Firefighter workout

Dayton fireman Mike Overman preparing for combat challenge competitions wit some snatches in gear. His metabolic set was in full gear




Combat challenge metcon

Sprint 200 m
6 95# clean grip snatches
6 95# squat + push press
6 pullups
Rest 2 min
6 rounds

Cover girl

Our own Claire Falknor featured on a Centerville Elks girl's soccer website, in the game she had an assist
on the first goal and scored the second one. Congrats Claire!

Technique for Show or Technique for Functionality

Over the last few months, teaching the Olympic lifts to executives, soccer moms and teen age athletes alike, it has come to my attention that the necessity of a full squat clean, or snatch, is mostly unnecessary.  In fact, I will go one step further, a traditional grip snatch, with a wide hand spacing, is also more of a hazard than a necessity. 

With the athletes we train, we are looking to enhance physical and psychological performance, while minimizing the chance of injury.

I don't agree with the non-Olympic training crowd, that says you can get the same effect with just plyometrics, or weighted jump squats.  The Olympic lifts are great, because as a coach, they have a finite end point to show success with the lift.  A jump squat can be 1 inch off the floor or 8 inches off the floor according to intensity of the athlete, but there is no finite end point.

Secondly, I have issues with the squat clean, and in some cases the power/hang clean in general, because of the racking or catching of the weight.  Even with talented athletes, this position can be a challenge, and thus takes away from the effort or intensity that the individual is putting into the explosive elements of the lift because of fear of the catch.

Are these lifts impressive and complex, teaching massive amounts of power, coordination and athleticism?  Absolutely, are there other ways to do the same thing?  Absolutely.  Dodging someone shoot arrows at you will teach you the same coordination, speed and athleticism, but should you do that just because that's one way to accomplish your goals?

Introducing the clean or narrow grip hang snatch.  Grip width is safer on the shoulder girdle, hang position allows for maximum power output from the hips and lower body.  Catch is in a natural and safe position.   It can be taught in 15 min to a novice, and has a finite end point.  Problem solved

Bad Ass Chick: Cristiane "cyborg" Santos

Not a lady you want to mess with.

Congrats to our own Eric Limekmann

Eric Limekmann had a great race finish this weekend and qualified for world championships, more info and pictures to follow

Heart disease and cholesterol, no connection!

From a poorly structured study came the famous, mythical connection between cholesterol and heart disease mortality….

 

Training athletes according to energy system needs

Power Enterprises trains may different athletes in the area, all with different needs when it comes to their training.  We attempt with every athlete, to train them for the specific needs of their sport.  Because of this I thought it would be a good idea to go over the 3 energy systems used in the body.

 

 

The graph above shows the different energy systems:

ATP/PC - The immediate energy system responsible for providing energy for activities lasting 1-12 seconds.

Glycolytic (Lactic Acid) - The short-term energy system responsible for providing energy for activities lasting 12 seconds - 2 to 3 minutes.

Oxidative (Aerobic) - The long-term energy system responsible for providing energy for activities lasting longer than 2 to 3 minutes.

From the chart above we can accurately predict the energy needs of athletes from many different sports, and train them according to those needs.  The goal of training within a target energy system is to make the athlete's body more efficient at using the fuel, and more efficient at getting rid of waste products left behind from burning that fuel, namely the H+ (hydrogen) that increase acidity in the muscles, that decrease performance.

For example a 50m freestyle swimmer should train a majority of his or her time within the ATP/PC and Glycolysis energy systems to make themselves as effiencent as possible in using these fuels.  That would mean a majority of the training would be work sets of between 0-2 min at high intensity, with low intensity work in between to flush acid out of the muscles, and allow the respitory system (lungs) to exhale as much of the acid as possible.  If these energy systems are not trained, when the athlete tries to engage them in a race, their inability to process acid out of the muscles impairs muscular performance, as well as causing breathing issues due to accumulation of acid in the lungs, which is the burning athletes feel in their chest when working at high intensity.

As the ability to flush the acid out of the body improves, rest periods can be decreased in order to continue to improve the body's ability to speed the waste products (acid) out of the body.

I hope this basic overview allows the athlete a glimpse in to how their body's energy is used .

 

 

 

Stronger Legs, Bigger Jumps-Jumping out of a Pool

 

Someone sent me the first video, and then I found the other video of the same athlete lifting very heavy squats and deadlifts.  As I preach constantly, you have to have a base of strength before speed or jumping ability improves.   This athlete has massive jumping ability, because he is extremely strong compared to his bodyweight, we call this power to weight ratio.

Build strength first, then worry about sprint/jumping technique.  Without the strength it is like a hybrid car racing a nascar, all the driving technique in the world isn't going to make up for the lack of engine power output.

If your in an exercise rut, your doing it wrong….

An exercise rut is like any other phase of your life that become monotonous.

The same distance and pace on the treadmill, the same walking route, the same routine of weight machines at the same weights.

The instant fix to an exercise rut is to change how you look at exercise.  If your view of the time in which you sweat everyday is that it is your sport, not just an activity, your perspective changes immediately.

A sport by definition is a competition of skills, that’s how you need to look at your exercise program.  Are there any skilled movements in your program that could use tweaking?  Are you just going through the steps of the workout blindly, or are you trying to perfect every aspect of every skilled movement?

We at Crossfit Powerathlete teach many skill based exercises, the Olympic lifts are a great example.  These movements are highly skilled, and never really mastered, much like a golf swing.

