Today we start the first training cycle of 2019! This is a basic gymnastic skill focused program, which means 1) part of each session will involve practicing various progressions for Toes to Bar, Handstands, Pistols, Pull-ups, etc., and 2) you will need to pay extra attention to hand care. In order to perform these skills you must have calloused hands. But if your callouses are too big, they will rip and then you’ll have injured hands and won’t be able to participate. I invite you to enter “gymnast hand care” into your yahoo, askjeeves, bing, excite, infoseek, or altavista search engine and educate yourself. If you should tear your hand, please come see me immediately–I love putting newskin on open wounds.

The lifts for this program are Bench Press (Monday), Squat (Wednesday), and Power Clean (Friday). As we have done for the last several cycles, Tuesday and Thursday will be longer metabolic conditioning days–but there will also be a longer gymnastic skill piece before the workout. If you have any questions or concerns about how your personal fitness goals can be advanced during this cycle, just ask and we will let you know how to tweak things if necessary.

I should note that not all of these movements are for everyone. That is, some of you do not have the physical prerequisites to perform some of these exercises safely. In particular, those of you with locked up/hyper-kyphotic thoracic spines or rotator cuff/shoulder impingement issues SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT KIPPING PULL-UPS OR TOES TO BAR. We will reiterate this in class, but some of you will insist upon trying to injure yourselves anyway because it looks cool or something. This is fine with us…after eight years of explaining the risks, educating clients about the importance of mobility work and demonstrating the need for active control of the joints involved in movements, we have learned that a certain percentage of people (they refer to themselves as CrossFitters) simply don’t give a fuck about any of that stuff. So we have a roster of orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, and chiropractors who will be happy for the business.

That said, we have a lot of cool drills for you guys no matter what your ability level or limitations, so everyone should make good progress over the next four weeks (just please take care of your callouses!).

Warmup
0:00 – 12:00
Run to Sessions 2x
Instructor Mobility

Skill
12:00 – 25:00
Toes to Bar Practice
Overhead Position Screen
Hollow/Arch on floor
Controlled Swing on bar (hollow/arch)
Knee tuck
Kipping Knee tuck

Strength
25:00 – 45:00

Levels 2-4

5 Sets (E4MOM)
5 Bench Press (increase weight each set)
5 HIGH Box Jumps

L3/4: 60/65/70/75/80%
L2: just start conservative and add a little weight every set if you don’t have a 1RM yet

Level 1
20 minutes

5 sets (E4MOM)
8 Double Kettlebell Floor Press
30 second Side Plank R/L
10 Box/Broad Jumps
Rest

Conditioning
45:00 – 50:00
Workout Prep

50:00 – 60:00
“Grasshopper”

5x AFAP
15 Kettlebell Swings
15 Push-ups

L4 – HAND RELEASE SWINGS 32/24, Crossover Push-ups*
L3 – HAND RELEASE SWINGS 28/22, Crossover Push-ups
L2 – no rx weight, regular push-ups
L0/1 – no rx weight, box push-ups

*One hand on Kettlebell, push-up then switch hands as you transition to the other side of the bell.