Workout
AMRAP
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
12 - 65 pound Power Snatch
10 - Push-ups
Workout
Snatch balance - 75% (of snatch 1RM) x 3 x 4
Power snatch + snatch - 70% (of snatch 1RM) x 5 sets
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Wednesday 090729
THEN
Back Squat 5x5 @ 65% or your 1RM
Workout
Hang Power Snatch
80% of 1RM x2 x5
Then "Mini" MetCon
3x
10-KB Swings
10-Ring Push-up
10-Box Jumps
10-Sit-ups
Here's last year's TitanFit FGB (Fight Gone Bad)...
What your favorite 4-letter word that starts with "F"? If you are a CrossFit'er it is undoubtedly "FRAN"!
Workout
(Rain WOD)
5 rounds of:
9 - 95 lbs Thrusters
9 - Pull-ups
(No Rain WOD)
7 rounds of:
5 - 95 lbs Power Snatches
200m Run
Hey TitanFit'ers...are you interested in improving your rowing abilities? Caitlin, of the IRC (http://www.indyrowing.org) and a recent visitor to TitanFit, is teaching a "learn to erg class" at IRC.
The class runs October 19 - November 11, Mondays and Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. There is a discount for TitanFit members. If you are interested and need more information, we will provide her contact information.
Workout
Snatch balance - 75% (of snatch 1RM) x 3 x 4
Power snatch + snatch - 70% (of snatch 1RM) x 5 sets
REST, THEN
3 rounds for time:
250 m row
10 - pull-ups
10 - KB Swings (2 pood)
From the good folks of Catalyst Athletics...http://www.performancemenu.com/index.php
Workout
Front squat - 65% x5; 70% x4; 75% x3; 80% x2; 85% x2 (4 box jumps immediately after each set)
Snatch - 65% x2 x6
Push Press - 70% of Clean and Jerk x5 x5
Workout:
Snatch
90% of 1RM x1 x3
Clean and Jerk
90% of 1RM x1 x3
A interesting read...
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/can-you-get-fit-in-six-minutes-a-week/?emc=eta1
June 24, 2009, 12:26 pm
Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?
By Gretchen Reynolds
Getty Images
A few years ago, researchers at the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Japan put rats through a series of swim tests with surprising results. They had one group of rodents paddle in a small pool for six hours, this long workout broken into two sessions of three hours each. A second group of rats were made to stroke furiously through short, intense bouts of swimming, while carrying ballast to increase their workload. After 20 seconds, the weighted rats were scooped out of the water and allowed to rest for 10 seconds, before being placed back in the pool for another 20 seconds of exertion. The scientists had the rats repeat these brief, strenuous swims 14 times, for a total of about four-and-a-half minutes of swimming. Afterward, the researchers tested each rat’s muscle fibers and found that, as expected, the rats that had gone for the six-hour swim showed preliminary molecular changes that would increase endurance. But the second rodent group, which exercised for less than five minutes also showed the same molecular changes.
The potency of interval training is nothing new. Many athletes have been straining through interval sessions once or twice a week along with their regular workout for years. But what researchers have been looking at recently is whether humans, like that second group of rats, can increase endurance with only a few minutes of strenuous exercise, instead of hours? Could it be that most of us are spending more time than we need to trying to get fit?
The answer, a growing number of these sports scientists believe, may be yes.
“There was a time when the scientific literature suggested that the only way to achieve endurance was through endurance-type activities,” such as long runs or bike rides or, perhaps, six-hour swims, says Martin Gibala, PhD, chairman of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. But ongoing research from Gibala’s lab is turning that idea on its head. In one of the group’s recent studies, Gibala and his colleagues had a group of college students, who were healthy but not athletes, ride a stationary bike at a sustainable pace for between 90 and 120 minutes. Another set of students grunted through a series of short, strenuous intervals: 20 to 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the students pedaled hard again for another 20 to 30 seconds, repeating the cycle four to six times (depending on how much each person could stand), “for a total of two to three minutes of very intense exercise per training session,” Gibala says.
Each of the two groups exercised three times a week. After two weeks, both groups showed almost identical increases in their endurance (as measured in a stationary bicycle time trial), even though the one group had exercised for six to nine minutes per week, and the other about five hours. Additionally, molecular changes that signal increased fitness were evident equally in both groups. “The number and size of the mitochondria within the muscles” of the students had increased significantly, Gibala says, a change that, before this work, had been associated almost exclusively with prolonged endurance training. Since mitochondria enable muscle cells to use oxygen to create energy, “changes in the volume of the mitochondria can have a big impact on endurance performance.” In other words, six minutes or so a week of hard exercise (plus the time spent warming up, cooling down, and resting between the bouts of intense work) had proven to be as good as multiple hours of working out for achieving fitness. The short, intense workouts aided in weight loss, too, although Gibala hadn’t been studying that effect. “The rate of energy expenditure remains higher longer into recovery” after brief, high-intensity exercise than after longer, easier workouts, Gibala says. Other researchers have found that similar, intense, brief sessions of exercise improve cardiac health, even among people with heart disease.
