Paradiso Strong

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Mobility/warm up:

2 rounds
15 Good Mornings
15 Air Squats
15 KB SDHP (moderate weight)

Strength

EMOTM for 12 minutes alternate:
1 Legless Rope Climb
3 Power Cleans

 Notes:  Due to space on the rope, you can start on the power cleans and or the :30 mark of each minute.  If you cannot perform a Legless rope climb, you can scale by substituting 2 Rope Lowers (down/up equals 1 rep) or simply holding onto the rope for 5-10 seconds.  The power cleans are meant primarily to warm you up for the Deadlifts in the workout.  Feel free to add weight, but focus on a big finish with the hips and speed under the bar first!

 Conditioning

3 rounds for time of:
10 Deadlifts 275/185#
50 Double-Unders

Notes:  Use this as an opportunity to train your deadlift weight for “Diane”!  We will be testing that coming up and the prescribed weight we want everyone to be able to perform is 225/155!  Still make safety your number one priority and if you don’t want to lose intensity you can scale the weight down to something more manageable of course!

Cool down:

1 min each
Downward Dog Calve stretch
Forearm Stretch
Posterior Chain Flossing
Cobra Stretch

Caption Contest

Paradiso Strong

Our testing week this week has helped me to reflect on the evolution of our Paradiso athletes. When I first joined PCF just over year ago, I was considered as one of the stronger athletes, posting a 350 back squat, 405 deadlift and 245lb squat clean, just to name off a few numbers. How things have change. If I compare my numbers then, to where we are as a gym now, I would just be considered average.  My two favorite movements were the HBBS and clean, because those were my best lifts. As it stands, right now there are at least 10 other athletes that I am aware of who have 350 pound plus high bar back squats, several of which are flirting with 400. My favorite movement was the clean, and as of yesterday, I counted in my head almost 20 athletes (McCoy, Zeb, me, Joe d, Graeme, Josh, Cooney, Emmet, Barron, Neal, Ariel, Jesse, Scott, Chris, Lucca, soon to be Travis, please comment below if I missed you) with 250 pound plus squat cleans. That is ridiculous! Not to mention, I just PR’d my Clean and jerk at 270lbs, which doesn’t even make the top five on our leaderboard.

In the open workout 12.2, how many people could not complete a single snatch at 135, let alone 165? We now have 10-15+ guys who can snatch their body weights. A 405 pound deadlift was considered a huge milestone in crossfit, now, we not only have at least 15 athletes who are crushing 400+ pound deadlifts, but we have a girl who can do it too!

These numbers are extremely impressive!!

As impressive as these accomplishments  are, it’s no surprise that so many people are crushing these numbers. Our strength biased programming combined with our athletes motivation and dedication to the sport of Crossfit, its a huge reason why our gym sent a team to the games, and as a whole, we always do well in local competitions. So give your self a pat on the back for making such huge progress and feel free to celebrate your gains, but understand that this years 250, will be next years 300! So keep lifting heavy, listen to your coaches, and constantly critique and perfect your form.