November 2008 Archives
Awesome OLY form via the international magic of Facebook.
081201
6PM
Social Climbing at Ironworks
Hosted by Bekka and Daniel: come climb with the CFEB crew. If you don't know how this is a great opportunity to learn to toprope: you don't need to own equipment, but there is a nominal fee for harness and shoe rental.
Post routes completed to comments.
Sunday 081123
11AM and NoonThree rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell swing, 21 reps
21 Push-ups
15 foot Rope climb, 3 ascents or 27 Towel Pull-Ups
20 inch Box jump, 21 reps or 24 inch Box jump 15 reps or 30 inch box jump 9 reps
42 Supermans
Walking lunge, 150 ft
Post time to comments.
Compare to 040905.
"Going Overhead with Adrian Bozman Part 2: The Push Press", CrossFit Journal Preview - video [wmv] [mov]
11 and Noon
5-5-5-5-5 Hang Clean & Thruster
Post loads to comments.
"Keystone CrossFit": 10 athletes, when presented with two choices (5K or 10K) manage to run seven different distances ranging from 5K to 15K+ at Redwood Regional Park. Bonus: directions to trailhead were wrong!
WOD 081128
"Man Overboard" (Thanks to CrossFit NYC AKA "Black Box" and CrossFit Virtuosity)
2 rounds for time:
Perform one of the following exercises for each athlete present:
- Row (total row=5K)
- Tire Flip
- Push-Up
- Wall-Ball
- Deadlift 185#/135#
- Sandbag Push-Press 65#/45#
- Pull-Up
- Jumping Ring Dip
- Sandbag Clean 65#/45#
- Back Squat 135#/95#
- Push-Up
- Ball Slam 20#
- Burpee
- Double-Under
- Air Squat
Workout:
This is a Version of "Man Overboard" from CrossFit NYC Black Box.
The rower is the 'pace car'.
The time it takes to row is the time you have to do each movement.
Upon completion of the row, the rower yells out "Man Overboard" and the coach calls "Rotate" or "Switch", everyone then moves to the next station.
There is no rest in this workout: as soon as the Coach calls "Rotate" you may start the next exercise. Total score is total reps completed. The row does not count towards points. If you are trying for the highest score, you want to row as fast as possible to prevent others from being able to complete a lot of reps. However the trade-off in metabolic capacity of going full-bore must be considered as well.
Post total reps to comments.
WOD 081126
5PM ONLY
"Helen"
Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups
Compare to:
Post time to comments.
Social Climbing @ GWPC. Ev on 5.10c, Elaine on 5.10d
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Espetus dinner. Post Sunday dinner ideas to comments.
Monday 081124 6PM
Social Climbing at GWPC hosted by Daniel and Rebecca. You do not need to know how to climb. There is a nominal fee for equipment rental if you don't have gear. Bring cameras.
CrossFit East Bay Mark 4
For Time:
7 Rounds
Run 100 Meters
5 Kettlebell Swing 2P/1.5P
10 Push-Up
15 Kettlebell Clean 1.0P/.75P
20 Double-Under
Post time to comments.
At 4PM I will be hosting a dinner for unabashed carnivores @:
The cost will be 62.00 each, including tax and tip, not including beverages.
The location is 1668 Market Street @ Gough, six blocks west of Civic Center Bart.
Please RSVP. I have reserved 15 seats and have 10 confirmations. Last chance to sign up for gluttony.
With a continuously running clock do one 1.5P/1.0P kettlebell clean the first minute, two 1.5P/1.0P kettlebell cleans the second minute, three 1.5P/1.0P kettlebell cleans the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.
Use as many sets each minute as needed. Switch hands as often as you wish or not at all.
Post minutes completed to comments.
WOD 081121
With a continuously running clock do one Double-Under the first minute, two Double-Unders the second minute, three Double-Unders the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.
Use as many sets each minute as needed.
WOD 081120
With a continuously running clock do one Push-Up the first minute, two Push-Ups the second minute, three Push-Ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.
Use as many sets each minute as needed.
Post number of minutes completed to comments.
New records added to records page:
Tom C. 71 Push-Ups
James M. 24 C2B Pull-ups
Andrea S. 7:02 Mile
WOD 081119
5 and 6 PM
With a continuously running clock do one 1.5P/1.0P kettlebell swing the first minute, two 1.5P/1.0P kettlebell swings the second minute, three 1.5P/1.0P kettlebell swings the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.
Use as many sets each minute as needed.
Post number of minutes completed to comments.
