That's awesome.

Yay for rest days!

Rhabdo sucks.....

booooo rest days lol, i guess ill play some golf and check my CFT, happy punishment everyone

but I wanna work!

Sweet....we get a free drop on the rest day topics...this should be interesting...wonder how many "why are we talking about non-fitness issues blah blah blah" comments today?

Ok, here's the question:

Regardless of your political affiliation, have we become subject to a media that fails to adequately portray a balance on the issues it reports?

I say YES. We are subject to talking heads that report 1) one side of most issues and 2) in a way to incite negativity.

Love to hear some comments on that!

Tell me your best globo gym story.

The funniest story wins a subscription to the journal or a shirt of the winners choice from Operation Phoenix courtesy of jakers.

I'll have a blue ribbon panel helping me judge. (You crossfitters I email know who you are.) But in the end it's my dough and my decision.
The story has to be submitted before Saturday's WOD is posted.

Amuse me people.

universal scalability....good stuff!

Think I'll practice some handstands today. And thanks to s'more, some L-sits as well.
All you "rest day topic" whiners finally got your wish. Better make it worth it while you can!

Enjoy the rest everyone, training hard is but a day away :)

I agree with bill (comment #7); every news station or broadcasting company does that and usually slants towards one political party or the other. "Bi-partisanship" is a media created fallacy in my eyes.

Hey, I posted this in the message board, but I am going to double tap you guys and get your opinion...

First off, I love CrossFit and think it is an outstanding program. However, I don't understand why CrossFitters and affiliates post pictures of people's hands that are bloodied due to ripped calluses.

My only guess would be that people are proud of their scars or battle damage from having torn open their hands. I just can't help but find this kind of dumb. Sure, it looks kind of hardcore, but think of the time off one needs to take to properly heal back up. In reality, tearing off calluses causes setbacks in training and a negative impact to fitness. In his book "Enter the Kettlebell", Pavel states, "Ripped calluses are manly, but since they make you lose training time, try to avoid them when you do your quick lifts."

What bugs me is that some CrossFit affiliate sites seem to be supporting and embracing this.

I think a good analogy would be soldiers/marines who have long ruck marches. Every soldier knows that foot care is essential. A blister can stop the most athletic soldier dead in his/her tracks. An impressive soldier can ruck 20+ miles while never developing any blisters. At the end of the day soldiers are impressed by those that didn't blister up. You will never see soldiers photographing their torn up feet and posting it up on a website because it says, "hey, i'm an idiot that doesn't know how to properly take care of my feet". A soldier needs his feet intact to move and a CrossFitter needs his hands intact to workout. What's the difference?

Once again, I whole-heartedly support CrossFit, but just wanted some opinions on the matter.

wow !

These guys are the real deal. After watching this video I feel like a wimp.

Semper Fi, Ed.

God BLESS our men and women in military.....

Excellent picture of Courage, those guys are the toughest folks, I am in awe of their kick @ss attitudes, they humble me.

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

Kyle is bad. I saw him in one of the CrossFit journal vids knockin out a workout and he's crazy!

How is there no NCAA bball talk here...

Sleeper pick: Purdue to F4

Winner: UNC (Big east say what?)

Go.

"Rest Day: Start something in comments."

Start something.... hmm....

MOSH PIT!!!

Comment #12 need a rest day

Crossfit ATM covers it pretty well in this post. I agree.

http://crossfitatm.com/events/2009/03/16/butt-arms-anyone/

Wow, I don't know what to say. That video brought tears to my eyes.

Never Quit!

#12 and #19, No one says you have to push it that hard, evreything about Crossfit is adjustable. But you will never know what your body is able to w/stand and push on through unless you test yourself every once in a while.

If your hands tear then use wet green tea bags, they will harden the skin and get you back in the game a few days faster, Take care of your hands and they will take care of you.

Ok so here is my funny globo gym story. Just before my wife and I opened our box we went to 16-hour fitness to do the mainsite wod.Fran was on the posted and I wanted to go after a good time.

My 13-year old went first and had a time of 7:24 at 35lbs. Then my wife went with a great time of 5:20 with presciption weight. She would have had a much better time but here is the funny part.

