"Helen on the Beach"
3 Rounds For Time:
Run 400m
21 Sandbag Power Clean 60/35 (Floor to Shoulder)
12 Box Jump 24"/20"
What is the point of our warm up anyway? The first reason and most obvious reason for our warmup is to get our body warm, loose, and ready for intensity. Most of us are fairly sedentary throughout the day, making our bodies nice and tight. Not a great way to start an intense workout. So we typically start with 3-5 minutes of low intensity calisthenics such as jogging, rowing, or jumping rope, to increase blood flow and core temperature. We use a series of dynamic range of motion exercises such as leg swings or arm circles
coupled with exercises like overhead squats and GHD exercises are
common ways increase mobility or range of motion around the major joints of the body. We are prepping our bodies for the fight.
The next goal of our warmup is to get repetition on staple exercises that need to be performed daily. The same movements that we want to improve strength and range of motion on. 3 Rounds of varoius types of push ups, pull ups, squats, and GHD trunk exercises, 10-15 each, is standard CrossFit practice (see CrossFit FAQ – Official 1.8 CrossFit Warmup). This daily exposure is a good way to increase strength over time. Along with the goal increasing muscle strength, we put additional drills in the warmup that we want to increase neurological adaptation, i.e. coordination, accuracy, agility, and balance. Examples of these types of movements include Olympic lift variations with an empty barbell. The bottom line here is that we gain strength and mastery over movements through repetition.
The last goal of the warmup is equally as important as the first two. WORK ON YOUR GOATS! What do you suck at, and what new movements are you trying to develop? We all have individual needs as far as working on our pitfalls and working toward different long term movement goals. Travis and I do the best we can to incorporate general group weaknesses and general long term movement goals into the group warmups, but you are all different! If you need to work on your squat depth then there are drills and stretches we have shown you to do so. If it is getting that muscle up or handstand push up, you are going to need to spend extra time working on those things, which brings me to the main point of this whole speal.
The written warmup is a template! Do not be afraid to make modifications to the daily warmup according to your own individual needs. I am not saying just come in and do whatever you want, but consider your own individual abilities, goals, and needs. For instance lets say that air squats are listed and you have a decent air squat, but you struggle with wrist flexibility on your front squat. Do front squats instead of air squats until your wrists are not a problem, or overhead squats until you can bear that. Or maybe you really need to work on your handstand push ups and push ups are listed on the warm up. Do handstand push ups. Maybe you have butt arm and torn callouses from doing a hundred pull
ups two days ago and you see hanging knees to elbows listed in the
warmup. How about subbing sit ups instead? Save your arms and hands for another day.
Some of you have some tenderness in your shoulder, possibly from an old injury. Instead of hopping up to a set of 15 kipping pull ups right off the bat, you should do some arm circles, pass throughs, ring push ups, or whatever it is that gets you ready for those pull ups. You could do your first set of pull ups jumping, or with a band. In any case, you all know where your aches and pains are and you should take extra warmup precautions in these areas and scale exercises as needed.
This post is meant to empower you all to use your warmup time more effectively. Your warmup is a powerful tool aide your workout results. You are going to maximize your personal results if you take a slightly individualized approach to the warmups. If you require additional exercises to get lose, do them! Ask yourself what skill do you need to work on? If you don't see it on the board, work on it! Tell your trainers what your personal movement goals are (if we haven't told you already). Tell us how your joints and muscles are feeling, and ask for help if you are unsure of what to do to adjust your warmup. And one last thing… 9AM. It is hard to concentrate on a improving your abilities in a complex movements if you are talking to your buddies about unrelated topics the entire time.
