Never Forget

While LT Murphy and his Team were in Afghanistan they wore the patch of FDNY Engine 53 Ladder 43 El Barrio's Bravest to remind them of 9-11.... It is only fitting that they now wear a patch honoring the men of Operation Red Wings. HOOYAH to the men of El Barrio's Bravest!

Movement and Mobility with Kelly Starrett

NEW GEAR

NEW CROSSFIT GEAR WORTHY OF CHECKING OUT

110% Play Harder Compression Shorts

These shorts are two-in-one: compression and cooling. The 110% Play Harder Compression Shorts keep circulation flowing during a workout, and reduce pain and soreness with its post-workout cold therapy feature. After your workout, simply slide the included, reusable frozen ice sheets into cooling-specific pockets for an instant cold treatment. The shorts also stretch without compromising targeted compression areas during your workout and antimicrobial material wicks sweat. Not a cold therapy fan? Heat the ice sheets in the microwave and insert the same way for heat therapy. ($110, 110playharder.com)

Inov-8 Bare-XF 260

Inov-8’s new shoes, Bare-XF 260, are the shoe when it comes to conquering CrossFit. With zero differential and zero midsole, the shoes deliver support necessary for lifting while still being able to maintain your natural running style. The Rope-Tec technology provides 360-degree maximum grip as you climb up the 15-foot rope. The Bare-XF 260 has all of the grip and flexibility you need in a CrossFit shoe and won’t ever slip off with velcro lacing. ($140, inov-8.com)

The Zach Miller Story

Patton

SinCity Crossfit created their own hero WOD for their best friend and Navy Seal, Shane Patton, who was one of the four that died in the helicopter in the same mission that killed “Murph” and “Michael”.

For Time:
25 dead lifts (men’s rx 155/women’s rx 105)
400m run
10 strict pull ups
10 clean & jerks (rx weight same as dead lifts)
800m run
10 strict pull ups
10 clean & jerks
10 strict pulls
800m run
10 clean & jerks
10 strict pull ups
400m run
25 dead lifts

A Look Into Squatting Deep

First and foremost, the reason we squat to below parallel: Every lift we do is taken through the bodies full range of motion. Safety and efficacy aside, your body was designed to squat all the way down and all the way up. When you do push-ups, your body is built to allow you to touch your chest at the bottom of the rep, and fully extend the arms at the top. We don’t do half reps, because in life and in sports, we are required to move through our bodies full range of motion.

• Researchers at Cambridge Consultants Ltd. in Cambridge (UK) recently looked at the forces acting on two key knee ligaments – the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the posterior cruciate ligament – during typical rehabilitation exercises (‘Cruciate ligament forces in the human knee during rehabilitation exercises’, Clinical Biomechanics, Volume 15-3 (March), pp.176-187, 2000).  Overall, this research suggested that squatting is a safe and effective exercise to promote the recapture of muscular strength following ligamentous injury to the knee (provided deep squats are avoided by those with posterior cruciate problems), and that squatting actually often puts less strain on internal knee ligaments, compared with conventional and popular isometric and isokinetic knee-flexion and knee-extension exercises.

• The findings of the Cambridge study are supported by several other high-quality investigations. In related work carried out at the McClure Musculoskeletal Research Center in the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington, Vermont, researchers also looked at the effects of squatting versus ‘open-chain’ (i.e., non-weight-bearing) knee flexion and extension on the anterior cruciate ligament (‘The strain behaviour of the anterior cruciate ligament during squatting and active flexion-extension: A comparison of an open and a closed kinetic chain exercise’, American Journal of Sports Medicine, Volume 25-6 (November-December), pp. 823-829, 1997). In this Vermont study, the maximum anterior cruciate ligament strain values obtained during squatting did not differ from those obtained during active flexion and extension of the knee during non-weight-bearing exercise. Even when external resistance was added so that muscular force production would necessarily increase, anterior cruciate ligament strain values obtained during squatting remained unchanged. To put it another way, squatting, even though it produces a substantial compressive knee-joint force, does not place more stress on the anterior cruciate ligament, compared to conventional, open-chain knee flexion and extension. In addition, increasing resistance during the squat exercise does not produce a significant increase in anterior cruciate ligament strain values, whereas increased resistance during active, open-chain extension of the knee does increase the stress on the ACL. (1)

• Injury rates and profiles of elite competitive weightlifters, a 1999 study out of the University of Memphis (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16558570). This study took a look at elite weightlifters over the course of 6 years. True story, elite weightlifters do A LOT of squatting. This study found that a huge majority of their injuries were from overuse, not from actual damage to the joints. This means tendinitis, not torn ACLs. These guys squat every single day for 6 years and most of the time just end up with some tendinitis. You can do anything for 6 years straight and get tendinitis from it. No damage to the joints means: Squatting is Safe! Including heavy squatting!