There’s a catch, though. Those six minutes, if they’re to be effective, must hurt. “We describe it as an ‘all-out’ effort,” Gibala says. You’ll be straying “well out of your comfort zone.” That level of discomfort makes some activities better-suited to intense training than others. “We haven’t studied runners,” Gibala says. The pounding involved in repeated sprinting could lead to injuries, depending on a runner’s experience and stride mechanics. But cycling and swimming work well. “I’m a terrible swimmer,” Gibala says, “so every session for me is intense, just because my technique is so awful.”
Meanwhile, his lab is studying whether people could telescope their workouts into even less time. Could a single, two- to three-minute bout of intense exercise confer the same endurance and health benefits as those six minutes of multiple intervals? Gibala is hopeful. “I’m 41, with two young children,” he says. “I don’t have time to go out and exercise for hours.” The results should be available this fall.
The Phys Ed column will appear here in Well every Wednesday and also in print once a month, in the Sunday magazine. In it, Gretchen Reynolds, who is working on a book about the frontiers of fitness, will write about what the latest science can tell us about how to make ourselves stronger, more flexible, less prone to pain and generally fitter and healthier. We want to hear what you think, so stay tuned and offer your comments and questions.
Workout
Power Snatch + 1-OHS
Work up to 90% of your Snatch 1RM
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Friday 090410
Deadlift tomorrow!
Workout:
For time:
10-32k-KB Swings
20-65 lbs Over-head Squat (OHS)
30-65 lbs Power Snatch
1000M row
30-65 lbs Power Snatch
20-65 lbs OHS
10-32k KB swings
Scale the workout. If this is your first attempt at high rep Olympic lifting, use an un-loaded barbell or a 15 lbs training barbell. For the Swings use a KB or DB that takes some effort to complete all 10.
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Monday 080317
Last week, I watched Watson's and Tuttle's first attempts at Handstand Push-ups. We need to program them more often so we all get better.
Skill Work
3x - 5x Handstand Static Holds until failure
Mini Metcon
5x
10 - 95 lbs Snatch
10 - Burpees
Yes I know your shoulders will be fried...Back Squats tomorrow
In my attempts to become better at Oly lifting, I find myself surfing for information almost daily. the following is a pretty good read. hopefully it will help all of us get better.
The Pull: How to break the habit of breaking the arms too soon
http://mightymix.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-break-habit-of-breaking-arms-too.html
We all battle our weaknesses, bad habits and flawed thinking in Olympic-style weightlifting. The sport is a lifelong involvement; that is, we lifters can spend our entire lives pursuing perfection in the lifts. Because the lifts involve every basic movement in sports, and because they are whole body exercises which demand equal and peak performance from every muscle group, mastering the lifts requires maximum performance in every aspect, on all levels.
When the arms bend, the pull (POWER) ends.
I am happy that I am advanced enough to know what my weaknesses are. I battle a bad habit of breaking my arms too soon on the pull. It's a common problem, yet finding solutions has not been easy.
But through my good fortune of learning from some of the masters - Mike Conroy, Jim Schmitz, Tom Hirtz - and through my continuing and long education, I have had a Eureka breakthrough toward cracking the code of how to break the habit. I hope by sharing it here, I can help someone else overcome this vexation.
First, understanding the habit. Why do we do it? To get the bar high, to feel the rush of the "explosion", to apply full strength.
Getting the bar high - This is perhaps the strongest psychological reason behind breaking the arms too soon. I can only speak for myself, but I suspect this applies to many others. I FEAR that I will not get the bar high enough to be able to get underneath it. But of course I will, because this is a perfect sequence, with respect to both biomechanics and physics. People have been getting under the bar for many years and not bending their arms nor raising the bar higher than hips/waist. And I'm betting some of them have even been my somatotype (I have proportionally long arms).
To feel the explosion - It's a trick. Because I feel the contraction of my biceps, I mistakenly think that's part of the pull, and not to feel it means I'm not trying hard enough. But in fact, the pull involves the triple extension - ankles, knees and hips - plus the shrug. That's all.
To apply full strength - This is very similar to the trick of feeling the explosion. Since bicep contraction and elbow flexing are intrinsic to so many weight training and strength training activities, I'm hardwired to react under load with elbow flexation.
Okay, so now we understand why we do it. Why shouldn't we do it? Because you will not be able to pull heavier loads this way, and then you won't be trained to get under the bar properly, and you simply won't be to progress.
But simply telling people not to do something in training isn't enough, especially if they fall in the old dog/new tricks alley. You have to train them out of it. So now the good part: how to fix it.
Jim Schmitz advises me, "Do snatch grip and clean grip pulls without bending your arms. Just shrug and get up on your toes. Do them slow or half-speed to really get the feel for keeping your arms straight as long as possible."
