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ROD 

Wednesday, 30Jun10

 There will be no Wednesday 6:30 class. It has been cancelled for today only

Thrust & Hang with Us

5 Rounds for time

50 Thrusters (10 less each rnd) i.e 2nd rnd ~ 40 thrusters…
10 Hang Power Cleans (plus 10 each rnd) i.e. 2nd rnd ~ 20 power cleans… 

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle 

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The Rack Position, it’s not just for resting.    By John Wild Buckley 

 
Recently I was talking with a couple of lifters who are new to the whole Kettlebell Sport game. We were discussing the rack position and one of them said that he needed to sprint his set because he had no rack but his friend didn’t even need a rack because she didn’t need to rest during her set. Personally I have been searching for my rack since I started Kettlebell training in 2004 and I have yet to find a position that is comfortable enough to be considered “rest”. The way that I have learned to cope with the lack of rack is by pacing and slowly building up my endurance so I can complete a whole set without stopping. So far I have only made it about 70% through on my best day. Even though I am making progress there is still a major problem with my approach. The rack is not just for resting. 

First, I think it is important to identify what the rack actually is. I like to split it into two parts, the waist up and the waist down. Most kb lifters are familiar with the rack as the position one holds the bells in above the waist. This is partially correct but incomplete. The rack is like an ice burg as most of it exists below the surface. Keeping your legs straight and your hips forward is the first key to a good rack position. Even if you can not get your elbows to rest on your hips, if your legs are locked and your hips are forward you are in a safer position structurally than if your knees are bent or if you are standing strictly vertical and the bells are out in front of your body. This is what I call the Standard Waist Down Position. It is a position that is present in in your Jerk, Snatch, Rack, and at the end of your swing. It is a position that you will need to master if you are looking to advance in this sport. 

  

 The rack position from the waist up is as natural as walking to some and world of mystery to others. If you can rest your elbows on your hip you have the kind of structural advantage that a 7′ tall person has playing basketball. If this position does not come naturally to you it can be a long journey ahead. The most obvious advantage is that you can rest. If your legs are locked straight and your hips are forward you can rest your elbow on the top of your hip and let the weight of the bell rest on your structure as opposed to your musculature. This allows you to rest (at least a little). The rest is important but it is not the only reason to put your elbow on your hip. 

During a Jerk set, you will be driving through your legs and your elbow will be bursting off your hip. Think about it like placing the elbow on the hip is pulling back the hammer of a gun and exploding with your legs though your hips is like pulling the trigger and going all Dirty Harry on your Jerk set. Jerking from the hip is such a huge advantage for a lifter. Not everybody does it but most lifters who can, do. 

 As for the Long Cycle, the elbow to hip is key. Your clean must be deliberate and clear. The Long Cycle is two distinct movements. The clean is the first one. If you establish an elbow to hip connection you will have no problem with your initial bump which leads to a crisp jerk. 

 Every time you swing you work your rack position from the waist down. Every time you jerk or snatch you work the rack either wholly or partly. In the long cycle you live in the rack position. It is where you can recover, reload, and blast off. Just remember, the rack is not just for resting.

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The GYM will be closed for the 4th of July Weekend and will resume it’s normal schedule on Tuesday, July 6th.  Thank you! 

ROD

Tuesday, 28Jun10

 

Eltingville Express

4 Rounds as fast as possible for time of:
10 HSPU
20 Hang Power Cleans
30 Inverted “V’s” on stab ball or burpees
40 DB High Pulls
50 Squat Jumps
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Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as are bad habits. -Robert Puller
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Check out this funny clip on the Paleo Diet.

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ROD

Monday, 28Jun10

 

Clean & Push

 40 sec work / 20 sec rest: 5 rounds with 1 min rest in between rounds

  • Barbell push press 95#men/ 65# women
  • Pull-ups (assisted or unassisted)
  • Push-ups on Stab ball
  • KB front squats (heavy)
  • KB cleans 5r / 5l
  • Sledge Hammer swings

We will be checking for proficiency in the KB clean. Everyone should know how to kettlebell clean. Next month’s exercise of the month will be KB Snatches, the next progression in KB work. The progression is as follows;

  • KB swing
  • KB clean
  • KB clean to a press
  • KB highpull into a Snatch

You must know how to perform these exercises by now.

