As we proceed to push our knowledge of the olympic lifts from the easy to learn jump shrug model, to the  the extend /drop model, its useful, as always, to res0urce in as much clinical and sports science knowledge as possible.

Crossfit London is a unique as a fitness organisation as we need you to have a good intellectual grasp of what it is we are asking you to do and why. If all you want to do is grind reps out in a corner, there are some lovely “leisure centres” you can bicep curl in

If you become an Olympic lifting Geek ( and there are worse things you can be) you will quickly begin to see the common debates and themes that periodically surface and come to the forefront of our mind.

1) is the double knee bend, of which you will hear more

2) at the moment its the “triple extension v Catapult ( or the  extend and lift model).

We will be boring you silly with lots of extra drills designed to increase your speed ( the snatch and clean is about speed) and to give you lots of  different perspectives on the lifts.

For now, for those of you who like graphs and figures and  ”stuff” start looking at chart above and let it trickle into your subconscious…we will be publishing a load of stuff about this is the near future.

The Olympic Lifts ( the snatch and and the clean and jerk) are easy peezy to learn. However,  its still quite a difficult  skill to access quality tuition. Crossfit london is one of the few olympic weightlifting clubs that actively accepts non-lifters and teaches them to snatch from  Scratch (and clean and jerk).

However, even though we run classes in the evening and weekends, not everyone is free then ( some prefer cuddling their partners!) Hence we have decided to run one of our world famous REPS accredited masterclasses in a week day time slot ( 2 to 5 to be exact). For some personal trainers, thursday is a quiet afternoon so its great to be able to pop off and get some extra skills in.

Our next session is Thursday 19 April  2 pm to 5pm

I mention personal trainers and fitness instructors as this 3 hour course has 4 reps CPD points, so you not only get great extra skills, but you prove to your governing body that you are keeping up to date!

This course is open to anyone who is apparently  well. ( normal people, soldiers, mums, sports people, anyone over the age of 18)  If you are very inflexible and very un coordinated ( and not easy to teach!) We will do our best to help you.

For us its essential to teach you  that the lifts are based on a series of easy to learn, progressive drills. Even if you dont get the whole  move, there are still “bits” of the move you can practise on your own. If your squat is lousy, our squat drills will really hep you.

Our coaching is patient, funny and kind.

We only get people  to teach, who can teach and who want to teach.   You get to do all the drills and learn all the skills you need, and you get to practice with a variety of weights. Our bars go from  1 kilo,  7 kilo, 15 kilo 20 kilo ( and there is a stack of weight as well!), so somewhere there is a bar for you.

As always, hit the  “book now” button to book now. (once there look at the tabs on the top and hit the workshop and seminar button)

You get a super ebook to help you learn as well!

Crossfit London was the 1st ever Crossfit affiliate in the UK, is affiliated to BWLA and  holds a  licence from REPS to deliver CPD events to fitness instructors

It was all fun at Crossfit london Uk today, as double unders and ring dips merged with the olympic lifts in a power clean and push press fusion: all under the watchful eyes of “snoppy”, the latest addition to the Dixey household.

So we had a quick mini tutorial on double unders followed by 200 of them ( for the better skippers), or try , and end up in  a tangle for the ” double unders are work in progress” brigade.

This was followed by 3 x 5 front squats ” cleaned” as opposed to lifted off the racks.

Then it was wod time

5 x power clean/push press

5 x ring dip

Amrap 8 minutes.  This does not sound too long, but with weights of 60/70 kilos, thats long enough.

Some great performances from the bigger boys

We kicked off with a bit of DOME and DISH.

No explanation. You needed to be there to enjoy the most competitive team game ever! In Cians words, “the victor was ……fun”.

On to  a vraiety of fun skills. Muscle ups, knees to elbows, Toes to Bars and Handstand push ups, with a focus of driving out of a headstand into a handstand. cool if you can do it without falling over.

All mixed in with snatch preparation drills leading to a series og group snatches of 2, 2, 2, 2, followed by high pulls, 2, 2, 2,

Followed by 4 minutes of squat thrusts (aiming for 100 reps)

An interesting evening: we started off with : “Woodland Fun”. A mix of wheelbarows, back to back squats and leap frog , prompting our Kate to exclaim ” It’s surprising how attendance at a catholic convent  school for girls doesn’t prepare you for leaping in the air with your legs apart – over boys”

Who knew!

Anyway, in response to popular demand, everyone sneaked off to find out their back squat PB’s, but sprinkled in weighted chins for variety (it’s the spice of life you know!!).

Then, it was Grace.

30 Clean and Jerks for time!

The thing about all Crossfit workouts, sometimes you just have  to look at the bar

Cian has a moment with the bar

A fabulous mixed group of “normal people”, trainers, and physical therapists got together in Bethnal Green to try out the world famous Crossfit London i-course: the one-day course that gets you practicing most of the essential Crossfit basics (squat, clean, snatch, ring work, handstands, muscle ups)

As always, a phenomenal Crossfit London team, led by Andrew and Steven, with superb support from Kate, Phil, Alex, Kirsty and Sevan; taught, inspired, problem-solved and target-set for an anxious-to-learn audience.

