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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
TIA-CLAIR
TOOMEY BETTER THAN YESTERDAY
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USING A WEIGHTLIFTING BELT ADDRESSING TWO COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
A STRONGER YOU: 10 STRATEGIES TO GET YOU FROM SCALED TO RX
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Squat
goals build Mass & strength with this 8-week program
5 tips to help you dominate wall balls power of
the lats Why these muscles are key to your overall fitness
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BECAUSE THE LIFESTYLE DOESN’T END WHEN YOU LEAVE THE BOX...
WHAT’S INSIDE January/February 2017
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PARTICIPATING IN THE OPEN
What you need to know: How to register and submit your scores
FEATURED WOD: T2B LADDER POWER OF THE LATS
Why these back muscles are key to your overall fitness ARE YOU TAKING THE RIGHT KIND OF NOTES?
What to track to make your training more effective
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TIA-CLAIR TOOMEY
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She proved her 2nd place finish as a rookie at the 2015 Games was no fluke by earning another 2nd place finish in 2016. This year, Toomey’s going for the gold.
Wall balls are a lot harder than they look. Here are 5 tips to help you dominate them. 2
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CRUSH WALL BALLS
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USING A WEIGHTLIFTING BELT
Addressing two common misconceptions ATHLETE PROFILE: TIA-CLAIR TOOMEY
2015 Rookie of the Year and two-time 2nd Fittest Woman on Earth talks training, coaching and what it was like to accomplish her lifetime goal of becoming an Olympian
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DOMINATING THE WALL BALL Five tips for more efficient wall balls
SQUAT GAINZ
Follow this 8-week squat program to increase your strength and build mass.
SQUAT GOALS
Eight-week program designed for maximum strength and mass gains
NO MORE SCALING
Ten ways to build strength and dominate your WODs
36 FROM SCALED TO RX
Ten ways to build the strength you need to Rx your next WOD. FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
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Snapshot! Captured at the 2017 Wodapalooza fitness festival
WZA 2017
Photo courtesy of Wodapalooza Fitness Festival
In January, the Wodapalooza Fitness Festival celebrated its sixth year. Founded in 2011 by owner of Peak360 Fitness Guido Trinidad and Steve Suarez, WZA is the premier off-season event of our community. With 1,500 athletes representing 36 countries, the competition draws elite athletes such as Ben Smith, Elijah Muhammed, Sam Dancer, Chyna Cho, Brooke Wells, and Emily Bridgers to name a few. Camille LeBlanc Bazinet (pictured) earned the top spot in the Elite Women division, while Noah Ohlsen claimed the top spot for the Elite Men for the third year in a row. The competition offers a total of 36 divisions, ranging from youth divisions starting at age 10 to standing and seated adaptive divisions emphasizing Wodapalooza’s mission of operating an inclusive (not to mention massive) community-oriented fitness festival. Aside from the action on three main stages, the seminar series also boasted world-class coaches including Olympic weightlifting coach Daniel Camargo, Ironman and running coach Chris Hinshaw, 2008’s Fittest Jason Khalipa and CrossFit legend Chris Spealler.
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Are you Taking the right kind of notes?
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ne of the best habits you can take up is to track your daily workouts— collecting valuable information that will one day allow you to appreciate how much you’ve improved over time. While keeping an active logbook is a good start, here’s some other information to keep track of to make your training even more effective.
TRACKING STRATEGY Four-time CrossFit Games athlete Julie Foucher is famous for tracking 6
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her workouts. Since 2009, Foucher has logged more than 7,020 sessions. You can bet she became a better athlete, thanks in some measure to referring to notes she made on how she approached her workouts. “Every time a benchmark workout comes up, I go straight to BTWB to see how I did last time and what notes I made about my strategy. For example, I have re-done a lot of Open workouts lately to prepare for this upcoming season, and I always check my notes in BTWB to see how I approached the workouts in the past and what times I am shooting for,” says Foucher. Recording your workout strategy helps you in many ways. For one, it reminds your future self how you
approached a certain workout, and whether the strategy was effective or not. Using that information, you can test the same strategy or make adjustments as needed.