Right as she started her last round and was in a very pissy mood for obvios reasons the manager decided to come over and tell me that I wasnt allowed to train customers without his permission.

Of course I responded by telling him that my customers were my wife and son. He retorted by telling me that I was supposed to work out with them. I said I was next, a moment of silence envoloped us until my lovely wife who never cusses or yells busts out with a big WTF. Obviosly Fran had taken her into o2 dep. and she wasnt her natural self.

The manager got the hint and left and I used her anger as motivation and PR'd and finally broke into the 3:00 minute category (3:54), barely but I was very happy and proud of my wife.

Anyway as we were leaving I was politely told that if we wanted a refund for our memberships the manager would happily oblige. Very nice treatment considering we had 24-hour fitness memberships for over 10-years.

The manager who by the way was representing 24-hour fitness with an impressive 44 inch waistline told me I was intimidating the other clients and that the style of intensive workouts i did werent a fit for the club. He said and I qoute "with my build I should do some power lifting" I tried to explain that thats what CF was and so much more.

That was about the time he simply turned his back and walked away.

I came back the next day and was told that my membership of 10-years had been revoked and if I wanted it reinstated then I would have to pay a personal trainer to properly train me on the proper fitness techniques. At that time I was already level-1 certifed.

I kindly told the staff to go F**k themselves and decided at that point to be the absolute best trainer, coach and mentor i could be.

A caviat to the story is that this particular 24-hour fitness is losing buinsess as fast as a leaky pail. Meanwhile we am nearing 100 clients and losing our minds trying to keep up with our growth.

CF is awesome and all you fellow knuckle draggers who drink the koolaid you are always welcome to come into our box shoeless, shirtless and with a mouthful of swear words anytime.

Be safe and train hard or stay home, taco out.

That picture motivates the F! out of me...

In response to #12

I don't think that crossfitters are intentionally tearing up their hands to seem more BA, if they are then it's obvious what their aim is. However whenever I see a torn and bleeding flapper coupled with a completion time and reps it tells me that the individual was determined to complete the workout regardless of a little bleeding wound and some pain.

I feel a main goal of Crossfit, along with overall fitness, is mission accomplishment regardless of obstacles. Hence the Hero workouts, completion of the objective against seemingly insurmountable odds, just like the warriors some are named after.

In the Corps we are instilled with an idea called Intestinal Fortitude. Essetially it can be summed up as 'looking at the bar during Murph, with puke on your shirt and bleeding hands, but getting back on it because you'll be damned if you stop for anything short of victory'.

Regardless of odds you reach down, find your (insert whatever 'motivates' you here) and press on. In combat intestinal fortitude pushes you well past your "limits" to get the job done. Also known as mental toughness.

I could go on for a lot longer about mental toughness, especially with the road march idea(we call it humping) but it boils down to: when I see a bloody hand and "as RX'd" I know they've got it.

Sorry for the long post. Someone started something.

# 8 Jakers -here's one for you; I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experienced this though:

Me - (just walked in the door considering renewing my membership after a deployment; talking to girl at front desk):

"Hey, how's it going?

Globo gym front desk girl - "Not bad, thanks. What can we help you with?"

Me - "I was thinking about renewing my gym membership, but I had a few quick questions."

GGFDG - "Ok, what d'you got?"

Me - "Do you allow Oly lifts, and do you have a platform?"

GGFDG - "What are 'Oly lifts'?"

Me - "Olympic lifts."

GGFDG - "What are olympic lifts?"

Me (w/ blank stare) - ????

GGFDG - "Here, let me get you a personal trainer...."

It turns out they do allow them, and they are CF friendly; just thought that was a classic scenario.

#7
It is not so much that the media is unbalanced as it is that it only reflects a very narrow spectrum of interests. This is why, when the presidential debates roll around, the 30 seconds of Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich seem so strange, and I would say, refreshing.

As long as the news media are controlled by ever-consolidating, massive corporations, the views expressed in print and on television will continue to reflect elite interests. Plus, newspapers and television stations are captive to advertisers and will seldom test advertisers' willingness to permit the dissemination of information that runs contrary to these elite interests.

