Press
Performance: Low Intensity, 65-70% x 7 x 4
Add a few pounds to your last low intensity exposure.
Fitness: 3 x 5 Linear Progression
Add a few pounds to last week. If you’re missing reps, move to a 3×3 this week.
Exposure 7/8
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Deadlift
Work up to a max triple
Go heavier than last week.
Exposure 7/8
Post loads to comments.
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AMRAP 7 Minutes:
Burpees
Today’s burpees are to a 4″ height (Old 45# bumper or new 45+35# Rogue bumps). Two foot hop on to the plate is Rx. The jump is to the target, and you must come to full stand on top of the plate. Aim to maintain a steady even pace and not red line until the last 30-60 seconds.
Post reps and Rx to comments.
Coach Whitney dancing to to Nina Simone’s song “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” at the Art Show on Saturday night
I Don’t Wanna Snatch
By Chris Fox
Your flexibility sucks, you don’t move a lot of weight, it bothers your wrists, even the kids in CrossFit Teens snatch more than you… should you even show up on a snatch day? I’d argue an emphatic YES.
The snatch not only displays athleticism arguably better than anything else, it also develops it better than anything you can do—certainly anything with a barbell. You need to be powerful and flexible to move big weight in the snatch, but of course, you also need to be powerful and flexible to do a back handspring. The thing that makes the snatch a better developer of displaying those qualities is that you can start light and add weight as you develop proficiency.
In CrossFit, we work on the stuff we suck at. We become better, more well-rounded athletes when we develop our weaknesses. It’s fine if you want to specialize and become really be good at X, Y, or Z, but if your goal is to be stronger and fitter overall, then the snatch will help you tremendously.
You should work on developing a mature overhead squat. That might mean that on snatch days you power snatch and ride down to your best bottom position and hold in a more controlled manner than in a full snatch. It’s still a position worth working on. I always tell my Foundations groups on Overhead Squat/Snatch day (where the majority of people have a hard time, by the way), that if you can sit in the bottom of a mature overhead squat (feet flat, knees out, torso neutral and upright, arms locked out overhead) then there’s almost no other thing in the gym we can’t teach you over time. You’ll still need requisite strength, power, and skill to do stuff but your flexibility will be sufficient.
Snatching can be fun! It can also be frustrating because there are so many aspects of the lift that can go right or wrong, but I think it’s the most fun you can have with a barbell for exactly that reason. There’s nothing more rewarding in the gym than a hard-earned snatch PR. Truthfully, I hated the lift when I first started because I was bad at it. If you stick with it you’ll develop proficiency in time and be mediocre like me. 😉 Let’s face it, you or I will never snatch like Liu Xiaojun (holy shit! And don’t forget the ladies) but we can still improve. Before CrossFit I had practiced cleans but not snatches. The snatch had to play catch-up for quite some time. I could clean around 200 pounds but struggled to snatch just over 100 pounds. I finally put my pride in my back pocket and decided that I would work on it. Over the last few years, my snatch has just about doubled while my clean has gone up by a comparably meager 25%, but I’m a much more balanced weightlifter.
Need to work on your flexibility for the overhead squat? Do them all the damned time. Seriously, make them part of your warm up ALL THE TIME. Active Recovery is also always a good place to learn new tricks but here are a few oldies and goodies that you can explore on your own time. Happy Snatching!
More Resources:
Kelly Starrett (Mobility WOD) Snatch Prep
Greg Everett (Catalyst) on Flexibility for the Overhead Squat
Colin Burns (Juggernaut) on the Snatch and Overhead Squat
Thanksgiving Schedule Changes
Wednesday (11/25):
ON: 6am, 7am, 8am, 10am, 12pm 4:30pm, 5:30pm
CANCELLED: 6:30pm, 7:30pm, 8:30pm, CrossFit Kids
Thursday (11/26) THANKSGIVING:
ON: 8am, 9am, 10am
CANCELLED: 6am, 7am, 12pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 6:30pm, 7:30pm, 8:30pm, Active Recovery, Comp Class
Friday (11/27):
ON: 10am, 11am, 12pm, Open Gym 5:30-8pm
CANCELLED: 6am, 7am, 8am, CrossFit Kids
Saturday (11/28):
CANCELLED: 8am, Yoga for Athletes, Active Recovery
Sunday (11/29):
CANCELLED: Active Recovery
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Describe your relationship to the snatch.