The simple Press Up is a tough exercise. While people at gyms spend lots of time on benches and other fancy equipment, push-ups may be an even more effective way to get you stronger, faster. And they’re far more versatile than people think. Push-up variations strengthen your abs, back, legs — pretty much every muscle in your body
10. BAND RESISTED PRESS UP
A great way to help control the movement
Band assisted Push Ups are often recommended as a way of adding pushups to your training plan if you can’t do bodyweight reps yet. Reverse this round though, and band resisted Press Ups are a way of kicking your butt once you find bodyweight reps too easy.
Grab one end of the band in each hand and loop it over your upper back, then perform your Press Up as you would usually. These have the added benefit of increasing the load at the top as the band tightens, which increases triceps activation. Plus, the band tension as you descend forces you to control the negative portion of each rep.
The ideas expressed here about post wod nutrition are extrapolated from Ben Bergeron, head coach and owner of CrossFit New England. These are the principles that he applies to himself, his coaching philosophy and the athletes that he trains. 2016 has been a pretty successful year for him as two of his athletes, Katrin Davidsdottir and Mat Fraser, both took first place at The CrossFit Games.
Everyone is unique, so experiment with these principles to find the right way that works for you.
TIMING: HOW SOON SHOULD YOU HAVE YOUR POST WOD MEAL?
After your workout, you have a 15 minute window for peak protein absorption.
peak protein absorption timing
POST WOD NUTRITION: WHAT SHOULD YOU EAT?
What you should eat is dependent on what you did during your workout. You need to refuel with both protein and carbohydrates.
PROTEIN
Whether it was a strength session or a metcon, you should always aim for 25 – 40g of protein. The following are good sources:
Whey protein (try mixing with water, milk, coconut water or coconut milk)
Chicken
Meat
Eggs
Fish
CARBOHYDRATES
The amount of carbs that you need to eat are determined by how long and intense that workout is:
Portion sizes
CARBOHYDRATE SOURCES
Sweet potatoes
Bananas
Chocolate milk
Corn on the cob
As mentioned above, this is a guide, and you must use it in a way that suits you. If you are a vegan, then obviously meat is off the menu for the post wod nutrition protein for example.
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble” Harrington Emerson
Here is another useful article on Nutrition to help you improve your health, recovery and performance:
There’s nothing like dropping off the bar when the clock stops and the WOD ends, and the evidence of all that hard work is smeared all over your equipment. And then – there’s that twinkling feeling of pride as you walk around comparing war wounds with your box mates. Who hasn’t seen the countless athletes that like to show off their injuries and hand rips on social media? But is this really a “Red Badge of Honour,” or is it just harming your progress?
Protect your hands and concentrate on your performance
Many in our community would argue that in order to accomplish our fitness goals, there has to be some suffering along the way. While that “no pain, no gain” mentality has some unavoidable truth to it, the fact of the matter is some of those pains are completely unnecessary, and actually detrimental to our development.
HAND RIPS HOLD YOU BACK
Ripping our hands to shreds is a perfect example of this and one could even argue that it’s inherently bad for business for box owners as well.
CrossFit is an expensive sport. Membership fees are on average 2-4 times the price of a normal gym membership. Injuries like these not only hurt like hell, but they discourage people from coming back until their hands have healed.
Typically, it can take 4 days before these sores are comfortable enough for someone to be able to attack the WOD again at full force. This absolutely kills an athlete’s momentum and increases the chances that athletes are going to start “cherry picking” certain workouts to avoid these setbacks.
Protect your hands: Train hard and train smart
Confidence is key when training at these levels, and pain, or even the idea of pain, could cause one to proceed with caution and hesitation. Also, every day an athlete skips training or needs time to heal costs them cash. Cherry picking workouts can cause a drop in moral, less class participation, and could potentially affect membership levels as newer athletes may be discouraged by the discomfort. You need to protect your hands.
PREVENTION IS THE BEST CURE
Injuries can happen, that’s life, but doing everything you can to prevent them is a sign of a mature and switched on athlete. Don’t let hindsight be your guide, be intelligent enough to prevent problems like hand rips before they even happen.
RAISE THE BAR: TRAIN HARD AND SMART
The Box can be many different things to many different people, all united through the shared experience of the 5 minute AMRAP or 20-minute Chipper that makes up the workout that day. Whether you train as a way to get fitter, lose weight, improve for a competition, release stress or just because you enjoy it, you should be using your brains as well as your brawn.
Prevention is the best cure
Knowing that your hands are safe from rips and cuts allows you to focus on the task at hand. Want to go unbroken on every set of toes-to-bar during the WOD? Still fighting your way towards your first bar muscle up? Whatever your goal, protecting your hands will help you to stop worrying about them, so you can focus yourself 100% on the task at hand.
YOUR HANDS ARE IMPORTANT
For many athletes with specific types of jobs, torn hands are simply not an option. Doctors, massage therapists and construction workers are just a few examples of people with occupations where their hands are extremely important to their daily livelihood.
STAY CLEAN AND HEALTHY
The elephant in the room that no one seems to talk about is sanitation. With easy to spread diseases, why would anyone knowingly and readily want to jump up on a blood splattered bar that someone just left their DNA all over? We may never know the true extent of the spread of infection in our boxes but if it could be prevented, why would anyone want to expose themselves to that extra risk?
WRIST SUPPORT
Just like with using proper form, you can reduce the chances of pulling a muscle or straining your back, hand and wrist injuries can be avoided simply by wearing the proper protection. Whether it’s a long high rep chipper or a short and intense Fran workout, adding extra support and strength to your wrists can help to improve your performances and help prevent strains and injuries.
Ripped hands can be a huge setback, protect yourself and optimise every performance
FRICTION
Friction is the culprit with tearing. Callus care and adding a layer of protection such as grips between your bare hands and the bar is a great way to help prevent those pesky hand rips, while at the same time reducing the spread of illness and infection. Combine that with proper wrist support and you can greatly reduce any potential time away from training due to injury.
Let’s leave our egos out the door, this isn’t a contest, there’s no medal for bleeding and feeling unnecessary pain that does nothing but stunt our fitness growth. We need to accept that hand rips really are just a nuisance, completely unsanitary, and absolutely preventable.
Athletes, coaches, and box owners alike should encourage safety, the prevention of injuries, and spread of disease. This will keep classes full, memberships strong, and our community even stronger!
To mark the 5-year anniversary of the webshop, Reebok is giving you 25% off everything including Nanos, lifting shoes, shorts, shirts, tops and other gear with this pre-sale voucher code especially for Crossfitters:
RBKVIP
This is valid from Tuesday 25th – Wednesday 26th and gives you the chance to get in quick before the official sale begins!
The official Reebok CrossFit sale runs from Thursday 27th – 31st, and the discount code will be displayed on the website. This is going to be big, so make sure to grab your gear before it starts selling out!
Don’t miss your chance for a 25% discount!
THE REEBOK CROSSFIT PARTNERSHIP: PUSHING FITNESS TO NEW LEVELS
The first CrossFit Games took place in 2007 out on a dusty, sun baked Aromas ranch in California. It was a chance for friends to throwdown and test their fitness against one another. Soon after, in 2010, Reebok signed a long-term deal with CrossFit and a partnership emerged that would grow to span the entire globe and reshape the fitness industry.
What binds these two together is the joint commitment to pushing the limits, redefining fitness and helping every individual to grow and improve themselves – providing they are willing to put in the work. CrossFit provided the methodology and Reebok created the gear. They refined and improved their clothing and various iterations of the iconic Nano shoe to perfectly suit the physical demands of our tough, rewarding and rapidly expanding sport of fitness.
Be more human
THE EVOLUTION OF THE REEBOK NANO
The Reebok CrossFit Nano is a manifestation of this ongoing partnership. Over the 6 different versions, the CrossFit community has witnessed a shoe that was designed for Crossfitters, by Crossfitters, and so the exact needs were intrinsically understood right from the beginning.
With the 6.0, you have the best Nano yet. The designers combined the most popular elements of all the previous models, then upgraded all the features. The Reebok CrossFit Nano 6.0 looks like the Nano 2.0, fits like the 4.0 and performs like an improved Nano 5.0.
Reebok Nano 6.0 – built for CrossFit
FEATURES OF THE NANO 6.0
Upper infused with Kevlar®helps provide durability and lightweight strength.
Re-engineered anatomical design for a natural and secure fit
Compression-molded midsole for cushion and shock absorption
DuraGrip layer for durable toe protection
Raised outside lug pattern on outsole for greater traction
4mm heel-to-toe drop for a stable platform
Kevlar®, registered trademark of DuPont used under license
FINDING THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT FOR YOUR FITNESS JOURNEY
So why do you do it? The early mornings or late night training sessions? What motivates you to push yourself to succeed, to go beyond the limits of what you thought you were capable of?
I’m pretty sure you don’t flip tires or climb ropes during WODs simply to become a better tire flipper or rope climber. You do it to become a better human, a fitter, happier, more dedicated individual that is part of a huge worldwide community.