Annie Sakamoto FGB
Building on yesterday's post (please read all of it if you have not already), this week will focus on basic movement fundamentals. We will chose one reasonably simple fundamental movement and drill it each day, Wednesday-Saturday, concluding with a monostructural WOD on each day. Sunday we will combine the four movement which we have drilled into an intense metcon, with a focus on the best form we can muster.
Post suggestions for fundamental movements to work on this week.
Nicole Carroll does "Helen" Men's RX, Maximus & Shira look on.
I would like to share with all of you Coach Glassman's open letter to CrossFit Trainers, reprinted in it's entirety, below. It is a great thing that some of you are now driven to, even passionate about being able to, do the workouts RX. but we (meaning me as well) should all keep in mind that it is no virtue to pound through a workout as fast as possible at any cost. That way lies injury, a lack of coordinational improvement, poor form, decreased efficiency, and, generally, less than full ROM (range of motion). This last point is important. A lack of full ROM automatically equals less work volume and makes no sense, if full ROM is possible. This is so often simply ego, or a desire to move as quickly as possible. If you deadlift 300# but can only stand up to 90% of full extension, you might as well have lifted 270# with perfect form and full extension. The amount of work is exactly the same, it is safer and those who understand will be much more impressed with a beautiful maximal lift than a heavy ugly one. My favorite quote of all time from Coach Glassman on full ROM is "I ran a three-minute mile, but it was only half a mile" .
Form should start out at an A and not go below an A- if at all possible. What we are practicing, as Coach has stated is "not weightlifting, but commitment". Commitment to being the best, most fully rounded athletes we are capable of personally being. The target is not the person next to you, but you, yourself. Always striving to go a little faster, a little heavier, to make your movements a little more poetic. This does not mean an OCD approach where each rep must be absolutely perfect and you don't break a sweat. "Perfect is the enemy of good" as Coach Rip says. There is an interplay between increased intensity and the breakdown of form. The goal is to achieve higher intensity (more work volume) without falling apart. The last rep of 300 burpees for time is not going to look as good as the first but it should still have all of it's fundamentals intact.
Doing the workouts as RX is a noble goal, however doing the movements with the best form you can muster, regardless of speed or weight, keeping in mind the caveat about perfectionism, is a superior goal. Nobler still is to do the workout RX with beautiful form. For some of us, this may not come fast: I think of CrossFit as a years-long, decades-long journey towards mastery and virtuosity, and my form on some things, even after years is, frankly, lousy. I still need to keep the fundamentals in mind and so do we all. Embrace what you are weak in, accentuate your strengths, work with an eye towards becoming an excellent generalist. We are training for the demands of life, not to be the fastest or best in some specialized field.
Finally, I am proud of, and pleased with, what so many of you have achieved over the last year, and I feel I would not be serving you if I did not try to take many of you to the next level. For some of you that is increased intensity, for some of you it is better form and for a few it is both.
Post your strengths, weaknesses and plan for better GPP to comments.
Fundamentals, Virtuosity, and Mastery
An Open Letter to CrossFit Trainers
CrossFit Journal August 2005
Greg Glassman
In gymnastics, completing a routine without error will not get you a perfect score,
the 10.0--only a 9.7. To get the last three tenths of a point, you must
demonstrate "risk, originality, and virtuosity" as well as make no mistakes in
execution of the routine.
Risk is simply executing a movement that is likely to be missed or botched;
originality is a movement or combination of movements unique to the athlete--a
move or sequence not seen before. Understandably, novice gymnasts love to
demonstrate risk and originality, for both are dramatic, fun, and awe inspiring--
especially among the athletes themselves, although audiences are less likely to
be aware when either is demonstrated.
Virtuosity, though, is a different beast altogether. Virtuosity is defined in
gymnastics as "performing the common uncommonly well." Unlike risk and
originality, virtuosity is elusive, supremely elusive. It is, however, readily
recognized by audience as well as coach and athlete. But more importantly,
more to my point, virtuosity is more than the requirement for that last tenth of a
point; it is always the mark of true mastery (and of genius and beauty).
There is a compelling tendency among novices developing any skill or art,
whether learning to play the violin, write poetry, or compete in gymnastics, to
quickly move past the fundamentals and on to more elaborate, more
sophisticated movements, skills, or techniques. This compulsion is the novice's
curse--the rush to originality and risk.
The novice's curse is manifested as excessive adornment, silly creativity, weak
fundamentals and, ultimately, a marked lack of virtuosity and delayed mastery. If
you've ever had the opportunity to be taught by the very best in any field you've
likely been surprised at how simple, how fundamental, how basic the instruction
was. The novice's curse afflicts learner and teacher alike. Physical training is no
different.
