CrossFit Montgomery County

Strength is good. You need more of it. With all other things being equal, the guy who’s stronger will win every time. But strength will only get you so far before poor technique will bring your precious progress to a spectacular halt. When was the last time you missed an overhead squat because you didn’t keep your arms locked out? Or maybe you missed a clean because you didn’t get your elbows up high enough or fast enough? How about those of you who can do plenty of pullups and ring dips but can’t do a muscle-up yet? It’s poor technique that’s holding you back – not a lack of strength.

When you’re working out at the gym, you should be practicing technique as often as possible. If you build a foundation of movements based on good solid technique (like with a PVC pipe, for example), you can be sure that bad inefficient movement will never be the reason you miss a lift. The thing about technique is that it gets harder as you add weight. I believe I heard Pat Sherwood at the Level 1 Cert put it like this: “the demand for good technique is as high as the load is large.” Yep, the heavier you go, the better your technique better be.

So practice your technique on every movement and lift you ever do. Practice it like your success depends on it, because guess what?

Today’s WOD:

“Roy”

Five rounds for time of:

15 Deadlifts (225/183)
20 Box jumps (24″)
25 Pull-ups

Today’s WOD:

“CrossFit Total”

The CrossFit Total is the sum of the best of three attempts at the following movements:

Back Squat
Shoulder Press
Deadlift

Read Mark Rippetoe’s article about The CrossFit Total for rules on the lifts, general guidelines, and some helpful pointers. If you think you know everything there is to know about these lifts and the CrossFit Total in general, I assure you that you are wrong. Read the article.

If you cherry picked your way out of yesterday’s WOD, then you get to run, burpee, box jump, pullup, and push press your ass off today instead of doing the CrossFit Total.

July has come and gone all too quickly, in my opinion. Today I’ll be doing the the ultimate CrossFit Parents workout, “6 hours on a plane with two kids under 9,” as I escort them back to California. Danielle has the helm today, and I’ll be returning bright and early Thursday morning. Thanks to everyone for making their experiences at the gym lots of fun – they had a great time and will have plenty to talk about when they get home. So goodbye for now, my babies. Daddy and Danielle will miss you tons, and we can’t wait to see you again.

A quick reminder that there is no noon class today, and also the Thursday noon class is canceled since I will probably be barely (if at all) conscious due to the flight back.

WOD:

800m Run
50 Burpees
40 Situps
30 Box Jumps
20 Pullups
10 Push Press (115/73)
400m Run
10 Push Press (115/73)
20 Pullups
30 Box Jumps
40 Situps
50 Burpees
800m Run

When was the last time you checked the website to find out whether or not you wanted to come in? “Yep, that looks like a cool WOD, I’ll go today.” or “Nah, I hate running – I’ll see what he posts tomorrow.” It sounds ridiculous, but we’ve all done it. Even I’ve done it and I’m the one who MAKES the workouts. Yeah, definitely not the way to achieve elite fitness. If you really want to have better fitness, you’ll make the decision to come in *before* you look at the workout. Don’t avoid the things you’re not good at, or they’ll always be things you’re not good at.

NO NOON CLASS TODAY OR WEDNESDAY!!

Buy-In:

Squat Clean 3-2-1-1-1

WOD:

5 Rounds for time of:

5 Muscle-Ups
10 Deadlifts (225/185)

Cash-Out:

15 Kettlebell Clean and Press (each hand)

What a storm we had yesterday, eh? there was no power at the gym when I checked this morning, but it has since come back so the afternoon classes will go on as usual. In other news, I’m taking my kids back to California on Wednesday morning, so the morning and noon class on Wednesday will be canceled but Danielle will be running the classes on Wednesday afternoon. No noon class on Thursday either, but Thursday afternoon will resume a normal schedule.

Today’s WOD:

1000m Row, then

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps for time of:

Ring Dips
Kettlebell Snatch (24 kg/16 kg)
Knees to Elbows
Wallballs

Another first at the gym yesterday – Kevin got his first muscle-up! This video shows Kevin shortly after reaching this CrossFit milestone, because just like when Justin got his first muscle-up, Kevin didn’t bother to let me know he was going to go for it so I didn’t have a chance to film his *actual* first muscle-up. He had done maybe 6 or 7 before I told him to quit already so that I could film it.

