Track Rise, 1 Mile, and 5K

Thursday, August , 2013

We will be having a meeting at 8pm at Venice in place of the normal VBC class for anyone interested in training for the sport of CrossFit. This is open to ALL athletic abilities, not just for CrossFit Games athletes. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Warm up/Pre hab:

DROM 
Theraband Shoulder circles
2 rounds of:
Inchworm, 20 feet 
10 Bar Activations
20 Walking Lunges

Classic Gymnastics Skill/Strength:  Ring Muscle-ups

Spend 20 minutes practicing the following drills:
Muscleup ring Rows
Kipping muscle up practice on the floor – DEMO
Muscle up with a spotter (on high rings!)

     Notes: Be safe and focus on form! The goal here is to introduce you to drills that will reinforce strength and quality movement patterns that can lead to a muscleup! If these drills are very challenging, perform at least 3 sets of ring rows and take time to setup and practice the movements in the conditioning portion!

Advanced Gymnastics Skill/Strength: Strict Ring Muscle-ups

Spend 20 minutes practicing the following drills:
Muscleup Ring Rows
Spotted Strict Muscle up
Spotted Negatives (jump to the top)

     Notes: Take your time and be safe! This can be very taxing on the shoulders and elbows.

Classic Conditioning:

20 minute AMRAP:
10 Pushups
10 Cossack Squats, alternating
10 Pullups

     Notes: Peform incline pushups if necessary to maintain quality range of motion and body position. Be sure to stand up all the way on each cossack squat.

Advanced Conditioning:

“Mary”
20 minute amrap of:
5 Handstand push-ups
10 Pistols
15 Pull-ups

Cool Down:

2 Rounds of
10 Wall extensions
Lat stretches, 30 seconds per side

 
Lots of poses!

Running is one of the most elemental, essential, and functional skills we as humans possess.  Though almost universally reviled by CrossFitters who love heavy lifting and gymnastics, it is a movement that will never go away, and that we will always need and use, not just in CrossFit but also and more importantly, life.  What most people do not realize is running is a SKILL, like how the basic air squat is a skill, deadlift is a skill, snatch, clean and jerk, and kipping pull ups are skills.  Being a skill, it requires practice, and consistent drilling, refinement, and coaching.  We draw running skills from the POSE method, espoused by Doctor Romanov.  

     POSE is a philosophy wherein not just running, but any movement, squat, deadlift, dancing, etc. encompasses certain positions or poses, that harness that movements highest and best use.  For example, the squat has weight on the heels, knees out, chest up, and power generated from the posterior chain after the athlete’s hips descend down and back to a point well below the knees whilst maintaining midline stabilization.  The deadlift and clean and snatch have similar points of performance that every engaging athlete attempts to recreate over and over again.  In running, there are three points:

1.  Pose – head and torso up, both knees bent, one foot on the ground weight on the ball of foot, other foot pulled up under the butt, elbows bent, and shoulders relaxed.  What we know as running is nothing but the destruction of balance, and the pose position is where balance is continuously broken and recreated.

2.  Fall/Lean – the Soul of Pose.  We move forward by leaning, not by putting one foot in front of the other.  Assuming your pose is sound, all you have to do is fall forward and unweight yourself to assume the pose position again.

3.  Pull – We recreate the pose position by pulling the foot up with our hamstrings, not necessarily by lifting our legs up with the hip flexors.  The pull in pose is synonymous with efficiency.  The foot is 2% of our bodyweight, and we use the powerful hamstrings to pull it up, whereas the leg is 12% of our bodyweight and our hip flexors are nowhere near as strong as our hammies.

And just as other movements have benchmarks, in the running world, the 1 mile and 5 K are the most commonly used tests.  They are important because they test stamina, the ability to utilize energy for a continuous amount of time, in a slightly higher power time domain (4 to 7 minutes) and a longer time domain (18 to 30 minutes.)  These are important numbers to know.

To this end, we offer you our Track Night on Tuesday evenings at 7pm and Track Rise on Sunday morning at 8am.  Both take place at Santa Monica High School.  Our running guru, Track Master Frank is second to none as far as form analyzing, programming direction, running lore, and sheer likeability.