CrossFit Fenway

White

eric — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:04:02 +0000

U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ashley White, 24, of Alliance, OH, assigned to the 230th Brigade Support Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina National Guard, based in Goldsboro, NC, died on October 22, 2011 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked her unit with an improvised explosive device.

She is survived by her husband Captain Jason Stumpf, her parents Robert and Deborah, brother Josh, and sister Brittney.

First posted November 8 2011

May 18, 2012
White
5 Rounds:
3 Rope Ascents (begin flat footed, no jumping starts)
10 Toes-to-Bar
21 Overhead Walking Lunge Steps, 20kg
400m Run

North East Regionals, May 25th – 27th Get your tickets, get the day off from work, and get ready to get loud. Contact Kristin “KP” Pineo for further coordination, including transportation.

Memorial Day Murph meet at 9 AM at CrossFit Fenway on Monday, May 28th (Memorial Day) for Murph, in honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy. Please bring a suggested donation of $10 that will go to the Lone Survivor Fund.

Fenway Park Spartan Sprint on November 17th, 2012 the creators of the Spartan Race series are turning Fenway Park into a 1 mile Spartan Sprint obstacle course. It’s in our backyard, and rumor has it another local box is putting a team together, so let’s represent! Kevin Kittredge has agreed to lead the CrossFit Fenway team, so please contact him in the next week if you’re interested. More race details are available here.

Power Jerks

eric — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:44:37 +0000

The terms push jerk and power jerk are often used interchangeably to describe the movement we’re practicing Thursday. If a distinction is made between the two it usually has to do with footwork, and that’s what I want you to focus on.

Too often we see athletes landing with feet well outside a reasonable squat width in effort to get lower under the bar, but this is not an ideal position. Notice the footwork of Cara Heads in the video above. Fast and subtle, putting her in excellent position to squat if necessary, and we know this because she takes her power jerk to a full squat jerk.

Now, I’m not expecting to see a squat jerk here at CFF any time soon, but continuing to land your push jerks excessively wide will certainly limit your options. Receiving the bar in your standard squat stance, and flexing at the knees and hips is a much more scalable jerk solution. Think of a push, or power jerk just as you would think of a power clean or power snatch, that is the receiving position is shallower than, but similar to the full squat versions of each lift. Pulling under the bar is a tool to get more weight up, so the ability to adjust how low we can go will allow us to lift larger loads. Be quick, be strong, and stick the landing.

May 17, 2012
Strength:
Push Jerk 3-3-3-3-3

WOD:
4 Rounds:
5 Front Squats (85kg/60kg)
10 Ring Dips
200m Run

North East Regionals, May 25th – 27th Get your tickets, get the day off from work, and get ready to get loud. Contact Kristin “KP” Pineo for further coordination, including transportation.

I Guess You Could Say Things Are Getting Pretty Serious…

mandy — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:31:51 +0000

With Regionals less than two weeks away you can almost feel the pressure building among the athletes here at CrossFit Fenway. A 455# deadlift bar has found itself a temporary home near the squat racks and handstand push-ups are confined to boxes as per the dictated standards. There’s no doubt in my mind that the athletes have been working hard and it will all pay off come Memorial Day weekend. But let’s take a minute to remind ourselves that CrossFit is not all about Diane and dumbbell snatches. We do CrossFit because above all else, it’s fun! The workouts are fun as well as the endless jokes and awkward stretches that cause a smile to stretch across our faces. So to ease the pressure, remember some of the most fun workouts we’ve had as well as some of the funny stuff that happens day-to-day, like…

Hanging from the rings while wiping a rower with a rag so I could tell Eric I was “hang power cleaning”
Erika rolling on any and everything
Sam’s hang power clean dance
KP

Now it’s your turn! AMRAP laughs…3, 2, 1, GO!

May 16, 2012
Strength:
Low Bar Back Squat 3-3-3-3-3

WOD:
4 Rounds:
500m Row
3 Minutes Rest

North East Regionals, May 25th – 27th Get your tickets, get the day off from work, and get ready to get loud. Contact Kristin “KP” Pineo for further coordination, including transportation.

Regional Prep

eric — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:49:21 +0000

Getting ready for Regionals requires hard work, careful preparation, and a solid game day nutrition plan. And if you’re competing it also requires a fair amount of training. The North East Regional is less than 2 weeks away (Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 25th – 27th). Our athletes are training very hard, but are you ready? The event details (location, schedule, etc.) can be found here, and you can contact Kristin “KP” Pineo to further coordinate the CrossFit Fenway support effort. It means a lot to all of our competitors to have our CrossFit Fenway family there. Get your tickets, get the day off from work, and get ready to get loud. We’ll look forward to seeing, and hearing you out there.

May 15, 2012
Strength:
20 Minutes Goat/Volume Training

WOD:
AMRAP 10:
50 Sit-ups
50 Wall Ball Shots (20#/14#)

McGhee

eric — Mon, 14 May 2012 00:26:35 +0000

Corporal Ryan C. McGhee, 21, was killed in action on May 13, 2009 by small arms fire during combat in central Iraq. He served with 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment of Fort Benning, GA. This was his fourth deployment, his first to Iraq. Ryan was engaged to Ashleigh Mitchell of Fredericksburg, VA.

