Tag Archives: squats

Why Lifting is like Golfing

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I know you’re probably looking at the title of this post and thinking “WTF is Emily smoking this morning” but I promise you I have a good point to make.

A couple of years ago, my boyfriend convinced me to go golfing with him. I’ve never had any interest in playing golf because I’m the most impatient person on the planet and think it’s probably the most boring sport in the world but I figured I’d give it a shot (ha!). Looked easy enough, just swing the club, hit the ball, right?

WRONG. It took me about 10 tries just to even make contact with the ball. There were so many mechanics that went into that one stupid swing: keep your head down, slight bend in the knees, straight front arm, bend the back arm, shoulders low, feet hip width apart, KEEP THAT HEAD DOWN! Any time I remembered to do one thing, I’d forget to do the other thing, and then I’d remember the opposite, and forget to do the 10 other things. A lot goes into that seemingly effortless swing. And once you get that perfect swing, and make contact with the ball, and it feels so good, you think “Why can’t I do this EVERY time??” And that’s when you pull a Shooter McGavin

When I started CrossFit, I had the same mentality. How hard can it be? I’ve done squats before, I’ve done deadlifts, I’m athletic, this will come naturally. Wrong again. There is SO much to think about when doing a lift. I did cleans for the first time the other day and literally looked like a toddler taking their first steps. I can’t tell you how many times I banged the barbell on my knees. Same thing as golf- once I remembered to do one thing (hips back, chest forward, drive back with the hips, pull up from the hips) I would forget something else (keep the barbell on your legs, pull knees back, jump, squat down). And then you look around the room and see everyone else just busting out cleans and deadlifts like it’s nobody’s business and it’s frustrating as all hell. I can’t wait for the day when I naturally “get” it and the movements become more effortless. Effortless minus the whole adding the heavy weight thing. That’s another battle for another day.

Golf? I’m all set with just riding around in the cart and eating snacks. Cleans, deadlifts, pull-ups, clean and jerks, snatches, power cleans? I am coming for you… just quit making it look so easy! I can see through your facade!

 

First time doing back squats. I liked these. One motion, up and down,
drive that booty out. I can do that. via Reebok CrossFit One FB

Can anyone else relate to this? How long before you had your “a-ha” moment with heavy lifting? How do you get out of your head and nail that form down?

-Emily

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Kettlebell Workout

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This morning we did an awesome warm-up that, if intensified, could be an awesome leg and butt workout. All you’ll need is either a kettle bell or barbell. The workout includes regular kettle bell swings, sumo-stance swings, side lunges and one leg dead lifts. We used 35 lb kettle bells, but feel free to scale up or down.  Anyways, here it is…

4 rounds of:

15 kettle bell swings
15 sumo-stance swings
15 side lunges (each leg)
15 one leg deadlifts (each leg)

Now for an explanation of the movements….

Kettle bell swings:

Star with your legs hip width apart and hold the KB or barbell with two hands fully extended in front of you. Squat and bring the KB back slightly between your legs and thrust your hips forward. As your hips come forward, your arms raise locked in front of you over your head. (Yeah, I look this calm doing these.. naaahht)

Sumo-Stance KB Swings:

This is very similar to the regular KB swing, but you start with your legs in a very wide stance, with your toes pointed out. This should deepen your squat as you bring the KB back. You should feel it in your inner thighs.

Side Lunges:

There are two different positions for this move. You can either hold the KB close in front of your chest or you can maintain the regular KB swing position and hold it with your arms fully extended in from of you. Start with your legs hip width apart and step one leg out latterly (as far as you can comfortable go) and squat into the unextended leg. Pull the extended leg in back into the start position and switch legs.

One Leg Deadlifts:

These are my favorite as you can really feel the burn doing it. Start with legs hip width apart and either hold the KB in with one or two hands fully extended in front of you. Slowly bend at the hips and bring the same leg (that is on the side in which you are holding the KB) back behind you, keeping your leg straight. As you bring your leg back and bend at the hips, bring the kettlebell down across your body to the stationary and let it touch the ground. Slowly reverse the movement by bringing the extended leg back in and raising the KB back into the start position.   In order to keep your balance, try to focus on a stationary object. I think balance is definitely the hardest part of the movement.

After four rounds of this, you will definitely be feeling it. As always, take breaks as needed in between sets to make sure you maintain proper form. Good luck!

-EB