If you are in a rut, take down the intensity at which you are working at for 1-2 days, and spend some time working to improve your squat technique, your power clean or even your technique on the rower ergometer.  All of these skill practices will show positive results on future workouts, and remind you why you enjoy your sport so much.

French frys

At one time French fries where a special occasion food, there was no where you could buy them, so you made them at home. This undertaking meant prep time, mess, and generally a pain in the butt.

Ice cream had to be churned by hand at home, and was a multiple hour process.

Fast forward to today, and all these special occasion foods are readily avaliable 24/7. If you can't get behind a dietary system like the zone or paleo, at the very least try to minimize special occasion foods, cakes, pies, fried foods, ice cream to special occasions

550 deadlift

Evan Johnson deadlifting this afternoon

First Responders and Physical Preparedness

 

5'8 300#, unbelievable that this guy is going to protect anyone.  The original CNN video shows him unable to get up from a kneeling position, or exit the driver's side of the car with any kind of dexterity.  I don't think that all first responders should be supermen or women, but I do think they should be physically able to do the jobs the tax payers are paying them to do.  Prepare for the worse case scenario, so you don't become a casualty of that situation.

Evolving Fitness

As I work everyday with our own crossfit community, it always amazes me the compleities within the seemingly basic concept of fitness. This is only made more complicated when you speak to other "searchers" ( a term I have give to all if us who are looking for the holy Grail of fitness), troops in afganistan, fire fighters, and executives. I talk to as many people, as often as I can about their needs and perspectives about fitness. Crossfit answers many questions in it's present for, but it is the community's aknowledgement that it is an evolving model that is it's true gift

Public Apology

Just wanted to publicly apology to a certain Navy troop in Afghanistan.  Without thinking I used a non blacked out picture without his permission, and that was stupid.

so in his honor

"EOD Sacrifice"

45s side plank right side

continuous with 15 burpees

45s side plank left side

x4

increasing dumbbells: start at 25's to 6rm for the complex then do 2 more sets at that weight

single upright row 1 of each plus 1 double x 6

front lunges 6ea

reverse lunges 6ea

curl+press 6

squats 6

At the start of each min run  30 yards down and back + 12 jump lunges with 20# db's x 10

Squat technique

Loved this graphic, I apologize to my fellow affiliate owner who posted it, I can't remember where I found it, let me know it's yours and I will give you credit

Why I love the deadlift

The deadlift perfectly personifies my method of sports conditioning.  There is no gimmicks, you can’t do it half way, you make the lift or you don’t.

In the age of agility ladders, and endless sprint drills, the fact still remains that without proper strength, there isn’t enough power to move the athlete faster.

I am aware this isn’t sexy, strength takes hard work and effort, not just hopping around some cones, and running ridiculously complex patterns in agility ladders.  Blood sweat and tears in most cases.

This is why most young athletes, that are exposed to gimmick filled programs, never get faster, or better at their sport, because they never build the base of strength to support the sprinting

10th Cav

From an email from Todd, a soilder in the 10th cav, we write this little gem

Section 1:

3 way plank 30 s (side front side)
Overhead walking lunges 45# plate 20 steps
X4

Section 2

Burpee broad jumps 10
L sit pull ups x 5
X 5 for time

Section 3

Deadlift bw x 12
Chest slap push ups x 12
X 4 for time

Had to share this article

This article: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/slim-down-tone-up-quick-tips-that-really-work-477521/  is the reason I will always have clients coming in the door.  As I have said in the past, whatever mode of exercise you choose to do, intensity is the key, not duration.  If the body is not stressed outside of its comfort zone, it has no reason to adapt to the new stimulus.  That being said, the fitness industry keeps pumping out bullshit like this article, doing bent rows with a 1 liter water bottle, and people believe they are going to change their shape following such crap advise.

WOD 6.24.09

6 power cleans 1/2 bodyweight
200m run
10 burpees
200m run
12 Thrusters 1/2 bodyweight
200m run
14 lunges 1/2 bodyweight
200m run
18 squats 1/2 bodyweight
200m run
20 jump squats 1/2 bodyweight
200m run

What we do

Explanation of Services

Our basic philosophy is just that, basic. We believe that every athlete regardless of of sport or position should be trained as an athlete.

All athletes of any designation should have some basic skills:

• running/sprinting

• jumping

• pushing

• pulling

• lifting

Our basic skill set is:

• increase strength

• increase endurance

• increase power

• increase flexibility

• increase coordination

Any athlete proficient in these movements and skills will succeed in there sporting endeavors, with minimal exposure to injury.

Specific training to a sporting position seems to be the road to which you would build the optimal player. The problem with this approach is that it leaves the athlete open to issues if for instance as so often happens, the individual changes field position (defense to offense for instance). A trained athlete makes these adjustments much quicker than a single faceted player.

Our pricing is structured in such a way that the individual can visit the facility as often as their schedule allows. This gives the athlete the ability to be exposed to as many skills and movements, as often as possible, maximizing their adaption to these elements.

By continually varying the combination of skills within a workout, the dangers of stagnation and over training are over come.

WARNING

All this being said, the glue that sticks all of these skills together is hard work, we are not a babysitting service, or a place for young athletes to hang out. We work with individuals that are driven to improve. The workouts themselves are structured to be very strict on exercise form, they are fast passed, and relatively difficult according to the present ability level of the individual athlete. What this means is all the weights and sprint times assigned to the individual will be made to be difficult to obtain, according to each athlete's present fitness