Coaches Corner

by Coach Vanessa Dickens

Have fun with 18.2/18.2a, I challenge you to push a little pass your comfort zone. Pace the first 6 rounds, start a touch slower than you would normally, these burpees are going to catch up to you, lactic acid will cause a bit of burning in those legs. Find a comfortable way for YOU to hold the dumbbells, try your best to maintain form on your squats, chest up, weight in heels. This will allow you to control your breathing, conserve energy and protect that back—which might be burning due to the volume of burpees.

As for the burpees, this is not the time to try a new technique. Figure out a rhythm and style that works for you. I’m a big fan of landing legs wide on the jump back and then pivoting when I jump over the bar, that way I’m facing it on the other side. Here you want to be smart and conserve your energy. Burpees are tough, but you can make them a bit smoother and dare I say, fun!

At 8 rounds you’re halfway there. This is the time to dig deep and grind them out. A great goal is to finish under 10 minutes, that way you have a bit of rest before hitting those cleans. It’s okay if you miss your first lift or if it feels less than perfect, your body is in a bit of shock. Push hard, you got this. Remember, others can load your bar. Take advantage of this to compose yourself, shake out your arms and legs, and get after it.

Warming up: play around with lighter dumbbells, figure out your most comfortable front rack position. Build up to about your 60 percent of your current 1-rep and go over a touch, maybe 5,10lbs You know your body, choose what’s right for you! Here, we want to try to mimic how those cleans are going to feel in the workout. And when you get to the cleans, they are going to feel heavier, legs are jello, lungs are burning.

Most of all have fun, enjoy the journey, feed off the magic that happens when you are pushing and playing next to your friends. We’re all in this together!

Woot woot here comes 18.2 🙌🏼

Looking forward to throwing down with you all tonight 💪🏼😁

I know a lot of you will be participating in the Open, so here are some helpful tips:

1. Don’t start anything new. Today is NOT the day to try a new pre-workout. Today is NOT the day to change up your food. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.
2. Make sure you have a carb/protein meal 90-120 minutes before go time.
3. Have a post workout shake of carbs and protein. If you normally do a 1:1, do a 2:1. If you normally don’t do anything, do a 1:1 and make sure you schedule sometime to talk to me about why this is so important 😉
4. Last, but not least, have fun! Know that you are stronger than you think and go out there and crush it!! Enjoy the workout and enjoy the community you’re doing it with. 💪🏼

by Coach Aaron Hyatt

Although it might not be as fun or sexy as a 500-lb. deadlift or a two-minute Fran, taking time to log workout details can go a long way in helping you become a better CrossFitter. This is why we ask you to record your times and weights after a workout. The Triib app is a great resource for this, or you can even use a notebook and pen.

We all, hopefully, inherently understand the benefits of keeping a training log. However, many of us are either not maintaining one or simply going through the motions by adding our score on the board or computer.

A well-maintained training log can provide a wealth of historical data. It can contribute valuable clues about what might have precipitated an injury or what little things you might have done differently the last time you were setting PRs at a feverish pace.

What follows are just a few powerful reasons to take the extra time to keep a purposeful training log and some tips to get the most out of using one.

Injury Diagnosis and Treatment

The most pragmatic reason for keeping a detailed training log is to identify the root cause of a particular injury. While acute injuries leave little doubt as to their cause, most injuries happen over time and are an accumulation of many different types of stressors. These chronic injuries also happen to be the most difficult to diagnose, as well as the most troublesome from which to recover.

Imagine for a moment visiting your physician or therapist with a detailed history of things like specific increases in your training volume, stretching and mobility practices, how much you have added to your squat, and notes on days when a specific movement bothered you. How much more helpful to diagnosis and subsequent recovery would this be than simply telling him or her, “My knee hurts”?

As you progress toward recovery, the training log will continue its usefulness by providing information on what movements aggravate your injury and what movements aid the rehabilitation. The log can also help us learn from our training history so we do not repeat the same errors that caused the injury.

Quick tip:

• Add in the notes section if anything hurt or didn’t feel quite right before, during or after training. It can end up being an important clue should you sustain an injury, no matter how insignificant it might feel at the time.

Setting PRs

Think of the last time all your training just clicked. Looking back at a training log can provide insight into more than just what program you were following, WOD times and the amount of weight lifted. Keeping track of details like overall training time, eating habits, mobility, recovery and weekly training volume will provide just a few metrics that can give you insight into the ideal conditions for maximizing your progress.

With so many variables having the potential to affect your success, a training log provides a great way to isolate and track PRs and provide guidance for replicating what works for you.

Quick tips:

• Keep a month or longer “at a glance” page where you simply plan and track your training at a high level (days on and off, strength vs. met-con, time domains, etc.).
• Note how you perform when you train at a different time of day than usual.
• As an alternative to keeping a detailed food journal, record a simple numeric rating of your daily eating habits. For example, give yourself a 5 if you ate clean all day.

