Five rounds for time of: Post time to comments. Dancing: Reality TV Sparks the Latest Fitness Craze "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." -Robert Collier
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
25 Back extensions
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Update from Andy
Here's a quick update from newcomer Andy, who just finished week three at our gym:
Rob,
Thought you might like an update on some of my progress after three full weeks @ 3x/week (well, whether you really want one or not, you're getting one!)
Thought you might like an update on some of my progress after three full weeks @ 3x/week (well, whether you really want one or not, you're getting one!)
In warm-ups last
night, I did 3 sets of 10 kip pull-ups with the green band, with only mild
difficulty. Decided to challenge myself even further, and did 3 blue band
kip pull-ups, albeit with great difficulty. Also, I can burn through my
first set of 15 sit-ups rather easily, and can complete 3 15 rep sets in
warm-ups with only mild fatigue. Warm-up overhead squats are getting
easier, too. Flexibility is improving, I can sometimes get into the
pull-up bands without assistance (depending on the jump box I use,
heh.)
Push-ups still
continue to be an issue, as does running of any distance. Haven't done
enough o-lifting WODs to say where I stand, but I am sure more work is
needed. Getting the form on the movements better, I think.
Considering riding
my bike to/from the box as the weather gets better (1.8 miles each way).
Some hairy roads along the way.
When I first came
to the box, if my memory serves, I struggled to do 5 red band pull-ups when Zach
was evaluating me. I can't imagine what my progress is going to be like 1,
2 or 3 months down the road!
Andy
Andy is successful because he 1) works hard and 2) trains consistently. While he is still learning many new things, he does his absolute best each night and is really making CrossFit a part of his life. We're all very proud of you, Andy - great work!!
Andy
Andy is successful because he 1) works hard and 2) trains consistently. While he is still learning many new things, he does his absolute best each night and is really making CrossFit a part of his life. We're all very proud of you, Andy - great work!!
WOD 3.31.2009
"Nicole"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Run 400 meters
Max rep Pull-ups
Post number of pull-ups completed for each round to comments.
Most Wanted
Have you seen these people? If so, please return them to the gym. Use whatever means necessary.. :)
WOD 3.30.2009
"Fight Gone Bad!" Three rounds of: 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, except on the rower where each calorie is one point. Add your points and post them to comments. Sam and Charlie Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are. ~Arthur Golden
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)
Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
Row (Calories)
Footwear for Fitness
On Tuesday, March 10, I ran a 5K in Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars. It hurt. When I coach on a heavy strength day, I always tell people to take off their shoes. Footwear or lack thereof is a valuable tool for optimizing workout performance. There is ideal footwear for heavy slowlift days, heavy olympic lifting days, running days, and mixed modal metcons.
Let's start with a little physics, specifically Newton's third law of motion: "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." When you stand on the ground, you push down on the ground and the ground pushes back on you. When you are working out, you want to get back as much of that energy as possible, which brings us to physics point number 2: harder materials transfer energy better than softer materials. When you are standing on the hard ground in barefeet, there is no little to no buffer for the transfer of energy. Soft surfaces and cushioned shoes dissipate this energy. In some cases, such as running, jumping, and olympic lifting, a little dissipation is a good thing, as your foot needs protection from the violent forces you are applying. In many cases, dissipation is not a good thing, since you need every watt of energy back. Footwear obviously serves to protect the skin and musculoskeletal structure of the foot, and it may also helps facilitate certain movements by improving or compensating for flexibility or movement problems. Somewhere along the line, the industry has gone way overboard with the protection idea to the point that our feet are actually atropyhing and losing some of their function. Think of it like our feet are sitting around on cushy pillows all day, getting soft and weak. Footwear must balance the need to protect feet and improve function.
Training and living barefoot have their benefits, though few people in industrial nations have realized them. Crossfit and the lifestyle it promotes is in many ways elemental, going back to the old school way of training (functional movements) and eating (paleo diet). This train of thought might also imply an endorsement for elemental footwear, ie no footwear. In his New York Magazine article : "You Walk Wrong," Adam Sternbergh lays out how shoes have weakened our feet and altered the way we walk and run. Your feet are much like your hands in that they are full of nerve endings that send the brain information about the environment, and tell your brain how to interact with it. If you have a big buffer between your feet and your environment, you overcompensate to get sensory feedback. It has been shown that the more cushioning you have in your shoe, the harder you pound the ground when you walk and run, leading to great stress on your muscles and joints.In barefeet, instead of taking big strides and heel striking hard when we walk, we take shorter strides and the heel contacts the ground softer with a bent knee. See this comparison from Sternbergh's article:
When we speed up from walking to running in barefeet, we take even shorter strides by landing on the ball of our foot, popping the foot back up again, and letting our momentum carry us forward. Barefoot running technique is the basis of the POSE method.
