Sneaky Bad

JT Scott | 08/26/2014 | 6

Okay, so maybe I snuck up on you yesterday. All that talk about how the emphasis is on the strength, and never mind that little short AMRAP 6 at the end of some really light weight, aerobic box pushing and jump rope.

Maybe you weren’t worried reading the blog that day or the whiteboard when you came in. It’s only 6 minutes, how bad can it be?

I think many of you though are getting the message that we’re putting out with our scaling, though. Short, fast WODs are incredibly demanding if attacked with the appropriate intensity. In this instance, “intensity” is characterized by high speed rather than high load. We got you both ways, yesterday – with high loads in the technical clean and jerk, and high speed in the non-technical box pushes. And oh, man… they sure did burn.

Today’s WOD is less sneaky. You know this is going to be strengthy and hard. It’s a goal WOD for some of you – if you have a solid ring dip and can bust out toes to bar, this may be one that you aim high for (unscaled load) understanding that it’s going to take you a bit longer. For most of you, though, 55 reps is a fine way to build gymnastic strength while also getting a metabolic boost.

At 110 reps total, we expect this on the “CrossFit Average” to take about 7 minutes 20 seconds. If you get in over your head, SCALE. There’s no need for this to take 15 minutes unless you’re just proving the point that you can, in fact, do RX TTB and Ring Dips. (Of course, if it takes you 15 minutes I’d wager that perhaps all your reps weren’t particularly pretty.) If you’re really solid at these movements, you could aim for 5:30. If you’re a bodyweight assassin with a solid motor, you can aim for Sub-4-minutes. Good thing we’ve been working on our hanging grip strength lately!

Whatever scaling you choose, it will make you stronger tomorrow… and that’s the whole point. Think of it this way – all that happy testosterone you stimulated with those heavy front squats will be super helpful in transforming your (relatively) light gymnastic efforts into really sweet gains. And remember, if you finish early today, stick around to cheer on your classmates!

Strength:
Front Squat
5-5-5-5-5

WOD:
10-1
toes to bar
ring dips