Watching Max move that 176lb dumbbell with a FAT handle was amazing. He cleaned and jerked it several times, overhead squatted it for reps, and ended with this one arm jerk. The power this young man generated was inspiring. He's also a strenght and conditioning coach for UC Irvine.

Having had some personal experience trying to lift that bad boy I am truely sorry I missed it. I had to pick my jaw off the keyboard when I saw the photo.

He almost makes it look easy to anyone who sees this picture, but in real life it was an absolutely amazing feat.

Max almost makes it look easy to anyone who sees this picture, but in real life it was an absolutely amazing feat!

Any reccomended subs for L pullups? I know I'm not where I need to be to do them in numbers.

MPM

You can do straight pullups, knees to elbows, graviton or L-stands. Combinations of these will help. Find out what you need to work on and practice those and it will come

Nice work with the inch dumbell!

It's a world class feat of grip strength just breaking it off the floor!!

Not many guys can even deadlift an Inch Dumbell. Impressive.

4 L-pullups short of 11 rounds

105# OH squats: 5/3/3/5/5/6/4 = 31 reps. Started a little slow; sore hip flexors, lower back, glutes and hams didn't help. Later sets became stronger and better balanced. All reps butt to floor.

WOD: 14 rounds even with floor HSPUs and ring L-sits. I was going to try the HSPUs off 12" stools, but after overhead squats there wasn't a chance. I could barely grind out three...even using 7" stools was too much. At least I didn't have to break any rounds of the hands on floor variety. My shoulders are beat.

in the slideshow L-pullups are done with palms in.

Are you guys doing palms in or out?

Brandon, I find palms in easier so I mostly do that, but you should try all variations of grip...it's all the same anyway.

10 rounds in 19:52 (PR)
Jeff

Subbed dumbell presses for HSPU, 'cuz I'm a sissy.

10 rounds, completed with 8 seconds left on the clock.

6 rounds, might have slipped another in.

crossfit jakarta got a beating here from the l pull ups. harvey managed 6 rounds all sets broken.hspus were not quite vertical and using feet for balance.

i scraped 6 rounds as well, handstand push ups were easy,all sets unbroken and head to floor,will be going nose to floor next time. L pull ups on the other hand killed me and my no of rounds. all sets of these broken but form was good with toe point and straight legs.

WU - 5K Run (cause I dogged er yesterday) 24:40 2:20 off of my PB

WOD
HSPU back against wall
13 rds plus HSPU and 7 L-ups.
By rd 5 my Ls were Js

The daily practice of handstands paid off ,all HSPU unbroken.

12 rounds, everything modified. Difficult after doing Sunday's workout last night.

12 rounds and 3 hspu

Set stopwatch to 100s repeats and went when it beeped. Arms look twice the size now...think I'll go to the beach:)

Subbed a combination of pushups and OHS and military presses for HSPU. Subbed pullups and k2e for Ls. 5 rounds.

Lord my shoulders are sore.

You guys are all inspiring!

7 sets at 19:50. Form on HSPU needs a lot of work. L-PU's felt pretty good, unbroken 'til last set 8,4.

6 rounds at 19:42

HSPU feet hanging from Smith rack
First 3 rounds: L-pullups
- last 3: regular pullups
All pullup sets broken

Skipped this WOD due to left shoulder injury. I spent my time in the gym doing rotator cuff exercises as suggested by Coach Rutherford, pullups, back extensions and toes-over-bar ab work. Polished the day off with my first ever set of Bottom to Bottom Tabata Squats. Wow! Those bad boys are something else.

B2B Squats: 18,18,12,11,11,11,11,11 - 103 total. One question regarding B2B's...between sets, is the "bottom" supposed to be arse to ankles or parallel? I did it A-to-A and it only seemed slightly more taxing than normal Tabatas.

Just out of curiosity, is that MattG on the far left in the black t-shirt?

Got 8 rounds and 5 HSPU's in 20 minutes.

