But if that won’t do, then being as efficient as possible during the kettlebell swings can help.

A good CrossFit swing relies on a strong Russian swing. So, how do you get the most bang for your buck with the swing?

Enter the plank.

Planks are great for building solid midline stability, which is important for a lot of the moves done in CrossFit.

But planking for time, whilst useful, can be hard to focus on when there are so many other moves that are more fun to practice (did someone say handstand walking?)

What if everytime you swing, you are practicing your plank? Well, you can have your cake….well, maybe not cake.

Firstly, practice a rock solid plank.

Start as you would a regular plank, lying face down with elbows and toes on the ground. Feet about shoulder width apart and elbows under shoulders.

In this plank position, focus on:

– Squeezing the lats

– Lock the knee caps (tighten the quads)

– Abs and glutes switched on

THE PLANK

Holding this for 20-30 seconds should be tough.

Once you get a feel for the plank, you can then mix it in with the swing.

During a swing, as the kettlebell reaches about chest height and becomes weightless for a split second, tighten up as if doing a “vertical plank” – squeeze your lats, lock your knee caps and keep your glutes and abs rock hard.

THE SWING

With every swing, you’ll be planking as well.

So there you have it, a great way to get the most from your kettlebell swings whilst practicing planks at the same time.

Kettlebell swings – free plank in every rep!

About the coach:

Coach George is an RKC Level 2 Kettlebell coach.

As well as loving all things Kettelbell, George is a Doctor by day,

a certified Strength & Conditioning coach and a CrossFit Coach.

The post Maximising Your Kettlebell Swing. appeared first on CrossFit Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy.

Strongman is lifting large, heavy, and usually awkward objects, and quite often moving them over some distance.  Simple right?  Unlike the Olympic lifts, a high degree of mobility, agility and precise movement patterns aren’t required to participate.  To use a famous phrase, many of the techniques take a day to learn, but a life time to master.  The reasoning behind this is that most of the techniques mimic very instinctive, human movement patterns.  It’s how our body wants to lift the weight, rather than how we are taught.

Now let’s look at how strongman fits within the Crossfit model.

1. Constantly varied – absolutely.  Different weights, rep ranges, time domains, and then the obvious, the objects themselves will vary dramatically.  For example, we all know how to strict press or push press a barbell, but what happens if it’s a stone, a yoke, a log, an axle bar, an anvil, a PERSON?
2. Functional movement – we could argue strongman movements are the MOST functional movements you will use in the gym.  Not everything in life has a barbell to grab to pick it up, it’s likely to be far more awkward than that.  Picking up a heavy bag of concrete or wheat or rice and loading it into your car.  That’s strongman.  Carrying logs back to camp for a fire.  That’s strongman. Carrying your husband into the emergency ward because he fell down the stairs.  That’s strongman.
3. High intensity – most strongman events in competition have a time cap of 60-75 seconds.  Anyone who has competed will be able to tell you that those four 60 second events were some of the toughest of their life.  The heavy weight involved, and functional nature of the movements will demand everything from your body in those 60 seconds.

Many of the skills we have learnt in CrossFit are used in strongman; deadlift, squat, press, and clean for example.  But applying these to odd objects is where it can be most beneficial to your everyday training. If you can get a 100kg concrete ball to your shoulders, just think how easy a barbell will be?

So now you are excited to give it a shot, how do you get started?  Firstly, just like CrossFit, everything is scalable to your level, so don’t be put off by the fact you can’t carry 4 times your own bodyweight on a yoke straight away, try starting with just your own bodyweight, or less.  Talk to your coaches about learning the fundamental technique on the different implements, just like we do with CrossFit, then start light and build up to heavier weight.

Secondly, Strongman’s unfortunate title suggests you have to be strong and a man to participate.  This is absolutely NOT the case.  The sport is open to EVERYONE; all sizes, ages and genders.  Just this weekend, a lady dead lifted a 240kg axle and wagon wheels, then lifted an 80kg atlas stone over a bar 7 times in a minute.  It was awesome to watch!

For those more interested in general fitness and health, or improving their physique; short, regular bursts of high intensity activity has been proven to improve physical health and fitness in many ways and reduce the likely-hood of disease.  Increasing our lean muscle mass is the best way to increase our metabolism and in-turn, reduce our body fat.  You can achieve both of these things through ‘strongman’ training.

