Category Archives: Training
How To Get Your First Ring Muscle Up!
The ring muscle up is the holy grail when it comes to developing elite level upper body strength in CrossFit.
And many have asked how they can get there, so we are going to put together a step by step plan on how to get better at the ring muscle up!
First up the ring muscle up uses a lot of muscles: forearms, biceps, shoulders, chest, rhomboids, and abs. These all need to be developed sufficiently to be able to achieve your first ring muscle up!
Heres how we are going to develop them:
STEP 1
15 Ring Rows
15 Push Ups
If unable to achieve this here is a workout you can do 3x per week to get to this point.
EMOM 10
Minute 1) 5-10 Ring Rows
Minute 2) 5-10 Push Ups (knee push us if needed)
Step 2
10 Strict Pull Ups
10 Strict Ring Dips
If unable to achieve this here is a workout you can do 3x per week to get to this point.
EMOM 10
Minute 1) 3-6 Strict Pull Ups
Minute 2) 3-6 Rings Dips
Step 3
1 Ring Muscle Ups!
If unable to achieve this here is a workout you can do 3x per week to get to this point.
EMOM 10
1-3 Eccentric Ring Muscle Ups
As with most skills and strengths it takes consistent effort and exposure to achieve the ring muscle up…
There is so much strength involved in this movement these three steps could keep you occupied for 1-2 years before achievement is within your grasp!
If you have any questions about this feel free to ask!
Coach John
New Warm Ups and Why!
Hey ya’ll next week we are starting something new for our general warm ups!
We will be implementing 2 new warms ups that we will be doing for the next 2-3 weeks.
Warm Up 1
3 Rounds For Quality
12 Overhead Squats (PVC or Barbell)
5-10 Chin Ups
5-10 Ring Dips
Warm Up 2
3 Rounds For Quality
16 DB Lunges
10 DB Rows
30s Handstand
The reason we will be doing the same general warm ups for the next 2-3 weeks is to give you all consistent exposure to these movements so you can see consistent progress on them.
If you come 5-6 days a week you will alternate daily which warm up you will choose.
If you come 3 days per week you will pick one of the warm ups to do for the whole 2-3 weeks so you get enough exposure to these movements and see improvements!
After 2-3 weeks we will make a change to the movements that we have in our warm up and choose new focuses for you to progress at!
Additional Resources For Warm Up 1
Overhead Squats
http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/36_05_Overhead_Squat.pdf
Options For Chin Ups
1-Banded
2-Jumping Negatives
Ring Dip Variations
https://journal.crossfit.com/article/cfj-applications-of-the-support-on-rings
1-30s Support Hold
2-Immature Dip
3-Intermediate Dip
4-Mature Dip
Additional Resources For Warm Up 2
Handstands
http://crossfitsaved.com/simplehandstandpractice/
1-Partial Wall Walk
2-Wall Walk
3-Kick Up
4-Kick Up and Find Balance Off Wall
5-Freestanding Practice
Coach John
Muscle Up Clinic
The ring muscle up is one of the most sought after gymnastic that we do in CrossFit and Saturday, March 24th from 10am to 11am we will have an hour long clinic going over all the strength, skills, and drills needed to get your first muscle up!
We will be putting more emphasis on the strict muscle up rather than the kipping muscle up because once you have a strict muscle up it makes it way easier to do kipping muscle ups.
Along with the clinic will come a 3 Stage Program to get you to your first muscle up!
Workout of the Day
“Nancy”
5 Rounds For Time
400m Run
15 Overhead Squats
SLEEP and Recovery
On Monday we talked about Nutrition and getting the right foods, in the right amounts into our body to help us recover from tough workouts and the demands of life.
Today it’s about SLEEP for your recovery.
Why Sleep is important?
Here are10 reasons for sleep and the list could go on for quite some time.
