“Press Coverage”
Strict Press – 5×10

Teams of 2
2k Row
Switch every 200m

WOD Guidance:
Today we have five sets of 10 in the strict press. One interesting aspect of doing high rep strict presses is that the top of the movement is actually the easiest point to rest. We most often fail strict presses in the middle of the movement, in front of our face. One way to make this area of the movement easier is to rebound the weight off of our shoulders, rather than pausing in front rack. The top of the movement is also a great place to breathe, because we don’t have the barbell resting across our shoulders, hindering the rise and fall of our chest. Our cash-out today is a challenging partner piece that has us rowing 2000m as fast as possible. One of the keys to doing a partner workout on the rower is speedy transitions. Two things you can do to speed up your transitions: 1) Have the partner on the dismount hold the seat for the partner who’s hopping on and 2) Place the handle back in the cradle between changes rather than handing it off, so that buddy 2 gets a full pull.

QOD:
Who’s your favorite defensive athlete?

Ed!

WOD Guidance:
On todays workout we’re working on building the most functional of skills; picking things up and carrying them. We’re meant to be using the same weight dumbbells for all three movements. The farmers carries on this workout should not be done unbroken. Rather, we should seek to take 1-2 breaks over the course of our 200m. We should have the strength to do both our deadlifts and our step-ups unbroken, although our grip is going to make it advantageous to take breaks before each of these movements. Grip is definitely going to be the limiting factor today. Although our forearms will be fatigued, we should never fail a rep outright. Instead, let’s take a ton of breaks even when we feel good, that way we’re never dipping too far into our reserves of strength to hold on to the dumbbells or kettlebells.

QOD:
Who’s the greatest fighter of all time?

Fatima!

“Team Rocket”
10 min to find a heavy 3 rep squat clean

Rest 4 min

AMRAP 7
10 Squat Cleans @ 95/65
20 Sit-ups

WOD Guidance:
Today we have a two part workout, where part 1 has us building to a heavy 3 rep squat clean in just ten minutes. Whenever we’re asked to build to a heavy weight in a limited time, we want to go in with a game plan. In this case, we should devise a strategy that plans for 3-4 attempts at your heavy 3 rep. The attempt selection could look something like this: Attempt 1 – Warm-up weight, Attempt 2 – heavier warm-up weight, Attempt 3 – conservative 3 rep heavy, Attempt 4 – Ambitious 3 rep heavy. Structuring your attempts this way ensures that you get at least 3 good lifts under your belt with the opportunity to hit a challenging weight for the day,  or even attempt a personal best. After this, our conditioning piece is a short AMRAP. We should pick a weight that allows us to string multiple reps together on squat cleans, but plan on taking at least one break each round as we get deeper into this workout.

QOD:
Who’s your favorite loveable bad guy?

Sunday’s with Manny begins!

WOD Guidance:
This is a play on the classic CrossFit workout “The Ghost.” Whenever we do this style of workout, the single minute of rest is just enough to get our breath back. We should think about how to create a breakup strategy on the kettlebell swing that’s going to allow us to breathe a little bit, because we should expect essentially no rest on the second two movements. I think a great strategy for the kettlebell swings would be 15 swings, 3 or 4 deep breaths, then 10 more swings. One interesting thing about this compared to the regular “Ghost” is that there’s no row, so we can transition quickly between movements compared to getting on and off of a rower.

Brenna jumping for joy to see new movement, the ring push-up!

“Pictures of Spiderman”
AMRAP 20
5 Strict Chest to Bar Pull-ups
10 Ring Push-ups
20 Box Step-ups @ 30/24

WOD Guidance:
This is a workout that was originally posted on CrossFit.com a couple months back. The ring push-up and strict chest to bar may feel unfamiliar at first blush, but in reality we do pull-ups and push-ups all the time. The only difference here is that we’re looking for a slightly harder version of both of these movements, so as your coach takes you through progressions think about which step in the progression is right for you. The entrée here is definitely the high box step-up. This is a new one for us, but expect to see it a lot more. This is a great option for athletes who are attempting to find a suitable scale for single leg or “pistol” squats. As we expand our programming and expose our members to a broader variety of movements, we’re always seeking to make sure that we’re coming up with appropriate modifications as well. In this case, the high box step-up will likely be our go-to modification going forward.

QOD:
Who’s your favorite small part in a movie?

Dave!

“Front to Back”
5 rounds of
15 Barbell Lunges @ 135/95
75 Double Unders

WOD Guidance:
Lunges are a tall order for any athlete, but barbell lunges add a whole new component to the game. This is not a movement that we see as often, so expect your coaches to review proper technique for taking a barbell off the ground and securing it on your shoulders for lunges. We can do these lunges with the barbell in a front rack position, but if it’s possible, most athletes will have an easier time performing lunges from the back rack. This requires a level of comfort with popping the barbell over the head and onto the shoulders from the front rack, but given the relative ease of back rack lunges compared to front rack, it’s a skill worth mastering. Additionally, women who plan on attempting this skill should try to wear their hair up on top of their head, rather than in a ponytail, so they don’t wind up catching their hair as they lower the barbell back onto their shoulders. For this reason also, hoodies are inadvisable as the mass of the hood behind your head can make it difficult to rack a barbell quickly on your shoulders. We should pick a weight on lunges that allows us to go unbroken each round, and we may either do forward lunges or reverse lunges today. This is also a great day for double-under practice, so expect your coach to go through a lengthy progression there.

