Archive for April, 2010

Rest

or

3 Rounds of

15 Hang power cleans

15 Burpees

ANGER or AGGRESSION?

We were talking about getting angry the other night while lifting to get through the heavy sets. This got me thinking, are we after anger or aggression? And about ninja’s but I’ll get to that. At first glance you may think they are interchangeable and achieve the same thing, to get that f@#king bar where it needs to be.  There is a difference though.

 Anger comes with a whole host of negative affects like all the negative associations of why we’re angry. It’s also a negative emotion and I’m sure we’ve all gone to training to work out our anger and it’s worked. This shows the other drawback of anger it has a limit, you can’t stay angry forever.

This is where aggression comes into it, you can tap into aggression anytime you need it. It’s positive and brings all the benefits of anger without the potential hangovers of anger, like still being pissed off or worse running out of energy to maintain the rage and finish the job. Aggression can be refired and refired you just need the right cues, which brings us to ninjas.

I read a long time about a ninja clan who used berserker type ninjas. These ninjas trained and practiced their anger by mentally imagery. They imagined someone attacking their families, their wives and children, killing them and other bad things to foster anger. They then took the image of this person and turned it into a blank faced assailant. They were then able to use this template and put it onto any enemy they were facing and use their rage as a path to victory. Now as we mentioned we want aggression not anger. So this is the homework part.

You need to be conscious in your day to living and be aware of your emotions. We’re looking for one specific thing, that feeling of power, energy, strength and vitality. That moment where your body screams “Let’s do it!” and you feel like getting active or smashing out some training. Watch out for this emotion and feeling. The next step is to realise and understand what cued it.

When you find out what your cue is remember it, it may be a song, a movie, some words someone said to you or even a roar in or out of your head. For me it’s the CrossFit FilFest video and some other war movies. Practice cuing it, remember your cue and foster that emotion feel the power in your body. Now really practice it feel it course through your body. This is going to become your template. When you’ve got that aggression that energy on cue you can tap into during a WOD, a lift or a conversation and smash through it. Remember you’re looking for that energy building up in your body that you need to move, do something. Then we couple it with some visualisation.

So the next time you’re in a WOD, or facing a WOD that has you soiling your shorts, cue the emotion and visualise yourself performing how you want to, driving through the heels, opening the hips, cycling through the burpees. Use the visualisation couple it with the emotion and aggression until you are chomping at the bit and want to smash it up. This is going to take practice and like all skills it’s depreciable, use it or lose it.

So your homework starts now, find that emotion, find that cue. Harness that energy, learn to switch it on when you need it, it’s another tool in your arsenal just like cleans, muscle ups and Deadlift.

TODAY’s WOD

Clean practice it’s all technique today.

Front Squat

5 x 3

Go Heavy!

5 x 100m sprints on the minute

Rest 5 mins

4 X 100m sprints on the minute

Rest 4 mins

3 x 100m sprints on the minute

Rest 3 mins

2 x 100m sprints on the minutes

Rest 2 mins

100m sprint.

Rest

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it desreves it”

Mark Twain.

Post thoughts to comments.

“B-1″

3 rounds:

400m Run

21 KB swings (24kg)

15 Knees to elbows

9 Ring dips

WOD courtesy of CrossFit North Queensland.

This workout is dedicated to PTE Benjamin Renaudo.

Private Benjamin Ranaudo was killed by an anti-personnel explosive device in Afghanistan on the 18th July 2009. 

Private Ranaudo was a member of the Townsville based 1^st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment. He was a member of the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force in Afghanistan and was killed while on operations north of Tarin Kowt.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Lest we Forget.

Work on techniwue today. Grab a broomstick and practice the fundamental 9 or as many as you know.

Squat

Overhead squat

Front Squat

Deadlift

Sumo deadlift high pull

Med Ball Clean or broomstick clean

Shoulder press

Push Press

Push Jerk

Push press. Crossfit.com

AM at the park

3 rounds

20 Plate push press 10kg/5kg

10 KB swings 16/12

100m Run

PM class

5 sets same bar each set

3 shoulder press

3 push press

3 push jerk

100m run

Rest

but at the park

AMRAP in 10 minutes

9 Medicine ball cleans 8kg/6kg

9 Burpees

3 rounds for time of:

30m walking lunges

50 squats

25 good mornings