Happy Birthday Alice!!

For those of you who have attended our Skills Day on Thursdays or had the [mis]fortune to ask Marcus a seemingly innocuous mobility question, you may have experienced his expertise on stretching. You most likely had the pleasure of experiencing a particularly effective hamstring stretch involving a contract and relax cycle. This type of stretch is also called Propioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching.

We’ve mentioned before the goal of stretching a muscle is lengthening it. However, each muscle has an optimum length for maximizing tension. Dan Williams, of Range of Motion, posted a great series of articles (Part 1 and Part 2) about PNF stretching and why it’s effective.  In Part 1, he talks about the difference between the lengthening of a muscle and useful lengthening of a muscle.  For strength building purposes, we’re concerned with getting our muscles to the optimal length at which they can exert maximal tension (ie lift more weight).  A muscle that is too long will have difficulty firing; a muscle too short is already tight and can’t produce much tension.

Dan Williams gives an example of an Athlete A who can just barely get to an overhead position with his arms.  Athlete B is much more flexible and can hold his arms overhead with ease.  Because Athlete A is so tight already, Williams likens him to a Ferrari with it’s hand brake on.  The potential is there, but he’s unable to reach it until he gains enough flexibility.

In Part 2, he goes into detail about how to apply this stretch.  Read more about it here.

WOD 04.27.12

Deadlift 1×5 or Wendler

AMRAP 7
2 Muscle Ups
4 Power Cleans
8 V Ups

OR

4 Power Cleans
6 Toes 2 Bar
8 Push Ups

Here’s a quick summary of Justin’s post:

• The lat has “five movement roles at the shoulder, some more important than others: extension, adduction, horizontal abduction, flexion from an extended position, and internal rotation.” (Check out Justin’s video here demonstrating the movements of the shoulder). The lat’s primary function is extension, yet it’s interesting attachment site allows it do some other things.
• The shoulder should be in some degree of external rotation when benching (closer to a 45 degree angle) so that a) the external rotators are not stretched like they were in the last paragraph, b) it effectively distributes the load through the anterior shoulder girdle, and c) it stretches the internal rotators. This last point is the most relevant to our discussion.
• The entire set up of the bench press facilitates tightness — the shoulder girdle requires tension and tightness to perform optimally since it’s a joint that doesn’t have a lot of stability. The more solid the body is on the bench AND the tighter the tension around the shoulder joint, then more force can be applied to the bar. If there was less tightness or stability, some arbitrary amount of force application would be lost due to instability (the same reason you can’t squat your 1RM on a Bosu ball or water bed).
• Throughout the descent of a bench, the lats shorten since the shoulder is experiencing extension and slight horizontal abduction. During the ascent, the lats are stretched a bit when the movement is reversed — this shows that they aren’t contracting during the ascent to “help the bar up”. However, since the shoulder maintains external rotation, the lats maintain a steady stretch, or constant tension, throughout the descent and ascent. When the lat maintains it’s tension it reinforces the shoulder and makes it incredibly more stable. Tension and stability equals more force application in the bench.

This recap is just a snapshot summary of Justin’s entire post on the 70sBig website. He goes into more detail and does a really excellent job covering the topic, so be sure to read it over as well as the other humorous/informative posts on the site. Hopefully you now understand why stronger lats and ability to keep tension around the shoulder helps improve your bench press. If you are still confused or have questions what this looks like, ask your coach today when they review the bench press with your group.

WOD 04.07.12

Bench Press 3×5 or Wendler

Partner Tabata (8 Rounds Each of 30 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest, alternating):
Sled Pulls
Tire Flips
Suicide Shuttle Runs

For those of you doing this month’s challenge, the number of reps per day is getting fairly high and you may be noticing some shoulder tightness. If you have been doing the CrossFit Open workouts as well, you are probably even more likely to be feeling some shoulder tightness. Nick and I have been doing both and for the first time, I’m actually feeling some shoulder tightness and Nick has been experiencing a lot of pain from shoulder impingement. In light of the recent pain, I did some digging into the CF journal to find some articles by Kelly Starrett (mobility guru). I came across two great videos titled Impingement Checklist and Shoulder Impingement which help to identify shoulder mobility issues.

