Movin Weight

I talk a lot about extending your hips with the power moves. Many times in class the workout we do aren't asking you all to lift extremely heavy loads off the ground (Clean and Snatch) or drive the load over head. This allow allot of us to get away with movements that might be shy in range of motion. That allowance that your are able to get away with with lighter barbells, dumbbells, Medicine balls would be failed attempts 100% of the time in a 1 Rep Max attempt.

Coach Burgerner says, "When the arms bend, the power ends!"

Power in the sense of moving weight for our purposes is going to come from the Legs and the hips.

I know that getting away laziness and short range of motion is something you can get away with with those lighter tools, but the idea of training technique is so much more important in order to continue to improve your fitness than you may realize.

Tomorrow we are doing our "I Am Crossfit" workshop, and the barbell and body weight movements will be our primary emphasis. There is nothing that could be better for you all to leave this workshop than simply understanding importance of training range of motion with your exercise routine.

Above, Dutch and I having a little do-c-do with Olympic Clean and Jerk 1 rep Max. Dutch's practice in these skilled movement has made him a very Power and Graceful lifter. He was able to do Identical weight as me by using fantastic technique. My abilities are solid but I have not come near my potential in these movements since my practice with these lifts has mainly been through using brunt force and aggressiveness. With more practice of better technique, my one rep max should easily increase about 15%.

I have another new focus.

Raising the Bar(and its weight)

Jeremy and I were having a bit of fun the other night by seeing how much weight we could get up above our heads from the standing position. We were using the Jerk technique as the weight increased above 225 pounds. We were having great success until the weight got to 265 lbs. That took each of us a couple tries a piece. Once the load got up to 275, I had to tap out as I could hardly get the bar to rise a few inches. Jeremy had just enough power and good enough form to get the load up with a slight press to extend the bar. Pretty or not, we counted it. We have set a goal for 300 pounds which is no easy task for any Crossfitter. I'll keep you posted when it happens. In the meantime check out the video of Coach Bergener teaching the proper way to do a Push Jerk.

More info for Olympic Weightlifting.
www.mikesgym.org

Back 2 Back

Saturday Events at the gym don't happen as often as I'd like. These tend to be a lot of fun for all the trainers and everybody who comes out to participate. The last 2 weekends however we were able come up with enough time and energy to get some amazing things accomplished. On the 11th, over 30 people showed up to put themselves through the infamous and brutal "300 Challenge" workout that has opened up a lot of awareness across the country for CrossFit Training. This was an awesome day because it gave people a chance to challenge themselves like never before and experience the motivation that comes with working out with more people trying just as hard to get through it.

Yesterday on the 18th, Jeremy and I hosted an Olympic Weightlifting seminar. All Crossfitters need to be more informed about these movements simply because the more technically sound they are done, the better used they become for improving several of the 10 skills of fitness. I'm grateful for the knowledge I’ve received though Crossfit on these movements but more importantly to Coach Burgener for sharing so much of his immense knowledge with me at the USA Certification back in November.

Thanks all who came out to both these events and I can't wait for Fight Gone Bad!
Hope to see you all there!