QOD:
What’s the one thing that you can’t stand being dirty?

Coach Rachel dialed in on the rower!

“Davey Jones Locker”
2k Row
EMOM – Up Ladder Burpees

WOD Guidance:
This workout has its roots in the early days of CrossFit New England (a gym where many TILT coaches and members got their start). For today, your task is to row 2000m. Your first minute will be entirely composed of rowing. When one minute elapses, you’ll dismount the rower and do one burpee, then hop back on as quickly as possible and resume rowing. At the two minute mark, you’ll once again dismount, this time completing two burpees. Your workout will continue until you’re able to accumulate 2000m on the rower. Often in these breakdowns I recommend that you pace the workout and manage your fatigue. This is not the strategy today. Because your time on the rower is front-loaded, it behooves you to row as hard as you can in the first 1-5 minutes. After that the numbers on burpees start to catch up and your time on the rower is reduced substantially. Your goal is to get as many meters as you can at the start of this workout, so that you can finish your meters before you cap out on burpees. 

QOD:
Who’s the scariest cartoon bad guy?

Joel!

“Astro World”
Back Squat 7×1

Cash Out – Bring Sally Up

WOD Guidance:
We follow up an upper body strength day from yesterday with a  lower body strength day today. The back squat 7×1 is an interesting example of a strength training concept called Raw Stimulus Magnitude or RSM. This is a fancy term for a phenomenon that we see illustrated every single strength day. There are a lot of things that determine an athletes ability to produce force: muscle size, age, training experience, muscle fiber composition, the ability to activate and recruit muscles, the ability to coordinate actions efficiently between muscle groups…the list goes on. All these factors contribute to the reasons why different athletes are capable of lifting vastly different loads. If you’re newer to sports in general or weightlifting in particular, you likely have the muscular potential to lift much more weight than you’re capable of expressing on a barbell. Conversely, a seasoned lifter is going to be extremely efficient at generating force through a bar because of how practiced they are at the skill of lifting weights. Additionally, a very large muscular person will generate much more force because they have the structures in place to do so; consider the difference in horsepower between a 4 cylinder and 8 cylinder engine. All this is to say that large, experienced lifters will be able to fatigue themselves much more quickly and will require much more rest between sets than new athletes. When you’re a new athlete and your coach gives 20 minutes for a strength portion like today, consider keeping to load moderate and going beyond seven sets. You won’t be able to fatigue yourself enough to make a difference for the workout, and the additional volume will help you build more muscle and become more efficient at the movement, to help you generate great Raw Stimulus Magnitudes in the future and begin to fall more in line with our volume prescriptions on strength days. The “Bring Sally Up” portion of class refers to the song “Flower” by Moby. You’ll pick a very light weight and for the duration of the song, you’ll squat down whenever the singer says “down” and stand whenever the singer says “up.”

QOD:
What’s the biggest concert you’ve ever been to?

Erwin!

“Greyskull”
AMRAP 3 x 5
10 Push Press @ 155/105
Max Rep Weighted Strict Pull-ups
Rest 2 min

Male Weights – 35/30/25/20/15
Female Weights – 25/20/15/10/5

WOD Guidance:
Even though it says “AMRAP” at the top, this workout is first and foremost a strength day. We will be taking our push presses off of the floor today, so expect your coach to review proper power clean technique for getting that heavy barbell to your shoulders. Additionally on the push presses we should not be picking a weight that allows us to go unbroken. We should be picking the heaviest weight that allows us to complete unbroken push presses today. For our weighted pull-ups, athletes who are capable of using weight for this movement should plan on holding a dumbbell between their thighs, crossing their ankles with straight legs to ensure that the dumbbell doesn’t move around. Although some people will be going Rx today, most of us will be doing some form of modification for this movement. Your coach will likely give you plenty of options for this movement, but expect to do some form of strict pulling, bec it a banded pull-up, strict pull-up negative, or difficult ring row.

QOD:
Which kids show character had the best hair?

Blair!

“Rocky Mountain Oysters”
AMRAP 15
10 Wall Balls @ 20/14
10 Kettlebell Swings @ 53/35
10 Box Jumps @ 24/20

Workout Guidance:
Today we have an AMRAP of exercises that are being done in short sets. When we’re picking weights today, our goal is to pick weights that allow us to do every single set of 10 unbroken. At no point today should we be breaking up wall balls and kettlebell swings. Whenever we’re presented with a workout involving shorter sets and lots of rounds like this, we should be thinking about pacing consistently. Less experienced athletes will often have a high degree of variability in terms of their round times. It’s very easy to get sucked in, do our first round or two in a minute or less, then have our split times balloon up as fatigue catches up with us. The way to avoid this scenario is by looking at limiting factors round to round. Today most athletes will be limited by shoulder fatigue, as both the wall ball and the overhead kettlebell swing are movements that will tax our shoulder muscles. Therefore, let’s try to move deliberately slowly on the box jumps every round, as this is the one movement in the workout where we can give our shoulders a break.

QOD:
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?