A big round of congratulations to all the lifters at the Cap City Open, but also to Mike Choi for coordinating and running an extremely successful and fun meet. It was cool to see so many local lifters/crossfitters at the event, and even cooler to see both Sara and Reggie leave with hardware (first place in their respective categories – you can see the rest of the results on the 2012 Capital City Open – Meet Results sheet). Also, a massive, massive Thank You to all the CFDCers who came out to volunteer, including Sara (who did double duty lifting & volunteering), Steph, Dian, Sebastian, Ben, Brendan, Erica, Anne, and Trae – the meet would’ve been no where near as successful without all of you showing up in droves to help out during the day, and it was CFDC that definitely brought out the biggest group of supporters and volunteers. After such a good day, it was ironic that class the following day featured good mornings.
Sunday marked the first Sunday in our first of two 3-week off-Squat waves, in which we’ll concentrate more on the hamstrings and glutes with quad-based work used as accessories. To start things off, we hit a CFDC favorite in the Good Morning. You can check out an earlier blog post covering deadlift supplements which covers set-up and execution of the GM (“VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFTS!“), as well as an another post discussing the muscular merits of the GM (“Great Mornings!“).
Sets were programmed as 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1 x 5, and then 5 x 3 working sets. You could either maintain or increase slightly across the last 3 sets, but all 5 sets should’ve been tough, especially the last set of 3. Some great form in class on Sunday, with a lot of people really working on driving their hips back (rather than simply bending at the waist), and then really squeezing the glutes to explode back up into the upright position.
Sunday’s assistance work was set as weighted step-ups, which were incorporated into the conditioning workout. Owing to the size of class and the limited amount of room, everyone performed the step-ups with a dumbbell in each hand (rather than barbells on their backs). Weight for the DBs was optional, although it was suggested that everyone go heavy, but not so heavy that they couldn’t complete the step-up with one leg – i.e., you want to avoid stepping onto the box with your right leg, and then hurriedly stepping your left leg up before your right leg has fully extended.
Once 12 total step-ups (6/leg) were completed, you drop the weight and complete as many deficit push-ups as possible without stopping. For the deficit push-ups, each group grabbed a pair of bumper plates, placed their hands on the plates, and then lowered themselves all the way down until their chest touched the floor before pushing all the way back up. The size of the bumper plates were up to the group.
Great work in class, and thanks again to everyone who came out on Saturday to cheer, support, and lift at the meet on Saturday. Enjoy the drop in pollen (thank you rain), and we’ll see you all Tuesday.
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Can I get a GOOOOOOOOD MORNING from everyone 🙂 Hamstrings are definitely feeling it today, but not as bad as my chest muscles. I haven’t done Good Mornings in awhile so they felt really good. Chris and Tom suggested that I adjust the bar lower on my back, which will take a lot of getting used to. I definitely could get more mobility with the revised bar position, but it was a lot more painful on my back. I worked with Tess and MC and I think we hit 100#s? We used 25#s on the step up. I tried my bestest to hit 10 pushups on every round and was successful except for round 5. It was nice to have a break from the squat cycle 😉
Hamstrings are feeling pretty toasty
Kudos to Sara and Reggie – nice job folks!
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Sorry, forgot to add that I think that is the most beautiful pic of Sara and congrats Sara and Reggie! And huge kudos to Chris, Steph, Ben, etc etc for all their hard work. I know they were there all day helping 🙂
Congrats Sara & Reggie! and Mike and Chris and everyone who worked so hard to make the meet such a success.
Sunday: GMs – loaded up a lot more than I have before; doing ok today, but we’ll see about tomorrow! Stepups – cued to maintain control on the step-down part of the movement, too. Deficit pushups – boy, those (-)inches add up. Good morning’s work all around!
How priceless is that photo of Sara? That face she’s making isn’t JUST from cleaning & jerking 70kg. It’s from busting her butt for the last few months AND THEN cleaning & jerking 70kg. You can totally see the satisfaction in her eyes after a ton of hard work and dedication. Well deserved, Sara! Way to go!
Very well put SBV, Sara definitely put in the work to do so well. Congrats to her, Reggie and Mike Choi who put in months of prep work to make this happen. Awesome (bot not surprising) to hear that the CFDC crew was out in full force to help.
Stretch out those hamstrings, were going to pick up the pace tomorrow!
Saturday was so much fun!
