Our brains are highly sophisticated computers that are easily programmable. How many of you learned [the hard way] that touching a hot stove meant that you got burned? Some of you more stubborn folks had to do it two or more times to be convinced that it wasn’t a good idea, but eventually, you made the connection that hot stoves meant pain.

In the gym, your brain is working on multiple levels: controlling your motor skills and respiratory functions, amongst other things. It has the ability to evaluate your movement mid-lift, make an adjustment, and execute it all in a fraction of a second. How you program your brain in the gym with regards to successful lifts is critical. If 30% of your lifts end up as fails, your brain recognizes that as a habit. It will expect to fail at least 30% of the time. Don’t make your lifts a game of russian roulette.

This may apply somewhat differently for power lifts vs oly lifts, but idea is the same. When you burn out your back squat, deadlift, bench press, and press lifts, make sure you ‘leave one in the tank.’  This is critical in ensuring proper recovery as well as cementing the habit of making every lift you attempt.

When it come to Olympic lifts, selecting weights for your work sets is crucial.  Cleans and snatches are highly technical and neurological lifts.  If you had a tough day at work or rough training week, you may experience neural fatigue.  You may feel physically capable of moving the weight, but your brain is just not cooperating.  You feel uncoordinated and it’s hard to snatch even 50% of your usual work set.  If this is the case, go only as heavy as you can still keep good form and move the bar with appropriate speed.    On the days we program cleans or snatches and tell you to get a heavy double or triple (2-2-2 or 3-3-3), don’t look at it as an opportunity to chase a PR and go until you fail.  Get to a heavy set for that day and stop while you’re ahead.

Success builds confidence.  Who wants to come into the gym every day just to fail a lift?  You end up beating your head against the wall and dread getting under the bar.  This doesn’t mean you stay in a comfort zone and never push the envelope.  Instead, learn how to assess how well you are moving on a given training day.  Know when to push your limits and when to be more conservative.  Set yourself up for success and it will become a habit.

WOD 06.22.12

Bear Complex
5 sets of the following complex:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press

1. Perform 7 reps of the complex without resting on the floor per set. Touch and go only for the Power Clean.
2. You can thruster the push presses from both the squats, but the first movement has to be a power clean…(no squat clean to thruster).
3. Rest as needed between sets.
4. Penalty for a bar touching the ground is 5 burpees per violation post-WOD.

CrossFit, the sport of the generalist, has 10 fitness domains that all its athletes should strive for:

1. Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance
2. Stamina
3. Strength
4. Flexibility
5. Power
6. Speed
7. Coordination
8. Agility
9. Balance
10. Accuracy

Most people walk though our doors with a tendency towards a few of the above qualities, and lacking in others.  Any specialist will usually find himself at one extreme end of the spectrum.  For example, a marathon runner may excel in the cardio and stamina end, while greatly lacking in strength, power, and flexibility.  An power lifter will have strength and power, but usually lack in cardio and stamina.

Many specialists will use the CrossFit methodology as their strength and conditioning to achieve that balance.  For those who don’t play a particular sport or train for certain races, however, CrossFit is their sport.  The pursuit of the ultimate balance in the above domains can take a lifetime!

Take the time today to evaluate yourself as an athlete.  Give yourself a number between 1-10 beside each domain.  Where is your weak link?  Sometimes identifying your weakness relative to your strengths can open your eyes to what you should be working on before and after class.

Do you hate runs longer than 400m?  Do you shy away from double lift days?  Have you avoided skill days because you abhor stretching and mobility?  Do you get the jitters when we pull out the agility ladder?   Be honest with yourself.

Another way to look at the above domains is to shorten the list and rate from 1-10 just on the below domains:

1. Strength (power lifts)
2. Speed (100m sprints)
3. Endurance (5k)
4. Power (think Oly lifts)

Recognize that any number above a 7 in one category will inevitably lower the number in another column.  Example:  if you are a 10 in endurance, chances are your strength and power will score low and vice versa.   This is just another way to assess where your weaknesses are.

Post your ratings to comments!