TRACKING HOW YOU FEEL Joe Ames is the 2015 CrossFit Games Masters champion in the 50-54 division. Like Foucher, he also takes detailed notes on all of his workouts, including how he feels on each one. It’s easy to get frustrated when you reflect on a workout or lift to find that you’ve only added a few pounds to your PR, or haven’t shaved as much time off a benchmark as you wanted to. It’s important to FACEBOOK.COM/BOXLIFEMAGAZINE
remember that not every training day brings about ideal performance. Some days you might feel more tired than usual, or be dealing with a lingering injury, for example. Unless you track how you felt before and after a workout, you won’t truly know the circumstances leading up to your score. Similarly, making note of the days you feel good is equally important. Such information helps reaffirm your programming and efforts and prevents you from making drastic, many times unnecessary changes. Along with tracking how you feel, include notes on what elements of a workout felt good, and where you feel you need improvement. For example, even though you may think that you have muscle-ups, a note that reminds you that you have trouble maintaining
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proper form at the fifth rep, for example, can help tailor your focus to work on muscular endurance. Similarly, a note that reads, “Clean feels strong, but have trouble with split jerk,” suggests some corrections needed in your Olympic lifting.
TRACKING THE INTANGIBLES
intangibles and comparing them to your performance can help explain certain situations you might not otherwise understand. For example, feeling tired, dehydrated, or bloated during a workout could correlate to your diet or sleep pattern on that day. Sometimes tracking even the smallest details, could make the biggest difference.
What and when you eat, along with how much sleep you get, and how you recover are examples of intangibles that Katrin Davidsdottir, two-time Games champion, calls the one-percent. As in, the one-percent that can make you that much fitter and healthier, that can make your training that much more effective—that can help you win the CrossFit Games. Tracking these
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DOMINATING THE WALL BALL 5 TIPS TO PRACTICE
Wall balls are an integral part of CrossFit. Do 150 of them and you’ve just completed Karen, one of the sport’s most notorious benchmark workouts. The idea of a wall ball sounds easy enough, right? Squat bellow parallel. Thrust the ball up to a target. Catch the ball as it comes down and repeat until you’ve completed the specified number of reps. Easy, right? Wrong. Anyone who’s ever been smacked in the face with a med ball or thrown the ball up and completely missed the target can testify that wall balls are a lot harder than they look. Here are five tips to practice to help you dominate the wall ball.
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Keeping proper distance from the wall ball target is key in moving efficiently. Stand too close and you’ll risk throwing the ball straight up and missing the target completely. Stand too far and you’ll find yourself working harder to cover the distance between you and the target. It’s important to note that being too far from the target is usually better than being too close. To measure the proper distance, stand under the target and extend your arms out in front of you. Your fingers should be able to touch the wall or rig. At this point, you should find yourself 20-25 inches from the wall or rig. Practice from this position and slightly adjust until you find your sweet spot. It’s unlikely that you’ll need to adjust more than five inches from the starting spot.
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Photo credit: Zumpano Reps/ CC BY-NC 2.0
KNOW YOUR DISTANCE
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DROP LOW
Athletes sometimes think they’re saving time and energy by not squatting to full depth, but holding back on how low you go can actually have the opposite effect. For starters, energy is wasted in the deceleration process as you attempt to stop just below parallel. It’s actually easier to drop all the way down and bounce out of the bottom—as your body takes advantage of the stretch shortening cycle where your muscles act like a spring, driving you up, resulting in a more efficient movement.
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CATCH IN PLACE
Ideally, you want to catch the med ball so that your hands are on the underside of the ball (as opposed to the sides), as close to your body as possible, with your wrists about six inches apart. Catching the med ball on its side can cause your chest to fall forward, making the ball feel heavier and even possibly falling out of your hands. As the ball makes initial contact with your hands, you should still be standing with your hands near the middle of you face. Begin to squat once the ball has made contact. Squatting before you’ve caught the med ball can make the impact feel heavier. Over the course of a few reps, this impact can take a toll.
