April 18, 2012
April 23, 2012
OFF THE WALL

This Thursday saw class take a little break from our usual bifurcated class regimen of strength followed by met-con. Instead, we incorporated our explosive movement – wall balls this time – into the met-con. For those of you who attended, the patterning should’ve seemed somewhat familiar: the original FGB is 3 rounds, each made up of 5 minutes of work and 1 minute of rest. Thursday’s class was 5 rounds, each made up of 3 minutes of work and 1 minute of rest. Coincidence? Maybe. However, it’s good training for the new FGB going down on June 9th.

The CrossFit for Hope workout is a CFHQ sponsored fundraiser which will replace the FGB workout this year, and Brian Wilson of Patriot CF is leading the charge to make DC’s inaugural run at the Hope workout a little more high profile. Here are the general details:

Who: All DC Area CrossFit Affiliates 
What: CrossFit for Hope Fundraiser 
supporting St. Jude’s Children Hospital 
When: Saturday, June 9th, 2012 

And FYI, the CrossFit for Hope webpage is up – you can click on the pic above or HERE (details about the workout on the webpage!).

As for our FGB-ish time-domained workout Thursday, it went a little like this:

 Met-Con: 
5 rounds of 
1min AMRAP Wall Balls 
1min AMRAP Burpees 
1min AMRAP DUs 
1min Rest 

Everyone was divvied up into groups of 2 or 3 people, with groups using a follow-the-leader style approach (meaning that everyone did the workout in the exact order listed, so one person would start with the wall balls, and only when they moved on to the burpees would the next person start their wall balls).

Think of the wall ball as the final step in the explosive front squat progression: Yes, it requires good front squat form, with an upright torso, weight in the heels and knees driven out; Yes, it requires the explosive drive of the thruster, using the momentum of the body to drive the ball up to the target; NO, it does not start by throwing the ball at the wall! You wouldn’t start your thruster by first doing a push press and then sinking into the bottom of the squat, would you? Wall balls start by picking the ball up, dropping into a full squat, and then launching the ball at the target. Start with the squat, squat below parallel, throw the ball over the line, repeat.

Burpees are burpees, and the real trick to them with this workout was dropping into the first one as fast as you could after coming off the wall balls. The longer you waited to start them, the worse they seemed to be. DU’s were also DU’s, except when they weren’t DU’s. The goal of the workout was constant movement during the exercise, so this wasn’t the time to practice DU’s. If an athlete could consistently hit 10 or more DU’s in a row, then they were to do DU’s during the workout. If an athlete is only averaging less than 5 DU’s in a row, then they were to do single skips during the workout.

 Emily taking on wall balls while under the watchful eye, 
and sensitive microphone, of Coach Tom Brose

Great work, and thanks to everyone for being so kind Emily and taking the time to chat with her and share your view on CF and CFDC. Emily is doing a story for WAMU/88.5FM, and the sound recording equipment was in full effect last night. We’ll be sure to let you all know when it will air.

Finally, as many of you have noticed, programming for Tuesdays and Thursdays is taking a slight detour from the norm. From now until mid-June (June 16th, to be exact), the program for the morning classes will be different from the program for the evening classes. For those of you who like to check out what we’re doing ahead of time (NOT that any of you would cherry pick…), we’re going to try and have both workouts posted on the CFDupont website. Apologies for the confusion.

Hope to see a lot of you on Saturday at the Cap City Open – Coach Sara is scheduled to lift between 11:30am and 1:30pm, and Reggie is scheduled to lift between 4 and 6pm; however, there are a number of CF Dupont athletes lifting through out the day, and if you want to watch some real fireworks, Rick Bucinell is a seasoned heavyweight Oly lifter who’s opening Snatch will be 130kg (286lbs)! If not Saturday, we’ll see you all on Sunday – no squats this Sunday, but plenty of work geared toward making all of us stronger for the next mini-cycle starting on May 12th!

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0 Comments

  1. Steph says:

    What? Blog’s been up for 4 hours and no comments? Is everyone hard at work on a Friday???

    Last night’s class was great, just what I needed – a good sweat. It was rough, when I was on the DUs on rd3, I didn’t think I’d be able to finish 5 rounds. Subbed medball cleans for wall balls and slow burpees for regular. It was a lot of fun.

    I was sad that I didn’t get to talk CF and CFDC up with Emily. I wanted to tell my couch story and how CF is all about functional movements!

    I’ll be helping out at the lifting meet tomorrow. Looking forward to some heavy-lifting-watching! Hope to see some of you!

    And so happy that Ben Brown is back tonight! Yay!

  2. Julia says:

    Very cool to hear about Emily’s story. Welcome Emily! (Does she need a laughtrack, btw?)

    Steph, I would love to hear your couch story! (As well as how CF is all about functional movements!)

    Good luck Sara & Reggie!!!

  3. Tom Brose says:

    C’mon you all should have caught your breathe by now! Or maybe everyone is talked out from being interviewed.

    Good effort to push through a workout that really got nasty quick.

    Everyone should try and head over to the meet tomorrow, its going to be great. Make sure to cheer Reggie and Sara on as they shatter personal records!

  4. Katie says:

    Sorry to disappoint, Steph — I started a new job this week and I’m trying to keep the internet activity to a minimum (plus I’ve been busy for a change, which is great!). I’m curious about the couch story too!

    I was thrown for a total loop last night. I was expecting Pendlay rows and farmer walks, and got a serious metcon instead. It was good, though, because I need to stay on my toes. (figuratively, not literally, I know I need to stay on my heels!)

    I partnered up with Christine, which is always fun because it reminds me of our awesome New Year’s Day workout. She kicked butt on those wall balls!! I worked on stringing a few together, and I was able to do that successfully for about 5 at the beginning of the sets, then it went downhill. Burpees were rough, it was all I could do to keep going. I felt VERY nauseous after this workout, but luckily my stomach held up and I didn’t have to run outside. :o)

    I’m looking forward to tomorrow, see some of you there!

  5. Dian says:

    I am really looking forward to the meet tomorrow. This will be my first oly lifting meet. I will be there by 11:00 for my first round of volunteering. Looking forward to cheering everyone on.

    After the Open I made a promise to bump up the weights so I used the 16lb wall ball last night. I didn’t grind out a whole lot of wall balls each minute but it felt good bumping up the weight. I got called for not staying on my heels with the wall balls a few times. I went straight to the burpees right after the wall balls each round. I took the burpees slowly and I was landing better on my feet and not toppling over. Now, I need to do that while moving faster. For the DUs, I did a few but that darn blue rope doesn’t have the right feel for me. I’m a green rope gal. I whipped myself pretty good a few times. Around round 3 I started doing single skips and Tom B. called me out. Shamed, I went back to DUs and whipped myself some more. I wore the angry red marks on my arm proudly today.

    Steph-please do tell your couch story.

  6. Tomand Ami says:

    Good luck today all at CapCity!