Dr. Samara came in as an intern. We got her working hard on building her skills, then we got her working hard on building her strength and athletic skills (she has an athletic background as a swimmer). Here she is demonstrating strength and balance, all fun stuff that comes from CrossFit.
So here today, we want to add to the repertoire of weekly workouts for you. And once again, these are designed so that anyone can do them. Why? Because as Greg Glassman has said, the fitness needs of our elite fighters and our grandmothers differ in degree, not in kind.
Meaning, a good workout is one that can be done by everyone at their own relative intensity.
Dr. Samara
So earlier this week we did a workout at CrossFit Silos that was perfect for all of you. And we did a similar one at CrossFit Bridgemill that I will talk about as well. But first, the workout of the week for you!
10 – 100M Sprints
Simple. Running is the most important skill you could have in athletics. Speed and power. Fast is everything in sport, and in response to an emergency, and reaction to a threat of any type. It is the key! So consider making your way onto a track, finding the 100M mark, and blasting through 10 of them. Your rest is the walk back to the starting line (about 2 minutes). 20 Minutes later, your legs will be killing you, your shoulders will be tight, your arms will be full of blood and pumped, and you’ll look and feel like you did a full body workout (because you did)!
You have heard me say that you need to work on balanced activities that are not one sided – golf and tennis are one sided, and should always be “PART” of your full physical fitness routine, not ALL of it, else you’ll destroy your spine. Now a high level tennis player who has a backhand like a forehand, is better off. But you get the concern.
Caution
You need to stretch and warm up some prior to the runs. You also need to be considerate of past posterior chain injuries (along the back of the leg). If you have had these, then you need to hold yourself to about 70-80% of your max intensity, else you’ll pull a hamstring and be in awful pain for weeks. But worse, you’ll be sidelined! If you haven’t done much with high intensity, it is also reason to pull back the reins and go around 60-70% of max intensity. Build up over time.
If you don’t have a track, don’t worry. Step off 33 good steps, if you are 5′-5’5″ you want to step off closer to 36 steps (these are pretty wide steps for everyone). This will be your distance, mark off two objects for start and finish, and go to work.
So as I was saying earlier, I did a similar workout at CF Bridgemill this week. 10 – 30 second all out rows (on a concept 2 rowing machine) followed by 90 seconds of rest. It was brutal, I felt like I would throw up for sure (didn’t, just felt that way). My point in sharing, a short duration all out burst with rests in between, will work you harder than you would think possible.
Be Well, Be Blessed and Be Fit! – Dr. E