- Lowers Blood Pressure and Cholesterol
- Reduces Stress
- Reduces Inflammation
- Improves Short Term and Long Term Memory
- Improves Weight Loss
- Musculoskeletal Growth and Repair
- Improves Mood
- Improves Endocrine Balance
- Improves Neurological Performance
- Improves Immune System Function
If you would like more science behind this or more information you can check the links at the end of this article and they will have more in-depth information about sleep. My focus here today is to give you an action plan of how you can start getting more sleep today!
How Much Do You Need?
Average Joe’s Between 7-8 Hours
Athlete’s and High Performers 8-10 Hours
-Require more sleep due to more physical stress or mental stress
Tiffany
What’s My Plan of Attack?
“if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
-Benjamin Franklin
Just like with nutrition you have to have a plan in place with sleep to make it happen…then you have to stick to that plan.
SO HERE IS OUR ACTION PLAN:
Step 1-What time do you have to go to bed and wake up?
Lets say we have to be up by 6am so we have time to get the kids ready, get ready for work, prepare some breakfast, etc.
If we start with the bare minimum sleep needed then we would need to be asleep by 11pm and that would give us 7 hours of sleep.
Alright that’s the easy part.
Step 2-Sleep Needs Preparation.
If you life is a war zone before heading to bed, chances are you will not be able to fall right to sleep.
We want to begin getting ready for bed A FULL HOUR before we plan to be asleep.
So in our example above at 10pm (one hour before being asleep) we want:
To start turning off our Phones, Tablets, TVs and begin to lower the lighting to have a more relaxed environment.
Find something calming to do to fill in that dead space between work/life and sleep.
This could be things like enjoying a conversation with a family member, reading a book, prayer, or meditation. Customize this time to whatever it is that brings you back down and relaxes you before bed.
Lastly, leave the bedroom for sleep and sleep alone. Your bedroom should be dark (the darker the better), on the cooler side, and free of any distractions.
Sleep is an important function to our lives and if you can get on the right end of 7 hours you will be happier and healthier well into your 90s!
4 Ways to Sleep Like A Champion
Workout of the Day
AMRAP 20
500m Row
15s L-Sit
10 Strict Pull Ups
Recovery Part 1-Nutrition
The CrossFit program is amazing and it requires a lot of your body. So recovery plays a big role in getting our body back to where it needs to be so we can train the next day and God willing for many years to come.
In this 3 part series on recovery we are going to cover the 3 most important ways to speed up recovery and keep us happy, healthy, and fit well into our 90s!
Tylor
First up in this series is…NUTRITION (No surprise huh?!)
The food that we eat can either build us up and closer to our goals or they tear us down and slow recovery.
Think of food as our building block for everything physical that we do here and in life.
So what do we do with nutrition to speed up recovery?
Step 1 we have to start getting the right foods on our plate.
Meats-fish, chicken, turkey, beef, etc
Vegetables-broccoli, asparagus, onions, tomatoes, spinach, kale, etc.
Fruits-apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, etc
Healthy Starches-sweet potato, brown rice, potato, roots, carrots, etc
Nuts and Seeds-almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, etc
What these foods do is provide your body with the proper micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that produce enzymes, hormones, and much more for growth and development.
Without these micronutrients our cells and organs cannot operate at their fullest potential. And we need them operating to their fullest because each day our body gives it all it has through our work day, workouts, and time at home.
Greg D.
Step 2 we need to eat the right amount of food for our goals.
This can range greatly depending on what you want or need but here is a good way to look at it.
General Health and Fitness-Eye/Hand Method
Elite Fitness-Zone Diet, and Counting Your Macros comes in.
If you are here for your general fitness (which is 99% of us) then we can use the Eye/Hand Method to get us the right amount of food to fuel us through our day.
Everyone must eat
3 Meals Per Day
1 Palm of Protein
2 Handfuls Vegetables
1 Handful Fruit/Starch
1 Closed Fist Nuts or 1 Thumb Oil
If you are looking to dial it in more and increase recovery because you want to operate at your fullest each day or you want to be an elite athlete, then you are looking more down the road of Zone Diet or Count Your Macros.
