wow. finally a woman we can appreciate.

Wow...look at that picture!

The epitome of strength.

Perfect in so many ways! I so agree with the comment she makes regarding appreciating the journey rather than the outcome.

Thanks, Eva. Can't wait to meet you one day.

Eva T is my 8 year-old son and his ski teams' hero!!!

Eva,
Whoa been hitting the zone hard. Tip of the hat to you my friend lookin good!

I get to train with her in 3 weeks. Yippee!

Oh man, this is gonna be a good one. You are too much Coach. Don't ever change a thing!

And one more thing:

EVA benchmark WOD now COACH!!!1

Please, she deserves it so bad!

I agree with the article's bottom line and I love the interview with Eva. I always like it when I can gain some insight into what elite level athletes are thinking just before the start of a competition. I believe that tis type of mindset helps in all sorts of every day tasks and tests. Thanks Eva, Nicole and Coach.

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

looking great Eva!

Help from the ladies please...

I have been crossfitting now for about 45 days. I have found that I have increased in strength, endurance and weight. By weight, I mean, my weight. I have gained about 5 pounds in 45 days and I have not decreased my size at all. I'm a little afraid at this point that I am going in the wrong direction and its effecting me negatively. It is causing me to rethink crossfit, which I really enjoy. Have any other women seen this in themselves as they began to crossfit seriously?

Lysa

Eva - You look great! Nice interview. Always a class act. Look forward to seeing you again soon. (Oly Cert in Longwood?)

I agree it's the journey. Who would want to ever end this stuff? Crossfit women, Eva or a newbie, just rock!

Good interview, i like the insite from an elite skier/athalete, seems to ring true with Bodie and his venture to be on his own and train his way.

I coach J2 J3 J4 skiers (youth) and we use a lot of the CF training, the core strength building is undeniable

Would like to hear more from Eva - any insite into coaching youth.

That's definitely a phenomenal interview. I just discovered Eva's blog today, it is quite good.

Ya'll are having way too much fun! Is that allowed in Crossfit?
Great interview! I miss ya'll. Get your asses to Texas already!

Lysa,
Your the same size as Speal and he's elite.

You mentioned you've increased in strength and endurance, that is something you should be proud of. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat.
I've been CrossFitting for over 1 year and am stronger and more fit than i've ever been. I am also the leanest i've been, but it's not about that for me. Focus on performance and having fun first, the esthetics and everything else will follow.
Happy CrossFitting.

fantastic interview! love learning more about our CF heroes. Eva T. and Nicole, you both look amazing. two strong, smart and respectable women; love it! Keep on keepin' on!

Hey all,

I was just wondering, why doesn't the crossfit regimen include any (core) rotational exercises? Rotational power seems to be so crucial in any punching, swinging, or throwing movement that crossfit would have to include it in its definition of functional fitness and at least throw in a rotational exercise here or there. Does crossfit philosophy place rotational exercises under sports-specific training? Thanks for your help.

Is it fair to say that Eva has replaced Clapton as God

Lysa -

Think about what you just said: "I have gained about 5 pounds in 45 days and I have not decreased my size at all." Have you increased your size at all? Muscle is more dense than fat, and the same mass will occupy less volume.

More importantly - much more importantly - how do you feel? You said you have increased strength and endurance. How does that feel? Do you have more energy? How does it feel to be alive, and functional, more than ever before in your life?

Screw the d@#$! scale. The weights we associate with female "attractiveness" are based on a functionally incapable body. Nicole is about 5'1" and claims 115# for bodyweight OHS. Think about that - a 5'1" model is generally about 90# or so. Which body would you rather have - the model's, who can barely survive without a day in the city where everything is premade and nothing goes wrong, or Nicole's - over 25% heavier - and which can unleash some nastiness on whatever life tries to knock her down with (probably stuffs it back in life's face, with interest).

It's your call - but I define me by what works for me, not what other folks think I ought to be. Hasn't been easy getting there - but it's absolutely worth it to me.

Same thing goes for the guys, BTW. Y'all listening? ;-)

Eva is CrossFit personified. Great vid. So when does Eva get a WOD named for her?

Great example(s) of the WHOLE package!
mind
body
and
personality

I think I have just seen an incarnation of a Greek Goddess. Is she for real? Incredible.

Eva T is THE original. She needs more play.

Ahh... the rewards of clean eating.

Eva, you are as good an argument as I have seen.

I really, REALLY must look into this Zone thing.

Would just one "not-yet-celestial" being hit me with the skinny on this.

I know where to find the info...I just mean, will someone throw me a quantifiable testimonial... someone who slapped their own genetics right in the mouth...

FMLS

Oh, and how is this for hybrid pain.

18FEB08

5k but split into this monster.

800m run, f/b 50 situps, f/b 1RM front squat

repeat for six intervals.
continue increasing weight for 1RM (until fail)
decrease reps of sit-ups by ten each round (Annie style)

I PR'd on FS by 65 lbs!
I don't think these #s would have happened just "watch-watching"

Anyway... Zone, real? and how consistent must I be?

90%?, 80, 70???

Wow what an amazing woman!!! Thank you for representing us woman in a positive light!! I will smile before my next WOD thanks for the advice.

Dont worry what the scale says...if you feel better then you are doing a good job. Also look into your diet. You are probably getting stronger but if your diet doesnt change your are not going to see as many aesthetic results as it seems you may be looking for. Get on those veggies, follow the zone, drink the kool aid. This stuff works just stick with it and have fun.

Lysa-
Annlee gave some great advise and I strongly agree. While you think you have not changed, I'll bet you have. I get stuck on thinking about the weight/body image a lot (oh, there have been some tears). Then I get in the gym and get some PR's, do some funky metcon workout, or practice my favorite handstand push ups, and in the end its all about feeling good.
And, if it makes you feel any better, I gained a few lbs when I first started as well. After about 6 months, suddenly wt dropped off (about 12 lbs over the summer) and my strenth was increasing (so I knew it was not muscle I was losing). But I'm with Annlee- forget the scale. Go on how you feel.

A much needed rest day!

Nice interview.

Lysa - annlee's post is great. The scale shouldn't be your self-esteem meter. You're stronger, faster and more fit, doesn't that feel good?

And if you're still concerned about your weight, it's all about what you put in your mouth. Read up on the Zone diet, it's a good starting point whether you're looking to gain, maintain or lose weight.

Lysa #11

Let me preface this by saying i go back and forth from feeling similar to how you are feeling and to what i am going to say now. I started CF almost 2 years ago, I was 10-15lbs lighter (depending on the day) and had about 2% less bodyfat on me. i was also about 2 jeans/pant sizes smaller. I started crossfitting (cherry picked the WOD's, only doing metcons/never did strength) and leaned out even more. over the past year (once i really started doing the posted WOD's) i've noticed that i have added weight and gone up a few sizes. Like you I go back and forth, but what I keep coming back to is looking at videos such as today, seeing women like Eva T, Nicole, and Annie and I say 'damn i want to look like THAT!' Try to remember what OPT mommy said, muscle weighs more then fat. if you are seeing strength gains you are probably building muscle which is a good thing! keep up the hard work and try not to worry about any initial weight gain. are you on the zone?

Great interview. A definite highlight of my life was meeting Eva, and working under her at a cert. I think I will (finally) have to buy her calendar, and hide it from my wife: She was sick of hearing about Eva in the days, weeks, (months), after the cert. I can't imagine why ;)

AL

P.S Link for her calendar: [url] http://www.aasgaardco.com/store/store.php?crn=208&rn=313&action=show_detail [/url]

I do hope you meant "speech," not "speach."

Great picture/pose. Inspiring to all athletes.

Lysa,

45 days and already seeing improvement- isn't it awesome? Obviously, we all think CrossFit is worth doing and enjoyable, and I'm assuming you're not convinced by Cosmo that you need to be thin. I didn't see a change in weight or size until I changed my intake (diet). I go Paleo/Zone about 80% of the time. After changing my eating habits, I saw change in my body comps, but more interestingly, I felt different. I spread the word on Paleo almost as much as I do on CrossFit. Not sure what your intake is like, but I just thought I would throw this out there. Keep up the good work!

Good interview with Eva- thanks for posting it, Coach

Testosterone injections???

um...no.
CrossFit.
Just F-ing a lot of CrossFit.

I don't know they all make me smile.

Coach, you know what you're doing, don't you?

Great video of some powerhouses!

Check out the pic of nadia's back along with Eva's from last month. She's no joke-she is full of muscle! :)

A couple of quick easy questions (I hope). What does GHD stand for? As in GHD sit-up? And where can I find Eva T's travel workout that I read someone talk about a week or two ago? I will be away from a gym for about 10 days and would like to continue the great progress I have made since I started drinking the kool-aide. And since I am here - someone above mentioned Eva's blog - where is that?

To Lysa, I have been doing cross-fit for about 45 days and I have a LOT of weight to lose and for the first 30 days I gained - talk about frustration - BUT one day the weight started coming off and am down 15 big ones, I have about 30-40 more to go. AND my CF total - I did it on day 3 of CF and again about a month later - increased 110# in that time! I am so drinking the kool-aide!

Keep up the good work!

Interesting difference between the comments posted today and those posted last rest day, no?

Anyone else notice?

Wow, rest day so soon.

5k = 28:17

Doubled up on front squats and Annie tonight

Front Squats 1st
225, 235,255,275,295,305,315,325,330,330
"Annie" after: 9:01 (double unders are getting better, not near Speal level).

Eva T looks awsome!

Layta,
pb

amlivinthedream -

GHD = Glute-Ham Developer, aka masochism central. There are a few demos on the Exercises & Demos page.

The Exercises forum of the message boards has several threads about Eva's bodyweight workouts. George Mounce compiled them - just do a search. If that fails, I made a copy of many and have added my own. Email me at aahines - at - tx.rr.com for a copy.

For Eva's blog, Google on her name - Eva Twardokens.

Eva T. is straight up amazing. And Nicole, what a interviewer. thanks all

Eva is cool. Met her a few times, doubt she would remember me, but she is a sweet heart, turn fire-breather in a heart beat. You can see her reaction speed, in her eyes. Like she has several levels of focus that us mortals don't have.

Yup, she should have a workout named after her. Perhaps we should just nickname her 'Grace' instead.

Glad you are around Eva.

Eva (and Nicole),

I just wanted to say to you thanks for being who you are, and for being as tough as you are.

We are blessed, truly, with some world class women whose mental toughness puts that of many of us men in doubt.

I respect the heck out of you, and am working to bring up my daughters to be half as unreconcilable to failure as you.

With respect to the political piece, if at some point we Americans feel the need to exercise prior restraint--self censorship-because of Islamic bloviations about the necessity of embracing their version of Political Correctness, then shame on us.

If they want us to believe they are worth a good God damn, then they need to publicly repudiate the mass murder through suicide bomb of Israeli and other civilians.

They need to affirm that the indiscrimate murder of non-combatants is wrong and beyond the pale of their political remedies for their supposed problems. Certainly, that it is beyond what is authorized by the Koran.

Failing that, they get told to sit on a long pole and rotate slowly.

We are either a liberal culture expecting tolerance, or worn out hacks waiting for our decimation by cultural systems without our manifest and manifold infirmities of ideology and purpose.

#20 - sorry Eric - Eva T may be the Godess of Crossfit, but Clapton is still / always will be "God".

Wow! Man is she beautiful. Looks like I have a new computer background.

Eva, you look amazing!

Wow. That's all I can say.

Did you know Candice Michelle is coming back to WWE?

Oh, and Eva's the bomb, but we all knew that.

Don't hate me, but I don't think Eva is the epitome of what a women should look like. I am all for strong women (ala Nicole or Annie), however, Eva is very masculine. She has male pectoral development. I am not knocking her or her development (genetics make us what we are), I am wondering why so many feel compeled to call her the ideal (athlete maybe, but not women). And this is coming from a women if you were wondering... Thanks for letting me ramble...

Wow.

Thanks Eva, I'll be smiling to myself for the rest of the day.

Does Eva T. only perform WOD or does she supplement it with other lifts as well?

John

Annlee, thanks! I found everything!

Eva-T is amazing! Great interview! She is the woman!

#42

Couldn't agree more. Eva T defines what it is about!

Ah, religion misused by power hungry cretins in their quest to dominate and subjugate their fellow man. The pity of it is that there are so many willing followers of these false leaders and prophets.

Mandated censorship I have no use for. For all of the rights we have, I don't feel that there is any right to not be offended. Additionally, laws against a thing, do not change peoples' feelings about that thing, they only bring a legal dimension to the problem. It's kind of like painting over rust--things look better but there's still a problem under the surface.

Self censorship is a voluntary matter of social lubrication. I self censor all the time when I don't tell people how stupid they are for doing/not doing what they're doing/not doing. I'm an ER nurse, so keep in mind that I see a LOT of stupid and do a LOT of self censorship. To me, it makes things go more smoothly when you treat people respectfully, even when you have NO respect for them. It also gets you fired less in my line of work.

I submit that if your skin is so thin that you can take no insult to what you believe most deeply in without feeling the need to murder the offendor, you have deeper problems and your beliefs can't fix them.

Eva T. is a class act and an inspiration to all of us crossfitter men and women, Eva you look awesome keep up the great work

Great clip :)

#11 Lysa - don't look at it as gaining weight. Look at it as shifting your body composition around. Muscle weighs more than fat & after 6 weeks of CF, you're deffinitely starting to replace some of that fat with muscle. Keep after it. Some of the ladies have give you some great commentary, but you can hear it from a guy as well that it should be all about how you feel.

Eva - great interview. Please shoot me an email if you're ever over in Reno so we can go make some turns while we still have some snow.

Question to throw out: Anyone have advice on doing muscle-ups on the PU handles that are in cable crossovers at your typical Globo gym?

How AMAZING is it that Nicole seems to be doing most (if not all) of that interview resting in that deep squat position? Impressive!

EVA - Will you be in the upcoming olympics?

#52

Just look at those abs. Now thats hot. That's why I find the way she looks appealing,among other things. I disagree with you about her pectoral development. Her entire physique is very feminine. Toned is beautiful in my mind.

Really appreciated the insight into an amazing athlete and person so thanks CF.

How is it that such a class act hasnt been snapped up yet? Beats me.

Happy Crossfitting all.

#52 - everyone has their own "epitome" of what a woman should look like. So yours isn't Eva... no big deal... but she sure is the epitome for lots and lots of people on this site. I know I'll never look like her because I have different genetics but I can sure admire her strength, not just in how she looks, but how she kicks some ass in the gym. I have had the privilege to train with Eva at CFSC and one thing I have heard her say, and I completely admire, is "Everybody has a different body." Everybody has a different body. You have yours. Eva has hers. If you don't like it, don't strive for it, but let the people praise their goddess. Praise is a good thing and shouldn't be considered suspect.

To alter a quote from Buckley:
"“Liberals (Muslims) claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”

In8girl #40

Contrary to popular belief, that is not Eva in the picture with Nadia posted on 01/18/08.
That is Patty from Crossfit Old Bethpage on Long Island.
Not to take anything away from Eva but Patty deserves her props too!

Yo Eva!!
Looking as hot as always!
Robb

Met Eva this weekend as one of the Crossfit coaches for the Seattle barbell event at Crossfit in Redmond. She is as lovely in real life as we see in this interview; Clearly fit but also, soft spoken, tough, gentle and smart lady. Her coaching was clear, direct and on target. She seemed well balanced and this interview shows it. Congratulations to Crossfit for having her represent you.

I agree with the concerns of the article and in regard to "It is not cultures, religions or political systems that enjoy rights. Human beings enjoy rights, and certain principles like the ones embedded in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights are universal.", also consider Guantanamo Bay.

Guantanamo Bay considered... conclusion: those that are there have given up their rights

I've been trying the WODs for about a year now with some mods here and there. I'm still having some trouble with front squat and the overhead squat. Overhead squats are worst - as I start moving downwards the bar begins to move forward.
Front squat - same thing - my back cannot stay straight throughout the movement. To start I'm workign with very low weights in order to try to force myself into the correct position but that isn't enough. I'm wondering if trying this in a Smith Machine may help me. Or should I be working on some specific stretching? Any suggestions would be great! Thanks.

Normally when I see the interview videos, I pass. They are often pretty bad, but this one was decent. Well done, Nicole and crew. Infidel6 also did a good interview with Eva a little ways back. Come to think of it, Robb Wolf's interview was good as well.

I dug the article, too. Normally the rest day articles and discussions are pretty unappealing, but this one hit the nail nicely on the head. It is worthwhile noting that it wasn't long ago that the Catholic Church was torturing and burning people at the stake for heresy. The most recent auto de fe took place in Mexico in the mid 1800s, I believe. So, intolerance for other religious views and the murderous will to back it up is not unique to Islam. Having highly concentrated and easily available explosives is a new development. What would have once been only religious stupidity can now easily become a slaughter.

The Koran and the Hadith exhort their followers to violence in no uncertain terms, as does the Bible. The Koran wins in this regard, however. Sam Harris in The End of Faith has about 3 full pages of Koran quotes. One of my favorites is below:

"Slay them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse than carnage... [I]f they attack yo put them to the sword. Thus shall the unbelievers be rewarded: but if they desist, God is forgiving and merciful. Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme. But if they desist, fight none except the evildoers." (2:190-93)

Religion often drives people to do awful things in the name of faith. Islam, and those who emphasize the most radical portions of it, have honed this to a fine edge. I agree with the article. We should not live in a world where we cannot freely and vigorously criticize religion. Perhaps we can one day dispense with the supernatural all together.

