Get Under That Bar!

And I don't mean in an alcohol abuse kind of way!

We now have three dedicated lifting classes at the box for your pleasure.

Time under the bar in the big foundational exercises will get you strong!

On a Tuesday at 5.30pm and a Thursday at 8.30pm we have the Connect Barbell Club. This is an hour focussing on the power lifts of the Squat, Deadlift, Press and Bench and their associative exercises. It is time for you to come and lift without the worrisome thought of a beastly WOD at the end of the class!

For anyone looking to pack on size and muscle whilst CrossFitting this is a perfect class to attend. We will be making weekly incremental progressions and using the extra associative exercises to increase our maxes and the amounts we can move. From Russian lifting programmes to Wendler 5/3/1 to Westside Barbell we will be utilising many different types of programming to get you stronger than you have ever been. Lift hard, Lift heavy!

The beautiful movement of the Snatch.

Then on a Thursday at 6.30pm we have the Olympic Lifting class with World and British masters lifting champ Coach Holly. The hour is dedicated to the Clean & Jerk and Snatch and the many helpful progressions that will get you mastering these most technical of lifts in the quickest time possible. In order to perfect these lifts you need to do them over and over and over again, drilling in the movement patterns so they become second nature. And when you have, nothing feels nicer than the weightlessness of the bar as you drop underneath it in a full snatch position. Perfectly smooth, perfectly balanced.....perfect. I can almost sense it now! ;)


For more details of any of these classes or CrossFit in general give us a call or email and we'll be only too happy to have a chat.

Happy lifting.

Speciality Workshops at RCFConnect

Over the next few months we are pleased to announce we will be hosting some Speciality Workshops for the benefit of members and non-members alike.

These workshops will be held between 12.00-4.00pm on one Saturday at the beginning of each month.

Breaking these technical lifts down into phases will help your overall performance.

Our Olympic Lifting Workshops with World and British Masters champ Coach Holly running the day will be a full on four hours of Clean & Jerk and Snatch practice. Both lifts will be broken down into their separate components to allow you to focus on each important step of the lift before bringing them back together again with hopefully improved efficiency and ability. Video analysis and personal coaching for each individual will be the order of the day. 

Dates:

Saturday 2nd February 2013

Saturday 2nd March 2013
Saturday 11th May 2013

Unbelievable amounts of strength, balance and co-ordination.

On alternate months we will be holding a Gymnastics Workshop. Gymnastics is a big part of CrossFit and we will be showing you progressions on how to improve your handstands, ring dips, pull ups and even press ups. Getting a little more complicated we will then move onto front and back lever progressions, planche progressions and of course the beloved muscle up on the rings and bar, almost the ultimate aim for every intermediate CrossFitter. This workshop will be suitable for anyone with a passing interest in bodyweight movements and strength work be it beginner, intermediate or advanced.

Dates:

Saturday 13th April 2013
Sunday 9th June 2013

Cost for all workshops:

Members - £50

Non-Members - £65 

Places are limited to 10 people per course so please get in touch if you would like to book your spot.

"I Wanna Get Biiig!". CrossFit and Bulking Up. Can It Work?

Everyone that comes to us at Reebok CrossFit Connect will have different goals. Some people want to lose weight. Some want to get fitter. Some want to get stronger. But one question we get asked a lot is "Can I still get big doing CrossFit?" Hmmm,  how about it Rich......?

Rich Froning Jr. Reebok CrossFit Games champion 2011 and 2102. Not exactly looking skinny!

This common question usually comes from guys with a typical split routine/ 12 rep/ 4 sets bodybuilding programme that they have gotten so used to over the years. You know how it is;

Chest + Triceps on Monday, Back and Biceps on Wednesday and (possibly!) Legs and Shoulders on Friday.

This is how countless fitness magazines over the years have told you how to train if you are looking to pack on the muscle. It is tried, tested and if you are cramming the calories in too then there is no denying it will work.

The problem lies in that stepping away from this style of training when you have been used to it for so long is really hard. You are happy with your weight, you don't want to lose any and in fact want to get bigger still. How exactly can CrossFit fit in with your goals?

Now, obviously Mr Froning Jr above, didn't get that big just doing CrossFit. He had a background in baseball and Strength and Conditioning before he came to CrossFit so had a good solid foundation on which to build. However, it has been 3 years now since he started CrossFit and his lifts, size and strength are at an all time high.

Back Squat: 195kg

Deadlift: 240kg

Bench: 152kg

Clean & Jerk: 152kg

Snatch 135kg

(although these are likely to be outdated as this was back in October 2012)

With good programming and making use of all the classes your CrossFit box offers you can achieve almost anything you want with CrossFit (although winning the Reebok CrossFit Games two years in a row may be beyond most mere mortals!). Whether this is the endurance to run a full marathon, dropping down to fit into your old size 32" trousers or bulking up to fill out the arms of your Tshirts.

All it takes is help from your coaches to plan your training wisely. If you want to pack on muscle and be 5kg heavier then coming down and smashing out 5 long WODs (or Workouts of the Day) a week isnt going to work.