Those two options dial everything in down to the exact gram of protein, carbohydrates, and fat that you need to get your body back to where you want it to be so you can bring everything you have to tomorrows workout, board meeting, and spending time with family and friends.
In part 2 we will be covering sleep as the next step to recovery. Sleep is an essential part of your recovery each day and many, many people across America and depriving themselves of this important part of life.
Workout of the Day
3-3-3-3-3
Shoulder Press
CrossFit Saved Takes on Spartan Race!
At the end of fitness in 100 words put out by CrossFit founder Greg Glassman he says, “Regularly play and learn new sports.”
Hannah
We spend anywhere between 3-6 hours a week building our fitness and one of the best things about doing that is you get to express that fitness in many different ways…
Playing with your kids
Going on hikes
Playing in recreational sporting leagues
Fighting sabretooth tigers
Etc.
With that being said we are going to take on the Socal Beast and Sprint weekend presented by Big Bear Lake on May 19 and 20th!
BEAST
Saturday, May 19th
12-14 Miles
30-35 Obstacles
SPRINT
Sunday, May 20th
3-5 Miles
20-23 Obstacles
If you are interested in getting signed up the sooner you sign up the cheaper it is for your registration.
Here is a link to check it all out!
https://www.spartan.com/en/race/detail/3456/overview
We will be doing the afternoon sessions!
We will also be doing some extra training on every other Saturday at 10am for those who will be doing the race!
Workout of the Day
Every Minute on the Minute X 14 Minutes
Even-15 DB Power Clean + Push Press
Odd-15 Calorie Row
Knowledge + Action = Results
Each and every one of us has a reason for why we come to CrossFit Saved each day…
Some its to lose weight, others to see how far you can take your body in performance, and probably most importantly, increase fitness so that we can be happy and healthy into our 90s.
Marie
In our quest to get the results that we want it is easy to find ourselves in a rut.
Here is the reason I think it happens and what you can do about it.
To reach a desired result you have to first have the knowledge of how to achieve that result and set realistic goals on how you are going to achieve it.
If it is too lose 20lbs…what diet am I going to follow? How many days a week am I going to train my body with exercise?
If you don’t have the right knowledge your answers to those questions will not lead you in the direction that you want to go.
So first and foremost having accurate knowledge is needed to get you to build the right action steps to get you your desired result.
Once you have the right information its now time to make a plan on how you are going to execute.
This is where the magic happens. This is where people lose 100lbs. this is where people make it passed the CrossFit Open and get invited to Regionals.
ACTION, EXECUTION, these are what get people what they want.
This is why we set goals. WE SET GOALS SO WE CAN TAKE ACTION!
Morgan
So as we head into the weekend stick to the plan YOU set.
The weekend is one of the toughest times for people when they are trying to achieve weight loss goals and performance goals.
It is too easy on the weekend to let every thing slip….to undue everything we just accomplished Monday through Friday.
If you planned for only one cheat meal during the weekend but have been having 3…ONLY HAVE ONE!
If your weight loss has slowed…TRY HAVING NO CHEAT MEALS THIS WEEKEND!
If you need help setting up a plan…Come talk to us. Its what we love to do. We love helping people become the best versions of themselves.
And a lot of times its just about getting the right knowledge into peoples hands so they can put together an action plan that will give them the results they have always wanted!
Have a great weekend!
Jonathan
Workout of the Day
Partner Workout
5 Rounds Each For Time
20/15 Calorie Bike
15 Russian Kettlebell Swings
30s Hollow Hold
Alternate Rounds
CrossFit Open Intramural Battle!
The CrossFit Open is back again!
For you seasoned CrossFitters who know what the Open is all about you know how fun it is and how amazing it is to see how hard you can push in a workout!
For those of you who don’t know what the CrossFit Open is this is the beginning stage to the CrossFit Games Season. People from other CrossFit gyms all around the world will be competing for fun, their affiliate family, for fitness, or to reach Regionals and potentially the CrossFit Games!
