Hey Mwodies,

Today’s mission is a variation on our the shoulder capsular mob we use as World Champ Donnie Thompson says, “to set the shoulder” before big pressing.  Too often an athlete’s shoulder ends up a little forward in the socket which can lead to poor shoulder to scapular mechanics including impingement, instability, and weakness.

And, as a bonus, when an athlete suffers a shoulder tweak, this is a great way to help the athlete reset and reclaim good mechanics.  Keep this in the file of ‘shoulder tweak repair’.

Mission:  Try the Roop variation prior to your next overhead or press fest.  2-3 minutes a side should do it.

Kstar

Hey MWodies,

Today’s episode is a love letter to all those kids taking on this weeks heinous snatch ladder.  We cover some ideas for movement prep and keys to more efficient mechanics.

Regular followers should be familiar with the movement prep ideas except that we want to add in another small pre-game  mob/prep session earlier in the day.  Also, prep for rotation by working on the rotation components of the lock out and the internal rotation components of the first pull.

Key mechanic ideas: 1) Torque/Tension Farm during your negatives  2) knees out at the bottom as the weights touch to save your back and speed up your middle pull 3) keep those shoulders back so that you can keep your back in extension.

Be efficient early.  You’ll need your back and shoulder when you get to the last few minutes of the workout.

Be great.

Kstar

Hey Mwoders,

Today’s mission is to explore the relationship between  too tight ankles and compromised squatting.  Ever wonder why people “suddenly” fall apart at the bottom of their squat right at point where they mysteriously run out of ankle range?  Key idea:  Mobilize at the Position of Restriction.  Some of you will feel a pinch at full compression.  You either didn’t wind up the ankle enough with knees out on the way down, or you’ll need to use a band or a super friend to clean up that joint capsule (search for any of the 20 ankle videos on the site).

Note how the athlete looks on the retest right before he falls over.

Kstar

Hey MWodies,

Today’s mission is to bring a little more awareness to the load ordering in some of our mobilizations.  In short, prioritize the rotational aspects of your mobilization first.

Kstar

Hey MWodies,

It occurs to me that there are a great many of you out there dealing with sore elbows of late.  Let me re-introduce to you the voodoo floss.

Compression tack and flossing works on a ton of different levels.  We hypothesize that we are creating a flexion gapping force at the joint, large circumferential tissue shearing, tissue (insertion) re-perfusion, and muscle stiffness to name a few.  The bottom line is that it works.  Search tack and floss in the search field and make your own out of a bike inner tube until you can get one from Rogue.

Floss on. Floss on.

Kstar

PS.  The pocket powerlifter, Jesse,  is the Voodoo Floss High Priestess.  He has taken our “fun” concept and made it way, way, worser.  It should be every woman’s dream (and man frankly) to have some bit wrapped by the man himself.

Hey Mwoders,

Lately at the  SFCF Lab, we’ve been noticing the impact of lots of sitting on many of our best athletes.  Part of the problem is knowing that you have a problem.  Imagine keeping your elbow bent at 90 degrees and your shoulder bent at 90 degrees.  For literally 100′s of hours a week.  Seriously.  You’d be so stiff you’d be hard pressed to get your hand to your face during breakfast.  Search sitting, desk bound, standing desk in the search feature and you’ll come up with a MobRx for this modern horror.  The easiest way to get hold of your shoulder and back pain, and to improve your performance is to literally look at sitting as toxic.  Period.  And by the way, there is no gray area here.  You can’t smoke cigarettes and jog it out.  You can’t eat little chocolate donuts and then skip dinner.  Neither can you sit all day and then get up for two minutes every quarter hour.  You were not built for it.

Kstar

Ps. If you think it was my dream as a young man to lecture good athletes about the importance of posture and not sitting, you’d be wrong.  It’s an ugly part of the job letting people know they are in denial.

Pss.  Carl Paoli doesn’t sit. Ever.  He rests in a handstand.

Pss. Bill Henniger should know better.

Hey MWodies,

Here are a few ideas about improving your positioning and efficiency for the first workout of the Reebok Crossfit Games Open.

Kstar

PS.  Thankfully Coach Burgener has been secretly preparing us for a burpee apocalypse for years.  I owe my survival to this man.

Hey MWodistas,

Today’s episode is about understanding how much posterior chain range you really need.  Oh, and don’t over-extend at the pelvis you cheaters.  If it turns out you are missing range, then it also turns out you’ve got untapped capacity. And no wonder your back and knees hurt.

We will be posting normal athletic (read functional) ranges in upcoming MWODS.

Post normalcy or anormalcy to comments.

Kstar

Ps.  Search Hamstring or Flossing or Posterior chain if you are unsure what steps to take next.

Hey MWodies,

Today’s mission is open up the side of your rib cage and improve your shoulder range. 

Collect 4-5 minutes a side.  Retest with pushup and overheadedness.

Kstar

ps. We shoot these videos in one take.  Sometimes the technology isn’t perfect.  This one starts out a little blurry. You are gonna have to imagine mobing while a little wasted.

Hey Mwodies,

Today’s episode is one of my favorites.  Because we are in SF, we have the good fortune to be close to Glen Pendlay and his lifters over at Cal Strength.  Last week, we had one of Diane Fu’s lifter crushes drop by.  Who doesn’t want Pat Mendes hanging around your gym?  Actually, he’s annoyingly fast and strong.

I’m reminded sometimes when  I get a chance to work with the world’s best athletes, that they need tools that work appropriately (read actually do something). Pat is a product of super coach John Broz in Vegas, and has legs that can raw squat (deep, really deep) 800lbs.  So, it’s not much of a stretch to see why a tube of white foam isn’t really going to change much in his legs.   It’s not strange that during this smash party, Coach Glenn noted that the Chinese lifters engage in a whole bunch of whole body smashing before and after their training (weird that humans have been around for 2.5 million years and that they figure this out over and over and over…).

By the way, in spite of Pat’s loveliness and incredible abilities, he still get’s a minus one for making  a gristle face. There just isn’t any excuse.  It did take a little longer than two minutes to make change in those tree trunks.  Stay on that tissue or mob until you change something or until you stop making changes.

The weight lifting nationals are just about 2 weeks away.  It’s gonna be amazing.

WOD:  Grab a Barbell or something heavy and go after your legs thighs and quads for at least 10 minutes.  No crazy horse eye.

Kstar