Category Archives: Instructional

Stretching After Weight Lifting – CrossFit New Jersey Workouts

CrossFit Stretching for weightlifting

Stretching After Weight Lifting – CrossFit New Jersey Workouts

Athletes enjoy the weightlifting side of CrossFit a lot. Weightlifting is a good way to test how you are progressing. You can see your progress in many ways from heavier weights to better technique. One thing that can prevent athletes from seeing progress is not stretching after you finish lifting.

Most of the time when you are finished weightlifting you are exhausted. You want to get protein in you and go home and rest from a hard workout. You don’t want to sit at the gym for another 10 minutes and stretch. However, when you don’t stretch this allows the lactic acid to build up and is the reason you are sore the next day and day after your weight lifting session.

Another reason stretching is important is it will help increase your range of motion and flexibility. This will translate to helping you in your lifts. If you constantly have trouble getting the bar overheard into the right position it is not just going to magically fix itself. You need to work on your mobility and that will help you get the bar to where you need it. Stretching can make it easier to get under the bar for snatch and cleans. Better hip flexibility will make it easier to get to the bottom of the squat and get more power from your legs on your pulls.

Always ask your coaches if you have any questions about stretching. They can give you a lot of specific stretches that will help you. If you are looking for a routine to do after you finish working out check out the video at the top. The video has examples of stretches that are designed for athletes and weightlifters.

Open your hips, quickly! CrossFit in Cherry Hill NJ

Open your hips, quickly! CrossFit in Cherry Hill NJ

Short on time, but need to open up those hip capsules before your workout? Well, we’ve got the answer for you: The Batman hip opener. In many cases, tight hips and hips lacking end range of motion are contributors to lower back issues. By opening those tissues in the hips, you should see a lot less instability transferred to the lower spine.

THE BATMAN HIP OPENER

The only piece of equipment you’ll need is a sturdy resistance band, with something like a pull-up rig or support beam to anchor it to. This band will be supporting your body weight, so be sure to check the limits of the band ahead of time.

CrossFit Open your hips

Start by hanging the band from your support structure. Get inside of the band, placing it under your armpits as pictured above.

We are looking to achieve the split and straddle positions to really begin to open our hips. These positions are normally tough (and sometimes torturous!) for most of us, so the band allows us to ease into these positions. Most importantly, it allows us to keep the chest up!

THE SPLIT

CrossFit Open your hips

Depending on your personal range of motion, see how far you can get into the split and try to find your end range of motion without compromising your position and letting the chest fall.

CrossFit Open your hips

THE STRADDLE

We can also use the straddle position to help increase our hip mobility:

CrossFit Open your hips

Spend some time rotating forward and backwards:

CrossFit Open your hips

CrossFit Open your hips

You can also work side to side:

CrossFit Open your hips

CrossFit Open your hips

The support of the band should allow you to get into some corners that you normally wouldn’t have access too. Be sure to keep the legs as straight as possible. Have fun with this one and see how far you can get into each position!

Greg Glassman: King of CrossFit – New Jersey CrossFit

king of crossfit greg glassman

Greg Glassman: King of CrossFit – New Jersey CrossFit

On Sunday, 60 Minutes re-aired a segment about Greg Glassman, the creator of CrossFit. The segment talked about Glassman’s philosophy on fitness, how CrossFit started out, and touched on the business side. Glassman believes through CrossFit he can help you reach your “genetic potential”. By genetic potential he means helping you create the body you would have developed in the caveman era to survive in the wild. CrossFit is all about the unknown and unforeseeable. The workouts help you transform your body so that you will be ready for anything that life throws at you from an earthquake to every day chores around the house.

Glassman created CrossFit after dropping out of college and becoming a personal trainer. His clients would perform CrossFit style workouts at traditional gyms. Gym owners were not a fan of his loud and untraditional style of training. He frequently got kicked out of gyms and had to find new places to workout. Finally in 2001, Glassman opened his own box in Santa Cruz.