Train like a champ
It doesn’t matter about the fitness level you started with, because you already realise that your training has helped to improve your discipline, courage, mental and physical strength, persistence, skill and resilience. Reebok design shoes and clothes especially for this journey, to give you what you need to stabilise every lift and maximise each WOD.
The average human has 25,915 days on earth, so how will you spend your time? How will you honour the body that you’ve been given?
This offer ends on Monday 31st October, so don’t miss your unique opportunity to get 25% off your next pair of Nanos, lifters or new Reebok CrossFit gear.
Tribal Clash, the biggest tactical team fitness event in Europe, and the most coveted team ticket in the UK, announces plans to turn the spectacular two-day beach competition into a five-event European Series with two new locations for 2017: Praia do Almargem in Algarve, Southern Portugal, and Kristiansand on the south coast of Norway.
TRIBAL CLASH UK: THE BIGGEST TEAM FITNESS EVENT IN EUROPE
The inauguralTribal Clashon the sunny beach in South Devon in 2013 saw 100 teams of 4 flipping tyres, carrying logs and running through ancient woodland trails. As the word spread, team places in Tribal Clash became like gold dust and the 144 available UK team places now sell out in just 24 hours.
Tribal Clash 2016 saw 1008 athletes, in 168 teams of 3 women and 3 men, battle it out on Blackpool Sands beach through rain, gale force winds and glorious sunshine.
The teams had to work with a host of unusual and unfamiliar equipment such as:
A giant slosh pipe
Log worm
360kg builders’ bag
Balance beam
Atlas stones
For the 10 finalists, a 6-man paddleboard
Tribal Clash: A truly unique challenge
It wasn’t a gentle start either: the athletes were tested in a 1 km team beach run where the teams had to carry a 6-handled log weighing 45kg, followed by a 4 km individual woodland trail run through steep Devon hills. Despite the occasional rain shower, the atmosphere was electric and DJ Rob Williams made sure the music gave the athletes an extra boost throughout the weekend. In the Final, ADAMED Team Poland captained by Dawid Gadzecki crossed the finish line first after a grueling chipper, finally being crowned Tribal Clash champions after top 10 placings in the two previous years.
PORTUGAL AND NORWAY ADDED TO THE EUROPEAN COMPETITION SERIES
After the 2016 UK competition in August, Tribal Clash announced two additional competitions in Europe for 2017. Tribal Clash Portugal will be held during the weekend of 28-30 April 2017 in Praia do Almargem, Algarve, and Tribal Clash Norway during the weekend of 16-18 2017 in Kristiansand. Together with the sold-out 2017 UK competition in Blackpool Sands, the three competitions will form the 2017 European Series.
Test your strength, grit and teamwork in totally new ways
FINDING THE FITTEST TEAMS IN EUROPE
To find the fittest team in Europe, top 20 teams from each three competitions will qualify for a 2017 European Series Final, held in October in a yet-undisclosed location in Europe. The Final will be another two-day competition. With only 60 teams that have been seeded from the toughest team programming currently for amateur athletes, the opportunities for competition design and programming are exciting.
It is anticipated that the European Series Final will see some truly challenging and innovative team events and there is a high probability that some new equipment will be introduced too. Of course, in true Tribal Clash style the events in the Series Final, too, will be kept secret until the competition weekend.
TACTICAL PROGRAMMING FOR TEAMS
Each three European competitions will have the same aim: to find the fittest mixed team of six athletes, consisting of three men and three women. Tribal Clash believes that to truly test team fitness, the events have to be programmed for a team, instead of individual athletes. Whereas many team competitions favour events ran in a relay format where team members take turns to do work, Tribal Clash events are programmed so that where possible, the team works together. This makes the events very tactical, requiring good communication skills and the ability to work together as one unit.
Tribal Clash athletes won’t see assault bikes, or Concept 2 rowers, or jump ropes in the arena, nor will they see any factory crafted barbells either. Instead, they will be working with sandbags, atlas stones, logs, tyres, and any manner of weird and wonderful pieces of equipment that Andrew Barker, the Tribal Clash Event Director and Head of Programming, designs, sources and commissions.
Work, compete and thrive as a unit
Andrew has always pushed the boundaries of team programming, whether it is through event design, or equipment design, or simply making the athletes do what they usually do in a gym but this time outside on a beach being at the mercy of the weather and the challenging terrain.
Try doing burpees on a shingle beach and the concept of ‘being out of your comfort zone’ becomes very clear. This is why Tribal Clash is mentally as challenging as it is physically. The teams that reach the Final 10 will have six athletes with mental tenacity and grit to get them through all the various challenges thrown at them in the course of the weekend.
A test of mental grit!
COMBINE A TEAM COMPETITION WITH A TRAINING HOLIDAY
PORTUGAL
Praia do Almargem will form a stunning venue for Tribal Clash Portugal. White soft sand and spectacular sunsets, surrounded by pine forests and olive trees, the beach is a hidden gem close to various hotels and restaurants of Quarteira, central Algarve. The nearest airport Faro is only 20 minutes away, making it an easy destination for a Tribal Clash holiday. The weather in Algarve will already be warm, but not uncomfortably so, and the swim will be a lot less chilly than the icy cold Start Bay waters in August! If you want to combine Tribal Clash with a training holiday, Vilamoura offers several options including the Vilamoura Weightlifting Club, and Browns Vilamoura Training Camp with its extensive sports and recovery facilities.
The awesome crowd
NORWAY
Kristiansand will see Tribal Clash for the first time in the middle of a city, as the competition takes over this famous Norwegian city beach Bystranda for the weekend of 16-18 June. Teams looking to enter Tribal Clash Norway can expect two days of tactical team programming, where swimming is likely to feature heavily because of the calm flat waters in front of this charming Norwegian coastal town. Kristiansand is easily reached via a connecting flight from Oslo, and being a city beach, there are lots of accommodation options to choose from. Kristiansand is also home to four friendly and welcoming CrossFit affiliates.
HOW TO ENTER
All Tribal Clash competitions are open entry, there are no qualifiers. Tribal Clash UK is sold out, but teams are invited to register for Tribal Clash Portugal and Tribal Clash Norway. Team places are sold on first-come-first-served basis, and given the huge demand for team places in the UK competition, the European events are likely to sell out too. Register on the Tribal Clash website
Not only do Muscle Ups look impressive, but they are also an amazing way to build great upper body strength and explosive power from the hip drive. This article will explain what you need to do in order to complete your first few Muscle Ups
KIPPING OR STRICT?
These tips are for kipping Muscle Ups only. The strict Muscle Up is harder to achieve. The kip allows you to generate force that is used to propel your body through the movement of the exercise. With the strict version, all the force comes directly from your muscular power and strength.
BAR OR RING MUSCLE UP: WHICH ONE COMES FIRST?
So which one is the most beginner-friendly? Which should I aim for?
The answer to this question really varies from athlete to athlete. While one person may perform several unbroken Bar Muscle Ups with ease without being able to do a single Ring Muscle Up, for others the reverse can be true. It comes down to your personal strengths and weaknesses.
Build strength and explosive power
Often the Ring Muscle Up is considered to be the less challenging version in terms of strength, since the rings can move freely and, with a strong kip, be pulled into an optimal position for you to ‘catch’ the swing before you lock into the dip position.
On the other hand, the shoulders have to do a lot of stability work in the catch and the dip. The bar provides more stability but also demands more pulling strength. Make sure you get on a bar like this one, without knurling, otherwise you run the risk of tearing your hands!
Go for the Ring Muscle Up
If you have strong shoulders (good performance in ring dips can be an indicator of this) and perform well in explosive and challenging movements that require a high degree of coordination, you might find the Ring Muscle Up easier than the Bar Muscle Up.
Go for the Bar Muscle Up
If you have deficits in explosive kipping movements but a strong pull, you’ll most likely master your first Muscle Up on the bar.
In this article we will concentrate on the version that was found in The Open 2016, and that might occur again in this competition: Bar Muscle Ups.
Nail your technique
BAR MUSCLE UPS: LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
The Muscle Up is clearly not a suitable exercise for someone who is totally new to gymnastics. The exercise combines a strong Pull Up with a stable Dip, a dynamic kip and perfect timing.
The following numbers for body weight exercises provide a good guide of what level you should aim for before you begin to learn the technique for Muscle Ups:
7 – 10 Strict Pull ups
10+ Kipping Pull ups
10 – 15 Dips
3-5 Strict Chest2Bar-Pull ups
These numbers should only serve as a rough guide.
Every human is different and weaker athletes can often compensate any strength deficit with good technique. The reverse is also true although your end goal is obviously to develop both of these elements of your fitness.
PERFECTING THE TECHNIQUE
A properly executed Muscle Up is truly enjoyable to watch! However, in the beginning it can feel pretty exhausting, especially for the (fore) arms and shoulders. A perfectly timed kip is the key to efficiency and bar muscle ups in unbroken sets.