• “We’ve all heard it, if you dip below parallel during a squat, your kneecap will blow off and land in the front desk girl’s mocha latte. Well it just ain’t true! What’s that, you need a little more evidence? Ok boys and girls, its time for today’s episode of Fun With Musculoskeletal Anatomy.The knee has four main protective ligaments that keep the femur from displacing on the tibia (ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL). These four ligaments are most effective at their protection during full extension and full flexion. Full extension would be when you are standing; full flexion would be when there is no daylight between your hamstring and your calf. When the knee is at 90 degrees of flexion (the halfway point), these four ligaments are almost completely lax and cannot exert much if any of a protective force at the knee (Zatsiorsky V. Kinematics of human motion. 1998 – published by Human Kinetics – p.301). Unfortunately, the position where the protective ligaments of the knee are not doing any protecting is the common recommended stopping point of a squat. Therefore, as it as it turns out, this is the exact worst place you could reverse the motion under load. If flexibility allows (heels staying planted, torso not flexing forward past 45 degrees), then a full squat where you lower yourself all the way to the ground is far safer on the knees than the traditional half squat. Guess what joint angle most leg extension machines start at? If you said 90 degrees, give yourself a pat on your healthy knee. This makes a full squat even safer than a leg extension machine (Wilk K et al. A comparison of tibiofemoral joint forces and electromyographic activity during open and closed kinetic chain exercises. Am J Sports Med; 24(4):518-527). So am I telling you never to do parallel squats? No! Am I saying that you’ll injure yourself on a parallel squat? No, again! What I’m trying to do is simply make an argument for the safety of full squats, thereby relegating squat myth #2 to the fiery pits of hades.” - Marc McDougal (http://www.johnberardi.com/updates/jan312003/na_myths.htm)

• Chandler, et al. (1989) found that male powerlifters, many of them elite class, demonstrated significantly tighter joint capsules on anterior drawer compared to controls. Moreover, both the powerlifters as well as a group of competitive weight lifters were significantly tighter on the quadriceps active drawer at 90 degrees of knee flexion than control subjects.

• It can be argued that ligamentous injury risk during squatting is actually greatest in the parallel squat-the position where PCL forces are at their apex. However, the magnitude of maximal posterior shear during squat performance (approximately 2700 N) is well below the strength capacity of a young, healthy person’s PCL, which is estimated to exceed 4000 N (Escamilla, 2001). It should also be noted that regimented resistance training confers an adaptive response in connective tissue, increasing its strength capacity (Buchanan & Marsh, 2002). A stronger ligament serves to improve tolerance to load, further reducing the prospect of injury. (2)

All of these are just studies I’ve been able to find in 5 minutes of Google searching. A doctor can tell you that squatting is dangerous all day. I squat deep, and I can run faster and jump higher than your doctor. My knees are perfectly healthy. There are guys who squat a lot more than I do and can run a lot faster than I do, and their knees are perfectly healthy.

Sure, squats can be dangerous.  You can do them improperly, with muscular imbalances and weakness that prevent proper form. You can go too heavy. You can squat too often. I’m definitely not telling you that you will never get injured and that training will make you bullet proof. Everyone who works out at our gym has made the conscious decision to take the hard route, of pushing heavy weights and pushing their bodies every day. Sometimes something bad is going to happen, but most of the time you are just going to be stronger, fitter, and more mobile than the legions of people sitting at their desks for 8 hours a day. When you turn 80, you will still be walking around the house and playing with your grandchildren while your friends are consigned to assisted living. Squatting is a low risk, high reward activity. Driving your car every day is a hell of a lot more dangerous.

References:
Heavy Metal Strength and Conditioning
Peak Performance
Look Great Naked

"Steve"

To a friend who has been nothing less than family; I've titled this W.O.D in his name. His love for the sport and care for others has been monumental. Let this be a workout you hit hard, give it all you have...never quit!

"Steve"

For time
15 x Squat clean (155lb)
30 x Toes to bar
30 x Box jumps (24 inch)
15 x Muscle-ups 
30 x DB push press (40lb)
30 x Double unders
15 x Thruster (135lb)
30 x Pull-ups
30 x Burpees
15 x Walking lunges w/bar (135lb)