Performance:
Work up to a heavy single.
Fitness:
Work up to a heavy triple
These weights will help infer your starting loads for the next cycle. go heavy but don’t fail.
Post loads to comments.
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15 Minutes NFRs of
Run 270m
10 Box Jumps
10 Toes to Bars
Ariel Splittin’ Some Jerks
Developing Your Handstand
Anyone who came in on Monday or Tuesday had an opportunity to work on their handstands in class. Some folks were seasoned hand balancers while others were working towards their first full inversion. If you’re new to the handstand game, read over these tips to start moving in the right direction.
Basics
- “Active Shoulders” mean that you’re shrugging up and back slightly. Try to open your armpits and push the floor down.
- Your elbows must ALWAYS be locked out. If they bend, you’ll collapse
- Grab the floor with your spread out fingers, your fingernails should turn white
- Eyes are looking right between your hands on the floor the entire time. Your neck will be extended JUST enough to make this happen. No more, no less.
- When in doubt.. SQUEEZE!! The more moving parts you allow in the system, the harder it is to organize. Think of making your body as rigid as possible.
- Practice makes good enough. Being on your hands is weird at first. Practice the skill 2-4 times per week in order to accelerate your development. A handstand session can be anywhere from 3-10 minutes, the latter being with LOTS of rest. Don’t practice in a fatigued state. Less is more sometimes.
Static before Dynamic
Before you attempt kicking up to full handstand you have to develop the shoulder strength and body control required to take your weight from your feet all the way to your hands. Wall walks are a great place to start and an easy way to develop some shoulder integrity without worrying about coordinating a kick up. Start slow with these and do sets of 3-5 walks holding your most inverted position for 3-5 seconds. Some folks will have to start only going up about half way to a 45 degree angle while others may be able to get within a hands length of the wall. Focus on active shoulders and a rock solid midline. Minimize knee bend as you go up and down the wall, try to tip toe down using your ankles. Finally, you should never go up further than you’re comfortable with and your hands should never go within 6-8 inches to the wall. If your hands are touching the wall you’ll probably flip over onto your back. NO BUENO.
Halvsies before Wholsies
Once you feel comfortable supporting your body weight on your hands you can start working on kick ups. We did this in class with a spotter but you can also do this on your own using a wall. Organizing the initial approach into the kick up is critical. If you start this process slowly there will be much less extraneous momentum that you’ll need to deal with later on. Remember, you can SLOWLY kick up into a handstand, it should feel more like a big reach that a flip. Watch this video to understand how to position your body for this portion. Once you can do that consistently start kicking up higher and higher with your lead leg while your trail leg stays low in a split. This will allow you to get all your body weight onto your hands while still controlling your body position By keeping the back leg low you increase your margin for error on each kick up. Get to the point where your lead leg’s heel can gently tap the wall and come back down. The final step would be to gently get both heels to the wall. While he’s not using a wall, this video shows you what I’m talking about. Practice this regularly and focus on how graceful you can make the whole process. Get good at kicking up with both legs.
In a future article we’ll talk about the next steps in handstand development.
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Workaholics Working Out
Team Muscle Driver Training
Worked up to 165 on the press, which is a PR by 5# Failed once at that weight but the second attempt went up fast so I think I could have had a bit more even.
83# on press, 3# PR, not even a hint of a scream. I CANNOT WAIT to do more in this cycle!
NFT business: glad I could do box jumps today, since I couldn't do double unders on Tuesday. Also good to practice T2B, though they were frustratingly elusive once again. I got one…ONE!
6am with Team Fox. Press: 45×5, 95×5, 135×5, 155×3, 175×2, 185×1, 195×1 (PR), 205×1 (PR). That's a nice 15# PR. The rep at 195 moved so well that Mr. Fox told me to put some actual weight on the bar. 205 was a grind fest with quads and glutes cramping from the effort. Stoked to have broken the 200 barrier.
5 rounds on the NFR work with a 24" box. Strict toes to bars were tough in the last 2 rounds. Just wanted to kip those suckers.
Looking forward to the next handstand development article as achieving a free-standing handstand is on my bucket list.