This is not to say that journalists still do not have the ability to produce meaningful stories, but perhaps increased funding for public broadcasting would free journalists and their superiors from worrying about alienating their owners and advertisers. That the media has failed the American public with its coverage (or lack of coverage) of the lead-up to the Iraq War and in its failure to predict the latest financial crisis suggests that it might be time to examine the structure of the media in the United States.

Nice pic, makes me want to push harder in the gym.

Where and how can I get a t-shirt like the guy in the back ground: Ask your doctor if getting off your ass is a good thing?

Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU x5

Jakers
One morning while I was in my local rec center just after I finished my warm up getting ready to hit Grace a while back before i found my affiliate I noticed a guy who'm I'd seen travelling from leg machine to leg machine all morning (must have been lower body wednesday) notice this totally smokin brunette towards my corner bent over doin 3# dumbell extensions. He smoothly makes his way to the dumbell rack in her corner, and picks up a pair of 40's, turns to the mirror and proceeds to rip off a few curls. On about the 6th rep dumbell slips out of his hand and lands directly on his foot. He let out a wimper resembling that of a whining cow, limped out of the gym and I didn't see him again for about 10 days - he came back with an air cast and proceeded directly back to his corner for some more curls. I pr'd on grace that day... and dated Miranda (the above mentioned brunette) for a couple weeks afterwards. She didn't get crossfit though so as you can imagine it didn't work out.

Chris,

That is what I'm looking for. Dang funny. Your in the lead.

I'm going to open this up a bit. It doesn't have to be just a globo gym. It can be a McDojo, personal training/pilates/yoga studio. Conversation with misguided co-worker/friend/spouse.

Basically anything with fitness as the basis of the story.

Find the funny.

It's out there.

Been a long while since I posted on the boards, but I just wanted to make a typical "thanks for everything Crossfit" post. Been doing consistent crossfit for about a year now, and my CFT just hit the Intermediate level after starting somewhere around Untrained. I just hit 300# deadlift for the first time, and two days ago was my first full Murph to completion (no 20# vest), and in under 45 mins too. I look and feel great, and girls are constantly complimenting me on my ass. Considering that this is usually not an aesthetically pleasing body part for guys, I take it as quite a compliment.

I'm looking forward to another year of PRs and weird looks at the gym!

AT2 Jim Howes
USS George Washington
Yokosuka, Japan

Comment #12

Just a quick story re: ripping hands.

I have a lady that I have been training for about 5 years now (last 6 months crossfit). She is 46yr old mother of 2, 53kg, quiet spoken, small and dainty you get the picture ,beautifull lady.

Over the past 5 years she has gone from zero fitness training to now where she is now hoping to compete in Oly Lifitng this year, Crossfit reg quals etc.

About a 2 months ago Angie came up as a wod, so we all gave it shot, rep 60 or so of the first 100 pull-ups and she gets her first rip (this is the first time she has ever attempted anything close to 100 full rom pull-ups), rep 70 and there are a couple more. She is struggling to keep going (but still going), I dont say anything discouraging because I want her to make the decision, so I ask her if she wants to quit, she looks at me and say words to the effect of "there is no damn way in hell I am going to quit this thing now" she gets to rep 100 and then goes through the 100 push-ups, Sit-ups and squats, we have to put towles on the floor for her push-ups because she is bleeding all over the gymnastics mats.

When she get to the end the look of accomplishment that was on her face was incredible, the self confidence she got from finishing that workout, has continued on into every workout since, now when workouts come up that used to scare her, they seem easy.

Yes she couldnt do anything with her hands for about 2 weeks afterwards, but IMO it was worth it, next time she is bleeding with ripped hands all over the bar and tell me she is going to keep going Im going to jump on her and pin her down, but once every now and then its worth it ;-)

P.S. I put the picture of her bleeding hands on our website, not to show the world how hardcore we are but because it was one of the most uplifting things I have seen in our box and everybody there that day remembers it, she was so proud when I put the pic on the site. (still makes me teary thinking about it) :'-) Even now people remember it and when chin-ups come up in wods, and they have the choice of scaling or not, that picture and her effort gives them inspiration to go that little bit harder.

