Friday 11.26.10

For all you shoppers out there, check out this SNL video at this link.

***The gym is closed today.  Enjoy your time off!  If you would like to do a workout today from home, try this one:

Metcon: Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
30 second Handstand hold
30 second Squat hold
30 second L-sit hold
30 second Chin over bar hold (Or tree branch, or rafters, or rings, or doorway headers, etc)

Post rounds to comments. 


What does “Rx’d” mean?

Many of you new to our gym or those still working to bring up your fitness levels might see our workouts and the weight that we prescribe and think, “Golly gee! I couldn’t do that weight!” I hear some of those comments from time to time, (Last Thursday with 155 lbs Snatches or Monday's Lunges to name a few). Sometimes it doesn’t have anything to do with the weight, but the exercise: some of us can’t complete Toes to Bars by getting their toes all the way to the bar. Some of our knees cause us pain when we run and we opt to row instead. Pull ups are a big one, with ring rows, jumping pull ups, or bands being an option. Handstand Push Ups to a mat instead of to the ground is common as well. The list can go on and on.

When you complete the workout EXACTLY as written, then you are doing the workout as prescribed or “Rx’d”. Any changes, or scaling, to the workout means you are not doing it as prescribed. This goes for scaling up or down. It is not a bad thing to scale the workout in anyway. It can be frustrating and it should, because that frustration should help you form goals that help to improve your fitness, with the goal of performing each workout as “Rx’d”. But it’s not going to happen over night, it will take lots of time and work:

Here are some example workouts:

Prescribed/ Rx’d:                  Scaled Down:                            Scaled Up:
3 rounds:                               3 rounds:                                    3 rounds:
-12 Power Cleans @ 95#   -12 Power Cleans @ 55#       -12 Power Cleans @ 95#
-18 Abmat Sit Ups               -18 Abmat Sit Ups                     -18 GHD Sit Ups
-24 Pull Ups                         -24 Pull Ups w/ bands                -24 Pull Ups

The prescribed workout is written with one thing in mind, improving the fitness on some level of the most capable people at The Compound. We know when we write these workouts that not everyone can complete them, but it should serve as a barometer to everyone of where their fitness is and should go to. If you can’t complete the program as written, no problem at all! We got plenty of ways to switch it up so you can complete the same workout, stay within your abilities, and get you closer to “Rx’d.”

The scaled down version has two things going on. First, the weight was too heavy so it was dropped to a weight that can be handled but still give a good workout. The Sit Ups were doable for this person, but Pull Ups aren’t there yet so they used a band. It’s still a great workout for that person and it has the same exact effects as the original one.

In the scaled up version, everything returned to normal, but this person wanted to recruit multiple muscle groups in the sit up portion and scaled up to GHD Sit Ups, a much tougher version of the sit up. While this is harder than the original workout, it will provide similar effects of both the original and scaled down versions. But it is also not as “Rx’d.”

At a recent pistol training course I attended at Thunder Ranch, Clint Smith, an expert rifle and pistol instructor, said to us, “If you’re shooting too fast that you miss the target, slow down, and shoot good.” That same cue was repeated throughout the weekend as shooters would get haphazard with their shots, “Don’t shoot fast, shoot good!” Simple, not grammatically correct, but effective. This is like the daily workout we post each day. If you can’t handle the weight without getting injured, or you can’t complete a rep with full range of motion, scale it down and do the workout “good”. Sure, it’s not “Rx’d”, but it is the best workout for your overall physical fitness levet at this time. And that’s all we care about because that will cause you to improve for the next time the workout show up. cc