The first set of both were unbroken, then they were all broken into 4 HSPU then 3 HSPU followed by 6 L's and 6 L's...then that went to 4 L's x 3 with knees to chest after 4 sets (damn, that's confusing)

So Max is at UCI, eh?
Crossfit OC is starting to take shape! Wonder if I can sneak in and "get some?"

10 rounds...

Yes, for all you Matt G fans out there, he's in all black at the far left in the background.

I had the privelege to meet Matt and he's as nice a guy as he is a great athlete.

And don't even get me started on Max. That guy's a monster, in the most impressive way. Great technique on the olympic lifts, too, which shouldn't come as a surprise given the photograph.

great sense of scale in the picture is the tight "live strong" bracelet around max's wrist!

Max's efforts on Sunday afternoon were mind-blowing. If you've never laid hands on the Inch DB before...you can't understand just how impressive that picture is. Max, you are a wild man and an inspiration.

Today's WOD...as designated 9 rounds + 3 HSPUs, wearing a 20lb. vest for the pullups. Had to keep ditching the vest for the HSPUs, which slowed things a bit. This is down slightly from my last go-round with this WOD, but not bad considering the additional weight. WOD was #3 for the day.

A bit of traveling advice for the guys:
When you're on the redeye and you know that all the sleep you're going to get is the length of the flight...DO NOT say "Hello" to the cute blonde in 1-A; just put on your headphones and close your eyes. Because she may not be just a cute blonde...she may in fact be a cute-blonde-who-just-split-from-her-cheating-husband. And suddenly your planned 4 hours of sleep are turned into the nightmare of a 4 hour talk-therapy session.

16 rounds ,good workout.

15 rounds, good workout.

4 rounds. Very Tough. First Time doing handstand push-ups and L-pullups....

First time posting results too.

10 rounds + 7 hspu's

Wow, you guys are monsters. I increase my count by 4 from last time and I think I'm taking advantage of the workout. I look at the posts and I'm middle of the pack. Time to kick it up a notch, going for 15 next time out. I went with 1 set every 1:30, then every 2:00 after 5 rounds. L-pullups felt much stronger and controlled this time around. I finally felt the connection from bicep to lats in both arms. Due to old football injuries and improper form in the past, this is a very pleasing development.

Did 3 rounds of 10 burpees for warm-up, little hair of the dog from the hell-o-grinder on Father's Day.

Just a couple of thoughts on the seminar/weekend:

There is a great sense of community here at CF, no doubt. From the first day I ever posted here in Comments I've felt like part of a family. That feeling is magnified just being at HQ. And it's even greater at a seminar. I was truly overwhelmed to be among such an incredible group of athletes and thinkers this weekend. The knowledge imparted and the inspiration generated was awesome. Personally, I feel very lucky to be a part of this group.

Lauren, Annie, Lani, Nicole, Beth, Cill, Sarah, La'Keysha, Eva, Coach, Tony, Eddie, Grady, Ahmik, Steve, Derek, Neal, TK, Mike, Jason, Tyler, Max, Beau, Andy, Josh, Chris, Blake, Kevin, Kurtis, Andrew, Dave and all the rest of you who's names my pea-sized brain is having trouble bringing to mind...thanks for sharing a bit of your time and effort this weekend. You are serious badasses in all respects.

9 rds completed
done at the playground hspu done under slide worked out well for hspu's almost could get full rom on these. Feet up at top of slide.
l-pullups first 2 rds unbroken. Rest broken. After wod did some monkey bar workout. Fun day..

4 p-ups short of 7 rounds (1 round improvement)
HSPU's w/ feet on wall.head to ground
P-ups w/ firm high L hold

whupped again. stepped up the difficulty of the HSPUs, probably too much.

6rounds + 6HSPUs

Mike Donnelly

2+ mile jog in the am (16:08...not bad considering how freakin sore my hamstrings are from Father-from-hell day).

cfwu x3 w/ reduced pullups and dips

WOD: 8 rounds w/ HSPU negatives and tuck pullups. i also took a brief break to ask a guy doing one arm lat pulldowns if he was working towards a one arm pullup...nope. 'i would if i could do 20 pullups but im stuck at 15.' so of course i have to give him some advice about basic GTG. good to know someone else at my gym values pullups, though.