Schmitz also has an excellent combination to train out of this - Pull/Pull/Pull-Drop
Starting from a hang position, perform an eccentric slide (draw your rear-end back and slide the bar down your thighs nearly to the knee). That trains you to get your hips back.
Begin the first pull; explode into the second, faster pull once the bar reaches the tops of your thighs; triple extension/shrug
Do this three times. On the third time, freeze at the top of the pull for just an instant, then DROP under the bar as fast as you can, into a squat clean position (later, use a squat snatch).
That's it. It's brilliant; you can see it work within your first tries. Do it in front of a mirror.
Now, to build on this, let's look at why it works. I think it works in part because it fatigues the muscles you need to activate in order to bend your arms, so your body has no choice but to perform the pull correctly (all other things being equal - you know how to and can perform the slide and pulls correctly, and you know what you're trying to achieve). This combo also trains you to be stronger and more explosive in the pull, which will give you what you need to get the bar suspended so you can get under it.
Fatiguing the biceps is a big one for me. I find that if I use a lighter weight, I can perform this combo successfully from the start, but as I add weight to the bar, I start to fall back into bad habits very quickly. My habit is deeply ingrained, so I have to use drastic measures. So here's my new trick.
Perform the Pull/Pull/Pull-Drop combo to Suicidal Tendencies Institutionalized ("Sometimes I try to do things but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to."). Once you get into the heavier loads and start bending your arms, stop pulling. Go do some chest presses, then bicep curls. I prefer dumbbells. In between bicep curl sets, right when your biceps are ready to recover, go do a pull from the hang and drop underneath it (step three in Jim's combo). I'm thrilled to find this works on even stubborn me: the biceps can't fire enough to pop up a heavily loaded bar, so if I just concentrate on pulling high and getting under it fast, I can do them correctly.
This is also satisfying in general, because I feel like I neglect my bicep training in Oly weightlifting, and I miss the look.
So there you have it. I'd love to hear from anyone who gives these techniques a try, and also if you find there are any other reasons you bend your arms too soon besides the ones I've discovered for myself. The better we understand the issue, the better we can strategize to fix it.
Good luck in your training. The next big step will be carrying this over to my performance in meets. Perfect practice makes for perfect performance.
Congratulations to Dr. Chris and Carol for completing their CF Level 1 Certification!
TitanFit keeps getting better for YOU!
click picture to enlarge...
Workout
for time:
21-15- and 9 reps, of:
Squat Snatch (95 lbs M/65 lbs F)* - Unable to get a full Squat Snatch, do a Power Snatch and add a OHS
Pull-ups
*As always, ask us how to SCALE to your current level of fitness...
Kurt, Good Luck Today!
Workout
Overhead squat - heavy single (85%-95% of 1RM)
Power snatch - 80% x 1 x 4
"Mini" MetCon
for time:
3x
400M Run
10 - PushPress (95 lbs M/65 lbs F)
10 - Pull-ups
Workout
Power Snatch + 1-OHS
Work up to 90% of your Snatch 1RM
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Friday 090213
Workout
Snatch - 80% of 1RM x1 x3
Clean & Jerk - 80% of 1RM x1 x3
THEN
"Mini" MetCon
3 rounds for time of:
333M Row
10 - Push Press @ 65% of Body Weight
Workout
Snatch Balance + OHS (complete one of each before re-racking the bar)
Work to 110% of your SN 1RM
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Sunday 081102
Workout
Power Snatch + 1-OHS
Work up to 90% of your 1RM.
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Friday 090116
Yesterday Kelin noted CrossFit enabled him to shovel the snow. I too can attest to thanking CrossFit while moving snow yesterday. Anyone else have a tale to tell?
BTW, real shoveling is more fun that virtual.
Workout
2 position snatch:
work up to 75% x2 x6 (floor and high hang)
Snatch pulls:
95% x3, 100%x3, +5 10 more lbs x3
Snatch shrugs:
100% + 20 lbs x5, + 20 lbs x5, + 20 lbs x5
Compare to:
TITANFIT: Tuesday 081118
Workout
Power Snatch + 1-OHS
Work up to 90% of your 1RM.
Not sure of your 1RM? By the end of today, we will have a pretty good idea.
So you are thinking about, considering, pondering the Regional for the CrossFit Games. Based on last year's standings, those that are able to complete the prescribed Thruster/Pull up WOD, the Deadlift/Burpee WOD and the Clean and Jerk WOD from the 2008 CrossFit Games finishing with excellent form (e.g. chest touching bar for pull-ups, fully over head for thrusters and Burpees, full squat for cleans) around the following time slots should consider attending.
APPROXIMATE times to match for those events are:
Thruster/Pull Up WOD - Men 6:30 -Women 10:30
Deadlift/Burpee WOD -- Men 5:00 -Women 6:00
Clean and Jerk WOD - --Men 7:30 -Women 9:30
