The fear of the box jump. If you don’t know what I mean when I say the “fear of the box jump”, you are missing out. Yesterday Dwight surprised himself by sticking a 37″ box jump. It took a couple attempts, and a progressive warm-up, but he walked away with a new PR and an accomplishment that he didn’t know he could do the day before.
The box jump is funny. It is just a box. You stand in front of it and jump to the top. Simple. Not really. Jumping is something most adults don’t do. Think about it. Unless you play rec sports and/or have an over abundant amount of energy, you don’t jump all that often, if at all. Why would you jump when you can take the easier, less demanding “big-step.”
Jumping is to human movement as almond butter is to celery sticks (paleo joke). Kids jump. Their environment forces them to jump. At recess (I don’t know if most schools even have that anymore), in their school sports, in P.E. class (again, don’t know if thats still around), and just along their rough-and-tumble day, they jump. Its natural. Jumping gets lost as you grow older along with a ton of other natural human movements.
So, here are a couple tips for attacking the box jump:
1. Start small. You gotta walk before you run and you gotta master the small box before the big. At MBS, we have boxes that range from 12″ all the way up to 36″. Beyond 36″ we can stack 45# plates on side to get you higher. Progressively build up your confidence in each height before moving on to the next.
2. Posture. Position yourself in an “athletic position” prior to the jump. Use your arms and violently open your hips to propel yourself to the top. Aim to land lightly (like a cat) with your feet flat on the box, chest up, and head neutral. Lastly, stand upright.
3. Go for it! Get mad, get pumped, get whatever you gotta be to get yourself on the box. Sometimes, its just that little bit of extra blood to the head to get you the courage to make the jump.
4. Finish strong. If you miss your attempt, do it again right away. Don’t let the box master you. You master the box. If you end up biting off more than you can chew, drop down an inch or so and end on a good note. Make sure you make the last one. Walk away happy.
I hope that helps. I think you’ll find that after you master the initial scare of the box jump, it will continue to get easier. It may even become addicting. Now, go ahead and test yourself. Tell me how high you can jump.
Results: So, this was a pretty lame Aprils Fools joke. Almost everyone was ready to do the posted workout. A few thought it was going to be a team workout, but the good thing is that it didn’t manage to scare anyone away. Here was the real workout:
5 Rounds for time:
25 Back Extensions (45#)
30 Knees to elbows
I know that you’re thinking we just did jumping squats yesterday, which taxed us on explosive hip extension, and that we shouldn’t do it again today, but you should read this article from the natural athlete. The word is that humans have been around a long time (2.5 million years) and for the greater part of that existence, we were required by necessity to run, pull, jump, and throw in order to get our food. Hunts could be as short as a couple hours, or as long as several days. Do you think our ancestors would take a day of rest just because they did a big hunt the day before? I seriously doubt it – especially if the hunt was unsucessful.
This video has been floating around on a couple CrossFit sites, and if you are a person that appreciates angles and cross-sectional diagrams of stuff, this vid will be good for you. Note – the music is a little trippy. I suggest you turn down the video volume and play some Metallica in the background.
Pictured to the right is the group from the Tactical Strength Challenge last September at MBS CrossFit. This Saturday Flatirons CrossFit will be hosting the TSC at their facility in Boulder. The TSC is a strength competition where competitors face off on a 3-attempt max deadlift, max pullups, and kettlebell snatch for max reps in 5 minutes. The meet begins at 10:00 am. Cost is $25 and includes lunch. Register online – ends April 2nd
Minimum score for each round on the double unders is 10. For every rep dropped (below 10), do one burpee. Time ends at the completion of 8 rounds double unders (if meeting the 10 rep min) or at the completion of burpees.
Rest Day!How are you going to spend your rest day?A handful of the MBS crew hit the slopes after Saturday morning’s workout and said it was AWESOME!Today go do something fun outdoors, and enjoy this beautiful state we call home.
Here are up to date snow reports if you decide to pack up the car and see for yourself!
**The 9:00 am class will be a Foundations Class only. Anyone is welcome to join, but be prepared to get a lot of reps and a lot of (constructive) critisism.**
9:00 AM – CrossFit Foundations Class
We will be reviewing the basic movements of CrossFit. Be prepared to work with the PVC stick and demonstrate perfect form. We will get plenty of reps of each movement.