BREAKING THE MOVEMENT DOWN INTO STAGES
Start the kip from the free hang. Be tight and kip aggressively. Swing forward into a solid archer position.
Swing your body back into the hollow rock position. Stay tight!
Engage your lats. Imagine that you want to pull the bar towards your chest and beneath as if it was movable.
Engage your hips, push them towards the bar. A weightless moment should be created by doing so.
Perform an extremely fast sit up to bring your upper body over the bar.
As long as you have a basic level of strength, the Bar Muscle Up is more or less a question of understanding the rhythm. Executing the transition at the right second requires some practicing, but once you get the feeling for this, results will follow.
SCALING AND PROGRESSION
Chest to Bar Pull Ups are a great way to build power and speed
As per usual, doing strict gymnastic exercises (Pull Ups, Chest2Bar, Dips) to build up strength and practicing the kipping movements is great preparation for nailing your (first) Muscle Up.
Besides that, there are scaling options and progressions – find the one that feels most helpful to you. As for the pull up, you can do the Bar Muscle Up band assisted.
Note: The usage of bands in gymnastic progressions in general has its supporter and critics as it doesn’t provide a natural, even allocation of force and doesn’t give much support on the top part of the pull – when it actually becomes tricky.
BAND ASSISTED MUSCLE UP (SUPPORTING THE FEET)
Another option is to tie the band horizontally between two uprights of the squat station and stand on it. Have the bar at a comfortable height that allows you to Muscle Up by using the momentum of the supporting bounce.
Your hard work will pay off in the end
SCALING FROM AN INVERTED ROW POSITION
You can also place a barbell on the squat rack, approx. at the height of you belly button.
Place your feet on a box, bench or stack of plates.
The bar should be above your hip when you lie down your whole body down in a “banana like” posture.
Grab the barbell and practice the push from the hip from that half-hanging position.
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF!
The muscle up requires patience! Depending on your athletic background and foundations, the first successful try can take anything from weeks to months. But this was also the case when you learned how to walk. Or to read and write. Stick to it and you will be rewarded sooner or later. One last thing to remember as well – have fun with your training and enjoy yourself!
The Ring Handstand Push Up was first seen at the 2010 Games, but made a comeback earlier this year in the Carson sunshine at the 2016 CrossFit Games®. The crowds watched in awe as athletes such as Josh Bridges, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Annie Thorisdottir completed a tough workout that contained Ring Handstand Push Ups – aptly named the separator – in style.
So now it’s your turn! The exercise is an advanced movement, but there is no reason why you can’t achieve it. CrossFit® is all about pushing your limits right?
With patience and practice, you will master Ring Handstand Push Ups
1. BUILD THE RIGHT FOUNDATIONS
– BASIC STRENGTH AND BALANCE
Before you begin to start learning the Ring Handstand Push Up you should be able to complete the following:
3 Strict Handstand Push Ups
3 Strict Pull Ups
5 second freestanding handstand
The Ring Handstand Push Up requires a good sense of balance, because you are performing the exercise on equipment that is moving and unstable. Your core will be required to work hard to keep you stable throughout the full range of motion.
If you have trouble with the balance, or struggle with maintaining a calm and steady freestanding handstand, then this trick from Camille Leblanc-Bazinet will help you to improve your balance.
Camille’s Balance trick:
Stand in an upright position with your feet shoulder width apart.
Next, take a 15kg plate, grip it in both hands and raise it above your head with your arms fully outstretched.
Keep your core tight and adjust the plate until you are completely stable. Hold for 20 seconds.
Learn from the best
The aim of this exercise is to help find your point of balance and train your muscle memory to keep your body tight in this position. When you flip upside down it will help to improve your Handstand Hold, Handstand Push Ups and translate when you move onto Ring Handstand Push Ups as well.
– PROGRESSION
As with all the more advanced exercises in CrossFit®, it’s all about progression. You need to build up over time by developing and strengthening your body and technique in incremental stages.
Entering the Ring Handstand Push Up position
This can be harder than anticipated, so it is worth hanging the rings over a mat for the first few times you try this! Grip the rings with bent arms, activate your core then push hard to propel your legs and body into the upright position. Remember to open your legs into a v shape that is wider than the width of the straps that hold the rings, as you need to catch the straps so that you can wrap your feet around and hold your body in place.
Wearing wrist supports can also help to stop cuts and abrasions on your wrists and arms from the pressure of them rubbing against the chalked wooden rings and roughly textured straps. They also provide additional support, warmth and compression. These were co-designed with Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and incorporate her exact specifications based on years of CrossFit® experience and knowledge. When learning new exercises, especially ones that are difficult, it’s a good idea to give yourself as many advantages as you can.
The RX wrist supports were designed to Camille’s exact specifications.
Reps with a half range of motion
Once you are safely locked into position, practice your reps by only descending to half depth before you press back up. This will help your body get used to the balance and unfamiliar conditions of the exercise. Practice from the locked out position and gradually lower your body half way, before pressing back to the locked out position where your arms are straight.
Remember that you need to train strength and form before you go for speed. You won’t go fast, not even the top pros do, so concentrate on the integrity of the movement.
Controlled descent progression
Once you are in the locked out position you can also go all the way down to the lowest negative position then lunge out again, back onto your feet. Work slowly, and simply concentrate on controlling the descent. This way you can focus on the balance and movement before needing to worry about the strength that is required for the pressing part of the exercise.
2. FLEXIBILITY IS KEY
This exercise demands good flexibility. Make sure to mobilise your shoulders and warm up with Push Presses and Strict Presses to wake your body up as well. Strong shoulder stability is absolutely necessary for being able to complete successful Ring Handstand Push Ups.
Shoulder strength is essential for Ring Handstand Push Ups
3. LOCK YOUR FEET
This is a vital part of the exercise! Straddle your legs out and around the straps when you kick your legs up. Use your feet to hook back inside the straps so that your outer foot is in contact with the material of the strap.
4. BODY POSITIONING: STAY VERTICAL
– KEEP YOUR SHOULDERS OVER THE RINGS
In order to make the movement as efficient as possible, you will need to stay as vertical and straight as you can.
Your feet, knees, hips and shoulders should be in a straight vertical line. A curved spine is not efficient and will give you a closed shoulder angle, which will only make things even harder.
– MIDLINE STABILITY (MAINTAIN A HOLLOW BODY POSITION)
Stay stable. Stay tight.
The hollow body position is a basic and vital position for many gymnastics exercises, and is what you need to utilise here.
An important gymnastic hold
To practice getting into this position, lie on your back on the floor. With your feet together, point your toes away from your body. Fully outstretch your arms and bring your hands together above your head. Activate your core, glutes and shoulders and lift your arms and legs up off the floor. Hold.
There should be no space between the lumbar (lower) spine and the floor
Scapula are elevated off the ground and
The hip is extended with a posterior pelvic tilt.
Ideally for the Ring Handstand Push Up, you want to achieve a hollow contraction for the entire range of motion and keep your glutes, core and shoulders tight.
Don’t let go of that hollow contraction!
A lot of people tend to drop to the bottom position, deactivate their midline, then try to press back up to the top position. This makes things much harder than they need to be, so avoid this habit when performing Ring Handstand Push Ups. You wouldn’t deactivate at the bottom of a heavy Squat, so don’t do it here. The following exercises are great for building core strength and improving your hollow body position.
L Sits
Hollow Rocks
V-Ups
Camille using her wrist supports during Murph at the CrossFit Games 2016
5. RING HANDSTAND PUSH UPS: GRIPPING THE RINGS
You want to keep your wrists tight when performing the Ring Handstand Push Up. Don’t allow them to bend too much because this can affect the Ulnar nerve, which in turn will have a negative impact on your balance, as well as your body.
Maintain a strong grip throughout, and make use of wrist supports, for additional safety and feedback from your body. These will also help to protect your skin from cuts and abrasions that will occur from the chalked surface of the rings and textured straps rubbing against your skin.
Here you can also turn your elbows out slightly in order to press yourself back up (think of the mechanics behind the way you Clean a barbell). Try and find the angle that works the best for you.
The Ring Handstand Push Up is an advanced exercise and takes time, strength, technique and balance to master. This is exactly why you should learn to do it, whatever your current skill level, because CrossFit® will always challenge you to work harder and become better than you ever thought you could be. It’s time to enable your full potential, and it will be hard, but you wouldn’t want it any other way right?
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or not, Battle Cancer is the ultimate team CrossFit challenge for 2017. Battle Cancer is the world’s first mass team CrossFit event with the dual aim of providing a competition that can push you to your limits, whilst also providing a huge amount of fundraising for UK cancer charities.
Push yourself to the limits for a good cause
Battle commences on Saturday 5th August 2017
Now is the time to show what you are really made of! Are you and your team ready to step onto the Battle Ground and give your all?
