Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 05:41AM 
Running Drills with Drew from Saturday's class.
We are having some issues with Crossfit Sports Power Blog. We will have it up and running by tomorrow. Our apologies.
TUESDAY BALANCE GYM OPEN HOUSE!- We will be having a Free Open House CF Balance Workout at 5:30pm and we will be waiving initiation fee for those who sign up for an unlimited Crossfit membership. Tomorrow only.
WOD for Monday:
"Fran"
21-15-9
Thrusters
Pull-ups
95/65lbs
Skill Work: Snatch Practice from Hang Position
Wrist Flexibility: By Michael Hall
When was the last time you played jacks? On the surface, this game requires little more than hand-eye coordination; in reality, it also demands high degrees of dexterity in the hand and mobility in the wrist. If you want to get past "onesies!" (and not be taunted by a seven year old), you'll probably need to be able to move through a full, large range of motion in the wrist as well as be able to articulate the fingers precisely and quickly. I see more Jim Beam based activity than Jacks based these days, but my need for wrist mobility and hand dexterity hasn't changed. In fact, as Crossfit athletes, our need for mobility in the wrist has increased, crappy kids game or no.
Most of us spend our days saddled to a monitor and keyboard. Day in and day out, the intrepid desk jockeys of the world put themselves at risk for inflexibility (at the low end of concern) and repetitive strain injuries (at the high end of concern). Simply by surfing the web and typing we lose flexibility in the wrists and shoulders, limiting our lifting capabilities. Lest you feel superior, artist and musicians, all those brush or string strokes run you the same risk. Are you the person who spends too much time working and suddenly find yourself experiencing something like tingling, numbness, or searing pain in the hand/wrist/arm? This indicates the presence of progressive nerve and muscle damage. Repetitive strain (also called cumulative trauma) symptoms can be reversed, as can inflexibility be trumped through repetition and practice of basic exercises!
According to the Mayo Clinic:
"Bound by bones and ligaments, the carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway — about as big around as your thumb — located on the palm side of your wrist. This tunnel protects a main nerve to your hand and nine tendons that bend your fingers. Pressure placed on the nerve produces the numbness, pain and, eventually, hand weakness that characterize carpal tunnel syndrome.
Fortunately, for most people who develop carpal tunnel syndrome, proper treatment usually can relieve the pain and numbness and restore normal use of their wrists and hands."
For a quick flexibility assessment, think back to your last jerk or clean. Could you find the three points of contact on the chest and shoulders with the elbows and chest up? If not, odds are good you could stand to work on your wrist flexibility (and potentially the shoulders too, if the elbows aren't parallel to the floor).
Addressing wrist inflexibilities is something easily worked on before lifting every day or at the office during phone calls. Here's a quick and dirty method for accessing the wrists:
To stretch the wrist flexor: Place the hand flat on the earth, palm heels down ; work to straighten out the elbows. Push your body away from the ground and move the work into the knuckles and out of the wrist. Keep the palm heel secure! Movement towards the knuckle should be progressive and not aggressive Repeat these actions; turning the fingers to point in the cardinal directions (North, South, East West)
To stretch the wrist extensor: Put fingers & thumb together, as though you were sealing the fingers
with the thumb. Place the top of your hands into the earth and move weight into the knuckle. Again, straighten out the elbows. Work to come off of the wrist and into the knuckle. Repeat in all four cardinal directions. Repeat again with the hand flat, palm up. All four directions.
Repeat the flexor stretch in each direction once more.
To loosen everything back up: Once you've completed the above activities, interlace the fingers, bring the palm heels together. Keeping the forearms together, work to slide the left forearm towards the wrist until the hand goes to the right, maintaining the interlacing of the fingers and the touching of the palm heels. Repeat in the other direction. Slowly, slide up and down moving th ewrists but minimizing the change in the elbow's bend. After the wrist loosens up, begin drawing figure eights with the knuckles clasped and the wrists together, minimizing movement in the elbows, letting the work come from the wrists. Repeat the figure eights in the opposite direction (don't let your brain get too confused!)
As mentioned previously, do this multiple times a day to achieve maximum benefit. To further your work in the wrists take a yoga class heavy in arm balances such as bakasana, titibasana, bujapidasana or kundinyakasna. If you're secure in your handstand, you'll find that this flexibility work will allow you greater access to the forearms. Once we are able to get the forearms to reach towards (or even over!) the wrists, we can rotate the seratus and humorus bones, opening up the chest and creating a handstand that is strong like a palm tree (able to move without toppling) and less like a fir (strong in its initial appearance, but often easily toppled). Or, you know, it'll allow you type longer-- which your boss might like. The handstand potential is way more fun.
Alright athletes! Go give it all a go, and watch how much better your
