Tuesday…4/19/16

A. Warm Up
– 500m row
– Dynamic stretching
– 3 x 10 back extension
– Accumulate 1.5 minutes in L Sit
B. Main WOD:
Push press
3-3-3-3-3-3
C. Mobility WOD
– Practice splits
“The Why”
A. Warm-Up – just like yesterday, except we added in some back extension work. The reasoning behind that is the lower back (lumbar spine) area lends itself well to being tweaked under very heavy load push presses when that area is not properly warmed up. If we can get some more blood flow to that area, the hope is that you become more aware of keeping that area “on” when you go to press the barbell overhead.
 
B. Main WOD – sit back and relax, this is going to be a long one!
For those that don’t know, or haven’t looked in a while, the way Mark James programs is just like mainsite. Mainsite being crossfit.com. I encourage you to take some time to peruse that site from time to time.
For too long, our athletes have become accustomed to doing a “two-part” day – we usually have some strength or skill piece and then a metcon following that.
Is our old way right or wrong? Neither. And both.
Obviously its gotten great results for many of you!
But we all know that when there is a max effort lift preceding a looks-tough-on-paper metcon, something is going to get sandbagged. And that is not right.
Of course, the right thing would be for all of you to go all-out in each piece, but we all know thats not reality. If we were all being completely honest with ourselves, we as coaches would do the same thing – sandbag that is. I’ve watched it happen. And I’ve been guilty of it!
The point behind programming like Mark’s is to give you all time to put all your effort, attention, and focus into whatever the “workout” is for that day. And to be quite honest, its been refreshing to see people give their all a bit more during programming like this.
Case in point, the front squat day last week. Could we have put a metcon after that? Sure. And we typically would.
Would people have pushed as hard as they did if they knew running/box jumps/rowing/pull-ups/HSPU/etc were coming up after it? No. Not a chance.
Would you have been able to rest the required 2-3 minutes in between their sets if we only gave them 15-20min like normal? No.
If I’m being completely honest, a good class session would truly only have one element of the day – strength, WL, skill work, or “metcon.” Hence, why we’re doing it this way.
The reasoning is the same one we give you for benchmark days – it gives you the opportunity to give your all for that workout (whatever it is), it gives you the ability to improve your movement, and most important for the coaches, it gives us the ability to be coaches for much longer and improve your movement much more than if we’re just trying to cram in more. Because as I’ve written about before, more is not better…better is better. It also lends itself nicely to integration of proper mobility and recovery work. And who couldn’t use more of that?
Going back briefly to that front squat day – how many people (maybe you did this??) did you see shoot their butt up and out first before they could finish their rep? How many people had knees bow in? How many people, even after they’ve been here for a year or two, still have a complete poop-show for a front rack position? THESE are the things that you need to improve to truly make a difference in your fitness, and by extension bring you at least one step closer to achieving your goals.
And when we provide you with nearly a FULL hour to work on your push pressing, you can make marked improvements in much quicker fashion.