The ultimate battle demands an incredible Battle Ground location and Victoria Warehouse in Manchester offers just that. Our unique Battle Ground provides a huge urban space which is perfect not only for all the Battle teams but also for their friends and family to come provide some much needed support. The vast arena is overlooked by an immense mezzanine level giving 1000s of spectators the opportunity to roar you on in the Battle with a bird’s eye view of the events; and the vast space means the Battles will incorporate elements of your most challenging WODs with exciting, innovative equipment…Battle Cancer is definitely not your standard CrossFit comp!
The vast Battle Ground at Victoria Warehouse.
Is this Battle for you?
The aim of the challenge is simple: smash the three challenging team WODS; win the Battle; and, in the process raise as much money as possible for Macmillan Cancer Support (our official partner) or for a UK cancer charity of your choice.
Every year thousands of people are affected by cancer in the UK alone and this is your chance to battle against this terrible condition whilst also testing your team against the best in the UK.
Your lungs will burst, your hands will blister, your legs will burn and you will drive yourself & your team far deeper into battle than they have ever been before. Our question is do you have what it takes to take on the battles? Will you be able to get through the pain of the battles, the ultimate stress test of your endurance and the mental torture of fighting both for your team and against cancer?
Digging deep with the help of the crowd to roar you on.
With five competition categories available and no online qualifier, our aim is simply to provide a challenge to all levels of competitor whilst helping to Battle Cancer by raising as much money as possible.
The five Battle categories are:
Mixed Team (2 males, 2 females)
All Male
All Female
Mixed Masters (2 males, 2 females)
Military Wounded Warriors
Teams will battle across the three WODs in waves which will ensure everyone will see their strength, fitness and technical ability tested to the max. With every entry you receive a competition T shirt, a medal and the chance to change lives by Battling Cancer. You’ll also receive discount codes for some of the trade stands that complete the Battle Cancer event. With nutrition and supplements, clothing, Battle Fuel (incredible but nutritious food providers) and CrossFit kit companies all attending the day you won’t be short of supplies or things to do whilst your competitors aim to survive their Battle WODs!
Workout
You might be used to the buzz of competing but how many of your other competitions give you the additional high of knowing you’re pushing yourself to help contribute to the future of people suffering from cancer?! Battle Cancer is the world’s first and only mass team CrossFit event where proceeds and all of your fundraising goes directly to Cancer Charities and you have the option to fundraise for a chosen charity or for our partner charity Macmillan Cancer support.
And just in case that isn’t enough…
To celebrate the challenging Battle and the victors, Battle Cancer 2017 will be rounded off by an incredible music event with top class DJ’s setting off an epic party (free to all competitors) until the sun goes down.
Registration is now open so to enter or for more information on Battle Cancer 2017 and how you can get involved, visit their website or follow us on social media:
The Overhead Press (also known as the Strict Press or Shoulder Press) is a compound exercise that involves lifting a weighted barbell overhead to a fully locked out position with the strict use of the shoulders and arms.
Pressing the bar overhead is still one of the most useful upper body exercises you can do. This highly effective exercise involves the entire body. Your feet, legs, glutes, core, abs, hips, ankles and wrists help to stabilise the body whilst your shoulders, upper chest, back and arms press the bar overhead.
BENEFITS OF THE OVERHEAD PRESS
The Overhead Press produces great strength in your core and back as well as shoulder and arms. It trains the whole body to balance while standing and pressing overheard the weight. It taxes your full body and CNS (central nervous system) as well as increasing your ability to control and stabilise heavy weights above your head. This is incredibly useful for improving your:
Push Press
Push Jerk / Split Jerk
Thrusters
Pull Ups
Muscle Ups
The Overhead Press will help you to build formidable shoulder strength for other exercises such as this Jerk
WHY THE OVERHEAD PRESS IS AN EXCELLENT TOOL FOR TRAINING STABILITY UNDER LOAD
The Overhead Press has a long kinetic chain – from the overhead extension at full arms length to the floor. In comparison with the bench press, where the bench supports you, your entire core has to work to stabilise the weight. This makes pressing an incredibly effective core exercise.
During the Overhead Press, the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus and the teres minor (which are attach on the posterior scapula to the humerus) work as stabilisers and are therefore strengthened. These three muscles provide external rotation as well as deceleration of internal rotation. You need these muscles to be strong otherwise injuries can and often do occur.
Athletes who only Bench Press tend to have more shoulder problems than those who include overhead training. This is because when pressing on a flat bench the force is directed at a rough 90 degree angle away from the trunk, while in the Overhead Press it is vertical.
OVERHEAD PRESS TECHNIQUE
As with any lift, progress and avoiding injury lies in great technique.
STANCE
The Overhead Press starts with an empty bar at the rack. Same height as for the Squat meaning mid sternum. Same stance as squat.
GRIP
Your grip width is such that it places the forearms in a vertical position.
index fingers are somewhere between the edge of the knurl and a half-inch out from the knurl.
Big dudes will need a wider grip to keep the forearms vertical.
Don’t grip too wide so that your forearms bend outwards.
When you take the barbell out of the rack, it should be on the heel of your palm and directly over your forearm bones, with the elbows just in front of the bar when viewed from the side.
Correct and incorrect grip
Most folks place the bar on their fingers which will eventually lead to wrist problems. Your forearm and wrist should be in a straight line.
SETUP
Rest the bar on top of your anterior deltoids. Look straight ahead to a point on the wall that is level with your eyes (focus on this point for every rep). Now, lift your chest up. Lifting your chest creates a back contraction, produces tightness in the upper back. This makes your connection to the ground more stable and improves your pressing mechanics overall. You are now set to press.
THE PRESS AND BAR PATH
Take a deep breath using Valsalva maneuver technique, and drive the bar over your head.
Remember that bars like to move in a vertical line, especially when they are heavy.
So keep in mind that when the bar moves towards your chin, you should move your chin back and not the bar around your chin. Make sense? When the bar passes the forehead, shoot your head forward back to its normal resting place.
When you reach the top, the bar should be in a vertical line with the glenohumeral joint and mid-foot. When you press overhead you finish the movement by shrugging your shoulders up towards the bar for full extension. This produces a stable position at the top that involves all the shoulder girdle muscles and prevents shoulder impingement.
GENERATING POWER
Now that you know where the bar should go, what’s the best way to get it there? The vertical bar path must be produced in a way it takes the load from the shoulders to the lockout position plumb to the shoulder joints with a motion of the hips.
Exercise for generating power with the hips
With hands on the hips (no barbell needed), shoot your pelvis forward so your weight transfers onto your toes, without bending your knees or lumbar spine [see picture below].
Overhead Press exercise
The torso drives forward as the bar drives up. Your weight should be shifted therefore to your toes and then back to the mid foot as you re-center the weight at lockout position. This movement will not involve pulling the hips back, but rather rebounding the hips off the tension. Like drawing a bow, the maximum tension will be at the furthest point of the movement and the tension will drive the hips back.
As a crossfit competitor I need my upper back muscles, shoulders and core to be as strong as possible to improve my overall performance during any overhead movements. Personally, I like to use the Overhead Press as a complex with Split Jerk.
1 Push Press + 1 strict Press + 1 Split Jerk
1 Power Clean + 1 Strict Press + 1 Split Jerk
COMMON FAULTS DURING THE OVERHEAD PRESS
Film your lifts and analyse your technique to make sure you aren’t making any of these mistakes:
Resting the bar on fingers instead of the palm of the hand
Not keeping a tight core
Not shooting the head back through the arms after the barbell has passed the forehead
Not keeping the chest up
Not returning the barbell back to the optimal setup position for the next lift (don’t drop it too low on your chest)
For all my Crossfit friends, strong shoulders, upper back and a solid core will only have hugely positive effects on your performances. The Overhead Press is a great full body compound exercise to build the strength you need to become an even better athlete.
Your scapulae (scaps for short) are the foundation of your shoulder joint and these flat wing like bones help to anchor your shoulder to your torso. Any exercise where you move your upper arm utilises your scapulae in some way and any weakness in the 17 different muscles that connect to it will translate into weakness in the movement. They are an incredibly mobile bone, tilting and rotating to accommodate the wide range of movement of the shoulder joint.
Anterior view of the Scapulae
HOW TO TEST YOUR SCAPULAR HEALTH
Here’s a quick test for you: grab a small straight object like a pen or toothbrush, one in each hand and stand up straight, shoulders relaxed. Are your objects pointing straight ahead or inwards? If they’re pointing in towards your body, I’m sorry to say you probably have far from optimal scapular function.
Our modern lives of sitting in chairs and hunching over keyboards has weakened the muscles in this area causing poor shoulder mobility and stability, which can spell disaster if you’re an active CrossFitter. But not to worry because in this article we are going to show you how you can strengthen the surrounding muscles so you can hit new PRs and stay injury free.
WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
FOR PERFORMANCE
Of your overhead reach, the muscles around your scapulae are responsible for roughly the final 60 degrees. Everybody knows that a strong overhead pressing or jerking position involves having your upper arm behind your ear, your glutes switched on, your abs tight and your ribcage pinned down. So if you struggle to get the bar directly overhead without having to break good form and flare out your ribcage – compromising safety as well as strength – your scapulae could be the problem.