Congratulations to Mike Choi for putting on an amazing event. It was really exciting and inspiring to watch Sara and Reggie. I adore the photo of Sara.
Confession about yesterday-I was too lazy to get my butt out of bed on a rainy Sunday morning so I missed this awesome workout. Looking forward to getting my butt moving tomorrow.
Dan, “toasty” is a great word for it, well said!
Congrats to Sara and Reggie and Mike and everyone involved! I really going on Saturday, it was the first time I’ve seen a weightlifting competition and it was really cool. I’m glad I got to watch Sara put into practice all the amazing form she teaches us! It was a very encouraging environment, and any event with free coconut water and adorable children is good by me.
I worked with Jen, who I love working with so much!! We did 75# for the GMs. Like Erica, Tom and Chris told me to adjust the bar lower on my back, which I didn’t want to do because it hurt a little, but it’s definitely better than having the bar roll forward onto my head. :o) I really like GMs…hopefully they will translate to better squats.
I used 20# DB for the step-ups. This workout kind of snuck up on me — on the whiteboard it didn’t seem too bad, particularly because it wasn’t for time, but by the end my arms were shaky and I was pretty spent. My armpits are very “toasty” today!
Oops. I really ENJOYED going. But you could probably tell that from the rest of my comment.
Thank you SBV! That means a lot and to everyone else who came out to support and volunteer. I had a great time. I am shocked at the number of comments that picture has gotten. Steve is a great photographer.
I had a great day on Saturday and came in to work on Sunday before I take a whole week’s rest. I went up to 153lbs on the GMs. I did my last 2 sets at that weight. That also happens to be the most I have ever done for 3 reps.
I did my step ups on to the 19/20″ box but I was standing on a 25lb plate. I only used 25 lbs because when testing the stepups with greater weight it was difficult to step without feeling it in my knee on the step up and ankle on the step down. I used 20KG plates for the negative push-ups which got difficult quickly. Chris and I alternated so that we each had some rest time. My reps were 12-10-9-5-6-5.
Capital City Open: First, congratulations to Sara for her efforts and for her new PR in the clean-and-jerk (I concur that this is a great picture of you). Second, Mike Choi did a great job in keeping the event moving (which usually gets more difficult as the day progresses). Third, thank you to the CrossFit DC crew for showing up and for helping out (and for sticking around the entire day). For those of you who were newbies to watching weightlifting competitions, I hope that you got something positive out of the experience.
Thanks to everyone who wished me well on this page, on Friday’s blog, and at the competition. I remember talking to a few people on Saturday about how great I felt, how much hard work and preparation I put in, and how ready I was to make some new PRs (i.e., clean-and-jerk and the total) that day. I went in, did it, and had a lot of fun competing.
But my work continues: It’s time to prepare for the Blue Ridge Open on May 19.
Sunday’s class: Still feeling the high from Saturday (and from the seafood that I ate at Joe’s Crab Shack the night before), I came to Sunday’s class feeling…great. I worked up to 205# on the good mornings (thanks to Coach Salty on the depth adjustment and to Coach on the foot placement, knee tracking, and quad roll-out suggestions).
I used 35# dumbbells for the weighted step-ups (I tried 40#, but Coach Salty suggested that I drop the weight in order to get better extension on the step-up) and used the 45# plates for the push-ups.
Despite the weather, it was truly a good morning. 🙂
I did yoga with Winnie later in the day. This class focused a lot on hip, glute, quad, and calf stretching (always a good thing for me).
There’s more work for me to do. Bring it on!
Had a great time on Saturday watching Reggie and Sara walk away with the hardware at the Cap City Open. It was a fun experience to load for the competition, wish I were better at KG plate math, but it was still fun.
It was great to be back in class after a full week away in Vegas and Nashville. Stopped into some boxes at both places and got my CF fix. Really enjoyed the met-con on Sunday. Worked with Adam and SBV on both the GMs and the met-con. We used #45 DBs for the step ups and my goal was 20 pushups each round, but I fell short with 16, and 18 twice. Oh well, next time!
You guys should all know that Chris quietly worked (as is his way) for months paving the way with the venue, logistics, and double checking everything. He spent Friday and Saturday setting up and breaking down like a one-man ninja sweeper team. It was not apparent that there was a meet going on the day before, or the day after.
Next time, I’d also like to see some new CFDC faces on the platform.