Welcome Our New Coach Brad Russell To Starke!

Hey Everyone, 

If you have been signing up for classes on-line hint hint. You may have noticed a new name added to the roster of coaches. Starke would like to welcome Brad Russell to our coaching staff and community.

I am excited to have Brad with us as a new coach. He has been training with us for over a month now and has shown a lot of dedication to his own training and performance by coming early before class or staying late after to work on his Olympic lifts or even just working on technique and mobility to help with better movement patterns. 

Brad has several years of experience training in CrossFit and has a great knowledge base as a CrossFit level 1 trainer and being a Physed grad who teaches Physed full time for the Seven Oaks School Division. 

Here is more info on our new coach

Name: Brad Russell

Nicknames: Russell, Russ, Hustle Russell

Age: 28

 

I have been crossfitting for 2 years, In those 2 years, along with countless other smaller learning experience, I can point out 3 things that I have learned. Crossfit has taught me how to learn physically. I never imagined myself learning and becoming competent in some of the more refined skills presented to me (Hand stand walking, Muscle Ups, Double Unders), but in order to do that I had to learn how my body learns and how my brain breaks down physical components before I was able to achieve these skills. Secondly, Crossfit has taught me to how to push myself to fitness I never thought possible. When I first started and a workout said "100 pullups", I thought that was unachievable and insane, now its the norm. Thirdly, and most importantly, I learnt how to take care of my body. I have always been strong and always been athletic, but I never thought about much more outside the gym or the hockey rink. Crossfit has taught me how to eat right, train right, and rest right, and now more than ever in my life, I know when I'm healthy. I've learnt what it feels like when I haven't eaten right, or when I haven't given myself enough rest, or mobilized and stretched properly. I've learnt what being fit and healthy means to me.

 

Favorite Workout: Any of the "girls"- I love the challenge of beating myself

 

Least Favorite Workout: Any of the "girls"- I hate knowing exactly how its going to feel 2, 5, 10 minutes after GO.

 

Training Goals: Snatch 245# (Christmas) C&J 315# (Spring break) 20 Muscle Ups Unbroken (Summer)

 

My background as a teacher and experience as a coach I think will bring a new perspective to the gym. Everybody learns differently and my hope is to use my personal experience, successes and failures, to help people look at movements and skills in a new light, to help an athlete move through those sticking points in their fitness and reach new plateaus. At the same time I hope to show the beginners what they are capable of, push the strong athletes to be a little stronger, and motivate the faster athletes to keep up ;)

 

Build To A Heavy 5

Greg busting out a new Backsquat PR @ 245# for 5 and with a smile!

You walk in the door looking at the white board before you can even take your shoes off. BUILD TO A HEAVY 5 FOR THE DAY is on the board and that's what you're going to do. 

What does that mean? When do I start counting? What weight should I use? Did I wear the proper compression undies for squatting? These are all great questions. 

5x5 (five sets of five repetitions) is a staple that we hit consistently here @ Starke. Building to your heavy five can be different from day to day depending on when the workout ends up in the week. If it ends up that we are doing a 5x5 Backsquat on Friday and it was a heavy leg week you might not be hitting your previous weight used for the 5x5 or you might be feeling like a superhero and surpass that weight. 

The only way you will know this is tracking your lifts and weight used. You should be able to look in your book and see "the last time I did backsquats @ 5x5 I used 300lbs". Now the appropriate build for this depending on how well recovered you are would be building up to that 300 and allowing your body to adapt to the weight along the way with some warm ups sets and focusing on proper technique for the squat and pressurizing the torso to support the load. 

Your 5x5 should be done at 300lbs if that's what you're capable of. If you start counting your first set @ 185#, second @ 225#, third @ 255#, fourth @ 285# and fifth @ 300# yet you were capable of doing all five sets at 300lbs you are limiting your strength gains and it's going to take much longer before you see your loads and max loads going up.

My suggestion is if you see 5x5 on the board for any exercise look and see what you did last time and see if you are up to hitting or surpassing it again. If you are a little run down and did all your sets @ 285# instead that still much better than the build I explained above. With that build that I explained that's still something I would potentially use as a build then start counting my first set once I hit 300# if I was up to it that day. 

Remember to keep full range of motion and never deviate from proper form for a new PR or to get that last rep in. Count it only if its proper!

Oh and for the compression underwear. Make sure you have the right pair on so they don't split in the bottom of that heavy squat. The more squats you do the tighter those baby's seem to get. #squatproblems

Paul