CrossFit Athletic Group

Koltin Krstich has put in his best consecutive months of training so far in his 2-year CrossFit career. Dating back to October(ish) he's been consistent and seen big improvements in form and strength. Now that baseball is started we'll see how it's translated. Here's his last set of the 3 RM hang cleans at 125 lbs.

[UPDATED with 100% more Dillon Sharp]

Trust me when I say never in my time as a business owner did I have even the faintest desire to be known as a Soccer CrossFit Gym. Basketball CrossFit Gym? Of course! Track CrossFit Gym? Sure, with some exceptions for track people. Little Kids CrossFit Gym? You know it! But for whatever reason the spirits of Pele' and other people known by only one name with an accent mark somewhere in there have moved us towards a very interesting soccer crowd. Specifically soccer girls.

Here we have Caitlin O'Malley, freshman at Butler, Madison Bettys, sophomore at Ford, and Conamora, 7th grader in Warren Con., doing their max effort hang clean lifts from earlier this week.

Caitlin- 85 lbs. Conamora 100 lbs.

Madison 105 lbs.

One thing I have to constantly remind myself is how far CrossFit is pushing the standards for girls (I was tempted to show Madison's set at 115 but her form wasn't great.) When I started CrossFit in 2005, an 105-lb. hang clean was a challenging mid-workout weight... for guys. Now girls are doing mid-workout clean and jerks at 185 routinely. That is to say, professional CrossFit girls.

Caitlin, Conamora and Madison don't do CrossFit for the sake of doing CrossFit, they do CrossFit to help them in soccer. Soccer takes a priority most of the time, as it should. Wherever they are in their hang cleans represent 1) their natural gifts and 2) how much time they've spent on jumping/landing practice. They are competing with themselves, while slowly raising lifting standard for Soccer CrossFit Girls.

...........

Speaking of which, Dillon Sharp was feeling it tonight as we progressed through a 3 RM snatch, so she worked her way up to a 1 rep max, topping out at 100 lbs.

For today we did the format of a 20ish minute running clock, practicing heavy hang cleans. We started with sets of 5s and stayed with that number for the most part, adjusting when the weight got heavier for some people.

In Mrs. Bennis's case, she moved up to 100 lbs. and seemingly surprised herself - planning on only 1 rep then doing 3 (with more in the tank.)

Keep up the good work Mrs. B!

Don't look now kids, but Conor has been about as consistent as anyone since July. And go figure, his workouts have been reflecting it. For some reason, he still can't string together more than 4 pull-ups to save his life, but I have been seeing a lot of improvement in midline strength and jumping mechanics. Both of those were on display last night at the 6:30 session for 3 rep max hang cleans. It should be noted that the workout called for hang power clean - meaning you're supposed to catch above parallel - but in his case I was a tad bit lenient. As for the "hang" part of it, we allowed athletes to regrip once the weight got heavy.

This is Conor's last set - topping out at 150-lbs.

Keep it going Panic!

We had a group of 8 at the 5 pm session this afternoon and they took their turn at the 1 RM Hang power clean. By definition a power clean finishes above a full squat, but for a few people we allowed for a full squat. This video is their third-to-last set.

In the next few sets, Jacqueline tried to hit her weight with a power clean but failed twice. Tim, Nate, Elizabeth, and Kroll all got theirs. Overall I thought the form looked good, though.

I have said before that sometimes I cringe looking back at our older videos. This one is not the worst, but it definitely shows a few things that would not necessarily be embraced knowing what we do now.

Here is Ryan Richard and Brian the Trainer on their 1 RM Hang power clean from June 14, 2011. You also get to see a jew-fro Jack Trastevere in the background.

A few years later (in February 2013), Ryan went for his 2 RM hang clean at 230 lbs.

Performing Olympic lifts from the hang position is challenging because it takes away the momentum that helps with the unweight portion of the lift. But it also can be used as a way of "blocking movement" in the sense that it will often force the correct timing of the unweight and drop. Since there is no momentum, pulling with the arms does not get you very far. Just a few things to keep in mind for today.

The Summer 10 am sessions are a change of pace for the coaches from a progression standpoint. We are used to taking individual athletes through planned and structured Fundamentals sessions where the athletes come out with a great movement base to blend into a session and the coach gets a good idea of the athlete's good and bad habits. But during the Summer, the 10 am session kind of gets thrown into the fire. We go "out of order" and, instead, work within the general framework of the Workout of the Day. Attendance also plays a factor more than it would during Fundamentals. Needless to say, the athlete's development happens at a different pace than it would during Fundamentals.

So far, Running, jumping, and push-ups have been a major priority for Murley's crew. That means that squats, cleans, pull-ups, and kipping have taken a back seat for now. Yesterday, the 10 amers did an interval workout with hang cleans and goblet squats. Here's their first round and last round.

You can tell the cleans are a little bit choppy, but it is also because we are used to seeing athletes like Crystal making things look really fluid. Have a look back at our 10 am crew from Summer 2013 and see how they compare.

Here is the 10 am crew from the Summer 2013 doing a Goblet squat/situp workout...

June 18, 2013

...and dynamic effort hang clean: 2 rep every minute on the minute...

July 19, 2013