A couple weeks ago Kevin came to me and asked for help getting a muscle-up. He said he wanted to get one before he went back to college, and that if he does get one then the sun would shine, flowers would bloom, birds would sing, and all kinds of fruity stuff like that. Well, maybe it wasn’t quite like that, but he was determined to achieve this goal. I pulled down the rings and worked him through a few transitions, made them harder, and then made them harder again. He practiced them anytime the rings were within reach, and then yesterday when I was setting up the racks for the WOD, I heard “HOLY SH*T!” from behind me. I turned around and discovered Kevin on top of the rings with a great big goofy grin on his face. And it was awesome.

Great job Kevin!

Friday WOD (UPDATED):

“Something Else Gone Bad”

2 Rounds for total reps of:

1 min Wallballs
2 min Tabata Pullups
1 min Sumo Deadlift High Pull (75/53)
2 min Tabata Situps
1 min Box Jumps
2 min Tabata Pushups
1 min Push Press (75/53)
2 min Tabata Squats
1 min Row (Calories)

1 min rest between rounds. The Tabata movements will be 4 rounds each (as opposed to the normal 8 rounds). Score will be the total accumulated reps for all movements in both rounds.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the posts are coming later than normal lately, and that would be due to the fact that I am spending much of my non-teaching time playing with my kids. Last night, for example, we went to Dave and Busters where the kids hit the ticket-producing games like they were in Vegas.

My son Nolan won 500 tickets on his first try at his first game (!), and he was jumping up and down and screaming so loud you’d have thought he just won ten million dollars. Even I started to get all excited until I remembered that 500 tickets will win you, due to rising inflation and the falling value of the ticket, the equivalent of a gumball. Piper was tearing it up at Skee Ball, while Danielle was kicking some serious tail on the horse racing game. (As a side note, I think next year’s CrossFit Games should include a Skee Ball event. Just sayin’…)

When the credits on the cards ran out and it was time to go shopping, the D&B ticket store seemed to have been looted as it was pretty much barren of anything remotely resembling a cool toy. We wandered around looking at the same 12 crappy toys for roughly 30 minutes in hopes that they would begin to appear more cool. (It was much like some parties I remember from college with no pretty girls in attendance, though at least in college there was beer which, after awhile, significantly improved their appearance!) So the kids finally found some acceptable “toys” (a “Cars” checker set, a stuffed mini D&B soccer ball, a *very* large lollipop, a stuffed bear, a couple of little plastic frisbees, and a bunny rabbit that hops and makes a noise I’m sure no bunny rabbit would actually make unless it’s actively being eaten) and we headed out to the car after a good night of fun and merriment.

Buy-In:

Back Squat 3-2-1-1-1

WOD:

With a 20 minute clock, do:

As many rounds in 10 minutes of:

5 Wallballs
5 Burpees

As many rounds in 10 minutes of:

10 Kettlebell Swings (24kg/16kg)
10 Pushups

Cash-Out:

25 Inverted Burpees

Buy-In:

Deadlift 3-2-1-1-1

WOD:

21-15-9

Squat Snatches (95/63)
Pullups

Cash-Out:

3x200m Sprint, 30 seconds rest between sprints

In the photo for today we have Sophia, Rusty, Oliver and Svetlana all showing their superhero stance. Kind of looks like the League Of Justice, doesn’t it? I think CrossFitters would make better superheroes anyway. At least CrossFitters are real – and besides, Rusty can do 130 Double-Unders in a single unbroken set, and I haven’t seen Superman do even ONE!

Buy-In:

Shoulder Press 3-2-1-1-1

WOD:

7 Rounds for time of:

7 Power Cleans [95/63]
7 Push Presses [95/63]
7 Pistol Squats
14 Double-Unders

Cash-Out:

25 Shoot Throughs

We had a great time at the CrossFit Games party this past weekend. Many thanks to all of you who were able to come and suffer through “Helen On Steroids” with us and then stuck around afterward for some burgers and hot dogs. I’m just glad they decided to run something that we were able to do with the equipment we have available. I mean, we only have a few sandbags and not even one wheelbarrow! One thing you can be sure of though – there will be lots of new movements to do in the future, and I don’t want to hear anyone complain about how weird they might seem.

And to answer a question before it becomes a question, no, I won’t allow you to push your hands off of your knees when you’re doing walking lunges – I don’t care what you saw on the CrossFit Games footage!

Buy-In:

100 Double-Unders

WOD:

21-15-9 Reps for time of:

Overhead Squats (95/63)
Burpee Stick-Jumps

Cash-Out:

50 Toes to bar