Apparently, the long Labor Day weekend had quite a few people itching for a CrossFit workout to start the short week off right. Nice big classes Tuesday night, which in turn made the nice humid gym even more nice and humid.
We’ve mixed strict and push presses together before, but for Tuesday’s workout the mix ran a little different, with both exercises prescribed as solid strength blocks.
Prep Set: 1 x 10 un-weighted Strict Press + 5 un-weighted Push Press Working Set #1: 3 x 3 Strict Press + 10 Band Pull-Aparts Working Set #2: 3 x 3 Push Press
Each set of strict presses were combined with 10 band pull-aparts. Again, it’s important to (1) ensure that the shoulders are kept packed down away from the ears, and (2) that the movement is initiated with the shoulder blades pulling together before the arms begin to pull-apart.
Also, when pulling on the bands, remember to keep the elbows extended, pulling the band apart, rather than back. OH, and just in case anyone of you are wondering, the band should probably be making contact with your chest, just above your nipple-line.
The combo sets of strict presses were followed by three sets of push press. Lifters could choose to start where they left off with the strict press, or add weight as desired.
Wall Ball Burpees = P1 performs 1 wall ball, throwing the ball at a slight angle so that it comes down to his/her partner. Immediately after throwing the ball, P1 does a burpee, while at the same time, P2 is performing their wall ball. After P2 throws the ball, they then do a burpee. A rep is complete only once each person has done 1 wall ball and 1 burpee. The trick is to complete the burpee fast enough to be on your feet, ready to catch the ball your partner just threw.
The size of attendance, as well as the even number of the 6pm and odd number of the 7pm, necessitated some class-specific adjustments to the met-con. The 6pm was broken out into groups of 4, while the 7pm was divided into groups of 3. Each group chose a single medicine ball with which they could adequately perform partner wall-ball burpees.
To complete a round in the 6pm class, one pair did 5 WBburpees, then rested while the other pair did 5 WBburpees. Once each pair had completed 5 rounds, they headed out the door for a block run (800m). Groups did not have to run together, but the group didn’t finish until the last person was in the door. Things changed a bit for the 7pm, where only one person rested at a time and rotated in after the working pair had completed 4 WBburpees. After completing 6 rounds in this fashion, the group left for their block run. Results are posted below, although it appears the marker started to fail out on the 6pm class, so if your group isn’t shown below, please fill in the details in the comment section.
Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. See you back on Thursday.
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Congrats to Chris and Sara on smoothly running two huge classes. It never ceases to amaze me how they can make any number of people work, and everyone still gets great coaching and a good workout. It’s also cool to see new faces almost every class — I guess word is spreading on how awesome CFDC is.
I worked up to 60# on the push presses, which felt good. Chris gave the cue to make sure my elbows are pressed in (forward rather than flared out) — that was a new one for me that made the press tougher, but felt more solid.
WBburpees are a stretch for me in terms of the coordination required, but Jen and I had fun and made it through them and the run together. We used the 10# med ball since it was that or 14#, which Erin and Kelly kicked butt with. I have no clue what our time was, but it was fun. I love team workouts!
Now that “nipple” appears on the CFDC blog, I can die happy. Thanks Chris!
Also, major props to Peter, who is kicking butt on his burpee challenge. It’s really impressive to see him crank out burpees after class. It’s tempting to try the burpee challenge myself in the hopes of doing burpees as well as he does!
Congrats to Pete for finishing his 100 day burpee challenge.
Liked this workout a lot, but my back/shoulders were definitely still feeling it from Sunday.
I really liked the press workout. I’m still trying to figure out my weights but luckily pacing myself with Dave on this one worked out pretty well. I was able to hit 140# on the final push press set. I just need to keep better control over my core as I get tired because my lower back started to curl.
BTW, as we did work on the platforms, I stepped on an orphaned water bottle and it lost miserably (RIP). The branding on it started with “Exe” but I forget what the whole word was. If you’re the owner and are reading this, sorry about the accident and it was given a proper burial. If it’s yours and you’re not reading this, shame on you for not following the blog.
Great class and thank you to the guys at my platform for being willing to duck down to unrack the bar. I worked up to 105 for 3 on strict press and 125 for 3 on push press. Neither of these were a max effort and they didn’t feel like they were either.
Our platform shifted to the metcon as a team with the addition of Jessi who was doing a modified metcon due to injury. The who team was kind enough to wait for me at the bottom of the steps after the run so that we all came in together.
Nice work Peter!
Appreciated Chris’s explanation re: breathing on presses. Wallball burpees – took Reggie, Greg, and I (we were going for max height differential) awhile to get the hang of it, but it was still a good time. And felt great to get outside the gym for a run.
Thanks Sara and Chris!
Way to go Peter! That’s awesome and totally insane!
Great class last night. I think I worked up to 75# on strict press and 100# on push press. The wallball burpee was actually kinda fun when I got the hang of it. The run was good but a bit rough, the hill at the end kills me.
See everyone on Thurs!
I got up to 75# on the push press, I think did 60# on the strict press. The 3rd rep of the last sets was a challenge.
I could not really get the hang of the WBBurprees… I would end up either doing two squats or squatting and then having a lag before I would throw the ball, so then it wouldn’t go as high, etc. It was a mess, but fun.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to make it on Thursday. I might have an unavoidable conflict, if so I’ll see you on Sunday!
Tuesday’s class was a lot of fun – even though Ethan almost suffered death-by-med-ball. The strict and push presses were a good work out, but I think I am the most sore from the band work.
Also, thanks for all the props re: the burpee challenge. It was a lot of fun, even though I found myself doing burpees at 11:00pm on more than one occasion. Starting on memorial day and going through labor day turned out to be the ideal time frame for this because it made me exercise while on summer travel. I think I am going to make this an annual occurrence. Anyone in for 2013?
Props to Peter for finishing his burpee challenge. If I decide to do this challenge for 2013, I would do them by two (two burpees on the first day, rest, four burpees on the third day, rest, six burpees on the fifth day, rest, etc. I think this method would be less taxing on my shoulders.)
Props also to Coach Salty and to Coach Sara for the well-coached classes.
The workout was fun. I worked up to 155# x 3 on the push presses (on my fourth set…we had some extra time).
Just like Julia mentioned in her comment, she, Greg, and I were going for the maximum height differential in the met-con. It did take a while to get the hang of it (even though I have done wall-ball burpees in the past); nevertheless, we soldiered on and completed the entire met-con in 9:03 (with yours truly being the last to complete the run).
Katie, I do what I can to keep people happy.
I too would like to thank Sara for all her help on Tuesday – it would’ve been a monumental struggle to run back to back classes of that size without her help.
One of the best things about being a part of CFDC is the obsessive attention to form that Tom has imbued the entire program with. It’s so much a part of the CFDC-character that it’s not uncommon to hear and see CFDC members helping to remind each other about form and technique, both giving and taking. It’s just one of the many reasons, if not the biggest, about why I wanted to be and remain a part of CFDC. Thanks, to all of you.
I’m really starting to feel better with presses and the wrist wraps helped a lot. I got one 75 lbs pushpress but had to bail on the second. it’s crazy how long it takes me to add weight on overhead lifts but slowly I’m creeping up there. the gains seem small but I’m really excited to be putting up more weight overhead. Thanks Chris and Sara for a great class!
Congratulations Peter! Well done!
Really sorry I missed out on this class. Looking forward to tonight.
See y’all in a few.