In my opinion box jumps are the most important exercise in 13.2. After doing a few calculations box jumps make up just over 50% of the total workout time for most athletes. After watching the videos of Julie Foucher, Lindsey Valenzuela and Annie Thorisdottir it becomes more apparent that this movement is critical.

I calculated the total time of each athlete performing 9 rounds of box jumps. I calculated 9 sets because that’s how many Julie completed in comparison to Annie’s 12 sets and 11 sets for Lindsay. Based on my observations Julie probably would have performed much better if she was competing against another athlete. Her final set of box jumps were her fastest at 33.13 seconds, whereas Annie and Lindsay fastest set was right off the start (21.0 & 23.16).  I know some of you will say Julie Foucher has a lower limb injury – it simply magnifies the importance of the box jump.

Here are a few interesting observations:

Overall Time for 9 Sets of

Box Jumps:

Annie – 3 minutes 47 seconds
Lindsay – 4 minutes 4 seconds
Julie – 5 minutes 20 seconds

Fastest 15 reps were completed in:

Annie –  21.0 seconds (round #1)
Lindsay – 23.16 seconds (round #1)
Julie – 33.13 seconds (round #9)

Why did Annie dominate 13.2? Well if I were to strictly analyze the box jump and the biomechanics of the movement I would argue that Annie had much better mobility in her ankles, which translates to benefits on take off and landing. I took a quick look at the degrees of ankle flexion between the three athletes.  This is by no way entirely accurate as it was quite the process to analyze it on a slow motion camera!  As you can probably already guess Annie had the best motion.

Most importantly, limited ankle mobility (restricted dorsiflexion) forces early heel raise when jumping on to the box. Raising your heels early will increase the load on quadriceps, calves and plantar foot. This then decreases force coming from glutes and hamstring, which should be the prime movers in this exercise.

Full Ankle Mobility = Full Force from Glutes and Hamstrings

I realize there are factors affecting the biomechanics of the box jump, but I think factors such as rhythm, arm drive and control of body in flight can probably be positively related to improved ankle mobility.

I should also note one factor not  related to the mechanics of the movement that is important is the positioning of the equipment (bar & box).

My suggestions to any athlete competing in 13.2: If you think you have restricted ankle mobility perform a soleus stretch and compare it to your teammates.  If this motion is restricted  do foam rolling, stretching and mobilty work in the days before you compete.

Warm-Up Considerations

Every year you hear about an athlete rupturing their achilles tendon.

I would avoid foam rolling and stretching in your pre-event warm up to the lower leg.  I do a lot of work with sprinters and this is one area of the body that I never perform soft tissue work immediately before an event.  This tendon needs to remain stiff.  Here is a nice research study from a good friend discussing tendon stiffness.

My recommendations in your pre-event warm-up is to include activation exercises.  1) Glute activation exercises will help prevent the movement from becoming quadricep dominant.  2) Eccentric Heel Drops will help prepare the lower leg for when it makes contact will the ground eccentrically.

-Mike

Week 8

Week 9

Test Week

Additional notes:

-Box jumps should be done to a box you can easily jump to, around 75% of your max box jump height if you want to get technical.

-For depth jumps start off a 12-18 inch box and move up box height each time it appears in the program by 6 inches.

-Test week can done

all in one day, obviously this will have some affect on your new bench and deadlift 1RM’s

-Patrick

The following program is a detailed routine to help a crossfitter improve their strength in the big 3 core lifts (squat, bench, and deadlift) while still maintaining time and energy to do their usual crossfit workouts. Outlined below is a 9-week strength cycle. It is split into 2 days per week. I would recommend doing the lower buy viagra online day on Monday and the upper day on Thursday, but depending on your crossfit schedule you can adjust that how you see fit, just allow yourself 2-3 days between the two workouts of the week. As you’ll notice the workout is a percentage based program, so that means you’ll have to know your one rep max in the squat, bench, and deadlift, or at least have a general idea. If this is your first time running a strength cycle or if you are fairly new to the squat, bench, and deadlift, I would advise subtracting 10-20 pounds from your 1RM before applying the percentages. For this program to work ideally for a crossfit athlete you should limit or completely eliminate any other lifting sessions other than these two workouts a week and your crossfit workouts. Week 4 and week 8 are what

are referred to as deload weeks, although the workouts in these weeks may seem easy they are a necessity to the success of the program.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

*GHR= Glute-Ham Raise

**Choose an abdominal exercise of your choice, I like decline bench sit-ups with medicine ball

***If you do not have access to mini bands just be sure to press weight explosively after pausing with triceps on floor.

Continued

How much do ya buy cialis discount bench?

