WOD: Monday 220606

It is Christmas in June people! Let’s start the summer off strong by setting some PRs! Remember, if the bar ain’t bendin’, you’re just pretendin’.

• Daily Focus

We are looking at getting our base absolute strength numbers today with the CrossFit Total. This is a classic total that we have seen come up at various points along the way in the CrossFit competitive season. For the everyday athlete and someone just looking for overall health and fitness, this will provide a good baseline that we can use from year to year to see if we are increasing strength or even maintaining strength as we age. Maintaining strength and durability as we age as humans is one of, if not the most important aspect of our fitness program.

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• Points of Performance & Coaching Cues

Back Squat: Brace through the midline. Create global tension and a full 360 degree breath on each rep. Focus on rooting through the floor with the movement centered at the hips coming back and down while pulling the barbell down with your arms into your traps to create better tension.

Strict Press: For a 1 rep strict press, overextension of the spine is the most important aspect to focus on. Work to keep the gap between the sternum and belly button short by flexing as we press the barbell past the forehead. Keep rooting and pushing through the floor as we press the barbell vertically.

Deadlifts: Keep the bar close and have the hips and torso rise at the same time during the deadlift. The bar should not scrap the shins, while still staying close. We do this through the use of the lats with tension throughout the lift.

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• Scaling Considerations

Back Squat: If athletes have issues with their knees the box squat can be a great alternative. Same applies for the back, but working in the rep range of 8-10 reps and reducing the loading would be the most effective for athletes. We can have them work into 3-4 Sets of 8-10 reps working on bracing and breathing.

Strict Press: A lot of athletes have issues with the overhead press. Because of this we need to have multiple tools in the toolbox. We can initially go to a single arm landmine press. We could also work on a dual db strict press, a single arm db strict press, or even go to an incline bench press. All these will help to work on a pressing motion that should provide less pain or discomfort with the overhead movement.

Deadlift: The main consideration would be the deadlift today and with this we want to still develop the posterior chain, but just change the position enough to allow for a pain free movement. The best way to do this would be to move to a sumo deadlift or hex bar deadlift. We could also move the athletes to blocks to reduce the range of motion and still focus on the hinge pattern development.

CrossFit Total:

Back Squat 1 rep max

Shoulder Press 1 rep max

Deadlift 1 rep max

Start each lift with 5 reps at 50% 1RM, then go to 3 reps at 60% 1RM, 3 reps at 70% 1RM, then we should go to singles the rest of the way to a 1RM for each.

Accessories:

3 rounds for quality of:

8 L/8 R Front Rack Bulgarian Split Squats, pick load

8 Romanian Deadlifts, pick load

10 L/10 R Single Leg Hip Extensions