The Overhead Snatch

Day 4 Weightlifting (18 Aug 2010) (Photo credit: Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games)

The overhead snatch is a complex olympic lift that requires you to really get under the bar by using your hips, and a dip & drive to hold the weight overhead. Here’s my guide on the technique:

The exercise can be broken down, roughly, into a deadlift, upright row and then muscle the bar over your head with a wide grip. You should finish the move looking as your about to perform an overhead squat.

• Start with your shins close to the bar, feet hip width apart and your toes slightly turned outwards
• Grab the bar with a wide grip
• Keeping your head up and chest pushed out, deadlift the bar to your thighs keeping the bar close to your body, shrugging your shoulders and keeping your elbows locked.
• You can now bend our elbows and upright row the bar, thrusting your hips forwards, raising onto the balls of your feet
• The bar should now be at chest height
• Dip to get under the bar as you bring the bar overhead
• Drive upwards with a strong stamp to engage your legs and core
• If you are struggling with the weight overhead, imagine you are attempting to rip the bar apart in the middle to engage all your upper back and shoulder muscles which will help to stabilise the weight

Congratulations, you have just had yourself a bit of Snatch! Remember practice makes perfect…

 

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Crossfit Cumbria!

It’s time to get VERY excited people!

Crossfit Cumbria (the only real gym in Penrith and the surrounding area), is opening its shiny new doors on Saturday the 31st of March. Free taster sessions will be held on the Saturday and on Sunday the 1st of April.

For more information see Crossfit Cumbria’s website.

Be sure to come and see what Crossfit is all about and meet the Crossfit Cumbria team who will be around to answer any questions that people have. Don’t forget to bring your gym kit, this is the ideal opportunity to try something new that is ever-changing and will change your workouts forever!

As the slogan says:  “improve or decay”.

 

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Beat the Burpees!

If you have a new-found vengeance against Burpees from completing your AMRAP 7 minutes (as I know you all have done), then here is an easy little circuit based routine that can be done 3 times a week to help your numbers take you to the top of the leaderboard!

First I am breaking the Burpee down into the following moves to improve on:

1. Squat
2. Squat Thrust
3. Vertical jump

How simple does that look! To improve your score you need to improve these basic movements and also your core stability. Oh and the small matter of endurance, which is why this circuit based workout requires you to move from one workout to the next with no/very little rest.

The Workout:

AMRAP for 60 Seconds – Air Squats (Bodyweight squats, BUT no Not-Squats allowed, full depth ladies and gentlemen). At the bottom of the movement you are going to pause and bend forwards from your hips. At the same time reach your hands towards the floor to touch the ground. This replicates the ideal position you should be in before you enter the squat thrust stage of the Burpee.

AMRAP for 90 seconds – Squat Thrusts. Really focus on keeping your core tight. To replicate the bottom stage of the Burpee, as you bring your legs towards your chest aim to have your feet close together and knees pushed out to the sides of your body. As you jump backwards with your legs in the second stage of the exercise or the “thrust” (to extend your legs and flatten your torso), widen your feet for the landing as this helps to take your bodyweight. Also your chest and thighs must touch the ground on your “thrust” before you can jump your knees back towards your chest.

AMRAP for 30 seconds – Vertical Jump. A no-brainer here, Squat down with your bodyweight raised up onto your toes so that your chest is touching your knees and your shoulders are over your toes. Explode upwards jumping as high as you can making sure you bend your knees on landing to cushion your body back onto the ground.

Remember when I said about core stability? After you have completed your time for the first three exercises, work on your core stability by holding the plank to failure. Then you can rest for 60 seconds and repeat the circuit. Aim for 5 rounds.

This is hard and I have done it myself this morning which probably wasn’t the best idea after I did the Open WOD last night! Just because you don’t have a target number of REPS to hit doesn’t mean that you will go easy, aim to beat the clock and your last number each set to see the quickest results.If you find it easy then extend the amount of time that you are doing each exercise for but you shouldn’t need to do this, just complete more exercises in the allotted time.

You can thank me when you are all budding Crossthaletes (copyright Coach Calvert 2012).

 

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The Crossfit Games!

So… The Crossfit Games are nearly upon us. The Games start on the 13th of July, but before then we have the regionals (27th April – 27th May), and the open (NOW), to keep us occupied!

I have entered the open this year along with some friends from Crossfit Cumbria. I have signed up because I wanted to test myself and find some areas that I need to work on. It would obviously be nice to come in as an unknown, smash all the workouts and take the prize of  $1 million home but that is not going to happen, even in my dreams. Anyways,  there is always next year to take the crown! There is still time to register, about 48 hours I believe so if you fancy a challenge then get yourself signed up. It costs $10 which is about 6 quid. You need to go to the Crossfit Games Website to register and you can do the workouts for the Open at homes. All you need is a camera and a time-keeper/scorer. Oh and some balls!

The Open works by releasing 5 workouts that we must complete and upload our results and videos (if not completing at an affiliate). Your results will be posted on a worldwide leaderboard so you can check out the competition and see ho well you are doing. Even if you do not fancy signing up, give the workouts a shot for a bit of a mix up to your current training regime. Also you will discover Crossfit by doing these workouts… you will never look back.Make it through to the regionals and you will have to compete in a designated city (see the announcement here). For example if you live in Europe, you will be competing in Copenhagen. Decent excuse for a short, draining break. The Games will then be held in America so you can have yet another, even more draining break.

I will update you all with how I am getting on as the Open progresses.

So now you have registered there is just the small matter of 55 thousand people standing in your way, no biggie!

 

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Exercise workshop…

This weekend I am on a mission to help anyone in need with exercise form and technique!  Most of the exercises I will be taking you through will be compound moves as I believe these are the building blocks to any exercise routine. Get these right and you WILL see results. So check for exercise hints and tips coming up over the next few days.

 

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Gymnastic Rings!

The Gym Rings that I purchased from wolversonfitness.co.uk are now up and ready to go in my gym.. Can not wait to give these a go! I will post some comments up here for those of you looking to add the rings to your training programmes.

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Delivery Day…

The delivery man must hate coming to my house!

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Lunch Time Boost

Here is a recipe that I am using at the moment for stuffed peppers that pack in essential amino acids and a punch of protein…

1 large pepper
100g lean minced beef/turkey/pork
25g Quinoa
1 hand full of sweetcorn
2 Tbs of tomato puree
Squeeze of ketchup
Paprika, Chili powder, Black pepper all to your taste.

Method:

Place the quinoa in a pan of boiling water and cook to the packets instructions, whilst this is cooking hollow out your pepper.

I find it best to brown the mince with a little onion in a frying pan with some olive oil, then mix in the tomato puree sweetcorn and spices.

Brush the pepper with olive oil and then stuff half full with the mince mixture, add the quinoa on top of the mince, top up with the rest of the mince mixture.

Sit the pepper on a baking tray that has a covering of water (about 1cm), and bake in an oven for 30 to 40 minutes on 180 degrees.

The mince gives you a decent protein hit and will stop you nodding off in the afternoon whilst the quinoa is high in low GI carbs and also is a complete protein, meaning it is high in essential amino acids. The pepper and the spices will give your metabolism a little kick so this meal is also good for those looking to trim up.

ENJOY!

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New Content…

Hello all,

Sorry that I have not put anything up here for a while, I have been very busy working towards some qualifications. Good news is I have passed my theory exams for now(averaging 90 percent), so I now have time spare again to get some new content up here for you.

Remember to subscribe to find out when the new content is uploaded!

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