It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Something

JT Scott | 12/10/2017 | 3

When you come into the box today you may see a few more lights hanging around. They’re festive, and don’t worry – I did pullups on those bars during open gym and can verify they still work, even when decorated. They went up this weekend for our “12 Days of Fitnass” WOD and I just couldn’t bring myself to take them down! We had an enormous crowd, and there were plenty of ugly sweaters to go around. (I couldn’t make it, but did it with EB on Sunday.) Thank you to Mel and Kirstie for setting up and running this great event!

Today we’re putting a lot of focus on our front squats and then getting into a speedy WOD that can go one of two ways.

Chest-to-bar pullups are explosive, fast movements once you have them. In terms of Power demand (P=F*d/t for those of you who recall high school physics) they’re second only to muscle-ups when it comes to purely gymnastic movements we do. Likewise, pistols are a really amazing unilateral movement that require strength and stability – and once you can do them fast, they’re a real asskicker.

Before we can use those movements productively in a high-intensity CrossFit style, we’ll need to develop the strength for them. That’s why the workout today has two options! The first option uses two movements that will help you build the strength and stability needed to perform chest-to-bar pullups and pistols safely: kips and deck squats.

Deck squats are great tools for setting the feet close together (simulating the single leg drive angle of a pistol) and getting the butt engaged early to drive out of the bottom of a deep squat. When it comes to rapid CTB pullups, they require strong and active shoulder engagement throughout and a powerful hip drive: today’s kips are designed to work on both of those skills.

For the kips today, we’re looking for you to push the chest forward fully, drive yourself back and down on the bar, and then a big hip “pop” followed by a dead stop at the bottom of each rep. If you work on this diligently, you’ll be in a much better place to be ready to go for your CTB pull-ups quickly and safely. No shoulder labrum tears for our athletes here at CFSV – we want you well-prepared to take the next steps.

For those of you who have the strength, skill, and stability already: we’ve got that scaled up version ready and waiting for you! Either way, it’s going to be a fast workout – probably faster than it took for me to write this description.

STRENGTH: Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3

WOD:
12-10-8-6-4-2

Kips                -OR-     CTB Pullups
Deck Squats                  Pistols