EVA T. THATS OUR GIRL.
Thanks for everything and our gym.
ZIP

Eva, I commend you for your diligent hard work, strength, beauty and leadership. Well done. Thank you. You have set the bar at astral elevation, and nobody comes close.

And, that was one heck of a picture. What a Goddess. What an athlete.

I like the way the up and coming events were recently organized. Looks much better and is easier to follow.

Wow, thank you OPT Mommy, Anniee, In8girl, MaxG, Nadia Shatila, Leslie AP, amlivinthedream, and Travis, thank you everyone who answered my question.

I will take your comments and run with them. I appreciate your enthusiasm for crossfit, I share that enthusiasm.

OPT Mommy, I will focus on performance, by the way, you are married to an animal :>)

Anniee, you're right, I feel great and thank you for the d@#* scale comment :>)

In8girl, thank you for the honesty, and I do love it when people look at you funny at the gym when you do handstand push ups and metcon workouts :>)

MaxG, thanks for the advice and my whole family is pretty much following (has been following) the zone diet, I make sure of that :>)

Nadia Shatila, it took a lot from your post as I think that we may be two peas in a pod. It's a tough hurdle to get over, thanks for the kind words.

Leslie AP, Peleo, I have not read up on it but it sounds like eat what your body was made to eat. I'll read more and mabee give it a try, thank you.

amlivinthedream, wow!, 110#, that's 22lbs less than my entire body weight, keep up the good work. I would love to see results like that in 45 days :>)

Travis, thanks, that what my guy says. He echos everyone's comments about throwing out the scale and going for ability gains. Its just hard for a girl to do sometimes...

Thanks again for all of the comments, I love this community.

Happy Crossfitting,

Lysa

#41: 1. Glute-ham developer.
2. Skievat.blogspot.com

re: Eva's physique.
1. I believe I heard in another interview that she has been Crossfitting for 11 years, which is probably as long or longer than like, anyone on the planet.
2. She clearly has superior genetics, drive, and discipline.
3. Any woman would be insulted to be described as masculine. Somehow insinuating that her physique is the product of steroid use is equally insulting, especially given what we know the combination of Crossfit, diet, genetics, and drive is capable of producing.

All I'm sayin'.

Obviously I'm the only one that is completed offend by the picture of the day. If its not a video its a picture. Another woman in her bra! CF is definately headed into dangerous waters.

I would be completely embarassed if I told someone to check out CF and they're first impression was a picture of a woman in nothing but a bra. The interview was OK but it is quite clear that the reason Eva T didn't win a olympic metal is because she does not have the genetics for it. Sorry Eva, some of use are born athletic and some are not.

I hope those in charge of posting pictures would carefully rethink what they post. I love crossfit but seeing a woman in a bra has made me seriouly doubt if CF is for me.

:)

#79 Jay. Time to change your 12 inch green monitor Jay...it must be a little fuzzy or you don't keep up with Olymipic skiing or spent much time around strong women. She is a world class woman and athlete...watch the interview before you make comments....leaves no doubt about her class, humility and femininity. She is loved by this community and has earned every bit of the respect she has received above....and though you don't know it yet....yours as well.

Cool interview - thanks to both Eva and Nicole! It's very interesting to hear about the mental approach that someone as accomplished as Eva takes to a workout and competition. It's also nice to see that ladies like Eva and Nicole are just that - ladies! They are beautiful, feminine AND strong. More videos like this please - from the guys and the girls out there!

Great interview, inspiring, respectful, makes me want to quit being a whimpy start-stop-start-stop-star, sta, sta, start... guy. Why don't I just shoot myself and get it over with?
This is something great to be a part of. I'd like to find my balls tomarrow finally, commit, and be the athlete I know I can be.
It dosn't have anything to do with can I get to the gym. It has to do with, just like Eva T mentioned, do I love myself? I need to commit because it is the right thing to do. Because I respect and love myself.

From the article:

". . . the justifications for censorship and self-censorship are similar in different parts of the world: Religious feelings and taboos need to be treated with a kind of sensibility and respect that other feelings and ideas cannot command."

When we defend the right of others to be irrational, we defend their right to act irrationally towards us.

Hey, Mark Go,

Way to tell #79 Jay the way it is. Sorry that you can't tell the diffenece Jay.

Taco

Judging from the comments from the last two rest days:

It seems there is a direct correlation between the cup size of a bra and the offense one takes from seeing that bra. Interesting.

Sounds like the CrossFit gods listened. Eva, you're a stud.

There are no better athletic role models than crossfit role models and Eva T. is the best of the best. Great interview. Eva you are as soft spoken and gracious as you are beautiful. I love your strength and grace and humor. Congratulations on your olympic lift national championship. You epitomize champion in every way.

That's Brian Nesmith doing pistols in the background at the beginning of the interview. He was the trainer at DCF at my very first wod: Helen. I thought I was going to die, but instead, I'm hooked for life.

#88 Hi Jay. BTW 1: Your kidding yourself...you do care about what we think....it is why you keep reading and why you are reading now....you'll keep coming back to see how this community is responding your post. You can't help it. You long for resect, even if it means an cyber-spar. BTW 2: you made NO comment. You asked a question. BTW 3: The respect treadmill always keeps hamster running for more.

#19 Jamie B

Yeah we train core. Its a 3 on 1 off schedule. So today is the one day off, then we will train core for the next three days. Unless of coarse the wod is a 5k or 10k run.

Joro -- that's a very surface way of looking at it. To me the difference has nothing at all to do with "cup size" - it's about the fact that Eva is a veteran athlete and a veteran CrossFitter and she has a lot of advice and experience she can share. The comments in regards to her interview reflect the respect she has earned from her experience and her ability to communicate it to others.

#19, jamie b. I don't consider myself an expert, but I'd think that core stabilization of rotational movement isn't something that comes just from strengthening muscles. Rather, it comes from practicing good form, which allows the muscles to work together more efficiently. I don't care how strong you are, nothing kills power worse than crappy form. Additionally, I have tried weight-bearing rotational exercises in the past, and I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. They don't feel natural, and if done incorrectly, they're a great way to put your chiropractor's kids through college. The weightlifting aspect of Crossfit, in my experience, is focused on strengthening the muscles used in the natural movements of the body and in real-life activities outside the gym (sports, manual labor, combat, etc.). If you're looking for more rotational power in a specific application, practice your fundamentals. Again, it isn't about mere strength; it's about developing good form and muscle memory to apply your strength efficiently. Again, I'm no expert, but I hope this helps.

I have to second what Mark'go said about the wonderful Eva T. Not only is she an inspirational world-class athelete, but also an excellent teacher. By coincidence I met her for the first time today, while taking her class at Santa Cruz Central. Like Annie and Nicole, she simply has it all: intelligence, beauty, grace, joie de vivre, with a ferocious WOD-killing-instinct lurking just under the surface. Thanks for the expert advice Eva!

#1

Why can't all women be appreciated?

Just a quick comment to all the people comparing this rest day to last. I don't think anyone had a problem with "the bra", i think it goes deeper then that. The difference is with the way the women carry themselves.

There is a big difference between the two videos. Right after Allison talks about the embaressment of her boobs bouncing and the class talking about it, she re-enacts it to the camara for us all to see again. Now for me, awesome i liked it, but i'm not niave enough to not understand why it might bother others. Now i'm not hating on Allison , i just think she's a big girl and can handle the critisism because she brings it on herself.

Not the bra controversy again! Eva T looks great, as did Allison NYC. Personal choice who you'd want to wake up with, but for me the pictures were just fine.

Eva is Wonderful. Just as sweet as she is beautiful and strong. I could talk about her and watch her all day. If I had abs like that I'd never wear a shirt!

Annies little baby is the cutest little girl ever! Oh my gosh. Too cute for words.

Jeremy: Great job on the front squats yesterday. You always make me proud you monster.

Just got home from training with a fighter boy friend. He got his first muscle up! It was pretty easy for him since he's so dang strong. BTW he did it shirtless and in board shorts. I almost passed out. We're going to work on multiples as soon as he has them hung from his ceiling. They were hanging from his squat rack and he almost hit his head a few times. He's going to do his first official CrossFit workout when I get back from Vegas if it's the last thing I do!

I got one too! Thank goodness.

One more time ... Eva you rock! <3

Jamie

Sorry , i re-read your post. I was skimming and read the begining of yours and end of someone else's. You have a good point about rotation especially for mma fighters , wrestlers or boxers.

I'm just tired of all the, " i love crossfit but do we ever train calves?"

So sorry mate , good question and i hope for an answer from a coach or if were lucky maybe even an athlete like Eva.

I personally use a bunch of rotational throws with a heavy and light medicine ball with a partner. I do this both on solid ground and on a balancing ball(?) because lots of times , if you train, you are not fully balanced when being taken down. I hope this helps if u were looking for ideas, but your right regular crossfit doesn't seem to address this.

Eva is not just a great athlete, but she is such a candid and sincere person as well. It's nice to see that warm personality behind that intense game face we watch during the workouts. By the way, Annie's baby has a mean pose. Wish I could flex like that!

By Jay #79

> is that a dude or a girl?

Very intelligent question.

Also from Jay #88

> as for what the community thinks of her, i
> don't really care. i was just making a
> comment.

No, you were trying to be an ass. How about you ask Coach to post a picture of you on the website and we can make similarly well-considered questions?

#101 Stephen,
Must be nice to have the luxury of hiding in cyberspace. You are welcome in SC any time, to prove yourself.

WOW!! Eva T looks great!!

So a pic of Eva in a bra garners positive comments, while Allison gets negative ones? Interesting...

Amazing Eva!

#107 Normal (?) bloke

Whoa there! No need to stoop to personal insults. I bet as Eva's training, how she appeals to you wont be uppermost in her mind.

Send a picture of yourself - Maybe "Good face, flabby body ....."

#109 Gay ...sorry Gary

I bet it *is* what she's thinking about.

Put yourself in the public eye, and take the rough with the smooth. If you don't want people to comment that you look like a man ...then don't.

Picture of me? I have a bad face *and* a flabby body ...that's why I'm so bitter and mean.

F: 35/5'7/132
2nd WOD

Today I did Annie, 50-40-30-20-10 DU/SU.

20:38

Haven't skipped in ages so took a long time to finish the DU. The first 50 took me about 9 mins, lots of single bounces inbetween!
My last 10 was a straight 10 tho with no breaks, so glad about that:)
Sit-ups were unanchored.

I think Eva's body looks how I would expect any athelete of her calibre to look like. Strong and sculpted. Proper order.

#110 Normal (?) Bloke

Or even "Busted face Bruised body" if Eva gets hold of you.

Surely even a fool who can't spell could give respect to the amount of work Eva has done to get into shape. It may not be your fantasy, but that doesn't make it wrong.

Take a long hard look in the mirror and see if you're gods gift .....

I have to admit, before I got into a "fitness lifestyle", Eva would not be my ideal woman. However, knowing the discipline, determination, and metal toughness it takes to create a body like hers makes Eva a very appealing woman.

To commemorate Eva T - here's my WOD based on her heavy workout :)

6 rounds of
5 sandbag cleans + 5 ring pullups

30 ring dips
45 gas canister swing

go girl!

Opinions on attractiveness are always going to be varied due to their subjectivity. Whatever your view on Eva in that respect may be (I'm ignoring for now how shallow and narrow-minded an approach this is) we should all have enough respect for her to keep us from making personal attacks. That's just demeaning, to both the speaker and the recipient. Really, who cares if she's female or not? There are plenty of photos on here of shirtless guys who don't get this level of controversy.

Bottom line - Eva has attained and surpassed the heights that many of us Crossfitters are ceaselessly aiming for. She rocks, so show some respect.

Are great, the picture and interview.

Eva’s body is a consequence of her hard determination and crossfit training.

Muscle weighs more than fat? Is that pound for pound?

This may seem nit picky, but it has always driven me nuts. A pound of fat weighs exactly as much as a pound of muscle.

Annlee #21 got it right "Muscle is more dense than fat, and the same mass will occupy less volume." Well said.

This is a great site. I have been into this wod thing for a couple weeks now and am glad I'm back doing this kinda wo. I've refered many to this as well. Thanks
And thanks for the early wod post. Nice to wo at 5 am on the east coast.

Eva! Eva! Eva!

I'm speechless kinda like staring at Half Dome.

HEY COACH... it would be nice if people could post pictures in the comments section. 'Cause I got to assume that the critics have some banging rigs they want to show us.

For those of you that are being critical... are you the same goof ballz who when staring at the Grand Canyon can not shut the fook up about your trip to the Eiffel Tower or the giant hole you and your dad dug the backyard back in 1987?

Just shut your trap and stare. Let your tongue fall outta your mouth..ignore your REACTIONS and just observe. Let Eva over take you. Let the truth of the object enter you instead of coming up with some kaka-mainy (sp) 50 cent reaction.

If you don't like what you see, bang on your head like you would a coke machine that just took 50 cents from you. 'Cause your broken.

Well, I was going to take this rest day...

However, perhaps I'll undertake a journey of my own today, thru the "Deck of Cards" (go to the Navy Seal WOD for this one)

Thanks Eva for your inspiration.

Hi guys, still inside my first week of discovering Crossfit. The community feel of these posts is really impressive. This seems an exceptionally ignorant question, but who is Eva T in relation to the whole concept? She seems to be held in pretty high regard by a lot of people who have posted, I noticed she also has her own calendar too!
I realise she's a very impressive athlete, but just wanted to know if theres another reason she has such a following?

First of all, for those of you that say that Eva has the body of a man:

If you put a man's face on that body, I would say that that person looked feminine. Certainly you may find that sort of feminie looking man at your local "Fuzzy Bananna", and if that is what you are into, then that is your perogative, no judgement there at all. But why would you start insulting someone, a WOMAN, who has worked extremely hard and been extremely successful in athleticism, for no reason at all? That bothers me. If Eva is not the type of woman that you would "go for", well then you are in luck, cause this is CROSSFIT.COM, not match.com. I understand this is a free and open site, and all can state what they wish, but insulting someone because you are insecure with yourself and the only way to feel less uncomfortable with YOU is to project your distaste (for yourself) onto someone else and insult HER. HER, gentlemen (and ladies), HER! Sorry, I was blessed with a decent set of parents that raised me better than to insult a woman for the simple sake of it. Are you flippin serious? Maybe you should spend less time sitting at your desk, at your computer, drinking your irish coffee and eating your boston creme donut, and a little more time learning the how and why of Crossfit, and what CF is all about. I am not talking about what this comment section is all about, but what Crossfit is all about.

Great interveiw! Good to see more crossfit superstars being interviewed! Keep up the hard work!

~J~

myspace.com/justintriquet

(another example of hardwork and dedication to CF training)

Another 2 cents:
I love women...all shapes and sizes
Big, small, tall, short, black, brown, yellow, white...you get the drift.

AllisonNYC is hot, Eva T is hot.
Annie, Nadia, Nicole...ALL smoking hot.

Hot more so because they project confidence, they are proud of themselves and what they have achieved/are achieving.

We should be celebrating these women instead of picking/debating on what we think is the 'ideal body/look' blah blah blah silliness...

Eva, you stunning, gorgeous, strong Alpha Femme.

I work hard, eat right, live clean, go to bed on time, and give CrossFit every ounce of effort I have. In a year and a half, I've come a long, long way. You were the first CrossFit woman, and every step I've taken followed in your couragous footsteps. Thank you.

It takes a SuperHero Alpha Male to measure up to you. Nothing less than a racked & stacked, world famous Olympic athlete himself is a worthy escort for you. Some sensitive lil' espresso sipping fellers be threatened by your obvious superiority. Poor saplings. The acute awareness of their own shortcomings, weakness and testosterone poverty compels them to quickly self-identify as the Betas that they are.

To them I say: shut your mouth, eat the Zone, CrossFit as RX'd, and some day around 2010, when you start to look and perform like Greg Amundson, you may begin to consider the possibility of raising your head, looking The Eva straight in the eye, and enjoy the confidence of a man who's so undeniably strong and hotT that he's manly enough to ask Eva T out. Only an Alpha Male can smile at her and think he stands a chance. Until the lucky day that you mature into an Oak Tree, take your vitamins, be truthful with yourself, pray for more muscle mass, and try not to post inane words that show us all what a total "kitty" you are.

I just switched my screen saver to this photo, and can't wait to get to the gym today. 3,2,1 Go!

I agree J roCk. I came here this morning knowing it was rest day. I open it up and there is Eva! OMG! She is soooo beautiful! Then I start to read the comments. How can people be so rude? The way I was raised, if you don't have something nice to say, keep your mouth shut. Maybe that doesn't apply anymore. Personally, I think Eva is amazing. I'd love to meet her in person. Comments made by some people on days like to day remind me of those celebrity bash boards where it is VERY easy to be so negative and hateful when you are anonymous, sitting there behind your computer monitor.
As a female who is chesticularly challenged, hee hee, and have always been told that I look like a guy, I find people who say things like that to be the epitome of an A$$h0le. And yes, I'd say that to your face.

Lookin awesome, Eva! Always a pleasure.
Matt
CrossFit Champions

Eva, you are stunning!!! Hope to meet you again at the CrossFit Games this summer!