Good scapular health will help your snatch lift
Scapular strength is also fundamental for the snatch and overhead squat. When you’ve got the bar overhead in that wide grip, scapular and lat activation help to put your shoulders in a strong position and stop them rolling forward. As well as being an incredibly dangerous position for your shoulders to be in, inwardly rolled shoulders will shift your centre of gravity forward, bringing you onto your toes and often resulting in a failed lift.
You may be surprised to learn that even for a mostly lower body movement like the back squat good scapula function can help. If you can’t squeeze them tight to stabilise your back when you’re high bar back squatting, your torso is less likely to remain upright and the weight could pull you forwards onto your toes into a weaker and potentially dangerous position.
FOR INJURY PREVENTION
There is no way around it, Crossfit requires strong shoulders and good scapular health. From overhead squats to toes to bar, weak shoulders will lead to sub-par performances and possibly injury.
Poor shoulder position caused by weak or inactive muscles around the scapulae can stress tendons and ligaments around your shoulder girdle. This stress accumulates slowly, over weeks, months and even years. You may not notice these little micro injuries as they occur, but eventually that one final overhead squat with poor form could be the final straw that broke the camel’s shoulder.
If your scaps can’t move properly to get into strong positions, other parts of your shoulder such as the rotator cuff will have to try and compensate and move in ways that they are not designed to do so. This can result in rotator cuff tears, impingement, bursitis rotator cuff tendonitis/tendinosis and labrum injuries to name a few.
Take your scapular health seriously and you will help prevent injury in the long run
But don’t worry it’s not all doom and gloom, we’re here to show you how you can get scaps of steel!
HOW CAN I STRENGTHEN THEM?
Resistance bands are a useful tool to achieve this aim. Here are some examples of great scap strengthening exercises that you can use them for:
FACE PULLS
Use a band that provides a moderate resistance and perform 3 sets of 12-15 reps.
ITYs
Named after the shape your body and arms make when you perform the exercise. Use a light resistance band for this and perform 10 reps in each position I,T, and Y before resting, do 3 sets in total. Its also worth noting that these can be done with light dumbbells while lying face down on an elevated bench.
BAND PULL APARTS
Excellent for strengthening scapular retraction, aim for 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
BAND DISLOCATES
Don’t be put off by the gruesome name, these can be really beneficial for shoulder health and mobility.
Crossfit doesn’t feature a lot of heavy rowing movements (the rowing machine is mostly quad dominant) so athletes tend to develop weaker lower and mid traps around the scapula compared to their dominant upper trapezius muscles which are constantly worked from exercises like cleans and deadlifts. To balance out your back strength, include barbell or dumbell rows in your training. Rowing movements are great for your shoulder and scapular health as well as having a strong carryover to weightlifting.
Also, always being mindful of the position of your scaps during a WOD can go a long way to improving their function and save you from injury.
When doing pull-ups, toes to bar, push ups, ring dips, bench press or almost any upper body exercise, make sure you are actively pulling your scaps down and back and soon this stronger position will become second nature.
SCAPULAR HEALTH: MASSAGE AND RECOVERY
Finally, it’s important to mention that massage can really help to unglue tissues around your scapula. Spending years in bad shoulder positions can cause the muscles to stiffen and knot, so to help them activate properly use a lacrosse ball, tennis ball or ‘peanut’ and place it in the area between your scapulae and spine. Apply some gentle pressure by leaning against a wall or lying on the floor and move the ball up and down this area and wherever you feel a few lumps or knots, keep the ball in there until you feel it start to loosen. Spend five minutes on the left and right side and after you’ll feel like you’ve got a brand-new set of shoulders.
Incorporating these exercises into your training, either as a warm up or post-WOD accessory work will only take about 30 minutes a week but will go a long way to making you a stronger athlete and keep you Crossfitting for years to come.
As barbell exercises go, The Deadlift is unrivaled in its simplicity and impact while unique in its capacity for increasing head to toe strength.
Regardless of whether your fitness goals are to “rev up” your metabolism, increase strength or lean body mass through barbell exercises, decrease body fat, rehabilitate your back, improve athletic performance, or maintain functional independence as a senior, the Deadlift is a marked shortcut to that end.
To the detriment of millions, the Deadlift is infrequently used and seldom seen either by most of the exercising public and/or, believe it or not, by athletes. It might be that the Deadlift’s name has scared away the masses; its older name, “the Healthlift,” was a better choice for this perfect movement. In its most advanced application the Deadlift is prerequisite to, and a component of, “the world’s fastest lift,” the Snatch, and “the world’s most powerful lift,” the Clean; but it is also, quite simply, no more than the safe and sound approach by which any object should be lifted from the ground.
build that strength!
DEADLIFT TECHNIQUE
Feet under the hips weight on the heels.
Barbell in hook grip (reversed grip if you are really only Deadlifting).
Activate the body: make sure your hips are not too low (less active hams, etc) and not too high (less active quads etc). Set your lower back: pull all you got towards your spine (hollow back, chest “up” and neutral face) and retract the shoulders. Remember it is a total body lift.
Hold your breath while you are lifting and “explode” from start. Open all angles at the same time and keep the barbell glued to your body (pull the barbell back) during the lift.
If you want to go touch and go for multiple reps exhale and inhale on top of the lift (full extension), push your butt back (close the hip) and DON’T lose tension at the bottom!
Endurance WODs in your Crossfit training are a vital way to build mental strength, aerobic capacity and the ability to just keep going. Long, slow conditioning work such as running, cycling and swimming will build cardiovascular ability, but they are not the only way to improve your endurance.
Rich Froning hates running. And he hasn’t performed that badly over the last years (6 CrossFit Games first place finishes and counting!). The reason your cardio performance can be improved is because the heart is a muscle, and like all other muscles in the body if you keep working it, it will adapt to the workload.
5 ENDURANCE WODS FOR YOU TO TRY
Chris Hinshaw coaching Mat Fraser, the winner of the 2016 CrossFit Games
1. HOP SCOTCH (test Aerobic Threshold)
The first of the Endurance WODs comes from Chris Hinshaw, endurance coach to Rich Froning, Katrin Davidsdottir and Mat Fraser.
Workout Details:
This is a continuous (non-stop) workout. Your rest is the easy pace interval. Each athlete picks their ‘easy pace’ which can be be a moderate intensity or a fast walk or anything in-between.
Workout Focus:
All your attention is the on the 100m sprints. This workout has a total of 9 of these 100m sprints. Focus on your form. Your intensity should not be 100% max effort. Back off on your intensity (97-98%) to retain your form
What makes the Gensan Italian Showdown® 2017 a unique competition? There are no online qualifications: all the subscribers have direct access to the live event, this means that 1.000 competitors will be on site, resulting in the biggest gathering of Crossfitters and enthusiasts in Europe!
And there are no strategies or tricks to choose the easiest category, nor disputed qualifying videos: all the competitors are admitted to the on-site selections and will face the same three workouts in a unique Open category. At the end of the first day, the ranking of each athlete will establish his skill level: Rx’d, Scaled or Beginner.
During the first edition, over 5.000 people attended the event in 3 days, and the videos of the competition got over 350.000 views on Facebook in just 2 months!
The second edition will be even bigger: there will be two game fields and a total prize valued at over 25.000 euro.
The Gensan Italian Showdown® 2017 is made possible by 33 CrossFit Affiliates who joined to organize a great event for all the Community, resulting in one of the biggest examples of crowd-funding and crowd-sourcing project in the fitness industry.
The biggest Community event in Europe is supported by 33 CrossFit Affiliates
2 INDOOR AND OUTDOOR GAME FIELDS FULLY EQUIPPED BY XENIOS USA
On day-1 the live selections will take place in the indoor arena; on day-2 the brand new outdoor stadium will be used for the workouts reserved for the Beginners. On day-3 there will be the final events, some indoor and some outdoor.
Another great news is the first European Challenge for teenagers 15-17: they will participate in the competition in the Junior division to win an amazing final prize: the immediate admission to Xenios USA® Athletes Team and two 1-Year Sponsoring Contracts valued at 6.000 euro.
On day-1 all the subscribers will face 3 workouts in a unique Open category
CASH FOR THE WINNERS AND 1,000 GOODY PACKS FROM GENSAN
For all the competitors the registration will open on the 1st of December 2016 at 00:00 (CET) and all the 1.000 available spots are expected to sell very quickly: in 2015 the registration was sold-out in just 48 hours, with subscribers coming from 22 European countries and over 200 CrossFit Affiliates.
Subscription fee is 55 euro and includes: direct access to the first day of the competition, the exclusive #ITS17 ATHLETE t-shirt, two free spectator passes valid for the entire week-end and a goodies pack from the sponsors.
From Open to Rx: 1,000 athletes of all ages and levels will compete on-site!