The first video goes through a two point checklist for identifying impingement issues and cues for correcting it. The first point is to check your posture with your arms hanging at your side. Here are the primary things that you should see:

• thumbs should be facing forward
• muscles slightly activated between your shoulder blades
• lats and traps should be relaxed
• pectoral muscles should be flat
• shoulders should be “on the shelf”
• ab notch should be visible

When you don’t see those things with your arms hanging at your side, here are the likely issues:

• thumbs are facing in toward your body – likely have tight lats and/or pectoral muscles
• muscles slightly activated between your shoulder blades – laziness
• lats and traps are tense and activated- if you have to activate these muscles to get into the correct position, you likely have inflammation in the shoulders/tight lats/tight pectoral muscles
• pectoral muscles are concave – if your shoulders are rounded your pecs will be concave indicating tight pectoral muscles
• shoulders are forward – if your shoulders are rounded and forward, they are no longer sitting on the shelf where they are supported by the architecture of the shoulder and instead are only supported by the capsule
• rib cage and stomach are sticking out - if you let your rib cage fly out, the ab notch will not be visible which means your abs are not engaged and tied to the obliques which means you don’t have a solid midline

The second point of his lecture was about clearing the path to get the shoulders up overhead. Kelly suggests that the key to getting your arms overhead in the right position is to get the shoulder blades down and back and out of the way. If you don’t have good thoracic extension, then it’s important to use a foam roller and lacross ball to loosen up the thoracic region so you can get in the appropriate position overhead.

While this video was primarily about identifying your shoulder impingement issues, he mentioned that reducing inflammation in the shoulder region is key. His primary suggested method for reducing inflammation was icing.

Kelly’s second video covers how your shoulder joint moves when you put your shoulders up overhead or in the front rack position. He discusses how when you have good shoulder mobility, your shoulder joint should roll, slide and glide. However, if you have tight triceps, lats or pectoral muscles, and/or inflammation in the shoulder region, your shoulder joint will roll, but maybe not slide or glide…which results in impingement. He does a much better job of describing this in the video. Also, he again he discusses that lat, tricep and pectoral mobility work and most importantly, inflammation reduction through icing is very important for reducing shoulder impingement. One of the great quotes I took away from this video goes back to form: “Best fit mechanics (perfect form) optimizes joint space and joint mobility.”

Sorry for the long-winded post, but hopefully this will help you all diagnose your shoulder mobility issues. Be sure to refer back to other posts, posts, posts, posts, posts for shoulder mobility drills and icing instructions.

REST DAY 3.25.12

Bottom Line:  A forward toe angle in the squat (0 to roughly 10 degrees) means more musculature is used in a tighter way when the lifter has the mobility to use a more forward toe angle correctly. Being tighter with more musculature would result in being stronger throughout a squat.

Read Justin’s entire post here where he further discusses the “torque” created by a more forward toe angle and how the force gets distributed to more muscles that might otherwise be rather uninvolved in a more toe out angle.  He also eludes to the fact that a great deal of mobility is needed to obtain such a strong position so for ideas on how to improve your squatting mobility search “squat” or something similar on Kelly Starrett’s MobilityWOD.com and get to work.  Just 10-15 minutes out of your entire day, everyday, and you’re on your way to success.

WOD 3.21.12

Partner WOD
5rds:
10 Lunges
20 Sit Ups
10 Hang Power Cleans
12 Ball Slams

One partner does the lunges while the other does sit ups, and switch. Repeat with HPC and Ball Slams.

The CrossFit Journal posted a video clip of CrossFit Endurance coach Brian MacKenzie lecturing on the burning sensation felt by athletes during workouts that tends to slow them down.  Many of us equate this pain to the build up of lactic acid (or lactate), but recent research has shown that lactate actually slows the acidosis process (the build up of acid in our cells) and is actually part of a previously undiscovered metabolic pathway that helps fuel our anaerobic activity.  According to Coach MacKenzie, the tingling or burning sensation we feel during exercise is actually caused by the accumulation of potassium in the tissue and that lactate actually helps alleviate that soreness.  Sodium ions are pumped out of cells while potassium is pumped in via the sodium-potassium pump.  The diagram below provides a summary of the process:

What’s interesting is that the sodium-potassium pump becomes more and more efficient as more force is applied…just another benefit of including strength training into our programming.  This also helps explain why many CrossFit Endurance athletes are seeing tremendous results by using CrossFit and shorter, more intense running/swimming/biking/rowing sessions vice traditional training programs.

