Three rounds for time of:
30 Wallball shots @ 10.5 ft target (m: 20 lb, f: 14 lb)
30 squat snatches (m: 75 lbs, f: 45 lbs)
Each squat snatch must begin below the knees.
Mikko Salo 8:58, Jason Khalipa 11:19 (2009 Games), Carey Kepler 11:01 (14lb ball, 45lb barbell, 2009 Games).
Post time to comments.
Fun time with the morning class as usual. Also had a good post-WOD discussion on the topic of measuring WODs by body weight/height/gender or absolute load, and which is a better model of fitness.
Erin A. really impressed me with her consistent technique and speed on snatch. I don’t think she power snatched/OHS a single rep. Ben made similar progress with his technique.
Forgot to post my morning WOD:
Sunday’s WOD
15 min AMRAP
400m run
10 hang power clean @ 135 lb
6 rounds + ~100m
All HPCs unbroken, which mentally sucked during rounds 5 and 6. In round 6 I did my first power clean off the floor and didn’t count it because I didn’t start from the hang.
Rough Morning. I think I was still feeling the tri. 22:09 rx’d although some of the wall balls were ?able on height. The snatches felt great though. (There is no PG way to say that…sorry) Great to be back training. Possibly have another sprint tri on 9/11 but we will see. I have a long way to go and most of it is in the diet and weight loss arena. It was great seeing so many elite athletes at the tri, but it was intimidating as well. They were in all shapes and sizes, but one commonality among the top athletes was that they were very lean, regardles of how big or small they were. That is something I struggle with and it is now my number one focus. Thanks Jeff for the feedback and coaching this morn.
Jeff, I wish I had been there for that discussion (well, not enough to wake up at 4:30). But, I am interested in hearing others’ thoughts and opinions on that topic. As far as CrossFit is concerned, I’m interested in knowing the optimal size (height and weight) of an athelete, male and female. I believe that counterbalances exist to keep one from having a distinct advantage on most movements, i.e. heavy deadlift combined with running and pull-ups. So in this example, while one might be able to deadlift easier because of mass, that same person might struggle more to keep a fast pace running and doing pull-ups.
FYI, I noticed that the guy who won the CrossFit games this year, Graham Holmberg, is 5’11” and 185lbs. And Rich Froning, who came close to beating Graham is 5’10” 190lbs. This could be coincidental, but it would be interesting to hear theories on what size is better suited for adaptation in CrossFit or life in general (unknown and unknowable).
Andrew,
I think that for competition, very simply, bigger is better. I don’t see any disadvantage larger athletes have that isn’t easily overcome by their increased muscle mass. To take things to the logical extreme, if we competed with 90 ft tall men who live on Jupiter (although Jupiter is a gas giant and it supporting life is laughable, please just go with the analogy), we would certainly lose. If we competed with hobbits, then the hobbits would certainly lose…most of the time. However, for homo sapiens between 4.5 and 7 ft tall we’ve settled on the idea that we’re close enough that it’s still fun and somewhat realistic to compete against each other. However, the 4.5 ft athlete still has quite a disadvantage.
Two counterpoints are that size does not restrict many of CrossFit’s top athletes. Russell Berger and Chris Spealler both weigh less than 150 lbs, IIRC, and I don’t know of anything that anybody in this area could beat them at besides 1RM on just a few strength movements. Kristan Clever is also quite short, IIRC. Second, the universe doesn’t care about your body weight. Most tasks in life involve ‘Can you put this object into this place?” and not ‘Can you place an objectthat weighs 125% of your body weight into a place 6″ above your head?” Nature is pretty unforgiving. However, in tasks like pulling yourself up from the edge of a cliff, body weight is of primary concern.
There is no definitive answer, IMO. Just interesting ideas to ponder.
Interesting points Jeff. I agree with the two points you make in the second paragraph. Well stated and those certainly seem to play out in reality. But, I want to debate your first paragraph some.
