WOD 10/12/12

Today’s WOD:

Deadlift
3×3 @ 80% (+10/5)

then

6 Rounds:
15 Burpees
15 second Plank Hold
10 Sandbag Get Ups (50/35)

There have been a few things I’ve noticed at the gym lately regarding our warm-ups, specifically standing Y’s and T’s. The purpose of these movements, and all of our warm-up movements for that matter, is to warm up the muscles that we’ll be using in our workouts. The standing Y’s and T’s are for warming up the muscles of your shoulder girdle, particularly the ones that keep it stable when you’re putting weights overhead. Simply put, we do them to warm up the muscles between your shoulder blades and your spine.

In order to execute these movements properly, you need to retract your shoulder blades before moving through your range of motion. Do this while you’re sitting in front of your computer: hold your arms out straight in front of you and parallel to the floor. Now pull your shoulders back as if you were trying to hold a piece of paper between your shoulder blades. Now make a T shape (or Y shape followed by M, C, A). Bring your arms back to the front and let your arms come forward. Rinse and repeat. The last thing to do is to put your torso at an angle, approximating parallel to the ground. Most of us won’t get all the way to parallel (stupid hamstrings!), but the idea is to get your torso away from vertical. Now do the Y’s and T’s here and you should notice the muscles working just a tad bit harder.

We shouldn’t see any more random flinging of those arms at the gym now. Be purposeful with your movement.

Lastly, find yourself a costume for Halloween at CrossFit RVA. Work out in your costume then party with us in the evening of October 26th. See you out there!