Now let's take a look at our footwear options for Crossfit. Most expensive are olympic lifting shoes. Available from manufacturers like Adidas and Do-Win, these shoes have a hard, raised sole made of wood or plastic. Straps run across the width of the top of the shoe to secure the foot against lateral movement.
Next on the menu are typical running or crosstraining shoes. These shoes are the most common shoes seen in the gym, made by Nike, Adidas, New Balance, etc. Running and crosstraining shoes typically have a slightly raised heel with lots of cushioning via a patented and overmarketed technology.
Vibram Five fingers are a relatively new "close to barefoot" option. Think of a five-toed sock with a rubber coating on the bottom, and you're most of the way there. Unless otherwise noted, when I refer to barefoot in this article, these uber-socks are grouped in with the term "barefoot." The main difference between these socks and a true barefoot is a slight muting of the sensory feedback from nerve endings due to the rubber sole.
Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars have been a staple footwear for many communities since 1918 when Chuck Taylor put on his first pair. Basketball players, punk rockers, and now Crossfitters have bought into the classic, minimalist sneaker. These shoes are characterized by their hard, flat rubber sole and canvas upper.
The final option is provided by good old mother nature. Barefoot allows your feet to roam free and get dirty.
All of these options are legitimate for different kinds of workouts. So what would one pick for a running workout such as a 5K or 4 800m repeats? It depends on your ability to run correctly using the POSE method. The POSE method, as taught by CF Endurance Coach Brian MacKenzie, safely uses muscle elasticity to keep the runner in the air and off the ground as long as possible. Traditional running shoes promote incorrect running technique by cushioning the heel. A heel cushion allows for heel strike, full foot follow-through, and finally a push off, keeping the athlete on the ground. If you take away the cushioned heel, an athlete starts to run more correctly by striking on the ball of the foot and popping up quickly. Though this method is instinctive in the absence of a cushioned heel, running is a skill, and fatigue can make old habits rear their head; an athlete will regress back to heel striking unless they have learned the POSE technique well. If you have no POSE experience, stick to your traditional cushy shoes. It is better to heel strike in a cushioned heel than with no heel. If you are somewhat confident in your POSE ability, or a are willing to take some punishment trying to learn not to heel strike, you might choose to wear Chucks. If you run POSE well, you might wear the Vibram Five Fingers.
What about a slow lift (squats, press, or deadlift) strength day? Again, it depends. For squats you must ask: how is my squat flexibility? Squatting in barefeet helps improve ankle flexibility by forcing you to proper depth without the assistance of the raised heel of a shoe. One can see that the angle of the ankle joint in the bottom of a squat is much sharper without shoes as opposed to with shoes. Can you comfortably and soundly squat in barefeet? If the answer is yes and you are training on a relatively clean and dry surface, you should squat in your barefeet. If the answer is no, you may benefit from the additional flexibility afforded by the raised heel of a lifting shoe. The press and deadlift can be be done in barefeet, lifting shoes, or Chucks. The deadlift and the press have none of the flexibility hang-ups that will be assisted by lifting shoes, and good old foot on floor contact is the best way to ensure stability and force transfer. Solid-soled Chucks and lifting shoes will ensure force transfer and are also acceptable options. Cushioned running shoes are the absolute worst option for the slow lifts. They have a compressible heel which dissipates force from the floor. Also, as Lon Kilgore and Mark Rippetoe point out in their article: "Weightlifting Shoes 101," you never have a chance to train subtle technique points if you are constantly training on an unstable surface. "And there is an increased chance for a balance or stability loss-induced injury while lifting heavy weights, since perfect balance cannot be assured on an imperfect surface" (Kilgore and Rippetoe).