There will always be people who fear the chance of injury when lifting heavy (we’ve all come across those Crossfit critics), but as we know, with correct technique, strongman improves one’s functional strength and this will reduce the chance of injury during everyday life tasks.  This means it’s not limited to the ‘young and supple’, it’s beneficial for all ages!  Carrying heavy shopping bags, loading them into the car, and lifting them up onto the kitchen bench will seem an effort no longer.

It is a really exciting time in the sport at the moment, with new opportunities for anyone to compete locally, state wide, nationally and internationally, at both novice and advanced levels.  But even if competing doesn’t interest you, the best part about strongman is it’s FUN!  Get together with your friends and lift some heavy things.

The post Strongman: the not-so-graceful art of moving heavy things. appeared first on CrossFit Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy.

You either love them or you hate them.

In my eyes Pull-ups are the king of bodyweight movements and there is nothing more impressive than watching an athlete effortlessly complete a set of pull-ups.

Whether it’s strict or kipping, pull-ups are one of the most common gymnastics movements used in CrossFit and a skill everyone should learn to master.

Regardless of your training background and your goals, pull-ups can always be improved.

Whether you can rep out 20 strict pull-ups or are still searching for that elusive first pull-up, this article is for you.

1. Work on your strict pull-up!

Its time to increase your pulling strength! Strict pull ups are an essential training tool and one of the fundamental steps for developing the kipping pull-up.

The strict pull-up is a simple movement and can be scaled so anyone can do them. They are great for developing strength through the arms, shoulders and back and can increase stability in the shoulder girdle required for kipping.

In the long run increasing your pulling strength is going to directly transfer over to kipping pull-ups!

Here are a few ideas to improve your strict pull-ups:

Negative reps – Start at the top of your pull-up and slowly lower yourself to full lockout.

This movement will help you build eccentric strength throughout the whole range of the movement.

Try 3 x 5 and try to lower down slower each week!

Banded pull-ups – When used properly bands can be effective in developing the strength for pull-ups.

Use a lower resistance band than for a workout and focus on control throughout the whole range of motion. Add in 5 sets of 5 for some extra work!

2. Get some hang time!

Sounds simple? Just jump up and hang on the bar. At first you feel great but after a while those forearms start to burn! Grip strength is an underrated part of pull-ups and an area that everyone needs to train.

Imagine doing pull-ups in the workout and having to break up your sets because you cant hold onto the bar.

If you’ve built up the strength to do pull-ups then surely you want to show it off?

Try completing 5 x 20sec hangs on the pull-up bar and see how you go.

Build up the duration as you progress and hopefully it will give you that advantage in a WOD!

3. Do your accessory work!

We have talked about building strength in the strict pull-up but we can also spend time working the muscles required for the pull-up.

Even though the movements aren’t exactly the same they can still assist us in developing the strength and stability we are looking for.

Try these exercises out:

Scapular Pull-ups – Not only a great warm up exercise but also a fantastic way to build stability, grip strength and teach us to activate when initiating our pull-up.

Try 2 x 10 reps as a warm up for pull-ups.

Ring rows – These bad boys will help us strengthen our backs and are just as hard as pull-ups when you do them right!

You can change the resistance of the movement depending on your foot position but the focus should be on completing the full range of motion and keeping the body in one straight line.

Add in 3 x 8 to your training and add reps when you feel up to it!

Single Arm rows – Another great exercise to improve unilateral pulling strength and stability at the shoulder joint.

Grab a dumbbell and complete 3 x 10 each side focusing on control and squeezing between the shoulder blades.

4. Don’t forget the Kip!

Once you have built up the strength and mastered the strict movements you can start to work on your kipping pull-up.

The kip is an important part of gymnastics and isn’t just about swinging on a bar!

Gymnasts have amazing control over their bodies and I believe it’s one of the reasons why it transfers

over so well to CrossFit.

When it comes to mastering the kip, being able to maintain a tight ‘dish’ and ‘arch’ position will be vital to your success.

Having control your body will not only assist you with pull-ups but all kipping movements (eg. Toes to bar, muscle-ups) and increase your efficiency in a workout!

When we lose control of our body then we expend more energy, which could be needed to finish off those last few reps.

Dish and arch holds – Master these two positions to improve your kip.

Coach Amelia shows us these positions below!

The focus should be on keeping everything tight and pushing the lower back into the ground in the dish

position. Try 3 x 15sec holds and feel your midline fire up!

Kipping on the bar – Once you feel comfortable with these positions you can jump on the bar and try them out.

Start with a small kip to keep the dish and arch as tight as possible!

