Tuesday 160119- Are you making the most of progressions?

Imagine a barbell in the gym with 600# loaded onto it and a sign that says "deadlift me." Would you expect to be able to be able to deadlift 600 pounds without first lifting 200, then 300, then 400, then 500 pounds?

Yesterday's workout had muscle ups, which is an advanced movement with certain strength and skill requirements. When we program difficult or advanced movements in a workout, we usually offer a series of alternate movements or progressions for athletes to perform. These progressions are meant to appropriately challenge your strength and skill so that you can make improvements and advance towards the full movement. If you want to be able to do a muscle up, you need the strength to be able to do a strict chest to bar pull up and a strict deep ring dip. Once you have this strength, you will need to practice the transition, which is moving from the top of the pull up into the bottom of the dip. 

The key here is making sure that you're getting the most out of every rep. If your upper body strength is good, the rings should be higher and each rep should involve as much of your upper body as possible. You can even start by sitting on your butt, with legs out in front of you. Doing scaled muscle ups like this is almost as hard as doing one from the high rings. If you're not as strong in your upper body, you will need to keep feet on the ground, underneath the rings, and use them to help yourself during the pull and the dip. Whatever level you're at, you should be challenging yourself with each rep, and over time, raising the rings and/or moving your feet forward so that you force your body to adapt and get stronger. A million easy scaled muscle ups will not translate into an actual one, just as doing a bunch of deadlifts at 200 pounds will not translate into a 600 pound deadlift. You must progressively increase the difficulty over weeks and months in order to improve. Keep this idea in mind when we've programmed any movements or weights that you can not yet perform! Challenge yourself, make incremental improvements, and you can get there!

I remember when Adam was just a good runner... 

Warm up 3

Speed Deadlift 8x3

10:00 AMRAP: 

3 Thrusters, 95# 

3 Toes to Bar

6 Thrusters, 95# 

6 Toes to Bar

9 Thrusters, 95# 

9 Toes to Bar

... And so on until time expires.