Crossfit St. Louis

ME Days

 
 
This is week 2 of our second, 3 week cycle of consistent and specific max. effort work incorporated in our class workouts.  Our max. effort upper body movement is pull-ups.  With each set, athletes are increasing the weight for their dead hang pull-ups.  With the athletes who are not able to pull their body weight from a hang we have been a bit creative by setting up a band progression - decreasing the amount of help they receive with each set. 

Our total body max. effort exercise this cycle is hang power cleans.  It has been great to witness the improvement in technique over the past couple of weeks.  People are pulling under the bar instead of pulling the bar up to their shoulders.  Drills and cues such as "jump and land" seem to be clicking!

Below is a short video clip from a couple of the Monday classes.  The beginning starts off with Mel completing a couple of pull-ups with 40 additional lbs.  The rest shows some rowing..something CrossFitters have become quite good at doing!  Check out these 500M Row times from our recent competition.

Men		Women
Chris	01:23.4	Leeny	01:45.2
Doug	01:28.0	Alyson	01:47.9
Kevin	01:28.8	Julie	01:55.5
Mac	01:28.9
Mike	01:31.3
Parth	01:32.3
Sam	01:32.5

CF & Endurance?

  

The following was written by Claire Hoffmann, Leeny's daughter.
 
I am a freshman in college and I have been running regularly since eighth grade. During my junior year of high school, I decided I wanted to be a distance runner and would run an average of 35-40 miles a week (about three ten mile runs and 1-2 five mile runs depending on how I felt. During this time, I was introduced to crossfit and mixed some crossfit-esque workouts into my running routine.

 

My senior year, I decided I wanted to run a marathon. I purchased a book called "How to Run a Marathon in 12 Weeks" and followed the running schedule of 4 days of running mixed with some cross training in which I substituted crossfit-like workouts. Overall, my workouts were aerobic, time consuming, and hard on my hips and knees. An average week on the schedule in this book would have me running six miles one day, eight miles another day, ten miles one day, and a long run on Sunday. Though I was able to make the runs, my times saw no improvement.

Pistols!

Workout:   3 Rounds

10L / 10R Pistols

25 Double Unders

 Followed by

3 Rounds

5L / 5L Pistols

8 Burpee Pull-ups

601 Pull-ups!

 

There were some very impressive pulling happening this past weekend.  We had 4 teams of 3 athletes cranking out as many pull-ups as possible in 3 minutes.  Team Mac, Brett and Tim did 197 with Ben, Doug and Mike right behind them with 190.  Leeny, Diana and Nancy completed 133 and relatively newbie pull-uppers: Michelle, Jennah and Kippy pulled 81!  So, between the 12 of them they averaged 50 pull-ups a person. 

The highest 3 minute total by an individual was 80 courtesy of Tim!  Mike W. also had the record for most pull-ups in 30 seconds when the CrossFit St. Louis Team and CrossFit Kirkwood Team had a 30 second tiebreaker for 2nd place.  Mike completed 30 pull-ups in 30 seconds. Anyone have the video??   Maybe we can get him to duplicate this and I will make sure to have my camera.  He looks like he is floating when he does them!  Way to go Teams!!

 

Fun and Games

 
Congratulations to all of the very impressive athletes who participated in the events at CrossFit Kirkwood yesterday. Everyone busted personal records - one right after the other.  The rewards of CrossFit are undeniable.  Everyone witnessed amazing athleticism and a very enthusiastic and supportive community. 

Thank you Rich, Meg and everyone at CrossFit Kirkwood for all your work and hospitality.   Hope to post an album or video of more pictures later this week.  If you missed the results click on the scoreboard  to enlarge and Download Numbers.

  

Definitely a family affair - lots of proud children watching their parents and Mom and son  (Lisa and Mac) both competing.

 
  
   

Pick Your Poison

 

Spooktacular Workout Today.  In an effort to incorporate many different aspects of the Holiday - the workout was a bit complicated to follow.

It started with a group of exercises consisting of 31 reps.  After 2 exercises were completed you had to "fall back" one exercise (don't forget to set your clock back one hour) and complete 10 more reps.  Before the workout started everyone picked their favorite fun size treat (from a list of goodies) and then were told the number of calories in the item.  Still with me???  Then they had to select a piece of paper from the special Halloween Box.  The paper contained the name of an exercise (Wall Ball, Burpees, Slams or Box Jumps) which they had to include in their workout for the numbers of reps that was in their favorite treat.  During the workout they had to finish their "candy."  They could finish it all at once or take their time and enjoy it - mixing it in with the other exercises.

Can anyone guess who the mysterious person is jumping up to finish a burpee???

100+

 

After the max. effort presses on Thursday, the classes did a 16 minute workout that consisted of 8, 2 minute rounds:

Workout:

8 Front Lunges Left Leg with empty bar on back

8 Front Lunges Right Leg with empty bar on back

4 KTE

As many burpees as possible in remaining time of the 2 minute interval. 

Restart the round every 2 minutes and record total number of burpees completed.

 

The high number for the day came from Jamie (pictured above in pink) with 122 total burpees. Nancy followed with 107 and Lindsey finished with the 3rd highest total of 101!  Way to go girls! 

Midline Madness

We took a break yesterday from some of the max. effort work we have been doing and hit it hard  - right in the gut!

 
This was a tough one yet everyone attacked it and looked very strong!

 
 Workout: 5 Rounds

10 Wall Ball

10 Hang Power Snatches

10 Overhead Squats

10 Burpees

10 KB Swings

Burpee Challenge

Today is the day...start doing those burpees.  It is only 30 burpees a day...maybe do 10 before breakfast, 10 at lunch and 10 for dinner...or just start your day off with all 30!  How long will it take you today to do thirty?  6 minutes?  3 minutes?  How long will it take you 6 weeks from now?  You can start the New Year off with 2010 burpees behind you!  Who's in?

Below is a quick video of Diana showing how fun burpees can be! 

"Are you stuck in Life Stuff right now, just coming back from a training hiatus or “fully recovered” from your last health and fitness break?"  That is what Melissa Urban asks as she shares her recent "Fitness Train Derailment."  Take a read:  Derailed.

Check out Nancy getting her WOD in at  CrossFit Missoula in Montanna.  She never hesitates to visit other CrossFit boxes during her travels.  We need to post a list of all the gyms our members have been to around the World!

Progress

The video clip below shows Mary P. finishing one of her 5 sets of 3 Press reps.  Everyone is already seeing improvements with the addition of consistency on our Max. Effort days.  (Double click the image for some action.)

 
Mac's first CrossFit experience was back in the Summer of 2008 when his Mom dragged him out of bed for an early morning training session.  Remembering back to that morning the word "listless" comes to mind.  He had no idea at that time the impact CrossFit would have on him.  Now Crossfit is one of his top priorities. It is really cool to watch a 15 year old focus and care about the quality of his movement  - and impressive to see him at a 8 am class on a Saturday morning. 

Here is a workout we did on Friday:

AMRAP in 10 Minutes

7 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95/65)

7 Ring Push-ups