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REST WHEN YOU CAN
Want to put your Whether or not you’re doing wall balls, wall ball skills holding your arms overhead can become to the test? Give exhausting. Every five reps or so, once you’ve one of these thrown the ball, quickly bring your arms benchmark down and shake them out. Your shoulders will WODs a try! appreciate the short breaks. ______ Karen 150 wall balls For time
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DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH
Just like any other exercise, breathing is fundamental to your efficiency and endurance. Breathing in sync with your reps helps create a rhythm as you’re moving through the workout. As you begin your descent into the squat, inhale. As you spring up, exhale.
Kelly Run 400m 30 box jumps 30 wall balls 5 rounds For time
Practice makes perfect. Focus on perfecting one or two of these techniques every time you perform wall balls. Once you’ve mastered a technique, move on to another one. With enough practice, these tips will become second nature to you!
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Using a Weightlifting Belt Addressing Common Misconceptions ▶by erin moynihan
It’s a common misconception that weightlifting belts are used to support your lower back. Instead, they protect your lower back from injury by allowing you to maintain form under heavier weight. Many lower back injuries associated with weightlifting come from poor form. During a deadlift or a squat, and many other movements, we are taught to keep our back flat. This cue tries to prevent flexion (also known as rounding) in our spine. Flexion in the lumbar spine, especially while under load, can lead to injury. When your lower back is rounded, it compresses your intervertebral discs. The pressure on the front of the discs can cause bulging or herniated discs. True or False? You should tighten your belt as tight as it will go. False. The function of a belt is to increase your intra-abdominal pressure. This pressure creates core stability and is key in protecting your spine and the muscles that surround it. Increased pressure allows you to more easily maintain good positioning 10
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throughout your lift. If you lose your core, you lose the lift. Before you tighten your belt, hold a slight inhale so you can feel your belly expand a bit once your belt is on. Pull the belt so you feel it begin to pressure your abdomen. Slight pressure is all you need. If you tighten it to the point that it’s restricting your ability to flex your core fully, loosen it some. You’ve gone too far. Once your belt is securely fastened around your abdomen, you’re going to begin to brace, or flex, your core muscles. The Valsalva maneuver (VM) is a widely known and practiced bracing technique. The VM is practiced with and without a belt, and there’s a good chance you do this already without putting a name to it. The VM is defined as the forced exhalation against a closed glottis (your mouth and your nose). All this means is that you’re going to begin to exhale, but you’re not going to let any air out. Restricting your air flow will help create that intra-abdominal pressure. With this, you should feel your abdomen begin to flex. Feeling your belt, you are going to continue to flex and brace into the belt. Note that you are not pressuring outwards, you are contracting into the belt. Now you’re ready to begin your lift. Safe sets everyone.
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© Can Stock Photo / sportpoint
W
earing a weightlifting belt is pretty common in any gym environment. If you’re relatively experienced, you have probably learned through trial and error when and why to wear a belt. Rarely though does anyone really know what using a weightlifting belt does for your health and training.
