In 10 minutes work to a heavy shoulder press
Then, 3 sets of 5 reps at 60% of 1 rep
Rest 90 seconds between efforts
After shoulder press. . .
In 15 minutes work to a heavy deadlift
Then, 3 sets of 5 @ 50 % of 1 rep with a tempo of 2020
Post loads to comments and BTWB
It’s Regionals time and I’m ready to stand on my soap box. By Courtney “false grip till I die” Shepherd
Who’s got two thumbs and is excited to watch the first weekend of Regionals kick off this Friday??
This girl!!!
If you aren’t a giant CrossFit geek like myself you may not completely know what I’m talking about, but remember that crazy weekly workout we did every Friday during the month of March and we made you judge each other? We did that for the 2016 CrossFit Games Open, a world wide competition to start to find the fittest man, women, and team in the world. Well Regionals is step number 2 in the process. The top men and women from the Open will compete over the next 3 weekends in their individual Regional in an attempt to earn a trip to the 2016 CrossFit Games. Verve’s own Emily Yates is one of those athletes that qualified to compete at Regionals an she will be competing this weekend in Dallas, TX. The Regionals is, in my opinion, an awesome opportunity to see some great competition between so many amazing athletes. We get to see the top men and women in the sport of CrossFit really go head to head, and just like any good sporting event, you will be amazed at what can happen. The upsets, the underdog rising to the top, the record times and record weights lifted, the failure, the triumph. . . seriously I love this stuff.
As in years past, the workouts the athletes will be competing in have already been released. And just like in years past, Dave Castro did not disappoint. Dave Castro is the director of the CrossFit Games and the mastermind behind all the workouts programmed from the Open through the Games. Mr. Castro continues to bring new ways to test fitness to the table, some make people happy and some do not. This year Dave Castro sent social media a buzz when he announced a workout with strict muscle-ups. For years people have said we would never see handstand push-ups in an open workout. . . that changed in 2015 when they made an appearance. People said we would never have strict handstand push-ups at Regionals. . . in 2014 they were a highlight. It’s a known fact that to be a truly competitive Regional athlete you better be able to walk on your hands, as that movement has now been at every Regional since 2014. In 2015 we saw a high percentage of Regional athletes perform 15 kipping muscle-ups unbroken. For people to be in such disbelief, shock, and awe at the appearance of strict muscle-ups this year is actually what is the most shocking and aweing (I know that’s not a word). As a whole, the athletes that treat CrossFit as their sport are in fact getting more fit, they can no longer be tested the way they were 3 years ago.
So what’s the big deal with a strict muscle-up? If you are so fit and can do 15 kipping muscle-ups unbroken, why can’t you do a strict muscle-up? Two words: False Grip. The strict muscle-up is made up of 2 parts strength and 2 parts skill. We need to have the strength to do a chest to bar pull-up and the strength to do a ring dip. The 2 skill parts involve being able to transition from below the rings to a position above the rings and. . . . the false grip. The false grip, much like the hook grip in Olympic lifting, is not comfortable, it takes practice and patience to get use to, and it can add difficulty to the movement when all you simply want to do is grab the rings and go. They have a saying in Olympic lifting about the hook grip, there are those that hook grip and there are those that don’t care about ever lifting heavy weight. Well there are those that false grip and there are those that don’t care about ever doing strict muscle-ups.
The strict muscle-up is discussed during Level 1 seminars. I once worked a seminar where a woman there would not try using the false grip. She literally said, “I don’t false grip”. When I asked her how she does strict muscle-ups she said, “when would I need to do strict muscle-ups?” Well if she were a Regional Games athlete, I guess the answer to that would be pretty darn soon. I know we are not all Regional Games athletes, however why would we purposefully choose to eliminate a movement from our arsenal? Why would we choose to make something and henceforthly keep something a weakness? Sure, maybe we aren’t busting out strict muscle-ups all day, every day. . . but what if you wanted to? Do you have any dreams or goals to be a highly competitive CrossFit athlete? Well highly competitive CrossFit athletes are not in the habit of reveling in weaknesses but rather eliminating them.
While this rant was about the false grip, it really transfers to any thing we don’t like or find uncomfortable. I don’t like wall balls. If someone asked me about wall balls and I said “I don’t wall ball”, CrossFitters would look at me sideways. Do I squat? Uh, yeah. Do I push weight overhead? Duh. So then why don’t I wall ball? Because I don’t like it? That is the argument of a 4 year old. It doesn’t matter the kind of athlete we are now or the kind of athlete we want to be, if it is a weakness do not run from it but attack it head on. Attacking any weakness makes us stronger over all. And if we made it to Regionals, attacking a weakness would mean we don’t get eliminated on the first day of competition.
