65%x10x2 (% based on 1RM)
or
75%x10x2 (75% of 3RM from 7.27.11)
Post loads to comments.
(volume exposure 1/4)
Spend some time working on Rope Climbs
Post experience to comments.
Jacinto B at the CrossFit Games!
Jacinto is currently in 9th place for the Men’s 60+ master division. Jacinto took 7th place in event 1 with a time of 8:53 and then tied for 11th place with a 145lb clean and jerk (a 10lb PR!) for event 2. Great work, Warrior!!!!
Happy Birthday, Kate D!
A Warm-Up Refresher
We’ve been hitting the Standardized Warm-Ups for about a week now and are pleased to see people working dilligently on their calisthenics. Here are a few points to keep in mind as you continue to make these part of your routine:
Intensity
You shouldn’t be approaching faliure with any these movements. The idea is not to necessarily make it harder each time you do it or test your limits, we want to build a base of sub-maximal volume to gradually build upon. Make it your goal to gradually work closer to Rx’d reps and mature versions of these movements but only after you can perform a submaximal sets or variations wth perfect technique. For example, if you do 10 push-ups as 5-3-2, keep that up until it feels less difficult and then attempt a different rep scheme like 6-2-2 or 5-4-1. Or if you’ve got 1 or 2 strict push-ups, do 2 strict at the top of each round and then finish out with 7 switch push-ups. Play around with how you approach these warm-ups but always keep some gas in the tank.
Movement Tempos
Tempos can be very useful with even the most basic movements. Holding the bottom of your squat for a 1 count not only strengthens the bottom position but helps open up your hips and ankles. Remember that good movement is born out of good initial starting positions. If the top of your push-up is soft then the mechanics of everything that follow it will accordingly suffer. Rushing through these movements can actually be counter productive. You might develop bad habits, reinforce poor posture and overdevelop one part of the movement at the expense of another. For example if your pull-ups are always just barely over the bar you might get great at doing moderate volume pull-ups at 95% of the Range of motion. Very frustrating when you start failing getting over the bar at all during workouts and you can’t figure out why. One little trick is to think about someone taking your picture at the top and bottom of each repetition. What would you want it to look like?
Variations
Here are some ideas on how to vary your movements to better suit your weakness or needs:
- Do you have a problem with your knees caving in during squats? Why not throw one of the green therabands above your knees to help strengthen that aspect of the squat during warm-ups. Have you never tried squatting with a theraband? Throw one on and see how it feels, you might be surprised.
- What if you have trouble hitting depth? maybe grab a 12″ box or a Wall Ball and work on hitting a target. If your knees tend to shoot forward try squatting in front of a bench.
- Do you find that your body type makes it hard to get deep on push-ups? Try using a few bumper plates under your hands so you can get a little deeper. This might also be a good option for folks who struggle with strict push-ups and want a little elevation.
- Are you doing 3 sets of 5-8 pull-ups without thinking twice about it? Why not make it a little more difficult by going chest to bar or doing an L-Sit Pull-Up? You might have to drop the total reps to make these submaximal but you’ll be developing other areas in the process.
- Chest Facing down planks too easy? Try bringing your hands forward just beyond your head. Spicy!
Have any questions? Post your experiences with warm-ups to comments so the coaches can help you find the most productive scaling options for you.
_______________
Greg Anderson’s Warm-Up Routine CrossFit
Boz and Todd Coach a Warm-Up CrossFit
Warm-Up Drills with Stephen Rochet CrossFit
Burgener Warm-Up CrossFit
Tumbling Warm-Up Cathletics
Quick and Effective Hamstring Warm-Up Cathletics
Before You Squat Cathletics
A good, full 8 am with Margie. Good start to the weekend.
Squats are very much a work in progress. 155x10x2.
2 rope climbs to ceiling. Need to lock down right foot over left foot and work on descending more smoothly. Two burns on my right leg.
