PR Back Squats at the Power Athlete Team Comp
One of the cool things about the Power Athlete Team Competition was that every lift was videoed and posted online to watch.
Here are my three back squats. This was a big PR for me and I actually looked good doing it. They still looked like warm up weights.
http://emotionalgame.com/myEG/16951/3321
I could have gone a little heavier, but hey Regionals is in two weeks. Just another day at practice.
Read MoreMaximum Mobility
So I can’t believe that it took me so long to get to it, but I finally got to review Doug Larson’s Maximum Mobility this weekend. I feel bad because Doug was gracious enough to send me the link after the Garage Games back in February, but hey I had accounting to pass and I don’t think Dr. Turner was going to ask me anything that required a goniometer.
Check out the trailer for it before you read the rest of my blog post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WS2Ut-z9Ys&feature=player_embedded
Long story short, this product is awesome.
The entire internet has been abuzz lately on Kelly Starett’s new book, Becoming a Supple Leopard. As I’ve started going through it I couldn’t help but think about how well the two products compliment each other. I’d honestly go as far as saying that Maximum Mobility would be like taking pre-Calculus before taking Calculus in High School.
Sure, plenty of kids go straight in to Calc and smoke it, but most people get into something that complicated and are sort of overwhelmed with knowledge.
Doug does an amazing job of explaining the concepts, selling you on the importance, teaching how to diagnose, and giving to tools to correct any issues.
This is really a great way to be introduced to mobility and a very organized system to begin to improve.
What I liked the most about this series was that the videos were all short enough to re-watch several times whenever you have a question or feel the need to reassess.
The Faction 15 is an amazingly user friendly poster. It made getting athletes to actually do mobility at CrossFit Inception a reasonable task. I have it hanging from my refrigerator and have been using it as a coach and athlete for months. The bonus feature of Doug going through the stretches provided a lot of good tips and information on the intent of the stretches that I hadn’t considered.
Its pretty impressive to make something so simple, but with so many nuances that you’re still discovering new things several months in.
The whole product was really easy to use. Let’s be straight up honest here. There are tons of places to find all of this information online. None of it is really rocket surgery either. Get yourself a lacrosse ball and five minutes of free time and you can probably figure out a way to break up some restriction.
What Maximum Mobility gives you is a quick and simple way to gain a foundation in how the body should move, how to figure out what the limiting factor is, and what to do to fix yourself.
While other products and courses will take hours of your time and cost a lot more of your dollars, Maximum Mobility is the most economical and efficient way to asses and correct what ails you.
Read MorePower Athlete Team Series
Yesterday (actually 4 May), I did the Power Athlete Team Series Competition at CrossFit North Atlanta. Basically, it was a great competition and a lot of fun. It was also really nice not to have to travel or go out of my way or even wake up early to do a great competition.
My team, CrossFit North Atlanta CockDiesel was using it primarily as practice for Regionals coming up in two weeks.
I’d like to thank Burke for setting up the whole thing. Also to Travis for hosting it and Baker and the rest of the sponsors for making it happen.
Cali, who actually did the CrossFit Football Cert with me about a year ago, did a great job running the whole event.
The competition actually ended early and ran smoothly the entire time. Which is nearly unheard out (outside of Rumble by the River) in the Southeast.
I really liked the format of the whole event.
Each team member did one lift and then a metcon that corresponded to the lift. We knew what the lifts were going to be, but had no clue what the metcon was.
First off, it was cool to compete not only with other CrossFitters and with my teammates, but against some big name athletes like Nate, Rory, and DRob. I love being part of a sport where a schmo like me can sometimes go head to head with the elite guys he competes with.
It was also cool to get to compete against Powerlifters. Getting to see specialists do what they do best and put up some crazy numbers was awesome to watch. It also cool to see how the great CrossFitters stacked up to the great powerlifters at their game. And to see them get out of breath in a metcon.
The coolest part for me was sharing a bar with Caleb Williams. He’s the American champion Weightlifter at 69kg and has squatted over 700lbs. Yes, the fact that his bar had double the amount of plates as mine did made me feel insufficient but come on, that’s a cool story.
I thought the metcons were pretty well programmed. I definitely got the short end of the stick and did the one that sucked the most. But, it was right up my alley so I can’t complain.
The event was fun. I would recommend checking it out if it ever comes near you.
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