Strength Training with SportVelo at Defiance Crossfit

This winter training season a group of SportVelo athletes are doing strength training together at Haley's gym, Defiance Crossfit. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning she's got a new workout for us. We started out slow, since none of us were used to lifting weights (it's only the beginning of winter training after all), and we don't all know all of the lifts and how to do them properly and safely. To start out, Haley showed us some basic lifts and exercises, and we found our one rep max weights for the deadlift. I lifted 225 lbs, which is better than I expected given the shape I'm in. I'm pretty sure my old max weight during crew was closer to 265 lbs, but that was after a month or two or three of working up to that weight, so we'll see how far I get this winter. We also found our one rep max weights for hang power clean (105 lbs) and front squat (155 lbs). The workouts we've been doing generally consist of a warmup, two main sets, and core. In true crossfit style, our main sets almost never consist of just lifts, but lifts then something extra. For example, 5 front squats quickly followed by 5 jumping air squats. It mixes things up a bit, but it can also be quite tiring. In any case, I think the workouts are great, usually fun (though difficult), and we'll all get so much stronger from doing them.