I find the exploration of different definitions of femininity, attractiveness, and physical ideals fairly interesting. I consider the exploration of viewers' visceral reactions to Eva's presence more interesting. Why is it important for some to assign a neat judgment to a picture or a whole person? Why do some seek to define a narrow or single physical ideal for themselves or for an entire sex? When do these reactions facilitate or limit?

I have long been inspired by Eva's physique and approach, but have yet to determine if, given the opportunity (like in parallel CrossFit universes), I would want to be her or date her. I doubt answers will be forthcoming. Now it's off to the gym. 3...2...smile...1...go.

Excellent article; I agree wholeheartedly with the ideals of democracy and the freedom of self-expression, including the expression of ideas that could be offensive to other people. I think that it is appropriate to recall that this country was founded on blasphemy and rebellion of sorts. The United States declared independence from a monarchy and such monarchies were thought to be set in place by God himself and under his authority, as insinuated by the apostle Paul in the Bible (quote needed here- I think it's in Corinthians.) and commonly believed at the time. One could die for such blasphemy and defiance of authority and many brave colonists did in the American Revolution, what in my opinion was the most wonderful and triumphant rebellion and blasphemy of the human spirit in history, second only to the development of the scientific method in the time period from Copernicus to Newton.

But while I am taking Coach's bait, and entering the precarious realm of controversy and public discussions of ideas that people hold dear and can be offended by, I would like to ask and address a deeper question in regards to WHY some people take it upon themselves to feel not just impelled but even obligated by duty, honor, patriotism, faith, to impose their thoughts, will and opinion on others. There have been whole books written on this subject so I'm going to just throw out the framework of the theory so as to enable some debate within the community.

The theory has to do with the science of memetics.

"Memetics is a neo-Darwinian approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer based on the concept of the meme. Started from a metaphor used in popular writings of Richard Dawkins, it has later turned into an approach in the study of self-replicating units of culture. It has been proposed that just as memes are analogous to genes, memetics is analogous to genetics." -Wikipedia

Basically a meme is an idea, or defined more precisely,

"meme (plural memes)-
Any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity.
A self-propagating unit of cultural evolution having a resemblance to the gene (the unit of genetics)."

Another definition from our friends at wikipedia:
"Meme-complex – (sometimes abbreviated memeplex) is a collection or grouping of memes that have evolved into a mutually supportive or symbiotic relationship.[citation needed] Simply put, a meme-complex is a set of ideas that reinforce each other. Meme-complexes are roughly analogous to the symbiotic collection of individual genes that make up the genetic codes of biological organisms. An example of a memeplex would be a religion."

These definitions imply, by indicating that memes are self-propagating and resemble genes, that they "try" or at least some of the "fitter" memes have a tendency to reproduce and spread more than others. Here's an example, let's say that I write a song. It's a sincere and beautifully heartfelt song, (at least to me) and I cherish it dearly. I've just created a meme-complex (memeplex for short). But I'm not a very good musician, and I've never played the song to anyone else. The memeplex only exists in my head, and if I get hit by a car and die, the memeplex (my song) dies with me. Likewise, being just a mediocre musician, let's assume that I abandon my musical aspirations or give up my songwriting hobby. The memplex could also be forgotten and forever lost. But instead, let's entertain the idea that one day, I decide to play the song to my girlfriend. Since she has a good memory and is a musician herself, now the memplex resides in two people and has a better chance for survival. My girlfriend, being a better musician than myself, polishes up the song, tweaks the notes and lyrics and makes them catchier, and writes down the notes and makes a recording. Now this bit of culture exists independently of us and if we both get killed in a car accident, someone might actually find the recording or music sheet to the song and the memeplex might exist regardless if we die. But let's say that my girlfriend plays the song at a bar and a producer likes it and records it at a professional studio and plays it on the radio. The new version is even better and catchier, is recorded in an album that is a one hit wonder and goes platinum and is aired on the internet all over the world. Now the memeplex has spread all over and has grown to occupy memory space in not a couple, but millions of meme-hosts singing along with their radios all over the place. Now it would take a nuclear war, a large comet, or perhaps hundreds of years of history and cultural evolution to pass by for the memeplex to pass from existence, instead of our aforementioned theoretical car accident, and even then a future archeologist might figure out how to extract the song from an ancient hard drive. This is a good example of an average memeplex competing as it were for pervasiveness. Some songs make it, some don't. It depends on how "virulent" they are and on their luck and initial conditions. A song could have been the sweetest, catchiest song the world had ever known, but it could have been written in Pompey, near Mt. Vesuvius, shortly before a powerful volcanic eruption, or maybe in a south pacific island in a dialogue only spoken by a few hundred people shortly before a Maori tribe comes over to slaughter all the men and take the women and children into servitude. Bad luck, sh*t happens. Or it can be written by Kurt Cobin (sp?) and recorded in one of Nirvana's multi-platinum albums in the age of radio, rock concerts, MTV, and internet piracy. Bingo. Memeplex semi-immortality.

The reason that this is pertinent to the featured article is obviously because religions are huge meme-complexes. There are many tools for these infinitely influential memeplexes to spread. A most obvious one is a Holy Text; (which can be thought of as a self-contained memeplex itself within the larger religion supermemeplex.) A necessary underlying idea for a Holy Text to be effective as a meme-transfer agent is for the memeplex itself to claim that its origin is from God, (Rudyard Kippling’s “How the First Letter Was Written” and “How the Alphabet was Made” from his “Just So Stories” are vastly superior in creativity, literary quality and prose than the story of the Tower of Babel in Chapter 11 of the book of Genesis, nevertheless, there are not as many sermons about Taffimai Metallumai [ http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/letter.htm ] as there are regarding how the peoples of the world were confused by Yahweh to speak in different languages and scattered throughout the earth. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel ]. The notable effective virulent (virulence: ability for a meme to transfer itself to other meme-carriers.) memeplex that espouses doubt as an underlying assumption is the scientific method, and other scientific method based models. Democracies and CrossFit might be good examples of such meme-plexes, because they are largely open source and refined by trial and error, nevertheless, these have their own problems with faith assumptions, due to the underlying nature of human psychology.
Throughout world history, there have been literally hundreds of thousands of religion-meme-plexes that have developed, evolved, moved to prominence, subsided, and passed on into oblivion. Some have even been reincarnated in history books through archeological digs. But there are a few that are the Fittest of the Fit and have been most effective at spreading to other meme-carriers. These are the most tenacious, the most comforting, most charismatic, moving, motivating, best proselytizing of the hundreds of thousands that have come and gone. Among other prominent "super-memeplexes" are two reigning champions, Christianity and Islam. There are so many tools and tricks in their methods for spreading to other meme-carriers that they have themselves pushed hundreds if not thousands of other religions out of existence or at least prominence. Naturally, these two super-heavyweights are constantly at odds with each other in their battle for memecarriers. The casualties of this warfare are seas of human blood throughout history since the inception of both religions. (Of course, Christianity holds the lead in terms of total metric tons of human bloodshed, mainly because it got approximately a 600 year head start on Islam, which is catching up quickly, in my opinion.) I wouldn't say that as a whole Christianity has been much more merciful or less bloody than Islam. It has become less violent in recent centuries mainly due to a marriage of philosophy and democratic thought originating from the ancient Athenians and culminating in the development of the scientific method in the last few hundred years; (which is obviously also a memeplex that is based on completely different assumptions than faith-based religions.) The conquest and proselytizing of native American peoples including North, South, and Central America, the colonization of the Philippines, the constant religious European wars throughout history are largely due to Christianity's powerful ability to galvanize to violence when it cannot spread through other means; as if we even needed to mention the crusades, which George Bush so foolishly mentioned in a speech before the invasion of Iraq. Tom C., comment #75 mentions this idea. Also, inside of the religious memeplexes themselves, different mutations arise into factions that battle internally among each other. (Catholics/Protestants, Shiites/Sunnis, CrossFit Purists/Reformists- see Jan 14, 2008 affiliate blog.)
This is not to say that religions are completely destructive or that they have no redeeming value. You can inspire people into living with higher moral standards than they would otherwise with more introspective lives. Nevertheless, there are grounds in many religions to impose your will over other people and this is explicitly stated in their religious texts, especially those of Islam and Christianity. So when someone is caught in an extremely tight grasp by the memeplex, they are willing to impose their will on others who don’t belong to the same memeplex through violence, and even sacrifice their own lives if necessary in process of serving their “God.” This is a very frightening and disturbing idea, and it can also be found extremely offensive by not just Muslims, but also by Christians whom I suspect comprise the majority of the CrossFit community. I was raised in a Christian fundamentalist household myself, and I thought that I was called to be an apostle by The Lord. Once, when I was walking home from school a couple of stoners asked me if I wanted to share their joint. They were just being social like stoners often are. I self-righteously replied “Get behind me, Satan!” and walked away. I was 13 years old. Now perhaps my parents might have been proud of me if they had known how I resisted an offer to try drugs, but looking back at the incident, I feel disgust at who I was because of the self-righteous ignorance and intolerance that I had for other people’s culture. Now I don’t endorse smoking dope, mainly because I think one should have respect for the law, nevertheless, I think my own attitude was a bigger problem than anything the stoners were doing. I used to memorize scripture and pray for hours at a time, inculcating bible verses into my head with a strong willed obsession unsurpassed by the zealotry any CrossFitter has for fitness, but perhaps only almost as strong as the conviction Islamic fundamentalists have to further and protect their belief system, however vile their methodology. I have to admit, that back then I was a memoid, not for Islam, but for Christianity.
Memeoid – is a neologism for people who have been taken over by a meme to the extent that their own survival becomes inconsequential. Examples include kamikazes, suicide bombers and cult members who commit mass suicide. The term was apparently coined by H. Keith Henson in "Memes, L5 and the Religion of the Space Colonies," L5 News, 1985 pp. 5-8, [10] and referenced in the expanded second edition of Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene (p. 330).

-Wikipedia. Look up Memetics.
I am now very tired, as I have been up all night writing this paper and wondering if Coach is going to call me a liberal, lol. This is why I’m afraid of rest days, but I’ve actually wanted to really get into this type of discussion. I am very curious as to the opinions of Bingo and Hari regarding this topic. There is more I wanted to write, and if anyone replies to this post I intend to write more when I wake up.

Wonderful interview, one of the best. So much comes through in just a few minutes. Strength with kindess; honesty with conviction; and humor with vulnerability.

For whatever reason, today it all touches my heart and I think Eva T. is amazing.

aloha

Great video!

The lunatic saying "man's body" is a troll. Don't feed the trolls, they go away.

I appreciate Eva's perspective on the journey, and on how to focus and do your best without it having to be deadly serious.

They were especially inspiring words for me because I'm suddenly facing significant physical limitations because of spinal cord compression and myeolopathy, which is causing me increasing motor weakness.

I had a couple of weeks of feeling terribly mournful about what I can't do now, but I'm working on my mindset to be grateful for what I *can* do, and still take satisfaction from doing what I can to the absolute best of my ability.

It sometimes kills me to have to stop doing something because I'm getting increased symptoms or because my legs go absolutely numb and useless. (I discovered that running jostles my cord somehow, and before I know it, both legs are fast asleep. I even fell down trying to walk it off, like when you sit cross-legged too long and you stand up on pins and needles legs and they give out.)

So Eva's thoughts on doing her best with a smile really struck home. I will make it a priority to smile when I work out. It's so hard----I'm a competitive enough athlete to want to kick butt, but just getting through a workout with light weights and maintaining form is kicking MY butt right now.

I will smile, Eva. Thank you for sharing that.

Susie

In addition to my last post.

I think Eva is not only pleasing to the eye, but to the imagination as well! In my opinion she, and so many of the CF women, are the women of today, and they all kick some serious, hardcore, kick your a$$ in the gym, (I can't even imagine what they would do to you at night...), beauties! And I for one, am grateful that it is no longer 1940, and that women of today are strong, smart, tough and at the same time feminine, aluring and $exy....making the woman of today BEAUTIFUL in everyway!

eva,

i agree with your words about wanting more control over your training. Though you were on a "team", your sport was very individual, and the training aspect (in my opinion) definitely should have included your input.

Now I'm sure our S&C guys over there in Colorado (right?) are mucho talented, but I wouldn't feel comfortable programming at that level without knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses, and a strong understanding of your character. It's the character that drives performance.

Herb Brooks, the great coach of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team that beat the Soviets, was a big "character" guy, and he was able to push certain guys in certain ways to get them to perform at their best - and beyond.

I don't know if they even let you have any input, but as a former pro athlete, I can empathize with the disappointment with not completing your ultimate mission.

About piece of mind, I think Henry David Thoreau said it best:

"Most men live lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them."

Cheers!

#75 TomC

I agreed with most of your comment, except when you wrote that Christianity exhorts its followers to violence. You might be able to make the claim with the Old Testament, but the New Testament is innocent of the charges you level against it. It only once tells us to take up our sword... but in the context of defense. Aside from that, the NT resoundingly tells us to take whatever beatdown comes our way and consider ourselves blessed. The only similarity between Islam and Christianity is the concept of monotheism.

Brad

43/M/75"/200

5 rounds for time of:

10 pull ups
10 dive bomber pushups
10 burpees
10 squats
100 meter sprint

19:49

Radical Islam and their "tolerance and peace" suck as bad as my time on the above workout. They are only tolerant and peaceful of those that espouse their views (or are contrary to Christians and Jews). Look at all the countries that have hard core human rights violations and you can probably find Islam in the middle of it.

#128 Amanonymus,

Violence is not a tenet of Christianity, the Crusades were a response to Muslim aggression, and atheism is the leader in bloodshed amongst all ideologies (see Russia and China alone).

Christianity has spread through the blood and sacrifice of those martyred to spread the truth of Jesus Christ.

m\43

worked the following sets on a smith machine. not exactly what the workout intended.

light jump rope warmup with stretching.

1. empty bar X 10
2. 95 X 5
3. 135 X 3
4. 185 X 3
5,6,7,8 195 X 1
9,10,11,12,13,14 X 185 X 1

I visit CrossFit everyday to obtain knowledge and inspiration, not to oggle the women in the videos, or pass judgement on their looks.

Thanks Eva, Nicole and Annie for providing that inspiration.

#135

Easy there, Flanders.

Partially inspired by #135...

No religion, Islam included, glorifies violence in itself. It is the people who twist its tenets to suit themselves that should be blamed. Grouping all Muslims as violent or anything else is a disservice. Some of the excesses of the Crusades were horrendous and reprehensible, no matter what their origins, but it is the perpetrators we would wish to blame, not Christianity as an ideal.

Why do anything less for Islam? By all means wipe those who commit atrocities (such as the recent bombing involving Down's sufferers) off the face of the Earth. But the trend seems to be toward blaming all who hold an Islamic faith, and it doesn't take a genius to see where that line of thought will lead us.

P.S. Similarly, you can hardly blame atheism for the past horrors of Russia and China. I wonder, if Stalin had been a Muslim (odd thought, but bear with me) where would we be now? Would a global anti-Islam war have erupted? Nobody blames atheism because we understand it (and because we don't want to blame ourselves for anything). It's very easy to blanket-blame that which we don't understand.

Anybody else notice this:

Main page - Anonymity allowed. Internet tough-guy/moron factor: Very high

Message boards - Real identity required to post. Internet tough-guy/moron factor: Nonexistent.

Coincidence? I think not.

The reason that both Eva T and AllisonNYC were defended by the majority within the CF community is that they both allow it to "all hang out": they are genuine. Eva T is literally twice Allison's age, so perhaps her maturity is more pronounced, but I also suspect that Allison is much more mature than most others her own age. I wish I had her dedication at when I was her age. I thought I did, but I know now that I was going through the motions.

Both are strong, beautiful women. The people that don't see that have their own reasons. I don't need to spell them out. They only need to look into the mirror (literal and figurative).

Allan

Comment #124 - Posted by: Spider Chick

Spider Chick = Awesome

I hope my girl grows up to be as strong as you and the other ladies of the mainpage.

That is all.

David
CF Chattanooga

Did yesterday's workout this morning.

165 x 1,1,f,1,f, 155x 1,1,1,1,1

I actually enjoyed reading this article. Most of the rest day articles are way too far right wing for me. This one I completely agree with.

I agree with you, ilramnation. There needs to be a distinct difference made between "Christianity", the religion, and "trusting only in Jesus Christ's shed blood for my salvation", the relationship.

Finally, the rest day video we've all been asking for. A lot of admiration is given to Eva because of what she can do, not what she looks like. After all, the typical crossfit gym doesn't have mirrors.

If you are afraid of looking like Eva, don't be because you won't. She is an olympian, has trained crossfit for over 10 years and puts more dedication (intensity) into each workout than most people can imagine

#139 Jonathan,

Islam doesn't glorify violence? "Islam" means "surrender." It's tenet is convert, die, or pay the tax. It grew by one conquest after another. Muhammed (or whichever way you want to spell it) had political opponents assassinated, and once he had the advantage against the Jewish populace in his area, he attacked them mercilessly. One of its protocols as spelled out in the Koran is lying until you have the power to exert your will.

#100 Ray,

Thanks, sorry if my post was unclear to anyone else, I was referring to spinal twisting type rotational movements. The whole crossfit regimen is just so meticulously thought out I'm sure there must be specific reasoning behind not including rotational movements in the WODs.

I'll have to agree with what a few have already said. The response to this photo has been a lot more positive than the last rest day's photo.

