CrossFit London (UK) » Pull ups

WOD: January 11 Exposure Therapy.

Philip — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:24:34 +0000

WOD: January 11 Exposure Therapy.

I’ve been thinking a lot about finding and exposing weakness in technique or physical ability lately. I figured a decent way of exposing my weakness would be to split up Fran into its base skills, following the same rep scheme, and seeing where I had the most issues.

As it turns out, the workout I thought I was going to breeze through ended up kicking my ass. How badly is something I will go into in another post.

After some base work on overhead squats, double unders and regrips we moved on to the WOD.

WOD:

20-15-10

Push Press

Front Squat

Pull ups

I had done this workout with 45 KG and recommended that weight or more for the guys doing it, and 20 KG for the girls. Upon first glance, the general reaction was, “What? Is that it?”. This workout snuck up on everyone, myself included. The idea was to see which movement pattern, or aspect of the workout caused the most issues. In that, it succeeded very well. A few athletes were very surprised to find what movement pattern gave them issues and which one they breezed through, or how heavy the weight actually was after a few reps, or even how quickly they gassed out when trying to maintain a quick pace.

To follow up the workout, everyone had 6 attempts to hit a 1 RM deadlift, something difficult enough to do under normal conditions, and infinitly harder to do after the WOD.

I was pleased with everyone’s performance from last night, and impressed with the display of mental fortitude by some atheletes I hadn’t expected it in. Very well done to everyone. Don’t forget to do your homework.

Arbitrary Awards:

“Braveheart” To Kate O’Sullivan. For having the determination to crush the workout. Very impressive display of mental fortitude.

“Pacing is for other people.” To Yuri. Who realized that pacing, and as a result, breathing, is something to worry about post-WOD.

“Bambi no more.” To Kirsty. Who got rid of her bambi knees and can squat, thruster and deadlift very solidly.

“Light as a feather.” To Matthew. Who had pushed through the push press at heavier weight then he was used to with no problem.

WOD: January 4th. Baby Steps

Philip — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:00:46 +0000

WOD: January 4th. Baby Steps

Today was the first day back to our normal programming at Crossfit. As noted by more than a few of tonights athletes, I was particularly benevolent today. Did I develop sympathy during the holidays? Hardly. But I know a few weeks away from training takes it’s toll. Baby steps are needed.

After a breezy set of Overhead Squats and Kettlebell swings we hopped straight to the WOD.

WOD:

AMRAP 15 mins

12 Deadlifts

9 Hang Cleans

6 Push Presses

The goal of todays WOD was to work on all the components of the clean and jerk separately. There was enough volume and enough intensity that after a minute, it was easy to see where everyone’s weaknesses were and correct it either by modifying the technique, stripping weight until technique improved, or a combination of both.

For the majority, the weight used during the WOD was limited by their push press. The lucky 5:30 class was a small enough group that they were able to suffer through with two sets of barbells. One heavier one for the deadlifts, and one lighter one for the hang cleans and push presses. Rest assured, a good time was had by all.

After the WOD we moved on to Pull ups, with groups working on either weighted pull ups and weighted negatives, or kipping pull up variations. As most of the class lost the ability to close their hands thanks to the WOD, hanging on to the bar became a fun excercise in and of itself.

Aribtrary Awards:

“Into the Fire.” To Colm: Because of a tender back, Colm wasn’t able to deadlift. However, in his own words, thrusters and pull ups were ok. Lucky him, he got to do Fran.

“Most Noted.” To Mark, who came back from his vacation looking particularly tan, to which everyone commented.

“Most Cautious:” To Simon, who during the warm up asked, “Is that it?” as tentetavly as possible.

“Non Conformist” To Joy, who was the only one in the 6:30 NOT wearing blue inov-8 shoes. Because she is her own person, just like everyone else.

WOD 28 December: My welcome back present.

Philip — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:00:59 +0000

WOD 28 December: My welcome back present.

It had been about 8 days since I had last trained anyone. Technically it had been 14 days since I had made anyone run a WOD, since no one showed up to my Sunday morning class after the Christmas party.

A series of questions plagued me. (Not really, but some creative license must be taken to build suspense.) Had I gotten soft? Was I still funny? Did I remember how to get to the gym?

Tuesday was a little colder so after working on a few baseline skills, including the dreaded overhead squat, we moved on to the WOD:
Before we could actually get started, we had a mini arts and crafts demonstration where I made two sets of temporary gymnastics wraps with duct tape to avoid any tears during the pull ups. I’ll post a picture next time I make them. They are very “Fancy looking” apparently.

The WOD:
3 Rounds for time.
25 SDHP
25 Tuck Jumps
25 Pull ups

The easiest part of this workout was the SDHP, they practically qualify as rest when compared to the Tuck jumps and Pull ups. The tuck jumps are very good at raising the heart rate very quickly, which makes it more difficult to focus during the pull ups. Except that if you don’t use your hips during the SDHP, the pull ups get really hard. Right. And it’s high rep.

Considering how everyone looked during and Post WOD, I think the above break down is quite accurate. Therefore, my Chirstmas present to myself was making everyone suffer horribly (and very vocally at that.) my first class back. Any nagging questions were resolved as well. I’m apparently just as funny now as I was before vacation.

Arbitrary Awards:

“Most Stylish” To April and Sophie. For proudly wearing the Macguvyer inspired duct tape gymnastic grips.

“Zombieland” To Efe. For looking like one of the walking dead after the WOD but still managing to push press very well.

WOD November 12th: “Fun” with hang cleans.

Philip — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:00:41 +0000

WOD November 12th: “Fun” with hang cleans.

Sunday was full of hilarity. I had my biggest beginner class ever but I seemed to have forgotten what time class started officially because when one of our new graduates showed up at ten to 8, I told him he was late. (Much to the confusion of everyone else.) When I realized my slight lapse I did punishment burpees, just to prove that tyranny is dealt out equally everything. Just to keep thing interesting, and because the new beginners were an impressive bunch, I made them suffer through a 10 min Cindy. Just to give them a small taste of what’s to come? Everyone survived and hopefully I didn’t traumatize anyone too badly. Just to let you know, any “lapse” is actually a test to make sure everyone else is paying attention and in no way are your coaches fallible. None.

The second class had fun with a nice warm up to fight off the harsh Sunday cold of box jumps and evil push up variations before moving on to front squats. The main emphasis today being fixing little issues in technique: All the usual culprits popped up of knees, wrists, lumbar curves, and set positions but most of them were addressed and corrected. Good job everyone.

The WOD was a piece of cake:
15 min AMRAP
5 Hang clean to Push Press
10 Pull ups.

The only real issue is that all the movements require a very high power output and control during the entire WOD. And 15 minutes is a deceptively long time. By the end of the workout, everyone was taxed. Rest assured, I was fine.

Big welcome to Peter from Crossfit 508 who’s visiting us for a few days. He passed the WOD like it was no big deal with beautiful kipping pull ups and traded me a crossfit 508 shirt for my london shirt. Mega bonus points.

Peter relaxed post WOD

Arbitrary Awards:

“Eye of the Tiger”: To Lauri, who maintained his clapping push ups for every round of the warm up.

“Freudian Influence.”: To Ruairi, for the lack of ego (HA!) and good control during the WOD.

“Perfect Ten”: To Colm, for the best rack improvement short of plastic surgery.

“Better then Espresso”: To Andrew, for popping in to bench out a few hundred meter row before tackling his day.