WOD 06.12.12

Weighted Pull Ups 3-2-1-1-1

800m Run
9 Kettlebell Swings
9 Toes to Bar
Rest 1 Min
400m Run
15 Kettlebell Swings
15 Toes to Bar
Rest 1 Min
240m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings
21 Toes to Bar

Today we’re performing the bench press, and I often get asked questions about why we bench press a certain way.  Besides having learned from Starting Strength and Westside Barbell coaches, we also took a thing or two from the 70s Big Coaches and as I perused the 70sBig.com website last night I stumbled upon their recent post highlighting the inherent risk of the Bench Press.  Justin linked to a UK article of a man found dead crushed underneath the weight of a heavy bar.  In his post he confidently says he believes “Bench Press is the most dangerous lift you can perform.”  Sure the case can be made either way, and the man in the article above was lifting intoxicated, but I’m inclined to agree with Justin as it’s much harder to safely fail a missed bench press rep because of the risk of being pinned underneath, something that doesn’t happen often with other lifts.  Some of you might remember the USC player who dropped the bench press bar on himself  a few years back, and required major surgery to repair the damage caused to his throat and larynx.  Sure they seem like freak accidents but Back Squats and Deadlifts and even olympic lifts performed poorly at high weights and/or high volume can lead to injuries, but I haven’t heard of many cases where people die or get pretty messed up like they could in bench pressing.

My goal is not to scare you, but to help you understand some of the risks inherent with the movement and the precautions we’ve taken to help avoid instances like the ones highlighted above from occuring.  First, we never use a false grip.  Justin posted a great picture in his post on what benching with a false grip looks like, but picture of your thumb being on the underside of the bar and not fully grasping the bar.  Although this technique may feel “stronger” to many of you, there is a lot more potential of the bar slipping out of your hands especially when the weight gets heavier and the instability increases.  Unless you have wrist trouble, plan on bench pressing with a grip where your thumb grabs around the bar.  Second, we always use a spotter on our heavier sets.  Not only does this help us conserve energy and keep our shoulders in better positon when lifting the bar off of the rack, but a good spotter can save your ass should you find yourself stalling mid press or getting pinned under heavy weight.  Something the poor UK man was missing above.  Finally, we don’t use collars for our bench presses here at Intrepid.  If the worst case scenario occurs where you’re benching without a spotter and you get pinned under a weight and unable to lift it off your chest, at least you have a lifeline where you can simply tilt the bar one direction and let the plates slide off, then tip the other and now your free.  Something that’s unachievable when the collars are used.  We feel that going collarless promotes the habit so that if you decide to bench on your own you’ll be used to benching without the collars, but if you’re bench press is all sorts of uneven and ugly and not having collars is causing the plates to slide around we shouldn’t be talking about using collars but more about your weight selection and/or control.

Use a spotter, no false gripping, and no collars and your bench pressing will go smoothly.  Get your butt in for our double lift day and set some PR’s to post on PR Saturday!

WOD 5.30.12

Deadlift 1×5/Wendler
Bench Press 3×5/Wendler

Whole 9 recently did a series of posts (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) asking 12 fitness professionals from different specialties a question: “If you could only perform five exercise movements for the rest of your life, which five would you do?”  The assumption was that they were training for overall fitness (much like we do here at Intrepid) and not one specific sport.

The answers they came up with, although somewhat different on paper, all had striking similarities in function.  For example, most were multi-joint movements and involved moving large loads long distances.  When we program workouts at Intrepid, we try to incorporate pulling, pushing, and overhead movements, as well as hip opening and hip closing movements.  During the course of a week, we try to vary the intensity, lengths, and styles (AMRAP, interval, or Rounds for time) of the workouts.  During the course of the month, we try to hit most of the skill based movements at least twice (pistols, muscle ups, double unders, etc).

So I pose the same question to you guys.  If you only had 5 movements to choose from for the rest of your life, which would you choose?  Be objective.  It’s ok to favor certain lifts or movements, but think about what will make you most well rounded.  You can be specific or somewhat general.  Keep in mind though, while there are no wrong choices, sometimes there are better choices.

Post your answers to comments, and then check out what 12 fitness experts said here Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Happy birthday to Kris today! (Also camera shy)

WOD 5.01.12

Snatch 2-2-2

3 Rounds:
10 Hang Power Snatches
50 Double Unders

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

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.