50 PRIZES FROM COMPEX, FITAID, ROCKTAPE AND TRIGGERPOINT
The final phase of the Gensan Italian Showdown® will take place on Sunday, April 30 2017. The best 40 Rx athletes and the top 10 Masters will compete for the 10.000 euro money prize, while the best 40 Scaled and 100 Beginners will compete for the podium and for the Finisher’s Pack offered by sponsors, resulting in 50 prizes for a total value of 15.000 euro!
The winner of each category will also get a Compex machine valued up to 1.229 euro and, as if that were not enough, there will be a special Jackpot for the winner of the very last workout, regardless of his ranking in the overall leaderboard. This special prize will be unveiled before the finals and will fire up the competition till the last rep of the Showdown!
The best athletes in Europe will fight for victory in the final Showdown
ITALIAN SHOWDOWN: SPECTATORS WILL ENTER THE LOTTERY TO WIN A COMPEX MACHINE
Spectators tickets will be on sale starting from January 27, 2017: Full-Fare (20 euro) and Reduced (10 euro) tickets will be available online, both will cover the entry for the entire weekend (3 days) and the Full-Fare ticjet will also guarantee a seat to enjoy the competition from a preferred position just in front of the battlefield. By purchasing a ticket on the official website, every spectator enters the Compex-ITS17 Lottery for a chance to win a Compex SP 4.0 valued at 629 euro!
The 2016 Reebok CrossFit Invitational is CrossFit’s all-star game, with the fittest men and women from each section of the globe coming together to compete. After the CrossFit Games, athletes are carefully chosen and invited to represent their respective countries at the Invitational. The event begs the question: Which individual athletes will also excel on a team?
This year’s 2016 Reebok CrossFit Invitational will take place on Sunday, November 20th, at the General Motors Centre in Toronto, Canada.
Well, for the longest time this WAS the line-up for Team USA. But than THIS happened:
Team USA
Mat Fraser Rich Froning
Ben Smith
Kari Pearce
Brooke Wells
Let´s take a closer look at these amazing teams:
TEAM PACIFIC
In Team Australia we have two-time Games silver medalist, and 2016 Rio Olympics weightlifter Tia-Clair Toomey alongside constant Games competitor Rob Forte, fan favorite Kara Webb and second-place 2016 Meridian Regional finisher James Newbury. The Pacific Team will be under the vigilant eye of multi-year Games athlete Chad Mackay.
TEAM EUROPE
Team Europe comes along with two-time reigning Fittest Woman on Earth Katrin Davidsdottir. 2015 Games bronze medalist Björgvin Karl Guðmundsson, two-time Games third-place finisher Sara Sigmundsdottir and three-time Games athlete Lukas Högberg will try to bring the championship to the old continent with the help of 2013 Games champion and team coach Samantha Briggs.
TEAM CANADA
With the home-field advantage, Team Canada goes for the top spot while being coached by 2014 Games champion Camille Leblanc-Bazinet. The team consists of 2016’s third- and fourth-place finishers, Patrick Vellner and Brent Fikowski next to multi-year Games athlete Michele Letendre and 14th-place finisher in 2016, Carol-Ann Reason-Thibault.
And as this would be not enough to let your jaw drop, here is
TEAM USA
Mat Fraser– 1st at the 2016 CrossFit Games
Ben Smith – 2nd at the 2016 CrossFit Games
Kari Pearce – 5th at the 2016 CrossFit Games
Brooke Wells – 6th at the 2016 CrossFit Games
Rich Froning – 6x CrossFit Games Winner (Individual and Team)
As a Book-maker it seems pretty clear who will run the competition this time, but you are not automatic a good Team Athlete only because you are an awesome individual!
Kettlebell workouts are a great way to build strength, conditioning and mental toughness, but where did it all begin? The Kettlebell as we know it today originated in Russia approximately 350 years ago. The first appearance of the word in a Russian dictionary appeared in 1704. They were originally used as handled counterweights to weigh out dry goods on market scales.
People started throwing them around for entertainment and they were later put to use for weight lifting.
The forefather of the modern fitness gym, Dr. Vladislav Krayevsky, founded the St. Petersburg Amateur Weightlifting Society on August 10,1885, considered the birth of weightlifting in Russia. A proponent of what he called “heavy athletics”, in 1900 Krayevsky wrote “The Development of Physical Strength with Kettlebells and without Kettlebells”. He was one of the most influential pioneers in fitness of his day. His students included the legendary strongman George Hackenscmidt, “The Russian Lion”, who credited him with teaching him everything he knew and Eugene Sandow, “The Father of Modern Day Body Building”.
THE BENEFITS OF KETTLEBELL WORKOUTS
Both cardio and strength training
Losing weight, toning up and increasing muscular definition
A highly efficient form of training (quick workouts are possible in a short space of time with excellent results)
Unparalleled core conditioning exercises
Training the entire body with a choice of hundreds of Kettlebell exercises
Scalable training suitable to people of all ages, abilities and gender
They are especially good at improving your grip, back, and shoulders, which is why Kettlebells are very popular in the Russian military. Russian Special Forces personnel pride themselves on their “wiry strength, lethal agility” and consistent staying power
There is no better way to burn fat than with sets of Kettlebell Swings, Snatches and Clean and Jerks. These ballistic exercises work your body as one unit and require a great deal of hard work. The harder you work, the more calories you burn. High rep Snatches work more muscle groups and will build strength in the lower back, shoulders, and hip flexors.
KETTLEBELL WORKOUTS FOR ACTIVE RECOVERY
Recovery is crucial for athletes. However, programs in which you train to failure and take a week off afterwards to hang out are not effective for athletes. The key is to improve performance and conditioning. Doing a few light workouts per week will speed up recovery by getting some blood into the worked muscles.
Great for strength and conditioning
KETTLEBELL EXERCISES
Of course the Kettlebell swing is the most famous and most common exercise. But this multi-functional tool gives you far more than this:
TURKISH GET-UP
The Turkish get-up is a slow, deliberate movement that’s been around for decades. Start by lying on the floor, then stand up, then lie back down again in a specific sequence of movement transitions. The get-up will help you with functional tasks as well as higher-level exercises. It teaches you to move fluidly, and when you add the load it requires strength, mobility, and skilled movement
If you’re looking for an exercise that bulletproofs your body, this is it. It’s a powerful full-body exercise that requires attention to detail and a respect for human movement. For strong, resilient shoulders, improved hip and trunk strength, and enhanced mobility, the Turkish get-up is essential.
Kettlebells can be used in many different ways in workouts
GOBLET SQUAT
The kettlebell goblet squat isn’t just a leg exercise, it’s a total-body juggernaut that offers more mobility—the ability to move easily so you can safely train with heavier loads—and improved conditioning. This is one of the easier kettlebell exercises to learn and apply immediately in your training. The goblet squat makes a nice addition for your maximum leg strength and development barbell squat.
STRICT PRESS
The kettlebell press is another brilliant movement to learn. While it looks like an overhead press, it’s not just a shoulder exercise, as you use your entire body for maximum pressing power and strength. The unique shape of a kettlebell and offset handle allow you to press in the natural plane of motion relative to your shoulder joint.
CLEAN
Similar to the kettlebell swing, the clean is another explosive exercise for total-body strength and conditioning. The difference here is that the kettlebell finishes in the rack position as opposed to being projected horizontally away from your body.
The clean can take time to learn, but once you have it down it’s an essential movement to use for kettlebell complexes. It can be used alone, but it’s also effective with a complex like the clean and press, which is reflected one of the best combination lifts. When cleans are used by themselves with appropriate-sized kettlebells, they’re a powerful exercise.
SNATCH
The kettlebell snatch is the ultimate display of full-body power. It´s nothing like the barbell snatch, except that it begins with the weight in a low position and projects the weight overhead.
The kettlebell snatch is physically demanding and technical, but offers outstanding total-body strength and conditioning benefits. It can help transcend athletic performance to new levels, build explosive strength, and strong, powerful shoulders.
The snatch requires proper technique, explosive hip power, and athleticism. This exercise should not be attempted until the kettlebell swing hip-hinge pattern and explosive hip drive are established!
Kettlebells are a perfect way to strengthen mental toughness
KETTLEBELL WORKOUTS
Enough talk. Time to hit the Box and try these Kettlebell Workouts:
Every single Crossfitter knows the feeling of pain and suffering during a really hard WoD. Those negative thoughts of failure that crawl up your neck and ingrain themselves into your brain.
“You can’t do this”
“You will never finish”
“If you skip one or two reps, no one will notice”
“Take the easier version, you won’t feel so much pain”
“Just give up and it’s over. Right here and now and the pain will end”
Every athlete feels like this once in a while, but it seems like Crossfitters are especially prone because their workouts demand so much from them regarding physical and mental strength.
HOW TO COUNTER NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
Luckily there are some pretty easy psychological tricks you can apply to destroy these negative thoughts and stop them harming your confidence and performance.
Stay strong when things get tough, it will be worth it in the end!
