Skill

Kipping/kipping pull-ups/chest to bar

WOD

Annie

For time complete:

50 – 40 – 30 – 20 – 10

Double unders

Sit-ups

Last done on 100827.

 
Nothing like a full gym to keep you warm on these cold days!

Ever wonder why we do the movements we do? Here's a portion of a great write up from RWS CrossFit (www.rwscrossfit.com) on the functionality of the movements we do:

“What use is [insert movement here]?”—a discussion of functionality

By Justin

In CrossFit we do a broad variety of movements and exercises, and to the uninitiated many of them feel awkward at first.  This is normal.  Throwing a punch is awkward at first too, but if you ever piss off a violent drunk in a bar you’d still better be able to do it.

One of the three pillars of CrossFit is functionality—everything we do carries over to other activities in some way.  For those wondering what applications our exercises have, I will clarify how proficiency in these various movements benefits things you would do in other sports or in real life.

Air squat—Improves balance and leg strength & flexibility; standing from a sitting position and going up stairs become significantly easier, and the implications for this in terms of functional mobility and efficiency of movement are incredibly far-reaching.  Getting good at the air squat is also magically restorative to “bad” knees.

Deadlift—You ever pick something up off the ground?  That’s a deadlift.  Doing them properly builds total-body strength along with training for safe heavy lifting.  As Rippetoe puts it, having a 400# barbell deadlift makes an awkward 80# box much more manageable.  He’s right.

Strict press—The single most useful upper-body exercise.  Putting a box on a high shelf is a press.  Anything held by the arms at or above the level of the shoulders becomes easier as the press gets stronger.

Push press—If you have a very heavy box to put on a high shelf, use a push press to get it up there.  Other benefits include overhead positional strength and explosive strength (a push press mimics a vertical punch); improving your push press allows you to punch harder and throw faster.

Jerk—While it may not appear as immediately transferable as the push press (since it’s a little frightening to jump a super-heavy box overhead until you have solid proficiency with the movement), the jerk is immensely valuable as a builder of positional strength due to the heavier weights used.  Additionally, the requirement of lightning-fast speed develops more explosiveness for jumping, punching, and throwing than any other movement except possibly the snatch.

Back squat—This is the single most-important total-body exercise.  The hormonal response generated by the back squat’s heavy loading, vast muscle recruitment, and long range of motion impart a broad systemic benefit.  Back squats dramatically strengthen the legs and back for all applications and indirectly increase the effectiveness of all other muscle-building exercises.

Front squat—Imparts all the benefits of the air squat, along with the added distinction of being the weighted squat variant most likely to see use in real life due to the unbelievable functionality of the clean.  I have used the front squat with odd objects many times, both from the ground (essentially a sumo deadlift) and at shoulder level.

Overhead squat—The single best way to develop your balance, core stability, flexibility, and positional shoulder girdle strength.  Fuck wobbly-ass balls and boards, just do your overhead squats.  Plus, the more you can squat overhead, the more you can snatch—I’ll explain why this matters in a second.

Sumo deadlift high pull—Extremely useful movement for picking up 5-gallon buckets.  Also mimics rowing, a self-explanatorily useful movement if you ever have to row a boat.

Clean—Besides being the only safe & effective way to get something really heavy from the ground to shoulder height, the clean is a wonderful developer of explosive leg and upper back strength.  It’s also lots of fun if you’re like me and enjoy throwing heavy shit around.

Snatch—The Olympic snatch looks scary as hell at first.  However, so long as you learn it properly it’s perfectly safe and, like the clean, a lot of fun once you get it down.  Learning the snatch improves speed, explosiveness, balance, body awareness, coordination, and flexibility like nothing else.  Throwing, punching, and jumping all benefit hugely from the snatch.  Everyone learns the snatch at RWS, even if only with a stick.

Pull-up/muscle-up—The utility of a pull-up should be self-evident; it’s the only elbow flexor (“bicep”) exercise you will ever need and is vital in any kind of climbing, be it a fence or a rock wall.  The muscle-up—a pull-up into a dip—is extraordinarily handy.  During the Spartan race (5k obstacle course/mud run on 12/12/2010), I got over the 8-foot wall in about five seconds by leaping up to hang from the top, doing a kipping muscle-up, and jumping down the other side; everyone that didn’t hurdle the wall in a similar way was delayed by waiting to climb the section with a ladder built-in.  At RWS, nobody is allowed to do bicep curls until they can do a muscle-up on the high rings.  When you’re strong enough to haul your body from a full hang below the rings to a full support above them, I’ll let you do whatever silly crap you want.

Push-up/sit-up—I shouldn’t even have to explain how these two come up in life.  Lie on your stomach.  Push yourself up.  That’s one.  Now lie on your back.  Sit up.  That’s the other.

Jump rope/box jump—Jump rope is great for speed, coordination, agility, and cardio; that’s why we use it all the time for warming up at RWS.  Now jump up onto something, like a bench.  That’s a box jump.  Pretty useful if you have to jump onto something, ever.

Handstand push-up—Once you get into gymnastics & tumbling (beyond the realm of basic calisthenics) the movements’ utility may become harder to visualize but it’s still there in spades.  I’ll admit it, handstands are something I’m doing extra work on out of necessity, but balancing on your hands is insanely effective at improving balance and body awareness along with shoulder girdle and triceps strength.  If you want to beef up your pressing strength, get better at handstands.

Knees to elbows—The exercise itself builds up lat, grip, and core strength.  However, many thanks to Carl Paoli for pointing out in an unimaginably brilliant CF Journal article that the movement itself (along with the power clean) is a crucial piece of the standing back flip.  That blew my mind to watch.

Running—Self-explanatory.  We primarily train the 400-meter and 800-meter distances as those are the all-around most useful.  I will discuss this in more detail in a future post.

These exercises were omitted due to being combinations or variants of others previously listed:

Burpee, thruster/wall ball, power clean/snatch/jerk, dip, toes to bar

Another group of exercises was omitted since their main use is in building positional strength for other movements rather than direct real-life application:

Back/hip extension—improves low-back strength for the deadlift and back squat, along with dynamic stretching for the hamstrings

GHD sit-up—improves ab strength for all movements through the trunk’s maximum ROM

Bench press—chest/triceps strength for pushing movements

L-sit—improves core and hip flexor strength for higher-level gymnastics

Hollow rock—strengthens the hollow position used in the press, push-up, handstand/pull-up/muscle-up/dip/pretty much any gymnastics movement you can think of

Kettlebell swing—strengthens low back and hip extension for all weightlifting movements