“What do you guys do for Abs?”
We get this question A LOT! The answer is EVERYTHING! The Functional Movements that we use in Crossfit Programming cause you to generate forces from Core to Extremity. That means in Back Squats you are using all your major trunk muscles, this includes your lower back and precious abs. If you weren’t, you would fall over.
You may not always feel your abs “burning” like they do when you do 150 crunches. Trust us, your stomach is getting hit indirectly practically everyday. ”But I can’t see my 6 pack yet.” That has everything to do with your body fat % and the way you eat. You can build the best mid-section and you will never see it, if it is covered by layers of fat tissue. Try PALEO!
What the heck does a crunch work anyway? It’s a crap movement honestly. The ROM is really lacking, the muscle time under tension sucks, and anything you can do 300 reps of, has way too light a load to provide any muscle-building benefit. That’s why if we do hit abs fairly head on it’s going to be GHD Sit-ups, which have a huge ROM, or Toes to Bar.
“What if I don’t want to build muscle? I just want to tone.”
1. I feel bad for you, just kidding 
2. There is no such thing as toning. I’m sorry to break the news to everybody. There is only a stronger muscle and a weaker one. If you want the effect of “toning”, aka. muscles appear tighter, you need to be stronger. There is only one way to get stronger, which is to progressive resistance. That means the weight has to eventually get heavier, or the exercise becomes harder in some way.
I hope that answered at least a couple of Questions we get about Abs.
- Freeman
Brenan Morton, owner of Nepa Crossfit does a BB Turkish Get-up
21 – 15 – 9 reps for time:
Deadlift
Box Jumps
Ring Dips
Affiliate Team Training
A. Snatch Grip DL 4-6 reps x 3, rest 2-3 minutes b/t, post load
+
B. WOD, post time
+
C. Tabata Push-ups – 8 rounds x 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest
post lowest round
How come my own program always conflicts w/ the team training??? Just did snatch DLs tonight! So tired of working on the same move back to back!!!
Ling, I have a very simple yet harsh solution for your problem…..Stop doing your own thing!!! I use to have the same problem. Now, I just supplement the prescribed wod with extra things I want to work on that involve similar movements to those found in the wod. Like tomorrow might be a good day to work on power snatches or cleans after the wod. Lighter weight focusing on form.
As to the question about what we do for abs, yet another simple answer….Stabalize the midline like a mother Fu€&er!!!!! (I can’t take credit for that)
Ling, I know that you are not going to want to hear it but Bo is right. People who do their own program tend to; mainly do the exercises they prefer, avoid their goats, fail to maintain maximum intensity during constantly varied WODs (What CF is based on). Furthermore, those exercises that we avoid tend to be the ones that would help us in the areas we prefer. For example, if you want to improve your mile time, you WOD at maximum intensity and your time will usually drop. On the other hand, running a mile every day will rarely result in increased scores on the whiteboard. Just my two cents.
I’m no moron Freeman, I do my crunches on an inflated ball.
I agree. You wouldn’t hit the same thing “back to back” if you didn’t overlap your own programming with the Affiliate Team Training. We put a lot of time and thought into constructing our workouts so that you don’t have to. Just do the wod’s and add in stuff that you want to work on that won’t conflict.
I guess I need to go on the journal to take a look at a snatch grip dead lift…
My guess is that you are supposed to get a really wide grip, and then do the deadlift. I know…my powers of deduction are startling!
Guys, I’m thinking it was a retorical question. Ling probably had that one figured out. So when are we doing a bicep curl max out, for weight?
