Catching Up

For those who were not there last Thursday, I thought I'd post the WOD.

After a warm up, we practiced the Deadlift - one of my favorite lifts. Years ago, I suffered a "bulging disc" in my lumbar spine; the doctors said I shouldn't do full squats or deadlifts. Of course once I was pain free these two exercises are the first thing I did, along with stretching. As a result I currently squat and deadlift over 300 pounds and I never have back issues, eventhough my spine is now prone and suseptble to herniation.

The theme of last weeks class was "Picking heavy things up off the ground." Which I later changed to "Picking up heavy shit if fun!" - it seemed to be a more appropriate title as I saw the smiles, excitement, jumping up and down and high-fives after everyone started increasing the weight. We worked up to what was close to everyones 5 rep max. A few of the ladies were deadlifting their bodyweight for 5 reps!

We concluded the class with this short WOD:

3 rounds for time -

• Deadlift X 10
• Run 200 meters

Tonight's class consisted of learning the Front Squat and Pull Up.

After a warm up and stretch/range of motion we went over the basic "Air Squat". Once everyone was looking good with the air squat we added the PVC pipe for the front squat. Again, once everyone was squared away, we added a load, the 45# Olympic bar. A few folks added more weight and I have to say that I was glad to see that most were able to do the movement sufficiently. This is a very technical movement and takes tons of practice to get it down enough to be really efficient and to lift heavy loads - be patient everyone, it will come with practice.

Next we moved to the pull up bars and learned the basics for the pull up and even went into the basic elements of the "kipping pull up". We put the new pull up bar system and assistance bands to good use tonight!

I would encourage everyone to get over to Crossfit.com and go to the "exercises and demos" page and look at the demonstrations for the deadlift, front squat, and kipping pull up.

At the end of class we did the following WOD (it's a little confusing to read, but makes sense once you get going).

3 Rounds - Score equals the total number of front squats and pull ups you complete:

• Run 400 meters or walk 200 meters
• Front Squats X 1:00 (count your reps)
• Pull Ups (or assisted pull ups) X 1:00 (count your reps)

Enjoy!