Auxiliary WOD: Pick up zip car at 10, pick up friend in UES, get to a wedding in Jeffersonville NY by 1. I'll need a PR.
My first morning and first squat class.
85lbs 10×2
Felt good, think I can definitely go a bit heavier next time.
Scaled the warmup to include pistols, elevated pushups, and L-pullups.
Back squat Wendler Cycle 2, Exposure 3: 295×11.
Had Fox, David, and Charmel there for encouragement which was awesome, not sure I'd have attempted nor achieved the 11th rep without their encouragement.
This may have been the first time Fox and I have done squats together EVER. Great work Fox with moving 225 for reps after your injury. Hope you and Jess have a great time at the beach.
Rope climbs later — Jess, Charmel, and I were "on like Donkey Kong" climbing up the ropes with one in each hand.
The Feed Today is 10x better. It really helps if you have a loud speaker system so you can hear the stadium commentary. But they actually put some graphics up.
and scores are being updated almost live!
175x10x2 — hard but totally doable. I'm a little wary of these after the exertion headache disaster last winter with 20 rep sets but no problems today.
Warm up 1 today. I think I'll do some plates next time to extend ROM on the pushups. Working up to being able to do 8 across on the pullups before I change those at all.
Squat: 235×10 and it felt light, so I went to 245 for the second set which felt good, no chance of failing, and hard on squats 7-10 but I knew I had it the whole time. I'll go to 255 next time I think.
Rope climbs were fun. I definitely have terrible form and brute forced it up to the top, but that felt pretty good in and of itself given that I have bad gym class memories, or if not memories, fears about the rope. No longer.
I always love when someone exorcises a demon via the rope climb 🙂
Warm Up
3RNFT
:30 tall supine/prone plank
8 reverse lunges ea
10 ring rows with external rotation
Squat
225x10x2
I was super pleased with this. I wasn't sure if I was even going to get 135 on the bar so to go RX'd at 65% of 1RM was a nice surprise. The rib felt ungreat for all of it but no worse as the weight got on the bar. Maybe I can squat heavy triples on Wednesday 😀
I am sore from thrusters!
This has been the best week I've had in a long time re:training.
I have never ever ever been able to get my ass up a rope, so I was like, 'OH, great.' when I read the blog. However, I scrambled up it 2x today in class! It was so thrilling for me, especially because I have very poignant memories (aka demons) about never being able to do it in elementary school and feeling horrible about it. I want to climb more ropes now.
150X10X2
Squats were good – I really appreciate Margie continuing to correct my gaze so I can keep my chin down. [rolled my calves out] Although my lower back was a little fatigued at the end of the two sets, I was actually faster on the second set. I've been really concentrating on utilizing proper breathing technique, and I feel like I'm recruiting muscles from somewhere 'deeper' in my body. Felt very solid and controlled. Exciting development in the squats – PR w/the triple this week, but more importantly now I feel like I'm really getting the feel of what truly proper form is.
Warmups: My lower abs have not recovered from all these hollow rocks etc. I'm really working on superb looking pushups in a solid set of 10, but I'm not totally sure I'm there. Negatives are continuing to be an issue with me because of my forearms. I'm trying to hammer them out with a lax ball, but this forearm/grip stuff is a serious problem for me. :/
It's very inspiring to watch some of the women in these games, what they are capable of is really impressive.
1 RM = 315# (have not tested in a year)
3 Rep x 5 Set (7.27.11) = 255#
Today
1) 10×200#; Rest 3 minutes
2) 10×200#
Felt great even though hamstrings, glutes, and hips are still very tight.
Fun (small) teaser and Fun (medium) active recovery class today. My 9:30am client cancelled on me so I got to sleep in a little longer and comfortably make breakfast today.
Warm-Up
Warm-Up 2 as Rx'd. On the last two sets I used a 33# bar overhead during lunges which actually felt easier.