Jakers,

I was in the local 24hour fitness after work one day doing CFT. I watched in amazement as a guy with a spandex shirt, bandana, and knee wraps loads up the leg press with 6 45lb plates on either side. He 1/4 reps it 3 times. He decides to unload all the weight from one side and the uneven weight flips the entire press machine. The worst part was that the machine was next to the front window so that got destroyed and it took 6 "trainers" to help him lift it back up. I did my final squat and left with a huge grin loving that I wasn't "that guy"

Phenomenal pic.

Ok, so I'm at 24hr SitnRest and I'm doing some box jumps on the ply-boxes. Switching between the 24 and 36 inch box. Behind me walks up on e of their trainers and tells me " you van't do those without a trainer". I say WHAT. He says those are dynamic movements and that you need to have, ie. "pay" a trainer to do thoses safely. I say are you kidding me? NO. I say "walking is also dynamic, running on a treadmill is dynamic do I need a trainer to do those"? He says that is company rules and I need to stop or get a trainer. So I stop he leaves. I decide that the boxes ae the problem so I walk over to the bench press benches and start jumping on those, I get looks from that trainer but he doesn't reaproach.

I think ripped hands are dumb and should be avoided if possible. There are exceptions to every rule though.

Injuries suck also, I'm not going to try to get injured to be manly.

In my opinion ego should be put aside and people should just get the workout done in most cases.

If I rip my hands I know I won't able to perform at 100%. Which is why I avoid them and don't think they're cool.

Jakers,

A few weeks ago I was doing "Grindy" in one of the local globo gyms when the following took place:

Setting: I'm in the middle of the second round of 10 clean and jerks when some Random Guy (not an employee) came up to me:

Random Guy: Hey, can you not drop those weights?

Me: They're meant to be dropped.

RG: Uh, no, they're not.

Me: Yes they are. They're called bumper plates. They're made of rubber and this is a rubber floor.

RG: Whatever. Can you just stop dropping them? When you drop them I can't keep my dumbbells steady.

Me: At a loss for words at what I just heard, simply continue with my workout.

I watch him walk back to the dumbbell section (which was at least 25 yards away mind you), grab some dumbbells, and proceed to knock out a set of DB bench. I couldn't believe he actually asked me not to drop the weights because it made his dumbbells unsteady! I had a good laugh to myself and finished my workout.

WHAT IS THE CRAZIEST/STUPIDIST/or MOST BENEFICIAL THING YOUR DOCTOR HAS TOLD YOU? (brought to mind by more than one experience)

My favorite study ever.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=3336803&ordinalpos=18&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

My favorite blog post ever.
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2009/02/cholesterol-presentation-between.html

Kyle is a good man. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the FilFest in Austin. Inspiring individual.

#12, ripped hands suck and everyone knows it. Ask our clients who competed at the games - it affected their performances. I recommend gloves for sensitive hands or, hand pads. Keep calloused hands trimmed and filed.

But, if it happens (and it does) its a battle scar and people like to show them off.

Hi Jakers this probablly doesnt count but it sure was funny.

Used to train gymnastics at a competitive club, anyways we are training on the pommel horse practicing our routines, and one of the guys on our team has a bit of a temper.

So we take it in turns, and this guy is getting stuck on one of his moves, each time he tries it and fails he gets more and more pissed that he cant make it, and he starts punching the pommel horse.

He goes again, misses, screams and kicks the horse.

Goes again misses, yells some more, and punches the horse.

We are all trying not to laugh at him, but its kind hard not to and it makes him even madder.

He tries again, misses and falls of, he jumps back up runs over and head butts the pommel horse, I think he was trying to head butt between the handles but hes so pissed he misses and head butts the wooden handle square in the middle of his fore head, and is instantly knocked out.

He wakes up in the hospital later that night ;-)

#34 Yes I have ripped callouses and been injured before (for months because of my stubborness). It set me back more than anything. I'd rather be able to express my mental toughness in getting in better shape instead of ripping my callouses.

"Start Something in Comments" should be a rest-day benchmark.

Comment #36 WHAT IS THE CRAZIEST/STUPIDIST/or MOST BENEFICIAL THING YOUR DOCTOR HAS TOLD YOU?

Ok, I go in to see the Doc after a serious injury on some heavy DLs. I couldn't move out of bed, had the worst pain shooting down my left leg in to my toes.

Doc checks me out, and diagnosed me with a fairly serious bulge in my spine, could be herniated.

I ask her "How serious is it?"