Although life on Jupiter is ridiculous, I get the point of the analogy, but I’m not convinced of that theory playing out in reality. Of course, in reality, as far as we know, a 90ft. person doesn’t exist. But, let’s say for argument sake that one does. All things being equal, species, gravity, propotions, etc. the giant should be able to lift more and cover distances in shorter times than the average Joe, a 6′ human. However, could this giant’s strengths not also be his weaknesses. Think about it for a minute. Suppose we construct a barbell for the giant that equals 135 lbs, then pitted a well-conditoined 6′ human against a well-conditioned 90′ human in a WOD that consisted of 3 rounds for time of 25 squat cleans and 25 burpees. Is it logical to believe that the 6′ man would win? I think it is, simply because of the distance both men’s bodies must travel. Though the 135 pounds is not much of a challenge for our 90′ giant friend, getting the body mass up and down as quickly as the 6′ guy would be the challenge. Certainly, the giant’s 1RM on squat clean would be comically greater than average Joe’s, but I contend that the advantage of speed belongs to Joe. So, would the 90′ giant win the CrossFit games? I’m not sure. There might be events he could dominate, but the comparison would leave much to be desired as the giant wouldn’t be able to compete in all the events, at least not in the manner intended.
That being the extreme, I’m still not sure that bigger is always better. To further illustrate that, the biggest guy in the finals of the CrossFit Games is 6’3″, 225lbs. (Jerome Perryman). It could be coincidence, but I wonder why there aren’t more 6’6″ or 6’8″ guys competing at the highest levels of CrossFit.
Andrew, I disagree that body weight movements such as burpeees will take the Jupiter native any longer than us. If every part of his body is scaled proportionately to mine, he’s just 15x larger, then why should it take him any longer?
I think the lack of uber-large athletes is partially because of the smaller appeal of our sport. As CrossFit’s popularity continues to grow then sooner or later we will see the 6’6″ behemoth that has the right work ethic, the right genes, and the right CrossFit programming. I think it’s only a matter of time. I think that in 2012 our sectional competition might carry the level of competition that the 2010 regional competition had. Fast forward 10 years and CrossFit is like the NFL/NBA/MLS. We see athletes on TV doing the same things we do, but compared to them we’re just dicking around with barbells.
I veered a little off-topic, but I still contend that very few physical tasks can’t be solved with a bigger hammer, or a bigger humerus to swing said hammer.
I agree with what Jeff and Andrew brought up, but I think it is possible to go too far to either extreme, making the right answer something that you yourself need to know for your own body. It won’t do any good to carry around an extra 15 pounds of weight if it is all Goo (speaking from personal experience here) just like it won’t do any good for a strong powerful 235 pound dude to all of the sudden suck down to 165. I was wondering if some of the very smart minds in this business have looked at a strength to weight ratio IOT find the right mix for an individual. I would be very interested to find mine and then get there.
Greg, I’d like to take a look at that myself. I have a couple ideas. Will report back.
Greg, after doing a pretty lengthy statistical analysis, I have part of the answer: strength to body weight ratio was very important to placing well in the 2010 CrossFit Games. The information and method are interesting enough that I plan to write an article on it later, so I’ll skip all the particulars and jump to some conclusions:
-I analyzed competitor data (self-reported PRs) and placement (where they finished) for competitors in the 2010 CF Games.
-No one factor was correlated to placing well in a statistically significant way. That means a statistician would say “Ahh, it’s pretty much random.” However, even if not correlated at 80%+, some trends correlated at 50-60%, which gives me reason for pause.
-The most highly correlated factors to winning for both men and women were strength to body weight ratio, as measured by summing 1RM snatch, clean and jerk, back squat, and deadlift and then dividing by body weight.
-The correlation of height was completely insignificant (10% and 35%) but the trend was that taller meant you would place worse.
-Age was insignificant, like height, but the trend was that older meant you would place worse. No surprise.
-The single lift/event that predicted success the most for both men and women was an athlete’s clean and jerk PR, which correlated over 60% of the time.
More later…
Thanks for the analysis Jeff. I look forward to the indepth article. For now I am going with your math formula. My strength to weight based on your equation (1rm sn+c&j+bs+dl/bw) right now is 4.5869. I am going to keep using this formula to track my progress.
Greg, I’ll be interested to see how that goes. FYI, Kristan Clever was the only female with a ratio above 7.0. The top men has 7.x-8.x
THanks, Jeff for the shout out! After yesterday’s bomb of a WOD for me, I was determined to make this a new day. I think this was the first time I got the technique down on the squat snatch, and I felt really good with it. Wall balls are always a struggle for me because I feel limited by my height. Takes me a lot of effort to get the ball up there. I’d like to move up to 10# soon.