Fast forward to today, there are now over 12,000 boxes. These boxes are all over the world from the United States to Australia. Glassman made it very simple to open up a box, $3,000 yearly fee and a two day seminar. Other than those two stipulations, there are no other rules. You can open up a box directly next door to another one if you wanted to.

I highly recommend checking out the whole 60 Minutes interview. It is a great way to learn more about the man who created CrossFit and to learn about how safe and effective these workouts are for your body.

Instant Hip Improvement for the Desk Athlete – CrossFit South Jersey Locations

Instant Hip Improvement for the Desk Athlete – CrossFit South Jersey Locations

Where all my desk warriors at?? This one’s for you!

Many of us have jobs that keep us mostly sedentary, slaving away as we sit in a chair (or in the car) for hours on end. This is MURDER for our hips and glutes! These desk athletes tend to have short hips, making it tough to achieve full extension without breaking at the midline, and as a result, hyper-extension occurs instead of a neutral spine. Here are a few tips for you all:

#1 – TURBOCHARGED HIP OPENER (PRE EXERCISE)

CrossFit Hip Improvement

Using a resistance band, anchor the band to something sturdy and place one leg inside. Take a few steps back to create tension and, with the band right up under your glute, kneel down into the lunge position. You can use a plyo box or something nearby to hold onto. Be sure to drive your hips forward by squeezing your glutes and keep a neutral spine and chest position. Spend 2-3 minutes on each side.

#2 – ANKLE RANGE INSOMETRIC (POST EXERCISE)

CrossFit Hip Improvement

Grab that plyo box from step #1 and place one foot up onto it with the top of your foot down against the top of the box. Begin to walk/hop forward so that you can keep a vertical shin as your sink down into a deep lunge. Again, be sure to keep a neutral spine. Try to hang out in this position for 1 minute, each side, two times.

So for all my “Executive” athletes with short hips, this one will be a game changer for you. Spend just a few minutes each day mobilizing with these techniques and you should see dramatic improvement in your hip position.

5 Deadlift Mistakes to Avoid – New Jersey CrossFit Classes

5 Deadlift Mistakes to Avoid – New Jersey CrossFit Classes

Deadlift is one of the fundamental movements of CrossFit. It is also referred to as the “King of All Lifts”. Improving your deadlift can help increase your clean and squat as well as helping you improve on your overall strength. Deadlift seems simple but there are common mistakes that people make. These mistakes can be holding you back from hitting a new PR. Here are the 5 most common mistakes in deadlift and how to avoid them:

#1 Too far away from the bar

CrossFit Deadlift Mistakes

When you deadlift you want to make sure the bar is as close to your body as you can. This is a little bit different than when you clean. You want to drag the bar up your shins and thighs so that the bar stays in contact with your body the whole time. When you set up make sure you start with the bar touching your shins and keep the weight back on your heels when you pull from the ground.

#2 Butt rising too fast

CrossFit Deadlift Mistakes

This mistake happens when the weight gets heavier. If you try to pull the bar off the ground and your butt rises up too fast, you will be pulling more with your hamstrings. This is not an efficient way to use your legs and back to pull the bar. A good way to avoid this is to make sure your hips and shoulders rise at the same speed until the bar is above your knee.

#3 Rounding your back

CrossFit Deadlift Mistakes

Rounding your back will happen a lot of times because of the previous mistake of your butt rising to early. You are not as strong when your back is rounded and it will put you in a bad position to deadlift from. This bad position could result in an injury if you continue to do it. The best way to avoid rounding your spine is by making sure you keep a nice neutral spine through the whole lift and by keeping your back nice and tight.

#4 Over extending at the top

CrossFit Deadlift Mistakes

This common mistake you will see when people over exaggerate getting your hips through at the top. This can lead to back pain or a hyper-extension injury of the lower back. This is very easy to avoid by just standing tall and pushing your hips through the bar.