Tabata squats later...you will be mine, 18-20, you will be mine.

Max's hair is awesome, BTW.

5 rounds--- First three L-pullups last 2 regular, those handstand push-ups killed me

ugh

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
7 Handstand push-ups (supported in dip station)
12 L-Pull-ups
8 complete rounds

(previous 6 complete rds + HSPU + 3 L-PU)

Max!!! You made it on the CrossFit website!! Way to represent the UCI Strength & conditioning crew Cave Man!

Hey Ron, if you are serious about the CrossFit OC let me know...Skipp, Max and I are willing and ready to get it started....OC style!

With apologies to the old Nike Air Jordan ad campaign, "It's gotta be the hair!". Great job, Max, you're a (source of) perspiration to all of us.

How many of you also noticed Max doing handstands and split jumps with Annie during a break? He jumps pretty high! Definately a well rounded athlete.

To my new family Cross Fit, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I felt so at home this weekend and cant wait to go back. I learned so much and was reinforced that my ideals for fitness do not stand alone. Thank You All for inspiring me to be better and do more.

six rounds. Handstand pushups unbroken. Did regular kipping pullups. They were a bear this morning.

9 + 7 push presses & 8 L-pu's (w/ mods)

After 4 HSPUs I switched to push presses w/ 2x45# db's. After 4 rounds, many L-pu's were assisted by hops.

Executed 7 complete rounds in just over 20 minutes (finished 7th round despite clock time).
-Warm-up with a hoops game of 21.
-Post WoD abmat and L-sit work.

5 rounds plus 6 HSPUs. Warmup and warmdown with jump rope. Everything broken - and the HSPUs were toes to the wall and not full range of motion.

14 rounds + 7 HSPUs

Great workout. A little more than a round of improvement. Used a mix of grips for the pullups.

Awesome feat in lifting that DB!! That's impressive!!

9 rounds with 30 seconds to spare. Shoulder still sore so I subbed burpees for HSPU. For me this was much harder.

6 rounds modified

rounds 1-3 7 HSPU, 8 L Pullups. Head about 4 inches off floor is PU amd legs slighltly below perpindicular in PU

round 4 7 HSPU 6 L Pullups
round 5 7 HSPU 5 L Pullups
eound 6 6 HSPU 5 L Pullups

7 rounds. Could have done up to 10 possibly however my workout was cut short by the neighbors dog. (my make shift pullup bar is a tree branch)

Keysha,
E-mail me. I can get to UCI in a heartbeat and I have Fridays off this summer!

13 rounds + 7 HSPUs

Noon - first pullup bar MUs!

6:00 - WOD

12 Lsit pullups
7 pushups feet up 2' hands on parralettes
both w/ 15 lb weight vest

8 rounds + 5 pullups

Didn't get in yesterdays, so did PainStorm II as penance. And my hammies are going to climb off the bones and weakly attempt to strangle me in my sleep. Chippers are the devil.

4 1/2 rounds
hspus 1st round clean, next rounds all negatives to work on full range of motion
L pu's as rxed

5 rounds + 7 hspu's + 6 L-pullups

hspu's were all head-to-floor. intense grunting.

5 rounds

L pull-ups on the rings. The same as last time, but at least my elbow doesn't hurt.

First round of L pull-ups unbroken.

2nd workout today. Did run rope climb and ring dip races with my group this morning.

For any of you out there considering going to a seminar, I highly recommend it. What an amazing supportive and competitive (In a good way) group of people CrossFit attracts. You will find many kindred spirits.

Matt G. and Jason, I have added one arm ring rows to my warm up. I will try some negatives during my next work out.

Hi all,
Here we go
Lisa Push press 40kilosx4x15 and pullupx4x11,3x4. Duration ~20:00 Jon Push press 70 kilosx3x24 Broad V pul-upx6x8,5x16.
Duration 23:11 Average HR 162bpm (another wet shirt to hang dry). Then, Squat 5,4,3,2,1 w/62,102,127,140,145 kilos.
Until Thursday...

