December 19, 2008
December 24, 2008
HMMM, What to do after a Saturday night Pot Luck feast? In the midst of our holiday get together, express wishes were made NOT to see Deadlifts or Box Jumps in Sundays WOD. Suspecting that that was a trap (I make the WOD a DL/BJ combo and forget burpees, double unders, etc.) I actually planned with that in mind.
ELEMENTS class saw a few regulars drop in to work fundamentals (and atone for excess pie), as well as two first timers getting a taste of CrossFit.
The 10AM class began with a review of Push Press mechanics:
Setup
bar positioned across traps
elbows in front of bar
feet in power position
Dip/Drive
Torso remains upright (NO forward lean)
Instant reversal of direction (down/up, no pause)
dip to heels
fast and aggressive
Press
Midline stabilization
Find overhead!!!
Active shoulders
After technical work going up to 5 rep max range, we scaled the weight back down to something that could be done for at least 10 reps. With that as the basis, the workout was:
7 rounds for time
7 Push press
7 burpees
7 Med Ball Cleans
Steve x2/ salty/ Linas 13:16 @135
Jason/Christian/Reggie/Mario 17:44 @ 95
Ami/Jeff/Ewunike/JJ 17:45 @ 85
Ellen/Julia/Steph 19:58 @ 65
Brad/Monica/Sara 19:59 2 65
Finished with the dreaded “Cradle of Pain”, 2 sets to (merciful) failure.
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11 Comments
Thanks again for hosting and cooking Tuba – great time and great food!
and yea, I was one of those who showed up at 9am to “atone” for my 4 trips to the food table. On top of that, I also went to get some fine tuning on some of the CF basics, including help on my disastrous DblUnders.
For the 10am workout, worked up to 5 reps of PushPress at 135#, and then used 135# for the workout as well. Cradle of Pain = brutal as usual.
Nice work everyone! =D
I enjoyed my day off from CFDC but sure did pig out at my parents’ place! Uff! Speaking of which, had a great time at the potluck! Thanks tuba Steve for hosting us! ^o^ And thanks to Steph and Salty Hat for giving me a ride home!
oh ps – I’m so sad I didn’t bring some extra tupperware to take some beans home!!! =(
off-topic ps – I was browsing a non-CF forum and saw that I’m not the only one who has slight issues with the way CFers do burpees these days (little push-up, barely a jump). That made me feel a little better, but then I could have sworn when I started CF that CFers didn’t do burpees the way they do now. Am I remembering things wrong? And am I being delusional for overanalyzing burpees?
Steve as everyone else has said, thanks so much for hosting the potluck. The food was fantastic to all the chiefs and bakers out there.
On Sunday I worked up to 75 or 80lbs for 5 rep max on push press, was told I could do 85 but I didn’t try because I didn’t want to push the knee too much.
I used 65 lbs for the workout. It was a great workout except for the fact that I smacked my nose with the bar on my first Push Press in the first round. Funny thing is Monica said she did the same thing just before me. After the initial “Ouch” I thought it was pretty funny but wondered how I could have done that. I did med ball hang power cleans instead of full cleans because I couldn’t do the deadlifting part of the clean. The knee felt good on the squatting though.
RE: CF Burpees (at least the jumping portion)
Not too long after the CrossFit games, I made a comment to Tom Brose about the burpees. Specifically, I commented about the fact that none of the athletes performing a burpee in the video came off the ground very high. Tom’s reply to me (as I recall, feel free to correct me if I am wrong Brose), was that the jump and clap portion of a burpee is to ensure that you open up the hips and get full extension. Thus, its not necessary to go high in order to meet the requirements – at least when competing.
I know I for one definitely altered my burpees after seeing the video and talking to Tom. The plus is that I can get through a set of burpees faster. The downside is that I probably don’t see the performance benefits of jumping higher.
OooooOOOOooooooh! Someone responded to my burpee comment! ^o^
If the whole point is just fully extending the hips then why even bother jumping at all? We strive for full extension when squatting and we don’t jump when we do regular BW squats.
I have more to say but it’s not coming out eloquently at all! LOL I find the competition standard thingy odd…
CrossFit DC’s own ODB does not…perform jumps (or claps) on burpees.
If I did that, then it would be called “the electric slide.” 🙂
Well, I think the appropriate form depends on who and why. For a beginner, I’d rather focus on a controlled movement with crisp, visible pushup, and transition into squat/jumping position. This will build a foundation, as well as limit possible lumbar issues. From that basis, speed increases and transitions become blurred.
With an advanced trainee, speed becomes the issue. To me, the value of the burpee is to change level quickly, and get back up when tired. Apply it to a sprawl in BJJ, where the point is to get legs back, drop your weight onto the opponent, and possibly recover instantly. In that context, the comp style burpee seems pretty relevant to me.
The other thing is, nothings perfect. The judging standard does not mean that is a perfect movement, but gives a quick and fair way to quantify while eliminating the major shortcuts.
Chris, as for missing out on the missed benefits of the higher jump, don’t worry. The benefit of the movement is not in its maximum power output. That’s better left to jumping and o lifts.
OK, now this has me thinking about that Clock Whores article from Hyperfit (http://www.hyperfitusa.com/hyperfit_usa/2008/12/clock-whores.html for those who are curious).
I’m not saying people who don’t (or can’t) jump or barely jump are clock whores nor am I saying that people who are in the last leg of a workout and can barely jump are cheaters. I couldn’t help but think of it since the only reason we seem to have these speed burpees is for competition(with others or yourself). If it wasn’t for that, do you think we’d have these speed burpees or even the butterfly kips? And for the non-beginners, is speed ultimately the goal in CF?
Still not getting my thoughts out clearly. Ah well…
reposting the link.
Clock Whores.
Again, I think the standard is subjective, maybe submaximal, but makes sense. Maiko asks a good question- speed is not the goal, but increased capacity. This sounds very “party line” but let’s think about how that applies here. Is 100 partial burpees in 5 minutes better than 100 good ones in 8 minutes? No. Are all 100 done with maximal jump the same work? No, the jump will decline over the course of the WOD. How much or at what point? Don’t know.
Now, setting a repeatable standard and sticking every rep to it gives us an even playing field. In this case, is faster (speed) better? Absolutely- same work done in less time is the goal. Or more work in a set time depending on the workout structure. Really we are just setting a definition of each exercise and sticking with it. When we front squat do we accelerate to the top, causing the bar to leave the rack? Olympic lifters do, but we don’t require that, as we define the front squat differently. There’s a lot of ways to dissect the issues, but as long as there is a standard it sets the terms of what we’re doing. 5oes this make sense?