What will inevitably doom a physical training program and dilute a coach's
efficacy is a lack of commitment to fundamentals. We see this increasingly in
both programming and supervising execution. Rarely now do we see prescribed
the short, intense couplets or triplets that epitomize CrossFit programming.
Rarely do trainers really nitpick the mechanics of fundamental movements.
I understand how this occurs. It is natural to want to teach people advanced and
fancy movements. The urge to quickly move away from the basics and toward
advanced movements arises out of the natural desire to entertain your client and
impress him with your skills and knowledge. But make no mistake: it is a
sucker's move. Teaching a snatch where there is not yet an overhead squat,
teaching an overhead squat where there is not yet an air squat, is a colossal
mistake. This rush to advancement increases the chance of injury, delays
advancement and progress, and blunts the client's rate of return on his efforts. In
short, it retards his fitness.
If you insist on basics, really insist on them, your clients will immediately
recognize that you are a master trainer. They will not be bored; they will be awed.
I promise this. They will quickly come to recognize the potency of fundamentals.
They will also advance in every measurable way past those not blessed to have
a teacher so grounded and committed to basics.
Training will improve, clients will advance faster, and you will appear more
experienced and professional and garner more respect, if you simply recommit to
the basics.
There is plenty of time within an hour session to warm up, practice a basic
movement or skill or pursue a new PR or max lift, discuss and critique the
athletes' efforts, and then pound out a tight little couplet or triplet utilizing these
skills or just play. Play is important. Tire flipping, basketball, relay races, tag,
Hooverball, and the like are essential to good programming, but they are
seasoning--like salt, pepper, and oregano. They are not main courses.
CrossFit trainers have the tools to be the best trainers on earth. I really believe
that. But good enough never is, and we want that last tenth of a point, the whole
10.0. We want virtuosity!!
CrossFit is a registered trademark of CrossFit Inc.
Therese Hang Power Snatch
WOD 081116
11 and Noon
(Max will participate @ Noon)
"The 42"
42 Inverted Burpees
42 KB Swing 2P/1.5P
42 C2B Pull-Ups
42 KB Snatch Left 1.5P/1.0P
42 KB Snatch Right 1.5P/1.0P
42 Burpees
42 Double-Unders
5PM
Dinner @ Little Shin Shin
Please RSVP ASAP
The FOLLOWING Sunday, November 23rd, I will be hosting a dinner for unabashed carnivores @:
The cost will be 62.00 each, including tax and tip, not including beverages.
The location is 1668 Market Street @ Gough, six blocks west of Civic Center Bart.
Please RSVP. I have reserved 10 seats so far.
Mr Photogenic represents CFEB once again at CFR.
WOD 081115
2 for the price of one today.
Run One Mile
Hang Power Snatch 3-3-3-3-3
Post time and loads to comments.
WOD 081114
For time:
Run One Mile
100 Deadlift 135#/95#
200 sandbag push-jerk 45#/ 35#
300 Jumping Pull-Ups, middle finger 12 inches above bar/ring @ maximum reach
Run One Mile
If you have body armor or a 20# weight vest, wear it. You may do the movements in any order.
Post time to comments.
WOD 081112
5PM
Power Clean 2-2-2-2-2-2-2
6PM
Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Burpees (Reps)
Pull-Ups(Reps)
Inverted Burpees (Reps)
KB Swings 1.5 P/1.0P (Reps)
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep.
Add your points and post them to comments.
WOD 081113:
"Broomstick Mile"
25 Back Squats
25 Front Squats (video link includes Rob Miller Squatting)
25 Overhead Squats
Run 400 meters
25 Shoulder Press
25 Push Press
25 Push Jerk
Run 400 meters
25 Deadlift
50 Squat Cleans
Run 400 meters
50 Snatches
Run 400 meters
All of this work except for the runs is done with a PVC pipe. The moves
are done in synchrony and the run is kept to pace of the slowest
runner. Everyone stays together for every rep.
Compare to: 080314
Today is my birthday, but we shall "celebrate" on Sunday with the following:
Noon
WOD (Max will participate)
"The 42"
42 Inverted Burpees
42 KB Swing 2P/1.5P
42 C2B Pull-Ups
42 KB Snatch Left 1.5P/1.0P
42 KB Snatch Right 1.5P/1.0P
42 Burpees
42 Double-Unders
5PM
Dinner @ Little Shin Shin
Please RSVP ASAP
The FOLLOWING Sunday, November 23rd, I will be hosting a dinner for unabashed carnivores @:
The cost will be 62.00 each, including tax and tip, not including beverages.
The location is 1668 Market Street @ Gough, six blocks west of Civic Center Bart.