She replies "Are you crapping and pissing on yourself?"

I reply "No!?!?!"

She concludes "Well then it's not that serious then, come see me when it starts!"

Great advise, needless to say I haven't been back or pissing myself!

#12 Soldiers may blister up--but not the impressive ones?? All soldiers are impressive. Anyone that Crossfits is impressive. Enough said.

Afraid of What?!? aka David Stout of CrossFit Chatanooga,

I don't want to be the one to break this to you, but, nearly everyone in the NFL, certainly every one who plays in John's position, is engaged in exogenous hormonal therapy.

The testing for banned substances is not a zero tolerance deal, but for each banned substance there is an upper limit that is tolerated beyond which there's trouble.

Elite cyclists, football players, body builders, throwers, sprinters, ...ALL on steroids. This cannot be rationally denied.

It is mistaken perception that the ones "caught" are cheaters and the others "clean". The ones caught have erred in dosage, masking, or metabolized abnormally slow the outlawed substances. They are more unlucky than anything else. These athletes are no more cheaters than stepping out of bounds accidentally on the one yard line before crossing the goal line is cheating.

The best reading I've seen on steroid use was written by Malcolm Gladwell (Yeah, the author of "Blink"). You owe it to yourself and the Chatanooga affiliate to school yourself on the subject!

BTW, If you're thinking that Mark Rippetoe has a different take on this or shares your misapprehension and condemnation of athletes taking steroids, then you don't know the man as well as I do.

By Coach on May 25, 2008 6:07 PM

I have also had ripped callouses, not a big fan of them but I'll be damned if a little blood is going to stop me from finishing what I started.

Secondly, does anyone have any advice on how to prevent said blisters and ripping callouses?

Jakers - I don't know how I forgot this one:

So, no $hit, there I was, it was a rainy tuesday; I felt like a drink, so I went to the local pub. The place was crawling, and the only open seat was at the bar next to the hottest woman in the place; and she was alone. I sat down, ordered a beer, and started making small talk. It wasn't long b/f she was wanting to go "somewhere more quiet." I said, "Absolutely, but there's one thing you have to be ok with." She said, "let me guess, you're a player, and you're in a relationship?" I said,"No, I'm in a relationship with Angie, Barbara, Chelsea, Cindy, Diane, and Elizabeth - and I've done them all in the last week."

#44

Soaking your hands in warm water for 5 minutes and rubbing the areas with callouses with a pumice stone is one way. Or using a pumice stone on your hands after a shower if your hands are soft enough.

I have to get back to my homework now :-/

Also if you get a rip during a workout, I suggest you take the time to tape it so it doesn't get worse during the workout.

Common sense is needed.

Jakers,

not really hilarious, but yesterday while doing the CF warm up, I heard two guys talking near the DB racks "your body adapts to training..." (my ears were directly focused his way at this point) "...that's why I've switched to incline press instead of bench for the next cycle". He was so close.

A different time, I had someone come up to me, in my post-workout-die-on-the-floor-making-sweat-angels phase, and said "Dude, what do you train for? Are you an athlete or in the olympics?" To which, I responded, "I train for fun." His just hit the floor faster than me after Fran....

I also heard that my gym has 'lots of great equipment' that can be signed out at the desk. Before I owned my own rings, I went up to the desk and enquired. "Do you have any rings?" "you mean like gymnastics rings?" "Yes." (I got excited because she knew of them....) "No! why would you want to use those?1?!?!"

Not hilarious, in fact probably quite common, for all of us at a non-CF dedicated gym. Enjoy the rest day.

Jakers,

not really hilarious, but yesterday while doing the CF warm up, I heard two guys talking near the DB racks "your body adapts to training..." (my ears were directly focused his way at this point) "...that's why I've switched to incline press instead of bench for the next cycle". He was so close.

A different time, I had someone come up to me, in my post-workout-die-on-the-floor-making-sweat-angels phase, and said "Dude, what do you train for? Are you an athlete or in the olympics?" To which, I responded, "I train for fun." His just hit the floor faster than me after Fran....

I also heard that my gym has 'lots of great equipment' that can be signed out at the desk. Before I owned my own rings, I went up to the desk and enquired. "Do you have any rings?" "you mean like gymnastics rings?" "Yes." (I got excited because she knew of them....) "No! why would you want to use those?1?!?!"