10:00 AM – Workout “Bear” Complex 5 Rounds, 7 sets of the following sequence:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press
Rest between rounds as needed.
Notes: The Power clean must be seperate from the front squat. No resting on the ground during rounds, not even to re-grip. You want to be at max load by round 4 or 5.
Will (pic above) is going to be hitting up his first triathalon of the season this May. He is combining his long distance run and cycling training with CrossFit to prepare him for the race. You can see the rest of his profile in the TEAM MBSlink at the right of the page. We encourage all of our members here to be training for SOMETHING. No matter what it is, train with a purpose. If you can handle that kind of public accountability, shoot me an email and we can talk about getting your profile added to the Team MBS page.
**The 6:30 and 8:00am classes are cancelled today. Noon and all afternoon classes will go as scheduled.**
Workout 5 Rounds of:
Sprint 20 yd
Jog back to start
Sprint 20 yd
Walk back to start
Sprint 20 yd
Rest 30 sec. between rounds.
… then
7 Rounds for time:
3 1.5 x BW Deadlift
5 BH (body height) Broad Jump
10 Pushups
Tomorrow at 9:00 am MBS CrossFit is doing a FREE Foundations class for our new MBS members and their freinds or family. If you are an “old” member, you are welcome to join as well. We will be covering the 9 basic movements of CrossFit. This class will be very useful to making your workout experience much more enjoyable. Post to comments if you plan on attending.
For those of us that have been participating in the 30-day Paleo Diet Lockdown, we have seen tremendous results in weight-loss, performance, and overall body health. Here is yet another case study, although pretty small, of the effect of good food in your body.
“Note that all of these improvements are already occurring only ten days after moving from the normal diet to the Paleo-style diet. That proves to me that amazing ability of the body to begin healing once it’s given the right building blocks.”
What is most interesting about this study and others like it, is the speed at which your body will recover from its unhealthy state. The key takeaway here is that your body wants to be healthy. Feed it good food and it will run like its supposed to.
**Classes cancelled today. The blizzard dropped about 4″ this morning and the report is calling for more snow this afternoon. As of now, the 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30pm group classes will be called off. If you really need to get a workout in, check back in comments later this afternoon to see if a trainer will be in.**
This is one of the meanest looking war-faces I’ve seen in awhile. Adrian, standing just shy of 5 foot, can be easy to miss sometimes…until you say “Go!” When the workout is on, he is just as loud and screaming fast as everyone else.
Last weekend Janelle and I busted out some new parallettes. Parallettes are those PVC things we have hanging on the wall collecting dust. They can be used for a variety of things including pushups, handstands, handstand pushups, L-sits, V-sits, planches, and many more gymnastics skills. Here’s a good article on how to make your very own set of parallettes for home and office (for cheap!): Really Cool Homemade Parallettes
Workout
On the 3 minute interval for 8 total rounds:
3 Squat Clean
3 Muscle-ups
The goal in this workout will be to start with a comfortable weight and then go up each consecutive round. Try not to get backed up to the point that you have no time to load more weight on the bar. Today’s scale for muscle-ups is 6 pullups and 6 dips.
Results: Hey, that was a freaking awesome day today. I was really impressed with how everyone kept up with their loads and ended up close or over max’s by the 8th round. Really good stuff. I’m only posting the ending weights, note your other loads and M/U scaling into BTWB.
Dwight: 156 (front squat)
Julie: 53#
Darby: 115#
Mike: 155#
Sam: 150# (7 rnd)
Brian: modified
Anya: 45#
Pat: 215# (C&J, 7 rnd)
Sean: 215# (C&J)
Jay: 155#
Patrick: 155#
Tom: 165#
Ben: 165#
Jeromy: 135#
Rob: 185#, 215×1
Gerard: 155#, 161×1
Melissa: 95#
Jason: 190#
Kyle: 157#
Heather: 93#
Adrian: 59#
Tiffany: 103#
Lisa: 103#
Jeremy: 155# (you owe me a rope)
Randy: 155#
Emilio: 100#
Brooke: 70#
Brett: 185#
I was having some problems yesterday with beyondthewhiteboard, but got them fixed. Yesterday’s WOD and today’s WOD have been posted. Please keep up with your logs. I’ve noticed a lot of people have been dropping the ball. We have a solution for that and it ryhmes with “herpes”.