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We cannot hold a torch to light another person’s path without brightening our own. Ben Sweetland

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 Lets Row Together

Rowing is a very natural motion—most people pick it up quickly. Have someone watch you row, comparing your body positions to those shown in the pictures below. Don’t pull too hard until you are comfortable with the technique fundamentals.

Gina III   The Catch  

  • Arms are straight; head is neutral; shoulders are level and not hunched.
  • Upper body is at the twelve o’clock position—shoulders in front of hips.
  • Shins are vertical and not compressed beyond the perpendicular.
  • Balls of the feet are in full contact with the footplate.

Gina I  The Drive 

  • With straight arms and while maintaining the position of the upper body at twelve o’clock, exert pressure on the foot plate and begin pushing with your legs.
  • As your legs approach straight, lean the upper body back to the one o’clock position and draw the hands back to the lower ribs in a straight line.

Gina II  The Finish. 

  • Legs are extended and handle is held lightly at your lower ribs.
  • Upper body is at the two o’clock position— reclined with good support from your core muscles.
  • Head is in a neutral position.
  • Neck and shoulders are relaxed, and arms are drawn past the body with flat wrists.

In order to be an efficient and effective rower this sequence of events must be executed properly.

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ROD

Sunday, 27Jun10

 

rEst Day

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The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. Benjamin Disraeli

 
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Mindfulness in Training by Coach D

I’m hesitant to call this an article – it’s more like a collection of thoughts that, while not presenting any particularly new information, will hopefully get you thinking, just a little.

Training is inherently a mental, as well as a physical process. We know and accept this easily. We see people get pumped up before a big lift, flip their “go” switch when they’re in heated competition with a close rival, and of course, we get to see when someone has a bad day and doesn’t perform to their full capacity. Our mental fortitude gets us through a big lift, a tough workout, or a long run – it has a definite effect on how well you perform.

The other side of the story is not how your mental state affects your physical performance, but instead why we should try to be more mentally receptive to our training to move more efficiently and safely.

Let me explain.

I’ve heard people describe High Intensity Interval Training as a continual work in progress, almost like a sport. On your first day, you begin with basic, foundational principles.  Similarly, we begin with basics. We start trainees with exercises which they are familiar with, and are more position rather than movement or speed oriented. We begin with push-ups and sit-ups, where the amount that has to be mentally processed is limited. We move on to squats. With proper cues, a good air squat takes little thought. When most of us began, we simply needed to run through our mental checklist – weight on the heels, chest up, back tight, and finally good depth – to perform a passable squat.

The problem is that many of us never reach the stage where we are using the body and special awareness we have, melded with what we know about a movement and how to perform it correctly, to ever get to the point where we are consistently moving efficiently and safely.

Stop, think.

Some of us don’t bother to process our movement mentally to perform even the simplest movements correctly. As we move from movements that can be thought through slowly to be performed correctly, to exercises that require both proper positions and speed – like a clean – we’re going to find ourselves lagging behind. Eventually, if you pay attention to how you squat, recognizing what it feels like when we say “good” or “too shallow” or “get your back tight”, you won’t need to run through a long mental checklist just to squat properly. Everyone at the gym responds to cues, it requires fairly little thought, we’re simply helping your mind coax your body into doing what we would like it to do. But consistently getting your body to move properly requires diligenence, patience & thought.

Every day, I get people moving correctly, only to see them the next day making the same mistakes. If you never learn to think clearly about what you’re doing, you’ll never be able to perform more advanced movements with precision. You may be strong, fast, and have all the heart in the world, but eventually, your lack of training mindfulness will hold you back.

When you’re performing a movement, and especially when cued, don’t just react passively so that you correct yourself for a brief moment. Think about what you did wrong, think about how it felt to do it wrong, think about the risk of injury that can occur for doing it wrong and how it feels now that you’re doing it right. With practice, you’ll eventually get to store your technique error to the back of your mind, and shift your focus to other issues. But without tackling it up front, you’ll continue to make the same mistakes, delaying your progress, and making for an ugly looking squat. We want you to perform your best and at optimal levels, in order to do that you must think constantly about your movement patterns. Poor movements can adversely effect all of your lifts and increase your risk of injury. 