Here is our simple guide to CrossFit and packing on muscle:

1) You need to lift heavy and often and spend as much 'time under the bar' as you can with the big lifts. Dont concern yourself with an hours chest workout with 6 different variations like incline press, decline press, flyes, decline flyes, cable crossovers etc, etc. Go heavy with 5x5 flat bench, 5x5 Presses and weighted chin ups and you'll be done for the whole upper body. Get Front Squatting, Back Squatting, Deadlifting and Clean & Jerking and the hormonal response you will trigger will be immense. Try and lift at least four times a week.

Get under that bar.... a lot!

2) So what about the WODs? Keep them heavy and keep them short. Ten minutes or under is a good start. That way you will still keep on top of your cardio needs (yes, under 10 minutes can be cardio. Have you ever tried 'Elizabeth'?). 

3) Eat more clean calories than you ever thought possible! Everyone is different with this one but I know that if I wanted to get bigger and bulk up I would need around 5000 calories a day to really see a difference. That's twice the recommended daily amount for men. And I bet you you aren't eating enough, even if you think you are.

Eat tons of meat, fish, veg, nuts and fruit. Get the calories in!

That's it. Oh, and how about this:

Full fat milk. A cheap and excellently balanced natural protein shake -  800 cals / 37g protein per bottle. Drink it!

A simple weekly plan to CrossFit and get bigger, using our box as an example is as follows:

1 or 2 x main WOD classes

1 x Open Gym session (for a short, sharp, heavy WOD)

2 x Barbell Club / Olympic Lifting classes.

(* Our Barbell Club and Olympic Lifting class are 1 hr classes focussing solely on lifting the power and Olympic lifts. No WODs to be nervous about! See our timetable for more info)

This of course depends on how often you can get down per week but it would give you one hell of a shot of muscle building potential. Load up on those calories and you sure as hell wont be losing any weight with this programme.

CrossFit does have an offshoot called CrossFit Football that is geared toward a more heavy lifting focussed programme. Well worth checking out if bulking up is your thing.

The bottom line is, if you programme accordingly, CrossFit and getting bigger and stronger can go hand in hand.

If you would like more information on any of this and how we could help you make the transition between your regular routine and CrossFit, don't hesitate to get in touch. Personal and professional coaching every time you train with us will bring you great results.

The Tortoise or The Hare?

We have had a lot of new members join us recently and the popularity of CrossFit is exploding right now. Featuring regularly in Mens Health Magazine and Muscle and Fitness it seems you can barely turn around without seeing another advert or article about CrossFit.

This is fantastic news for the UK CrossFit community and of course for ourselves at Reebok CrossFit Connect. It was a great 2012 down at Hove Enterprise Centre and we have grand plans for 2013 too as we continue to grow and develop with more coaches, new classes such as our Barbell Club, Kids classes and CrossFit Endurance classes starting soon too.

But the one question that continues to crop up a lot with people who are new to CrossFit is the dilemma of "How often should I train?".

CrossFit is likely to be very different from any other fitness training that you may have done before. It is of course no revolutionary training method and it doesn't claim to be, but it does perhaps ask you to push yourself harder than you may well have ever done before. With its combination of weight training and intense met-cons (metabolic conditioning) in one class you certainly hit a lot of areas in one go. This is one of the main reasons it works so well. No isolating of small muscle groups one at a time. We ask you to use big functional movements which require multiple muscle groups and joint movements which in turn produce bigger and better hormonal changes and therefore better results.

We might not expect you to squat as much as Arnie, but you'll be going heavy!

However, this in turn can cause its own problems. The rest periods you need to recover from the hard work are likely to be longer than what you are used to. In your old routine that consisted perhaps of a bit of jogging/x-trainer work and a whip round of some of the machines, you could pretty much go 5 days a week and feel fine. This is not going to be the case with CrossFit. You will need longer to recover between the sessions as working on the strength work that we do with sets of 5's, 3's and single reps and then all of the new movements you will be learning such as Snatches, Split Jerks, Thrusters, Toes to Bar and Double Unders will leave your system truly taxed and needing proper recovery time.

Thrusters? One hell of a full body movement!

It really is a double edged sword though as the other facet that causes a problem with training frequency is that CrossFit is so damn addictive! You join, you love it, you love the community, you love the WODs so you just keep coming and coming to continue to get your endorphin rush that a good WOD will leave you with.

Post-WOD endorphins? Yes please!

Turning people away and asking them to stop coming quite so much has been a real issue at Connect. As coaches we are looking out for you and know exactly what it feels like to live and breathe CrossFit so we know what we are talking about when it comes to training intensity. A previously sedentary person just starting CrossFit should not expect to be able to train 5 days a week and actually still be doing it in 6 months time.

You WILL get hurt and you will be FORCED to stop coming by your own body.

And we have seen this happen. So what can you do about it?

PLAN. Plan your week, Plan your classes and Plan your goals.