This is likely the most asked question of the avid gym goer. It is rare that a person will ask, how much can you squat, deadlift, or clean, even though these are far more beneficial exercises for the majority of the population; but that’s a whole other article. It’s then no surprise that on any given day at the average gym you’ll see every bench press station being used, each one possibly shared between 3 or 4 people even.

Bench presses are a useful exercise, a properly performed bench press can recruit all of the muscles that act to internally rotate the shoulder such as pecs, lats, and subscapularis. The problem occurs when people either ignore or are not aware of the posterior musculature that opposes these internal shoulder rotators.

What happens when you focus too much on bench press?

The internal rotators can become hypertonic (too much tonicity) and actually become shorter than normal length, forcing you into bad posture. The posterior musculature is then forced to lengthen, which causes upper/mid back pain and leads to movement impairment of the shoulder.

Is this preventable?

Yes! The good news is you don’t have to stop benching. Here’s a few simple exercises to prevent upper back pain by balancing the surrounding musculature.

Firstly, strengthen the muscles of scapular retraction and shoulder external rotation. If you strengthen muscles such as rhomboids, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and teres minor you can help to prevent this problem. Here’s three simple exercises that can all be done with a resistance band; face pulls, band pull-aparts, and external rotations. These should be done on the days that you do your bench pressing for starters.

You should also dedicate some time after your bench press workout to stretching the internal rotators, mainly the pecs.

Not only cheap viagra will these few simple preventative measures help to keep upper back pain away, it could also help add poundage to your bench press, and everyone wants to know, how much do ya bench?

-Patrick

A new recommendation for faster soft tissue recovery, MCE; Movement, compression, and elevation

I’m sure by this point almost everyone is familiar with the RICE acronym; rest, ice, compression, and elevation. This has been used to manage the inflammatory response during acute injuries for I don’t even know how long, a long time though. There are three stages to healing musculoskeletal injuries in the body, inflammation, repair, and remodelling. Popular opinion is that icing will act to limit the amount of inflammation during the initial healing phase, which is beneficial because the injured area gets too much inflammation. This can cause damage to surrounding tissues and increase the time frame of the first stage, delaying the next two phases of injury healing.

A new movement is telling people to throw away their ice packs, suggesting that your body’s inflammatory response is not a mistake. Stating that icing could potentially cause more pain and congestion in the injured area, due to the increase in permeability of lymphatic vessels

caused by ice. This increase in permeability causes the fluids that should be carried back into the cardiovascular system to be poured in the wrong direction, back into the injured area. Another key point is the realization that the actual inflammation is not the problem, but rather the evacuation of the waste at the end of the inflammatory phase.

Because of this, the new recommendation for faster recovery is MCE; Movement, compression, and elevation. By using this acronym you don’t interrupt the body’s inflammatory response, instead you support its adaptation abilities by improving circulation and ridding the area of the congestion. Which in turn will facilitate healing; waste out, nourishment in.

Here’s how it works. Movement of the injured area produces a pump like effect, the muscle contractions stimulate the lymph system which will carry away the congestion or waste materials. These contractions not only push congestion through the lymph system, it also creates a negative pressure which ‘pulls’ the congestion away from the injury site.

You may be wondering how this can work when you often can’t move the injured area. This is when a muscle stimulator becomes very useful. Devices like the Marc Pro use the principle of muscle contraction to move nourishment and waste in the appropriate direction and place, without you having to manually move the injured soft tissue. Compression and elevation remain for the same reasons as the original RICE protocol. Manually compressing or using a compression band can be used as a secondary mechanism, along with elevation to continue to remove waste away from the injury site.

Icing is still helpful for pain management as a short term goal so you don’t necessarily have to throw your ice packs away. The non-icing model for healing is definitely an interesting idea and is being used by many with great results!

-Patrick

“Is Ice Right? Does Cryotherapy Improve Outcome for Acute Soft Tissue Injury?” JEM, 2008; Feb. 25; 65–68

” The use of Cryotherapy in Sports Injuries,’ Sports Medicine, Vol. 3. pp. 398-414, 1986

I had thought to myself in the days leading up to registration that I should check periodically to make sure that they didn't open registration early on that day.  Though I thought that 3 PM meant 3PM.  I heard through the grapevine that registration actually opened early on the afternoon of the 7th.  I was not impressed that I wasn't able to get a spot in the initial registration sweep, but I did have the forethought to email CrossFit Winnipeg to try and secure a spot on a wait list.