Not hilarious, in fact probably quite common, for all of us at a non-CF dedicated gym. Enjoy the rest day.

Also,my contribution to the rest day topic. For a hilarious read, check out http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

It's funny...if you're a university student, bored of studying and can't help but realize how many of these things I like. I'm so white.

I dont have an all out hilarious globo story - but this has prompted to move on from my current globo..

Two days ago one I noticed one of the personal trainers applying some kind of liquid to his arms.. I thought, "wow - this guys got some crazy new product that can make his muscles bigger from the outside" Before I asked him what it was I realised it was baby oil he was applying between sets.. It was there and then I decided to cancel my membership.

Don't know who he was trying to impress cos it was just me and a couple of older ladies there...

Anyone know of any CF friendly gyms around Nth Sydney?

Jakers,

I was working out at a nearby globogym doing 1 rep max Deadlifts. In the squat rack next to me there were 2 guys setting up to do "clean and press's" aka cheat curls and 2 man shoulder press. I think they were using around 95lbs. after 4 reps the "spotter" was helping him "squeeze" out 6 more reps. I just shook my head.

Suppose you're on a game show trying to win a car, and you're given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is the car, behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, which remains closed for now. The host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, revealing a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to stick with your original choice of door No. 1 or switch to door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice.....?

This isn't a trick question, it's a matter of probability. I'll post the answer in a separate post later.

Great vid - very inspiring.

Does crossit lack a twisting/turning/rotating exercise?
Common in gymnastics, track and field and martial arts...has it been excluded due to difficulties finding a high-intensity exercise or am i missing something fundamental here like "the cores primary function is to stabilize so..."?

Inspired.

#53
Always switch. The original door you chose has a 33% chance of success, the other one has a 66% chance.

My first ever comments post and it's not even a time/weight/rep post!

Ginger's good for you....

you change doors, i read about this in a book called the mystery of the dog in the night time. great book.

if i dont get a chance to work out on one of the days, should i do it on the rest day, or just leave it alone? i really wanted to do that pushup beatdown...

pullups, sorry.

Crossfit"Again Faster" has produced some of the more impressive videos here on the Main Page, in the Journal, and elsewhere on Crossfit.com. "Again Faster" is owned by Jon Gilson. Did you know that he is an accomplished writer? Passion just drips from the words in his paragraphs.

Below is what he wrote about his experience working with these Warriors. Don't miss this.
http://www.againfaster.com/articles/youll-be-fine.html

I am blown away by the caliber of the people I meet here at Crossfit...

"Start something in the comments."

What is a Crossfitter?

What if there was no "bingo"? Those of you who have been here awhile know that I dearly love pretty much everything here. The Crossfit program has brought me health and fitness that I have no business owning at 49. I have made new friends here, true friends, at the age of 49. Th banter, community, Board--I just love all of that. My family has dubbed Crossfit.com as Dad's Facebook--they call it "Crossface"!

But what if all of that was gone? No daily comments. No community to join, share, partake in. No place to ask questions or talk about nonsense like the Message Board. What if all of my emails and phone calls all of a sudden stop being answered? No trips to Aromas. Never another beer with Paul, Dale, and Col. Dan. No more hugs from Coach and Lauren.

What if there was no "bingo"?

Crossfit, the strength and conditioning program, is all I need. I truly love ALL of that other stuff, but Crossfit is the air I breath, the thing that keeps one foot following the other as I walk through my life. Take away all of the other stuff I love about this place and what would I do?

I would start each day at Crossfit.com writing down the WOD and planning my workout.

I am a Crossfitter.

Not as r'xd cause my arms were shot, or maybe 45lbs was to heavy for my feeble lil muscles lol...but i did the work out at 20lbs and 25lbs for 19minuets and change and about 30+ sets lol lost count...

In anycase it was one hell of a work out and it definitely taxed my arms to no extent. S''more, jakers, eric, fat tony, rookie, playoff beard, and everyone else happy rest day!

Oh one other thing I almost forgot, I was stretching after the work out with my friend when a instructor from one of the other classes in my globo gym comes over to me during her class she was teaching (cardio boxing i think), asks me if I was a Crossfit Instructor (I was wearing our apperal), she was going on and on and on about our community and the workouts...