For fast olympic lifts, where you will be jumping and landing with a loaded barbell, such as cleans, snatches, and jerks, lifting shoes or Chucks are best. Both are solid-soled shoes that transfer force well, though the wooden or synthetic heels of lifting shoes transfer force better than the hard rubber soles of the Chucks. Lifting shoes offer the added benefits of stability straps and the raised heel. When performing snatches and cleans, an athlete may benefit more from the added flexibility of a raised heel even more than in the slow squats. In the slow lifts, depth of a squat is pretty well determined, regardless of weight; the athlete is picking the bottom of the squat and standing up once they have reached that depth. In the squat clean and the squat snatch, depth is determined by weight. An athlete may have to squat deeper than normal to catch a heavy clean or snatch, and the raised heel of the lifting shoes will provide the assistance to allow the athlete to squat to those depths. Barefeet are not a good option here. Though they offer good stability and force transfer, it is easy to bruise your feet doing heavy or high-rep Olympic lifts. Since you are trying to drive yourself under the load for all of the Olympic lifts, you feet will be moving fast and hard back to the floor after jumping, which can bruise your soles. A little bit of the dulling of the sensory feedback from wearing hard soled shoes in this situation is not a bad thing, because you don't want pain from your feet keeping you from moving fast and hard in these lifts. Again, running shoes are the worst option for the reasons listed above in the slow lifts section. The stability and force transfer problems described for the slow lifts are exacerbated by the speed of the olympic lifts.
So what about your mixed-modal metabolic conditioning workouts, which blend running, slow lifts, olympic lifts, and gymnastics? One answer, Chucks. Chucks give you the best of all worlds: flat, hard, thin, grippy rubber sole, sturdy canvas upper. Good for running short distances regardless of POSE ability. Good for lifting. Not too heavy to impede gymnastics. A close second is the Vibram Five Fingers. These are tough to run in if you don't run POSE well, and you may hurt your feet doing oly-lifts, but your feet will be somewhat protected either inside or outside. Barefoot may be the way to go if you are not running, box jumping, or oly-lifting. Lifting shoes can be worn if you're not running. Cushioned running shoes are not a good option.They interfere with lifting and they are not good for running.
Post about your choice of footwear to comments. What influences your decisions when you buy shoes: cost, looks, performance, etc?
Sources/ further information: Weightlifting Shoes 101, You Walk Wrong, Running Shoe Technology, Brian Mackenzie ...[wmv][mov]
WOD 3.27.2009
Front squat 3-3-3-3-3 reps Post loads to comments. If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat. -Herschel Walker
Last Call for PDR Seminar- Saturday March 28
Thursday, March 26, is the last day to sign up to learn some real world self-defense strategy. Steve Wakefoose will be bringing the basics of Tony Blauer's SPEAR system to our gym this Saturday. The SPEAR is not your typical self-defense BS, instead it starts with reflexes and builds from there to keep you in the fight and alive.
To sign up, please visit our store link here. The seminar will start at 11am and will run approximately 3 hours. Bring lunch and comfortable clothing. Regular workout will be at 10am.
WOD 3.23.2009
For time: Post time to comments. Sunset. Nuristan, Afghanistan. Elevation, 10,000ft
225 pound Deadlift, 21 reps
Run 800 meters
225 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
Run 800 meters
225 pound Deadlift, 9 reps
Run 800 meters
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.-Arthur C. Clarke
WOD 3.20.2009
Snatch
3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1
Pyrros Dimas video: Here
"The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to fulfilling your dreams." -Og Mandino
Elements Seminar - April 18th
Our next Elements Seminar will occur on April 18th. This 5-hour seminar is designed to teach the nine basic CrossFit moves and will include lecture and movement sessions. All material will be presented by certified CrossFit instructors and we will hold a scalable workout at the end of the day. This is a great opportunity to learn (or re-learn) the basic movements and to increase the efficiency, efficacy and safety of your workouts.
Our last Elements class was a huge success - read more about it here (especially the participant comments). If you'd like to sign up, please visit this page. Cost is now $100.
Movies in Review: Fathead
I'm told we have Evan to thank for bringing attention to Tom Naughton's documentary Fat Head. The term "fat head" is based on the fact that fat is brain food and our brains are mostly made of fat. The movie is built as a rebuttal of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, in which writer/director Morgan Spurlock ate at McDonalds for 30 days and gained 30 pounds. Naughton disagrees with Spurlock's nutrition "expertise" and his claims about the brainwashing effects of the fast food industry's marketing. This disagreement led Naughton to make a documentary starring himself eating fast food for 30 days and moving his health indicators (cholesterol levels, weight, and body fat percentage) in the right direction. The experiment was a success.