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s a young girl, Tia Clair Toomey grew up on a sugar cane farm in Queensland, Australia. There she played a variety of sports and trained at the pool, track and the gym under her father’s watchful eye. It was the 2000 Olympics in Sydney that inspired Toomey to consider what it might be like to win a gold medal herself, specifically in track and field. Her father believed in her dream and helped her lay the groundwork for the athlete she is today. At 11, Toomey placed third in her first regional track meet and went on to three nationals appearances, before her parents sent her to boarding school for her junior and senior years of high school. Away from family, friends and her sweetheart, the track was her refuge. After graduation, she enrolled at the Queensland University of Technology but withdrew after just a few months and moved a few hours north to Gladstone with her partner and now coach, Shane Orr. She got a job as a dental assistant and returned to what she loved the most, running. After making it to the first step toward qualification for the Olympic team, Orr suggested Toomey try CrossFit to build her strength. Reluctant, she tried her first CrossFit workout in 2013. Toomey admits feeling she was ‘already fit’ and questioned how lifting weights would improve her running. She also thought CrossFit was quite expensive. Soon enough, she realized the investment was changing her life. She was making friends, and her athleticism outside the box was improving. It dawned on her that she wasn’t just paying for a gym membership, she was getting an experience in return. Though it was a rocky start, Toomey’s competitive spirit kept her intrigued in the sport. After the 2013 Open, Toomey was surprised at how much she was enjoying CrossFit and decided to quit running to focus on CrossFit full-time determined to qualify for the 2014 Australian Regionals. As she trained that year, she caught the eye of weightlifting coach Miles Wydall, who offered to train Toomey for free if she would compete for him. She agreed, and it was witnessing elite athletes training at the Cougars Weightlifting Club in Brisbane 12
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that inspired her to consider making it to the Olympics in weightlifting. The following year, Toomey achieved her goal of making it to the 2014 Regionals, though the experience wasn’t what she’d hoped it would be. Aside from a poor performance in the legless rope climb event, Toomey admits ‘she didn’t play her game’ and ended in 18th place. Feeling broken by it all, the competition left her considering whether she’d want to continue pursuing CrossFit. Throughout the rest of 2014, she lacked will and motivation. She registered for the 2015 Open halfheartedly, and it was in during the triplet of muscleups, wall-ball shots and double-unders of 15.3 that she decided she might as well prove to herself and others that “anyone can achieve what they want to achieve so long as they put their mind to it.” Toomey placed third in the Pacific Regional that year, and made her way to Carson, CA for her first appearance at the CrossFit Games. Not only did she earn the Rookie of the Year award, but also claimed the second-place podium at her first Games appearance. A few months later, at the Australian Open, weighing 127lbs, Toomey took the top qualifying spot for the 2016 Australian Olympic Team, snatching 182.9lbs and clean and jerking 244.7lbs. In 2016, Toomey had one of the most admirable athletic performances within our community. She made her second consecutive appearance at the CrossFit Games in July, and placed second, a second year in a row. The following month, in August, she represented Australia at the 2016 Summer Olympics where she snatched 180.7 lbs and clean-and-jerked 235.8 lbs for 14th place in the 58-kg category. And, in November she was invited to return as a member of the Pacific Team at the CrossFit Invitational held in Oshawa, Canada. Her career as an elite CrossFit athlete is shorter than most others’. Yet, at 23, Toomey now coaches and coowns CrossFit Gladstone and she has ramped up her training for the 2017 season. Balancing her business, her training, and a recent engagement, there are no signs of her slowing down and we can’t wait to see what she has in store.
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“FIRST THINGS FIRST, I’VE GOT TO GET THROUGH THE OPEN, BUT MY MAIN GOAL IS TO MAKE IT BACK TO THE CROSSFIT GAMES AND WIN.”
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squat goals Build MASS and STRENGTH with this 8-week Squat Program by damect dominguez
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© Can Stock Photo / jalephoto
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No More Scaling 10 Ways to Build Strength
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& Dominate Your WODs by isaac payne @isaacpurepayne
ow many times have you walked into the gym, looked at the whiteboard and saw the workout called for 275/195lb deadlifts or 155/115lb shoulder to overhead and you just died inside? CrossFit is tough. Really tough. For most, just being able to do a workout Rx’d is a huge accomplishment. Maybe your technique isn’t half bad or you’ve got decent stamina but you lack the strength to move some real weight. 16
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If you want to take your workouts to the next level, you may want to consider taking a step back to develop your strength. The good news is that building strength might be simpler than you think. There are some tried, tested and true methods that bodybuilders, powerlifters, and professional athletes have used for decades to develop world-class strength. It will take hard work and consistency to make some serious gains, but you can get there. Here are 11 ways to build strength and dominate your workouts.
