Gryphon Strength & Conditioning

Handstands for Olympic lifters?

Do handstands transfer to Olympic lifting? Are they useful for developing the necessary wrist flexibility for front squats and cleans? Does a good handstand position - center of gravity lined up with the back of the ears, shoulders, and hips - mimic, build and encourage good overhead position for the jerk and overhead squat? Not many Olympic lifters I know of practice the handstand on a regular basis, but it's an intriguing thought...

Today's workout was practice on the snatch. Larry did well, snatching up to 35kg in a 'muscle snatch' style, while Scott and Tracey showed excellent progress on their overhead squatting and pulling techniques.

Hiking is good Crossfit

Hiked up Sugar Loaf, around Coffee Pot, up Soldier's Pass and through the Posse Ground community park. Nice little 2.5 hour hike.

   

Making improvements

• Here's Emily with an already improved Samson stretch.

Compare to May 2, 2006

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This morning's workout was:

• 50 swings
• 40 dumbell presses
• 30 situps
• 20 ball throws for height
• 10 burpees

Handstands & handstand pushups

Download HSPU.mov

Push & Pull 'til you drop

As many pushups & pullups (or variants) as you can manage in 20 minutes.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Scores were WAY up for this workout.

This is a stretch for the piriformis and glutes. This really helps sciatic pain and hip/low back tightness. This can be done with an assistant using PNF techniques or by yourself.

Classic strength workout

Today's fun:

5 rounds:

• Clean & press, 5 reps
• Dumbell Deadlift, 5 reps
• Dips, 5 reps
• Situps, 15 reps

Done for max load. Dips done assisted to scale down the load, on rings to scale up.

Scott practicing his clean & press technique:

Download ScottCleanAndPress.mov

Demo of press/push press/push jerk/split jerk:

Press/Push Press/Push Jerk/Split Jerk

Demo of Power Clean & Squat Clean:

Power Clean followed by Squat Clean

Getting it overhead

Todays workout:

• Row 500m
• Crossfit Warmup 2 rounds
• Burgener Warmup
• Overhead squat 5-4-3-2-1
• Snatch 3-3-3-3-3-3
• Push Press 5 x 5
• Hollow rock, 2 sets of 30 seconds
• 20 Situps

Adrienne demonstrates good positioning on the Samson Stretch and the push press. Note how her hands, the back of her ears, her shoulders, and her hips form one line.

February Redux

3 Rounds:

• Row for 2 minutes. Each 10 meters = 1 point
• Box Jumps for 1 minute. 1 Jump = 1 point
• Ball Slams for 1 minute. 1 Slam = 1 point

Box was a 10" box, ball was a 8 lb. ball, so this was pretty aerobic.

This was a workout from February, when the Graham/Baysinger family first started Crossfit. Scores were way up from February, except Tracey who had a stiff neck that prevented her from doing the ball slams. Even so, she still came within a few points of her old score.

• Linc: 334
• Adrienne: 252
• Scott: 234 (old score was 191)
• Karla: 188 (old score was 165)
• Tracey: 179 (old score was 190)
• Larry: 134 (old score was 91)

The Crossfit Seminar Workout

Today's workout was taken straight from the San Diego Crossfit Seminar last year.

• Run 400m
• 21 thrusters
• 21 pullups
• Run 200m
• 15 thrusters
• 15 pullups
• Run 200m
• 9 thrusters
• 9 pullups
• Run 200m

Emily was able to do several full-range pullups (not just the negative portion) with some band assistance. This was more than she expected to be able to do. Good job, Emily!

It's Friday (morning) at the fights!

"Fight Gone Bad"

Most everyone went with either 10" or 14" step-ups instead of box jumps, and 10kg or 20kg for the SDHP and Push Press.