Finish, Not Jump

Jumping* can also be a problem when doing the olympic lifts.

Actually leaving the ground causes you to be airborne- the goal in lifting is to elevate the weight and get under it as soon as possible. Being "floaty" by jumping too high (getting off of the ground) means you're wasting time that could be used to get under those weights.

Watch this video of Spencer Arnold, leader of The Outlaw Way's Outlaw Barbell program, at the 2013 Season Nationals:

PAY ATTENTION TO HIS FEET AND THE PLATFORM!

He doesn't ever truly disconnect from the ground. Yes, he moves his feet- but he didn't jump, he slid out.

A lot of novice weightlifters, especially those in the CrossFit community who don't value weightlifting virtuosity, only default to the power snatch. And they jump the shxt out of them. At some point the weights become too difficult to power up overhead. The range needed to complete the movement is in getting back under (squatting) and that can't happen if you're midair.

* "Jump!" is usually used as a cue to be more aggressive and to utilize extension through the hip, leg, and ankle.

---- Upcoming Events:

• Saturday we start the 12pm Yoga classes!
• THIS SATURDAY! 5pm at CrossFit SLU it's our Annual Holiday Party!
• Saturday 1/25 & Sunday 1/26 - CrossFit Kettlebell Course hosted by FCF
• Friday 1/24, Saturday 1/25, & Sunday 1/26 - Cretus Ex Duellum @ Local's Gym
• Saturday 2/15 & Sunday 2/16 - CrossFit Advanced Kettlebell Course @ Morgan Junction CrossFit

----
WOD for Tuesday 1/14
STRENGTH
every minute on the minute for 10 minutes: (even) 3 snatches (odd) 1 at-the-knee snatch + 1 snatch balance
CONDITIONING
as many rounds as possible in 7 minutes: 9 deadlifts, 70/50kg 6 hang power cleans, 70/50kg 3 push jerks, 70/50kg
then immediately after
max burpees in 3 minutes Post total reps (deadlifts + hang power cleans + push jerks + burpees) to whiteboard.
----
Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo will be in Seattle this coming weekend on her book tour!

• Saturday she will be at the Northgate Barnes & Noble. 11am-1pm. Get your free tickets here.
• Sunday she will be at Book Larder in Fremont. 11am-12pm. RSVP here.

Hat tip to Lillian S and Lee A!

Mobility Classes!

Starting next week, we will be adding a mobility class to the schedule on Thursday 7:00am and again on Friday 6:30pm. Both CrossFit and Mobility will run at the same time.

Tommy C and James W

Whether you have been a CrossFit athlete for a month or for years, you know what it feels like to have your performance limited by restrictions in mobility, flexibility, and improper movement patterns. Often we get so focused on strength and conditioning that our mobility and stretching work gets put last on the priority list. Pretty soon you start to plateau because you must can’t lock that heavy weight out overhead because of shoulder and upper back immobility, or you skip the overhead squats because there is just no way you can get into that position.

It’s time for all of that to change.

Here is what the mobility class will offer you. We will:

• Focus on recovering and preventing tight and sore muscles
• Identify chronic areas of immobility and develop strategies for joint and tissue function recovery
• Improve your movement patterns
• Increase blood flow and circulation
• Develop body awareness and improve position and movement pattern awareness

Amy C

The class will be programmed off of four general categories:

1. Current Gym Programming - Quads are sore from squatting every damn day? Having trouble sitting down? We can help recover tissues during Volume and Max weeks. We'll focus on better motions on Skill and Deload weeks.
2. Upcoming Gym Programming - Oh, we are testing our max clean and jerk next week? Would you like some tools to fix that broken overhead position so you can set more personal records? Tools that you can take on your own?
3. Individual Limitations - What’s that you say? You skip class every time you see snatch on the blog because your immobility and dysfunctional movement patterns stop you from even visualizing a proper snatch? We can help.

Hit up the class before the workout, come by after your workout, or use it as a stand-alone class!

This first month of these specialty classes will not count towards your membership, so come try it out! After that, it will count against your weekly class allotment.

Contact leslie@foundationcrossfit.com or jared@foundationcrossfit.com with questions!

----

• Sun 10/27 - Sign up for the Freestyle Connection Seminar with Carl Paoli here.

----
WOD for Champagne Friday 10/18

"DT"

5 rounds for time:
12 deadlifts
9 hang power cleans
6 push jerks

Rx = 71/50kg

Compare to 15AUG2013. Post time to whiteboard/comments/Cody.

----

VERSUS II: Sunday Nov 24th @ FCF

Elle G, AB, Julia A

Mark your calendars. Step your skills, strength and conditioning game up. It's about to go down.

----
WOD for Champagne Friday 8/16

"DT"

5 rounds for time:
12 deadlifts, 71/50kg
9 hang power cleans, 71/50kg
6 push jerks, 71/50kg

Compare to 19OCT2012. Post time to whiteboard/comments/Cody.
----

How do you hold the KB Rack? from Knees Out Media on Vimeo.