Here is what Sage says about Snatch Grip deads (and why):
Tip of the day:
If you are having trouble feeling strong in your starting position, or you are letting your hips shoot up too soon off the ground, try practicing regular AND snatch-grip deadlifts (or pulls) while standing on a plate or blocks. This puts the bar a little lower than normal and makes the movement feel WAY harder because your muscles arent used to being in that low of a position. I used to do these a lot because my starting position just always felt weak. No matter how many deadlifts I did, I just couldnt seem to feel confident pulling the weight off the ground. After I started deadlifting off of a plate, when I switched back to regular deadlifts, I felt way more solid. It just works all the muscles in a different way. While doing this movement, it is really easy to let those hips shoot up right away, really focus on keeping those hips down and keeping the back angle the same. Remember to feel a lot of tension in your legs as you are pulling that bar off the ground.
http://www.mikesgym.org/gallery/video/sagepullblks.mov
Here is a video of what Im trying to explain to ya’ll!
1. I don’t think it was a rhetorical question. Ling’s brain occassionally needs shaking, and its always fun to watch Freeman shake it.
2. The Bulgarians worked out like 3-4 times a day, doing the same lifts (clean and jerk/ snatch and assistance) albeit with nice drug cocktails to help them recover. Nevertheless, I don’t think doing the same lift two (2) days back to back will kill Ling. If it does, she can sue me.
3. For the “unknown and unknowable” crowd, keep in mind the CF games had a billion reps of power snatches on Sat, and max squat snatch on Sun.
I agree great time and effort goes into the best programming in Crossfit at CFM!!!, but I think people who just do Mainsite (crossfit.com) WOD’s are not the top competitors. And the top competitors who claim they just do Mainsite are liars.
Now I’ll get off of my 24″ soapbox.
I could barely get out of the bed this am…then walking downstairs was a WOD in itself!!! My legs are trashed!!!! Paul I might need that recovery cocktail!!!
Well, after 105 225# BS in 10 Minutes, I’m not too surprised. That was insanity! Tara was kicking butt too!
Thanks for all your feedbacks! I love my gym! And the team training program has my priority w/o any doubt! Since yesterday, I have started to modify the OL program I am in so that it doesn’t interfere much with our team training. However, improving my OLs is one of my goals this year. I still need to practice them as often as possible. But they will be second to our team training for sure. Please show me some support, guys!
As for what a snatch DL is, it is just a DL w/ snatch wide hood grip. If you wanna make it harder, stand on a plate. I would be happy to show you how to do it. So feel free to let me know!
BTW, another goal of mine is not to pass on a WOD involving my goats, like pull-ups, HSPUs, rings…. I see my weakness and am working on them step by step.
Ling, you have my support.
It’s all about what your goals are. At the end of the day, the only goals that matter are YOUR goals. The affiliate team training is designed for the goal of overall general physical preparedness. When our goals start becoming a little more specialized (Oly lifting in your case), then extra work is needed to reach those goals. But it must be known that sometimes a sacrifice has to be made to reach those goals. For example, a goal for me is to get to a 500lb deadlift and a 400lb backsquat, but I think i would have to sacrifice some other training to get there in a short amount of time. Right now, I’m focused on preparing for the games, so the large increases in lifting numbers will have to wait a little bit.
another great example is the people who are running the half marathon. That is a goal for them, and an outstanding goal at that. but most of them will have to realize that due to their focus on running, they might “lose it” in other areas.
My goal right now is to be the best overall athlete I can be. My way of getting there is to do the affiliate training and then supplement with things I need to work on, or want to focus on. DU’s, MU’s, pistols, heavy lifting every now and then, core work, etc….. No matter what I do though, I have to ask myself, “will this help me reach my current goals?” If the answer is yes, I keep at it until my goal is reached or I set a new one.
Hope this helps. It’s all about where YOU want to be with YOUR fitness. Any of us coaches can help you reach those goals.
My goal is to figure out a great ab-focused workout (focusing on crunches) to help me lean out so that I can eat anything I want.
Bo- That was a very well thought out and informative narrative. Puts things in perspective. I love that you mentioned goals and sacrifices.
I was SO glad to be back to the gym today…I have been out of town and then was SICK forever it felt like…so glad to be well and back in the gym…OH how I have missed it!
Went to the grocery and got all paleo foods too!