#5 Jerking the weight off the ground

CrossFit Deadlift Mistakes

When you are setting up for deadlift you always want to make sure you are completely ready to pull the bar off the ground before you start. If your elbows are bent and you jerk the bar from the ground from that position it can lead to a major injury of the bicep. The best way to avoid this is by not rushing the set up. Make sure you are set up completely before you start to pull the bar. You can also flex your triceps which will make sure you cannot bend your elbows.

These five mistakes can be holding you back from your true potential in deadlift. Next time you deadlift when you are warming up check to make sure you are not making any of these mistakes. If you continue to practice with proper form you will see the weights go up in no time!

Knee Pain- CrossFit Gyms New Jersey

Knee Pain- CrossFit Gyms New Jersey

Welcome back! Today we tackle the ongoing issue of knee pain. Many of us have dealt with some form of knee pain throughout our fitness journey. Whether it’s some tightness or discomfort when squatting or pain due to impact while running, our knees take just as much abuse as any other part of our body.

We first need to look at our squat position. Any inclination of knees falling in or excessive push of the knees forward can cause tension throughout the anterior chain, resulting in knee pain. It may be as simple as reassessing the bottom of your squat and forcing your knees out. If you squat position is technically sound and the knee pain still exists, try these few mobility techniques and see if you knee situation improves!

#1 – CALF RELEASE

CrossFit Knee Pain

We do this stretch religiously against the rig at the end of each class, but try coming in a few minutes early and spend a few minutes here before your next squatting session. Try and get your heal as close to the wall as possible and drive your hips forward. MOST IMPORTANTLY, make sure your knee is staying out over the toes and not falling in! It’s very important to mobilize in the positions we desire to achieve!

#2 – FLEXION GAPPING

CrossFit Knee Pain

Grab a lacrosse ball and stick it behind your knee. Gently pull the knee into flexion, using the ball to smash any tight tissues and expand the front of the knee. Be sure to make a circular motion with your foot/ankle to hit this area really well.

#3 – FEED SLACK TO THE PATELLAR TENDON

CrossFit Knee Pain

Using the lacrosse ball again, this time placing it just above your knee cap, lie down on the floor and curl your leg up and down. The goal is to hit all three quadrants of the knee cap – laterl, medial, and internal. Your goal is for 20 repetitions at each point, creating space around the knee cap.

#4 – HIP CAPSULE OPENER

CrossFit Knee Pain

Grab a band and anchor it to the rig or something sturdy. Step in the band and bring it up to your hip, just under the glute. Step back to put tension on the band and drop down into the lunge position, kneeling on the leg that’s inside the band. Tie in the psoas by squeezing your glutes tight and stretching towards the opposite side, away from the banded leg. Reach overhead with your arms (see picture).

#5 – COUCH STRETCH

CrossFit Knee Pain

With one leg up against a wall, toe up and shin flat, bring your other leg up again into a lunge-like position. The key to this stretch is to keep the back leg as close to the wall as possible, and also to drive the hip down towards the floor. Be sure to find any tight corners that exist!

Spend a few minutes mobilizing each day and, over time, you should see some pretty awesome improvement with your knee issues!

Mobility Tips – A quick fix to hip impingement – CrossFit South Jersey

Mobility Tips – A quick fix to hip impingement – CrossFit South Jersey

Hips still feeling tight after last week’s mobilization tips? Well, here’s another one comin’ at ya! Time to attack the source directly and clear that hip impingement!

#1 – HIP DISTRACTION

Hip Mobility CrossFit

Anchor a band at ground level to something sturdy – the rig, a pole, or anything solid that you can wrap around. Step into the band with one leg and put it high into your hip. Begin by turning away from the anchor point and walking forward to create tension. Head down to your hands and knees, allowing the band to distract your hip back into the socket (towards the anchor point – see picture). Slowly oscillate your hip back and forth. Don’t fight the band. Instead, allow it to pull your further into deep flexion.

Hip Mobility CrossFit

Add hip rotation by crossing your leg in front of your other leg, again allowing the band to do the work! Look for those tight corners by working your hip in different directions:

Hip Mobility CrossFit

Be sure to spend a few minutes on BOTH sides!