----

DT

Sam H was the last one mobilizing post-"CINDY" so she kindly let us take her grad picture

This past Saturday we had 20-something people graduate out of FOUNDATIONS! You've noticed some newer faces in the gym, so don't be afraid to introduce yourselves.

----
WOD

"DT"

5 rounds for time:
12 deadlifts, 71/50kg
9 hang power cleans, 71/50kg
6 push jerks, 71/50kg

compare to 25MAR2011. Post time to whiteboard.

----
Top 10 Moments from the CrossFit Reebok Games - Shape

Is this a good thing or bad thing?

----

Musical Medicine Balls

One of the many rad games we played at the 2012 FCF/FA Holiday Party!

----

WOD

"DT"

5 rounds for time:
12 deadlifts
9 hang power cleans
6 push jerks

First posted 14APR2009 on CrossFit.com

"In honor of USAF SSgt Timothy P. Davis, 28, who was killed on Feburary, 20 2009 supporting operations in OEF when his vehicle was struck by an IED. Timothy is survived by his wife Megan and one-year old son T.J."

Rx = 70/55kg. Compare to 25MAR2011. Post results to comments.

----

This Bar is Light - CrossFit Goal Setting via CrossFit Lisbeth

This bar is light.

That’s what I tell myself every single time, no matter what the lift is, no matter how many plates are on the bar. 

This bar is light. 

It can be a snatch, a thruster, a front squat, or a deadlift. There can be 85 lbs on it or 225 lbs. It can be a practice jerk with PVC pipe or it can be a 10lb PR on a 1RM back squat. 

Still, this bar is light. 

It might sound stupid. Okay, not “might” — it is stupid. But it works, for me. Because if I approach that bar with the idea that the weight is heavy, then it will feel heavy. And my chances of making that lift go way down if my mind is weighed down. 

It’s like when I see a CrossFitter — usually, a woman — shake her head “no” in the middle of a workout. Shake her head. It makes me crazy and I want to yell “Stop shaking your head!” from across the room. (Okay, maybe I’ve done that once or twice. Or 314 times, but who’s counting?) I know the gal with the head shake is probably just trying to psych herself up, but usually she doesn’t realize she just psyched herself out. If you think the weight is heavy, it will feel heavy. Heavy is hard to lift. But light? Light is a cakewalk. You can do light.

Jason Khalipa, shortly after winning the 2008 CrossFit Games, said this to me: “If you think you can’t do another push-up, you can’t.” He was talking about the power of the mind. Put the right thoughts in your head and get out of your own way. 

See? This bar is light.

----

Preparing for battle

----

WOD

"DT"

5 rounds for time:
12 deadlifts, 55/30kg
9 hang power cleans, 55/30kg
6 push jerk, 55/30kg

Post results to comments!

----

While training with the Russian master George Balanchine, probably the most significant figure in 20th century ballet, Jennifer Homans learned to be always here, now.

“Balanchine had this uncompromising emphasis on now, not holding back, giving it your all now. As a dancer, it was really a kind of concentration. It’s much harder than it sounds, to focus your energy now, and not be thinking about what I am going to do in five minutes, or in five hours… To just put everything aside, focus on this movement here now. And really…throw your whole self into it…is quite a discipline.”

There is a common saying in athletic endeavor and sports about “playing up” or “rising to the occasion”. This means that one plays at a higher level than they usually would, or can. Certainly this is possible and it definitely happens, but it is not nearly as common as playing down to your training. This last part means that you will revert back to your training in times of exhaustion or stress.

If you fight, compete, whatever, at the level of your training, then it can’t be too big of a jump to realize that you want to make your training as good as possible. Movement becomes ingrained as habits starting with the simplest of movements. If you only attempt to do a perfect squat when you are going for a PR, then that squat will fail the moment you stop actively thinking about it. As you train your squat for efficiency, safety, and efficacy, starting with the most basic air squat, those mechanics will become effortless and, most importantly, thoughtless. Proper tension in the legs, alignment of the feet and knees on every little movement, for example, will serve you well on the playing field or in the ring and any other place where action outpaces thought.

However, there is another, perhaps greater reason for perfect practice. Awareness of the little things, the little movements, your own body and its position in space, in the world, leads to the kind of now-ness that Homans writes about above. She writes,“When you work very hard and you achieve a kind of coordination and skill in the body, there is a way in which it sets you free.”

This idea on now-ness, of immediatecy, is endemic to so many disciplines, in so many cultures. Japanese martial arts abound with this concept, expressed usually as mushin. It is one of the cornerstones behind the Western and Eastern institute of the religious monastery.

Constant awareness is the beginnings of excellence, of virtuosity. Constant mindfulness of movement is the first step to constant mindfulness of action, which in turn leads to constant mindfulness of thought. And therein lies the path to mastery.

Mindfulness of the Movement and The Now - CrossFit West

----