It seems that some people's opinion of what is "Feminine" has led them to deem the last rest day. Yet here is Eva, and she receives far less flak showing up in pretty revealing clothing. Maybe this rest day can put the last rest day into perspective. AllisonNYC was inspiring for her passion to strive to be better.
As for Eva, she has already reached a level that is so far ahead of almost all of the rest of us. She sets our expectations and goals at a higher level than we thought possible.

Good job, Eva. You're inspire me a give me great motivation to improve myself physically (I wanna be like you when I grow up).

And I really hope there are some sexist, jocky, egotistical, narrowminded, bodybuilder type guys out there that visit Crossfit.com today!

Good morning all, and happy rest day. Let me start by saying that I am nervous for a workout that is named for Eva-I can only imagine what coach will put together to name after her.

I've been doing some research online regarding the Zone/Paleo diets. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I would like to go out and pick up one of the books, but I would like to hear from someone as to which one they prefer/which one may be better. I've always had a relatively healthy diet, but I have never actually planned meals and portions based on fat/carbs/protein/etc., so this is all new to me. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Wow. That is one serious minded, gifted athlete. Very impressive, and inspirational.

Oh yeah, and another thing, I picked up a book on the Zone diet recently. I haven't gotten to read it yet, but from paging through, it looks like a lot of work. It is going to be a big change, and makes me take a hard look at what I thought was a "healthy diet". I have to do it though, I'm tired of feeling like I am shortchanging my crossfit results because of my current diet.

First off, I think it's a bikini top. Now why that should make a difference I don't know, but one is generally accepted as outer wear and the other is not. Another thing is it's all in the presentation.
That aside, she is a beautiful woman, and while I do not myself desire to have that type of feminine physique,(other than the abs, I wonder how you get just those ;)) I can say that I do desire to have that kind of drive that would get me to that state of physical fitness. I love Crossfit and what it has done for me over the past 10 months. Perhaps after 10 more years, I will look like that and be very glad that I do.

What the crap is with all the snide comments about Eva T? Sheesh already; you people don't have the decency and kindness to pay compliment to this woman's extreme hard work? And what is the need for the insults? I am sure Eva T's picture is not all about Hey, look at how hot I am. Are you freaking nuts? It's about showing what you can accomplish if you want something bad enough to TRY for it. God, grow up already and get off her freakin' back even though she could carry your sorry arses.

And no, not all women should strive to look like her. CrossFit is all about people working to achieve their personal goals; some have harder ones, like Eva. There is nothing wrong with either going all the way like her, with the consequence looking fabulously athletic, or simply wanting to feel better, with the consequence of looking and feeling better.

And Coach, thank you for the FREE forum, but anytime you want to make this subscription to keep clowns off the air, I will pay.

Maybe she should be 9 minutes ahead of the world.
It's quite possible that 8 minutes isn't enough to contain all that awesomeness.

kstar

Wow! I have three young daughters. I sure would be proud if they turn into the kind of woman Eva T represents. Strong, beautiful, confident, articulate, driven, kind, smart, caring. She's a truly impressive person.

After checking out the rest day photo and post last night I was ready to get here today and start posting like a madman. The truth is...no one cares what I think, hell, I barely care. I just wanted to say how much I love this stuff. A workout, a fight, a discussion, growing minds, growing bodies, who is sexy, who isn't, how hard should this be and what does WOD stand for? This is the greatest place to come for entertainment, enlightenment and inspiration. Thank you all for making my days zip by until I can finally get home to do a modified workout and still feel good myself for trying. Have fun and keep those posts coming. Oh and just for fodder, I think AllisonNYC should have another T-shirt. Sorry, I will go back to my POSE breathing cassette tapes.

Some "deep thoughts", a la Bingo (not Jack Handy) on us, CrossFit the Community in light of last two rest days.

First, disclaimer: I have met both AllisonNYC and Eva T. Both by coincidence - Allison (before she was famous here) ran up to me at Snoqualmie Falls in Washington state because I was wearing a CF Sweatshirt. I've met Eva T. training at Mike's Gym and at the Games. Second - both are beautiful women in their own right, in very different ways. Whomever they choose to spend their time with will be lucky, lucky men.

The Community (and a lead in to free speech and censorship) - I read last rest day's comments with some chagrin. A lot of people showed their a$$es. It's okay if you disliked the video of Allison; it's okay if you dislike the picture or aesthetic of Eva T. It's okay to express that opinion in a way that respects both of these women and athletes. What is NOT okay as a CrossFitter and member of this community is to personally insult either woman. Now, here comes someone to tell me to STFU as an arbiter or the moral voice of this community and I'm waiting for the Free Speech riff, too.

Let me deal with both this way - One, this site has nothing to do with the First Amendment. If you are too stupid to understand why, any further explanation will be wasted on you. (For the simply unkowing - please actually read Amendment I of the Constitution. It should become immediately clear.)
Two - free speech is a wonderful right, but we often speak in sweeping terms and broad platitudes without understanding its origins in this country or the philosophical underpinnings of it. It is a glorious thing, generally. It is also NOT a license to say ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANY-WHEN. See, e.g. Schenck v. U.S., (the cliched "fire in the crowded theater" opinion of Holmes); see also Abrams v. U.S. (the "marketplace of ideas" dissent by Holmes).

How does that put me on the article and the trolls coming here? Well, besides the huge differences between religious freedom/speech that the article implicates and the idiots who come here simply to insult, I'll say this: governmental censorship is abhorrent; being shouted down when you say something controversial is the price you accept to say something when you put a thought out into the "marketplace of ideas". I have as much right to say you are an idiot as you have to claim that your "crucifix in urine" is art. But vioolence to suppress distasteful speech is unacceptable. Prove the person is an idiot with the power and persuasion of your reasoning. The internet has given almost everyone a voice (for better and for worse - see below).

And to return to how my claim that we as a community ought to do better when speaking of our own. I'm not preaching censorship; I'm advocating treating our friends in fitness like we would want our family to be treated. I disagree with some of the things my family and friends do (heck, my daughters are why I have gray hair) - including sometimes the people here. But I do not respond to them (any of them) with personal insults and then say "well, I have a right to free speech". That would make me a jacka$$.

Those of you who claim to be Crossfitters and then come here to insult your brothers/sisters in fitness are showing us all that you are not worthy to be included in this community. Simply because you do the workouts does not make you a "Crossfitter" - it makes you a person who does CrossFit workouts. There's a distinct difference. Coach has said this at certs. You want to claim that makes it a cult, so be it - I say it makes us a community, one of many to which I (and we all) belong.

Eva T - looking great lady, as always. Congrats on the new facility to you and your partners. Hope your roomie worked out (and does the laundry).
Allison - keep at it. You've got great examples to strive for in the women here.

To all the Crossfitters out there - earn this and be worthy of it.

31/f/158/68"

eva t. is amazing. the more i learn about her, the more impressed i am. the woman and the athlete. thanks, eva!

w/u CFWUx2 (-dips, pullups sets of 7), Burgener warmupx3 (broom, 25#bar, oly bar), 2x8 deadlift 98#, 2x5 KTE (can you tell i was stalling?!)

crossfithel WOD from yesterday, "Purple People Eater"
21-15-9

BW Deadlift

Weighted Walking Lunges (35#M/20#W)
Goblet Squats (35#M/20#W)

as rx'd 12:06

feels good to write "as rx'd". my hams/gluts are a bit jello-ey right now. my shins are scraped up, so that is a good sign. i really like the burgener warmup and i also got 2 kipping pullups. starting to try to string them together! i want an as rx'd Helen for my 1 year CF anniversary!!

ck

#19 Jamie B
The word is carryover. A lot of the movements in the CrossFit arsenal will give you good rotational strength because it takes as much force NOT to rotate as to rotate. As to the rotational strength needed by fighters, etc. -they will get whatever sport specific skill they need in their sport specific training. CrossFit is GPP.

This article points out a very important thing: If we let the criminals (aka terrorists, and leaders of Fundamentalist Islam) decide our policies, they've won. And if they don't get their way in another manner, they know exactly what they have to do, just threaten to kill more people (or actually kill them), and we'll cave in.

So these European governments (and the pansies at the UN) who say "Oh, you're right, to get you to stop killing innocent people for speaking their mind about Islam, we'll punish those people and make sure they don't dare open their mouths... nevermind the fact that you are violating their rights by threatening to murder them..."

Is there any way we can petition Greg Amundson to appear on American Gladiators?

Susie,

I salute your determination to celebrate what you 'can' do. Bravo. I know a bit about that after 16 years of trying the more stupid alternatives (with an issue that is trivial by comparison to yours).

To me, the article points out the obvious - will the West 'defend itself' from those who would exploit the West's inbred vulnerabilities? I don't blame the Muslims who are pushing this speech control - everyone else uses the power of government to impose their will on others, why shouldn't they? Will the West, and of more particular conern the US, choose liberty? Do we really love freedom? We've spent the last 80 years nibbling away at liberty - I look for the day when we're no longer willing to trade our liberty for the empty promises offered by the "more government makes it better" crowd.

If so, we will do whatever is necessary to defend citizens who actualize their right to speack their truth; we will regain the ability to discern the difference in those who speak "evil" and those who deprive others of their rights by their actions and defend the former and confine the later.

I harbor no particular fear or resentment for Muslims, but if I could I would publish those "blasphemous" cartoons on every paper, every day until the idiots who can't take a joke cry 'uncle.' Bravo to those editors who have taken on that job. I vote that these men/women are freedom's warriors, just as I would like to be.

Eva, you are inspiring for your focus, passion and determination. I also appreciate your willingness to be publically vulnerable, human, and to share your sense of striving to be more and better. It sets a powerful example, and I thank you. I join the chorus of those who wish we had a WOD in your name - have you invented a WOD which we might use as a tribute to you?

And for the questioner above, yes, you are right, there's a huge difference in the tone of the comments from those posted last rest day. Fascinating.

Isn't there something remarkable about a gal like Allison, who apparently did not build her life around 'being fit,' who could probably use her other gifts to get what she wants, but who has chosen to enter the 'elite fitness' fray with such passion?

Amongst many satisfying events in my life this weekend, allow me to share two that are somewhat relevant to this board. First, I was able to meet with and visit Barry Cooper on his travels through Memphis, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Barry, thanks for making some time for a visit, I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope for more to follow.

Second, my wife J asked me to teach her to back squat. We did that yesterday. She's an athlete to begin with and has been enjoying Crossfit for many months, but has only recently warmed up to the idea of the 'slow lifts.' I have rarely seen anything more beautiful than her execution of the back squat; hopefully, I'll be able to do it that well one day.

And with apologies, the third thing I'll mention is I got my five year old daughter H to enjoy doing kettlebell swings this weekend too. I've been struggling with how to instruct her in movement, as her attention span and ability to decode my logical instruction is limited, but I figured out how to make a silly dance out of it and that clicked. Fun stuff.

Paul

#161 Meagles, I'll second that petition request! That would be completely cool.

#157 Dale_Saran; excellent post in defense of our CrossFit community. "Simply because you do the workouts does not make you a "Crossfitter" - it makes you a person who does CrossFit workouts. There's a distinct difference."

Wow, that hits the nail on the head. I don't understand the lack of courtesy towards someone who helped pioneer CrossFit, let alone trash a peer, but she's a freakin' coach! Talk about thankless.

#124 Spider-Chick KD, you're wonderful as usual. I still wan't a Nicole fan club; I'd buy the t-shirt. I am going to ask Mike if we can start one in Troy. Hey, did I mention Mike's dad comes in there? He's freakin' 74 and can do a l-plant on the parallete trainers for 2 minutes!

#161

They won't let Greg play.

He might embarass the other Gladiators.

sometimes pictures don't do someone justice. My girlfriend and I worked out with Eva last week and she looks amazing. There is no way anyone in their right mind would not think she had a very hot feminine body.

she is a great athlete and great teacher as well...keep it up!

#161 Meagles, I'll second that petition request! That would be completely cool.

#157 Dale_Saran; excellent post in defense of our CrossFit community. "Simply because you do the workouts does not make you a "Crossfitter" - it makes you a person who does CrossFit workouts. There's a distinct difference."

Wow, that hits the nail on the head. I don't understand the lack of courtesy towards someone who helped pioneer CrossFit, let alone trash a peer, but she's a freakin' coach! Talk about thankless.

#124 Spider-Chick KD, you're wonderful as usual. I still wan't a Nicole fan club; I'd buy the t-shirt. I am going to ask Mike if we can start one in Troy. Hey, did I mention Mike's dad comes in there? He's freakin' 74 and can do a l-plant on the parallete trainers for 2 minutes!

Now the next rest day will be the video of AllisonNYC interviewing EvaT. :-)

Wow, Eva. Phenomenal stuff.

Women like Eva challenge some common notions of femininity. She is super tough and can be aggressive (as evidenced in various workout videos). She is also muscular and extremely lean. Some people might consider those to be masculine characteristics. I tend to think of a lioness. Plus, most of the guys I know are not that tough, muscular, or lean. Thus, I propose a new term: CrossFeminine.

# 157 Dale_Saran

I agree with your sentiments about how Crossfitters should treat eachother. BUT...the truth is that rest days tend to get nasty. It's usually about politics, not Allison or Eva, but that is generally what happens. I have also seen a good portion of this nastiness doled out by our moderators. I agree with your comments and hope it is taken to heart. I sometimes feel like I am on a completely different site on rest days, not because of the subject matter, but because of the negativity and lack of support for one another that is usually so apparent on the site.

I'm surprised by the harsh comments
on the picture. A bit disheartening considering how positive this site is... At least its only a few and the positive responses are many.

Amanonymus, perhaps what you are missing is effectiveness. What you see here is an argument for the effective. The naturally effective.

With the aspect to the article, you have the naturally non-effective using fear and coercion allowed by the naturally effective to mold societal norms. This is pushed to the point that the naturally effective becomes watered down are ripe for plunder.

Though the Islamists are fascist in nature, their playbook is very much Marxist in nature. Constant espousal of victimhood, demands for special treatment, and a rationalization that their rules should be followed by all and our rules should not be followed by them. This is allowed because they play the offended and outraged card, which we as Westerners have learned to bow to and brought to us by our leftist friends.

However, just like the ones they stole their playbook from, the Islamist culture is largely ineffective without extreme violence, coercion, and 24/7 propaganda drummed up on state owned TV. Much like the leftists.

So this is not so much a look at differing points of view. It is actually a look at the natural effectiveness of a belief system. Fascism and Communism has already failed, we do not need to be tolerant of the religious version of the same failed collectivist mind-set.

M/22/6'1"/185

Painstorm 19:
With a 75# bar (instead of 70, I don't have 2.5's) complete as many rounds as possible in 40 minutes of:
5 Deadlift
5 Hang Power Clean
5 Front Squat
5 Push Press
5 Back Squat

32 Rounds. I thought I'd get around 40. "Samsonite, I was way off."

Post:
Bench Press bodyweight (185) 50x for time: 4:29. Should've realized how tired my shoulders would be

Now this is a woman who does crossfit! Great picture, and what an intelligent interview. Thank you Eva and Nicole for representing serious and intelligent crossfit women. You are both an inspiration to my daughter and myself.

right. so this is sort of what i was bringing up last rest day.

we resist people who would impose limits of free speech on us, yes. but we don't kill UN leaders for saying we should temper speech. we don't kill people who say theo van gogh brought this on himself. we don't kill people who think that cartoonists SHOULD be killed, but don't actually take actions to that effect. and we don't kill people who MAKE a bomb, but don't get the chance to USE it. we can disagree with them and resist them to varying degrees, but we don't kill them outright. killing them outright would have the same chilling effect as their actions on speech.

what makes us better is our justice system. and as soon as our justice system loses transparency, starts torturing people, detains people without charges, or carries out summary executions, it loses all legitimacy. we at crossfit understand the concept of being held to a higher standard. i would rather stick to that higher standard and maintain moral authority than take the easy way out in any instance.

Excellent article. If free speech is not carefully protected, then the suppression of dissent against authority is inevitable. This is what leads to tyranny.

But for the purpose of discussion, I would like to point out the more hazy parts of this issue. Where is the line between healthy dissent and slander/libel? It's clear that many of the Muslims who opposed the cartoons were violent extremists. But I'm sure there were also many nonviolent objectors who opposed the cartoons with the rationale that they were presenting a false picture of Islam.

What if, surrounding the church sex scandals, we had cartoons depicting a pedophile pope? What if we had newspaper headlines reading "Catholic Church Supports Pedophilia"? I'm sure most would say the former is satire and the later is libel. What if you were a catholic?

I'm not condoning the threats and murder of cartoonists. Just trying to take a look at their motivation.

looking as gorgeous as ever, eva!

#157 Dale Saran

Great post. Hopefully the negative comments are just trolls, because the CF Community certainly doesn't need to be falsely represented by such shallow personalities.

Made up the 5k run from Saturday- 21:05
PR by 41 seconds.

I have been doing CrossFit since last May so I am by no means a veteran, but I have been doing it long enough to notice a change in the quantity and quality of the posts to the comments section. Namely, the quantity has gone up but the quality has gone down.

It is obvious that Eva puts a lot of work into being an extremely fit and healthy individual. Why on earth would you then knock her for this? I know why, because you are a f-in a-hole. Do you just walk up to people on the street and tell them you don't think they are good looking? No, you don't, so have the decency to not do it here also.

I also thinks this works the other way. A picture of Allison comes up and you get all these guys saying, in various degrees of candidness, that they want to nail her. They should just look at the picture/video, enjoy it, and keep their little perverted thoughts to themselves. Just as I think people shouldn't get bent about the pictures, videos, or music...I think people should keep the fact that they are on the verge of wanking while posting to themselves.

