Tuesday, 12 July 2011: Jack of All Trades, Master of Everything

Crossfitters want it all--a massive deadlift, an amazing overhead squat, a blazing 5K, and a phenomenal Fran time. But it takes A LOT of work to get good at all these things and it never seems to be enough. This can be a calling or a curse. It's easy to become obsessive about all the things you don't have in Crossfit--and in life for that matter--but we need to realize that we can have it all if we just focus and work on our weaknesses. My weaknesses (in Crossfit) became apparent again today as I did Crossfit Lorton's WOD.

STRENGTH
Back Squat
2 Warm Up Sets
5 @ 60% 1RM
5 @ 70% 1RM
AMRAP @ 80%

WOD
21-15-9
400m Run
OHS, 95#
Box Jump, 24"

One of my weaknesses is overhead squats. Another is leg strength endurance--think Karen (150 Wall Balls for time). This WOD addressed both of these weaknesses. The strength portion taxed my legs and core and put me at a disadvantage to take on the WOD fresh, but that's the whole reason behind Steve's programming. The strength portion always complements the WOD in some fashion, which causes greater adaptation in the body. I decided to scale the weight for the WOD to 85# since the ideal time domain is less than 15 minutes.

The WOD took me longer than I wanted to even with scaling the weight. The overhead squat was the hardest part, followed by cycling the box jumps fast enough after being taxed by the overhead squats. Both of these affected my run, making me much slower for the second and third 400m. This WOD blatantly highligted the need for me to work on my overhead squats and my leg strength endurance. I really enjoyed the Olympic Bias I was on a few months ago, however, it was too time consuming to get through it and the WOD. I may have to shift my programming to lean more towards the olympic lifts, but I definitely need to work on my overhead squat more. My goal as a crossfitter is to become a jack of all trades, and a master of everything. There's no reason why I can't have a killer overhead squat and run a sub 20 minute 5K. I just need to focus and stop being a 75%. It's time to commit.

RESULTS
Back Squat:
180#
210#
5 @ 240#

WOD:
14:24 @85#