“While I was away in Spain, I visited two CrossFits, one in Madrid (CrossFit Maherit Rio) and one in Barcelona, (Reebok CrossFit BCN). Both were great and had very intense classes. It was great to see people from a different culture have the same obsession as we do. I’ve attached a picture to the email. I figured it would be cool to show CrossFit South Brooklyn go global!”-Bea M
News and Notes
- There is no Yoga for Athletes this weekend as Coach Whit is away. Why not check out Active Recovery at 11 and 12 instead?
- Don’t forget about the CrossFit Total tomorrow! Class times will start at their normal hours but plan on being at the gym for around 90 minutes to complete your lifts. The previous two days of blog posts have plenty of information regarding what the CFT is and how to approach it.
- Did you lose something? Check out the most recent photo from the lost and found bin and claim your gear!
Dude, Where’s My 1RM?
By Coach Jeremy
Everyone has had the experience: it’s the 2nd attempt of a Crossfit total or your working up to a new 1RM on singles day, you load up the bar with a weight equal to you your existing 1RM, you get psyched up, unrack the bar, go into the hole, and……nothing. It doesn’t come back up. Why? Did you get weaker? Are you doing something wrong? Why can’t you do what you’ve already done?
Think of a 1RM not so much as a measure of strength capacity but as an act of strength performance. Veteran lifters will speak of owning a weight versus hitting a weight. Owning a weight means that you can get under a bar just about anytime you want and move that weight (assuming a proper warm-up and having not done back-to-back hero WOD’s that week). Hitting a weight is a much less reproducible feat. It means that on a day where you felt good, were well rested, timed your eating properly, had your weight belt sitting just right, heavenly bodies were aligned properly, and you managed not to fuck anything up, you were able to squeeze out a higher weight than ever before. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a weight that you have only hit isn’t something that you can just do on command. It’s an act of strength and will; repeating it doesn’t just happen. No sprinter expects to hit a PR every time they run a given distance, not in competition and especially not in training. There is no reason to just assume that every time you get under a barbell you’re going to PR.
We should also consider that not every one’s best event in lifting is the 1RM. Consider again, sprinting. All sprinters are fast, that’s why they are sprinters. However sprinters have different specialties, some are better in a 60m dash, others are better at the quarter mile. If we took a random group of sprinters and tested their best times at a series of distances, say 60m, 100m, 200m, and 400m, we would probably find that the rankings would look very similar across the events: the faster runners would tend to do well at all of them. However, you would also expect to see some shuffling of rankings based upon the individual strengths of the sprinters. Some are better at accelerating, some run the turns well, some finish well, etc. To bring this back to lifting, imagine a group of powerlifters from the same weight class. If you tested their 1RM, 3RM, and 5RM squat you would see something very similar: The strongest lifters would tend to be at the the top of each ranking, however you would also see some move up or down the leader board as the reps changed based upon their individual characteristics. This is relevant to us because the better you are at an event, the 3RM versus the 1RM for instance, the more likely you are able to reproduce your best effort. We should test our strength at 3RM’s and 5RM’s for precisely the same reason that Track and Field tests more than just the 100m dash as a measure of speed.
Weighlifting, Powerlifting and Crossfit Total’s are all tests of 1RM. This isn’t because 1RM’s are magical, it’s just that they are easier to quantify, they are the highest weights (and everyone wants to see big weights), so they lend themselves to being tested. All this being said there is certainly nothing wrong with going after 1RM’s and when game day comes, you want to break some records. Set yourself up for success by working hard at a good program, resting up in the days leading to the event and getting your head inside your lift when you get under the bar. Once the day’s lifting is over, let it go. A sprinter isn’t suddenly slow on the day they don’t PR; you’re not weak on the day you don’t either. Allow for the fact that not everyday you try to PR is going to be the perfect day to demonstrate that amount of strength.
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I did the three lifts of the Total today, but didn't actually do a Total as I didn't think 1RM attempts in either the press or the deadlift were a good idea.