#2 – LYING HIP DISTRACTION

Hip Mobility CrossFit

Stay in the band after completing #1 from above, and turn over so that you are lying on your back, belly up. Keep your free leg flat on the floor and pull the leg in the band up towards your chest. Keep that leg extended, foot towards the ceiling and allow the band to pull your hip towards the anchor point.

You can also spend a few minutes pulling that leg across your body:

Hip Mobility CrossFit

Be sure to test and retest by standing tall and lifting your knee as high as you can:

Hip Mobility CrossFit

So next time your hips are feeling extra tight, be sure to give this gem a try. Let us know your results!

crossfit clean

2 Simple Steps to Learning the Olympic Lifts – Cherry Hill CrossFit Gym

2 Simple Steps to Learning the Olympic Lifts – Cherry Hill CrossFit Gym

Sometimes, less is more. And this concept certainly applies to learning the Olympic lifts for the very first time. Christmas Abbott – National weightlifter, CrossFit Games competitor, and box owner – does a great job of breaking down the lifts into two simple steps to help her athletes focus on the fundamentals and not worry about every little technical step. Now, that’s not to say that we don’t need to refine the movements once we get the basics down, but understanding them at the most simple level will get you under the bar before you know it!

#1 – JUMP AND PUNCH! (THE SNATCH)

That’s it. Just jump and punch. I know it seems too good to be true, but you don’t need to over think it. Start by standing the bar up so that it hangs naturally at your waist, right in the crease of your hips (full grip around the bar, using the hook grip if you know how).

CrossFit Snatch Pergression
Once you’ve achieved this position, it’s time to jump. Be aggressive! So, jump hard and high, extending your hips as much as possible before you punch that bar overhead.

CrossFit Snatch Progression
After you jump, driving through your heels, it’s time to punch! Again, a hard and aggressive punch is required to ensure you get that bar overhead quickly, locking out your arms.

CrossFit Snatch ProgressionCrossFit Snatch Progression
Simply stand tall to complete the lift!

#2 – JUMP AND CATCH! (THE CLEAN)

Similar concepts can be applied to the clean, except instead of jump and punch, you now need to jump and catch. Start the same way, by standing the bar up to your waist. This time, bring your hands in a bit closer, so that your thumbs can just barely brush the sides of your legs.

CrossFit Snatch Progressions

Again, you jump to initiate the movement!

CrossFit Snatch Progression
To “catch”, you just need to swing your elbows under the bar, getting them up quickly and as high as you can. Stand to finish the lift!

CrossFit Snatch Progression
Now I’m sure some weightlifting coaches are cringing as they read this, thinking “These movements or much more technical and complex than just two steps!”. I don’t disagree. Both the clean & jerk and the snatch are high level movements with lots of intricate parts to them, but for someone just starting out less is definitely more! Here is a link to the video to help you hammer home these steps.

Pistol Progression Part 3 of 3 – CrossFit Classes in Cherry Hill

Pistol Progression Part 3 of 3 – CrossFit Classes in Cherry Hill

Well, if you’re reading this, that hopefully means you’ve been through parts 1 and 2 of our pistol progression and are having awesome success with the movement! Here is our third and final piece of the puzzle. With these tools, you’ll be able to add the pistol to your movement arsenal (no pun intended).

#1 – UNILATERAL ROTATION

When performing unilateral movements such as the pistol, our body naturally aligns itself by internally rotating. We are going to start right where we left off from part 2 of our progression, on the box, but now we will take a look at the step-down from the frontal view.

Pistol Squat Progression CrossFit Philadelphia
Notice how the body is not facing directly forward, but the torso is in line with the knee. The body is turned out towards that supporting leg. This rotational component is crucial to success with the pistol, and one that many athletes neglect. Again, start by standing atop a box with both feet together. Then begin to step down by reverse lunging, keeping the back foot sliding down the box until it reaches the floor. Be sure to start with your torso square, but rotate over the knee as your begin to descend. Same applies to standing back up. Being facing forward, then rotate over the knee as you stand, finishing back with a squared torso/hip position.