Megan
Every Friday from February 23rd to March 23rd CrossFit HQ releases a workout as a challenge to anyone willing to give it a try. What is amazing about this worldwide competition is you have people competing not only from different gyms, but different countries, different age groups, and different fitness levels to see where they place against the rest of the world!
For 99% of us this is about making it to the CrossFit Games but rather having fun and pushing others in our gym.
Diana
This year at CrossFit Saved we are doing something a little bit different… Not only are we going to be competing in the Open but we will also be building two teams in our gym and we are going to have a friendly battle against each other!
This is how it is going to work:
I will elect 2 Team Captains
We will divide everyone up into Open, Scaled, and Masters Division.
The captains and I will divide the teams up evenly and every Friday we will battle for 5 weeks against each other.
The losing team buys pizza on the last night (March 23rd) for the winning team!
This is our first time battling like this amongst ourselves for the CrossFit Open and it is going to be a great time!
Workout of the Day
3 Rounds For Time
400m Run
25 GHD Sit Ups
50 Front Rack Lunges
The CrossFit Total
On Saturday, January 6th at 9am we will be doing the CrossFit Total!
The CrossFit Total consists of:
1 Rep Max Back Squat, 1 Rep Max Press, and a 1 Rep Max Deadlift.
Michael
The reason we are making an event of this is two-fold
Firstly, this is going to be our baseline for our strength for the year with a retesting in July and another January 2019.
Strength takes time to go up so we only test the CrossFit Total 2x per year so it is important to make it on the 6th!
Secondly, to do the CrossFit Total properly it takes a lot of time, so much time that it doesn’t make sense to run it as a normal class during the week.
We have done that in the past and giving 15 minutes to each lift is just too little time to adequately warm up, lift, and rest for each lift.
We hope that everyone can participate on January 6th so we can set a baseline for where our strength is and then see how much it improves over 6 months!
Below is a link to the original CrossFit Total article!
Workout of the Day
AMRAP 15
250m Row
10 Push Press
20 GHD Sit Ups
The Bring-A-Friend Challenge
In the month of January we are offering Buy 1 Month, Get 1 Month Free for all of your Friends/Family/Co-Workers!
This offer will be only for friends/family/co-workers of members at the gym and not for anyone outside of the CrossFit Saved Community.
Lisa
The Challenge
The person who gets the most friends/family/co-workers to sign up for a membership here at the gym will win a…
FREE PAIR OF NANO’S, METCONS, or NO BULL’s of their choice!
For EVERY 5 FRIENDS that sign up we will add in ANOTHER WINNER OF SHOES!
Gage
The Reason For This Challenge
CrossFit has an elegant solution to the world’s most vexing problem
-CrossFit Founder Greg Glassman
While deadlifting 500lbs or running a mile under 6 minutes is amazing and are definitely things you can achieve doing CrossFit…
We are really in a fight against chronic disease’s such as…
Heart disease, cancers, strokes, alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes, obesity and the list goes on.
And the amazing part about all these chronic diseases is most of them can be prevented and even reversed/cured.
The Answer is SIMPLE
- Get off the couch
- Get off the carbs
Joni
And that is exactly what CrossFit and CrossFit Saved is all about!
Getting people functional again and eating the right foods to help their bodies and mind thrive!
Workout of the Day
“Viola”
AMRAP 20
400m Run
11 Power Snatches
17 Pull Ups
13 Power Cleans
**U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Alex Viola, 29, was killed Nov. 17, 2013, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, from wounds caused by an improvised explosive device. Originally from Keller, Texas, Viola was an engineer assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He was awarded numerous awards for his service, including the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.
Viola traveled often and worked out at many CrossFit affiliates. Some of his favorite movements were pull-ups, power snatches and power cleans. He also enjoyed running.
Viola is survived by his parents, Margaret and Frank; and his sister, Christina**