I received and e-mail the other morning as I was leaving from a Massage Therapy appointment that I had booked for myself.  I was feeling pretty good after my treatment and getting back from my trip, and ready to start training hard towards FrostFit.  The e-mail read that a Second round of registration would open on December 17th at 2 PM.  So, I thought, here is my second chance to get registered and compete in the competition.  I had meant to book off sometime while working at the clinic so I could register.  I forgot and didn't make it to the computer until 3 PM.  Once

again registration for the women's non-RX'd category was full and that I hadn't gotten a spot.  There are 34 spots in total for this category and all of them are full.

I am disappointed in not getting a spot, but I wasn't super confident that I would be ready to compete to the best of my abilities.  As a massage therapist this time of year is extremely busy as many people are attempting to use up their extended health insurance before the end of the year.  Not to mention all the Christmas parties and a family gatherings!

I wish all

of those who are competing in FrostFit 2013 good luck!  I'm hoping to be there next year.

Robin

I’m writing this post from my balcony that over looks the ocean in Jamaica!

This past week there was online registration for FrostFit.  Unfortunately when I attempted to register a few minutes before 3pm all the spots had already been taken.  Damn it!   I am now on a wait list so there still is a chance I might get to compete.

To be totally honest my motivation is completely deflated not knowing whether I get to compete.  Initially my intent while in Jamaica was to practice CrossFit skills in preparation for the competition.  The only physical activity I have done is 960 ft rock climb.

I had been exhausted from the combination of working a ton at Massage Athletica and ramping up my training.   There is nothing I can

really do at this point so I am enjoying being a tourist.

Until next time, ya man.

Robin

Patrick is a competitive power lifter and the newest therapist to join our team. He’ll be starting at Massage Athletica – St. Vital on January 18th. His deadlift personal best is 605lbs! Here’s his tips on the perfect execution of a deadlift.

The Setup

1. Feet shoulder width apart
2. Use a mixed grip for best grip control. It is though that a combination of supinated and pronated grip will neutralize reverse torsion.
3. The bar should be directly over mid foot.
4. Hips should be significantly lower than shoulders when you are gripping the bar, but not so low that you are just squatting the weight up.
5. Get into a neutral spine position. Many lifters put themselves into a position of lumbar hyperextension or hyperlordosis (such as an olympic weightlifter would do in their setup, but this is not ideal here)
6. The thoracic spine should remain neutral throughout the lift. If you watch videos of the biggest deadlifts you may notice that some lifters utilize a thoracic flexion position, this is for one of two reasons: they may be doing it purposely to shorten the range of motion of the lift (by lengthening the arms), or it may be a result of a technique breakdown experienced under maximal loads. Either way it should be avoided with the possible exception of elite level lifters. To maintain a neutral cervical spine, a cue to use is to retract your chin into your neck during the top portion of the lift (as if you were trying to make a double chin) don’t

over-exaggerate this, just keep it in mind while doing the lift.

The Start

1. Get your air in, then pull yourself down to the bar. By this I mean take up the slack in the bar while forcing or allowing your hips to dip down, and allowing your shoulders/upper body to rise slightly, effectively this is turning your body into a coiled spring.
2. Your first movement upon initiating the lift should be your upper body driving up and slightly back, loading the weight onto your heels rather than the balls of your feet, you should also begin exhaling here, and thinking of releasing that coiled spring you created, while maintaining a strong core.
3. Once the bar nears the knee or clears the knee begin to thrust or drive the hips forward towards the bar, this will prevent the bar from travelling out too far away from your body.
4. Finish the lift by pulling your scapulae together.

Things to Avoid

1. Avoid starting the lift by straightening the legs and loading the lower back, although this is an exercise known as stiff-leg deadlifts or romanian deadlifts, it should be avoided here. Generally sub-maximal weights are used for these exercises, but when you combine the extreme lumbar flexion of a stiff-leg deadlift with the poundages used in a regular deadlift you put yourself at risk of injury.
2. Avoid taking too wide of a grip, this increases the range of motion of the lift.
3. Avoid trying to “yank” the bar off the ground. Instead, be sure to pull out the slack of the bar and contract your core, then you are safe to perform the lift with as much explosion as you want.
4. Avoid squatting the weight up, this means you are not using the tension you’ve created effectively, you’re focus should be up, but also very slightly back. This is what prevents you from squatting the weight up.

Tips

1. Start the weight low and learn to create the coiled up spring starting position.
2. When performing multiple repetitions in a set, don’t try to bounce the weights at the bottom to gain an advantage. Instead let the weights completely stop dead on the floor, then get your body back into the coiled up spring start position.
3. Remember, this is a full-body movement, not a low back movement.

This is written for the conventional deadlift, however, most of the information also applies to the sumo deadlift.

-Patrick

Today we did a WOD that I’ve seen before.  It was good to see something familiar, knowing that I wouldn’t struggle as much as the last time we did it.