It took me off guard and I looked at her for about 20 secs before I realized what she had talking about...but I told her no, sadly, I merely a pawn in this game of chess and that I do want to become certified...(which now means I have no choice lol) well long story short, boyz the empire is taking off and we are infecting the entire workout community, I love it. People are giving it recognition it deserves and I give all the credit to you guys who are out there every day preaching the importance of Crossfit. And to coach of course, without him I would have never found this program and would probably be an over weight typical American! GO XFITT

J1,
The answer is yes - you should switch to door #2. The initial probability of getting it wrong is 2/3. By switching doors this probability is reduced to 1/3.
This is game theory.

#44 Justin

Get yourself a razor blade from Walmart (in the paint section). The same type of blade that you use to for painting prep work. Trim the thick skin accordingly, and of course, common sense must apply.

#60 Bingo

Agreed. I love reading Jon's musings they are quite brilliant. As are yours...

The men and women who serve our country supporting FREEDOM and our way of life deserve our highest praise and honor. "We the people" are a grateful nation despite what you hear from our polictical leaders and corrupt media. Kyle, Coach Glassman and the unamed others that are making a difference in the lives of our troops and veterans are true patriots! Thank you for your service one and all.

#8 jakers-

I like when I'll go to a globo style gym to do a squat WOD. I then end up waiting for a rack for 30 minutes because a bunch a smack-offs are socializing and doing upright or bent rows on the SQUAT rack.

You know, because they couldn't do upright rows or bent rows off the floor.

I f**king love crossfit..that video is absolutely amazing. Extremely motivational. It's hard to describe I think. It's more a a feeling in response to watching the video.

Jakers-

When I began my CrossFit journey I trained at the fitness center at a local Navy base which was operated by MWR. We knew all the women who worked at the front desk (I will NOT call them trainers) and they saw the change in physique that both my husband and I experienced. We told them about CorssFit and what a great program it is and how their fitness center would really benefit by adopting the CrossFit model. She looked at us and said,
"What you guys do is really intense, we are more into 'fitness'" (the last word she said in an airy tone like she was talking about unicorns or something.

Needless to say we stopped working out there, found a local affiliate for our own training and are in the process of setting up a non-profit at the Coast Guard Academy to spread the CrossFit Gospel.

ahhh...well needed rest

"Start something in the comments"

Start something in the comments....

Start something in the comments...

I have been on here for two years now, and have started my fair share of "something"'s, and have pushed my way into the center of the mosh pit on many other occasions with assumed iron fist held high ready to drop it down with enthusiastic humorous sarcasm on anyone who wants to go a couple few rounds...but always attempting to make nice on the other side even with those who don't accept it (ahem...Jolie! You are STILL one of my favorite of all CrossFitters...sigh...).

However, I when I read "start something in comments" this morning....when asked to perform....I got nothin'!

So with that said, I hope everyone has a Deeeeelightful rest day, for those of you that are taking it, and hope everyones day is filled with sunshine, lolipops, magic fairy dust and pony rides!

(lmfao! what happened to me?! dammit CrossFit! lol! have a great day eveyone, for real!)

~J~

Accept the Challenge, Train Hard and Push Through "IT"!

Jakers - I don't know if this will even come close but it's all I got. Here goes....

I was in the globo gym chatting with a female friend when I noticed a huge bear of a man doing heavy deadlifts. Since it is my favourite lift it grabbed my attention immediately. This guy must have been 6' 4" 270lbs. Bald head, small shirt, you know the type. (Me? I'm 5' 10", 176lbs). He prepares to do his heaviest set (405lbs) and does the ugliest pull I have ever seen. It didn't resemble a deadlift so much as it did a full body dry-heave. While the weight left the ground once, it took him three good thrusts from the lower back to get this weight to the end. It was then that the aforementioned female friend turned to me and said, in her "outdoor voice", "You're stronger than that guy." (My max deadlift is 470lbs). She then proceeds to walk over to this goon and ask "Why don't you use proper form?" He stood there looking at this petite women with a look on his face that revealed his sub-par IQ.

I could have died from laughter.