8 rounds + 12 L-Ups....For those who were wondering about a progression; Down at UCI we have squat stations with pull up bars on both sides so I took tubing and tied it to each side and put the heels of my shoes up on it for some assistance. Each time I'm just going to allow more and more slack in the tubing.
My arms were still a little achy from fight gone bad from over the weekend and this just destroyed them again and had me dropping some F-bombs:(

This was a brutal workout for me. Made even worse by a crowded gym. Did 30 minutes instead of 20, to make up for a lot of standing around waiting for room.
A poor 6 rounds.
While there was very little metabolic effect in this for me, I'll take some solace in knowing my HSPU's and "L" pull-ups were done as strict as possible.
Also I did 10 minutes of practicing kicking up into a handstand. This was a hoot!!

Steveo

7 rounds
Was dying on the pull ups (did 150 yesterdays workout).
Smoked by my son, which is typical,and now his friend as well.

6 rounds. L pull ups suffered from poor form: legs not perpendicular to my body.
Push ups were with legs elevated on a Reebox platform. Batches of 20 push ups for each round.
Measured body fat this morning too, 17.4%.

Forgot to mention
Push press of three was preceded by a power clean (so I did 24 power cleans).

Steveo,
Howdy. Questions: how tall are you and what is weight?

176 pound inch dumbell?
i only way 171 lbs. amazing!

7 rounds plus 4 HSPU's. 3 more rounds than last time.

Wow! Nice work on the Inch dumbbell! The only people I've seen pictured with that thing overhead are Kaz and Mark Henry. I'm sure there must be others, but not many.

Hey Jonathan
I'm 6'1 255lbs. My weight def works against me on these workouts. :)

Steveo

5X 1st,2nd wall HSP
rest dbpress 50,60lb

7 rounds plus 3 HSP

I'm still sore from sunday's smoker!

Bring it on...

5 rounds
My husband assisted me with both handstand push-ups and L Pull-ups. After the first 2 rounds of hspu's I just went to just a handstand hold for the last 3 rounds I did. Did a few 15lb dumbbell press ups and planks for fun.

6rnds

not much better than last time.

with today's performance and yesterday's increase in 5K time i'd say i was overtraining or something but...

1) i do not train near as hard as some people here,

2) i remember reading somewhere that there is no such thing as overtraining, only under-eating and under-sleeping.

i'll figure out my optimum cadence yet.

funny thing is that i was making better gains and feeling more energized when my work schedule was worse. maybe i just thrive on chaos.

6 rounds plus 8 pu's
hspu's unbroken and nose to ground, so big improvement there.
-L pulls were pretty good for 3 rounds w/a leg drop at the bottom of the pull-up, but even that was a big improvement. then went to regular pulls for the last 3 rounds

correction, make that 6 rounds plus 7 hspu's and 8 pull-ups

6 rounds plus 8 pull ups vs 5 rounds and 6 pulls last time. 15 min elliptical warmup 13/13.

7 rounds & 6 HSPUs. After first round, went to kipping pullups. All HSPUs assisted. "I just did a bunch of HSPUs, and boy are my hamstrings tired."

5 rounds - 19:34

Well, I just started doing CrossFit yesterday. Today I did about 7 rounds, but they were terrible. I have never done a workout like this before. I couldn't even do 1 stinkin' HSPU! And I could barely do 1 GOOD L-Pullup. I have a question. If I can't do part of the workout (i.e. HSPU or GOOD L-Pullups), is it better to do even 1 correctly than 10 poorly? Also, will substituting some movements (i.e. military press for HSPU) make me stronger so I can do the real movement, or should I just focus I doing as many of the movement as I can?

Just found Crossfit thanks to Grappling Magazine. First WOD today and looking forward to many more.

5 sets:
#1: 7 HSPU / 12 L Pulls
#2: 7 / 12
#3: 5 / 10 (uh oh, getting harder)
#4: 3 attempts, 1 30 sec. static hold in extended position) / 5+5 Pulls
#5: 30 sec. static hold / 5+5 Pulls

Felt great (read: tired) when done. Best workout in a while. I'm glad I was lucky enough to come across this site.

