The noon crew.
Golden's lucky day.
In the late 6th century BC, there was a Greek city in southern Italy called Croton. Croton was a city famous for its athletes, having produced a number of Olympic champions. The most renowned was the wrestler Milo. Milo won several Olympiads and was also famous for his feats of strength. One of the legends about him is that he carried a calf on his shoulders daily for a certain distance. The calf grew steadily little by little, as did Milo’s strength, and as time went by, Milo was carrying a full grown cow on his shoulders.
Legend has it that Milo died in the wilderness outside Croton. He came upon a tree split by wedges and when he attempted to rip the tree apart with his hands, the wedges slipped and he was trapped. A pack of wolves devoured him as he weakened from hunger and thirst.
Milo’s legend has survived today as the progenitor of resistance training. While not as exciting as other lifts and movements, carrying weight is a great strength exercise. I especially like walking with weight locked out overhead. Walking with a barbell held at full overhead lockout with active shoulders is a truly underrated exercise. It strengthens the entire shoulder girdle and is a fantastic midline movement.
At CF West, we use walking with overhead lockout regularly for trainees with back problems, as well as healthy trainees. The exercise strengthens the midline as the muscles of the torso, large and small, posterior and anterior, fight to stabilize the load held at arms length overhead. Patterns such as figure eights further add to the need for stabilization. Don’t be scared to go heavy on this movement. Loads approaching max jerk weight condition the body to heavy weight, as well as forcing core stabilization.
The CF West community party is next Saturday, the 25th. There will be classes at 9, 10, and 11, with the party to immediately follow. Please bring your friends and family, all are welcome.
Workout:
5 Rounds
3 Deadlifts 80% 1RM
6 Kettlebell Swings 73/53#
9 Pullups C2B
400m Run
Post WOD completed and score to Comments.
I knew there was a reason I thought the WOD was 5 rounds
I like this story about Milo, not only because it’s cool to picture a bulky greek guy trudging up a hill with a calf on his shoulders, but also because it reminds us that we can accomplish excellent strength training without fancy equipment. Really, if you want to get stronger, just find something heavy and then something heavier, etc. and see what you can do with it. Although CrossFit is never easy, when you break down the approach we take, it’s pretty simple as far as what we’re working with: our bodies, ropes, bars and some weights. It’s actually pretty empowering to think about it. Too bad about Milo’s unfortunate run-in with nature though…
Good eye Patrick.
Great comment Jenny. Thanks.