Please RSVP. I have reserved 10 seats so far.
New York Times
Stretching: The Truth
WHEN DUANE KNUDSON, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, Chico, looks around campus at athletes warming up before practice, he sees one dangerous mistake after another. "They're stretching, touching their toes. . . . " He sighs. "It's discouraging."
If you're like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you've likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes' warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds -- known as static stretching -- primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg's muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.
"There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching," says Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The straining muscle becomes less responsive and stays weakened for up to 30 minutes after stretching, which is not how an athlete wants to begin a workout.
THE RIGHT WARM-UP should do two things: loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and literally warm up the body. When you're at rest, there's less blood flow to muscles and tendons, and they stiffen. "You need to make tissues and tendons compliant before beginning exercise," Knudson says.
A well-designed warm-up starts by increasing body heat and blood flow. Warm muscles and dilated blood vessels pull oxygen from the bloodstream more efficiently and use stored muscle fuel more effectively. They also withstand loads better. One significant if gruesome study found that the leg-muscle tissue of laboratory rabbits could be stretched farther before ripping if it had been electronically stimulated -- that is, warmed up.
To raise the body's temperature, a warm-up must begin with aerobic activity, usually light jogging. Most coaches and athletes have known this for years. That's why tennis players run around the court four or five times before a match and marathoners stride in front of the starting line. But many athletes do this portion of their warm-up too intensely or too early. A 2002 study of collegiate volleyball players found that those who'd warmed up and then sat on the bench for 30 minutes had lower backs that were stiffer than they had been before the warm-up. And a number of recent studies have demonstrated that an overly vigorous aerobic warm-up simply makes you tired. Most experts advise starting your warm-up jog at about 40 percent of your maximum heart rate (a very easy pace) and progressing to about 60 percent. The aerobic warm-up should take only 5 to 10 minutes, with a 5-minute recovery. (Sprinters require longer warm-ups, because the loads exerted on their muscles are so extreme.) Then it's time for the most important and unorthodox part of a proper warm-up regimen, the Spider-Man and its counterparts.
"TOWARDS THE end of my playing career, in about 2000, I started seeing some of the other guys out on the court doing these strange things before a match and thinking, What in the world is that?" says Mark Merklein, 36, once a highly ranked tennis player and now a national coach for the United States Tennis Association. The players were lunging, kicking and occasionally skittering, spider-like, along the sidelines. They were early adopters of a new approach to stretching.
While static stretching is still almost universally practiced among amateur athletes -- watch your child's soccer team next weekend -- it doesn't improve the muscles' ability to perform with more power, physiologists now agree. "You may feel as if you're able to stretch farther after holding a stretch for 30 seconds," McHugh says, "so you think you've increased that muscle's readiness." But typically you've increased only your mental tolerance for the discomfort of the stretch. The muscle is actually weaker.
Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, a technique known as dynamic stretching or dynamic warm-ups, increases power, flexibility and range of motion. Muscles in motion don't experience that insidious inhibitory response. They instead get what McHugh calls "an excitatory message" to perform.
Dynamic stretching is at its most effective when it's relatively sports specific. "You need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead," says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA, home to the Olympic marathoners Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor. For runners, an ideal warm-up might include squats, lunges and "form drills" like kicking your buttocks with your heels. Athletes who need to move rapidly in different directions, like soccer, tennis or basketball players, should do dynamic stretches that involve many parts of the body. "Spider-Man" is a particularly good drill: drop onto all fours and crawl the width of the court, as if you were climbing a wall. (For other dynamic stretches, see the sidebar below.)
Even golfers, notoriously nonchalant about warming up (a recent survey of 304 recreational golfers found that two-thirds seldom or never bother), would benefit from exerting themselves a bit before teeing off. In one 2004 study, golfers who did dynamic warm- up exercises and practice swings increased their clubhead speed and were projected to have dropped their handicaps by seven strokes over seven weeks.
Controversy remains about the extent to which dynamic warm-ups prevent injury. But studies have been increasingly clear that static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; results showed that an almost equal number of subjects developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc.), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions. A major study published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control, on the other hand, found that knee injuries were cut nearly in half among female collegiate soccer players who followed a warm-up program that included both dynamic warm-up exercises and static stretching. (For a sample routine, visit www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm.) And in golf, new research by Andrea Fradkin, an assistant professor of exercise science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, suggests that those who warm up are nine times less likely to be injured.
"It was eye-opening," says Fradkin, formerly a feckless golfer herself. "I used to not really warm up. I do now."
