A story of CF Evolution's search for a perfect Warm-up.
Monday, May 25, 2009 at 4:04PM ;)
"Warm-up or not warm-up that is the question"
As any up and coming true CF affiliate we've done the CFWU from day 1 for quite a long time (about 1.5 years) and it worked good, but with time it's noticeable that some folks were trying to avoid it or sandbagging. I, myself, is guilty of not ever doing CFWU in at least a year (probably longer).
CrossFit Warm-up with time can become boring & it includes all the skills that are already often practiced as the part of the WoD. Learning is an absolute necessity of doing CrossFit and it bring tremendous benefits to CrossFitters development. If you're proficient in the Snatch - raise your hand!
By the way - my presumption is that at your affiliate or if you're an athlete - you practice the moves that will be in the wod before the wod. If not - that's just stupid unless you're a really good athlete. If you're an affiliate - shame on you! ... but enough off topic.
About 5-6 months ago we started putting everyone through modified warm-ups (drills, some DROM, movement prep etc) that were coached and it worked okay, but was a bit hard to manage when folks were running late, or when some needed individual attention.
Here's our recent solution that we've been using for the last month that everyone loves, it doesn't require a lot of coaching, while it frees up the trainer to help with newer folks and helps more advanced athletes to be taught harder and more difficult moves/elements.
The basis of this warm-up is this:Cover at least 3 elements of human movement, which are:
1. Push
2. Pull
3. Opening of the hip
4. Closing of the hip
5. Monostructural drill.
;)
I like the number 15 so usually we do about 15 sets of warm-ups. A combination of various exercises is used and it constantly varies keeping the athletes learning and practicing.
The goal is usually to include one GOAT (like Double Unders) that most folks hate, yet in little doses no one really is bothered by it and all of a sudden folks are getting better and start liking the things they used to despise. And since Coach Glassman says - "Your largest improvements will come from areas that you're the weakest in" it's truly a great thing!
Here's a couple examples of how'd a sample week of such warm-ups look:
;)
Monday: 3 rounds
1. Negative Pull-up / Negative Muscle-up 5 reps
2. Push-up/Clapping Push-up 8 reps
3. Overhead Squat Close Grip Broomstick 15 reps
4. Abmat sit-up with feet straddled 15 reps
5. Sprint 100 meters
;)
Tuesday: 4 rounds
1. Bar Dips (assisted if necessary)/Swinging Bar Dips x5 reps
2. Rope climb practice/Rope climb 15 feet no feet (use legs on the way down if necessary
3. Arch Hold 15 seconds (aka Superman hold)
4. GHD sit-ups x10 reps
;)
Wednesday: 5 rounds
1. Front squat bar x8 reps
2. Work on Pull-ups/ Work on Ring Complexes
3. Hollow hold max duration/ L-sit max duration on parallettes
;)
Thursday: 4 rounds
1. Forward roll / Vault & Roll 5 reps
2. Handstand hold facing the wall 20 sec (very easy to walk the feet up the wall, 90% of folks can do it!)
3. Pull-up / L-pull-up 8 reps
4. Back Extension 15 reps
;)
Friday: 3 rounds
1. Row on Concept 2 - 15 big strokes - try to cover max distance
2. Work on push-ups/DB planche 5 reps
3. Climbing board simulator
4. Knees to Elbows 5-10 reps
5. Jump Rope 30 double unders or 100 single unders
Most of the skills are fairly basic and only 1 thing per day would require a fair amount of attention of a coach, which after showing the skill to a few people - then the athletes can help each other (all the folks that need coaches help & assistance - coach helps personally and keeps an eye on them).
An added benefit is that a lot of exercises or movements scare newbies and a lot of people are not good at a lot of things - keeping the reps low and building strength keeps the focus, doesn't drain the athlete by constant nagging "I suck at these" and constant repetition makes them better fast. Take the pull-ups for example: 3-5 reps per warm-up is not bad at all and by disguising it via rope climbing, play via the climbing board simulator or some band assisted pull-ups - makes it very doable!