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ROD

Saturday, 26Jun10

“Fight Gone Bad”

  • Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target.
  • Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds
  • Box Jump: 20″ box
  • Push-press: 75 pounds
  • Row your ass off
  • In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating again for 3 rounds.

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    “Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” – Dale Carnegie
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    The painful truth about running shoes

    Thrust enhancers, roll bars, microchips…the $20 billion running – shoe industry wants us to believe that the latest technologies will cushion every stride. Yet in this extract from his controversial new book, Christopher McDougall claims that injury rates for runners are actually on the rise, that everything we’ve been told about running shoes is wrong – and that it might even be better to go barefoot… Continue reading…

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    ROD

    Friday, 25Jun10

    Clean & Drive

    10 rounds for time.

    • 10 Hang cleans
    •  8 Reclines
    •  6 MB squat thrusts & jump
    •  4 Knees to elbows

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    “You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than

    you can by what others say about him.” ~ Leo Aikman
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    Exercise-Induced Rhabdomyolysis

    Rhabdomyolysis is the name given to the breakdown of muscle fibers, which

    results in the release of myoglobin into the bloodstream that can be harmful

    to organ systems. Prolonged, strenuous exercise is a leading cause of rhabdomyolysis.

    Significance

    While rhabdomyolysis is not a normal risk associated with exercise, it can be brought on by severe exertion, such as marathon running or unusual amounts of high-impact calisthenics.

    Explanation

    When exercise continues long enough for the body to become depleted of oxygen and fat needed to continue producing energy, the body may begin to break down muscle fibers to use in place of fat. This causes the release of the protein myoglobin, which, when further broken down, contains compounds that can harm the body.

    Symptoms

    Early symptoms of rhabdomyolysis caused by exercise include red or brown urine, weakness and extreme muscle aches, tenderness and weakness. If the condition is allowed to continue, it can cause weight gain, fatigue, joint pain and seizures.

    Complications

    Possible complications of rhabdomyolysis include damage to the kidney tubules and acute kidney failure.

    Treatment

    Hydration through fluids and intravenous means are the primary means of treatment, and if caught early can usually prevent any permanent damage. Diuretics and bicarbonate may also be given to help flush the myoglobin compounds from the kidneys.

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    ROD

    Thursday, 24Jun10

     

    Tabata Boxing

    A human timer will determine how much time of WORK

    there will be at each station…. if you want to know what that means come to the class.

    No rest between stations. …NO REST….   This class will take you to the Next Level

    • Human Timer
    • DB Thrusters
    • B-A-G
    • Box Jumps
    • B-A-G
    • Mitts
    • Bosu Burpee w/ push-up
    • B-A-G
    • Jump Rope
    • B-A-G
    • Slams

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    The most successful people are those who are good at plan “B” ~ James Yorkee

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    “Sugarholics” Jack LaLanne was telling us how bad sugar was in the late 50′s

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    ROD

    Wednesday, 23Jun10

    6 rounds of 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest at each station with a 1:00 rest between stations.

    • Pushups
    • Kettlebell swings
    • burpees
    • Kettlebell See saw presses
    • Airdyne sprints
    • Kettlebell high pulls

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    “You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.” ~Vernon Howard~

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    ROD

    Tuesday, 22Jun10

    Crazy Eights

    8 reps of each, 8 rounds, for time… or 22 mins

    • SDHP (KB)
    • Pushups
    • Squats
    • Situps
    • Burpees
    • Push press (DB or KB)
    • Box Jumps
    • KB swings

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    Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they

    always keep ~ Denis Waitley

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    Top 10 Reasons Heavy Weights

    Don’t Bulk Up the Female Athlete

     Rock solid information below ladies…..