1. BE INSPIRED BY YOUR FELLOW CROSSFITTERS
You know what one of the best parts of Crossfit is? The community. During a real hard workout it’s time to use this to your advantage.
In Crossfit we earn each others respect by going all out during a WOD and trying as hard as we possibly can. There may be people in your box who are not able to finish a certain WOD during the designated time cap. But more than once you may have seen them finishing a WOD anyway, even after the time has finished.
Or you have that really strong guy or girl at your box who does things you thought were impossible. Both of those are inspirational in their own way because they are pushing it to their very own limits. If you find yourself feeling terrible during a WOD, thinking you can’t go on anymore, take a look around you. See anybody else quitting? No? Then you shouldn’t either.
Be inspired by the other athletes at your box – you can’t read their thoughts, but you will see a mixture of suffering and willpower in their eyes. Use this for yourself and crush that WOD.
2. ADOPT A HERO-VERSION OF YOURSELF
The second option is fun: adopting a secret identity. As Jane McGonigal writes in her book “Super Better”, a secret identity helps you to practice your own strength and willpower whilst also reinventing and exploring yourself.[1]
Push your limits
Therefore, think of a hero you want to be, like Hulk or Xena or Iron Man or any other character from your favourite book, movie, video game or the like and use him or her to create your own secret identity by displaying your own strengths. When you feel like you can’t go on anymore during a WOD, think of your secret identity as a mantra, something like “I am the mighty XY and I will do everything to get stronger and slay the WoD-monster.”
This may sound silly at first, and of course you don’t have to scream this out into the world. But by saying this to yourself, you are programming your brain by positive affirmation. By adopting a secret identity on top of this you will feel like a different person, a hero who can conquer any obstacle. So, have fun, go crazy and invent that super hero version of yourself before your next WOD – and as a bonus you can write something like a symbol or the name of your identity with chalk on the floor to make yourself remember it.
3. ACCEPT FAILURE AS PART OF THE PROCESS
Don’t be scared to fail. First, remind yourself of the reason why you are doing Crossfit. Maybe it’s because you like the people there, want to get fitter or maybe you need it to counter depression and the stress you have in your life.
Whatever your individual reason, all Crossfitters are united by the fact that we want to become better versions of ourselves.
To accomplish this you have to push yourself to your limits and then exceed those limits during a WOD. That also means that you have to FIND your limits as well. These are the points, places and times at which you fail. Failure to hit a certain weight, perform a specific number of reps or finish a WOD within a time cap does not mean that you will never be able to do these things, it just means that you can’t do them right now. You want to get better, hit those targets and improve, then you need to put in the work.
Focus and determination!
If you succeed at every WOD, you always PR with every lift and you’re always first, then you simply aren’t pushing yourself hard enough (or you are Rich Froning). Failure is part of the process, and it makes it all the more rewarding when you finally hit that lift or WOD time you’ve been chasing for months!
4. PRACTICE MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness just means being mindful of your surroundings, observing certain things that you otherwise may not focus on. During a WOD you can use mindfulness in different ways.
– Control your breathing
Breathing techniques can help to calm yourself down if you feel anxious during (or especially before) a WOD. Concentrate on making your breathing regular, and adapt it to each exercise. It is amazing the effect this can have on diminishing negative thoughts during workouts.
Another method is to breathe in and count to four. Then breathe out and count to eight. Try to exhale for twice as long as it takes you to inhale. Doing this for at least a minute increases you heart rate variability and puts you into a much more calm and relaxed mood. Because you have to do this for at least a minute for it to really work, it is a great way to calm yourself before a workout or competition.
Control your breathing, calm your mind
– Think about WHY negative thoughts occur and WHERE they come from
Another option is to pay attention to the emotions and negative thoughts you feel, and think about what is causing them. Observing them rationally may help you to use logic to diminish them. Being hangry (angry and grumpy because you feel hungry) is a great and example of this. In this state your mood and thoughts are being influenced because your body needs feeding. The way you think is affected by your body. In a WOD when your legs are on fire because of the Wall Balls for example, try to rationalise this pain. I.e. “Well I only have 10 left to complete…there’s only 30 seconds left on the clock…At least I can rest them when I move onto the Pull Ups” etc.
Understanding why you are feeling something will help you to create a distance between yourself and those negative thoughts that make you want to quit. you are smart so use your head as well when you work out.
5. TRICK YOUR BRAIN BY REFOCUSING YOUR THINKING
You can use this trick to gently distract your brain away from thinking about the pain and the suffering you could end right now by quitting the workout. This trick is especially useful during longer workouts that include tabata or cardio sessions, but it can also be applied during any other exercise.
Just keep going!
When you feel exhausted and pain ridden, your brain concentrates on certain aspects in your body which are send to it by your nerves. What you have to do now is to distract your brain from these impulses by totally occupying it with something else. During a Crossfit WOD, the easiest way to do that is by giving yourself a mental task to complete.
Do your times tables, list every capital city in Europe, or play the following game with yourself: (Think of as many words as you can that contain two certain letters, like K and P for example). This way you deliberately distract your thinking away from the source of pain. It sounds trivial, but this technique can help the time pass when things get tough and that clock seems to be moving at half its normal speed!
So, that’s it. Do you like these tricks? Or maybe you have some of your own? Share your thoughts about this article in the comment section below.
[1]See McGonigal, Jane, Super Better. A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient, London 2015, p. 291.
Research has shown again and again the benefits of music on performance. These benefits are not limited to sticking on hard rock during your hero WODs, but also for the calming tones that work so well when stretching and working on mobility. It is always important to select a good playlist that suits the WOD at hand and will help, rather than hinder, the performances of the athletes involved. So how does music affect your training, and how can you turn this to your advantage?
MUSIC AFFECTS YOUR HEART RATE
Music can directly influence your heart rate. Hearing a lively, up tempo track as you enter your local box can elevate your heart rate. Similarly, listening to a slow and serene song will help you unwind and help promote muscle relaxation. The autonomic nervous system mobilises the body for action and regulates breathing, speed of heart and lung action.
Music can help you build a rhythm into your workout and keep going!
WORKING IN SYNC
Rhythm response refers to the innate tendency to synchronise movement with the rhythm of the music. You often see this with athletes tapping their feet or nodding their head when resting between sets. This pace making can help the communication from the afferent nervous system (muscles to brain) and the efferent nervous system (brain to muscles) which can increase performance of certain skills.
MUSIC AS A HELPFUL DISTRACTION
Music playing in the background can act as attentional dissociation. It encourages an external shift in focus towards the sound and away from fatigue-related sensations.
The afferent nervous system has a capacity (like internet bandwidth). Playing loud music can occupy much of this bandwidth of perception, so less becomes available for focusing on aching muscles or heavy breathing. Music can become a distraction from the sounds and feelings of the fatigue that we experience during a tough WOD.
A solid soundtrack can help you to block out your own fatigue
That being said, as the intensity of any exercise or workout increases, you will generally tend to concentrate less on any external music or noises. Physiological feedback will become even more intense, as well as cues and noises related to the exercise that help you to perform it properly (think of the tap tap of double unders or the flat, satisfying sound of your lifters slapping against the hard ground during a Snatch).
For strength testing day, music will have less effect on performance as the nervous system is used to the max. With a 10k row, or other long endurance WOD, music would become more of an ergogenic aid. So although picking a particular song can make you feel great and get you psyched up, it will not have a huge impact of a 1RM. On the other hand, it could significantly increase your performance during a longer oxidative WOD.
It is worthwhile noting that if a WOD includes a gross motor skill such as a snatch or clean and jerk, and you are a novice athlete that could improve these lifts through paying more attention to the sounds of the exercise, then pumping the music up for the MetCon could disrupt the learning process and sensory feedback of the movement.
FEEL THE MUSIC
Music triggers the amygdala and the reticular activating system. These are parts of the brain associated with memory, anger, fear and enjoyment. Eliciting memory can trigger desired states appropriate for workouts.
Emotional Contagion is the notion that one catches the emotion of the music, which in turn can aid arousal regulation, enjoyment, imagery, and self-talk.
A class full of athletes born in the early 80s will always ‘get’ the Rocky Soundtrack. Everyone will have a particular song that gets them going for one reason or another. For me, The Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack makes me run through walls. Interestingly, a number of world record attempts and world cups have been won whilst listening to Lose Yourself by Eminem. You can assume the age of these athletes.
Use music to help not hinder your performances
The point is to find what works for you. A death metal playlist featuring In Flames, At the Gates and Amon Amarth may not be the best choice for the CrossFit Kids class, but could be perfect for a long running workout through the forest tracks and mountains in the rain. At the same time, Brian Eno probably isn’t going to help you smash out a new Fran time!
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR WHEN CREATING A WOD PLAYLIST?
Well to be precise..a lot! To reap the full psychological and physiological benefits, try the following guidelines:
Sync it to the desired pace of the workout
Have the noise level appropriate to the intensity requirement of the nervous system
Match the genre and date of the music to the athletes you train to ensure they actually like the music.