With practice you can start to make your kip bigger while maintaining your efficiency.

REMEMBER build the foundations first, work your weaknesses and master the gymnastics kip to take your pull-ups to the next level!

Practice is key and implementing these tips and exercises a couple of times a week will assist you in reaching your goals.

About the Author

Coach Adam is a CrossFit Coach at CrossFit Victoria and CrossFit Reward.

He holds a degree in Exercise Science with a Masters in Strength and Conditioning.

The post 4 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR PULL-UPS appeared first on CrossFit Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy.

Since the introduction of CrossFit there has been a huge increase of interest in the sport due to the high demand required for being strong and moving weight for high repetitions.

With CrossFit growing at a rapid pace as a sport we are seeing more and more coaches out their teaching these movements, but do they actually know how to help someone get the best results with their lifts or are they just teaching them because it’s their job??

Over the years of being a competitive weightlifter and a coach myself, I try and take every opportunity to learn from someone else.  No one knows everything but everyone knows something and that something could help you as either a coach or an athlete.

I recently went on one of Adventurefit Travel trips to watch the Crossfit Games and see the big Apple and one of my favourite things that Bill includes on his trips is the opportunity to train and learn from an experienced weightlifting athlete or coach. For this trip, we originally had Russian Weightlifter Apti Aukhadov who is the silver medalist from the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 85kg category but due to a few issues he was unable to make it to the States, but Bill made a plan and he organized for us to go to Mikes Gym and be taught by Mike Burgener (Coach B) himself.  Coach B is a senior weightlifting coach for the United States and the head of CrossFit weightlifting.

Like I said. Take the opportunities that are given to you and take onboard new ideas that are going to make you a better athlete or coach. Which is exactly what I did when learning from Coach B.

 The 3 key points to being a good weightlifter.

“MOBILITY – SPEED – STRENGTH”

These were the 3 simple words that stood out to me while being coached by Coach B.

1. MOBILITY – Being flexible is one thing, but are you mobile?? Are you able to move into positions and perform movement patterns with no restrictions through your range of motion? Weightlifting puts your body in some crazy positions, which is what makes the sport so amazing! If you have any mobility weaknesses then they will be exposed once the loads start getting heavier. “Ankles, knees, hips, thoracic, shoulders and wrists “, they all matter so you need to take care of your body!

2. SPEED – So you have become mobile but the next question is…how is your speed? Can you move around that bar fast enough to make the movement efficient? What you need to remember is that the barbell is an object and it will only move when you move it! Keeping the bar close and going up in a straight line is what’s going make your lifts more efficient. You are a lot faster than the bar. You control the bar, the bar doesn’t control you.

“You control the bar, the bar doesn’t control you!”

3. STRENGTH – The one thing that every weightlifter and Crossfitter wants from the beginning is to be strong. Yes strength is important because it creates a great foundation to actually moving weight, but if you are not mobile or fast, it makes weightlifting that much harder. The world of strength and conditioning is evolving as the years go on and people are getting stronger and stronger with so many new methods and approaches to getting strong. There are a countless number of styles and strength cycles all over the world and they all work but it comes down to how consistent are you with your training and which strength cycle works best for you?

Lastly just to touch on technique…

No one has perfect technique nor is there perfect technique that can be taught. Yes, there is a guide and a way of performing the snatch and clean&jerk but each individual athlete moves differently. With regards to coaching that athlete, it will all come down to how well the coach can work with how he/she moves to make them perform to the best of their ability.

The sport of weightlifting and Crossfit is forever growing and there will always be room for improvement!!

Shane Zunckel

About the author.

Shane is a Level 2 CrossFit Coach at CrossFit Moorabbin and CrossFit Victoria.

He is passionate about all things Olympic Lifting and regularly competes in Olympic lifting and CrossFit competitions.

The post 3 key points to being a good weightlifter – Shane Zunckel appeared first on CrossFit Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy.

For many of us, including myself, when we first start CrossFit our squatting mechanics are not the best. It can make all these movements that we tend to preform on a daily basis in the gym quite difficult and, at times, very frustrating.

The good news is that, with a little patience and dedication, these mechanics can be improved. Below I have identified a number key mobility exercises that, if performed regularly, will help increase your mobility and range of motion.

So, here starts your long, yet rewarding journey on improving your squat, through mobility and motor control!

First of all, what constitutes as a good squat? In the video below you will see a demonstration of a high bar squat. We use the high bar squat in CrossFit as it transfers over extremely into our Olympic lifting and other movements.

