Crawlers

I’m not talking about French Crawlers, those delectable fried doughy pieces of insulin hammers. This Saturday morning was bear crawls and thrusters.

5 Rounds
Bear crawl length of gym with dumbbells
15 Thrusters with same dumbbells

Welcome to Tiffany and Katie on their first CrossFit Portland workout! Both did Baseline with excellent intensity and pushed each other hard! When you visit CrossFit Portland for the first time, one of our trainers will work with you and any other first-timer through a private workout of your own.

Bec packing those dumbbells for her next trip across the gym

He plays a very important for the following workout

August 23, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

400 M Repeats

The focus was on running sustainable fast 400 M sprints on Friday.

4 rounds of barbell technique work through deadlifts, power cleans, push press, press, front squat
4 x 400 M repeats
Full recovery between each

You are trying to get the same time or faster on your runs. The full recovery gives you the opportunity to work the technique and top end speed – not get gross and sloppy. Reduce recovery time to push lactate threshold if that is more your bag. If you’ve never run 400 M repeasts as fast as you can, watch out for the glute/ham soreness (hopefully there) the day after!

Kiersten got 5 straight pull ups today and takes down another goal! Great job Kiersten and she is just mowing through her goals. I am recommending Kiersten’s next goal to be a muscle up.

August 23, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

Kettlebell Snatch

10 minutes, as many reps as you can get. Switch hands at 5 minutes.

We introduced the the kettlebell snatch for Thursday’s workout. For endurance snatching, technique and efficiency of movement is of utmost importance to achieving higher scores with heavier kettlebells. Your last rep should look like your first rep in quality and energy used.

The swing for the kettlebell snatch is different than a straight arm swing. Instead of keeping the arm straight on the upswing, you need to pull the elbow back, initiating at the shoulder, and keep it much closer to you. This will create the second “pop” on the bell and start to send it upwards. The first pop being the hips.

Straight Swinging – notice the braced back position that we are all so trained to do.

Fluid swing – notice how Scott “rolls” with the kettlebell and absorbs the momentum. He is shifting the load into his glutes and hams, recycling the kettlebell’s momentum as much as possible to charge up his glutes and hams, and then into the swing.

The snatch in motion

August 22, 2008 | Filed Under News | Leave a Comment

This Is How You Clean & Jerk A Baby

6 Rounds
5 heavy Clean and Jerks or
10 light Clean and Jerks
Rest 1′

If you have been paying any attention to the Olympics, you might have heard about Olympic lifting and the clean & jerk. You lift the barbell from the ground to overhead in two separate moves. The power generation for this exercise is unmatched – a heavy load moving very very fast. The clean and jerk is not just useful for lifting a barbell and the movement’s utility is everywhere – heaving up heavy boxes, bags, and any object that can be heaved – even a baby!

Although the lift is quick and over in a few seconds, the body pays a heavy metabolic price for moving the weight so fast. The common question of “Where is the Cardio?” regarding CrossFit is answered thoroughly when doing multiple clean & jerks in a row.

We teach the lift first with PVC pipe and work on form and establishing motor patterns. After that is mastered, we move on to light weights and progress from there.

Welcome to Jeff, Trevor, and Audrey to CrossFit Portland! Jeff got his first kipping pull up – maybe even his first pull up ever? – after class yesterday!

August 21, 2008 | Filed Under News | 1 Comment

Top Heavy

Taking a weight overhead is always exciting and a great challenge. It tests your total body coordination, control, and really brings to light any mobility restrictions you may have. Kamal hit a huge PR today with a bodyweight overhead squat at 170!

We suspect there is a little Tarzan in Matt. We can’t prove it but watching him achieve one personal goal after another these past few weeks have been inspirational. Watch him snatch up 130 for the first time. Smooth Matt!

Andrew have been visiting us for two weeks and he goes to school at U. Penn. He is a collegiate rower for them and has been real exciting to watch in the WODs. We wish him the best of luck during the season and look forward to his return in the winter!

Welcome to Aya and her CrossFit Portland workout! She came in on a hard workout, Fight Gone Bad, and we scaled it appropriately for her. It was challenging, fun, and she did a great job on her first workout. Aya, we will see you soon!

August 20, 2008 | Filed Under News | 1 Comment

Brachiating

Brachiating is a form of locomotion where you move by swinging from object to object using your arms.

“Although humans do not normally brachiate, our anatomy suggests that brachiation may be a preadaptation to bipedalism, and healthy modern humans are still capable of brachiating. ”

Welcome Wendy and Jill to their first CrossFit Portland workout! These two girls have come to CrossFit because of the wide variety of movements, the different workouts, and for the incredible time saver that CrossFit workouts can be. High intensity exercise in quick doses of 10-20 minutes is more effective than the cardio – free weights gym routine that could take 2 hours!

Rounds in 20′?
Traverse bars – brachiate or three points of contact
Box-to-Box jumps
Forward rolls on tumbling mats
Agility Ladder
10/20 Pushups
400 M Run