You may be wondering then what causes soreness over the few days that follow intense workout sessions.  It’s not potassium which only causes that sensation during a workout, but rather the inflammation resulting from the break down of our tissue (just another reason to focus on strength training and minimizing inflammation via the Paleo diet and fish oil supplementation…I’m just saying).

REMINDER: There is no 10AM class today because of the NLI Competition taking place at the Orange County Fairgrounds. The max capacity for 9AM class has been bumped up to 15 athletes, so please sign in if you plan on showing, or you may not have a slot.

For those interested in coming down to Costa Mesa and supporting Jake, Holley, Brian, and I at the NLI CrossFit competition, here are the projected workout times for two of the three workouts.

Holley (Heat 5)-Cleaning Crew at 8:33am and Cyclebel at 1:12pm
Jake & Brian (Heat 10)-Cleaning Crew at 9:33am and Cyclebel at 2:42pm
Sean (Heat 15)-Cleaning Crew at 10:33am and Cyclebel at 4:12pm

The third workout times will vary but will likely take place between the two workouts listed above. Event details can be found here. Once on site, find the Intrepid pop-up tent in the tent city area, and come chill with everyone between WODs.

WOD 11.12.11

In Teams of 2, complete 3 Rounds:
One partner performs
50 Double Unders
20 Situps
while the other performs
8 Pullups
Hill Run
Switch stations when both of you are done and continue switching in that manner until you both finish 3 full rounds

Here’s a quick summary of Justin’s post:

• The lat has “five movement roles at the shoulder, some more important than others: extension, adduction, horizontal abduction, flexion from an extended position, and internal rotation.”  (Check out Justin’s video here demonstrating the movements of the shoulder).  The lat’s primary function is extension, yet it’s interesting attachment site allows it do some other things.
• The shoulder should be in some degree of external rotation when benching (closer to a 45 degree angle) so that a) the external rotators are not stretched like they were in the last paragraph, b) it effectively distributes the load through the anterior shoulder girdle, and c) it stretches the internal rotators. This last point is the most relevant to our discussion.
• The entire set up of the bench press facilitates tightness — the shoulder girdle requires tension and tightness to perform optimally since it’s a joint that doesn’t have a lot of stability. The more solid the body is on the bench AND the tighter the tension around the shoulder joint, then more force can be applied to the bar. If there was less tightness or stability, some arbitrary amount of force application would be lost due to instability (the same reason you can’t squat your 1RM on a Bosu ball or water bed).
• Throughout the descent of a bench, the lats shorten since the shoulder is experiencing extension and slight horizontal abduction. During the ascent, the lats are stretched a bit when the movement is reversed — this shows that they aren’t contracting during the ascent to “help the bar up”. However, since the shoulder maintains external rotation, the lats maintain a steady stretch, or constant tension, throughout the descent and ascent. When the lat maintains it’s tension it reinforces the shoulder and makes it incredibly more stable. Tension and stability equals more force application in the bench.

This recap is just a snapshot summary of Justin’s entire post on the 70sBig website.  He goes into more detail and does a really excellent job covering the topic, so be sure to read it over as well as the other humorous/informative posts on the site.  Hopefully you now understand why stronger lats and ability to keep tension around the shoulder helps improve your bench press.  If you are still confused or have questions what this looks like, ask your coach today when they review the bench press with your group.

WOD 10.11.11

Bench Press 3×5 or Wendler

AMRAP 5:
16 Double Unders
8 Kettlebell Swings
Rest 2 mins
AMRAP 5:
6 Pistols
6 Clapping Pushups

The Sports Injury Clinic describes symtoms as:

• Pain at the bottom and front of the kneecap especially when pressing in
• Aching and stiffness after exertion.
• Pain when you contract the quadriceps muscles.
• The affected tendon may appear larger than the unaffected side

Possible Causes:

The easy answer is to blame the immediate culprit, usually excessive squatting or box jumping. It’s an easy equation, right? The pain appears after box jump workouts. However, the solution isn’t as simple as a temporary hall pass from box jumps. That solution treats the symptom. To treat the cause, we have to dig a big deeper:

Poor Posture: Athletes who tend to stand with an anterior pelvic tilt (think arched lower back and butt sticking out) tend to use the wrong muscles to stabilize their bodies while jumping or squatting. This can lead to placing more impact on their knees and lower backs.

