We have had a really good response to our free month trial offer. I would like to personally welcome Natasha, John, Chris, Alex, Tania, Alexis, Craig, Lisa, and Sara to the fold.
Hayley pictured below completed her first Wod with the gold crew after joining today and although looking as white as her hair I'm sure she thoroughly enjoyed her session on our advanced program. Some squatting, some oly lifting and a cheeky Wod to finish was the perfect intro.
Apologies for Jamie looking like the kiddy snatcher lol.
If you would like more info on our gold program please drop me a line.
On Sunday 11 August we invited Giles Greenwood along to run a workshop on the Olympic Lifts. I have made it a priority to try to get highly skilled coaches into the gym to help improve our members on all the different areas of CrossFit. Giles certainly fits the bill as an expert. He not only won Commonwealth gold in the 105+ class he is still the current British record holder.
With a serious back injury Giles has been forced to concentrate more on the coaching then lifting although when chatting prior to the course he still Snatch's 120+kg's and Cleans & Jerks 145kg, lifts that I know I would be proud of.
With only 6 attending the workshop the numbers were perfect to take full advantage of the 3 (it actually slipped to 4 with chin wagging) hour workshop. We started with the snatch and it was apparent from the start that this was going to be different then our previous workshop with Kazeem Panjavi and Anna Hopcroft. I have struggled in recent months with brain fade during my lifting. Heres what goes through mind as I prepare to, and actually lift:
Approach the bar
Think about hand position then adjust it for about the 100th time to try and get comfortable.
Shift my feet around again until i get comfortable
Rotate my elbows out
Get my back straight and chest up
Sweep the bar right back into my hip
Weight on the heel (well actually try and get it to teeter right on the edge)
drive the hips forward and up
Finish with shoulders in a back breaking arch
And finally somehow get underneath the bar and receive in an overhead squat
Oh And if all that happens remember to stand up
As you can imagine by the time I've considered all this and then tried to achieve it all while conducting the fastest lift there is my chances of success have been stifled to say the least. Many of the coach's videos that I have studied including, Mike Burgenor, Don Macauley, Owen Satterly and Glenn Pendelay have very diverse opinions on what the lifts should look like. With even some heated debates between Giles and a couple of our American Brethren (check out facebook for some examples ;)).
We started by pretty much clearing away all the B.S from my head. Giles referred to some absolute monsters and how each lifter is an individual. Some pull with bent arms, some pull the bar straight with little or no 'S' and some actually move the bar away from them at the start. This was a revalation. Finally my grip it and rip style had a place. So long as my start position was solid, I kept my shoulders ahead of the bar and I got as much vertical lift as possible when the bar reached my hip how I got there didn't matter. Already I was happy. Here is a few of the guys Giles mentioned:
Ilya Ilyin - Clean and Jerk 233 Kg @ 94 Kg (WR) for 418 Kg Total! (WR) at London 2012!
Hossein Rezazadeh of Iran
Lu Xiaojun Clean and Jerk 205kg slow motion 2 - even slower
We began the lifting with the Snatch. We ran through a warm up that included, The first Pull, Snatch Grip Push Press, The 2nd Pull / Transition, Snatch Balances, Snatch Pulls and Hang Snatch. We must of completed nearly 50 Reps before we had got off the empty bar but this actually helped me as I have notoriously bad shoulders. We then started to add load and work upto (Hopefully) a new P.B. Throughout the next 45mins my lack of clear focus on what I was supposed to be doing was highlighted by some very shaky lifts to start with. As I said earlier I had all sorts going through my mind and with a few pointers from Giles it was clear that I had mis-interpreted some key fundamentals in the lifts. I was spending to much time thinking about driving my hips forward and getting my shoulders back that I was losing efficiency by creating lateral force backwards instead of upward force through my legs. This brought me back to the early days of my lifting career (cough, cough?). When first listening to Mike Burgenor he would always emphasise a jump position. Creating as mush force through the floor into the air. The message had been lost through studying many different coach's and not clearly understanding the objectives. As of this minute I now aim for maximum jump and let the shoulders take care of themselves. As we worked up through the weights starting at 40kg myself and Spencer started to improve our timing. Both of us surprised at how light the bar was feeling throughout the lift. 50kg came and went, 60kg came and went, 70kg then 75 check then we both set up 80kg for a new PB each. I set up, Squeezed my back tight, lifted my head up and pulled as hard as possible and boom.....80kg was up light as a feather ;) (kind of). We took a short break, Carla did the shop run bringing back a few Jam Doughnuts (obviously I refrained ;)) and we had a chance to chat to Giles about his lifting career and his gym. We loved hearing about and indeed watching the 180kg Snatch. but more importantly it was great to hear about what it took to get there. With a squat of 232kg and a Deadlift of 250kg strength although extremely important was only ever useful when unlocked by perfect technique. After starting lifting at 12years old Giles was able to unlock over 80% of his pure strength and even his demo's looked powerful and fast. Putting that into context I have a 200kg squat but can not get over an 80kg snatch and a 110kg clean. #learnthebasics Our afternoon session was the clean & jerk. Our warm up consisted of very similar drills to the snatch. Jerk Balances, Jerk lunge, full Jerks all with an empty bar. followed by the clean warm up. We started with first pulls, High hang jumps, Second Pulls, Hang Power Cleans, and full Cleans. Once again we moved onto the lifts and worked up to a 1rm. The Clean has always been the preferred lift for me however as of late I have struggled with receiving the bar and getting a good fast turn over due to a lack of confidence in my wrists. Many of my faults in the snatch had been cleared up on the clean with one exception. It is quite a common fault for people to jump a little early. The outcome of this is usually a hop forward to chase the bar and sometimes a failed lift. My cue was to be patient. Make sure I had my chest up before driving through my heels and accelerating the bar at the speed of thousand gazelles towards my chest. I managed a 105kg c&j which after nearly 3 hours of lifting was a satisfactory ending to a brilliant day. If you get the chance to work with Giles, Kazeem, Anna or any other experienced coach's then I highly encourage you to do so. A few of my members on the day had that eureka moment when the the light went on and the world started spinning clockwise again as it suddenly just made sense. It's not that we are bad coach's but that another perspective from someone with years of experience and a different way of getting their message across just works. A thoroughly worth while day and everyone went away happy.
Each and everyday we post a WOD (Workout of the Day). We think about the CrossFit model of constantly varied, functional movement performed at high intensity when putting our program together pooling our exercises from Gymnastics, Weightlifting and Cardio.
Once we have settled on the exercises we then need to decide on what training effect we want. Strength, muscular endurance, cardio endurance are all needed to be a well rounded CrossFitter.
1 rm = 100% 1rm
3 rm = 85-95% 1rm
5 rm = 75-85% 1rm
10rm = 65-75% 1rm
20rm = 50-64% 1rm
This is where the skill of scaling becomes really important. We post loads on the WOD to aim for to achieve an RX (As Recommended) on your time. These loads are what we think is attainable by 75% of our members at the prescribed load i.e 10 x deadlift @ 100/80kg (men/women).
These loads are chosen to provide a challenge, not to break you. When deciding how to scale the loads refer to the table above. Assess the reps required and scale the load to fit this model.
Please remember if you scale a little too light you have had more of a cardio/muscular endurance session and if you scale a little too heavy you hit more of a strength bias. Either way you will have learnt a little more about your fitness and where you need to improve.