Pistol Squat Progression CrossFit Supercharged
#2 – SIDE STEP/LEG SWING

Here is where our pistol practice gets fun! Instead of sending our leg straight back to start our descent from the box, we now want to stand close to the edge of the box so that our foot can hang off the side. Perform our step down by sending your leg back behind you into the air. This will send the torso forward and allow us to lower our level.

Pistol Squat Progression CrossFit Philly
Once we reach the bottom of our pistol it’s crucial to swing that leg through to the front!

Pistol Squat Progression CrossFit Supercharged
This is the position we want to get comfortable with! To stand back up, simply swing the leg back behind you and reverse the process!

Pistol Squat Progression CrossFit Supercharged PhiladelphiaPistol Squat Progression CrossFit Supercharged PhiladelphiaPistol Squat Progression CrossFit Supercharged Philadelphia
This is just another way of progressing the pistol and allowing it to be stronger. Once you master the leg swing version, you can start to keep the leg slightly in front and it eventually become a true pistol!

Pistol Squat Progression Philadelphia CrossFit
Hopefully, this 3 part pistol progression has gotten you closer to getting that magical movement. Remember, it’s not about getting the pistol on your first try. It’s about being better than you were yesterday, so have patience and practice as much as possible!

CrossFit Pistol

Pistol Progression Part 2 of 3 – Cherry Hill CrossFit

Pistol Progression Part 2 of 3 – Cherry Hill CrossFit

As promised, here is the second installment to our pistol progression. If you were able to successfully perform all the movements in part 1, then you are ready to tackle these next steps!

#1 – BOX SQUAT AND STAND

With just a basic box or bench, we need to set an item up for us to sit down to and stand back up from. Now, what a lot of people don’t realize is that it’s ok to have a displaced center of mass (aka chest forward as we stand from squat position) when we are doing body-weight/gymnastics movements. In fact, it’s completely normal! It’s when we are under heavy load, say in a front or back squat, that we need to focus more on keeping the chest tall and knees out, lessening that displacement.

To start, set up your box or bench and simply squat down to a full seated position on the box. When ready, stand back up! It’s a very simple concept, but allow your chest to come forward as you rise and descend. Send your hips back. This exaggerated movement is key to success with our pistol.

CrossFit Pistol Squat ProgressionCrossFit Pistol Squat Progression Philadelphia PA
#2 – MAINTAIN VERTICAL SHIN

How do I maintain a vertical shin while squatting? The answer is simple…..Knees out! Understanding squatting mechanics is essential for our pistol, so by pushing the knees out, our shin becomes perpendicular to the ground, allowing us access to the hip.

KNEE IN – ANGLED SHIN
CrossFit Pistol Squat Progression Philadelphia
KNEE OUT – VERTICAL SHIN

CrossFit Pistol Squat Progression Philadelphia
#3 – BOX STEP DOWN

Find a box that is a decent height for you to step onto. Once on top of the box, start standing tall, arms out, and send one foot back so that it drops off of the box. From here, bend forward and begin to step all the way down to the floor. Slide all the way down the box until your foot reaches the floor.

CrossFit Pistol Squat Progression PhiladelphiaCrossFit Pistol Squat Progression Philadelphia

Your finish position should be with your foot flat on the floor and your hip crease below your knee.

CrossFit Pistol Squat Progression Philadelphia

Now we need to stand back up! To do this, I want you to do exactly what you just did to step down, but in reverse order. IMPORTANT: The back foot is not pushing! There is no jump or drive from the foot that is on the floor. Make sure you are loading your weight onto your front foot (foot on the box) by leaning your chest forward (as we practiced in step 1) and driving through that foot!

Practice these 3 simple steps and you are that much closer to getting through our pistol progression! Part 3 is just around the corner so keep your eyes peeled!