Muscular Imbalance or Weaknesses: More specifically, the imbalance is between their stronger quads (anterior chain) and their weaker glutes and hamstrings (posterior chain). Weaknesses in the posterior chain make it difficult to stabilize when jumping and landing. Often times we see people preparing to jump and their knees track inwards or we see them landing on the box/ground without staying tight in the glutes and hammies to buffer the landing. Both situations cause stress on the knees, pushing them further over the toes and your poor patellar tendon suffers because of it. Strengthening the hamstrings and glutes will help prevent this. Also imbalanced quads and poor midline stability (think strict crunches and obliques) can lead to knee pain.

Lack of Mobility: Tightness in hips, IT band, quads (rectus femoris and VMO), hammies, quads (specifically the area above the kneecap), and calves can all contribute to jumper’s knee. Check out the video above for a really comprehensive mobility routine to pre-habilitate (prevent) and/or rehabilitate (treat) jumper’s knee. For those that have encountered this problem in the past, remember that a little pre-habilitation can prevent a lot of rehabilitation.

What do you do with all this information then? We don’t expect you to be able to assess muscle imbalances but you can be more cognizant of your posture. Take note of how you move. Do your chest and thighs touch the floor at the same time when you do push ups or do your thighs never seem to make it down?. Do your knees turn in when you begin your box jump or push press? Are your hamstrings and glutes loose when you land on the box as well as when you jump down? Ask a trainer to watch you closely when you warm up. If we notice these things, we’ll be happy to give you some homework to help prevent any injuries down the line.

Also, if you start to feel the above symptoms, make sure you let the coach know to substitute out any necessary movements (ie today’s box jumps). It’s much better to go easy for a week or two than be laid out for a month or more!

Check out Steven Low’s segment on patellar tendonitis, as well as a collection of other articles about knee injuries for more info. Also Mike Robertson’s Knee Pain Basics Parts 1, 2, and 3 are excellent sources of info.

WOD 09.27.11

Press 3×5 or Wendler

5 rds:
12 Pull Ups
12 Kettlebell Snatches
12 Box Jumps

In keeping with the running theme of this week’s posts, I came across an interesting video on the CrossFit Journal website that makes an excellent case for running, and running properly.

15min 39sec

Dr. Daniel Lieberman is a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and an avid runner.  His research on human evolution and accident prevention has led him to believe in—as well as utilize—the forefoot running pattern.  We’ve posted before on the unnatural nature of running shoes, but Dr. Lieberman does an excellent job analyzing the impact and subsequent force distribution in our bodies associated with running barefoot (landing on the forefoot first) and also running with a heel strike (landing on the heel first).  He goes on to discuss how landing on the forefoot lessens the impact which in turn helps prevent injury.  Given his human evolutionary biology background, Dr. Lieberman also provides insight on why he believes humans began running in the first place, the adaptations our bodies are equipped with to optimize running, and why the shoe industry’s claims of needing large cushioned heels on our running shoes is nonsense.  If you have 15 minutes to spare check out the video linked above and enjoy Dr. Lieberman’s thought provoking analysis of running.

WOD 07.20.11

Deadlift 1×5 or Wendler

Max Unbroken HSPU
Rest 2 mins
1K Row
Rest 2 mins
Consecutive Double Unders in 2 mins
Rest 2 mins
Max Plank Hold

There are a few common (and some less common) ways to test body fat (BF). One of the cheapest and readily available ones is the caliper method where a trained professional takes measurements of areas on your body where fat would be deposited and calculates your BF% based on your body weight. Its accuracy greatly depends on the expertise of your technician and quality of the caliper.

The hydrostatic method is widely accepted as a rather accurate BF% measurement and is relatively affordable. A technician weighs you first, the you are submerged and weighed underwater. This test depends on the fact that muscle, bone, and connective tissue weighs more than fat and will factor into a calculation with your land weight for your BF%. Basically a 200# man with 5% BF will weigh more underwater than a 200# man with 20% BF.

