Sectionals quick review

It’s late and it’s been a long weekend so I think a shower and sleep are in order, but for those who have been waiting to hear how things went, here is a brief wrap-up.  I’ll post more details of the weekend tomorrow.

In the end there were 5 tough events, 3 Saturday, 2 Sunday.  Top 20 men top 20 women qualified to go to the next round. There were 48 women competitors.  Our Brianne took 9th, Andrea finished at 25th and Emmi at 37th.  You can find the complete women’s scores here.

On the men’s side there were 113 competitors.  Morgan took 8th, Leon 20th, Pat S. 28th, Justin L 49th, and Derek 53rd.  You can see the final scores for men here.

We have a million or so pictures that I’ll be posting tomorrow.  As for now, thank you so very much to everyone who came and supported us, you don’t know how much strength it gives us to hear you cheering during these competitions.  Also congratulations to our athletes.  I think we represented ourselves well.  Lastly, thanks to Joe and Larissa for volunteering to help with judging and getting the event to run smoothly.

Ninja Practice

Another lift day today, working on presses.  Couple of fun movements thrown in there, skin the cat and balance work.  Shoulder rolls are always good to practice, everyone is going to fall at some point.  Even if you don’t roll properly out of the fall, tumbling practice teaches you to tuck properly.  Extended limbs means broken limbs in a fall (I should know).  Green boxes today goes to Devin with 155 for three, Brandee, Megan, and Anna with 80.

Carpools leaving the gym at 6 am tomorrow morning for Monroe, and in case you’ve been living under a rock that means no workout at 9.  If you can’t make it out to Monroe to cheer our competitors on, find a pull-up bar at a park and try “Cindy”.  Don’t worry about all the strange looks you’ll get from people passing, just tell them you’re part of a cult.  I mean gym.

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Snatches Anyone?

We were having some problems with all of the snatch and O-lifting technical work we’ve been doing recently.  The biggest problem I think was if you are just practicing the snatch for a lifting session and not going heavy you might not feel like you got a very effective workout the next day.  From now on there will be other options so you can get a better stimulus, snatch work will be for people with a full range of motion in their joints as well as a good strength base.  Today we had power cleans with the option of working on snatches, nobody chose the snatch work.  That’s just because power cleans are awesome though.

After we had Tabata squats, which works well after a lifting session.  Only four minutes required so you have plenty of time to focus on your lifts as well as rest time.  If you ever don’t have time to make it into the gym Tabata squats is an awesome workout you can do anywhere, all you need is a watch.  Nice job everyone who tried weighted Tabata squats, as well as Lisa and Kendra who did baby carry squats.  Very entertaining to watch, and the kids love it too.

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Flexion and Extension

This one was meant to be a scorcher, it did the job pretty well.  Breaks in a workout allow you to hit the next set of movements harder, think sprint intervals.  I intentionally didn’t write an rx weight, I thought the kettlebell front squats would be pretty varied.  It was awesome to see some of you push yourselves with the weight (Tom is an animal).  Be sure and ice/massage your legs, tomorrow is the third squat day in a row and I don’t want anyone incapacitated on Friday.  Just a couple of days from the big event, who’s coming out to cheer our competitors on?

I’ve gotten some questions recently about supplements and I wanted to get that information out here.  I hope you all know about and take your fish oil, but are you getting your daily dose of vitamin d?  Someone asked me why would you supplement vitamin d in your diet and I didn’t have a very clear and concise answer.  The short answer would be that in Washington we don’t get any of it from the sun, only about two months out of the year we get enough sunlight that our bodies can produce it on it’s own.  Almost every cell in our body has vitamin d receptors so it is important in nearly all bodily functions.  The list of benefits is too long to list here, but if you want to read more about it I found an article that does a pretty good job of explaining most of it.  It’s a little lengthy though.

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/10/a-closer-look-at-vitamin-d/

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Precision

Matt and Leon show us how it’s done.

I love the new format for lift days, we’re making the time between lifts more productive.  What do you guys think of the new format?  Taking time to practice movements is nice, as well as challenging yourself with new movements (precision jumps).  Suitcase and farmer carries are awesome for your posture, and I’m a big fan of balance work.  Getting through 24 rope climbs was no easy feat, that felt harder than the front squats.  

On another note, there was a group of us last Saturday at breakfast talking about having a paleo pot-luck night.  Eating paleo isn’t much fun unless you know how to cook, so for those of us who can’t this is an opportunity to get some good food in exchange for some beer (at least I think that’s paleo).  Also it would be a good idea to bring recipes to exchange.  So I’m thinking the first Saturday of every month might work and alternate who’s hosting.  Maybe if it gets big enough we could have it at the gym.  So who would be interested, does the first Saturday of the month work, and who would be willing to host? 

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5 k

Never play catch with Dan John.

My plan today was to get everyone out in the sun for most of the class.  We’re supposed to have rain for the rest of the week, welcome to spring.  Some of you chose to row instead, I couldn’t stare at that screen for 20 minutes.  Come summer time I hope we have more workouts in the park, outdoor wods are the best.  Kettlebells and medicine balls sound more appealing for next time though.  Nice job Eric with an 18:43 row time and Anna S with an 18:45 run, both very impressive.

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Pressing Matters

It was pretty slow today, as Friday’s tend to be.  Those of you that came in had some fun pushing weight over head, bear crawling or cart wheeling and more.  Again, the emphasis was on the press.  Christine finished her last round with 100 lbs and I finished with 155.  Since Rob has moved to Sacramento, my measly 155 was good enough for the green box today, but I still know my place.

Tomorrow will be a fun workout.  You will have to show up to find out what it is, but I think you will enjoy it.  Also, the events for the Washington Sectionals for the first day are out.  Anyone who wants to play around with those is welcome.

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DOMS

Had enough handstand push ups yet?

DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness is something we’re all familiar with, especially after Tuesday’s festivities.  It usually sets in 24 – 48 hours after the activity that causes it.  Movements that emphasize an eccentric contraction (lowering yourself from a pull up or push up) are thought to be the biggest contributors to DOMS.  A thorough cool down and stretch after the workout can help to minimize the after effects.  Hydration and fish oil are two other helpful remedies.  Just rub that fish oil all over.  No, don’t do that.