Regardless, I think the time has come to require a login to post just like it is required to post in the forums. Will it eliminate the drivel? No, but it will cut down on it. It may actually make reading the comments enjoyable and worthwhile again.

awesome pic, eva! can't wait to meet you one day. i think i'll be almost as stoked as allison was when she met you. =]

#19 -- Rotational Exercises -- At the Cert we started talking about that. Yes rotational strength is functional and crucial. But two things -- rotational strength is somewhat specific (ie sport specific training) but more importantly you need to possess great midline stabilization (core musculature) in order to transfer from core to extremity efficiently. Coach pointed out that the strength coach Dan John makes his athletes be able to complete 15 body weight overhead squats before training their throwing because he believes that midline stabilization is so important. So to wrap it up, in order to train the most amount of people (everyone who logs onto crossfit.com) most efficiently (safely addressing the underlying needs of all athletes, midline stabilization being key here) I believe coach sees it more beneficial to prescribe overhead squats and other 'linear' core exercises to everyone rather than address the needs of the VERY few who can OHS their BW 15 times. Hope that helped.
#86 Murlin -- Loved your comment. Right on.
#98 Gary - Is it wrong to want to wake up with both or is that just being selfish? LOL Unfortunately I am no Achilles...
#128 -- Loved your reference to memetics. I think you could take it a few steps further. If you've read Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I think that the survivability of any meme is directly related to it's 'stickiness factor'. Not only how 'catchy' is the song/idea/religion, but also what mechanisms are in place to let it replicate. You mentioned the recording of the song and I think that is analogous to our reproduction of religious material and the indoctrination of youth in churches/mosques.
Bringing it back to the article I think that the author is spot on with her observation of how we should not protect religion from ridicule and comment. Indeed protecting any idea, be it aerobic fitness as the ideal model of fitness or Jesus as a guy who walks on water, does and always will lead to an oppression of free thought. How that oppression is enforced is tied to the society in which you are living -- in Afghanistan getting stoned has a slightly different meaning than the one you referenced! But before we jump up and point fingers across the pond, I like to admit that it is still happening in our 'land of the free'. A year in Afghanistan really brought out to me the stark reality of the fight that we are in -- against an enemy that is so entrenched in an ideology and way of being that they will die before conceding any ground to us -- that I became more cognizant of why I was in the fight. The reason being (that as 128 pointed out), this is a land that was founded on the "most wonderful and triumphant rebellion and blasphemy of the human spirit in history, second only to the development of the scientific method in the time period from Copernicus to Newton." (Great quote, I am saving that!) And that idea has such power that I 'have a belief' (reference to the movie Dogma) and am willing to fight to protect it. Having written this, does this make me just another meme protector marching forward trying to increase the stickiness factor of my idea of what is right? LOL
But, and this is a big but, what are we doing in our own censorship of material that we find doesn't conform to our Christian beliefs in schools? The most recent example that springs to mind was when the movie The Golden Compass came out, there was a huge controversy over whether letting kids see this material should be allowed because it was written by an atheist. And then there were multiple schools who started pulling the books out of the school libraries after the outcry. I believe this to be the same sort of censorship that can and will lead to the oppression of a people in thought and later in action.
I know I rambled, but this was my first real rest day post, and just had been thinking about this stuff for a while. Great article Coach.
P.S. -- If you didn't like the picture of Eva, check out www.crossfit.jihadist.com -- It's the same picture but instead Eva is wearing a burka.

30/m/190

CAM and I found this nasty little jewel to grind through this morning. Very fun.

105x Pull-up (5x 1-6 ladders) +
10x Man Makers @ 2x 25# DBs +
84x Dip (4x 1-6 ladders) +
20x Deadift @ 55% 1RM +
63x Push-up (3x 1-6 ladders) +
30x Deadlifts @ 55% 1RM +
42x HSPU (2x 1-6 ladders) +
40x Man Makers @ 2x 25# DBs +
21x Burpee/Pull-up Combo (1x 1-6 ladder)

77:45

#154ish--Dale_Saran

Great post, mostly. I agreed with you until the end.
I’m confused about being a CFer. What is it that I have to do to BE a CFer rather than to just DO CF? If the requirement is going to a cert then I will never BE a CFer unless you have a free cert in Colo Spgs. Since I’m not a real CFer I guess I shouldn’t waste my time with the website and message board. I should just take my free WOD and go.

Also, someone pointed out in regard to the negativity, you wouldn't walk up to someone on the street and say, "I don't like the way you look." Anonymity is a funny thing. It can be a breeding ground for jerks or it can be a display of unselfish kindness (ie-giving a gift anonymously, not wanting anything in return).

#11 Lysa - I'm a newbie Crossfitter (less than 1 year) and am considered overweight based on the universal table (this table is based on everybody's stats - most of whom are non-crossfitters). Women crossfitters are wickedly better and our table is different from everyone else!

#52 WOA
#79 Jay
#107 Bloke
Only GIRLIE-MEN post comments like you do.

#157 Dale - great sentiments

Article - Freedom of speech..YES but to what extent? Threats and murders are unjustifiable actions lead by demagogues. But the question that comes to mind is "At what capacity do we want to be desensitized?"

EVA T - rocks the house! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Personally insulting comments reflect that the beholder needs to look at him/herself first (look beneath the skin).

Eva- great to see you interviewed. You are amazing to me (as is Nicole, Annie, Rob Miller, Greg A.) as examples of hard work, dedication, and drive made manifest.

To those who must have an aesthetic judgement of 'is this person my ideal of how I want them to be' (and this goes for the Allison NYC comments as well) remember that beyond genetics we are what we do. Not what we think, not what we believe, not a picture of ourselves that we aspire. We are the sum of our actions over time. Part of why I find Eva attractive is I can see her history in her body. Amazing.

Excellent interview and VERY true words and great perspective on competing. My 8 year old daughter watched the interview with me and seemed impressed.

Eva you are a good role model.

Maybe because I am overly sensitive on body image…but…
If you were in the mall and ran into someone, you would not say, “My, your nose is HUGE!”, or “Wow, you are fat/ skinny/ big butt/ small chest”, etc. People are far more than just their physique. If you have a nice comment- share it. It makes people feel good. One lady at the gym came up to me once and said, “I don’t want you to think this is weird, but I was telling my husband about you. You have a really great back.” While my back is no where near looking like Patty’s, or Nicole, Annie, Eva’s, this made me feel very good. And if you don’t have anything positive to say, don’t say anything. Go do some burpees or something. :)

I have been blessed to have help from an incredible wellness guru (Dr Chestnut) who has helped me learn that the goal is Health, not weight.

I spent 12-13 yrs battling an eating disorder (anorexia), always with the goal of being skinny. I was
82 lbs -I am 5’6 and…and a half ;) There were signs of liver failure, kidney failure, concerns about my heart (your body begins feeding on muscle when there is no fat left and the heart being a muscle…), I was diagnosed with osteopenia, etc etc...lots of health problems. All from focusing on body weight.

So when I see Eva T- I see a strong role model. I actually feel bad or those who miss that side. From the beginning of CF, I was like, wow. She is strong, positive, nice, etc. I hope to meet her one day and I look forward to hearing the interview tonight.

Erin

#154 Dale_Saran
Great post.
I'm three weeks new to this website and workouts, so this negativity about a beautiful human being surprises me. Personally, I would pay to see Eva
bitch-slap some of these posters.

anonymous, that depends. Are they citizens? Will there home country deal with them? If not, then what?

The problem is that the mindset that I am understanding from you misses an important point. They are not playing our game. In fact they are not playing a game at all. They are on a mission to Subjugate the planet into Sharia law.

Our laws are for us to follow as they play (some of) us like fools.

MWade #180. That one's tough, I first saw that on the Gym jones website. I forget my time but remember being completely gasses right out of the gate because of the pullups. It hurts so good

Eva T.
I'm heading to Vail March 7th... wanna come? Or have you had your fill of that mountain? :)

Joro - I don't know what you are referring to in my post. Going to a cert has nothing to do with "being a [true] Crossfitter". I am not sure where you gleaned that unless it is somehow taken from my reference that "Coach has said" at some certs that Crossfit, or being a Crossfitter, is something more than merely doing the WoDs.

I don't know you well enough to make that determination; only you can.

My point is that there are a number of people who claim to be "Crossfitters" by their participation in the WoD, but their actions/words on rest days prove otherwise.

As to the point that rest days can be rough and tumble - true, always have been. And the main page has a lot more of that than the message board, which is probably why I spend more time there than the main page nowadays. But there still ought to be a sense that those of us who come here owe each other a little better. I've seen some pretty heated debates here (and on the Boards); issues that became pretty personal and even resulted in people being banned. Which is too bad, in some cases.

A while back there was a discussion of making the main page comments "subscriber only" or making this site require some nominal payment to eliminate the trolls. I think that issue will continue to surface more and more as CF continues to become more mainstream. Even as recently as about a year or so ago, IIRC, Coach talked about "cleaning up" the main page comments to require a greater degree of civility from posters. It hasn't really happened and my post is mainly an attempt to do what has been a common practice for the Boards and main page for at least as long as I've been coming here: CFers policing their own.

I expect I'll be told that I have "no right" to do this and who am I to impose my views, blah blah blah, the same tired old [leftist] deconstructionist, postmodernist rant about there being no real "right" or "wrong" - all views being "equal" in merit and all. Others more articulate than I have already lambasted that tripe, but I'll simply say that I have as much right to state that opinion as someone else does to say that I don't.

I guess the community will decide the merit of those respective positions in the marketplace of ideas.

Back to work.

People have a problem with a women in a sports bra? I don't know about most of you but a large majority of Crossfit males at Crossfit Vancouver train with their shirts off. Its not a vanity thing, its a heat retention thing. I would suggest the same thing goes for Eva. If that was OPT with his shirt off nobody would have a problem with it. What is the difference?

Joro: I really don't see why having a women in a sports bra on the homepage would stop you from using crossfit.com as the utimate resource for elite fitness. If that is the case than you are on the wrong website my friend. Maybe its a cultural or religious problem you have with seeing a powerful women under the spotlight. Maybe its because she could whip your ass in every catagorie of fitness and guys like you can't handle that. Either way hopefully you can take a deep breath and accept the fact that some women are better than most men.

The Pie, Crossfit Vancouver 28/m/195#

Eva T. vs. AllisonNYC

"3-2-1 Go!"

Dale,
Thank you for trying to clear up my confusion (difference between being CF and doing CF). Were you saying that Being CF isn't about doing more, rather it has to do with attitude and a desire to be part of a community? And some, with their negative comments and personal attacks have shown that they do not want to be part of this community?

I'm not trying to put words in your mouth I'm just trying to understand. At any rate, I'll hold off buying a CF sweatshirt : )

yes, CCTJOEY, I totally see what you are saying, and i agree with you. my point is that while they are not playing our game, we are not really playing theirs either -- but if we shouldn't have to play their game, why should we expect them to play ours? if we claim a right to trump their governments who are not dealing with them in order to deal with them ourselves, why shouldn't we expect them to do the same? i suppose we could slip into some debate about realism in the international relations sense, but that's maybe a bit beyond the scope here.

we are right. i know we are right. i think every reasonable person knows we are right. but in order to maintain moral superiority, we need a system that is self-vetting -- akin to the scientific method. something that is beyond reproach. i'm not sure we have that right now, and that is simply because the justice system set up to deal with these people has lost its transparency, and has abandoned habeus corpus. i think it is kind of disturbing to say that anyone has "lost their rights" because they have ended up at guantanamo. we have already admitted that we have released people from guantanamo because they were innocent of everything but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. the fact that even prisoners have rights in our society is something that sets us apart -- we need to maintain that.

191--The Pie

Did you see the firestorm of post from last rest day? My post was entire tongue-in-cheek. I even had a smiley face at the end. But you were the only one that took the bait and responded. I was really just trying to use sarcasim to show the irony from last rest day vs. this rest day.

OK, I should really get some work done.

#125 Amanonymus

Interesting writing. I would submit that the original memeplexs were actually in the people who began the religions, ie. Jesus, and Mohammed. You have probably already considered that but I don't know if many followers of either religion really do. At least for the Christian religion, the meme was never even conveyed directly to the holy texts (the new testament) by the origin of Christianity. Jesus never wrote a word on the subject. In fact Paul who never even met Jesus (except for in a vision) wrote most of the religion's holy text. What's up with that? Who's memeplex are we supposed to follow. The texts, both the Koran and the New Testament, were written during religious persecution. The New Testament during Roman persecution; and the Koran during Christian persecution. I would submit that the Christian persecution of other religions at the time of the writing of the Koran, was actually more extreme than the Roman persecution, and therefore the text is even more angry in its approach. I write all of this with all due respect to both religions as I consider myself a Christian, that is, a follower of what Jesus may have really meant to convey to the people that he was teaching. NOT what Paul wrote, or what the "historical account" was from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. We should all learn for ourselves what God is trying to teach us in our daily lives. Here's a good start, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." --- That's for you Jay, Normal Bloke, and all the others who just write derogatory digs at other's expense.

Respectfully,
Joel

Joro - buy the sweatshirt. ;-)

I'm saying that being a CFer is more than simply doing the workouts. It's a "state of mind", if you will. Part of it is (perhaps) wanting to belong to the community, but that's not it, either. There are CFers who do the WoDs, don't post, and don't necessarily participate here, nor belong to an affiliate. But I would opine that those solitary CFers, in a hypothetical meeting with another CFer, would find a friend with much in common - and each would be respectful of even the most striking differences of opinion, on beauty, boobs, or politics.

By the way, Swift or Pope (I can't remember which) thought sarcasm was lost on the masses (Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal", yes?). Being ironic may go over some heads. I laughed.

George Orwell's original preface to Animal Farm:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050306021634/http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/efp_go

Orwell on socialism:
http://www.orwelltoday.com/orwellutopia.shtml

Homage to Catalonia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia

#156 Schapm

Thank you for the insight. I thought it was a good question, and your answer makes sense.

Great interview. The next time I do Fran, I'm going to smile right before thruster number one.

Anonymous, Moral Superiority is a worthy goal, but not at the top of the list if our liberty is threatened. As far as games go, we should quit the obsurd notion that we should even afford them a place at the American (or Western) card table. Not only that, we should stop allowing them to dictate the house rules. Their rules have left their world a train wreck, so they have no business moving here and coercing us to live in their broken system.

It reminds me of what happened to Colorado and what is currently happening to Montana and Wyoming by those storming out of California. Not that they are immigrating, but that they screw up where they are at, then move somewhere else only to screw it up.

However, the Islamists are not just silly hippies. No, they are calculating, goal oriented, and have no problem using 'victim status' with the threat of violence.

Example:
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A group of youths who have been torching cars and waste containers in the Danish capital said Tuesday the wave of unrest started as a protest against police harassment.

In a letter published in Copenhagen newspaper Politiken, the youths accused police of “brutal, racist” behavior.

It was the first time that rioting juveniles had offered any explanation for the fires that have raged for nine consecutive nights mostly in immigrant neighborhoods across the country. The authors of the letter said they would now stop rioting.

“Basically the unrest is about the way we are treated by the police, who are brutal, racist and totally unacceptably insulting,” the group said in the letter.

The authors called themselves “Boys of inner Noerrebro,” referring to the immigrant neighborhood in Copenhagen where the unrest started on Feb. 10

A day behind, I did the front squat wod today. See Feb. 18th for details.

so moral superiority shouldn't be at the "top of the list," that's fine -- or arguable, i guess. but the things that ARE at the top of the list should not be things that break down our moral superiority. (i.e. detention without charge, closed judicial process)

moral superiority still BELONGS on "the list"

DID YESTERDAYS WOD TODAY,
20lbs
20lbs
40lbs
40lbs
45lbs
45lbs
45lbs
45lbs
45lbs
45lbs
used lite weights for the first time since my back was injured,feels sweet!!

Coach Glassman appears to be the Bob Hoffman of his day.

anonymous - I wholeheartedly agree with your comments in #196. Any injustice we perpetrate on our worst enemies we will eventually turn on ourselves. Our liberty is more threatened by interests close at hand that would curtail it in the name of attacking perceived or real enemies, than it is by those enemies. Vulnerability is the price of real liberty, but real liberty is the reward of real principle.

#198

You'd have a hard time finding any angry writing in the New Testament. The only time you see Jesus "angry" is when pharisees are perverting the Jewish laws. As a matter of fact, in all of Paul's letters, he is adamant about obeying civil authority, and treating your neighbor as you would like yourself treated.

BTW, Jesus didn't "start" a religion. He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets as written in the Old Testament and demonstrated how to worship God in spirit and truth. You won't find Him (Jesus) advocating the violent overthrow of the world either. Christianity was coined by the persecutors of the followers of The Way (Jesus). Being known as a Christian was a death sentence because a follower was denying the deity of Ceasar and proclaiming the deity of Jesus Christ.

Thus, there will always be a division between the Christian and the Muslim. You can't have God two ways. If you call yourself a real Christian, you proclaim the deity of Christ and absorb the hatred of Muslims and "all others". If you can't profess the deity of Jesus or claim Islam, then you have sided (whittingly or unwhittingly) with the violent assimilation of the world to Islam. If you choose neither, you are going to eventually be drawn in whether you like it or not and once again whittingly or unwhittingly have "sided" with the enemy of our country.