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1. FOCUS ON THE "BIG 3". Getting strong means moving weight, and lots of it, on a regular basis. There’s arguably no better way to do that than with the squat, bench press, and deadlift aka the Big 3. The bench press may be one of the most overlooked exercises in the CrossFit community but it is still one of the best ways to build upper body strength. Do these movements or variations of them at least once a week to build a solid foundation of full body strength. 2. FOCUS ON THE OVERHEAD PRESS. Overhead strength is not something to overlook. The overhead press keeps the shoulders strong and puts the finishing touches on your upper body strength. Strict presses, push presses and dumbbell shoulder presses are your best options. 3. USE DEFICIT REPS. By simply increasing the range of motion on a given exercise (creating a deficit), you increase time under tension and can better target weak points in the movement. Deficits work really well for exercises like push-ups, handstand push-ups, deadlifts and lunges. 4. USE PAUSE REPS. Similar to a deficit, pause reps can also help strengthen weak points. For example, you can use the pause technique with the back squat where you pause for 2-3 seconds at the bottom before coming back up. This will help to build strength at the weakest point in the movement. Remember to use lighter loads with this technique since it is more demanding.
Photo credit: Rafael López/ CC BY-NC -ND 2.0
5. USE TEMPO REPS. The speed at which you move through a given range of motion can also affect your strength gains. Using various tempos such as three-second eccentric/one-second concentric are great ways to tax your muscles. Again, more time under tension will force you to work harder making you stronger in the process.
6. USE SINGLE ARM/LEG EXERCISES. Dumbbells aren’t used enough in CrossFit. There’s no better way to address muscular imbalances than with unilateral training. Training one limb at a time helps to improve joint stability which will directly transfer into more strength on bilateral lifts. Bulgarian split squats, single-leg deadlifts, and one-arm rows are some of the best unilateral exercises. 7. BUILD GRIP STRENGTH. Never let grip be the limiting factor in a lift. It has been said that there is a very high correlation between grip strength and overall strength. This makes sense since so many movements like deadlifts, pull-ups, and Olympic lifts all require fundamental grip strength to be proficient. Farmer carries, rope climbs and even heavy dumbbell rows are surefire ways to develop raw grip strength.
your muscles no choice but to get stronger to adapt. Training to failure should be programmed sparingly since it is very taxing, especially in higher rep ranges. 9. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE REST DAYS. Strength is primarily a product of fine-tuned nervous system. The nervous system can take up to three times as long as your muscles to fully recover. If you are too sore or fatigued, your output will be significantly compromised. If you start to feel sluggish or a little beat up during the week, that’s a tell-tale sign you need to recoup. Getting strong is more about quality than quantity. Consider not training more than three days in a row if building strength is your primary focus. 10. TRAIN EXPLOSIVELY. Moving light to moderate weight explosively can sometimes be more brutal than moving heavy weight slowly. This type of training helps to develop power or speed-strength. The boys at the powerlifting mecca, Westside Barbell, refer to this as dynamic effort. This provides huge benefits while putting less stress on the joints that heavier loads tend to do. Plyometrics are also a great method for developing explosiveness. BONUS TIP: BE CONSISTENT. Getting strong takes time. One of the biggest differences between someone who is strong and can cycle a barbell like all day and someone who can’t deadlift his own bodyweight is the simple fact that the former guy just didn’t stop. He stayed on the wagon and put in more time. Whatever your training split looks like, stick to it. There is more value in sticking to a program and seeing it through to the end than constantly “switching it up”. Just because you didn’t see any gains in two weeks doesn’t mean your program didn’t work. Think of strength development as strategically varied functional movement performed at controlled intensity. Best of luck with your strength gains. Now go dominate!
8. TRAIN TO FAILURE. As a CrossFitter, muscle fatigue is nothing new to you. This is a tried and true technique among bodybuilders and for good reason. By performing a set to failure, you are forcing your muscles to work their absolute hardest. This gives BOXLIFEMAGAZINE.COM
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