Silver-14:28
25 WB @ 8# (I thought we had to do 25, not 20 reps)
20 Squat Snatch @ 31#
Greg, I’m assuming the tri on 9/11 is the Frantic Frog? I’ve done that particular one several times, and it’s pretty good.
Congrats to Tristan and Brittany on their Athletic Profiles!!
Really like this WOD..
Silver with 10# ball
Time 11:13
Great Job Everyone! Way to kill the squat snatches Erin, you were a machine 🙂
This was a rough one. I spend most of my effort working on my form and I think it paid off. It’s amazing how good form lets you do more work than trying to “muscle it up”.
26:30
30×14# Wall Ball
30×55# Squat Snatch
I’m off to Phoenix for a few days, see everyone on Friday!
This one was hard for me because the snatch just isn’t strong enough yet, still too much swaying for my comfort level. And why is it that it’s always after the workout that you think you should have done it differently? 🙂
13:28
30 x 10# Wall Ball
30 x 35# Overhead squat
Thanks Christina for lowering my butt target on the squats.
25:24 Gold
3 rounds of:
30 reps of 14# wall ball
30 reps of 65# squat snatch
I didn’t get comfortable with the squat snatch’s form until the middle of the second round. After that I was able to start linking 3 or 4 of the squat snatches. This was a rough one for me. Thanks for the motivating comments lunch crew.
Oh yeah, mine was 3 rounds.
13:03
31# squat snatch- 20 reps
10# wall-ball- 20 reps
Could do about the first 5 squat snatch’s as 1 movement, got tired and had to break them up with snatch/OHS.
Greetings from Destin. I dropped in to CrossFit Destin for their Wod.
Workout was:
6 Rounds for time of:
3 Hand Stand Pushups
5 Tractor Tire Flips
15 Ring Dips
Finished in 8:36 rx’d
Afterwards I worked on some deadlift and squat cleans. Very friendly bunch, was a good experience.
Miss you guys, and look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday evening.
Sounds fun, Daniel! How heavy are those tractor tires?
Size and weight wise, it was in between Impulse’s two largest tires. Not quite as big as the largest, but larger than the next size down.
haha that literally helps me none. I have never seen our tires.
It was 1,800 pounds, and I lifted it with ease.
Miss you guys. Back fired up again and I have been smart enough to take it easy. Got another doc appointment but this time with the good guys. I’ll be going to Spine and Neuro in Huntsville instead of TOC. Should be seeing ole Daniel around. Back on steroids so as soon as the swelling is back down I should be able to come back but stick with light easy movements still. My other docs told me I still need to work out so I can keep movement in my spine but go easy and take it slow, again. So no PR’s anytime soon. See you guys/gals soon.
I was not feeling it today and I could tell with my performance. I did the three rounds with 26lb squat snatches (which I have never done before) 20 reps and 8lb wall ball shots 30 reps. My time was 23:33. Great job 6:15 class!!
This afternoon I tested a WOD I had planned for a future rest day. I’m glad I did because it turned out to be what most would call “a bad idea.” Here’s the WOD:
30-20-10
GHD situps w/ medicine ball (m: 14 lb, f: 8 lb)
wall ball shots
On the GHD you must touch the ball to the ground and then touch the ball to the pads. If at any point you loose hold of the ball then your partner (trainer/athlete concept) can grab it and then you must run out the back door, around the side of the building, and in the front door to retrieve your ball and continue. I decided to test it with a 20 lb ball to make sure that 14 lb prescribed would be OK for most athletes. In short, it wasn’t. I finished in 6:38, but was lucky to have my spine intact. Perhaps it was just a very difficult WOD that will make me stronger, but I can’t in good faith put anyone through that type of back stress.
Thought you guys might like to know that 1. I’m human and have bad ideas sometimes and 2. I do try my best to look out for you guys and test the questionable stuff on myself first.
I’ll find something equally as fun with less potential for projectile vertebrae.
Good God that sounds horrible.
Decided to makeup Annie today and give my shoulders another rest day from lifting.
Annie – 6:07 PR
Stuck around to beat David in consecutive DU’s, but that didn’t happen. My best was 116 (3 shy of a new PR) but I think David is feeling the pressure. 135 won’t last long sucka!
Bronzed it due to my shoulder, but did 8lb ball. Did it in 7:55. Afterwords, took a stab at the box jump and got 36″.