CFSBK. 

WHAT WENT DOWN:

Lots of Muscle-up drills and scales

RESULT: No strict muscle-up for me today, but very close. It’ll be back soon. Nice to practice these for the first time in a while.

FOR TIME, 5-4-3-2-1 REPS:

135lb Power Cleans

Muscle-ups

Off to CFSBK for a really cool class: bar muscle-up skill work and then a met-con of cleans and pull-ups.

FOR TECHNIQUE:

30 Minutes of Bar Muscle-up Drills (Chest/Rib/Hip-to-bar Pull-ups, Bar Muscle-up Transitions, and Jumping Bar Muscle-ups)

RESULT: This was SO awesome. I got a jumping BMU from a wooden box on it’s short side (20″ maybe?) that felt pretty doable. I think I could be close to a real one. As with all things muscle-up for me, it’s 100% technique and organization, and this focused session of techniques, progression, scales and coaching was worth its weight in gold. A reminder that a few focused, good reps far outweigh a lot of messy practice when it comes to gymnastics. 

FOR TIME, 5-4-3-2-1- REPS:

135lb Cleans

Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups

Fitness and training, for the most part, is just that. People work out to achieve some sort of aesthetic or athletic goal. Any work put into the gym is the stuff in the background; it’s the engine room. You go in, you put your effort in, then at some point in the future you reap the benefits in some other way. That might be in a race, on the beach with your top off or carrying some shopping back to the car.

The thing is that the fitness side of it is actually becoming cooler now – what with people posting their workouts and PB lifts all over social media. The means is becoming just as important as the end. But of all the fitness moves out there, a few sit way above the others. You know what we’re talking about. Those cool things that fit people do on Instagram that you look at and think I bet I could do that. Here are our favourites.

Oh yeah, we’re not condoning you try any of these. Seriously they’re tough. Ask a PT for help if you want to attempt any.

Kip Ups

Kip ups are the standard way for heroes to get up in a kung fu movie when they’ve been knocked over. Why? Well, can you imagine Bruce Lee rolling onto his side and stepping back up like a normal human. LIKE YOUR DAD? No, of course not, he calmly flips his legs forward and jumps to his feet. Then the enemy turns around as his eyes widen, suddenly realising that he’s in trouble. Oh yeah, we can actually do these, not quite as well as Bruce Lee doing them. More like if you made him carry a load of bags, got him drunk and slowed down the video quite a bit.

Airwalk Pull Ups

Sure, if you pulled this move out at the gym it could go one of two ways. Either people are going to suddenly stop what they’re doing as they turn and stare at your superhero like abilities or, and this is the more likely one, they’re going to think you’re a show-off slimeball. Especially if you’re not that good at them.

But there is a time and a place for them. Bar work is becoming increasingly popular, with groups of people taking part in competitions to show off their gymnastic-like skills. And it is a skill. Hell, the muscle control needed to pull of an impressive airwalk show is tremendous. Trust us. Give it a try.

Muscle-Ups

The go-to impressive exercise of CrossFitters the world over. Why? Because it’s ridiculously hard and impressive that’s why. It turns the standard pull-up into a completely different exercise, incorporating loads of different muscles. Essentially a pull-up and a dip combined into one movement, which actually sounds pretty easy, if it wasn’t for the transition between the two. Which is a killer.

Strict muscle-ups are the big boys. A slow controlled pull-up into an equally controlled dip. You can make it easier by adding in a kip, which is what you see in CrossFit quite a bit. The kip helps you to swing over the bar instead of just doing it with strength alone. Still hard though, we still can’t do it. Oh yeah, gymnasts learn to do muscle up exercises pretty early on in their training. Gymnasts are ridiculously fit.

Human Flags

Pretty damn cool if you can do them. They take an enormous amount of core strength with loads of muscles incorporated all the way through the body. A very risky one to try in the gym based on the fact that it’ll probably hurt like hell and there’s a high chance you’ll fall into a heap on the floor. It’s a lot harder than it looks, and it already looks hard.

Handstands

When we were kids handstands were all the rage. But being a kid and doing a handstand and being an adult and doing one is very different altogether. 1) Kids don’t care if they fall over 2) A kid is probably a lot lighter than and adult and 3) Adults look really daft trying to do handstands if they don’t know how to.

Here’s a useful tutorial from those nice chaps over at The Lean Machines. They’re pretty good at them.

Any we’ve missed? Bound to be. Shoot us an email if there’s anything else you think we should add. We may even try to do it.

Picture Credit: Pond5

Thrusters, Muscle-up, Ring Dips

Training: Thusters: 3 – 3 – 2 – 2 – 2 (increasing weight) (185#, 205#, 215#, 225#, 235#) Starting this workout I wasn’t sure how things were going to go, the movement did not feel great, but after the the first two sets of three reps, things started feeling much better.  By the time I gripped the bar at 225# it felt like something had changed: all I was concerned with was pulling that weight off…