CROSSFIT SUFFOLK: Powered By SPARTAN PERFORMANCE

15 minutes to establish a 1rm Snatch

?then?
7 rounds for time of:
7 Thrusters 95/65#
11 Push-ups

 100 Day Air Squat Challenge?????

We occasionally initiate a challenge of some sort.  The challenge usually involves an improvement of eating lifestyle or a difficult exercise.  The challenge always has a an end-game, a goal, if you will.  More importantly, the challenge has to make sense.  The "Paleo Challenge", and those like it, are designed to improve diet.  The "100 Day Burpee Challenge" is designed to improve over-all conditioning.  The challenges are simple, but not easy and they're effective.

If one sits and ponders long enough, you could come up with a gazillion challenges, however, that doesn't mean you should or that it's necessary to keep fit or keep interested. One of the advantages to having a coach, beyond the obvious, is getting to bounce your ideas off someone who is experienced and educated.  Some ideas are outstanding and some not so much.  While we appreciate the enthusiasm there are more effective options for glute development than a 100 Day Air Squat Challenge.  The goal of better glute development is a worthy one, it's the process of accomplishing this goal by doing air squats that we have to question.

Here's why:

The air squat (defined as squatting without any weight other than the weight of your body) is a fantastic exercise that all should make every effort to perfect.  For those who have been crossfitting for over 6 months you have squatted in nearly every way, shape and form.  There are air squats, wall ball, thrusters, front squats, back squats, overhead squats, and one-legged squats.  We deadlift and Olympic Lift.  Then there is other primarily lower body exercises like box jumps, split jumps, broad jumps, lunge walks, and running.  That's a whole lot of exercises that directly utilize the glutes or at least involve the glutes.  It should be obvious to those who have spent some time crossfitting that the squat movement makes a frequent appearance.  Probably too frequent to have a 100 Day Air Squat Challenge make much of difference to the potentially powerful glutes.

What to do?

The glutes need to be worked extremely hard for improved performance and improved appearance.  There is no secret formula.  We need to squat heavy weight.  We need to deadlift heavy weight.  Exercises like heavy barbell glute bridges and heavy barbell hip thrusts should be used.  The common denominator is the use of serious weight for each of these exercises.  Of course "heavy" is a relative term, but the idea is to use a weight that you can handle for low reps.

Working the glutes with a higher intensity will not only improve them aesthetically, but help improve performance and protect the lower back.  A 100 Day Squat Challenge isn't a bad thing, especially if you are fairly new to air squats.  Once you have a good air squat there are better ways to build a better butt.—-George

2 More Common Nutrient Deficiencies (and What To Do About Them)     "Well, it turns out these nutrients are attainable through actual food.
No, really. So instead of relying on Frosted Flakes for our iron, or
Wheaties for our zinc we can eat real food. But sometimes the real foods
that contain the nutrients we need aren’t the ones we think to eat, and
this can become a problem."—Mark Sisson, Mark's Daily Apple