He is survived by his father Steven McGhee of Myrtle Beach SC, his mother Sherrie Battle McGhee, and his brother Zachary.

First posted 15 April 2010

May 14, 2012
McGhee
AMRAP 30:
5 Deadlifts, 275#
13 Push-ups
9 Box Jumps, 24″

Compare to 111104

Poke the Bear

eric — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:20:31 +0000

This Friday we want you not only to poke The Bear, but power clean, squat, and take it overhead. On paper it may look more like pure strength training, but as you load up the bar you’ll find The Bear to be quite the metabolic and mental challenge.

May 11, 2012
The Bear

5 rounds for load. No resting the bar on the ground. Break up or combine movements any way, as long as all movements are complete range of motion.

7 Sets of the Sequence:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press

Compare to 111230

Our New Warm Up

eric — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:17:07 +0000

Joe showed us this video, and we’ve since made it our pre-workout ritual. Erika hits pretty hard, but we’ve been PR’ing all over the place, so we’re gonna roll with it. A defensive tackle with 10 years NFL experience can’t be wrong, can he? What do you do to get psyched up for a big workout?

May 10, 2012
Strength:
Press 2-2-2-2-2-2

WOD:
21-15-9
Overhead Squat (45kg/30kg)
Pull-ups

Compare to 111213

Getting to the Bottom of It

eric — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:18:37 +0000

Wednesday we’re practicing the snatch balance. This exercise is used to improve speed under the bar (the 3rd pull of the snatch), and develop strength in the receiving position when you get there. As seen in the link above there is a bit of a dip and drive to create separation between body and barbell, allowing you to pull yourself down into the snatch receiving position. Ideally the bar position will not change much, that is to say, this is not a behind the neck jerk immediately followed by an overhead squat. Just as with the snatch, this movement requires accuracy, agility, balance (it’s in the name after all), coordination, flexibility, speed, and strength. In addition to fostering the required physical skills, the snatch balance can also help build confidence in an athlete’s ability to snatch. This is probably a relatively new lift to many of you, so stay light. Drilling technique here will be far more beneficial in the long run, than muscling through a set to put a big number on the board. Come in Wednesday to work on getting to the bottom of your snatch.

May 9, 2012
Strength: Snatch Balance 3-3-3-3-3

WOD:
With a 10 Minute Running Clock:
Complete Baseline (500m Row, 40 Squats, 30 Sit-ups, 20 Push-ups, 10 Pull-ups)
1 Max, Unbroken Set of Kettlebell Swings (24kg/16kg)

*Subtract 1 second from the Baseline time for each kettlebell swing completed. Score is resulting total.
*Continuous movement of the kettlebell is required once the set of swings begins.

A Few of My Favorite Things

eric — Tue, 08 May 2012 00:03:38 +0000

This Tuesday’s probably just about my favorite class programming we could put together, front squats for strength, and a super fast deadlift metcon (hint, scale the deads to be heavy, but unbroken, and move it), but I know not everyone agrees with me. In a recent conversation with Scrappy, she told me she wasn’t a big fan of last Thursday’s class programming. I completely understand her distaste for wall ball, but I was a little surprised by her feelings regarding the snatch. In any case, did Scrappy stay home that day? Hell no! She came in, kicked ass, and vowed to put in extra work on the snatch. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to work on things we like, if we didn’t we’d go crazy, but it’s also important to face challenging movements/workouts/classes head on. Whether you share my affinity for Tuesday’s programming or not, I hope to see you in class.

Post scores, as well as your favorite and least favorite possible classes to comments.

May 8, 2012
Strength:
Front Squat 5-5-5

WOD:
5 Rounds:
5 Deadlifts (125kg/85kg)
10 Burpees

Compare to 110411

The Troops

mandy — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:00:26 +0000

As some of you regular attendees of the evening classes may have noticed, we have lots of new faces here at CrossFit Fenway. With so many curious folks peering in our open garage door and big windows, there are more people than ever giving CFF a try. We’ve recently finished our first full cycle of Basic Training. The “troops” have been eager and excited to learn the new movements and have been picking them up quickly. I saw one of the new recruits doing a great job in an All Levels class last week and cheered her on, as she moved quite well, and blended in seamlessly, like she’d been doing this for years.

CrossFit workouts are hard. The first few are the hardest. More than anything, our newest members have devoted time, effort, and buckets of sweat to picking up this new sport. If you see them doing Fran for the first time, or asking what a snatch is, share your stories of starting out, hard work, and success. New CrossFitter or not, keep training hard and having fun because nobody’s ever drowned in their own sweat.

May 7, 2012
Strength:
Hang Power Clean 5-5-5

WOD:
3 Rounds:
15 Hang Power Cleans (50kg/35kg)
400m Run
50 Double-unders