The Crossfit London i-Course is an ideal way of covering those basics, and can be a great way of preparing for your CrossFit Level 1 Certification. For “normal people” without regular access to a Crossfit gym, it’s a great opportunity to get some feedback and pointers from the Crossfit London multi-skilled team.

Well done everyone, especially to Sammy for coming first in Thumb Wars, Jo for a great handstand push-up performance, and Tracy for that pull-up with a band demo. You are on the road of the righteous!

Some great effort in the L-Sit practise

A special muscle-up festival from the “big tough boy group”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7u17QtsUiw

Wondering what all the fuss is about? Book your place in the May i-Course and come and find out!

In spite of what they say, planning does not always work, neither does a focused ‘goal orientated” session objective mean success.

On paper Wednesday night’s workout plan was perfect. Introduction of the bar roll out,  followed by 3 x 85% of 1rep max  squat clean with max strict pull ups, at a ‘leisurely pace’, followed by a handstand push up ladder. What’s not to like?

During the cleans the focus was on quality, dealing with whatever problems came up. For some it’s failing to catch the bar on the shoulders, hence we videoed the Nisha Roll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh3-uhOUShs

For others it was speed, others it was using the ankles and knees to drop into the squat rather than being bum led.

It was a great opportunity to look at peoples strict pull up performance and to remind ourselves that kipping pull ups are “powerful” but, if you have to walk into someone else’s gym, you need to beat them on their own terms. So you need some stricts in your bin. Great to see Amelia and Cindy “pulling for the girls”. And well done Tom and Jas: shows that some of your previous  training will be of use.

The real problems began in the handstand pull up ladder. we went through the progressions, and  set this as the workout.

1 handstand press up, minute 1, 2 in minute 2, etc, with the following guidance

Try as many of the hardest progression that you can, then drop down through the substitutions to finish the required amount of work: in my fevered brain, this meant at minute 5 , for example,  some had  tried 3 full handstand push ups, have done an L handstand push up, and maybe are  starting  the first on their knees substitution.  This was part of a very logical, “let’s bring handstand push ups back, big time.” The problem is, too many had to start off from their knees which mean the ladder became ineffective. Sure, we had an impromptu handstand practice session, but no real WOD, except for Troopers Niam and Liam who bashed out loads of full handstand push ups.

So the session lacked “pace” ( except for Liam and Niam) Sorry!!

Well, nothing’s perfect!

So it all begins with some Crossfit London burpee philosophy:

Whats in a burpee? Surely a burpee, by any other name, would still be as sweet (thanks to Juliet for the inspiration for this line…shame about the dying thing)

Because it has a (heels down) squat,

We actually came up with some interesting names for this position: Angry Gorilla or Happy Alsatian. But whatever the name, and whatever coaching points used,  top marks go to Carolyn, Sophia, Kirsty and Kate for some beautiful lumber curves and proud chests. And to be truthful, a few “cough-cough’s” go to some of the boys, who need to be watching less mobility videos and focusing more on enforcing proper squat form. We had a few people deciding to book a place on the forthcoming mobility workshop.

Then it’s a simple jump back into the perfect plank.

Then a perfect push up (everything to then floor), a jump back to a squat position, then a hip-extending drive into the air with a shoulder mobilizing clap above the head.

A burpee is one thing! It’s the opportunity to express perfect movement, co-ordination and mobility, time and time again.

On to “Team Grace”: 60 clean and jerks (30 each). Some great efforts: the Superman award goes to Tom Henry, who was recently promoted to the Crossfit London Coaching team. More of him later!.

Sophia, Kate, Carolyn and Kirsty all cleaned and jerked beautifully. A mention in dispatches has to be made of Cian and Matt, while Efe and Alex threw the bar around as if it was a rag doll (a 60kg rag doll of course).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOnvzyO1NJY

After that is was muscle-up drills with box push ups, the muscle-up push ups, armchair muscle-ups and Frenchies: then some full muscle-ups by Simon, Efe, Alex, Tom and Ruarie.

Fabulous!

Another  fun night at Crossfit London UK, where we focused on the split jerk,

and muscle up drills, resulting in Cians first muscle up, caught on video. (Sorry for the Tourette’s-style commentary)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glrEIZ4W5uk

Everyone seemed to enjoy the Tabata pull ups that rounded off the session.

Correct positioning before your final explosion in the Olympic lifts is crucial. Mike Burgner gave us the concept of pockets, that the bar must be around mid thigh,before you launch into your final hip drive  and shrug. The idea behind “pockets” was an easy to relate to queue. Imagine the bottom of your pockets ( or put your hands in your pockets and press down). That’s where the bar should.

A great group coaching point, but on a refined level it may not work for everyone. ( pocket sizes, arm lengths, thigh lengths vary… they do really!) Some are happy to experiment, others need drills to guide their learning.

Here is a box jump drill that could help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ6p-yccjQc