Announcement:

No Class this Saturday (4/20)

Instead come watch the Iron Beaver Spring Open Weightlifting Competition!

The CrossFit Handshake

by Rebecka Weinsteiger

Do you remember when you first found Crossfit Train? Was it your first Crossfit experience? It was like walking into a different world.  It is not a globo gym, it not like a 24 hour fitness place, and it isn’t a “boot camp” circuit place.  It is something totally different.  After the first class there is more individualized on-ramping that occurs to support the Crossfit newbie in learning the basic movements, but there still is a non-prescribed journey that occurs as your find your place in the Crossfit Train Family. 

Having been around awhile I wanted to share some pro-tips and lessons learned. 

1.       The Crossfit Handshake: the term has been used on and off over my tenure it is a key part of the Crossfit community culture.  It is the welcome you extend to anyone you have not met yet.  I remember the first Crossfitter to reach out to me, during a Hip/Quad all stretch during warm-up, she said “You are going to like it here, it isn’t like anything else.” She was right. I challenge you to introduce yourself to someone new to you this week. The stronger and more connected our Crossfit Family is the more community benefits you gain, like feeling supported or challenged.  My favorite part about the Crossfit community is how is inspires me to show up for not only myself but for the community too.

2.       Deload: The more your Crossfit the stronger you get.  The stronger you get the more you set sights on movements and weights that in the past may have seemed impossible.  The more you push yourself the more you need to cycle in recovery. Deloading is the process by which you intentionally program lower weights, reps or scale movements to allow for recovery.  It is after a programmed deload week that elite athletes can often hit a Personal Record (PR).  Our Crossfit programming provides a constantly varied workouts.  A deload week could occur naturally, think work travel or family sickness.  But if it doesn’t occur naturally and you have been hitting the box hard day after day, listen to your body.  If you are feeling beat up, and recovery is taking longer than normal, that is a good indicator that you should plan a lighter week.  Do the WOD, but take the weights at 60% of what you would do on a normal week.  Talk to your coach about how you should scale your reps, so you can manage an active recovery day.

3.       Set goals:  Set goals for the month, for the year.  Get inspired by the goals on the white board.  Some of my favorite goals to set are those that are incremental.  For example right now I could probably do 3 strict pull-ups.  If I set a goal to do 4 by the end of the month, that is a manageable goal.  In order to hit that goal, I might stay after class and do 5 sets of 2 pull-ups a couple times a week.  By the end of the month, I will retest. If I hit my goal, then I will go for 5 the following month.  If not, I will try for 4 again.  Another goal might be a “goat goal.” A goat is something you suck at and you hate doing, but if you figured it out you would be awesome.   For a lot of folks, is double-unders fall in that category.  A great way to work on that tough task is to set a timed goal for 100 dus.  Test at the beginning of the month and the end of the month and program extra work before the WOD starts or after it ends.  Double under work is a great warm up.  The first time I did this I finished in just under 4 minutes and after a month of practice I got it down to just under 2 minutes.  It is fun to find someone to do this with for accountability and let’s be honest competition.  For the year why not try to get a score on the Leaderboard?

Rebecka Weinsteiger has been wodding at Crossfit Train since July 2013 and still loves it.  You can find her at 6am usually and on the weekends. 

WOD: 04/19/19

On the 2:00 x 6 Sets:
Set #1 - 3 Deadlifts
Set #2 - 1 Deadlift
Set #3 - 3 Deadlifts
Set #4 - 1 Deadlift
Set #5 - 3 Deadlifts
Set #6 - 1 Deadlift

5 rounds for time of:
9 deadlifts
5 squat cleans
3 thrusters

Men: 135 lb.
Women: 95 lb.