Mary

JT Scott | 04/07/2019 | 5

We’re going to the Benchmark well for one of CrossFit.com’s classic “Girls” workouts: MARY.

During the Open, several of you got your first HSPU experiences – and the CFHQ team brought back a scaling option that had somewhat fallen out of favor in the past decade: HSPU at a “surplus”.

Deficit HSPU had definitely been the “new cool” – hands on parallettes, head goes down below the level of hands on each rep – and it’s an incredibly good strengthy move that lengthens the Range of Motion to its maximum. But for getting that “upside down vertical pressing” stimulus, one way to go is to SHORTEN that Range of Motion by putting an Abmat (or two) under your head and just going to that target.

We generally like working the fullest possible range of motion to build strength along that entire range, but sometimes you just can’t get the same stimulus with substitutions… without putting your whole self into it. (This is adjacent to the idea that isolation work is less generally useful than training using functional movements.)

If you’re comfortable kicking up into a handstand at all, we’re going to be encouraging you to do that today for scaling as needed. Nothing quite substitutes for having your whole bodyweight in your hands and getting those elbows flexing, so let’s try something new today for 20 minutes of gymnastic fun!