Squats
(45x5x2, 95×5, 125×5, 140×3)
140x10x2
My legs were still really sore this morning so I didn't know what to expect on today's squats. I stayed pretty conservative and did 75% of the triple I used on the first heavy exposure. Felt light, especially the second set and I actually feel less sore now.
Rope Climbs and Sandbag Runs
6 Sets of Run 130m with the heavy sandbag and then climb the rope. Rested as needed between rounds, I wanted to try all the rope climbs fatigued so I did the runs right before them. Good stuff.
recovered actively today, as usual, with the one and only David O. that i was able to do extensive couch stretch work on my formerly bum hip is quite amazing.
also:
jeremy put me on a "greasing the groove" pushup program where i do small sets throughout the day. when i say small sets, i mean 5 reps (i couldn't even do 10 good pushups when i started.) 4-5 sets/day, weekdays only.
people, this method is the bomb for me – saw results in just two weeks even with my crazy stressful schedule and piss-poor nutrition.
day 1, max shitty pushups were 7. day 14, max solid pushups – 10.
if pushups are a weakness, do this.
HUGE 8am with coach margie
hamstrings crazy TIGHT from 3x5bsq on thurs am.
WU
3 rnds:

15 Hollow Rocks

15 Air Squats
. ouch!
10 Push-Ups

6 strict Pull-Ups
WOD
BSQ
(45×10 95×5 135×5 185×5) + lots of stretching
200x11x2. getting the bounce.
good lifting with charmel and having fox and dan as neighbors.
really digging the standardized warm ups. feeling stronger on all movements.
Warm-up 2
85x10x2
I haven't had a lot of exposure to high rep sets, so Margie helped me find a starting weight. I think it went really well.
Warm-ups are going well. I’m pretty sure that I’ve been doing 10 (assisted) pull-ups instead of 5, which could be one explanation for why I never finish Warm-up 1 on time. I did all three sets of ring rows in Warm-up 2 unbroken this morning, so I’m seeing progress there!
185 on the squat. Next week I can do 205. The 185 on the first set felt ok, second set felt light. This I attribute to lazy warmup sets. My right quad is just not loosening up. Time to up the foam rolling.
195x10x2.
climbed some ropes. must remember to use legs more than arms to get myself up.
Later, at Lani Kai on Broome st., hoisted a pressed spam (yes, spam!) and gruyere sandwich and two mai tais, which I think are probably the least paleo drinks you could concoct.
9 hour AMRAP of filling and carrying book boxes, followed by 2 hours of forcing stripped toggle bolts back out of our *%&#^@! steel studs with pliers. Result? Naked walls, 20+ boxes of books, and an impending purchase of drywall patch. Aaaws yeah.
so, um… does anyone else find the fire-breathing, testosterone-pumping, glorified stadium entry stuff a little hilarious in the context of stationary biking and monkey bars? I'm not implying that the work isn't hard, or that they're not impressive, because damn but they're doing everything impossibly fast, and that's an arseton to front squat, and hey, monkey bars are damned hard when you weigh more than a 7-year-old. But jumping up into the stands after doing monkey bars? Um. It's just kind of like "YEAH! That recess was EXTREME! YEAH!"
Everett's "before you squat" is one of the best things I have ever read on preparing to squat.
Im EXTREMEly pumped to see the last heat of this women's event.
Glad I made it back on time
You would really watch a sport that has no emotion in it? I'm not with you on that.
love that Norcal S+C has an athlete in contention!
Warmup 2–3 rounds of:
:30 plank supine 2x, prone 1x
8 reverse lunges/leg
10 ring rows
LBBSQ:
(45×10, 95×5, 135×5)
work: 150x10x2
-This is 65% of 1RM and it felt good and fairly fast. Should be able to make a 10lb jump next week.
Rope Climbs:
3 full ascents to the top red line, and 1 attempt at a donkey kong ascent. 🙂 Biceps were screaming after this.