Learning to Kip

Happy Hump Day, everyone! Only one more work day until the long weekend! I cannot wait for that extra day off of work!

Today was another CrossFit day. Normally I don’t go back to back days, but I had hockey Monday night and was supposed to have hockey Thursday night, so needed to get my CrossFit classes in around those. That meant back to back WOD days.

Today’s WOD was a skills class and a 2000m row. My Box is doing the Open 12.4 WOD tomorrow, and since it didn’t get announced until 8pm tonight, they didn’t want to have anything in today’s workout that might make those competing too sore or tired for tomorrow’s Open workout. So the 2000m row was a pretty safe bet. Each class got to pick the skill they worked on at the start of class. Tonight, our coach suggested kipping pull-ups. Everyone agreed we could all use help with those.

Once again, this is a move that I can not do! (You may have noticed that this list is quite long!). We started with a warm up of 5 burpees, 10 sit-ups and 15 air squats for 3 rounds. Then we practiced hollow body pose and superman, rolling from one to the other. I had no idea how this related to the pull-ups, but apparently those are the same movements you do when you kip. I am learning so much at CrossFit! After doing a few sets of the hollow body to superman’s, from left to right and back again, it was on to the bars to put it into action.

At first I felt like I was just flailing around up there, but then I started to get the hang of it. The coach reminded us that we need to engage out shoulders rather than just hang there – active hang versus passive hang. Once I started to "engage" my shoulders, I was able to start to actually get the "pull-up" part of pull ups! Who knew! I wasn’t able to get all the way up, but when I do, I need to remember to push away. So many things to think about. Hopefully next time we do these this will all come back to me!

Here is an excellent video of all the steps for doing a kipping pull up. Seriously, this video is awesome!

How to do a Kipping Pull-Up.

I am going to review this video every once in a while and try to spend a bit of time practicing.  I’ve got a pull up bar that goes over the door frame.  I’m not sure I can do this kipping move with that bar or not.  I might need hubby to MacGyver something in the basement for me to practice on.  I’m determined to be able to do a pull up by the end of the summer.  I’d also like to master double unders.  Those I can practice at home as soon as the weather gets a bit nicer and I can skip in the driveway. 

Tomorrow I was supposed to have hockey.  It is my team’s final game of the season.  I’m bummed I can’t go.  I have to go to a client dinner at work.  Normally I would have gone to hockey, but now that I’m an owner, I can’t blow stuff like this off.  So, I’m going out for dinner with a new client of ours.  We are going to Didier Restaurant.  One of the other people who will be going out for dinner with us has arranged for the chef to prepare a special meal for us.  I have no idea what we are in for, but the restaurant is supposed to be one of the best French restaurants in the city.  I’m excited and nervous to see what we get.  If I can sneak some pics, I will include them in tomorrow night’s post. 

Can you kip?  Isn’t that a great instructional video? 

Any of you Toronto folks ever been to Didier? 

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