    Great article…continue reading

    1. Women do not have nearly as much testosterone as men. In fact, according to Bill Kreamer in Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, women have about 15 to 20 times less testosterone than men.
    2. The perception that women will bulk up when they begin a strength training program comes from the chemically-altered women on the covers of bodybuilding magazines. These “grocery stand models” are most likely pumped full of some extra juice. This is why they look like men. I
    3. For women, toning is what happens when the muscle is developed through training.  This is essentially bodybuilding without testosterone. Since the testosterone is not present in sufficient amounts, the muscle will develop, but it won’t gain a large amount of mass.
    4. Muscle bulk comes from a high volume of work.
    5. Heavy weights will promote strength not size. This has been proven time and time again. When lifting weights over 85 percent, the primary stress imposed upon the body is placed on the nervous system, not on the muscles. Therefore, strength will improve by a neurological effect while not increasing the size of the muscles. And, according to Zatsiorsky and Kreamer, women need to train with heavy weights not only to strengthen the muscles but also to cause positive adaptations in the bones and connective tissues.
    6. Bulking up is not an overnight process. Many women think they will start lifting weights, wake up one morning, and say “Holy sh__! I’m huge!” This doesn’t happen.   The men that you see who have more muscle than the average person have worked hard for a long time (years) to get that way.
    7. What the personal trainer is prescribing is not working. Many female athletes come into a new program and say they want to do body weight step-ups, body weight lunges, and leg extensions because it’s what their personal trainer back home had them do. However, many of these girls need to look in a mirror and have a reality check because their trainer’s so-called magical toning exercises are not working. Trainers will hand out easy workouts and tell people they work because they know that if they make the program too hard the client will complain.
    8. Bulking up is calorie dependant. This means if you eat more than you are burning, you will gain weight. If you eat less than you are burning, you will lose weight. Unfortunately, most female athletes perceive any weight gain as “bulking up” and do not give attention to the fact that they are simply getting fatter. As Todd Hamer, a strength and conditioning coach at George Mason University said, “Squats don’t bulk you up. It’s the ten beers a night that bulk you up.” This cannot be emphasized enough.  If you’re a female athlete and training with heavy weights (or not), you need to watch what you eat.
    9. The freshman 15 is not caused by strength training. It is physiologically impossible to gain 15 lbs of muscle in only a few weeks unless you are on performance enhancing drugs. Yes the freshman 15 can come on in only a few weeks. This becomes more complex when an athlete comes to a new school, starts a new training program, and also  has a considerable change in her diet (i.e. only eating one or two times per day in addition to adding 6–8 beers per evening for 2–4 evenings per week). The fact that two meals per day has slowed the athlete’s metabolism down to almost zero and then the multiple beers added on top of that couldn’t have anything to do with weight gain…it must be the   lifting.
    10. Most of the so-called experts are only experts on how to sound like they know what they are talking about.The people who “educate” female athletes on training and nutrition have no idea what they’re talking about. Let’s face it—how many people do you know who claim to “know a thing or two about lifting and nutrition?” Now, how many   people do you know who actually know what they’re talking about, have lived the life, dieted down to make a weight class requirement, or got on stage at single digit body fat?   Invariably, these so-called experts are also the people who blame their gut on poor genetics.

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    ROD

    Monday, 21Jun10

      

    Split ExRx Training

    Combine 15 seconds work /15 seconds rest each of the 4 exercises for 5 minutes.

    You must complete each of the 4 exercises for as many reps as possible.

    All together totalling twenty minutes of work. 1 min rest each between exercise.

    1. Kettlebell swings
    2. Push-ups
    3. Jumping split squats
    4. Mt climbers

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    “You have a very powerful mind that can make anything happen as long as you

    keep yourself centered.”  ~Dr. Wayne W. Dyer~

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    August 21st – 22d
    CrossFit Olympic Lifting Certification
    CrossFit Off The Grid
    Williamstown, NJ

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    How To… Barbell Clean

    I have been teaching the barbell clean for years now… but this is the best

    explaination for “cleaning the clean”. I just wished I would have thought of it first.

    Enjoy the clip. ~ Coach D

    Lets take a look at the trajectory of the bar that we should be aiming for,

    in the barbell clean.