I pick Jesus! I'll gladly sign my name, Bob Watson, Ft. Myer, VA and not hide behind my nickname.

3, 2, 1, go have a nice day :)

19/m/168

Make up day.

Squats:
205-230-240-250-260-270-280-290-290-300

I applaud Coach's juxtaposition of rest day pics and interviews. The suggestion of a full spectrum of femininity is indeed at play. Last rest day I felt that there was a schism amongst the community regarding Allison. Today, I don't think that's so much at hand, in spite of a number of negative comments. Therefore, I believe the answer to the question: What does CrossFit value? is clearly being answered (strength, power and humility). I would support that what Dale has offered is an important definition of a CrossFit enthusiast/participant vs. a true CrossFitter. If this were all only about fitness on a purely physical measure, possibly the distinction would not apply. But as is evidenced by the rest day discussions, the definition of fitness extends to psychological, moral and spiritual planes. To think of it otherwise is a false interpretation. Therefore, even though the debate began with an issue of what is acceptable, it has evolved into a question of what is honored. Good for us. Too much of what is originally pure gets so quickly sullied in our society. Let us not let CrossFit meet that end. We have standards. They apply. "Earn this." Damn straight.

Eva is obviously an exceptional athlete--Olympian and age group champion weightlifter. Any female athlete can likely learn from her experience and knowledge.

Is she hot? Different subject altogether.

As for women's sports attire, have you watched a track and field meet recently. All the women are running, jumping, and vaulting in what once would have been described at "underwear." It's as though Victoria's Secret went to phys ed class, minus the silicone.

#209 Pesqueso

"If you can't profess the deity of Jesus or claim Islam, then you have sided (whittingly or unwhittingly) with the violent assimilation of the world to Islam. If you choose neither, you are going to eventually be drawn in whether you like it or not and once again whittingly or unwhittingly have "sided" with the enemy of our country."

WTF

I have been doing the WOD since October when my cousin turned me on to the CF website. I have to say that I have never felt better, or been more wiped after a workout. I have started my junior high athletes on modified CF workouts and they love it. We did Tabata Something Else after track practice the other day. Working out is fun again. After years of following the rag mags workouts and being frustrated with the results, I wish I had found this sooner.

I was really happy when I saw today's video: I can think of nothing better than a clip featuring Nicole and Eva! Both of them are smokin' and epitomes of strong, healthy women. If you are intimidated by women who are independent, intelligent, and don't need you to protect them, grow up! I would expect comments like that from my 8th grade boys, not from adults taking potshots at a pioneer in our sport.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Clearly, what one person finds beautiful, someone else will not. It is an age old trait of humans. Real, true beauty comes from the inside of the person and is a mix of many qualities, confidence being one of the biggest factors.
When my kids were very young and were asking (as all kids do) why people look different, I told them to think of all of the flowers in the world and how all of them are different, but each one is beautiful in it's own way, and people are the same as the flowers.

Eva-
I loved your interview and insights, thank you for sharing them.

Dale-
Great post(s)! I concur with all of your points.

Erin (in8girl)-
You have amazing courage and inner strength.
What you wrote took a lot of courage and I am glad that you did. Feel proud of yourself for how far you have come; I am proud of you.

Edevine-
Also a good post and the one from last rest day was too.

Kate

#161, Paul:

Thank you.

My wonderful trainer, Jason Ackerman of Albany Crossfit, gave me a little wooden sign that hangs over my computer.

It says, "Thou Shalt Not Whine." So what can I do? I am cultivating the discipline of gratitude.

Susie

Eva T - You look great!

Kelly

So I was looking forward to a rest day but after seeing that picture I'm gona have to go for a run..

Pesqueso:

And here I was, thinking that we were fighting to preserve secular western democracy and the rule of law. Man, I was way off, huh?

Seems to me that the Danish cartoons deserve the same sort of support as flag burning.

Enjoyed the interview, always impressive how darn nice these elite athletes seem.

Wow, after reading the comments about the Eva T. pic - amazing pic BTW - I decided to show some people in the office the picture... the ignorance I saw from people I believed to be very intelligent was just mind blowing... all the typical comments from she-man to "how many steroids do think she's done?" were made. I have a new found disrespect for my coworkers.

I've personally met Eva, though she most likely doesn't remember, at a cert. and found her to be an amazing person in all regards... I think you are a great example of athletism, regardless of gender... I as a man can only aspire to your level!!!

Peace, love and pullups...

Anonymous, agreed Moral Superiority does belong on the list. Very high actually, but not at the sake of national suicide or personal safety. At that point it is a vanquished ideal and nothing more. A talking point for the smug and protected.

Also, ALL judicial systems are closed

Tell you what, hypothetically, you bring moral superiority and I will bring the capacity to do violence to a street fight with Islamists.

I will kick the crap out of them, as YOU bark at ME about MY tactics and lack of moral superiority even as the ones I can't get to, kick the crap out of YOU. Once, I am done with all of them I will let YOU continue to question MY methods as WE load YOU into the ambulance and care for YOUR injuries.

Wait, I have seen this before.

Talk about smiling Eva,
I smiled so big as soon as I saw your pic on the main page AND a interview to boot, what a treat!

#162 James Let us know about those t shirts

So surprised at the negativity.
Why the need to be just downright mean? What good is it doing?? It's one thing to have an opinion. I love reading everyone's different viewpoints but it's just sad to blatantly hurt someones feelings. We know better.

Oh and I didn't even notice if Eva was wearing a bra. I had to actually go back and look again after reading the comments. Who cares what she's wearing?

yesterday Annie:
f/45/135

as rx'd
assisted situps (like speals)
a lot of broken du's but getting better and better!
9:30

I probably would've done better had I smiled before starting :) If EVA says to smile before a WOD, you better believe I'm gonna do it!!

#213

My statement is simply this: Radical Islam's desire is to rule the world by forcibly assimilating everyone to itself or killing them. Should the day come that you are put in a position to choose one side or the other you can say one of three things. If you aren't a believer in Jesus, then you will most likely align with Mohammed since that is the easiest way to save your life. I choose nothing will still get you killed in the end.

Remember, from the enemy's standpoint, this is about ideology, and profession of faith. Love Mohammed and you are not the enemy anymore. I understand perfectly why Islam does what it does and I support our effort to stop it (even though it's not going to stop). That way all of the people in this world can peacefully choose whatever they want to follow and that is that. I'm about taking the fight to the enemy to give people the maximum opportunity pick. You can choose what to believe for yourself. Based on your reaction to my post I'm pretty sure I know where you sit.

I'm crystal clear why I serve and why I support the war on terror. I know my motivation and who I serve. I understand the enemy's motivation because I examine him through the same lens that he views his "struggle".

I'm not saying you have to profess Jesus. That is none of my business. The enemy in our war automatically assumes that you do profess Him oh member of the Great Satan. They aren't going to stop until everyone hails Mohammed. When they run out of "Christians" they'll move on to the I don't believe in anything etc.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to convert you. You are free to believe whatever you want. I will tell you this, EMBRACE THE BURPEE:)

#209 Pesqueso
Wow, I guess I got you a little fired up, huh?
1. May I clarify what I wrote, I believe that the Koran is more angry in it's writing than the New Testament due to the persecution at the time of the writing.
2. If you read your New Testament, Jesus never claimed to be "deity" except in the book of John. The book of John is widely accepted to have been the last Gospel written. John was also widely believed to have written Revelations which is a book that could be a metaphor for the battle between Christianity and the Roman persecution at the time. So, is there any doubt in my mind that Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecies from the Old Testament? Yes. If you want to call me a sinner, and an unwhitting participant in the down fall of man, liberty, and peace; then go right ahead.
3. I did write my name. Its at the bottom. Right under "Respectfully"
4. #213 McLovin, #219 Andy --- Seriously, huh.

Respectfully
Joel Stevenson, Firefighter/Paramedic; Phx, AZ

He guys,
Just got to my computer from this weekend's cert at HQ. I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of the trainers who were there. Adrian- your enthusiasm for crossfit is infectious. Tony, Dave, and Nicole thanks for the great lectures. You guys help define "virtuosity". Pat, thanks for helping me get over that hurdle of my first muscle up. All you guys rock! After seeing all the great friendships being formed, respect given to and by everybody, and some awesome FGB scores I know I have found my place in the fitness world. By the way Tosh is a frickin' beast.

can we get some crossfit t-shirts with this cartoon on it?

In the interview Eva mentions not being good at the workout "Nicole" and I couldn't find that particular workout to see what it is like.

Does anyone know what workout "Nicole" is?

Thanks

I think if we brought CrossFit to the extremists of all colors and creeds we would find the world a much more peaceful place because honestly, who wants to start a fight after Fran. Oh and by the way I am running for President.

woah, woah, CCTJOEY -- i'm not barking at anyone. these are very real issues we are dealing with on a real-time basis.

as we've gotten into "what makes crossfit," i suppose i should point out that i care about this community, as it obviously provides something missing in my day-to-day face-to-face. since i care about it, i HAVE to speak my mind -- it's a moral imperative. physical threats are uncalled for.

by "open judicial system" i mean one in which the public has access to the proceedings, the accused can face his accusers and the evidence presented against him, and has a reasonable expectation to be returned to freedom if found innocent. i would argue that all just judicial systems are open.

the idea that maintaining moral superiority will lead to national suicide is totally opposed to the ideas the US was founded on. people don't need totalitarianism to be safe.

i won't give up my ideals when faced with the very real threat of terrorism, so why would i give up my ideals when faced the very silly threat of you beating me up because i disagree with you?

I am a woman who is highly inspired by the picture of Eva T 'in a bra'. She is an example of what a truly strong, athletic woman looks like. If she were in a t-shirt, the effect of the picture would be completely lost. If I am one day able to look like EvaT in a bra, I'll feel I've done something truly amazing with myself.

And I'll bet she doesn't fret over a few pounds on the scale either.

Persecution? If memory serves, Christ was put to death, and in the course of dying said "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do."

If you want to rationalize Islam on the basis of persecution, you have a long, muddy uphill climb.

In his book "Meetings with Remarkable Men", G.I. Gurdjieff said that he placed the locus of authentic Islamic spirituality in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and not Mecca, which he found empty of any sort of refined feeling, and given over wholly to rote repetition and compelled conformity.

Religions are forms within which higher perceptions can be facilitated and mediated. They give us reasons to trust in non-tangible perceptions. There is no reason to assume that only that which can be measured can be real, and in point of fact, Science does not speak to the reality of religious experience, merely to its admissability within the scientific domain.

It is only when Science and Truth are conflated--which is philosophically indefensible--that Reason need leave God behind.

That was a tad more than I intended to say.

Eva,

You're still a babe. Enjoy the day. It's mostly about you. The respect is sincere. You're good enough, smart enough, and doggone it people like you.

It seems there are few squirrels cackling about something from high branches, but they are ignored easily enough.

Anonymous, please reread my post. No one threatened you physically or any other way. I did not say the moral superiority would lead to national suicide either.

CCTJOEY and Anonymous,

You are both unquestionably right -- it is irrational to elevate ideals over self preservation. Also, at certain extremes (which I don't think we've even come close to touching), acts taken in self-preservation could entail such a significant abandonment of ideals that it would constitute an abandonment of what it means to be "us."

One of the key questions, I think, is under what circumstances we are required to sacrifice our ideals in order to accomplish self-preservation. This entails answering the related question of whether particular actions even require sacrificing our ideals, and also whether they promote the goal of self-preservation. It also requires an ordering, in terms of priority, of what ideals we hold most dear. Not all ideals rank equally--for example, as a nation we clearly value (generally) eating Turkey on thanksgiving. We probably all would sleep at night if we had to surrender that value in order to survive.

Example of recent hotly debated subject: waterboarding. Is this a practice in which the United States can engage, consistent with our nation's values? If the answer is yes, is it a qualified or unqualified yes--in other words, can we waterboard merely to punish, only to extract critical information in a national security crisis, etc.? Finally, we may determine both that: (a) we cannot waterboard consistent with our nation's values, and (b) we can gain a valuable advantage by sometimes waterboarding. In that case, the question becomes a weighing of the value(s) lost versus advantage gained.

My suggestion would be that these questions aren't as easily answered as either of you wish they were. Or as I wish they were, for that matter. What do you think?

#232 Barry Cooper

Regardless of the persecution at the time of writing, can we agree that the Koran is a more angry book? That was my point. My second point is that followers of EVERY religion that there has ever been will inevitably screw up what the religion is teaching.

Now, it is obvious that present day Islam is causing a lot of problems for a huge majority of the world. Should they be allowed to censor the truth? No! I would never argue that, and my comment really had nothing to do with that. I was merely responding to the interesting concepts that amanonymus wrote about in comment 125. My observation is that the evolution of a memeplex, as complex as those that create or supplement religions are, is a fascinating social study and should be considered by all of the zealots in the world. Zealots can be either christian, jewish, muslim, taoist, or aethist. As for me you said it Pesqueso "embrace the burpee".

Respectfully
Joel

Andy, I think you have a great perspective. That is why I don't play pretend with ideals. If I thought you were in a bad way or in danger and could bring about your rescue or safety by giving up my moral superiority, then call me inferior. I will sleep soundly at night.

#225

I have read the entire bible, more than once so I don't comment in ignorance to what is written there (I'm not implying that your comment was in ignorance). Yes, John wrote Revelation during a time of persecution, the emporer Nero. A prophetic vision of the wrath of God on the world.

I call no one but myself a sinner. Who am I to judge you? My commentary was merely putting the war on terror into a view from the religious perspective. It is good that you have doubts about this and that in the bible. That is where careful investigation helps you make a decision on what is truth. Unfortunately, many people ignore the elephant in the middle of the room. Islam has no elephant, they know what they see.

We are all unwhitting participants in something. Even though I have my profession of Jesus, I'm still a lousy sinner. I can't cast a stone in anyone's direction but my own. Once again, my post was from the religious perspective of why we are in this war.

My name signing comment was more generalized towards the previous posts in regards to inflammatory comments against Eva, AllisonNYC etc and people hiding behind pseudonyms, not yours specifically.

V/R

Bob Watson

P.S. Thanks for all you do. Firefighters, police, Soldiers (all armed services included) and teachers don't get paid enough for the service they provide to our country.

P.P.S all this jabber still doesn't suck as bad as "Fran"

#224 Pesqueso

You have no idea where i sit...however, I appreciate the explanation of your comment.

For a minute there I thought you were an extremist.

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and I respect that. But damn, I think Eva T has earned WAY more respect than she has received today. Don't forget, she is the one that a lot of you all watched over and over again when you were trying to get your kipping PU's right. Also, if you're anything like the guys here at CFATL, you've thumbed through her calendar more than just a few times. Yea, Annie is my favorite, but Eva is nothing to sneeze at....at all. There is nothing sexier than a woman that can run your ass into the ground on any WOD, on any day. I love all of the HQ women. Calling you all hot would not do you all justice!!

BTW, I limped through my 5K today..31:25 (ouch)

PS. Well said JroCK!!

19 / F / 5'7" / 142

Martial Arts PE - learned a couple throws & fun stuff

Annie - ish WOD
50 - 40 - 30 - 20 - 10
Box Jumps (real Annie is double unders)
Sit-ups
Time - 9:25

Then some pull-ups
palms facing away - I still haven't mastered kipping so these weren't exactly dead hang - but weren't really kipping either:

1 in first minute
2 in next min
3 in next min
4 in next min
2 in last min... and that was it for me
But - yeah - just staying consistent as I gage where I'm at to mark progress on my goal of 20 dead hang pull-ups by March 2010. (2 months before I graduate).

My 2 cents regarding the photo today... Eva T is my hero - not just because of what she looks like, but because she is a strong, hardcore, driven, beautiful woman & an athlete who isn't growing out of working out and being fit. I want to be in CrossFit shape for life. I'm 19 right now -If I stick with CrossFit, in 20 years, maybe I'll look like Eva T- - maybe I won't... But if I'm strong and achieve my own strength & fitness goals, I don't necessarily care exactly what my physique is - but based on my swimming history and current look with 1 "official" year of CrossFit & a semester of Oly lifting, I will likely have big strong shoulders and arms like Nicole & Eva T.... and if some guys don't like that - whatever. Guys don't have to like me for what I look like, maybe they're scared b/c I'm obsessed with or at least addicted to CrossFit - but that's fine. (Spiderchick's comment was spot on with that #121 on today's comments)... I'll find friends & workout buddies and running buddies and we'll sweat through WODs & together stay strong and fit for life. You can go drink yourself silly every night and gain weight and be unhealthy - but I'd rather follow CrossFit, eat smart, and stay in shape physically and stay healthy and ready for whatever the demands may be of my future occupation.

Eva T - you're amazing. I have your calendar folded to the photo for September- that picture shows intense strength, focus - and yes, I daresay - beauty - the things I need to smile my way through the day. I really hope I get to meet you someday and maybe sweat through a workout together.

#235: I wonder if you or Anonymous has fully considered the extent of the applicability of the notion of the meme. You apparently want to use it to deconstruct religion as in effect a relic of cultural evolution, yet fail to consider that you have in the process discarded the notion of objective truth in favor of your own subjectivities, which can presumably be expressed in the language of science.

Do you not realize that the notion of the meme can be led, like a snake swallowing its own tail, into the deconstruction of the concept? If truth is contingent--a necessary conclusion of the basic premise--and the idea of the meme is perceived by you to be truth, then it too is contingent.

