Physical Subculture

We’re not die-hard max-force developers this week. Instead we’ll be playing with technique, fortitude and balance. Not goofy on-wobbly-board balance, but the balance of strength between sides of the body, trying to reduce tension patterns.

Our warm up, after our Open joint mobility work, will be a very narrow stance squat with a mini-band attached. But instead of the band making a straight line down, we’ll hook it to the cage behind us, creating a pull from behind, causing us to turn on the anterior tibs (muscles on the shins), forcing our ankle joints to relax posteriorly. Unless you’re a freakish natural deep squatter, this will provide quite a bit of challenge and focus, sans much weight.

Then good ol’ squats. We’re going to go with a classic 20 rep set today. Breathing squats, they’re often refered to, since you’ll be taking breaths between reps as the numbers pile up. A basic rule of thumb for weight: your 10-rep ‘max,’ if you have any idea what that is.

Pistol squats. If these are tough, try ‘em off a box so the free leg can dangle a little. The goal is to be hands-free, not holding onto anything. Low rep are fine, keep ‘em kind of slow. Today isn’t a speed day, so focus on the movement.

Let’s refer to a CrossFit WOD for our GPP combo today. They call it Helen, which has roots to an idea Dan John has been playing with for a while. Combine something with 400 meters ’sprints’ in between sets. We’ve done it with burpees, cleans, even car pushes, but the Helen WOD uses KB swings and pullups, 21 and 12 reps, respectively, between 4 rounds of 400 meters.

I’m not a runner, never have been, despite my father running several marathons in his 40s, so any running challenge beyond a 40 meter sprint is always like finding out the blind date you’re about to go on looks like the missing link between humans and, say, sandpaper, just minutes before the date.
I’m not looking forward to it, but I’m committed.