You're Getting Warmer: The Best Dynamic Stretches
These exercises- as taught by the United States Tennis Association's player-development program - are good for many athletes, even golfers. Do them immediately after your aerobic warm-up and as soon as possible before your workout.
STRAIGHT-LEG MARCH
(for the hamstrings and gluteus muscles)
Kick one leg straight out in front of you, with your toes flexed toward the sky. Reach your opposite arm to the upturned toes. Drop the leg and repeat with the opposite limbs. Continue the sequence for at least six or seven repetitions.
SCORPION
(for the lower back, hip flexors and gluteus muscles)
Lie on your stomach, with your arms outstretched and your feet flexed so that only your toes are touching the ground. Kick your right foot toward your left arm, then kick your leftfoot toward your right arm. Since this is an advanced exercise, begin slowly, and repeat up to 12 times.
HANDWALKS
(for the shoulders, core muscles, and hamstrings)
Stand straight, with your legs together. Bend over until both hands are flat on the ground. "Walk" with your hands forward until your back is almost extended. Keeping your legs straight, inch your feet toward your hands, then walk your hands forward again. Repeat five or six times. G.R.
Ev Almost Triple Bodyweight 30 meter Sled Drag (330# @ 115#)
WOD 081109
11AM:
1: One Mile Run
2: Max Rep Pull-Ups
-Advanced: C2B Pull-Ups
-Intermediate: Pull-Ups
-Beginner: Jumping Pull-Ups
3: 400 Meter Run
4: Max Rep Push-Ups
5: Max Rep Kettlebell Swing
-Advanced: 2P/1.5P
-Intermediate: 1.5P/ 1P
-Beginner: 1P/.75P
Post performances to comments.
Noon O'Clock
In 20 minutes perform maximum possible rounds of:
5 C2B Pull-Ups
10 Kettlebell Snatch 1.5P/1P
15 Double-Under
Post number of rounds completed to comments
WOD 081108
Clean and Jerk 30-5-5-3-3-3
WOD 081107
"Until You Tire"
1-5 persons perform 3 rounds of the below exercises
6-10 persons perform 2 rounds of the below exercises
11-15 persons perform 1 round of the following exercises
For each athlete present one of the following exercises, in order, will be added.
- 80 Meter Tire Flip/Jump Through & Back
- Pull-Ups
- Box Jumps
- Push-Ups
- Thruster 65#/45#
- Dumbbell Swing 55#/35
- Sandbag Clean 65#/45#
- Sandbag Zercher Squat 65#/45#
- Sandbag Press 45#/35#
- Burpee
- 100#/70# Dumbbell Deadlift
- Jumping Pull-Ups
- Squat Jumps
- Dips
- Push-Press 65#/45#
Score is total score of all reps except tire flip: tire flip is the "pace car"; as soon the person flipping the tire calls "done" the coach calls "rotate" and all athletes move to the next station.
Post total reps minus tire flips to comments.
We will return to our regular, Non-Obama programming tomorrow.
WOD 081106
Deadlift 30-5-5-3-3-3
Post time to comments
New record:
Max Push-Ups: Maximus - 51
WOD 081105
"Electoral Math"
For time:
In any combination, perform the number of reps of the below exercises equal to the amount of electoral votes won by President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama. Example: If Obama wins 400 votes, 200 swings, 100 pull-ups and 100 push-ups equals 400.
2 Pood/1.5 Pood Kettlebell swings
Pull-Ups
Push-Ups
Post time to comments
A few new records of note:
Max Push-Ups;
Women; Elaine 50
Men; James C. 50
WOD 081102
11AM
Run one mile every 15 minutes on the 15th minute for 30 minutes (total of three miles).
Post splits and total run time to comments.
Noon O'clock
With a 1.5 P kettlebell/ 55# dumbbell for men or a 1.0 P/35# dumbbell for women:
Perform one kettlebell swing, take one deep breath.
Perform two kettlebell swings, take two deep breaths.
Perform three kettlebell swings, take three deep breaths.
...
etc.
...
Perform 20 kettlebell swings, take 20 deep breaths
Perform 19 kettlebell swings, take 19 deep breaths.
Perform 18 kettlebell swings, take 18 deep breaths.
...
etc.
...
Perform 1 kettlebell swing.
Rest is taken standing up with the kettlebell resting on the floor.
Post time to comments. Best score is longest time to completion.
Links
CrossFit FAQ
CrossFit East Bay Family Tree
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CrossFit HQ
CrossFit Black Box NYC
CrossFit Virtuosity
CrossFit Oakland
Decendents
CrossFit Nittany
CrossFit Mariner Square
CrossFit True Blue (Grenada)
Friends
Sweatin & Snackin (Ynez)
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