Mongolian Muscle
Sunday marked Tom’s return from his vacation in Mongolia. After wrestling Mongolian-style with the natives and tossing around boulders on the open steppes, Tom reached straight for the most basic, and most loved, of the strength lifts: the back squat.
It was also great to welcome back CFDCer Dawn from an extended summer break in Chi-Town – nice to have you back Dawn!
Great work on the squats all around. A few important points were covered in class regarding the two dominant styles of back-squatting: the high bar, or Olympic squat, and the low bar. Either is fine, as long as you pick one and stick with it (at least for that round of squats).
Also, although Tom continuously stresses this point, it’s important enough to bear repeating: Depth and good form always trump big numbers and sloppy mechanics. Nice to see that CFDC doesn’t disappoint in follow-through
Of course, we all knew that it wouldn’t stop there. Next up, Met Con time: 1000M row followed by 5 x 7 push-press & 21 sit-ups.
Times made it onto the board, but weights for the squats didn’t, so post ’em in the comments section along with some general thoughts on the workout:
As a curtain call, Tom had everyone stretch out while covering a few announcements:
(1) If you didn’t have the chance to do it personally, be sure to leave a comment on the blog here thanking our substitute coaches Mike Choi, Steve Opiyo, and Alex “Red Viking” Lofgren, all of whom definitely filled-the-bill while Tom was away; and
(2) Fight Gone Bad V – it’s coming up soon (September 25th), so be sure to sign up. Click the link over on the left hand side of the blog here, and then register yourself before signing up with the CrossFit DC team. You don’t have to raise money to workout (and you don’t have to workout to raise money), but it will be a great time for some great causes. If you have any questions, shoot ’em on over!
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7 Comments
Great to see Dawn and Brenna back in class!
Looked like a tough metcon. I’m sure the row was not fun at all after the back squats. As much as I hate rowing, I’m going to save this one to the missed-wods-I’d-like-to-do list and do it after full recovery.
I showed up a little early on Sunday to give the Elements class a shot, coming back slowly this time instead of jumping into the heat of things like I did 4 weeks ago.
Really tried to focus on pushing with both legs equally on the squats and keeping my core tight on that and the other exercises. Tom put me through a squats and pull-ups workout, had to bail on the kb swings when I noticed popping the hip still created some pain. Feeling pretty good today, no pain so far but of course pathetically sore 🙂 It’s so great to be sore for the right reason again!
Quick question re: the workout – it was definitely thrusters and not push presses, right? The whiteboard says push presses but everything else says thrusters. I’m thinking about doing this later in the week as make-up.
My butt and hamstrings are sore — I guess that means I was doing the low bar back squat correctly, right? For some reason, whenever I get into the bottom of the squat, my natural reaction is to elevate the chest and try to drive straight up. Instead, I need to work on maintaining a more horizontal back angle, and driving up with the posterior chain.
I tried to keep up with Chris on the METCON, but it was just too difficult. He goes so fast on the rowing machine that it’s demoralizing. In any event, it’s great to have Tom back. I missed his dedicated strength work and short, powerful METCONs.
I don’t know what you’re talking about Maiko – it clearly says “push press” on the blog, and of course it always has said “push press” on the blog. We clearly did push press, so why would it say otherwise? unless of course you’re accusing me of mistyping the workout and then going back to change what it says in a vain attempt to cover up my mistakes…
good class Tom – nice to have you back. finished up the back squats at around the 315lb mark and I was happy that the weight moved relatively well – finally starting to recover some of the leg strength. For the MetCon, I did PUSHPRESS at 135 – form was definitely a little squirrelly, but I blame that on bashing myself in the mouth during some thrusters last week.
@ Sebastian – Thanks for the compliment. I wish I could tell you I owe it all to great form and hours of practice, but in all honesty, my biggest goal is to get off the rower as fast as possible simply because I am developing a real hate for it.
Glad to have you back Dawn! And as Steph said, it was great to have Brenna back in class. And while I’m at it, welcome back Steph – time to dust the cobwebs off! The guys are gonna have to watch out – the CFDC Ladies are gettin’ serious again…
Busted!!!!!!!!
To be honest I thought it was a case of Tom changing the workout details at the last minute like he usually does. Rowing + thrusters sounded kind of sadistic though…
Ditto Steph’s comments about the return of Dawn and Brenna to class.
Welcome back Tom – we missed you but had some great workouts while you were gone. All of which will have to go on my “I’d like to try this workout when I am healthy list”
@Steph – maybe we cans do them together.
Big thank you to Mike, Chris, Alex and Steve for filling in while Tom was away. As always I had a great time helping out.