So, I admit that the picture above doesn’t have lot’s to do with our workout from Tuesday night, BUT IT’S A DOG JUMP-ROPING! I mean, seriously, how F’n cool is that? Now if he was doing double unders, then I would hate him…
While the focus of the night would be on learning how to effectively pull the feet up under the body, things started off with a quick review of correct body position. Class began with two rounds of hopping on the ball of the foot, followed by 2min of single skip jump roping. Remember to keep the shoulders down and back (relaxed but with the arms at 90 degrees), tight mid-section, and allowing the heels to kiss the ground on each rep. This was all lead in to the main event: running with the jump rope.
Pic courtesy of CrossFit Jax
Running with the jump rope, either in place, really helps to emphasize the need to pull the feet directly up under the body. Kick your feet back, and you’ll catch the rope on your feet – if not when running in place, then definitely when you lean and start moving forward. A little tricky, but the combination will really help to hammer home the need for proper pulling when utilizing the pose method. Definitely worth re-visiting in the near future (and by that, I mean really “near”).
Class spent roughly five minutes warming up and figuring out what scaling version to use (scale up to hands on plates or parallettes, down to ab mats, wall walks, knees on box or bleachers, or pike-position push-ups). Main workout was 2 handstand push-ups on the minutes for ten minutes.
If you didn’t hear Tom last night (and I can’t imagine how you wouldn’t have, since he repeated himself at least ten times over the course of two hours), then I’ll post his reminder here: Full range of motion is, and always will be, more important than over-reaching for a higher scaling option. Don’t delude yourself; 1/4 and 1/2 depth will not get you the strength you need to start performing full ROM reps.
By and large, most everyone seemed to heed this call, and there was scaling a plenty. Also, if you happen to fall somewhere in the middle – i.e., you can perform a few full reps, but perhaps not ten rounds worth – then perform as many sets as you can using full ROM, and then, when you’ve tapped out, scale down. Always get in the most amount of work you can using good form.
Did I mention we would revisit the jump-rope running drill in the near future? Although the drill was altered from its original form, the impact was still the same.
The workout went as such: each person would run-in-place jump rope for 30 seconds, get a 10 second break to put the ropes down, followed by 80 seconds in which to complete 5 mid-court and back sprints. Any time remaining in the 80 seconds was rest. This was repeated for a total of 6 rounds.
The intent was to revisit the running form drill, and then immediately follow it up with some actual running, which took the form of half-court sprints this time around. By and large, there was a lot of improvement between the first round of skill work at the beginning of class and the later rounds of the met-con. But that was just my observation – thoughts?
A skill laden class to be sure, which can often be filled with frustration. Kudos to everyone for pushing through it. I’ll update the post as soon as I can with some pics, but in the meantime, a quick reminder:
Don’t forget to join us for the CFDC Happy Hour this coming Friday at Madam’s Organ!
Again, that’s 6pm this Friday, Oct. 21st, at Madam’s Organ (click the link to jump to their website, or check our their location on Google Maps HERE).
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As much as I don’t like being upside down, I have learned to like the wall walks, although I think I still bow on a lot of reps. 10 rounds of 2 reps per round was fun but got tough. By round 8 my arms just wouldn’t hold my body anymore and I couldn’t even do 1 for that round, managed to do 1 for round 9 and then did the last 2 in round 10.
For the jump rope suicide workout, I did double unders instead of the sprints, using Julia as reference to when I should stop. Thanks for finishing so quickly each time, Julia!
Fun class! It was awesome to see so many people in both classes! Looking forward to Thursday!
I could not get the hang of the jump rope running. I will keep trying…
Hamstrings are feeling it today though.
The warm-up was great — no inchworm!
Amelia, ditto — I couldn’t get the hang of the jump rope running either. We’ll get it eventually!