Mike Tuchscherer, owner of Reactive Training Systems, wrote an article recently posted on T-Nation entitled “How to Modulate Intensity“. In his article, Mike clarifies that, “intensity in strength training doesn’t refer to the amount of emotional arousal or discomfort experienced during training, but rather the weight on the bar.” Relative intensity is a principle many of you are familiar with, especially if you’re on the Wendler 5-3-1 progression, where intensity is measured as a percentage relative to your 1-Rep max (1RM) or projected 1RM. In a nutshell, Mike notes that intensity drives a bulk of the training effect in strength training, and:

“The weight on the bar – or more accurately, the effort required to move it – will determine the vast majority of your training effect. Volume will determine the magnitude of that effect.”.

One issue with making the weight on the bar the sole metric used to determine intensity is that there are a host of other variables that come into play (ratio of fast-twitch to slow-twitch fibers, training history, and other physiological issues). Also, accurate 1RM weights may be an issue for certain movements and it helps to have another way to measure intensity.

Enter the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. Fortunately for us, the adaptations that occur from training are a result of tension and duration, and using the RPE scale adds another dimension in not only tracking progress, but also modulating training if you are experiencing an “Off-Day” or tapering for a competition. Mike’s RPE scale is described as such:

@10: Maximal Effort. No reps left in the tank.
@9: Heavy Effort. Could have done one more rep.
@8: Could have done two or three more reps.
@7: Bar speed is “snappy” if maximal force is applied.
@6: Bar speed is “snappy” with moderate effort.

Describing intensity in terms of reps and RPE brings us closer to approximating the tension and duration that your muscles respond to, allowing for a more precise training effect. An easy way for us to get used to using the RPE scale is in our lifts, describing each of our sets including your final “burnout” set. For example, if I am doing 3×5 of back squat and my goal is to do my three sets at 275#. My first set might feel like an @6 or @7, second set an @7 or @8, and my final burnout set should feel like an @9. Now say I didn’t sleep well, haven’t eaten much that day, am dehydrated, over stressed, or just feeling rather uninspired to lift that day, use the RPE scale to find weights that will likely be much lighter (say 225# for the example above), but should feel just as heavy in terms of perceived exertion as your usual worksets (@6-7, @7-8, @9). The body will respond to the force of the muscle’s contraction, how long the contraction lasts, and how many contractions there were, and the RPE scale helps us manage this type of approach more so than strict percentages of 1RM.

If you haven’t already, start tracking not only the sets, reps, and weights for your lifts, but also the RPE rating for each set. After a couple of months don’t be surprised if you observe patterns in your training, recovery, and progress relating to your RPE ratings. And should you need to back off every once and a while, the RPE rating system helps us find challenging loads that will help us make the most of those off-days.

Press 3×5/Wendler

3 Rounds:
AMRAP 3
12 Wall Ball Shots
6 Ring Dips
20 Double Unders

Rest 1 minute between rounds

Do’s

• Place your feet on the ground with toes forward, screw your heels into the ground so the toes move out slightly and maintain tension in your glutes
• Keep tension in your hamstrings and your weight on your heels
• Push your knees out so they are directly over your ankles
• Push your shoulders (traps) into the bar
• Pause slightly on the box

Don’t's

• Rock forward to stand back up
• Allow your knees to come forward during the squat
• Relax while pausing on the box

WOD 01.20.12

Box Squat 5×3

2 Rounds:
1 Minute Work, 1 Minute Rest

Burpees
Kettlebell Snatches
Sandbag to Shoulder
Push Press

Again, a huge thanks from your trainers for everyone’s generous gift of the new toys — yokes!

The question many of you may be wondering is what exactly do we do with these strange implements? This week some of you may have noticed that they serve as useful extra squat racks, others may have seen Sean using one as a prowler-esque sled to push Ruth around. While these are quite the Swiss Army knife of gym equipment, their primary use is to bear weight across the shoulders while walking/running. For example, as programmed at a recent NLI.

