New Saturday Morning Traditions

Today marked a new Saturday morning "tradition" for Crossfit Minneapolis. For starters, we moved the class time up from 11:30 AM to 9:30 AM. We also added a free introductory workout for interested people - no hard sells or gimmicks, just a good weekend workout.

The new class time meant I had to wake up even earlier than usual, as Saturday is usually my day to visit the Minneapolis Farmer's Market. Fortunately, in the winter there are fewer vendors, so I'm kind of restricted to getting just meat and staples now, which makes for a quick visit. In and out all before 9 AM. Then I ran over to the gym, but not before remarking to my roommate that it was 9 AM on a Saturday and both of us had already been up an hour or so getting things done. No rest for the wicked?

On to the Saturday morning WOD:

"Modified" Lumberjack 20, in honor of victims of the Ft. Hood shootings, for time:
20 Deadlifts (275lbs)
10 Burpees*
20 KB swings (2pood)
10 Burpees
20 Overhead Squats (115lbs)
10 Burpees
20 Push-ups*
10 Burpees
20 Pullups (chest to bar)
10 Burpees
20 Box jumps (24″)
10 Burpees
20 KB squat cleans (10 each arm)*
10 Burpees
*As it was freezing cold out, we subbed in the 10 burpees instead of the prescribed 400m run. And then where the 20 burpees were supposed to happen, we did 20 push-ups instead. There aren't any dumbbells at the gym, so we did 10 one-arm KB squat cleans on each arm. Still brutal.




With a 20-minute cutoff, I didn't do it as prescribed. My weights were: 115# for the deadlift, 1 pood (16 kg) KB swings, 33# OHS, blue band pull-ups, 20" box, and 12 kg KB squat cleans. The deadlifts were the best part, but I don't know if that was because they were first or because I'm just getting better at deadlifts. Let's hope it's the latter.

I finished in 16:45. Throughout the whole thing, I kept having to take breaks, not because I was out of breath or anything, but because my legs and upper back were TIRED. I just didn't want to move anymore. I think it may be time to take a little break for a while because I've been going at it pretty hard this week and it was "technically" my first week back after 2 weeks of vacation. But on the plus side, my endurance could have handled it. It's just a strength thing.

After the 9:30 class, we had 5 new people show up for the free introductory class and a few members sprinkled in for moral support. I didn't do the WOD with everyone because a) I was tired, see above, and b) Tyler's letting me be a little wannabe coach, so I tried to get some practice in. Here it is, just for kicks:

Three rounds for time:
10 thrusters (45#)
10 burpees
10 Sumo deadlift high pull (45#)

Everyone finished in around 6-7 minutes, which was awesome! Congrats to all the people who gave Crossfit a shot and loved it! Watching people do the workout, I realized there are a few things that I hope to get out of my certification that will help me be an effective coach:

1) Learn a hierarchy of "good form." We can't all be perfect right away, but what are the most important things to fix, especially to avoid injury? What are the easiest things to fix (in order to boost competence and morale)? Then work up from those things.
2) Get better at motivating. Specifically, I mean learning how to read people and understanding what motivates them. Some people like hearing how many minutes are left, some don't. Some people like to hear specifically what they are doing wrong, other people want to hear criticisms after. Things of that nature. Oh, and simply just learning encouraging phrases other than "That's great! Keep it up!"
3) Analogies to explain and improve movements. My favorite one that I ever learned was to squeeze my butt cheeks together when doing a KB swing. Some people will just tell you to use your hips or push your hips out and forward, but it's the mental thought of squeezing your butt cheeks that really accentuates that movement and makes pushing your hips forward a lot more powerful.