Julia was definitely rocking the sprints, I also used her as a reference in that I tried not to be more than one lap behind her. :o)
I scaled with pike-position push-ups and even struggled through those. I’m very frustrated with my lack of upper body strength — after 6 classes, I already feel my quads getting stronger, but my arms are so weak. I’m doing my best to be patient (one of my biggest personal challenges) and just keep at it — my ultimate goal is to be able to do 10 full push-ups, and I know I’ll get there, it will just take time.
Definitely a good class with an awesome group of people.
I agree with Amelia, but why are my hamstrings killing me today??? I really appreciated Chris and Tom calling me out about my lack of depth in my handstand pushups. Sometimes I get frustrated that I have to scale so many things, but I definitely agree it’s better to do things right than to do them not right. I could run with the jump rope, but my form faded as I got tired and more tired, etc.
HSPU are a “goat” of mine, and I’ve been given the same advice I gave class. ROM is the key. Scale the intensity, but don’t sacrifice the full movement. In fact, I switched up my planned workout to focus on negative HSPU, hands on blocks coming down to an abmat.
Great effort on the shuttle runs!
Katie, don’t get frustrated. The key is consistency. Stay motivated and train hard, the upper body strength will follow.
“… allowing the heels to kiss the ground…”
Great, but what if your heels don’t want to let go? My :30s = skip, trip, skip, trip, trip, trip… Meanwhile, there was Steph, merrily skipping hopping jumping running along. Man. What part of the gene pool am I missing?
Half-court sprints: black line to yellow line, brilliant. Had it been endline to midline… I still would have gone for it, risk of head-on collision be damned. Likewise for many others, I’m sure. Thank goodness for foresight on the coaches’ part.
HSPUs: Better than the last time. Long way to go. Will keep chipping away.
Good night all around. See you all tonight!
Julia, I have to say I was kind of surprised at the foresight myself; you kinda figure, ex-rugby player/martial artist combo’d with ex-football/hockey/lacrosse player would be a recipe for “let the ’em go for it!” Perhaps we’re getting soft.
So, yea, the jump rope running is frustrating – there’s a lot going on, and a lot to keep track of. But when isn’t there in CF? It will make pose running easier to grasp, it will improve coordination, and, if nothing else, you’ll at least start to like regular jump roping (or even double unders!)
and Katie, (as well as Erica, Amelia, and Julia), I gotta tell you that while I know things can get frustrating, as a fellow crossfitter, I can’t tell you how inspiring it is to watch you tackle a tough movement with determination to do it, and do it right, all while smiling! Please keep it up, it will come.
See everyone tonight.
This class was full of frustration for me. From the jump rope running to the handstand push-ups, I don’t think I ever cursed at myself in a CrossFit class as much as I did Tuesday night.
As I was getting tired in the met-con, I was actually developing a rhythm with the jump rope. Frustration level eased a bit there.
I will heed Coach’s sound advice and scale the handstand push-ups (HSPUs) in order to improve my range-of-motion (ROM). I will probably do the negative HSPUs (that we did in class this past summer) and band-assisted HSPUs (which I haven’t done in a while).
I am ready to jump back into the fray with whatever we do tonight (although I may scale it back a bit and save some energy for Saturday’s competition).
“Not too bad for an old man.” – CFDC’s own ODB
Well I started out kind of tight and tired coming in to class. I finished even more so on both counts. I had trouble with HSPUs (partly because I have not been working them and partly because I was tight.) I did one round of full HSPUs then went to negatives until my negatives were no longer controlled descents. At that point I did them to an abmat which was a little too easy. I like the running with the rope. It is kind of relaxing to me. During the metcon it saved me. My whole left side of my back was tight from therapy so my sprints weren’t much of sprints.
After class Julia and I did 5 rounds (untimed) of:
5 Strict chin-ups (tempo 1-2-1) with 2 count hold at top
10 Toes to Bar
5 ring dips
10 GHD situps.
My entire upper body is sore from that
Hey guys,
Sorry I’ll miss you this Friday. Still out of town.
Have fun!