Awesome Post Bo, and coming from you, it’s something we all should take to heart.
Paul, AJ said you were already preparing for the next Men’s Health cover, so the sarcasm is appreciated. When is the next bake sale?
Hmmm. Lets set up a Bake Sale next week (kind of crushed the rest of this week). We need to invite Ling too, she says is going to wear pink.
Let AJ pick a day so that he can get everyone’s hopes up and cancel last minute. And see if we can get that slacker from Winchester who wears the funny shoes to go too. (that actually covers two people)
4:54 Rxd after some embarrasing snatch grip deads. Efficient deadlifts would definately shave some seconds of this WOD.
Great post Bo.
My low carb diet worked. Robin noticed the change on me. Love you so much, Robin!
Robb Wolf is right. You can keep your strength while eating less carbs. It won’t hurt your performance.
AJ, you didn’t DL as Rx’d, which means our times are comparable, which means I smoked you big time.
I just wanted people to know that it is ok to have goals that don’t involve the big poster of wods on the wall in the arena. Specializing isn’t a bad thing when you understand that specializing in something might require givinga little in other areas. Elite fitness is defined in your terms of fitness. For oly lifters, it’s how much you snatch and c&j. For a runner it might be a 5k time. But make no mistake, when you are seeking to be the best well rounded athlete that you can be, doing the wods is the fastest way to get the results you desire (assuming nutrition and sleep are good).
At the end of the day you should just ask yourself 3 questions
1. Am I training as hard as I can while nit killing myself?
2. Am I fueling my training in the best way possible?
3. Am I getting enough sleep without getting divorced or fired?
If you answer yes to all 3, then you’re on the right track. If you answered no to any, then come ask a coach about how you can get on the right track so that you can reach your goals.
Love snatch grip deads, loved the wod, hate tabata pushups (shoot me in the head)
If you have problems sleeping, just re-read my two posts from today. Should put you out.
Its nice to be mentioned so often on the site. Thanks for pointing out my DL weight Ling. Talk about a goat, DL is my nemesis. Still hurting from last Thursday. 185#s, 12:41, yes Ling you smoked me just like the rest of the gym members. Nice work Lincoln, I think you finished the wod during my first round!
Two things I don’t completely understand: 1) I think our programming is outstanding. Considering how great you guys program, why does the Affiliate Team need to have additional programming? Is it just to work on specific skills, or to develop superior conditioning? I know a lot of the Games competitors do multiple wods per day… I’m really proud of the team we’ll be sending up. You guys and gals will crush the competition. You need to get Landis (sp?) on board.
2) Why does Paul shave his chest, but not his arms? Weird…
Lets start the week off right. Bake sale Monday or Tuesday? We owe Dr. Derek a few beers, his college ring went missing tonight. Dartmouth if anyone runs across it.
AJ, we are basically following the programming that has been proven to be the most effective for competitive training, with some modifications. OPT has sent more people to the games than anyone else. Freeman can probably speak to why it has been as effective (comparatively) but I can’t.
Ideally, the daily workouts would be split into two sessions, however many don’t have that luxury. Thus, Freeman is doing a great job modifying each day’s WOD accordingly, so that we aren’t over training to the degree that we would be working against ourselves doing too much without any recovery at all.
Someone who is more knowledgeable can probably articulate this better.
Yeah, the snatch deadlift was interesting. I worked my way up to 325lbs, but I only got 3 of those. The thing is, it wasn’t my body that gave out, it was my thumbs! A hook grip is a necessity on those things, but with such a wide grip, the pressure bearing down right on the thumb is intense. I couldn’t bear it for more than those 3, and that was with resetting my grip in between.
The wod after was a lung burner! I was Shooting for Sharp (see what I did there), but I came up way short. I finished it in just under 6 minutes.
Freeman, my legs barely work after the last two days. I walk all stiff like and when I try to sit down I basically fall into my chair! I haven’t gotten to todays wod, but I hope all the moves are from a seated position…