Proper Warm Up for Strength Days
Back when Josh “Hollywood” White still wore shirts
In my opinion, on strength days, even more important than the warm up that is listed on the board each morning, are the warm up sets you do leading up to your work sets. The most common mistake I see are when members do their first warm up set at a heavier weight than should be used, and/or, once in their “work sets” they continue making too big a jump in weight as they near their max. Often times I see members unable to complete a lift, not because the weight is too heavy, but because they jumped to that weight too quickly. Priming the neuro-muscular system is critical when lifting heavy. That being said, managing our one hour class time is important if we want to get a proper general warm up, exercise specific warm up sets, work sets, and a short finisher. After you finish the general warm up, and start in on your exercise specific warm up sets, keep in mind that although the load should be increasing each set, rest time in between each set will be far shorter than when you get close to your final few works sets and the weight is at or near your max. The last thing you want to do is waste too much time between your warm up sets, then end up rushing through your work sets in order to finish on time.
TomC of CrossFit Oakland has a post on this that explains it far more eloquently than I ever could. In the words of Josh, “Get it, get it!”
The warm ups that the trainers provide before every workout do a very good job of raising core body temperature, preparing tissues for more intense efforts, and providing some skill practice. However, once the general systemic warm up is done, specific preparation targeted toward the prescribed movement is still required.
Read full post here.
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Saturday’s WOD:
9:00am
Every 2 minutes for 20 minutes:
3 Deadlifts (245#/165#)
200m Run
3 Deadlifts
1 Burpee Bar Jump
___________
10:00am
A.) Split Jerks
3-3-3-3-3
B.) For time:
200m Run
25 Handstand Pushups
finish w/ 120 Double Unders
*each time you come down from the wall you must perform 12 box jumps