Science was never intended to bear the burden of telling us what to do, merely how to do it more efficiently. To pretend otherwise is to forget the manifest role of "science" in some of the worst abuses of the 20th Century, most notably the sound logic of the forced global eugenic project of the 1000 Year Reich.

Thats a real CF girl. She is cut and athletic. A real piece of art formed from hard work.

Ah, please excuse my misinterpretation -- the punctuation threw me off.

i do sort of resent the implication that you would be kicking their asses and i would be helpless ;)

and i think andy has made my point better than i have been able to: these issues aren't axiomatic. there will rarely be a right answer if we are faced with them in real life -- there is barely one in the world of the hypothetical.

as with any non-axiomatic system, these forums where we are given the opportunity to discuss how we feel may lead to better clarity and swifter, sounder action if and when that time should come.

I agree! EVA T is a real CF girl and a true inspiration to all of us...her grace, maturity and dedication shine through always--like Annie and Nicole and a few others her smile, talent and drive are as amazing as her muscles. THE WHOLE PACKAGE.

#220, conorb, writes,

"Seems to me that the Danish cartoons deserve the same sort of support as flag burning."

I think this is a fair analogy. Compare the consequences of burning a US Flag with those of drawing Muhammad cartoons.

Flag burning has been held as constitutionally protected speech, repugnant and inarticulate though it may be. But even before the Supreme Court stuck down the laws against flag burning, no one was sentenced to death for the act.

Great interview, great video shots of the girls crankin' it out!

Eva T you are gorgeous and strong. I'd be happy to have you as a coach... or a date.

#191 dagunk... i will beat you to it

Eva I will be in Squaw 2/22 or Alpine Meadows 2/23 or Copper Mtn 3/14 or Winterpark 3/17... wanna ride? Or you ski and I will ride?

31/f/134/5'4"

So. Playing catch up and just did Fran today.

5:56 Rx'd

A little disappointed. Mainly because I could have kept going if my grip strength hadn't worn out. Had a lot more pullups in me but my hands kept slipping off the bar and I was afraid I was going to land on my back. I tortured myself with minute long hangs afterward as punishment.

One of these days, Fran, one of these days!

And, yeah, Eva T. is the $h!t =o)

Hah! So much for the right being anti-intellectual! This is the only place I have heard a reference to a repeated meme outside of textbooks and Dr. Who. Much appreciated, Amanonymous. Get some well deserved sleep.

Also... was just wondering... what is the deal with the working out barefoot?

I looked on the discussion board but I guess I don't know where to look. If someone has a thought about this or a link, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

what a beast!

Marry me ? I am not playing.

Anonymous, there is not implication. It was hypothetical. You armed with Moral Superiority and me armed with the capacity and willingness to do violence. We could switch roles if you like.

CCTJOEY:

I wouldn't call you inferior under any circumstances, and certainly not if you saved my life.

What I am suggesting is that, in all cases, actions are guided by principles. The principle of self-preservation (including collective self-preservation) trumps a pretty large category of other principles. Again, I agree. But, as with all things, it can't just be invoked. For one thing, if a policy or piece of legislation is to be justified as furthering the goal of self-preservation, at least some effort must be made to establish that the policy/legislation will, in fact, further the goal of self-preservation. As a libertarian, I think this should be true even if there is no apparent trade-off involved, let alone if the policy/legislation involves subordinating or sacrificing entirely some other value.

Ok this rest day is a good time for me to ask:

Where does everyone get these warm-ups from? THE WOD's aren't easy but I'm used to 2 hour workouts and trying to put on mass, so I tend to hit a body part a day in the gym in addition to the WOD. Regardless, I always walk on an incline for 5-10 minutes to losen up and then stetch for 15 minutes. Is there more to these workouts than the WOD?

I also purchased the journal, thinking it explained the entire crossfit workouts and warmups but it was more of a newsletter. Don't mind, find it interesting but want to get the most out of these workouts... any thoughts?

P.S. I'm on day three of Crossfit

Great comments today. The verbal ping-pong match was enjoyable and illuminating. Its great that multiple sides can be presented. As a HS social science teacher I only hope my students could debate so well. I think when debating freedom and liberty we should point out that frankly it is our security in this nation that allows us the freedom to have these discussions. That said, security is provided by laws, rules, which in essence is really the restriction of freedom. Balancing social freedom and collective security (this is where I am attempting to this into the freedom of speech/press/religion issue stemming from the article)is a balancing act that the writers Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseua attempted to hash out in that "social contract" thing. Anyway labeling Leftists "panzies" and Conservatives "rednecks" (or any other emotionally charged politically term - commie, fascist,etc.) is really an uneasy oversimplification and an attempt to scapegoat the troubles of society. Both sides have valuable imput and provide the fuel for the educated decisions democracies demand. The great thing that is apparent from reading today's comments is that we are all in this together and are willing to discuss our differences instead of blowing each other up. Kudos, crossfit.

PS Sorry if this is off topic, I swear it made sense in my head - its been a long day.

PPS A joke that sort of fits todays philosophic and religious content:

"God is dead."
-Nietzche
"Nietzche is dead."
-God

Good news.....I did "Fran" today in my best time ever...3:28 Rx'd.

Bad news...Islam still sucks. It's idealogy is poor at best when followed as prescribed. It is not peaceful, or loving, or accepting.

I thought the articles main point regarding Islam's irony was spot on!

to joro:
if a pic of eva and allison makes you second guess crossfit then you are not a crossfitter. I find the pics fine it is no different than looking a fitness magazine.

crossfitters are not aliens who do not recognize beauty. both women are beautiful and deserve the ability to show what they worked hard for.

My opinion is that there is a fine line between messages that should be protected under the human right to free speech, and messages that should be illegal because they are deemed libel, slander, or a hate crime. Anything that is not illegal, but falls close to the line, will invariably be in poor taste, racist, or just downright nasty. These messages should not be dealt with by rule of law, but by social pressure that demand decency, compassion, and understanding of humanity's differences.

There is no doubt that messages such as the Danish cartoon should not be made illegal at the expense of an important human right. I also sympathize with this man and his family for the persecution they face. However, I don't think we should be condoning his message in the name of free speech without question. A healthy society requires understanding, not intolerance, even if it is towards groups of people that have radical factions that kill.

Anonymous:

As a point of clarification, I actually disagree that there will "rarely be right answers." I do not espouse relativism. I think that there usually, if not nearly always, are right answers and I actually have very strong opinions on most of the issues of the day; for the record, those opinions range from "moderately conservative" (on immigration, for example) to mainstream conservative (on issues of national security and foreign policy) to complete nutjob libertarian (on domestic spending, taxation, and social legislation). I usually am open to persuasion, especially at the margins.

My beef is with the large (and growing) segment of our population that asserts things to be true without bothering to attempt to show that they are true. This irritates me whether I agree with your assertion or not. If you are right, you ought to be able to convince me that you are right. I've noticed people here posting about the marketplace of ideas, which I agree with completely. But it is supposed to be a marketplace of ideas, not a marketplace of hyperbole, right?

I just (finally) watched the interview. My nomination for the WoD named "Ee-vuh T":

4 rds for time of:
5 x 135 lb C&J (2 hands anyhow overhead - women 95lb)
5 Muscle-ups
5 x 225 lb deadlift (women 155 lb?? - maybe 175)
400 m run

3-2-1, go. I might just try this one next week. I'd do it sooner, but grappling comp this Sat. and I've already got my workout schedule planned out. E, whaddya think? I took the best of the girls for ya (Grace, Nasty Girls, Diane, Helen).

"Dianne"

21 - 15 - 9

225 Deadlift
Handstand Push ups

Did This One Today

#269, Reto, writes,

"I don't think we should be condoning his [the cartoonist's] message in the name of free speech without question."

Free speech is not about the message; it is about the speaker's right to convey the message. And the listener's right to criticize, mock, or refute the message.

Anthony (M/29/170)

100 Deadlifts with Body Weight (175)
Time: 4:20

Muscleups
BWx12 (2 rep PR)

I'm supposed to be resting, but I felt good and decided to try something new today. Turned out well.

I wasn't planning on the muscleups, but Jeremy went for a PR and I had to accept the "challenge" ... we both ended up with a 2 rep PR so it is a good day!

PS - Eva - call me!! :)

I am going out of town for a few days and will not have any access to any equipment. Does anyone have any suggestions for some workouts I could do??

#264 - Hari

How could free speech not be about the message if we limit free speech in cases involving, for example, child pornography, copyright infringement, protection from imminent violence, etc? I think the message is critical to deciding how and when you need to restrict the right to free speech.

Since I threw in my two cents on the article, here are my thoughts on the pictures. Whether or not I think the women are "hot" matters not (I'm not getting a date with them, and even if I could my wife wouldn't approve!). I know that Eva, Nicole and Annie can out perform me on any of the workouts. Based on some of my numbers, AllisonNYC probably can beat me in a couple of them too.

The CFHQ women are definitely for real and I'm still a pound puppy. I haven't earned the right to "critique" the physique.

If only I'd started CrossFit 10 years ago. Playing catch up at 43 is not easy!

Dale, I second the motion. Suhweet.

#266, How ironic that you should ask that today. Check out Eva's blog skievat.blogspot.com. She posts equipment-less WODs every few days.

Best, John

Reto:

Content-based speech restrictions (by the government) are generally impermissible. The first line of defense the government raises when a law is challenged on grounds it violates the first amendment is usually to try and establish that the law is content-neutral, so that it will receive lesser scrutiny.

A bunch of objectifying MoFos... everyone, geez.

Can't anyone look at that photo and see an ATHELETE without commenting on

"Eva T you are gorgeous and strong. I'd be happy to have you as a coach... or a date.
Comment #247 - Posted by: Sean"

Or

Comment #80 - Posted by: Joro—Anything by this guy who feels threatened by a photo of a strong woman..

Or

"Not the bra controversy again! Eva T looks great, as did Allison NYC. Personal choice who you'd want to wake up with, but for me the pictures were just fine.
Comment #97 - Posted by: Gary"

Is it me or are the men in the Crossfit community threatened by a photo of a strong woman… or maybe intimidated by her appealing looks.

Did any guy spotlighted on this site get comments on anything but the content of what he was presenting?

Did anyone actually listen to any of the interview and judge the content instead of the quality of the photo?

I’ve seen more criticizing of CF.com in the past week than I have in the past 14 months of being involved with this community and I believe the people who post fail to realize that WE are Crossfit. The site just reflects back to us who we are and we’ve been pretty ugly recently.

I learned something else today.

Watch out for all those methodist suicide bombers!!!!

I'm off cycle. With Eva interviewed by Nicole I thought I'd do a girl...

"Kelly"
5 rounds for time:
Run 400M
30 Box Jumps 20"
Wall Ball 12#

25:17

Eva, you are absolutely endearing. Thank you so much for being an inspiration. We'll be chasing you forever, but oh, what a journey!

Oh, and I've been working on my 10 month-old all evening, saying, "tight core!"

#266

1775 is a nice smoker - 17 burpees, 75 squats four rounds for time (if you have access to pull up bar, make them burpee pull ups)

400M lunge is always a good one

10 push ups every minute for 15 minutes (or 15 a minute for 15 min, or 10 for 20 minutes)

10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 squats max rounds in 20 minutes

If you have access to pull ups some how

GI Jane - 100 burpee pull ups for time

Cindy - 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats max rounds in 20 minutes or each one per minute for thirty minutes (Chelsea)

How's that for starters?

Rest Day.

I think we stray from the very simple, straight forward concept presented quite concisely in the article. The author observes that there is a trend afoot to censure speech/art that offends but does not harm. Communication that hurts feelings but not person or property. This trend posits that in some strange way the appropriate reaction to the forcible censure of individuals through threat of or actual bringing of violence is to blame the speaker and bestow upon the aggrieved (but not injured) party victim status.

This trend, to censure satirical, ironic, comedic, or even frankly tasteless speech, writing, or art, has arisen despite the fact that this impulse has heretofore been quite completely absent (in modern time) when it could have been applied to speech, writing or art that offended groups that chose not to respond to these assaults on their feelings by killing, or threatening to kill the speakers, writers, or artists. Think feces on a statue of Mary, The Last Temptation of Christ, Maplethorpe, or anything ever presented by Don Rickles. Not a one resulted in anyone living in a safe house.

We quite correctly censure speech, writings, or "art" that will bring imminent harm to someone or something, or that by its nature is truly harmful to someone who is relatively defenseless. The author is clear that the speech, writing, and art which is now under siege is none of the above. It may make us uncomfortable or angry, disgusted or sad. It may simply be in bad taste. But it harms nothing more substantial than feelings, and its appearance requires what appears to be that most precious, rare, and difficult response from those who govern:

silence...

After spending 39 months in Iraq, I decided to do a whirlwind tour of the US and included a stop in Santa Cruz to receive some personal training from Eva (and Annie).

What struck me about Eva is her extremely easy to understand means of coaching and demonstrating CF technique to a newbie (like me, who soo lacks flexibility) with such clarity. She was a total professional and if I can retain and apply 10% of what she taught me, I'll be 100% further in my CF training by the end of the month.

Is she easy on the eyes? Oh yeah.... Is she an even better trainer who could have charged me WAY more? Very much so. The quality of training was a bargain for what I paid.

I see AllisonNYC mentioned a bf in today's comments. Will this affect the Allison drooling in comments? hmmm......

EvaT - Amazing dedication and hard work! Wish i had abs like that ;)

Dale_Saran - nail on the head! Where's the love people?

Pesqueso - "If only I'd started CrossFit 10 years ago. Playing catch up at 43 is not easy!" Hey it's not easy play catch-up at 32 either! Wish I'd found this stuff 10 years ago! :)

Hopefully getting over head cold... 4 days without workouts is killing me.

Pesqueso: Good tips!

Mickey #266: I spend a lot of time doing WODs in hotels. I travel with a med ball (but not this week) but have a few strategies-
pick any exercises that don't require weights, combine them for 300+ reps, Tabata anything I can think of. Lungues, HSPUs, push ups, burpees, L sits (hotel chairs), flutter kicks, etc. Even on the road, you can get a decent workout.

I wish my work travel took me to places with affiliates located nearby!

#251 I personally find working out barefooted to be much more comfortable then doing so with shoes. I've been running barefoot since I was a kid and have actually run a few 10k's without shoes. The only problem I ever ran into was my feet slipping durring heavy lifts but a little chalk fixes that problem. When in doubt remember that we were born barefoot.

#277 - Bingo

"We quite correctly censure speech, writings, or "art" that will bring imminent harm to someone or something, or that by its nature is truly harmful to someone who is relatively defenseless. "

Isn't that content-based restriction of the right to free speech? Anyway, I'm Canadian, and we DO regulate free speech under our Charter of Rights. Specifically, "willfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group" is illegal under the charter (upheld by the supreme court in R. v. Keegstra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._v._Keegstra).

I'm happy to report that I'm not quite living in an Orwellian nightmare up here in Canada just yet, despite the supposed erosion of my civil liberties brought on by the Evil Canadian Though Police.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/bernstein200312020910.asp

Opinion again: I think some balance is necessary, and I have faith that good government can choose when it's critical to restrict some of my rights for the greater good.

Thanks for all the out of town workout tips!!

Eva T., truely amazing physique, I admire you for the hard work and dedication that you put forth to sculpt that body! So why wouldn't you flaunt it?

Did a make up wod:
FS 5x2 @ 205, push presses @ 215, pull ups.

Reto #283:

"Opinion again: I think some balance is necessary, and I have faith that good government can choose when it's critical to restrict some of my rights for the greater good."

The fellows who wrote the first eight amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the ones dealing with individual rights) didn't have as much faith in government's ability to make those kinds of decisions about individual rights. That pesky King George and his Parliament had not inspired a great deal of confidence in government decision-making for the greater good.

36yom/6'/200

I wanted to do burpees, my buddy wanted to do fran. We compromised:

burpees/ thrusters
21
15
9

9:18

It's like the reeses peanut butter cups of suck.

I would make Eva T my screensaver at the office, but then I wouldn't get any work done. I would be staring at the photo too much.

Reto:

"...imminent harm to someone or something, or that by its nature is truly harmful to someone who is relatively defenseless."

Examples have been given above, but to review: in the first instance yelling 'FIRE' in a crowded theater or ordering the murder of a snitch. Both illegal and rightly so. In the second instance child pornography, always, ALWAYS harmful to the child and therefore illegal, and rightly so.

But Reto, my friend, the bar is high. Very high. And rightly so. "Willfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group" but not promoting the killing, maiming, or otherwise harming said group? Sorry, that's just so much pabulum. Promoting hate...what is that? Promoting an emotion...that's a crime? Do you have witnesses get up on the stand and tell the jury how they FEEL about that hate? How they FEEL about the promotion? It's a slippery slope, Brother. I'm a doctor, a member of a readily identifiable group (we like to wear those white coats, you know, so we can cut in line). If Ezra Klein or Arnold Kling give their speeches about how it's us, the doctors, who are responsible for all of the uninsured people in America waiting in ER's, and they get people to hate me for it, have they broken the law? I mean, come on, I feel the hatred and it makes me feel bad. How about if someone draws a cartoon of a doctor with loonies falling out of every pocket turning away a bleeding man because it's not his turn yet? Won't that promote hatred of my group? The author states clearly that this is nonsense, that it is dangerous, and I agree.

