WOD 4.15.12

4 Rounds NFT of:
8 1 Arm Swings, Right arm
8 Push Presses, Right Arm
8 Reverse Lunges, Right Leg, Front Rack Position
8 1 Arm Swings, Left arm
8 Push Presses, Left Arm
8 Reverse Lunges, Left Leg, Front Rack Position

Choose a medium/light weight and try to keep moving. This should get you sweaty and breathing heavier but not challenge you.

Work Up to a Heavy Single with Perfect Technique of the Following Complex:
High Hang Power Clean
High Hang Squat Clean

Focus on getting a good “Brush” at the top of your 3rd pull and pulling under quickly.  If you start slowing down or missing positions pull the weight back. Every rep today should be crisp, no missing no grinding.

Post what you worked on and improved to comments.

Joy M Demonstrates Good Jump Rope Position: Neutral torso, elbows tucked, small efficient jumps

Back-Off Week is Here!  Great work everyone over the course of the last cycle!

Back Off Weeks

By David Osorio

For most of us, it can be quite difficult to hit the Wods hard week in week out ad infinitum.   Your ability to successfully train at high intensity over a period of time is determined by genetics, recovery, nutrition, injuries and training age.  At CrossFit South Brooklyn we follow a 3/1/2/1 weekly microcycle which looks like this:

CFSBK Microcycle
Saturday On
Sunday On
Monday On
Tuesday Off (AM class does Monday or Wed make-up Wod)
Wednesday On
Thursday On
Friday Off

By allowing at least two non sequential days off we can train at high intensity over the course of a week. Consistently training CrossFit more than three days in a row can lead to a decrease in performance due to accumulated inflammation and a lack of recovery.  Many of you guys have been following our 3/1/2/1 schedule with great success.

But what about training over longer periods of time than a week?

The type of training we do as CrossFitters leads to degrees of adaptation much more closely related to competitive athletics than traditional “fitness” programs. That being said, it’s important to note that most organized sports teams map out their yearly programming goals based around a competitive season.  Conversely, CrossFit is a GPP program which aims to achieve a consistently high level of work capacity over a life time. There are many individuals who use CrossFit to train for their sport or occupation (MIL/LEO etc.) and an ever growing number of people who are competing in CrossFit as their primary sport.  These individuals will generally modify variables of their programs to better prepare themselves for competition or deployment.

But what about “me”?

The majority of us are training CrossFit without any regard to a specific competition or training goal other than health, longevity and elite fitness.  It’s therefore necessary for the average CF’er to take it upon themselves to consider their training over longer periods of time than a week. As mentioned earlier, hitting Wods hard can take a toll on us and we’ve got enough people coming more than three times a week that it has become prudent to formalize some cyclic recovery into our program. Starting today, we’re going to implement posted “Back Off” weeks every fourth week. We encourage our athletes who train with us three or more times per week or more to use this as a period to scale back intensity and give your body a chance to clean house.  The workouts we post on back off weeks will not be dramatically different than traditional programming but will favor Max Effort days and shorter (sub 12 min) Metcons.  Athletes who are following the back off should treat the workouts as maintenance and accordingly decrease intensity.  If you train with us less frequently, perhaps once or twice a week and are not considerably active outside of CrossFit then you shouldn’t worry as much about the back off week and simply listen to your body.

CFSBK Mesocycle
Week 1 On
Week 2 On
Week 3 On
Week 4 On*
Week 5 Crush Week
Week 6 Back Off/Skill Week

*Note: We sometimes extend the training weeks from 4-8 depending on what we’re focusing on each cycle.