You will notice that he squats below (way below) parallel, his knees are pushed out and tracking over his feet and his upper body is in a strong and upright position. In order to achieve all these squatting points you need to have good ankle, hip and upper body mobility, so lets start from the bottom and work our way up!

Ankles:

Here is a crazy foot fact; during an average day of walking the total force that is placed on our feet and ankles can get up into the hundreds… Imagine just how much force we are putting through our ankles when we are in the gym performing box jumps, skipping, Olympic lifting, and jumping of bars. Pretty much everything we do in the gym will increase the amount of force in our ankles which can make them stiffen up.

So, how do we keep our ankles mobile?

I have two favourite drills. If you have come to any of my mobility classes you will probably know them well!

1. Banded ankle mobility

This is a great one for flossing the ankle joint and helping it move better. Attach the band to the squat rack behind you and wrap it around the top of your ankle. While keeping your heel down, apply a forward pressure on your knee. Move your knee back and forth so that it is on top of your ankle then in front of it as much as you can. If you like you can also place a kettle bell on top of your knee to help increase the movement.

Do this for about 90-120 sec on each side 2-3 times a week and before squatting/ Olympic lifting

2. Ball in foot and calf

Placing the lacrosse ball under your foot, you want to run your foot over the ball in a foreword and backwards motion as well as in a twisting motion. This will help release the fascia in your foot, which will help relieve tension in your ankle.

After releasing your foot, repeat the process on your calf. Tight calves can lead to extremely stiff ankles. Placing the ball under the main part of the calf apply downward pressure onto the ball. Sometimes you might have to place your other leg on top of it to help increase the pressure. Move the ball from the main body of the calf all the way down to your Achilles.

Do this for about 90-120 sec on both your foot and your calf and, if you can, I would do this everyday!! (Remember to smile through the pain!)

Hips:

Sometimes when squatting it might feel like your hips just do not want to play ball. They are stiff, painful and doesn’t matter how much you try to get to below parallel they just do not want to get there. Ugh!! It can be so frustrating sometimes! To help with this I am going to show you a clip from the mobility man himself, Kelly Starrett. This is a sequence that I try to hit once or twice a week to help combat my stiff hips!!

This is by far my favourite mobility drill to help loosen up the hips. There are many more and if you are interested in learning them I would suggest you come to one of my mobility classes on a Thursday and/or tee up a 30 minute personal training session with me.  Once you start noticing the benefits of mobile hips when you’re squatting… you’ll be hooked!

Thoracic:

Last, but not least, is your thoracic mobility.

You might be a little confused as to why we must work on our upper body mobility when we are doing a squat, which is primarily seen as a lower body movement. If you remember in the previous video, in order to perform a good squat you must have a strong upright, upper body position. If you are tight in your thoracic spine (the area of your spine between the shoulder blades) this will be hard to maintain as you would find it difficult to pull your shoulders back and keep your chest up.

The most effective way to release through your thoracic spine is to use the ‘peanut.’ No, not the delicious food that we spread on bread (gluten free of course…), but two lacrosse balls taped together to resemble a peanut.

Lying on your back place the peanut so that the balls are on either side of your spine. Starting at the top of your shoulder blades, slowly make your way down the spine, one vertebra at a time, applying a downward pressure onto the peanut.  Arms can be crossed in front of your chest, held behind your head or extended out over your head.

I would aim to do this every day if you have a tight thoracic and spend about 2 minutes working up and down the spine. Yes, it might take your breath away as it can be rather painful.

I have only touched on a handful of mobility techniques in this article.  There are so many different mobility movements that will help improve your squatting mechanics.  Remember, you must be patient! As with anything, increasing your mobility takes time and dedication – and it’s not always exactly pleasant!  Just remember – be patient and you will be reaping the benefits in no time!

NB: If you are still having difficulties squatting then it might be a motor control (movement) problem. If this is the case please chat to one of your coaches, who will have a quick look at the movement for you and assess what can be done to improve it.

Happy Squatting!!!!

The post Mobility for Squatting – Amelia Thomsett, Head Coach at CrossFit Victoria appeared first on CrossFit Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy.

When you start Crossfit one of the first things you want to master is the kipping pull-up, not only does it look cool, but when it comes to wods that have multiple pull-ups in it, it makes the pull ups in the wod easier and faster.

So what is a Kipping pull-up?

A kipping pull up is a dynamic full body movement, using not only your arms but also your hips and core to help you get your chin over the bar. Here is a good tutorial on the main steps you need to help get yourself that kipping pull up.

