Teen Strength and Conditioning – Free Intro Class
Saturday, February 7th at 11:00am. All Teens welcome. 
Click here to sign up.

Power snatch 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Snatch balance 2-2-2-2-2 reps
Squat snatch 1-1-1-1-1 reps

RXish

At Roots, we could care less if you do the workout RX.  The coaches care that you do the workout with the best possible loading and movement standards that enable an intensity level that preserves the intent of the workout.  We care that the workout progresses you as an athlete, keeps you safe, and ensures quality range of motion and movement development.

The term RX (or as prescribed) in CrossFit is used to designate when an athlete completes a workout as written in regard to loading, movements, and range of motion requirements.  All three factors must be present for an athlete to claim this designation.  There’s no “pretty close”, “almost RX”, “half RX”, “one movement was RX”, “I really want to put RX on the whiteboard, RX” or “half-assed RX.”

If your goal is to do a workout RX, we want you to remember to keep all three RX considerations in mind – loading, movements, and range of motion requirements – as you develop and work toward your goal. 

As coaches, we work with all athletes to ensure quality of movement, safety, and range of motion standards but there comes a point when it is as much the athlete’s responsibility to earn the designation RX as it is for the coach to ensure and police that the RX standard is met.

If every time, over the course of a workout, a coach must tell an athlete to get lower, touch their chest to the ground on a push-up, or lock out overhead, the athlete is doing more than just a few reps that are not to the RX standard.  If the athlete then claims the designation RX, then the phrase no longer means that loading, movements, and range of motion requirements were met throughout the workout.  If the athlete claims they did not understand the movement standard, this is also a reason that RX was not met, because RX means having an understanding – both mentally and physically – to complete the workout as it was written.

Now, let’s get into this a little bit.  Let’s take the workout Elizabeth:
21-15-9
power cleans (135/95)
ring dips

To perform this workout RX, an athlete would have to:
1. Use the specified weights – perform the lifts with 135 for men and 95 for women
2. Complete the cleans as power cleans with a barbell (not hang cleans or with dumbbells) and the ring dips without the use of bands or other assistance, and not on an apparatus other than rings
3. Achieve the specified Range of Motion:
Power Cleans: start the bar from the ground every rep and finish the rep with the athlete standing fully with the bar resting on the shoulder
Ring Dip: begin fully locked out at the top of the rings, lower the shoulder to a position that is below the top of the elbow, and raise to a fully locked out elbow all while accomplishing this movement by lowering the hips for travel, not bending the torso

So, say an athlete performs the workout and over the course of the ring dips, the coach gets their eyes on the athlete six times, and every time the coach says, “get lower on your dip” or “that one didn’t count.”  On the power cleans, for half the reps, the athlete lowers the bar from their shoulder before standing up all the way.  The coach stops the athlete to explain, but the movement pattern does not change with any consistency.  Should this athlete be allowed to claim the title RX?  The answer is no.

Now some of you are probably reading this post and peeing your pants a little, or your heart rate is going through the roof.  “There’s so much pressure around RX!  This makes it so much harder.  The coaches are mean.  RX is my LIFE!  AHHHHHH.”

Dude, chill.

Remember, while RX is a great goal, your fitness is the priority, and that doesn’t always mean that RX on any given day is the best method to get there.  

If you do go after a workout as RX, have the integrity and the guts to complete it both mentally and physically as it was intended.