68# for a heavy triple on the press today. I hit 73# for a triple two weeks ago, but it felt plenty heavy today. I have to be careful as I have some neck issues, and sometimes when I'm straining overhead I throw my neck out and end up mad at myself for three days. So 68# it is. Running and box jumps were fine. I worked on bouncing right back up from the floor on the box jumps. For T2B, I worked on getting the kip, because I can do them strict but I can't yet cycle them. The swing seems to be pretty aggressive, and Jess gave me the advice of trying to bring my legs down fast off of the bar, which definitely helped. I was able to get two in a row but no more than that. Lat activations are my downfall, and when I have to hold them against an aggressive movement I really struggle. Fun workout! I love back off week.
hit some speed bumps last night in strength class:
squat: 165x2x5, 165x1x3, failed on the 4th rep
press: 67.5 for 3 reps, 3 reps, 4 reps
chins: christmas band (thinner green + red) 9,7,6
when squatting heavy does anyone else sometimes experience pain that extends from the shoulder to outside elbow? hurts and feels like dead arm all at once. it's in my left arm.
i've been lax balling my shoulder/arm & i'm researching some mwod related stuff but if anyone's experienced that and has tips i'd appreciate them!
Mark Bittman gets it right today in the NY Times.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/pollan-cooks/?ref=opinion
@ Gina – Sounds like a rack position problem, maybe involving extended wrists and/or too narrow of a grip. Ask J to take a look at how you're supporting the bar, I'm sure he can steer you right. You also might try stretching the anterior shoulder pre/during squatting.
thanks fox! i've talked with jeremy about it a bit and i guess my bar position seems to be ok. i'm definitely going to look into more shoulder/elbow stretching for before/during squatting. i'll also play around with the width & hopefully something will help.
I just got the tiniest lifting shoes! I cant wait to get in and use them.
Gina. Sounds like we have a similar shoulder issue. Email me at corbett (at) variegated (dot) com and we'll compare notes. I've really backed off squat this cycle and have been playing around with grip width.
6:30 with Fox and Josh
Warmup, 3x
5 pull ups
15 hollow rocks
15 ohs @ 45#
Only posting the warmup this time because my right arm fell asleep after the third set of OHS, and I think that may be what screwed up my pressing.
That said, press was a mess. Standard warmup up to heavy singles, then 135xF 135×1 140xF.
No idea what happened on the first one, it went sour fast and i almost strained my calf coming up onto my toes. Second 135 attempt went up super quick and easy. Then 140 got screwy again. Oh well, not the day for it.
NFR work was fun, started off doing bounding box jumps on the 24, then did some on the 30 with step downs, then tried a round with the fat 45 plate on the 30-inch; surprisingly easy to get up on, deceptively hard to get down from. Strict T2B ar so hard for me for some reason, my body just wants to go into a swing after each rep and i can "tame" that into a kip, but when i slow it down i start flailing a bit. Had some luck today by really controlling the descent but that makes it much more arm-heavy than core-heavy work.
Gina, a buddy of mine had a similar problem, and he was told that there was an issue with a nerve. I sent him to a very good physician for this – let me know if you would like his name – shpetner at gmail dot com.
http://store.athleteps.com/nike-weightlifting/nike-romaleos-black-white-gray.html#.UXCYPJG9KK0
This is where I got my size 4 weightlifting shoes. (Damn it partner all I can think of is tweetie, start blogging)
6:30 with fox and josh.
I feel I let my shoes down. Strict press
33#x5
43#5
53×3-5
63×3
68 did I do this?
70 F,F
I got 70 for 2 before. Why was I failing tonight?
NFR was fun. I was thinking about one wod 6 months ago when fox told me to use the 20" box and I put up a fight because I didn't think I could do it. Now Im ready for 24"
Press
Worked up to 175 for a single which is 10# off a PR. Not unhappy with that since I haven't pressed in a while, want to creep closer to that 200# mark. Slow and steady 3 Rounds on the NFR with a 24" on the first then 30" on 2 and 3, strict T2B for all 3 rounds.
Fun classes all day and especially tonight. You all are on notice. I have another one of "those" Foundations groups that seem to stick like glue. Great end to a long day that started at 6am this morning and wrapped up at about 10 tonight.
Also…Cake!