I did score a 220# PR on the high bar squat, though! I used to hate high bar but have learned to embrace it over the past few weeks.
Then I did 70x5x3 on the football bar press and 225×5 on the deadlift. I had thought I would be doing more like 235 or even 240 coming in, but I forgot just how much 1RM attempts take out of you. My legs were FRIED!
Off to Philly for the weekend. I'm going to check out Center City CrossFit tomorrow and will report back.
6am total. Plan was to keep it relatively light as I'm still working back to weights and flexibility 7 weeks post ankle surgery, but things went better than expected.
Squat: 315, 335, 355 – each felt good and were quick. Surprised by how well this went.
Press: 135, 142.5, 147.5 – PR by 2.5 lbs. Happy this moved up over the last 3 years.
Deadlift: 405, 435 – only took 2 attempts as I had to get home, but these went well.
Total: 937.5
Overall, I'm happy with these results. 30, 35 lbs off my all time PRs on squat and DL from strength cycle 3 years ago, but there have been a whole bunch of injuries in that period, so nearly maintaining strength is an acceptable result.
7 AM total with such a terrific group of people this morning – thanks Stella, Peter, Louie, Karina and Coach David for all the advice and cheering, and even Amanda Mc in the background! This was such a fun morning.
I hit my backsquat goal of 125#, and exceeded my deadlift wildest dreams at 160#. Only the press was a big disappointment – I could only manage 68# even though I hit 63# at 3×5 just Monday. That was frustrating. Louie is blaming it on the two margaritas I had last night, but it just didn't feel like my arms were firing like they had been all through this cycle.
And since Louie doesn't write posts, I will give my beloved self-underestimating life partner a shoutout for vastly exceeding all of his targets, and learning he is much, much stronger than he thinks, since joining xfit eight months ago. Most hilarious was Louie's plan to max out his deadlift at 132#. He made it to 245#. Life lessons!
Great work, Jynne and Louie!
And Jynne, I think you're right about the 2 margaritas…next time try 3 😉
Go Jynne and Louie!!!
Fox hahahahhah!
Jynne — the press is a finicky thing. I'd be as excited about a 1# gain there as about a 20# gain on the squat. You did great!
6am Total with DO.
Thanks to Fox's write-up the other day and the 1RM calculator, I geeked out and actually came in with a handwritten plan for all 3 lifts, which included how much to do for warm-ups and what each attempt would be (except my 3rd attempt, I left that one to be based on how things went). Also got some good tweaks to my warm-up regime by DO.
This was my first total and I don't recall doing a 1RM before, so I didn't have any expectations, but I thought things went well. Each of my 2nd attempts was at my calculated 1RM. I used the 3rd attempt to go for broke, which wasn't all that successful.
Squat: 230, 245, 260 (failed). 245# was a PR
Press: 145, 155, 160 (failed). 155# was a PR
Deadlift: 255, 275, 300. 300# was a PR by a large amount.
Total 700. My goal was 650, so very happy how things ended.
Fox EXCELLENT advice! Counsel like that is why you're paid the big coaching bucks.
And thank you Stella! It helps to hear that 🙂
Good OG crew
HBBS
425×3
405×3
385×3
Bench
325x3x2
330×3
Llttle metcon with Ro and DH3…
6 rounds:
5 hspu 1 abmat
8 kipping t2b
15 box jumps
Increased height of box each round
20", 24", +1 big red plate, +2, +3, +4 (only 2 jumps)
Dropped into OG @ CF Dana Point today. Nice little box. Lovely members and very friendly coaches. Will provide a longer write up after vacation.
Snatch:
90×1
100×1
105x1x3
CJ
115×1
125×1
135x1x3–woof
FSQT @ 140x2x3
Pretty good time! Lifts felt strong. Was worried that I'd be all off being in a new environment but did well. Knee felt okay. Better than it has but not pain free. Taking rest days when necessary.
CA love