Crossfit Gold Box - December 30, 2016: Axle bar deadlift; Team WOD: axle deadlift, burpees, cal row, goblet squat

Crossfit Gold Box (Dubai, UAE) - Friday; December 30, 2016
Coach Matthew (2nd from the left)

Warm-Up:

Teddy bear rolls
Hip Hinges


Buy In:

8 - 6 - 4 - 2

10 Russian Swings
Bear Crawl Forward
Bear Crawl Backwards


STRENGTH:

Build up to a heavy single Axle Bar Deadlift


WOD:  

 TEAM WOD 

3 Rounds:

1 Minute max - Rep Deadlift @ 135 lb / 95 lb

1 Minute max - Burpees

1 Minute max - Calorie row

1 Minute max - Burpees

1 Minute max - Goblet squats @  24 lb / 16 lb

1 Minute  REST


Today's Coach:  Matthew Green

My Thoughts:
As long as one is open to new teaching, new coaches; one will expand their mind.  

Every new coach I meet, I always learn something new.  Today's coach was Matthew Green.  He's one of the coaches at Crossfit Gold Box and is also an owner/founder of Crossfit Liverpool.  You can read more about him at this BIO link:  http://crossfitgoldbox.com/coach/matthew-green/ 

I had a great talk with him during and mostly after the class. 

Warm-Up;
Something a bit different in warm-up, especially as you get ready to do some deadlifts.  I was more surprise how effective this was to gradually warm up my back muscles - Teddy Bear rolls.  You sit on the floor with your legs spread out in a V shape.   You roll back onto your shoulder and if you can, let your toes touch the ground behind you and roll forward back to an up-right seated position.  Do this for ten reps. 
Next, follow the same roll (as above), but when you come back up to the seated up sitting position; alternate touching your opposite hand to the opposite toe.  Repeat this FIVE times per side.


Buy-In;

Next; we worked on the kettlebell swing.  Coach asked us to pick a kettebell weight that would be challenging.   We all practice swinging and had corrections made to our swings. Next was the buy-in that would be required for the WOD.

We would had to execute TEN Russian KB Swings followed by Bear Crawls forward and backwards.  All this was done in the rep scheme of 8 - 6 - 4 - 2.

STRENGTH;
Now that our Central Nervous System (CNS) is awake, we moved on to the deadlift.  The difference today, was we were using an Axle bar.  The difference is the axle bar is thicker in diameter than a regular olympic bar.  The use of the axle bar is to help build grip strength.  The goal of today's class was to build up to a heavy Single Axle Deadlift.  It's been a while for me to use an axle bar.   But I did managed to hit 235 lbs for my single.

TEAM WOD;

We broke into teams of 3 and worked thru each movement, spending a minute before moving to the next.  We were to keep track of our own score and tally it up at the end.

As always, the first one is where one would get the most reps.   The 135 lb for the deadlift was light for me and I was able to speed thru that  (higher reps), to make up where I'm weak at (Burpees).  I used the calorie row as a semi-rest/recovery stage.  It's exactly a the half-way point of the workout and the one minute rest period.   It's just my strategy when I look at these workouts.  I use the advantage of my height to aid in maintaining somewhat a fast past.   Use what you have to gain any advantage.

By the end of the three rounds, we tally it to be around 583 reps, between the three of us.
Regardless, the three of us gave it all we had!   

My cardio had always been bad, and the humidity here in Dubai didn't help.   That's one thing I did notice was that even after 5 minutes into my warm-up, I would already be sweating.  Don't get me wrong, they had the air conditioning running in the gym.. But still, no escaping the humidity.  

The temperature average 27 degrees Celsius during the our stay, while it's thier winter month in Dubai.  That's like our summer weather in Canada.   And as of today, the weather back at home was -30 C, not including windchill.  I'm not complaining... just glad to be here..  :)

Misc:
I thought I would share some additional pictures from my trip.  Not just from Crossfit Goldbox; but some from my exploration of Dubai!

Picking up a nice T-shirt; wish they had my size.   :(

Nice touch on the back

Lots of shirts, shorts, and shoes.  

Some random pictures while exploring Dubai

Metro Train station

Mall of Emirates - That structure is the part of the
Ski Hill within the mall

View from the 125 floor at Burj Khalifa

Buildings do look amazingly small when your this high up

Doesn't even fit in my view/picture; Burj Khalifa
Tallest structure in the world

Some relaxation time on the beach, at Shimmers;
Burj Al Arab in the background

Extra credit:
Even thou, I didn't do this.  Matthew did had this written on a separate whiteboard.  Kinda reminds me of what we called Extra Credit back at my home box - Crossfit Armoury.  Today's focus is working on Pistols!

Remember to stay consistent in your training and tackle one WOD at a time!!

Hashtags for the day:   #crossfitindubai #crossfitgoldbox #axlebardeadlift #mathhewgreen #canadianinthesun