Backbend Workshop + Workouts

Hi everyone! I hope you’re enjoying the weekend. I have had a great one and will get a weekend post up a little later. For now I have the week of workouts to share including details on a backbending workshop I took over the weekend.

Just because she’s so cute… 🙂

Monday

3.5 mile run + Strength

I ran 3.5 miles early in the morning after I finished with my training clients and then did some strength work before teaching my evening classes at the gym. I did 5 sets of 10 back squats at 85#, 10 bench press at 65# and 10 GHD sit ups. Benching made me sore!

Tuesday

1 mile run + CrossFit

I warmed up with a mile run and then did the following workout…

3 RFT: 

50 double unders
50 foot overhead walking lunges (35# plate)
25 burpees
25 ab mat sit ups

This was a great cardio WOD. I can’t remember how long it took me but I think it was like 18ish minutes.

Wednesday

6 mile run

I met my running partner for a six mile run. It was super humid but I felt great. We maintained around a 9:00 pace for the run.

Thursday

1 mile run + CrossFit

Running is my favorite way to warm up before WODing.

21-15-9

Deadlifts
Pull Ups
Wall Balls

I love triplets of 21-15-9 rep schemes. This was a great combo of movements. I used 115# for the deadlifts and it took me a little over 12 minutes.

Friday

CrossFit + Hot Yoga

I haven’t been doing many two-a-days lately because a) “ain’t nobody got time for that”…I have WAY too much going on. Quality over quantity. And b) I haven’t been practicing much yoga and it’s usually the second workout if I do two. Friday was an exception. It was my favorite teacher’s birthday and I planned to take her class to celebrate her. Then my 6:30 a.m. cancelled and I couldn’t resist doing the WOD before class. It was two of my favorite movements.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Power cleans with 10 burpees between every round

I loved this WOD! I used 75# for the cleans and finished in a little over 12 minutes. I felt a little dizzy for a while after the WOD from all of the up and down with the cleans and burpees. The yoga class after was the perfect way to end a week of CrossFitting and my teacher was on fire on her birthday!

Saturday

Backbend workshop

I took a four-hour backbending workshop at Om Yoga on Saturday afternoon. The first two hours of the workshop were lecture and the last two were practice. I really enjoyed the practice portion of the workshop because we spent so long warming up and doing various drills, exercises, stretches with props like basketballs, straps, blocks, the wall, etc. It’s crazy how different your backbends feel when you spend time really opening up the chest, shoulders, upper back, hip flexors, etc.

So, I LOVE backbending and I’m fairly good at it. I can do drop backs, tick tocks and some other advanced poses but I am SUPER tight in my lats/chest/shoulders due to all the lifting I do…and that’s exactly where your backbending should come from. It was so good for me to go through all the exercises to make sure I was backbending from this part of my body and not cheating. In the photo above I had to perform a backbend with my wrists pressing into the wall, a strap around my arms to keep them the right distance apart and rotating the right way while squeezing a block between my legs. There was no cheating to be had here. It was hard!

The highlight of the workshop for me was dropping back and standing up while keeping my heels down and grounded and my feet shoulder’s distance apart. It was my first time not cheating it by coming onto my toes on my drop backs (like you see in the video above). I’m going to really focus on this in my practice moving forward.

Sunday

I think today calls for a little rest day! 🙂

Backbends…love them or not your favorite? I once had a teacher tell me I was, “all backbend and no forward bend.” Ha!