In my quest to continue our strength development we doubled up and hit the 2 best upper body pushing movements available; Ring Dips and Strict Press. I saw some amazing progress today!
As a coach it feels great to see you all push hard through the full range of motion of a movement so you can get some real results from your training. I can't measure progress from half reps...and feel as though we have something pretty special in the Blue Room cause half reps are a rare occurrence. I've seen environments where half reps go unmentioned, first you see one, then another, next thing you know there is an epidemic!
So thanks for keeping it real...
Those who have ever trained with me know my style; I throw things out there to see if you'll bite...a gentle push in a room full of CrossFitters always ends with some amazing things happening!
I look back over this past year and am so darn psyched about what you've accomplished...I look to the future and get excited about where we'll continue to go!
I'm sorry but...
I gotta share a story about my 5 year old Anna.
Several months ago I bought I climbing rope and hung it in our basement (right next to the rings). Now Anna is pretty talented. She excels at a lot of things and has done so since an early age. She walked at 10 months...and NEVER crawled again...no lie. She is also pretty tough on herself, tougher than I'll ever be on her. With her tough self expectations I've also seen a tendency for her to shy away from things she can't initially do, to get frustrated. I want her to experience the unknown - not to fear the possibility of defeat and then be paralyzed by it - to persevere through adverse situations - to feel the victory of picking herself up off the mat after a fall and have at it one more time...
So what's a Dad to do?
Hang the climbing rope and see what happens...
She wasn't even close...got frustrated...I was calm, told her it was OK, it's good to have a challenge you can't initially do...keep working at it and one day she'll get up that rope. I never pressured her...I NEVER once suggested for her to go "climb the rope" I simply hung it right next to my computer (my office)...she would take some attempts on it while I was "blogging" or doing some "computer work"...I let her evolve at her own pace and gave encouragement where I could.
I had to set up some rules though:
No swinging on the rope.
She could swing on the rings all she wanted, the rope was there to climb.
(This was a rule of constant contention!)
No jumping from stacked up boxes so she could get near the ceiling rafters and reach the top real quick, (like she had climbed it)...smart kid huh?
Ya gotta have Standards...
She wanted nothing to do with that rope for the first month...frustration!
I stayed cool, "it's OK honey you don't need to climb it today"...the FUN can be in the Challenge.
Something changed in the past couple of weeks...I no longer heard; "I Can't", "I'll never be able to do this", ...I saw a kid having some fun tackling a lofty but do-able challenge...I saw determination and perseverance.
...and you guessed it...she climbed that rope today!
What a look of pure joy on her face...it's all a Dad or a Coach can ever hope for....
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I made another blog post on our CFOT community website, I'm not sure if I'll continue there though. The Blog Editor features are a bit cumbersome and Google blogger is so easy!
I think Wes can work his magic and make this blogger blog appear on our CFOT website and also integrate some cool teaser headlines on the main page of our community site.
My goal is to keep everything integrated on one website; Logs-it-all stats, Forum, Blog, and more community features. This way if you are someone who usually only checks the blog not the forum then you'll at least have the opportunity to click on our community website and browse some headlines and news before clicking through to the blog.
I hope to have things ironed out on Monday!
Che` and Georgia fighting to keep those elbows up with 65lb Front Squats...
Andrea T. and Wes Musclin' through some band ring dips...
Elizabeth flyin' through the last reps while Jack is done for the day...
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“Margaret”
As many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
10 Handstand Shrugs to an active shoulder
10 Deck Squats
10 Pullups
“Madeline”
As many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
5 Strict Press
10 Bench Dips
15 Kettlebell Swings
"Nate"
As many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 2-Pood Kettlebell swings
“Mary”
As many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand push-ups
10 1-legged squats, alternating legs
15 Pull-ups
“Molly”
As many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
5 Strict Press
10 1-legged squats, alternating legs
15 Kettlebell Swings
Take a good look at some of the shrug pull angles in the Flickr Pictures...
Cara does a great job keeping her elbows in and creating a frame to drive her core through
Terence put together some excellent strict presses; there is a nice 3 picture sequence in the Flickr Slideshow...The Workout was lightly attended this morning due to the freezing rain
(Although I rode my bike in with no problems...)
In Action Photo's of our Workout
I don't have too much more to say than I already said in my previous post, but basically:
Are you starting to get a better feel of how close you need to keep the rings in order to properly support yourself?
Elizabeth has had good success working Ring Dips with the band, this is an option if you want to experiment with them.