Some of the main points to take away from this video are;

Body control: you can see that when the guy is doing his pull-ups he is tight through his core, his feet are together and he has strong active shoulders.  The tighter and more controlled your body, the more power you can produce.

The speed of the movement: a kipping pull-up requires an explosive hip movement in order to help get your chin above the bar. When watching the video take note on how fast he moves his hips therefore making the movement itself fast.

Hips before arms: One of the most common mistakes people do when start doing kipping pull-ups is that they start pulling to early with the arms. The sequence of movement in a kipping pull-ups is hips first then the arms complete the final movement to the bar.

Now that you know how to do a kipping pull up, here are some tips to help you make the kipping pull up stronger.

1. Build your strict pull-up strength.

This is massively important, the stronger you are with your strict pull up the better you will be with your kipping pull up. I would suggest that you start using a number of methods to improve your strict pullup strength. Some effective ones include:

• Negatives – get to the top of your pullup position by jumping or using a box then lower slowly to the bottom. Do 5×5 (5 sets of 5 reps) Resting 2 minutes between sets.
• Ring rows – Use strict ring rows to increase your pulling strength. Make sure they are done slow and controlled squeezing your back and keeping your midline tight.  Ring rows can be used in a range of rep ranges to add some strength and stabilisation.
• Banded pull ups – Using bands have pros and cons but when used correctly bands can be very effective in building pull-up strength. The main thing to keep in mind is thinking about maintaining body control, full lock out at the bottom of movement and chin above the bar. Keep them slow and controlled and don’t allow the band to bounce you up.  Use these once a week, preferably on a day where there is no kipping pull ups in the wod.  Do 5×5 (5 sets of 5 reps),. Resting 2 minutes between sets.

2. Strengthen the midline.

Work on your dish (hollow) holds and arch holds: both of these are extremely important for not only your kipping pull ups but all your gymnastics moves and Olympic lifting moves believe it or not. The stronger your core the stronger your gymnastics moves.

Dish holds, when doing a dish hold you want to make sure that your back is flat against the ground and that your rib cage is pulled down, giving your torso a ‘hollow’ look. Your feet are together and slightly raised off the ground and your have raised up through the shoulders with your arms above your head. If you find that you are having problems keeping your back flat against the ground then raise your legs higher. You also want feel tight from the tips of your fingers to your toes, you will probably find that your body is shaking from the moment you get into your dish.

Arch holds, when doing the arch holds your on your stomach and you raise your arms and feet in the air, putting your body into an ‘arch’ position. So pretty much your body is the in opposite position to a dish holds; however everything else is the same. You want to maintain tightness from the tips of your fingers to your toes and you want to keep your feet together by squeezing your glutes.

I would suggest you do 3x 15-30 sec holds for both 2-3 times a week with a 1:1 rest.

3. Work on your Shoulder stabilisation and strength.

This a big one especially if you are doing kipping chins before being able to execute a strict pull up. One of my favorite ways to hit both of these is an upside down kettle bell press, starting with a light kettle bell hold onto the handle with the body of the kettlebell facing upwards. Lock your shoulders back and down and press the bell above your head, the bell will wobble as your pressing it above your head and there is where the stablisation comes in. I would suggest you do 5×5, 2 times a week before a class.

Once you get a kipping pull up it’s one of the funniest and coolest moves you can do!  I know for many people the first kipping pull up is such an exciting moment in your crossfit training.  If you have any more questions we can arrange a personal training session on the kipping pull up to help you reach your goals faster!  Please contact me at the gym to arrange a session.

Coach Amelia Thomsett: 9417 4907

NEWS

Party!!

Don’t forget our Christmas breakup party is on the 13th of December, festivities start at 12pm and will go late!

Wear something Christmassy (thats a word for sure)  Prizes for best dressed on the day!

There will be a grading day before hand from 9am so get down to cheer everyone on!  I expect PB’s galore!!

T-shirts

New T’s and tanks will be in just in time for Christmas.  We have something other than black coming : )

Blue and pink T’s and tanks in female sizing and T’s in grey marle and blue for male.

Christmas Special

Know someone who you think would benefit from CrossFit training?

Give the Gift of Gainz this Christmas.  Buy your family or friends our Elements Course valued at $150 for just $50!

The post 3 ways to Improve your Kipping Pull-ups appeared first on CrossFit Victoria, Melbourne, Fitzroy.