11 rds
HSPU = easy day
L-Pull-ups = lower back hell

3 Rounds("I'm pacing myself sarge")

Everything broken but some PR highlights!:
-did 3 HSPU's consecutively a couple of times
-not only did L-Pullups for the first time but did 6 consecutively, palms facing out, wide grip.

I love this s***! But I sucked at this WOD!

On a surveillance yesterday we got bored and had a push up contest. Sort of hurting today.

Turned out some awesome 2-whole-inch HSPU's... At least I got up though (wall assist). The L-PU form as bad but I was able to do 'em.

9 pull ups short of 7 rounds.

And please post it if you have a CF event in OC! Thanks

jon,

-i can only tell you how i have gotten better at the exercises so far. hspu's as an example:
when i first started i was probably going a 1/3rd of the way down or 1/2 at most with many broken sets. they keep coming up in other WODs so you eventually get better and better. you may
only start at 1/4 of the way down but it keeps getting farther as you keep doing the WODs.
-as for L-pulls i worked on my pull-ups first and
after alot of improvement there i am getting to do reasonable L-pulls, eventually they will likely become quality L-pulls with more practice
*that is just my example, i hope it helps

Warmed up with Recon Ron's pull-up program (total of 43 deadhang pull-ups) and a few slow OHS, front squats, and back squats using the bar just because I felt like it. Got farther down on the OHS than I ever have before, which is heartening.

WOD: 6 rounds + 7 HSPUs + 6 L-pulls.
First 2 rounds of HSPUs were against the wall (facing), then I moved to having my feet supported by the Smith machine (about a 60-70 degree angle). Felt good mentally throughout this WOD, even thought it hurt a bunch.

7 rounds + 6 HSPU
HSPUs of varying depth, usually 1/2-3/4

Wife:
9 rounds + 7 Mod HSPUs + 7 Mod L-pulls
Modified HSPUs from standing position w/ toes on ground (kind of /\ shaped)
jumping pull-ups w/ L-hold (sort of) on negative

11 complete rounds in 19:30.

All HSPU unbroken first six sets L-pullups unbroken then broken in two then three rests.

5 rounds...

Then again, I'm just starting out and am in horrable shape. Rather squishy.

Can't do even regular pull ups yet, nor hspu. So subbed with millitary press 70lbs and 140lb pull downs + 12 crunches each round.

Got 6 rounds plus 7HSPU and 3 Pull Ups, so almost 7, in the 20min.
Did normal pull ups, first attempt at using bands,they helped but not much, by the end i was doing doubles again.

I then did 15 min run 1min sprint 1min intervals, i still owe the 5km from yeasterday.

5 rounds...HSPU's were very strict. L-pulls got a little sloppy halfway through.

Did 12 rounds on yesterday's WOD. Handstand pushups are getting easier, however, after about the 8th round my l shape pullups started to look like j's. All of the pullups were done on rings, the 8-12 rounds the pullups were assisted around number 6 or so but completed to 12. Good workout.

6.5

HSPU with spotter and some assistance
L Pull-ups were pretty solid with single break each set

6 full rounds.

This workout really plays on my weaknesses. HSPUs have never been good. I have been practicing elbow levers and tucked palanches on my parallettes at home and noticed a huge improvement in my HSPU performance today.

7 rounds of handstand push ups
7 rounds plus 4 extra of pull ups. some were "L" and some were "J" and the rest were regular. i'm getting there.

My first WOD.

4 complete rounds.
6 pull-ups shy of a fifth round
HSP rounds 1, 3, 4 were unbroken
All pull-up rounds were broken up and form was ugly.

First time post.
Have been introduced to Crossfit within the last 2 months and have managed to get quite a few workouts in to start in the conditioning.

WOD - 6 sets in 20:00
L-pulls were very broken
HSPU were also broken

Lovin' it.

8 total rds.