Celebrating Success

For those of us not at the top of the Games leaderboard or members of our box’s elite, it’s sometime easy to lose sight of progress made. A 185-lb. back squat may not be impressive when compared to some of the monsters in the CrossFit community until you look back and recognize you were squatting 100 lb. just a few short months ago.

Formally recognizing and celebrating personal accomplishments like these is how you stay motivated in the long term and continue to progress and grow. This is part of the reason why we keep a PR board and goal board.

Quick tips:

• Track progress on specific movements and WODs on a separate page so you can easily view long-term progress and trends on how you are progressing each time you tackle them.
• Make a point of logging and celebrating achievements on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

Goal Setting

Ben Smith, a high level games athlete, used to keep a piece of paper pinned to his garage wall that listed his goals. Ben would cross off  each accomplishment as he achieved them, one by one, until eventually he was Crossfit Games Champion.

What do you think has more to do with Ben’s success: an incredible work ethic or that piece of paper on the wall? The answer is both. The act of writing down his goals made them real and immediately increased the probability he would reach them. Success in CrossFit—or anything, for that matter—is about doing a bunch of small things consistently over a long period of time. Keeping your goals at the forefront and highlighting details of progress toward these goals are powerful motivators.

Quick tips:

• Set specific and measurable goals with a target date (e.g., “Add 50 lb. to deadlift by Aug. 31”).
• Dedicate a page in your journal for major performance goals and make a habit of reviewing them frequently.
• Schedule a specific day at three-, six-, nine- and 12-month intervals to review these goals, close the loop and ensure accountability.

Planning

Many people use a training log as a place to record and track workouts. It also can serve as a convenient planning tool. Scheduling in advance days to train and days to work on your weaknesses are two uses that come to mind. Using your training log as a short- and long-term planner will help establish a consistent and purposeful approach to doing all the little things right. Scheduling your training time in advance will also protect that time when other competing demands arise.

Quick tips:

• Schedule blocks of time a week in advance for your CrossFit training.
• Take into account any upcoming events or demands that might represent conflicts and plan training around them.
• Schedule specific days in advance for skill training, as well as the specifics of what you will do on those days (e.g., 3 sets of 10 handstand push-up progressions on Tuesdays and Thursdays).
• Schedule recovery days in advance to avoid the temptation of squeezing in an extra WOD.

Accountability

One of the most notable benefits of being involved with Paramount is the accountability membership demands. The combination of a coach and fellow CrossFitters being invested in your success makes it impossible to hide in the shadows and provides an extra push. While certainly no substitute for those things, a training log can provide some measure of accountability.

Benchmarking and recording your fitness level and formally scheduling frequent re-tests and recording results will provide an objective evaluation of your fitness over time. The training log also effectively shines a light on your performances, whether good or bad.

Quick tips:

• Create and record an initial benchmark.
• Schedule a re-test quarterly.
• Track all results on a single page.

What Now?

I doubt anything presented here is anything completely new to you that you probably didn’t already. However, I do hope it gets you thinking about how an extra few minutes and a simple pen and paper can help you achieve your goals of fitness. The benefits I’ve outlined above are just a few things that reinforce the value of recording more than just your WOD time on the whiteboard. What we ultimately get from the data we record is as unique and personal as the reasons why we all CrossFit.

If you are driven and motivated by data, then spending a few minutes a day with your training log can provide as much rich and relevant personal data as you can put in it. Like anything, I recommend starting small; for many of you, that will be simply writing something down. As keeping the log becomes more of a habit, begin to record more variables like warm-ups, mobility and skill work. Over time, you’ll realize what extra information is important for you to record, how to use it to set goals and stay accountable, and what impact it will ultimately have on your progress.

by Head Coach Christopher Douglas

The CrossFit Open is right around the corner. Are you registered? Are you ready? If you could use a bit of extra help, sign up for 1:1 personal training sessions. And don’t forget, you can always put in extra practice time during Open Gym!

But Coach, what if I’m new to CrossFit?

Participating in your first CrossFit Games Open is the ultimate learning experience, and the scaled division makes the competition especially inviting for novice CrossFitters. Beginners to CrossFit should relish in the fact that they can’t check the leaderboard for their scores from past years. For this one year, ignorance is bliss. Work hard, have fun, and learn what the Open is all about because you only have one first time. Here are five ways to make the most of your experience.

Who should sign up for the Open?

You should! Everyone who does CrossFit should sign up for the Open. Not only is it a fun experience, but the Open will push you outside of your comfort zone in ways that you really don’t expect.  Sure, CrossFit already does that, but with the Open it’s different.  It’s a chance to compete with hundreds of thousands of folks around the country and see not only how you stack up against them, but by registering year after year you can see how you stack up against yourself.

Now go here to read an excellent explanation of the CrossFit Open and click the big blue button to see the schedule, then click on the big red button to register if you haven’t already signed up. We’re in this together, let’s do it!!

—Coach Chris
#intheopen #paramountsc