A lot of ideas can be taken out of the archives of CrossFit.com - if you don't know how to simulate an "Inverted Cross" or "Elevator" with dumbbells or simply have never seen what has been done around 2003-2004 (there's archives back to '01) - it's a wealth of knowledge and information about the history & the development of what is now such a big part of a lot of our lives!
Also great resources are Jim Bathurst's BeastSkills.com, Coach Sommer's GymnasticBodies.com, Roger Harrell's DrillsAndSkills.com, Greg Everett's PerformanceMenu.com & Mike Burgener's MikesGym.org
There's such a wealth of movements that can and should be practice often & it's our job as coaches to help our athletes to develop themselves into the real deal CrossFitters ready to tackle "the unknown and unknowledgeable"!
It'll help you build and maintain a large and happy community of fellow Kool-Aid drinkers!
P.S. If you have any questions or comments - email leo@crossfitevolution, or better yet look me up on Facebook - Leonid Soubbotine!
;)
Reader Comments (14)
Leo, you are right on target. Nothing wrong with getting folks to warm up with something they don't think they are good at, only to improve them with out our knowledge. That and absolutely, the CFWU, though all encompassing of sorts, does suck in daily repetition over MONTHS. let's get creative here. Now that the warm ups are-a-changin' I look forward, sort of, to the surprise when I lumber in for my daily , err sort of daily WOD I gotta say I am learning to look forward to L-sits, assisted or not, to the point I will be doing L-sit pull ups.
Great post Leo. I actually did a similar thing a few months ago because my members were so bored with the CFWU. I put 5 different warmups on the board and they can choose which one they want to do, but I change it on them if they keep doing the same one everyday. You have just inspired me to add a few more!
Hey Leo!
A shout out from Redondo Beach!
Outstanding post! Looks like I have to brush up my programming skills for the warm-up too!!
Do I dare make mention of you facilitating my own CrossFit Evolution, even from afar?
Kly-Max - not sure what do you mean.
Very nice idea. I was leaning toward something like this. You hit the nail on the head. Thanks!
Thanks Leo-
I often strugle with this as a coach. "Do I program the W.U. each day along with the WOD or stick with a few stand-bys? "
Great article! You've reminded me that I really need to get organized and make the warm-up more productive!
Some great ideas, especially about working on weaknesses. Some good warm-ups the coaches where I train use include box jump stairs, when you line all the plyo boxes up in ascending order, with a foot or so space in between, jump up, jump off, jump up to the next box, jump off and so on, working up to max box height jump. A similar thing can be done with broad jumping onto bumper plates spaced apart across the floor. Another golden one is 'Broomstick Fran' 21-15-19 broomstick (PVC) thrusters, and standing up simulating the pullup bar movement with your arms and the dowel (similar to a virtual fran experiment on the mainsite).
Bob - I've seen those before & we've done them quite a few times.
Senders Plus they're called over at GymnasticBodies.com (Coach Sommer's website)
My favorite variation is where you jump over boxes not on top of them progressively varying height & distance.
Leo, we're on the same page as you. We rarely do the "offical CF warm up". Our warm ups change each day. We include different movements, and allow folks to practice things during warm up. We don't have enough time to drill everything we want to drill if we do the same warm up every day...
Roger - 100% agree.
I've noticed this as well Leo. I think the CFWU is great for newer people who need to gain mastery over the fundamentals and as they improve throw in some of the more complicated movements like OHS and medball cleans. But I've noticed a big improvement in effort and enjoyment by changing the warmup from day to day with the more seasoned athletes. Focusing a little on things we suck at, but not beating them over the head with it! Great post!
Apologies for the "Coach" post above. I'm so used to posting on my site I forget I actually have a name!
Varying the warmup to improve skills is essential, especially as there are so many skills we should be solid with.
However it looks like I would need to warm up for some of these warmup!
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