I must start my review of Fat Head with a nod to its nemisis, Morgan Spurlock. I saw Super Size Me my freshmen year of college, when I was watching movies at the rate that Owen consumes tofu. Though the execution was a little extreme (who can actually eat just fast food for 30 days?), I liked the premise and it made for entertaining watching. One of the main points of the movie was the hypnotizing effects of the fast food industry's marketing; my major was marketing, and one of the reasons I picked that major was because I had an interest in consumer psychology, so the movie was of particular interest to me. Later that year, Spurlock came to my campus to discuss his film. He was one of the best public speakers I have ever seen, funny and informative. In his defense, I have learned that any documentary, including Fathead, that stars the writer/director has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Fathead begins with Naughton visiting his doctor and finding that his percentage of body fat defines him as obese. Naughton lauches into a discussion on the changing definitions of obesity and overweightness, and points out that the Body Mass Index is a poor measure of anything.
Next Naughton puts forth the major conflict of the movie: how the scientific medical community is motivated by consumer money and government grants. Using a deep-throated voice telling us to "follow the money," Naughton illustrates how broader definitions of obesity and obesity fatalities equal more urgency about the epidemic and more government funding. Any good documentary that is taking on the establishment must present a conspiracy theory to convince people that the public is in danger. In Fathead the public is in danger from the government, pharmacuetical companies, undereducated doctors, big agriculture, and vegetarian special interest groups, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Borrowing some of its arguments from the Doctors Eades of the Protein Power books and Gary Taubes of Good Calories, Bad Calories, Naughton sets out his conspiracy theories.
The movie's main points are highlighted by "bologna" alerts. Any time Naughton calls BS it is highlighted by flashing pack of deli meat. Among the loads of bologna that we've been fed are that: saturated fat is artery clogging, vegetable oils and grains are good for us, and we can burn fat through simple calorie deficits. Click here to go the movie's website complete list of No Bologna Facts.
I recommend this movie to you if you think that eating less than 2000 calories a day is going to help you lean out, or you have an aversion to eating animal fats. This movie takes the main points of animal based diet science and consolidates them into an easy 2 hour block of time. If you keep meaning to read Good Calories, Bad Calories or Protein Power, and you just want the main ideas, watch this movie.
Comment below if you've seen the film or if you are interested in borrowing a copy or having a movie night (or Saturday morning)at the gym to screen the DVD.
WOD 3.18.2009
Split Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps Post loads to comments. Jill Kroos. Athlete. "Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work hard to get better." -Paul Coffey
WOD 3.16.2009
Five rounds for time of: BRING A TOWEL! Post time to comments. Newo. Gettin it. "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." ~ Mark Twain
155 pound Hang squat clean, 9 reps
15 ft Rope climb, legless, 3 ascents
It's Official...
Saturday's at CFDV will now be known as 'Rap Saturdays'. No heavy metal allowed.. You can thank the lovely lady below:
Check out the photos from last Saturday's Elements seminar on the right.. Mary Martin is the shit!!
WOD 3.13.2009
Complete as many rounds as you can in thirty minutes of:
Five pull-ups
Five ring dips
15 Sit-ups
Post rounds completed to comments.
The Muscle in the Box.
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Congratulations, Sam!
CFDV athlete Sam Oropeza upheld his undefeated record in Atlantic City by submitting his opponent on Saturday night. It only took Sam a little over 90 seconds to finish him off. Congratulations, Sam!
More photos here.
3.11.2009
Complete as many rounds as you can in twenty minutes of: Post rounds completed to comments. Charlie getting wicked on a clean. “Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones.” -Henry David Thoreau
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 L Pull-ups
15 Steps, Walking Lunge
No Hand Signs Required
Newo says: 'LOOK MAN...'
Elements Seminar
Here's a picture from today's Elements Seminar. Participants learned the basics of CrossFit and participated in a short (but hard) workout. Kudos to everyone for working so hard and sticking with us for a whole day! Please leave your comments, both good and bad, for the world to see.
WOD 3.06.2009
"Helen" Three rounds for time: Post time to comments. Helen White: Making amazing performance gains, everyday. We definitely have a hardcore following. -Phil Anselmo
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups
Reminder- Tickets for Sam's Fight
Sam "Sticky Buns" Oropeza will be picking up money and leftover tickets on Friday night at the gym. If you are planning to go to AC to see him crush some puke, buy your tickets before then. Let's make it so there is only cash for him to pick up.
WOD 3.4.2009
"Barbara" Five rounds, each for time of: Rest precisely three minutes between each round.
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
Meg Calpin- A rising star athlete.
“We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.” -Kenji Miyazawa
Too Cool for School
Rizzo and Frenchy.. GREASED LIGHTNIN' !!!
(add other possible famous duos to comments)
UPDATE 3.03.2009 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KISHANI !!
Join our FaceBook group!
Check out our new FaceBook group here. There's a race on to see who will write the first Wall post!
:)
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