WOD at CrossFit Full Circle

Finally went on my first affiliate visit! I went to see Jason Struck and Mark Pushinsky at Crossfit Full Circle in Richmond. Fantastic session - Jason and Mark are great instructors, patient and forthcoming with good understandable explanations of the movements and their importance to Crossfit. Also got to meet Matt Bahen (yay!), whose CF log I've been following on the boards for quite a while.

After some warmup and shoulder/hip mobility movements (ouch, iguana stretch), we went through some of progressions to the medicine ball clean, concentrating on popping the hips and keeping the chest up and shoulders back. Jason seemed a bit perplexed by my rounded back, and gave me a couple of exercises to work on keeping my shoulders back and down. However, after so many years of competitive swimming, back muscles tend to take on a life of their own. I have never seen a long-time swimmer without a rounded back (KAD is already developing one), and hopefully these exercises will help correct it.

Had a light-bulb moment when working on the kip. Jason teaches the gymnastics kip, using the hollow position and engaging the shoulder girdle to create the swing - which was exactly what I had NOT been doing when trying to kip before. I still have trouble with the timing of the hip pop in the back part of the swing, but I will be working on that, taking video and sending it to Jason for evaluation.

Movements worked:

• Air squats to medicine ball: concentrate on keeping the shoulders back and chest up - no taco-ing.
• Holding the med ball in the hang position, pop the hips to toss it slightly
• Med ball deadlifts
• Med ball squats, with the ball held in front of the face
• Hold ball in the hang position, pop the hips to toss the ball and get under it.
• Full medicine ball squat cleans
• Pushups on parallettes, concentrate on getting the shoulders just below the elbows.
• KB swings (Russian) with a 16kg bell, concentrate on hip pop.
• Kip work, concentrate on the hollow position, opening the shoulders and then engaging them to help create the swing

And finally, One Gross WOD:

For time: 15-12-9
Pushups (on parallettes)
Medicine ball squat cleans (14# ball)
Pull-ups
KB swings (16kg)

Time - 10:50

Apparently this was a pretty fast time for women for this WOD. I think Mark said the record was somewhere around 10:30. The pullups killed me - my grip was a little fried from the kip work and by the last set, I was down to doing them one at a time. I'm definitely capable of doing it faster, and Mark thinks a good kip could help me knock a minute or more off that time.

Overall, a fantastic session and a real eye-opener about the value of a good coach. I have the official Crossfit Full Circle t-shirt as proof of my visit, and a notebook of tips and pointers for things to concentrate on during my workouts.

Thanks again, Jason and Mark!