Monday, April 15, 2013

CrossFit 101

Yesterday 20 brave Red Lakers who were ready to take their fitness to the next level were fortunate to have 2 terrific CrossFit coaches make the 3 hour drive from their box in Kenora to put on a 4 hour CrossFit 101 clinic.

David and Jay from CrossFit Kenora, kept our bodies moving and our spirits soaring as they instructed us in the basic CrossFit exercises.

We started at the very beginning and moved through 4 different squats: Air squat, Suitcase squat, Goblet squat, and Front Squat. We used light dumbells and worked on our form. One of the best exercises we did were wall squats in which we faced a wall to help us work on pushing our hips back and keeping our knees back. It was a whole lot tougher than it looked.

We followed that session with a 4 min squat tabata (8 rounds 20 sec on 10 sec rest). My legs were SCREAMING at the end of the WOD on which I scored 11 reps as my lowest score.

Next Jay taught us 3 shoulder moves: shoulder press, push press, and thrusters. I love that CrossFit is so modifiable and that just using a PVC pipe can offer a terrific workout while focusing on form.




learning shoulder press

After our tutorial with pipes we moved onto dumbbells and took about 30 mins to practice.

Our second WOD of the day looked like this:
3 rounds for time:
7 thrusters - 15 lb dumbbells
7 bentover rows 15 lbs dumbbells
7 burpees. (we could choose from: standard to the floor burpee, squat thrusters, steps puts or jumping depending on our skill level - I did standard to the floor burpee)
thrusters

I finished all three rounds in 2 mins 48 sec.

After a brief rest and snack break we moved into dead lifts (my favourite CrossFit move) David explained how the dead lift may just be the best exercise out there. It works your entire body and can be done without a partner, unlike the back squat). I love dead lifts because they make me feel like a BEAST!!

From Dead lifts we moved into the squash courts and through wall balls and learned proper ball slams. It is so much easier to slam a 10 pound ball vs the 60 lb ball we have at the firehall!!! 
wall balls

We ended the day with one last WOD - 3 rounds of Fight gone bad.

We set up 5 stations 1 min at each station - 

box jumps
bent rows
push press
ball slams
wall balls
1 min rest 
repeat

This WOD was a KILLER after 3 hours of working out but we ROCKED it as a group. People we yelling and cheering and motivating each other the entire time. We truly felt like a CrossFit box!!

push press

I have to say that this experience was one of the BEST in my entire life! I felt so empowered and learned some very valuable tips that will help me perform better.

Do you CrossFit?
Do you have a Box?
What's you favourite exercise?


 * All photo were taken from CrossFit Kenora's facebook page.


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