**The MBS Softball team needs to practice. If you didn’t know that we formed a softball team and want to join, theres still time. We need a coach. Let Tiffany or Janelle know ASAP. We are planning on having a practice this Saturday after the 10am workout. PLEASE PUT YOUR AVAILABILITY IN COMMENTS. Don’t make me chase you down! We plan on having a couple practices before the season start on April 19th. Practice will only last 90min. or so and we really need to find out who is playing what positions. If Saturday doesn’t work, we’ll try and make it on Sunday. Let us know in comments. Thanks.**
**Olympic weightlifting class tonight t 6:30pm. Please warm-up prior to class. Also, we are scheduling a free Foundations class for some of our new CrossFitters this Saturday at 9am. Everyone is welcome to join this class, however you must RSVP in comments. We will be covering the 9 basic movements of CrossFit. The 10am class will be doing the regular scheduled WOD.**
Results (excluding “Mini-Mary”): Extremely good job today from everyone. Form was exceptional and the numbers were pretty dang good as well. I am beginning to feel useless in the gym…I didn’t have much to do other than record everyone’s weight and wish that I had brought the camera.
Jeremy: 325×3
Brian: 305×3
Forrest: 315×3
Mike: modified
Sam: 305×3
Adrian: 125×3
Emilio: 200×3
Anya: 40×5
Jay: 345×3
Patrick: 295×3
Peter: modified
Matt M: 145×3
Jonathan: modified
Andrew: 275×3
Tiffany: 213×3
Tom: 295×3
Ben: 275×3
Melissa: 195×3
Carolina: 101×3
Brooke: 101×3
Heather: 205×3
Aaron: 255×3
Kyle: 301×3
Wade: 385×3
Michael: 385×3
Lucas: 315×3
Randy: 295×3
Pat: 405×3
Jason: 305×3
Pistols, Part I (Adrian Bozman) …[wmv][mov] Pistols, Part II (Adrian Bozman) …[wmv][mov] Pistols, Part III (Adrian Bozman …[wmv][mov]
Good job to everyone that competed at the Regional Practice Games yesterday. MBS had a good showing. The next and last practice games will be on April 18, exactly 4 weeks from now. Yesterday’s results posted here.
MBS Spring Weightlifting Meet
April 25, 2009
Where: MBS CrossFit Training Facility When: April 25, 2009. Weigh-in’s begin at 9am. Lifting begin at 10am Judged Lifts: Olympic Snatch and Clean & Jerk
**There will only be a 9:00am class this morning. If you would like to join us at Front Range CrossFit for the Regional Practice Games, we will be meeting at their facility at 9:45am. Otherwise, only the 9:00am class with Nick.**
Front Range CrossFit
Parker Road Business Center
1338 South Valentia Street, Unit 180
Denver, Colorado 80247
The Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) is a strength competition consisting of three events:
- A three-attempt powerlifting deadlift
- Pullups for max reps
- Kettlebell snatches for max reps in a 5:00 time period
This is a great test of your overall fitness. The TSC does not favor one individuals ability over another as it measures your overall fitness ability. The deadlift will measure your absolute strength and while it does favor the bigger competitor it only counts for 1/3 of your score. The Pull-up is a test of bodyweight strength and will favor the smaller athlete. The 5:00 minute snatch test will test your cardio and muscle endurance. This is an international event open to competitors of all abilities.
Tactical Strength Challenge
Saturday April 4th
Weigh-ins at 9:00am. Lifting Starts at 10:00
Cost: $25
We will be serving lunch upon conclusion of the contest.
Coming up on April 4th is the Tactical Strength Challenge. The competition is going to be held at Flatirons CrossFit at 10am. The strength competition consists of 3 events:
A 3-attempt powerlifting deadlift
Pullups for max reps
Kettlebell snatches for max reps in a 5:00 minute time period
Workout
3 rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
12 BW Deadlift
21 Box Jumps
Take your time on the deadlifts today because by the time you hit the 2nd and 3rd round, your core is going to be pretty taxed. Strict form!
Pictured to the right is the group from the 
Rest Day!How are you going to spend your rest day?A handful of the MBS crew hit the slopes after Saturday morning’s workout and said it was AWESOME!Today go do something fun outdoors, and enjoy this beautiful state we call home.
