Skill
Snatch
3 x 10
Keep the weight light, work this as a skill session hitting your cues and making each rep perfect!
WOD
Death by 10 Meters
Run 10m the first minute, 2 x 10m the second minute, 3 x 10m the third minute, etc. as long as you're able to continue.
Dane!
I had an athlete ask about side stiches while running the other day. Since we'll do a small bit of running today, this would be a good oppotunity to talk about stiches, or exercise related transient abdominal pains. That's a lot of fancy words so we'll stick with stiches!
Usually we see stiches in some of our athletes during runs, and typically it's during the longer distane runs. Often the pain is on the side, but some people can get pain at the bottom of the shoulder blade. There are many theories out there as to why stiches happen, and most of them relate the pain to the diagphram, which is the primary muscle used in breathing located at the bottom of the ribs. When we do things like run, burpees, or double-unders, our abdominal organs bounce up and down, pulling down on the diagphram. If the bouncing of the organs is out of sync with the diagphram, which is also moving up and down during breathing, the diagphram and go into spasm and the theory is that this is the source of the side stich. Another theory is that during exercise, blood flow to the diaphram is reduced, also causing spasm.
Regardless of the cause, when you're half-way through a WOD all you care about is making the stich go away so you can finish strong. Here are a couple of things to try:
Swith up your breathing pattern. For example, if you exhale each time your right foot is striking the ground, try to swith it up and exhale when your left foot strikes.
Strengthen your midline. There is anecdotal evidence that athletes with strong abdominal mucles have less stiches. You CrossFit, so you are already making your midline strong!
If you tend to get stiches, avoid food or drink prior to working out. If the organs bouncing up and down irritate the diagphram, a stomach full of food and drink will only increase the bounce.
Grunting during exhalation has also shown to stop stiches.
Try a couple of these things if you get a stich during your next running WOD and see if they help!