While the NLI utilized the yoke at a fairly light weight, athletes will usually use heavy loads, many times up to double their back squat 1RM. (For reference, our unloaded regular and tall yokes are 175 lb. and 185 lb., respectively.) EliteFTS ran a recent article on Strongman training and had some great info and pointers on the yoke:

The yoke walk (run) is a great way to strengthen the posterior chain; build rock solid, unstoppable quads; and, because it’s an extreme external overload on the athlete, elicit an incredible physical response. It’s a two-part movement—the lift and the walk (run). The range of motion for the lift is short, but once the yoke is locked out, athletes take short, high frequency steps with the intent to move as fast as possible with the heaviest weight possible, which is of great benefit to the nervous system as well. There isn’t an eccentric/concentric action like there is on free squats, but having to “come out of the hole” by breaking the yoke off the ground can simulate an athlete coming out of the hole on a box squat. The yoke is also an incredible movement for building the most powerful hips from the walk (run) portion and a thick, dense, strong back (from the static hold of the yoke across the back). A weight, most times in excess of double the athlete’s max effort squat, is on the athlete’s back and it is being moved by the athlete while the hips are in full extension. Athletes will know they yoked the day before.

The key to a good yoke walk is keeping the upper back loaded by pulling the side bars in toward the athlete’s body. The athlete needs to find the sweet spot across the “yoke” of the back (traps and rear delts) upon which the yoke will sit. Athletes need to keep their eyes up and focused on a fixed spot for the duration of the run. Remember—run the yoke and move as fast as possible.

I know I’m looking forward to playing around with the yoke and now hopefully you are, too!

WOD 12.22.11

Bear Complex
5 sets of the following complex:

• Power Clean
• Front Squat
• Push Press
• Back Squat
• Push Press

1. Perform 7 reps of the complex without resting on the floor per set. Touch and go only for the Power Clean.
2. You can thruster the push presses from both the squats, but the first movement has to be a power clean…(no squat clean to thruster).
3. Rest as needed between sets.
4. Penalty for a bar touching the ground is 5 burpees per violation, to be paid post-WOD.

Thanks Aaron, Tony, and Mercy for posing for the "Don't" photo!

You hear us coaches giving cues left and right on everything you do in the gym.  Heck, it’s what you pay us for, right?  Most of the time we put the focus on the big things:  flat back position, weight on the heels, engaging the appropriate muscles for the lift.  Sometimes, the details fall to the wayside.  Today we’re going to look at two potentially ‘minor’ details that can have a major impact on your overall fitness.  These little mistakes pave the way for bigger injuries in the future.

Chicken Necking (see photo):

Otherwise known as cervical hyperextension, this is most common during deadlifts, low bar back squats, and push ups.  According to Eric Cressey, improper spinal posture in the long run can lead to major back problems, including slipped discs and numb and non functioning muscles in your arms.  Keeping your head in a neutral position is extremely important to maintain a good spinal position throughout the lift.  Think about holding a tennis ball under your chin at all times to find that posture.

Often times, when we sit in a chair and/or slouch, it’s easy for the head to tilt back, chin to stick up, and end up in the chicken neck position.  In fact, if you find yourself in that position while reading this, get up and knock out some burpees!

Bracing with lower black instead of midline:

This one is much harder to catch, but the biggest tell is if you find it difficult to touch your chest and upper thighs to the ground during a push up (and by chest I mean the pectoral muscles and NOT the lower ribs).  The reason it is difficult to do is you may be using your lower back muscles to brace your body in a plank instead of your abdominal muscles.  You may feel just as stable, but in reality, you are setting yourself up for serious back injuries, especially if you gain strength and start lifting heavier weights.

When your body braces with the lower back, you end up in an hyperextended position as the back muscles contract.  Moreover, your abdominal muscles have been weakened by lack of use and can’t exert the proper force needed to neutralize the spine.  Very bad juju.

This habit is harder to break and an athlete would have to make time to do homework (that pesky word again) and concentrate on the following:  hip wall stretch, strict crunches, proper planks, and eventually adding proper push ups into the mix once the body has been retrained to brace correctly.  Sounds like a lot of work, but 10 minutes a day is more than enough.  Take 10 minutes during your favorite TV show, your Cal OSHA break, or come to class early/stay late to get it done.

WOD 12.2.11

Press 3×5
Back Squat 3×5