It is also important to recognise that music is an aid, and not to become too reliant upon it. You wouldn’t always train with a belt or lifting straps, so you must be prepared to do the same with music. The ability to train through music that doesn’t suit your needs is an underrated psychological ability.
Finally, make sure that what you are listening to is not negatively affecting your performance. If you are attempting a new snatch PR, then focus ALL your attention on the lift at hand, listen to every sound and cue and zone out everything else around you.
The dull thud of a heavy barbell thumping back down onto the floor after a triumphant new PR is a much sweeter sound than any song could ever be.
If you can’t execute a rock-solid air squat, then there’s no point in trying to progress to an overhead squat.
Make sure you have a solid squat foundation first, then try a couple of OH squats with a training bar as you will likely discover additional mobility issues. The Overhead Squat requires extreme flexibility in your:
Shoulders
Hips
Hamstrings
Glutes
Adductors
It’s unlikely that you are highly mobile in all of these areas—which is why the overhead squat is often avoided by so many athletes. You MUST invest the time into sufficiently mobilizing the above muscle groups in order to externally rotate your hips and become comfortable squatting with the bar overhead.
“The overhead squat is the ultimate core exercise, the heart of the snatch, and peerless in developing effective athletic movement. This functional gem trains for efficient transfer of energy from large to small body parts – the essence of sport movement. For this reason it is an indispensable tool for developing speed and power. The overhead squat also demands and develops functional flexibility, and similarly develops the squat by amplifying and cruelly punishing faults in squat posture, movement, and stability.”
-Greg Glassman, CrossFit Journal
Let´s break this exercise down in order to understand and analyse
1. GRIP
The bar should be in the palm, slightly behind the center line of the forearm.
Grip the bar so that when it is placed overhead it is about 6-8 inches / 20cm above the top of your head.
The hand and wrist are allowed to settle with the wrist extended. Don’t try to hold the wrist in a neutral position.
If the bar is placed in the proper position in the hand, it will not place undue strain on the wrist. Don’t hold the bar way behind the wrist as some mistakenly grip it. In every case the proper hand and wrist position does require a good deal of mobility, which should be worked on to allow you to hold the bar properly. If you are flexible enough, the hook grip can be maintained overhead, but the grip must be relaxed to allow the hand and wrist to settle in properly.
The Overhead Squat – A tough exercise to get right
The bar should be positioned over the back of the neck or the top of the traps, with the head pushed slightly forward through the arms.
If the head is straight up or pushed back as some try to hold it, the shoulder blades cannot be held in a safe position and the arms will not be balanced as effectively to support the weight. Be cautious of pushing the head too far forward, this will encourage your chest to lean forward and tip you out of good form.
The wider the grip, the more likely a lifter is to over rotate and drop the bar behind. Additionally, as the grip gets wider, it becomes more difficult to extend the elbows forcefully to enter the overhead squat position. Different grips make muscles work in different ways. A narrow-hand grip allows for much more shoulder mobility and flexibility, which is crucial for powerful overhead squats.
Lockout stability – The bar must be locked out over your base so tightly that if your coach stood behind you and pressed down on the bar, it will not move.
2. SHOULDERS
A good grip and solid shoulders are inextricably connected during the Overhead Squat. If you are forced to use an extremely wide grip when overhead squatting and find it challenging to get in a good overhead position even when standing at the top of the squat, your upper back, chest and shoulders may be so tight as to not allow for good overhead squat movement. Working on this point should be a top priority but it might not be enough just to stretch them.
If you are that tight, try to loosen it up by taking a lacrosse ball, tennis ball or some similar round object and lay down on it. The ball should be on the muscles between your shoulder blade and your spine. Put as much of your body weight on the ball as you can stand without wincing (you know the feeling!) and start to make snow angels. Start at the top of your traps and work your way down on both sides. If your pectorals are tight, this same process can be done by laying flat down on top of the ball starting where the pec and the deltoid meet. This active release method can do wonders for loosening up the musculature.
The overhead Squat is highly useful for developing your snatch
3. CORE
The overhead squat demands a high amount of midline stability, and therefore a high amount of core stability.
Given that this movement requires you to hold a weighted bar overhead, much of the stability work will go to the core, most predominately the lower back. If you do not have an active midline when performing the Overhead Squat, you are disposed to hyper-extending the lower back, resulting in an unfavorable overhead position—AND putting yourself at risk of injury. It is therefore imperative that you strengthen your core muscles and mobilise your lower back as often as possible.
The overhead squat works to the same cues as with any squat variation. However, it’s a good idea to focus on a knee break over a hip break because of the position of the load. This means that you should start your descent at the knees, not the hips. Control your descent and maintain tightness in the upper back and posterior chain through the movement.
Knee stiffness is a very common occurrence with squatters. In the overhead position, knee flexion is maximized to allow for a vertical torso. Tightness in the calves, hamstrings, and quads can all be linked to poor knee joint movement
When you sink into the lowest part of the squat, it’s important not to rush out of it too soon as you risk losing form.
Instead take a moment to stabilize yourself and the bar. Make sure that you’re flatfooted, weight in your heels and your elbows and shoulders are turned out (active shoulders). This will reduce the risk of losing control of the bar path when you rise out of the squat and keep you moving efficiently: However; don´t stay there too long, anyone who is familiar with dead stop exercises knows why!
The feet MUST stay just outside the hips. The reason for this is to allow the hips to squat right in between the heels. This does two things for the lifter. Firstly, it keeps the lifter upright and maintains a vertical torso. Second, it allows the lifter to keep their hips under the bar which allows the bar to be more stable over the center of gravity. Often you will find athletes try to go too wide with their feet which compromises their depth and prevents their knees from tracking over their toes. Furthermore, you may find athletes struggle to complete an OHS when their feet are too narrow. A narrow stance requires extreme ankle and hip flexibility and will create more problems for those without such capability.
In the sport of Crossfit there are three popular kind of pull ups. Many people make fun of the kipping and butterfly versions, failing to understand the reasoning behind the mechanics. TIME. Crossfit WODs are timed, it´s all about speed and efficiency. Ask yourself the simple question: Which will take you longer: 100 strict pull ups or 100 kipped?
What will be more exhausting: 100 strict pull ups or 100 kipped? What will therefore be more efficient if it is your time that counts?
No doubt, strict pull ups are the best pull up variation you can do for building strength and muscle. And no Crossfit Athlete should work on kipping or butterfly movements without being able to do strict pull ups first.
1. STRICT PULL UPS
To be good at doing pull-ups, you need to do pull-ups! Lifting weights and lifting your body upwards are two different tasks. The latter requires a much more complex interaction and motor pattern. Even if you have strong pulling muscles, it doesn’t mean you’ll be good at pull-ups.
Pulling your body up is a motor skill. And to develop a motor skill you must practice it often. Frequency trumps volume and intensity when it comes to motor learning. When you want to improve your pull-up performance you should do pull-ups as often as possible.
Grab The Bar. Grip it about shoulder-width. Full grip with your palms down.
Hang.Raise your feet off the floor. Best slightly forward so you feel your core is activated. Hang with straight arms.
Pull.Pull yourself up by pulling your elbows down to the floor. Keep your elbows close.
Pass The bar.Pull yourself all the way up until your chin passes the bar. Don’t do half reps.
Repeat. Lower yourself all the way down until your arms are straight. Breathe. Pull up again.
2. KIPPING PULL UPS
The Kipping Pull Up is the next step when you dominate the strict ones. It is a movement lead by the hips and you will need it in many Crossfit movements as Toes to Bars or any Muscle ups.
Once you get the hang of the drill (see the video) on the floor, move to the bar and practice this hip drive. Once your body is pulled behind the bar, with hips high and lats engaged, you can slightly bend the knees and aggressively pop your hips to propel you over the bar, just like you did on the floor. If done correctly, you should have so much momentum that your chin is up and over the bar.
It takes a few tries to get the timing, but with some practice you’ll be cracking those hips and getting your chin over the bar with ease!
Palms face away from you
When the feet swing forward, the butt swings back
When the butt swings back, the hips project forward
The backward swing of the butt continues into upward momentum
When high enough, snap your hips forward and pull with your arms to bring your chin over the bar
Push away from the bar and drive your butt back to come back down
3. BUTTERFLY PULL UPS
The butterfly pull-up is like a kipping pull up… but in reverse. The motion behind butterfly pull ups is compared to pedaling a bike backwards, and is the opposite motion of the kipping pull-up.
Grab the bar with a wide grip and “hollow out,” tightening your quads, abs, and glutes.
Pull your body up and back in an arc.
Powerfully kick your legs toward the ground while pulling up with your lats and arms.
Finish with your chin over the bar. As you fall back down, immediately kick your legs forward to start the next rep.
Snatch workouts are a great test of technical skill, strength and mental toughness. These 8 workouts will challenge your capabilities in many different ways. They will force you to alternate between high reps of light weight and lower, heavier lifts, as well as force you to lift under different heart rates, intensity levels and conditions.
