5/24 Technique Tuesday

The L-Sit is a fantastic test of core strength and stability. Check out this video of progressions to develop the strength for an L-Sit. 
We continue our fitness testing week with a series of tests created by CrossFit Level 4 Seattle. These tests are used to determine your current fitness level and appropriate scalings and progressions for workouts. 
The testing and use of the levels is analogous to belt colors in martial arts. You work in your current level, progressing towards the next. After you've demonstrated competency in your current level, you're allowed to test to the next one. These fitness levels can highlights your weaknesses and give you something to work on. Remember, our goal is to make you as generally fit as possible. The CrossFit Level 4 fitness levels allow us to assess and make recommendations for improving your general physical capacity. 
​What the Skill Levels Mean:

• Level 1. You can move like a human. You’re not in particularly good shape, but if your town floods, you can get in a rescue boat without a firefighter pulling you in. If you can’t do three pull-ups, and three dips, you don’t have healthy shoulders. If you can’t squat all the way down comfortably, your hips are not healthy. These are basic health problems in the sense that they affect your quality of life. Fixing these problems generates a lot of self-confidence, and sets the stage for further progress.
• Level 2. You’re not a competitive athlete, but you’re an active, fit person who can tackle whatever you want to do. All of your joints have full range of motion and adequate strength. You know how to create stability and power. You are ready to dive into learning any new physical activity that may interest you. Being this capable is so much fun!
• Level 3. This is general fitness for a competitive athlete. That’s already pretty rare territory. Most adults don’t need all this, but it can be fun and give you some challenging goals. If you’re not working on Level 3 – for instance, if you can’t do a few strict dead hang muscle ups – you have no business entering the CrossFit Open and expect to get to Regionals or expect to be in the top 25% globally.  Stop being delusional about what you can do. Treat the problem.
• Level 4. The level 4 goals explore the limits of general fitness. They are attainable only through many years of smart consistent training. None of the individual goals are very advanced when compared to a specialist in that field, but the combination of these qualities is very hard to achieve. For many, if not most people, this level of all around fitness is just not practical. Not practical because achieving all of these skills simultaneously means that you have really become a specialist in general fitness. Many, many people can perform some of the skills listed in Level 4, while at the same time they are unable to perform several level 2 skills. Perhaps the best use of these levels is when you are able to realize that you are already “good enough” in one area, and can then focus on an area that needs work.

Today's Workout
​CrossFit or Powerlifting Total
or
Level 4 Athletics Skills Test
Choose the test level you are confident you can complete.  

​LEVEL 1
STRENGTH
​Shoulder Press:  .45 x BW        3 reps
Deadlift:               .75 x BW        8 reps


​BODYWEIGHT
Complete 5 rounds of:
Pull-up:  1 rep from full extension to chin over bar, no kip
Dip: 1 rep   active shoulders, full lockout at top, greater than 90 degree at elbow
Horizontal Ring Row:  1 rep hands touch chest
3 second L-sit:  active shoulders, knees above hips, legs almost straight, demonstrate control
1 second Handstand: on wall, tight hollow body, demonstrate control
​WORK CAPACITY
Complete in less than 5 minutes, 2 rounds of:
250 meter row
20 dumbbell snatches 35/25#
10 x 10″ box jumps

LEVEL 2
STRENGTH
​Overhead Squat:  .5 x BW        10 reps
Shoulder Press:     .6 x BW          8 reps
Deadlift:                1.5 x BW          3 reps   (no touch and go)
BODYWEIGHT
Complete 4 rounds of:
Hanging Knee to Elbow: 1 rep
Single leg squat:  1 rep/leg
Muscle up:  1 rep
Freestanding Handstand: 5 seconds     kick to handstand with no spotter, hands fixed, arms straight, establish a stable handstand for 5 seconds



​
​WORK CAPACITY
​Complete in 8 minutes or less, 2 rounds of:
4 Front Squat @ Bodyweight
Run 800m