We have plenty of different classes on offer at CrossFit Connect now so you should be thinking about getting a plan together with regards to making the best progress but safely. Don't just come to 5 WOD classes a week and smash all of them. Think about perhaps coming to two WOD classes, one lifting only class or Olympic lifting class and one Open Gym to practice your weaknesses. Think about intensity levels and how hard you are pushing yourself each time. Are you getting enough rest? Enough sleep? Are you stressed? Are you eating right? Have you got any niggles that really feel as though they could do with a week off?

Remember, we are here to help you with all of these things, you are not expected to know what's best on your own. Its what sets a CrossFit box apart from a regular gym. You have professional, experienced coaches on hand at the end of a phone call or email for no additional cost. Use us....and listen to us!

CrossFit should be a journey and one you want to stay on for as long as possible. Its not a sprint to see who can work out the hardest, see the biggest results the quickest but then end up burnt out.

You know which is the best one to be!

Plan, execute and achieve your goals safely and effectively. Which brings me onto the last point.

Don't expect to squat twice your body weight in 3 months if you have never squatted before. Hell, it could take years of squatting three or four times a week to achieve this. And don't expect to use the Rx'd weight for 'Grace' or 'Fran' after a month just so you can see Rx'd next to your name on the board. We want to nurture great athletes and we want to see you perform the movements well and safely. We would be much prouder in seeing one of our members perform 'Fran' with 25kg on the bar and a Green band for their pull ups and do those movements with perfect form; full depth squats, proper lock out overhead and lovely graceful chin over the bar, full extension pull ups than struggling at the Rx'd weight with shabby mid-line stabilisation, no lock out and painful looking kipping pull ups where half the reps you don't even get your eyebrows over the bar.

Patience is the key. Don't be swayed by anyone else. You are competing with the weights and times in YOUR diary not anyone elses. There is of course a time and a place for competition but for beginners the WOD classes are about your safe progression to becoming a more dynamic and able athlete.

So in summary:

1) Plan your training days. 3-4 times a week for beginners MAX!
2)Utilize sessions other than WOD classes. Open Gyms, Lifting classes etc
3) Perform the movements perfectly before going heavier. DO NOT worry about how much weight is on the bar. Leave your ego at the door.
4) Have patience and don't rush things.
5) Listen to your coaches. We happen to know what we are talking about. ;)

Most of all, have fun. CrossFit can become a massive part of your life if you take to it slowly and surely. It sounds cheesy but this stuff has the power to change you, your body and your outlook on life. Enjoy.

New Year, New Timetable

So 2013 is upon us.........................

Happy New Year to you all first of all. I hope you all had a great time over the festive season and are thinking about getting back into your normal training routines. I think Monday 7th January sounds like a good time to me and will give me a chance to finish off all the chocolates and mince pies that are still in my house!

We have had a think over Christmas and have decided that the class timetable needed a bit of a shake up to keep things fresh and to allow for our ever expanding membership base. The point of Connect is to keep a great level of coaching for you all during every class so rather than just cram more people into each class we have added another nine classes to the timetable to allow class numbers to be kept down yet still allow all of you to get your training in for the week.

We have also added some different types of classes too to give you even more choice of what you can do at Connect and to keep us coaches on our toes by continuing to do training courses that will then provide you with the most up to date methods of coaching.

* We have added in a Connect Barbell Club session twice a week that will see us just focus on the strength side of things with the main weights exercises and different variations of reps, sets and methods to get your base level of strength going through the roof. Wendler, Westside barbell, Outlaw and others will be implemented into this lifting only session.

* We will also be putting on a CrossFit Endurance class as we know we have had a lot of interest from members about this who are training for half and full marathons and want a little more sprint work/cardio slant to their sessions. This may also interest and attract a few new members as we know how many runners there are in Brighton. (This will be on as soon as Coach Dave has completed the Endurance certification course.)

* To allow us to fit all these extra classes in we have had to shift the whole timetable forwards by half an hour. Meaning our first class is now 5.30pm and our last class 8.30pm. It is impossible to completely please everyone but i hope these times work for most of you.

* We have also made every weekday morning the same now with 9.30am and lunchtime classes everyday at your request. We have changed the time of the lunchtime classes from 1pm to the earlier time of 12pm so please take note of that.

* We are in the process of changing our Kids classes a little but these haven't been confirmed yet. We will keep you posted on news of this asap.

* And lastly our Saturdays have changed. We have added in a 9am class due to popular demand, kept the 10.30am and 11.30am classes but also added in an Open Gym from 12.30-2.30 to allow for that Saturday lay in but also to give you time to catch up on your training!

If you just want a quick look to see what's changed then take a look at the new timetable below.

The timetable can also be seen on our website here where a downloadable PDF version can also be had.

These changes will be implemented from Monday 7th January and I have now changed over the MindBody booking system. Some of you had already booked classes for the following few weeks so if you have you may need to go and re-book them with the new times. Check your schedule on your account page to see and ensure you are booked onto the ones you want.

So thats about it! Our first Intro Course of the month starts on Monday 7th January if you want to get down and join Connect. Just drop us a line or call if you do.

See you all soon...............