The boundries of content-based restriction of free speech are bright lines in the United States, drawn narrowly. Appropriately so. It strains credulity when one is asked to expand those boundries on behalf of an "identifiable group" that responds to language that hurts their feelings by killing the speaker. That type of censureship has no place in a civilized world of ideas.

#267, reto, writes,

"How could free speech not be about the message if we limit free speech in cases involving, for example, child pornography, copyright infringement, protection from imminent violence, etc? I think the message is critical to deciding how and when you need to restrict the right to free speech."

The exception for child pornography is based on the fact that creating child pornography requires the harming of a child. The "fighting words" doctrine is very narrow and rarely invoked. The exception for copyright infringement exists for obvious reasons (to honor property rights).

My point was that in general, we do not restrict the dissemination of ideas, even if those ideas are repugnant to many or most listeners.

Rest Day...all the other stuff, today and previous:

Dale Saran, my Brother...Aye.

Well.. we're back from 10 days of camping and hiking in the desert mountains of Southern California. Had every type weather from 80+ degrees F to snow. It was great fun..

We have to say a great big thanks to Eva T. for her body weight workouts. They were just the ticket for our vacation.

Today we did 10x1 rep front squats. Details posted in yesterdays comments.

front squats 135-135-155-179-179-179-189-199-209-209 lost a little form on last one

Eva,
Fantastic photograph, great interview. You live up to every good thing I've heard about you, and I haven't heard anything bad. You must have SOME faults. :-)
As for looking like a man. Almost every athletic woman gets accused of that at some time when they're photographed exerting themselves. I think the concept is that women aren't supposed to?
I've looked at this photograph (a LOT) and tried to see a masculine figure and I'm afraid all I can see is a beautiful athletic woman.
Sorry to the people who don't see that, I don't understand what you're talking about either.

And I certainly agree with the other people who've supported you. In my limited contact with you, you've always been gracious and kind, which this interview displays. I envy the people who train with you, there's a huge amount of experience you bring to your coaching and that's beyond price.

I feel sorry for the people who don't get what you're about.

Great comments Eva. I particularly enjoyed Your perspective on your Olympic skiing experience. Well said.

One of my many favorite movie quotes comes from a very funny Ben Stiller movie, "Along Came Polly":

"It's not about what happened in the past, or what you think might happen in the future. It's about the ride, for Christ's sake. There is no point in going through all this crap, if your are not going to enjoy the ride. And you know what... when you least expect something great might come along - something better then you even planned for."

In your case, that something might be CrossFit.

Cheers.

Whoops, I meant #293.

#271 theburch

Interesting study in the UK found that men who watched the news retained about 95% of the information UNLESS it was read by a beautiful woman. In that case they retained about 5%

Seems you can't wipe away half a million years of selective attention with 50 years of PC crap. Don't get mad, we're programmed to look at beautiful women, not listen to them first and foremost!! Calm down :)

because i was traveling all day and felt sloppy from sitting on a plane, and because i didn't have enough weight yesterday to really hit the front squats, and because i'm an idiot, I decided no rest day and did

400m walking lunge

17 minutes right on the nose. PR

44/m/160#

I have been following the comments on the article by anonymous, reto, bingo, pesqueso, andy, CCTJoey and others. It has taken a little bit of time to get through it all because it has been quite thought provoking. Also, every time I thought I would respond there was another post with more interesting commentary. I intended to write in response to comments, but that would have required me to take careful notes to not mix anyone up. So instead, I will just comment on the different topics discussed as I see it.

Religion: Islam. I think someone said it earlier – it should not be the religion that we are “fighting”, but “fighting” those who take it to the extreme and kill in order to get their message out. There are scores of Islamists who are peaceful and who coexist with other religions and populations. Those who lead the extremists are power hungry and want to build a national identity based on the religion, essentially build a country/world that governed by that religion. There is a reason our founding fathers separated church and state. When theology is the basis for a government there is no room for other religions or belief systems. Our founding fathers fled from that oppression and fought for our right to practice whatever religion we wanted.

Freedom of Speech: Freedom of speech does not equal right to be heard. I may not like what you have to say and I may be offended by it, but I serve and defend your right to say it. I also do not have to read/listen to what you have to say, either. It is when extremists force ideas/ways of life upon those who do not believe as they do, that force may become necessary to defend our freedom.

Tolerance: There is no need to be tolerant. Just be polite. Again, I do not have to listen to what you have to say, but I do not have to be rude about it either. Tolerance implies acceptance (Webster’s online dictionary defines tolerance as “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own b: the act of allowing something”) and I cannot accept a religion that sentences a woman to stoning because she “allowed” herself to be raped. I do not have to tolerate your beliefs whatever they may be, but it sure makes the world a nicer place when people are polite and can engage in thoughtful debate instead of slinging insults or worse.

War: Can idealism prevent wars? I do not think so. Unfortunately not all players to a particular game come playing by the same set of rules – if they did then September 11 would not have happened. That was an attack on our country, against innocent civilians at a huge cost to our coffers as well as our pride. It certainly was in violation of the laws of armed conflict and violated the human rights of those killed and injured. The enemy does not play by the rule book. Does that give us the right to violate our own principles in order to defeat that enemy? No, we have a moral obligation to do the right thing even when no one is looking. And, unfortunately CNN has ensured that world knows every fault we commit, while at the same time, not being outraged at the inhumane acts of the terrorists such as using the mentally challenged as “suicide” bombers. It may get a story for a day or so, but then goes by the wayside. But when it comes to the US, Abu Grahib was and still is haunting us. Where are the investigations into using the women with Down’s Syndrome as bombers, where are the congressional hearings?? Oh, yeah, only the good guys have to follow the rules. Our idealism keeps many from being able to see that it is not the practice of our government to commit atrocities, that it is the decision of a few who have no moral compass. Keeps them from being able to see that the war we fight on other shores prevents the fight from coming and staying on our shores. The terrorists found our weakness: ourselves. It is great to strive for the ideal – but ideal is not achievable – that is why it is ideal and not real.

Objectification of Women. As a woman married to a man, I think that women’s bodies are things of beauty to behold. I like what someone up there said, something along the lines of “in Eva-T’s body you can see her history”. Man, that is poetic. Eva is gorgeous. As a woman married to a man, I think that men’s bodies are a thing of beauty to behold. Have you checked out J RoCk’s bod?? If not give his myspace page a glance – that is one hot guy! But really that is what we all are here for right? To get fit, look good and feel good about ourselves. So, if we look a little while we are getting there or look and see what we may want to look like when we grow up, I think it is human nature and should be encouraged. If you do not like what you see, it doesn’t hurt to be polite.

Love this community! Thanks coach for giving us this awesome place.

Yes, Eva T looks great, but more importantly, she performs great. The looks are a by-product.

When I worked with her (massage and P.T.) during her World Cup days she was at in at least as good a shape as most others on the circuit (better than most), but she was not as strong and not as ripped as she is now.

Most of those who retire from the ski team either get skinny (lose leg muscle size) or get chunky (keep eating but stop training as much). Eva has set a great example for both amateur and pro athletes of all ages by showing that it is possible to improve physical capacity by changing to a better, more complete form of training.

Congrats to Eva, but also to the rest of you. Your passion and more importantly, your results have inspired me to get back in the health and fitness game after almost a decade doing other things.

Reading back through today posts. I love CCTJOEY's comments!

i don't espouse relativism either. i think that nearly every situation reveals a right answer. but in one of these idealized situations where you have ten minutes to find and defuse a dirty bomb, and one person who knows where it is and will never tell except under torture -- if you conclude that you have a moral imperative to torture that person, it's not really the "right" choice, is it? it is the least evil of the choices you are presented with. i would not want to be in that position. i would do what had to be done, but it would destroy the person i am.

Anonymous, about your propose idealized situation. That is where we part company. It is very much the right choice. No remorse either. There is nothing evil about it. He chose the course of action.

If anything, I would be angry at him for making me do it. However, if I then sought retribution because he forced us (him and I) into this situation, I would be wrong.

Follow?

managed to swim a 966 m in the hotel pool. dogone thing is only 23 meters long.

28/m/210

105x Pull-up (5x 1-6 ladders) +
10x Man Makers @ 2x 25# DBs +
84x Dip (4x 1-6 ladders) +
20x Deadift @ 55% 1RM +
63x Push-up (3x 1-6 ladders) +
30x Deadlifts @ 55% 1RM +
42x HSPU (2x 1-6 ladders) +
40x Man Makers @ 2x 25# DBs +
21x Burpee/Pull-up Combo (1x 1-6 ladder)

78:22

Anonymous,

Do you think our soldiers like killing people? Do you fail to grasp that an important part of the discipline of being a soldier is being able to handle the stress of violating moral codes in the service of a higher cause, without becoming morally unglued?

Do you realize that most of the movies about Vietnam are entirely inaccurage, and that our soldiers there performed extraordinarily well, as they have in the current conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere?

I am seeing these debates in the abstract about self preservation versus preservation of moral ideals. I see this as codespeak for the repetition of indefensible leftist objections to the relaxing of certain provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Service Act, which was itself intended entirely to hamstring our intelligence gathering capabilities, both domestic and foreign.

In the real world, details matter. If you have a specific problem, you state in detail why.

What I hear you saying is you couldn't be a soldier. If that is true, it is likely just as well that you aren't. Please don't, however, for that reason criticize those able to handle the job.

Kind'a girly.

Kind'a cute.

I liked it.

actually, barry cooper, i AM a veteran. as are three members of my immediate family, both grandfathers, and two great-grandfathers and an uncle. we have a strong tradition of serving in military intelligence. this is exactly why i pursue the ethical questions concerning treatment of prisoners. it has been a family tradition to discuss these issues over the dinner table.

my father is appalled -- appalled -- that there could be any question as to the integrity of US soldiers. whether that question is caused by inaccurate reporting, unclear policy handed down through the chain of command, a few bad apples practicing inappropriate techniques, or straight-up bad policy -- that is hard to say. that is exactly why a transparent justice system is so important. so that we can prove that these issues are solely the result of bad reporting.

no. i don't think soldiers like killing people. i could barely handle shooting at a person-shaped target during basic training. i am very uncomfortable with the idea of being protected by a class of people who have a lower moral standard than myself -- which is why i hope to god that the things i am hearing coming out of military intelligence circles are entirely untrue.

my father never had to strike anyone in order to get information during an interrogation. that's because he is smart. he knew how to ask questions. he knew how to trap people in their own faulty logic. that is my specific problem. no, a slap in the face is not torture. but much more than a slap in the face means the interrogation has failed. that is what it means to be held to a higher standard.

You rock, Coach! I'm so lucky I get to train with her!

I don't think there is any question that morally and psychologically normal people find the willful infliction of pain and death on others painful.

However, it gets much easier when the people you are dealing with are guilty of the sorts of horrific crimes many of our extremist enemies are, or likely complicit in future such crimes.

My take on torture is that I don't oppose it in principle, but it seems likely to me that it is largely inferior to the sorts of clever interrogations you are talking about. John McCain was tortured, and it didn't work on him.

It has the added problem that it creates bad publicity, and if applied too long, to the wrong people, for the wrong reason, would likely have an effect of morally coarsening those doing it.

It does sometimes appear to me, from some reports, that some of our interrogators are in effect incompetent. I've been exposed to a skillfully conducted interrogation (Thanks, Larry), and it is very powerful.

As I said, I don't oppose torture in principle--saving innocent lives must trump the infliction of pain on a guilty party--and don't believe ANY technique should be taken globally off the table, but do believe that the goal is efficacy, and we need to be careful about our means.

Further, we need to be clear that psychologically normal person will feel pain conducting such an interrogation, and need to be sure they are up to the challenge of managing that pain.

I read a book some time ago that had a relevant passage. It was Autobiography of a Hero, which was a collection of letters and diary notations from Jonathan Netanyahu, who led the raid on Entebbe, and who almost certainly conducted numerous covert assassinations.

He commented that as guilty as the men he was shooting were, there was something very saddening about walking up to a living man and putting a magazine of bullets in his head. He was hunting men who would not hesitate to kill children in cold blood, and whose entire lives revolved around the murder of Jews, and the destruction of his homeland.

Yet it made him sad.

I speak often on here of my support for the war, but I harbor no macho fantasies about the work involved in conducting it. There is nothing beautiful about killing people, except the knowledge that by so doing you have saved lives, and helped support the growth of an eventual peace.

There is a terrible wisdom inflicted on those tasked with our protection. That they bear that burden nobly is yet another wonderful reflection on the character of our military, which in many respects offers the best example available anywhere in our nation of the sacrality of honor and duty.

barry cooper:

yes, yes, yes, and yes. we are better because of our ability to recognize and bear this kind of pain.

and here we kind of get back to my original point: we are engaged in an ideological war. we have to win this war by having and propagating better ideas than the enemy -- which i think we do.

the alternative is killing them based solely on their ideology, which is a reprehensible practice and logistically complicated. by all means punish people according to their actions (including incitement, if necessary). but expressing an extreme thought is a far cry from acting on it.

My basic thought on the War on Terror, which I have said often, is that the better we wage the Informational War, the less killing we will need to do, and the sturdier will be the peace at the end.

It is for that reason I take Leftist memetic propaganda so seriously, as it encourages our enemies, and damages the committment on the part of the American and Western populaces to seeing this thing through.

A major part of this Informational War is simply having the fortitude and clarity to stand up for what we believe and to affirm an unambiguous committment to what we have created culturally, politically, and economically.

Returning to the topic of the day, this would include instant and complete moral clarity with respect to anyone who would want to physically harm someone else for the exercise of free speech.

This is not a talking point. This is not debatable. Freedom of religion is absolute in a free, liberal society, and that includes the freedom to mock religions. This is bad taste, but categorically within the rights of all religions.

More to the point of the Danish cartoons, surely it is obvious enough, in what must be termed epic irony, that the response to the cartoons mimiced in detail the caricatures which were there displayed.

They portrayed Muhammad with a lit bomb in his turban, if memory serves. The response was apparently the serious contemplation of blowing the offending cartoonist up.

In my understanding of the law, printing negative things about people is only libel if they are untrue.

In my view anyone that has to think long about these things is either unintelligent, or overeducated--perhaps both, as they tend to go together.

19/M/5'6"/160

Been doing the Wod's since November, just have never posted on here.
13.45.82 as rx'ed

Scoreboard!!! Eva T looks awesome. Sign me up for some.

1) What does an article about radical Islam have to do with a site about fitness training?

2) Why is it that the only time people defend the right to free speech is when the free speech involves being insulting to someone?

3) Why are Muslims expected to view their religion in exactly the same way that secular humanists and atheists view it?

I don't agree with killing people for saying something or drawing a picture, but neither do I agree that behaving in a slanderous way demands legal protection. And I've seen the pictures of the Muhammad-headed dog. They're pathetic. My three-year-old draws better than that. If you're going to insult a man who has been dead for five hundred years, at least be skilled at it.

And that's the other thing. Is there no way to convey satirically that murder is committed in the name of Islam without picking on a guy who never sanctioned that behavior to begin with? Yes, he went to war, but it was against people trying to *kill* him. Islam doesn't teach "turn the other cheek" like Christianity does (not that Christianity has historically followed its own rule in that regard). You might as well come to terms with that now.

Somebody,

Why is Iran Islamic? Was the Sasannian Empire trying to attack Arabia? Study your history, son.

Also, am I to understand that you would have been equally supportive of Christians threatening the life of the "artists"/provocateurs who put the cross in urine and smeared the Virgin Mary with feces?

With respect to your points:

1) That's the way it is. Deal with it.

2) Because if everybody agreed--as is the case for example on the Daily Cause--then we would have no need for the protection of free speech.

3) They are not. They are expected to adhere to the laws governing the nations where they reside, which include tolerance. They can call the cartoonists names, and tell them they are going to hell, but they can't physically threaten them, and self evidently cannot actually hurt them. Such a policy would in short order give the streets and our lives over to unelected and morally corrupt gangsters.

I can't understand all this hand-wringing about torture. If the intelligence services genuinely believe the suspect has information that can save lives, to my simple mind they are duty bound to get it by fair means or foul.

We are dealing with an enemy here that cuts innocent peoples heads off and sticks the video on the net for fun - should they be treated with kid gloves? Spare me the moral high ground, if I thought someone was planning to murder thousands of civilians and torture could prevent that, I'd do it, no bother.

For me personally, I have no issues with it either, but it is not a straight line to truth. We do not necessarily increase our ability to gather timely intel by using torture. People lie, they exaggerate, and quite often they can't be broken.

Given the effect on the people doing the torture--and given the negative publicity which could in some cases incite increased violence against us--we need to be sure we are using the right techniques, on the right people, at the right times, and that the right people are doing it.

I am not fully convinced this is the case. This is not a question of being hard or soft, but of looking at the end game--peace--and working backwards with an eye to the line that takes us there most quickly.

Eva T.: What an athlete! When hard work, consistent discipline, good genes, and legitimate functional training all come together, the results are stunning. Wow.

#317 Barry Cooper

I respect the notion of peace being the ultimate aim, but as the enemies ultimate aim is the destruction of everything you hold dear, it now comes down to how far you are prepared to step into their side of the game.

Sadly, I think idea of fighting this new war with 'morality' will just prolong it. To defeat this kind of fanatacism requires cold-hearted ruthlessness, not disheartened troops trying to be fair with people who send their own handicapped children out as suicide bombers.

Call me old-fashioned, but looking back to WW2 the morally righteous would never have condoned the bomb, but in it's ferocity it tipped the scales.