Kipping


Nick | 09/03/2013 | 8

Today’s skill is the pull-up kip.  We talk a lot at Crossfit Somerville about not using a kip until we have full control of an unassisted dead hang pull-up.  For those who are looking for a detailed explanation as to why, the following article does a great job of breaking it down:

http://21crossfit.com/2013/08/19/why-i-havent-taught-you-to-kip/

It comes down to this: if we don’t have the shoulder strength and stability to pull our full body weight through the range of motion that a pull-up takes us through then we don’t have the strength and stability to support the forces the shoulder will endure during a kip safely.  Also, kipping with a band teaches us motor patterns that will be different when we kip without the band (essentially forcing us to re-learn the movement once we build the strength to kip without the band).

That being said, today we will all be working on the kip.  If we cannot do dead hang pull-ups unassisted, we will just be working on the shoulder kip, possibly the hip drive, but definitely not the full upper body pull and push that goes with the full fledged kip.  Be honest with yourself and where your abilities are and you will stay safe and get better faster.

It also bears noting that we have pull-ups 2 days in a row.  The reasoning here is a dead hang pull-up and a kipped pull-up are two very different movements with very different stimuli.  And even if we are using a band to assist our pull-ups (and NOT kipping), today’s pull-ups are done for conditioning whereas yesterdays were done for strength.  We might use different scaling today than we used yesterday.  That’s ok.  Remember, we don’t “graduate” from one scale to another in CrossFit.  We vary the load in gymnastic movements just like we do for barbell movements.  Just because I can deadlift 450# doesn’t mean I’m going to in a conditioning workout.  The same idea holds true for pull-ups.

SKILL:

Kipping

WOD:

EMOM 12 –

5 Pull-ups

Max Effort Clean and Jerks (no heavier than 135#/95#.  If it feels light, move faster)


8 comments for “Kipping

  1. Donne says:

    WOD: 45 @65# (Green and red)

    Hello active shoulders. First set of cleans was 10 but from there after were between 2-5 reps. Def enjoy max reps wods for its mental aspect.

    Way to rock on, no trainer bar 630 🙂

  2. Brian says:

    Tomorrow night is the start of the best season of the year…NFL SEASON!! Ravens at Broncos, game starts at 830. I’ll be heading over to the Independent after evening classes, anyone and everyone is welcome to join me for beers and football!

  3. Lydia says:

    WOD: 32 @55# (green and red)

    Many thanks to that bitch*, KP, for getting me through 17 more green band pullups than I’d ever done yesterday, then egging me on to my first whole WOD with pullups using one green and just one red band. The pullups got down to ones and twos, but I was thrilled to do them all \o/.

    Great push from everybody in 7:30 – KP was taking away bands left and right, and everybody rocked on through like it was Just Right.

    *My All Time Favorite bitch <3, of course! I HAD to call her that cuz she said during class I would :D.

  4. christine says:

    MARALENEEEEEE! 😀

    kipping drill: hilarious and helpful. i really need to get 1 strict unassisted pullup under my belt.

    WOD: 41 @ 75#. grip smoker for sure. great work, 6:00. PM!!!

  5. Nene says:

    Note to self: The weird old purple band is not equal to a blue band…it’s actually less than a red band. Fail.

    40 @ 65#

    Kipping drills are cool I really like our stance on emphasizing strict pull ups. I definitely know some people who simply never kip. Shit, I was doing strict chest to bars in the open because I didn’t have my kip yet. I am really happy I learned them after I got really strong with strict pull ups, though, I actually had no idea until today that if I had learned to kip too early I could have actually hurt myself.

Comments are closed.