One fault with this method is potential operator error. It depends on the testee’s ability to be comfortable enough underwater to blow out ALL the air in their lungs and remain submerged long enough for the technician to read the weight on the scale (~1 second). I can personally attest that the test is painless and everyone who knows me knows about my issue with water!

The Bod Pod is similar to the dunk test but you sit in a tiny space and the machine measures your air displacement in a similar way the hydrostatic method measures water displacement. Upside is no submersion; downside is claustrophobia.

The most accurate method is so difficult to get access to, it’s almost a holy grail. The DEXA (Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry) uses low dose x-rays that read bone and soft tissue mass. It can take between 10-20 minutes and you have to lie still for the entire thing. It’s found mostly in orthopedic doctors’ offices for the purpose of measuring bone density and is pricey even if you do find one.

All this information comes with a huge caveat. We at CFI do not want to make it your goal to have as little body fat as humanly possible. Yes, we want you to have lean body mass. Yes we want you to not hold excess fat. However, every athlete will have a different “optimum” BF%. Some studies show that having some BF can help with recovery.    Simply put: Male Athlete A may function best at 4%BF while Male Athlete B functions best with 10%.

If you are leaning out and find that your performance is sluggish and you can’t seem to recover from workouts as efficiently (and your sleep, nutrition, and training days have remained consistent), consider regaining that 1-2% that puts your body in a more efficient state.  If you participate in sports outside of CFI, you may also consider optimum body frames for that sport.  Just as we don’t want you to sacrifice form in a WOD in pursuit of a PR, we don’t want you to sacrifice your fitness in pursuit of a zero BF bod.

If anyone is interested in getting tested via the hydrostatic method, we may have them bring out a mobile testing device to us on April 30th, the day of our in-house power lifting meet.  Please post to comments if you want to be tested.  I’ll check on the price but I believe it was between $50-60 per person.  We’ll need to drum up a minimum number of people to have them come out.  We’ll be asking for interested people to pay in advance to reserve their spots.

WOD 04.22.11

11.5
AMRAP 20

• 5 Power Cleans (145/100)
• 10 Toes to Bar
• 15 Wall Ball Shots (20# 10′/14# 9′)

Pallof Press 3×3 (each side)

Weight loss (namely excess body fat) is a goal for many of us, and you may wonder from time to time if the heavy lifting and short, intense conditioning workouts we perform at Intrepid are ideal for meeting your fat loss goals.  Let me introduce you to EPOC, no relation to 2Pac, or Excess Post-Oxygen Consumption.  Those who attended the 70′s Big Seminar may have heard Justin allude to EPOC after lifting but I learned about it from reading this CrossFit Invictus post.

In a nut shell, oxygen consumption is a marker used to indicate how many calories the body is burning in a given period of time, or your metabolic rate.  EPOC is the effect seen following intense workouts where the body consumes more oxygen (and calories) to help the body adapt and recover from the strenuous workout.  According to one study, heavy resistance training circuits produce this “afterburn” effect for upwards of 38 hours!

Now compare that to the the dark days of long sessions on the treadmill and/or elliptical machines.  After a tough session the display shows you burned 3oo calories after an hour’s work.  EPOC has been found to occur after aerobic training but research has shown that it’s not nearly to the magnitude or duration than that experienced in resistance or interval training.  Now say that your smart friend did the Intrepid WOD while you ran on the treadmill which happened to consist of a heavy lift, say Press (5×3), followed by a met-con workout, say Helen (3Rds:  Run 400m, 21 KBS, 12 PU).  Although your friend probably did not burn as many calories as you in that 1 hour time span, if they were able to bump their post-WOD EPOC up by a measly average of 8 calories/hour, in the 38 hour time span it takes for their oxygen consumption to return to normal they will have burned more calories and accomplished it with a much shorter workout than you.  Although, the cumulative effects of EPOC are not fully understood at this time just imagine the EPOC effects your friend might experience if they did the Intrepid WOD the following day.  It’s one thing to work your butt off for the 1 hour you’re at Intrepid, but I bet you didn’t realize that the workouts you perform are helping you burn additional calories throughout the rest of the day too!  Don’t shy away from the strength work, especially this month with our monthly challenge emphasizing strength, and with a little attention on your nutrition and recovery you’ll be well on your way to meeting your weight loss goals!

WOD 02.23.11

Back Squat 3×5
Press 5×3