Figuring everyone’s traps would be wrecked from Saturday’s 2-hour snatch-a-thon, Sunday’s program featured a leg building brute in the barbell lunge, an exercise that seems like it should be straight forward, but is anything but.
Barbell lunges are one of those exercises that have a tendency to get squirrely real quickly, but for that reason, they are a great exercise to not only build muscle in the legs, but also through the core while really helping to develop balance and coordination. Although we lunge in class at least twice a week in one form or another, we don’t often add weight to them.
One of the biggies with the barbell lunge is to keep the torso upright as you lunge, rather than leaning forward, which puts the back in an awkward position when trying to return to the standing position. Additionally, as with all of our weight-based movements, there is no part of the body that isn’t under tension. This goes for both legs; while most lifters seem to concentrate only on the front leg during lunges, the rear leg and foot are just as important. While you want the heel of the front foot ground into the floor as you lunge, you want the ball of the back foot pressing backwards as though you were trying to pull the ground beneath you apart with your feet.
Of all the stability problems observed on Sunday, most were a result of the lifter having only their rear toes in contact with the ground, meaning their rear foot was providing no stability or balance during the lift. A relatively simple fix with massive implications.
Following completion of the strength portion, class broke off into pairs and headed down to the court for a quick partner met-con. To complete a round, partners worked one at a time, with each partner completing first 12 sit-ups right into a bear crawl, followed by 12 air squats right into a two-width shuttle run. Partners continued to alternate back and forth, attempting to complete as many rounds as possible in the 12 minute time frame.
Great work in another big class. Hope everyone enjoyed the rest of their Super Bowl Sunday. See you all on Tuesday.
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Congratulations to Adri and Steph! You 2 successfully got my competitive juices flowing. I don’t typically become competitive with others but I really got into it during yesterday’s metcon being next to Steph and Adri who were crushing it.
I had a great partner too in Jessi who has been so swapped with work she has been able to make class. She didn’t let the remnants of a cold stop her in any way. She still blew through each exercise.
I did step-ups instead of lunges yesterday. I worked up to 123lbs. I definitely felt I could have gone heavier but the difficulty would have been getting the bar set.
Weighted lunges were a nice change of pace. I stayed light due to uncertainty about about my hip, 4 rounds at 33# and the last one at 53#. I worked with Kathy on the metcon, and we had great depth on our air squats. :o) I’m trying to speed up my bear crawls, though it’s a struggle — Chris’s tip to stay on my toes helped somewhat, I think it’s still an issue of developing upper body strength.
I’ll be missing Tuesday’s class, so have fun and see you all Thursday.
Thanks to adri for being my partner! I was trying to channel Julia since that’s who she’s used to working with, and I didn’t want to slow her down! I don’t think I’ve ever worked that hard, it wasn’t easy being Julia. Not gonna lie, almost died.
Weighted lunges were fun. I don’t think I’ve done them with a barbell before. Worked up to 103 and I think that was as heavy as I could’ve done. Thank you to Adri, Ami and Amelia for pushing me!
See you guys tomorrow! Katie, you’ll be missed!
Weighted Lunges to 155#
Metcon w/ Dave: I’m pretty sure we completed 4 Rds plus 5 Squats.
Dearest Tom & Dave- BALTIMORE RAVENS ARE SUPER BOWL 47 CHAMPS! Sincerely, Alex
CrossFit DC was fun this past weekend.
Thanks to Alex, Dave, and John for letting me work with their group on Saturday.
I worked up to 135# on the weighted lunges, but I know that these (as well as split squats and pistol squats) need more work.
For Sunday’s met-con, Greg and I were a team. We completed four rounds plus Greg was able to complete fifteen sit-ups.
Well, my Super Bowl prediction was just like my CrossFit DC workout predictions: off-the-mark. 🙂 At least I correctly predicted that the San Francisco 49ers would score thirty-one points. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens.
The weighted lunges were certainly a challenge and I could not agree more that while they seemed straight forward they most certainly were not.
I worked up to 73lbs. I was really sore from the snatches on Saturday so I was impressed that I could still lift my arms.
Kamber was a fantastic partner on the metcon. I just don’t quite get bear crawls. They were better than they have been but I just don’t keep my weight distributed properly or something. My legs just burn like heck and then I stop. Of course, it is really hard to get going again once that happens. I lost track of our rounds.
Still really sore but looking forward to tonight.