Upper East Side

A message from Dave

Members,

Just a few quick pointers to keep in mind for tomorrow’s CrossFit total.

The event will start at 11am. If you would like to participate, you must be here at 11.

Attempt Selection.

The lifts performed will be the squat, strict press and the deadlift, in that order.

You will get three attempts at each lift (not counting warm-ups).

Following each attempt, you may increase the weight for your next attempt, or in the event of a miss, repeat the same weight.

You MAY NOT decrease the weight after an unsuccessful attempt, so choose your 1st attempts wisely!

As far as attempt selection, I recommend about 85% of your 1-rep max for your first attempt. This should be a weight you can perform for about 5 reps.

Assuming you make your 1st attempt, your second should be something around your personal record (pr). If you feel so-so, take a weight just below your pr. If you feel great, go 5 lbs above it. On your 3rd attempt, go for a big pr.

Remember that the most important pr is your TOTAL, so do not risk missing out on a big total by taking unnecessary risks on the single lifts. Conservative is better.

I would HIGHLY recommend having an idea of what you want as your first attempt before you get here tomorrow. This will speed the process up considerably!

Judging Criteria

For a complete breakdown of the rules for each lift, see this explanation be Mark Ripptoe, creator of the CF total format

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/52-2006_CFTotal.pdf

Note: Mark recommends choosing your best triple as your first attempt. This is fine if you know you are already performing the lifts according to the rules, but for most first timers, I would open with your 5-rep max, in case your technique isn’t as good as you thought it was.
Trust me on this one, your first attempt squat is a TERRIBLE time to learn that you’ve never actually broken parallel before!

See you tomorrow everyone!