Then did two sets of 1rd deadlift- 365, 315
Then 4 rds of push presses, 135x 7,135x7,135x7,155x5

7 rounds
An improvement but L-pullups are terrible. I'm going to try doing them with palms in next time.

As Rx'd

9 rounds.

Legs were bent for L-Pull-ups...

9 rounds, but ugly! Legs bent on pullups, jump assist after a while. HSPU's were done with feet hanging on a bar on the top of the squat rack.

8 rounds exactly.

All HSPU unbroken, but had to do normal pull ups due to a wall being in the way of my legs.

9 rounds, incline push-ups, and regular pull ups (assisted 50lbs on 2 rounds, 60 on 3 rounds, 70 on 4 rounds).

w/ 50lb dumbbells for HSPUs and knees to chest for pullups

7 rounds + 7 'HSPUs'

7+ rounds.

HSPUs were all partial depth. Getting better.

Pullups were reasonably good form. Swapped palms in for palms out on alternate sets. Mostly sets of 3-4 reps.

H-
Sick

S-
8 rounds

9 Rds dead

8 full rounds as rx'd
7 HSPU's + 6 L Pullups into 9th round

Need ALOT of work on HSPU's.

MMA for three hours. F'ed the neck up. Great. Gonna have to make this one up.

-D.

8 rounds + 7 HSPUs

11 rounds. Ugly.
Warmed up with
10# club: 10/10x4 taskmasters, 10/10x4 inner pendulums and swipe form practice.

Terrible! Can't do a full round of either exercise as RX'd yet.

Did 5 rounds:

5 HSPU against the wall in the first round, then held handstands against the wall for 30 seconds each round, subbing for HSPUs.

5 L-sit pullups in the first round, then assisted Pullups and Hanging Leg Lifts subbing for L-sit Pullups.

Shot after 14:51. Nothing to do but lay there and kind of quiver.

Had to do it today instead of 6/21.

Day late

8 rounds 5 hspus

Then 1.5 hours of shoot right after. . . doing armbar/shoulder techniques. . . It doesn't have to be fun to be fun.

6 rounds
plus 7 hspu and 7 l-pull-ups

to compare last time i got four rounds
plus 7 hspu and 2 L- pull-ups HA! love it

After this one, my throat started hurting and I generally feel like crap this morning. I guess I'll have to fit that day off in here anyway...

10 rounds plus 7 hspu.

HSPU all unbroken, L-pull-ups went something like
12,8/4,6/6,4/4/4,4/4/4,4/4/4...

8.5 rounds in 20 min
Kept watch going until 10 sets = 24:52

5 rounds plus 7 HSPUs
HSPU's split between wall (unsupported) and feet on bar.
Finished with about 3K of rowing.
JK

I got 16 sets in the 20 minutes!!

Knees to stomach. HSPUs against the wall.

Only 1st set of PUs unbroken. All HSPUs unbroken.

9 sets, full HSPU and 5 PUs.

Run: Fairmont Canyon-Alki 47min

7 HSPU
12 L-pullups
10 rounds + 7 HSPU + 3 L-pullups in 19:58

did an extra mini-session this AM
5 rounds (not timed)

7 rounds as rx'd

10 rounds of 6 L-ups 12 assisted HSPUs
improvement, not spectacular, but sufficient. afterall, i had no juice, and still improved.

...I know I'm late in this but... is that Matt G. in the underarmor shirt in the background? Whoever that is, if I didn't know any better I could have sworn that it was viggo mortenson from this angle.

made a mistake:
10 pushups fol by 10 pullups
12 rounds plus 10 push,6 pulls

7 rounds

I did this on 6/24. Substituted 2 x 40 lbs dumbell presses for HSPU. Did ugly L-pullups for the first two rounds only. Substituted 150 lbs Lat Pulldown on round three and -58 lbs assisted pullups on remaining rounds. (BW 171)

8 rounds. Strict L's with toes pointed, chin over bar. HSPU forehead to floor, unbroken.

-D.

8 rounds, forgot to post

As rx'd 21:36