Now Playing Tracks

Fitness Vlog #1: You Can Build The Body You Want — Yes, I know it sounds like some cheap sales line, but it’s true. I found out in my late twenties that you can actually build the body you want! I did it too, built my body up from a skinny 54kg to a whopping 90kg in 5 years. Now rocking at 61kg, fitter, stronger, faster and happier than ever. It’s all about dedication, determination, and having fun doing it. 
SUBSCRIBE for more awesome video’s about fitness, training, nutrition and more! Questions about fitness, nutrition: ask me in the comments below or hit me up on renatocrossfit@gmail.com 
Shot with a Hero3 Silver edition.

strongisbeautiful: The Deadlift Since not everyone is able to attend the Level 1 CrossFit Course, I thought it would be a good idea to recap some of the most basic movements in CrossFit, according to CrossFit and its HQ trainers and materials.  For the most part we are deadlifting correctly, but simple minor changes can make a major difference in both performance and injury prevention.  Let’s work from the bottom up. Feet and stance – feet are directly under the hips, meaning hip width apart.  This is also known as the jumping position, essential for setting up for a clean or snatch.  The initial stance is the same.  The weight of the body is in the heels.  Think of rolling back onto the heels, pulling the bar closer to the body.  This brings point #2: Grip and the bar – the grip is symmetrical on both sides of the legs, outside of the legs.  Conventional double over hand grip is a grip builder and good strength training for cleans.  A switch grip is a grip tester and can (if desired) be used for heavy one rep maxes.  The bar is directly over the laces, close to the legs and will travel in a straight path up and down the legs.  Contact with the legs is expected. About those legs: Shins- shins are near vertical.  This gives a good set up for the hips: Hips- hips above the knees to start. Moving along to the torso: Torso – abs are tight. Back, spine and neck are flat and neutral.  Chest is up and inflated with shoulders slightly forward of the bar.  Shoulders are over knees.   Shoulders are pulled back and down.  Lats are contracted, pulling the bar towards the shins.  The arms do not pull; they are merely straps that hold onto the bar. Notice how the arms, torso and legs make a nice triangle.  That hip angle will remain the same until the bar passes the knees.  By following this rule, we eliminate all possibilities of a “scary cat” back deadlift, the most common fault of the deadlift and most common cause of lower back pain post deadlift.  Initiate the deadlift by pushing with the heels.  By slowly rising with the hips traveling at the same rate as the shoulders, we will not violate the angle that needs to remain until the bar crosses the knees.  The bar travels straight up and down, and full lock out is considered once the hips fully extend vertically (think 180 degrees).  
Zoom

strongisbeautiful:

The Deadlift

Since not everyone is able to attend the Level 1 CrossFit Course, I thought it would be a good idea to recap some of the most basic movements in CrossFit, according to CrossFit and its HQ trainers and materials.  For the most part we are deadlifting correctly, but simple minor changes can make a major difference in both performance and injury prevention.  Let’s work from the bottom up.

  1. Feet and stance – feet are directly under the hips, meaning hip width apart.  This is also known as the jumping position, essential for setting up for a clean or snatch.  The initial stance is the same.  The weight of the body is in the heels.  Think of rolling back onto the heels, pulling the bar closer to the body.  This brings point #2:
  2. Grip and the bar – the grip is symmetrical on both sides of the legs, outside of the legs.  Conventional double over hand grip is a grip builder and good strength training for cleans.  A switch grip is a grip tester and can (if desired) be used for heavy one rep maxes.  The bar is directly over the laces, close to the legs and will travel in a straight path up and down the legs.  Contact with the legs is expected. About those legs:
  3. Shins- shins are near vertical.  This gives a good set up for the hips:
  4. Hips- hips above the knees to start. Moving along to the torso:
  5. Torso – abs are tight. Back, spine and neck are flat and neutral.  Chest is up and inflated with shoulders slightly forward of the bar.  Shoulders are over knees.   Shoulders are pulled back and down.  Lats are contracted, pulling the bar towards the shins.  The arms do not pull; they are merely straps that hold onto the bar.

Notice how the arms, torso and legs make a nice triangle.  That hip angle will remain the same until the bar passes the knees.  By following this rule, we eliminate all possibilities of a “scary cat” back deadlift, the most common fault of the deadlift and most common cause of lower back pain post deadlift. 

Initiate the deadlift by pushing with the heels.  By slowly rising with the hips traveling at the same rate as the shoulders, we will not violate the angle that needs to remain until the bar crosses the knees.  The bar travels straight up and down, and full lock out is considered once the hips fully extend vertically (think 180 degrees).  

The Dip Is The Upper Body Squat!

image

One of the things that sets crossfit apart from regular fitness is the way we train: no machines, but free weights, bodyweight movements and functional training. No isolations, but full-body compound exercises. No set schedules and routines, but variations and unexpected workouts. To train for whatever life throws at you.

The dip is one of those movements that captures all that. When you first try it, you think “holy shit, what the fuck is this!”, but when you do it more often, and get the mechanics down, it becomes one of those exercises that you know is going to build your upper body strenght, explosiveness, and a kick-ass physique. The dip is not an easy one, but well worth the effort.

Although the dip is still one of those “exercises from hell” to me, I love doing them, ring dips especially, are a sure killer, and will blow up my triceps for days every time. But still, I know, that they are golden. And I like that bling, baby!!! 

In this video, Doug Chapman calls the dip the squat of the upper body, and together with the jerk, the essential exercises for building upper body strenght: 

Did my first Team WOD with my 7-yo son Pelle. 3 rounds of 3-minute run and 15kg dumbell thrusters for me, 15 kneeling push-ups for him, I would stop as soon as he finished his push-ups, I got 8-9-8 reps. This was lots of fun, he got introduced to crossfit, it was fun, crossfit works great for kids, maybe after getting my Level 1 certificate, it might be interesting to do the Crossfit Kids course, who knows. Next week, next Team WOD with my buddy! :-)
Zoom

Did my first Team WOD with my 7-yo son Pelle. 3 rounds of 3-minute run and 15kg dumbell thrusters for me, 15 kneeling push-ups for him, I would stop as soon as he finished his push-ups, I got 8-9-8 reps.

This was lots of fun, he got introduced to crossfit, it was fun, crossfit works great for kids, maybe after getting my Level 1 certificate, it might be interesting to do the Crossfit Kids course, who knows. Next week, next Team WOD with my buddy! :-)

To Tumblr, Love Pixel Union