Today’s WOD consisted of:

5 Reps on the minute, for 5 minutes of split jerks

3 Sets of max rep hand stand push ups

3 Sets of max reps of one of the exercises that were listed.  I chose to go with floor press and tricep dips on the paralette bars

3 Sets of max reps of strict pull ups

Two days ago we did work on the split jerk and my triceps have been torched ever since.  So today’s workout I knew would be interesting to say the least.

The split jerks were

feeling pretty good, but then we got to the hand stand pushups.  But before your amazed that I’m doing handstand push-ups let me stop you, I haven’t quite gotten there yet. They incorporate something that I have never been mentally ok with – being upside down.  Instead I did pike pushups off a box, which is a great scaling alternative. I’m getting more comfortable with doing the teddy bear stands against the wall and I know that my upper body strength is continually improving, I just have this massive irrational fear of doing anything

head first.  This is a mental fight I’ve had for as long as I can remember.  As a child, I couldn’t excel in gymnastics because I refused to do a cartwheel.  I failed a level in swimming lessons because I refused to dive into the pool.

I know I just need to let go and get upside down.  That being said, I don’t think it will happen overnight.  I’m not even sure how this fear developed.  I suspect it’s a repressed memory of being dropped on my head as a child, that’s what I’m going with anyway (sorry mom).  Or it could have been the tumbles I’ve taken while riding horses over the years, but who knows?!  Today my excuse for not doing a handstand was “I don’t want to fall on my head before going to work!”.  Which, let’s face it, is a pretty good reason for staying upright when I don’t have the confidence that my “amazing” crossfit arms will support me.  Even though 2 days ago they held 2 100 lbs split jerks over my head and I wasn’t worried about dropping the barbell on myself.

This is a conundrum to me, but I will continue to try and make these hand stand pushups happen……slowly.

-Robin

Follow Massage Athletica’s newest therapist, Robin, as she builds up to the FrostFit competition in January.

I’ve been doing crossfit since February of 2012, and am definitely still a newbie with a long way to go!  There are many movements that I still struggle with in getting my mind and body on the same page.  Since I made the decision to start massage therapy I’ve had a huge fascination with the human body and what it’s capable of. I’m also a self professed nerd and find myself watching youtube videos of olympic lifting techniques and crossfit fails in my spare time.   Since starting crossfit I’ve come to realize that although you may know the correct way to do something, it doesn’t mean you’ll do it.  Take nutrition for example, I’m training on a regular basis and know that I will have better results with a clean diet and limited intake of sugars and processed foods.  But that did’t stop me from eating 3 mini cakes the other night.  Although, surprisingly enough, I woke up the next day feeling “skinny”.  But I should clarify, my goal with crossfit is not to be skinny, but rather to be strong and proud of my body and my accomplishments.

So starting out at Massage Athletica Mike told me I should dress business casual for work.  After two years of living in scrubs and yoga pants,  I had to go pants shopping (which is a task I have always dreaded).  Heading out to the mall I thought this would be a fairly easy task, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find pants that fit. Right? Wrong!

It took me almost a month to find two pairs of pants that were even close to fitting correctly.  This is mainly because of my thigh to waist ratio.  Just one of my powerful crossfitting thighs is very near in circumference to the size of my waist.  And, let’s be honest, dress pants are not forgiving!  I tried them on in every shape, style, colour and size.  I tried on the comfort fit, classic, curvy and everything in between.  I went into one store and tried to explain to the sales woman what I was looking for.  She pointed me in the direction of the “curvy” fit pants, which according to her were looser in the thigh.  As I pulled them on I knew instantly they wouldn’t work. I got them over my thighs but I could have fit two of me into the waist and hips.

 Apparently a woman with my thighs should easily fill in the space they made for the hips?!   Well maybe I am not the norm, because I don’t.  As the sales woman said I should head to the curvy section, I was actually a little hurt!  I have NEVER considered my body shape to be curvy!  Curvy is not a bad thing, don’t get me wrong.  But in my head I was wondering if she was seeing something about my body that I haven’t ever seen before (which is entirely possible, as I don’t own a full length mirror, or a scale, but that’s another days topic).

As a woman who is on the pursuit to be fit, and have a strong body, I feel like the fashion industry is letting us down.  I understand the fact that you can have garments tailored.  But if someone who is thin, or someone who has a few extra pounds can easily walk into a store and buy clothing that fits, why can’t I? After finding two pairs of dress pants to add to my wardrobe, I QUIT!  I will wear these dress pants until they fall apart, or get lit on fire or someone throws them out, before I go shopping again!  In my opinion the athletic clothing companies should also get into the business of making dress clothes.  Maybe that would solve the problem?

- Robin