Saturday, June 28, 2008

Semi-submerged truck tires

WOD

1) max HSPU : 12 *

2) bench, 3X1, 215, 225, 235(f)

3) bench, 3X3, 195

4) 200m (and change) sprint
15 GHD sit-ups
14 GHD back extensions
4 rounds : 9:42

* PR by 3 !!

Notes: The HSPU felt easy. All the shoulder pressing helps. I had MC hold my legs, instead of doing them against the wall which resulted in less stress on my lower back. Every rep was nose to ground, i.e. almost full ROM. Need to get parallelettes. I suck at bench in general and specificially now since I haven't been doing it. I created a checklist of exercises and plan going through the list before repeating (unless I have a glaring weakness). WARNING: Another Crossfit criticism/poopstorm. There is not enough bench in crossfit. It is a good movement, builds muscle, and makes people stronger. There are many good movements that never/rarely appear in WODs, e.g. farmer's walks and TGU. Most crossfitters need more muscle and all crossfitters need to get stronger. Having more muscle and being stronger usually makes met-con easier. I have a former "bodybuilder" working out with me now. He has lots of experience with bench but not going heavy. He gets plenty of going heavy working out with me. The circuit felt slow. GHD sit-ups are no joke. Subjectively, twice as hard as back extensions.

3 comments:

CJ said...

ah, this could make for another couple of good discussions :)

The bench is not utilized very much in crossfit because it is not very functional and it is not very safe. I believe in some sports (very few) it may be useful to use it more often, but in general I do not see the use in doing tons of benching.

TGU's are another story all together. They used to be part of the crossfit programming but no longer are. Why? Because while it may move heavy(ish) loads long distances, it does so VERY slowly. Thus, it diminishes the power we generate when we do our wods and our results suffer. It is however, a great core exercise for additional work after or before a workout. The same applies for L-sits, rolling rocks, and handstands.

As far as Farmers walks and various "odd" movements, I think they are great for WODs and are part of the reason I don't follow the main site.

I do agree that crossfitters need to develop strength. But not at the expense of all other 9 components of fitness. Just doing the WODs works extremely well to increase strenth RELATIVE to the other physiological components of fitness. Strength is great but so are cardio endurance, stamina, flexibility, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. All of which contribute enormously to our goal of increasing power and speed.

Brian said...

Bench : I want to avoid the functional argument. I think the safety argument applies to the barbell version. If I creating a general program I would prescribe the dumbbell version. It is a good workout just wrestling them in place. I would throw in some one-arm db benching, also. It would fit nicely in a strength circuit. I think in early phase of training you need to put some weight on a trainee. Heavy db benching will do that.

TGU : Looking at my journal, I more of a strength guy than a power guy. I like my strong core.

Speaking of "odd" movements, I haven't done any one-arm benching on the GHD. Ohh the humanity !!!

CJ said...

If putting on weight was the goal, I would change the diet. And if hypertrophy is the goal, Dumbbells are far inferior than Barbells.