. More on that in a later post.
Our second benchmark is a throw back to 2008. Championship Helen-5rds 400m run 21 KBS 53/35 and 12 pull-ups. This is as far opposite of the big clean complex as we can get. They test entirely different energy systems. It is all about setting a pace that you can maintain. The x-factor her is the pull-ups. We are going to spend some time improving peoples kip mechanics during class. The long term solution to this will be more time for skill work during classes and strict pull-ups. Strict pull-ups will help develop the shoulder and scapular strength to have a stable platform to generate force during your kip. If you have a problem swinging all over the place, this is part kip mechanics and part lack of strength. We need to address both.
Our goal is to develop broad, general, inclusive fitness. Over the years, the way we accomplish this has changed dramatically. Now, we develop cycles to ensure we are always working on multiple skills at one time. Even though certain skills have more of a priority, the program is designed so that we don’t lose fitness in other areas.