On an unrelate note, I have a question that I have been dying to find the answer to. What is the deal with Mark Twight?

I noticed from my research that he is Crossfit certified and used to participate in the posts and message board back a few years ago. (Coach even referred some questions to him regarding climbing) I can only assume this is pre-Gym Jones. I searched the internet I can't find the month or day Gym Jones opened. I was trying to figure out the order in which things happened.

It seems that he was an athlete of some type, found a better fitness model via Crossfit, and he found a way where he can profit by breaking away from the normal affiliate model.

So is he friend or foe? Is Gym Jones an intentional or accidental rip-off of Crossfit? (Although, his business model is completely opposite of the Crossfit model, exclusivity vs. openness/inclusive)What is Coach Glassman's opinion of this gym and his business? (I would be honored if the man himself would chime in).

Any help answering this would greatly be appreciated. (Bingo - I'm looking in your general direction)

Kells

Wow my chest is extremely sore from yesterday. I've never had a sore chest from doing pull ups, anyone else experience this?

She said a woman should never lift more than three-pound weights. “Most gym programs overwork major muscle groups,” she said. “Repetition builds and bulks muscles.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08trainer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

#38

Now thats funny!

#72

Weird you say that because I woke up this morning and said, "wtf, why is my chest sore?"

must have been the weighted pulls...

Rest day? We don't need no stinking rest day!

Jakers,

Here we go. I work out in the Offutt Field house. It's a huge facility. The inside track takes 2.5 laps to equal 1 mile. HUGE! Anyway, while doing a Crossfit workout one day of something like 400m runs & squats, or something similar, I really was working on getting a deep, full squat. Well, I did the first round and felt what I thought was the end of my shorts kind of creeping up on me, if you know what I mean. Well, I went for another run, came back & did more squats. I felt the "creeping" again. I thought, geez, must be static cling and kept going. After my second round, I stopped to do the squats again and noticed that whenever the older ladies (a lot of retirees & retiree spouses) went by they seemed to smile and nod "hello" more than usual. Again, didn't think much of it, just thought they were appreciating my hard work ethic. By the way, I noticed my "creeping" shorts again, didn't think much of that either. Well, after my next round of running, I noticed the older ladies again were more friendly. By the time I got to the squats again, I reached back to help get rid of what I thought was "static cling" and understood why the ladies were smiling more....I had exceeded the bounds by which my shorts were designed and was being quite "cheeky".
Needless to say, I quickly departed the gym, but not before saying goodbye, sheepishly, to the old ladies.
The good thing is they are all still nice to me, I got a new pair of shorts & I now know that I have good depth in my squats.

Cheers!
Dave

ps....I wear an XL...shirt, not shorts!

CFE day
Incline 1.0, speed 9.0 for 9 minutes

Jakers.

I work at my gym as a trainer and do crissfit myself and try and sneakily indoctrinate my clients.

Anyway I was walking to the cable crossover to hang my rings off. I walked past one of the 'roiders' I know ,a real big bloke,who looked at my rings and said what are you going to do with those bitch.

I say hey come over and have a crack. I hang them up and he can't even do one ring dip. he goes "f... that" and goes back to his curls. I continue on with a clean and ring dip met con.

J1-- did you watch the movie "21" last night??

....I'd switch doors.

jaker:
As with many crossfitters, I have been training at a globo gym. No problems. But three months ago I finally convinced my cousin to crossfit with me. She was looking to trim up and get in shape for mountain biking. My cousin is attractive and for the past couple months, starbuck latte, globo college-guy was really staring at her and stripping her with his eyes. So much so, that he would see us doing Fran or Diane and come ask us questions. “What are you doing? Man, that is a lot of work.” He was trying, but then he would go back to benching, leg presses and lat pull downs. Eventually, he would ask for some routines and ideas and I would just tell him to pick up the intensity. Sure, he would flex and grunt and grind and do what he could to get her attention, but we just laughed.

A couple weeks ago we were stretching and getting ready to do Barbara, when he approached and asked what our routine happened to be for that day. “Oh,” I said. “An easy routine.” His face lit up. “Pullups, pushups, sit-ups and air squats? Can I join you?”

He survived round one. Round two, he started getting really red, sweaty and fatigue set in. And during the second 3 minute rest period, he wasn’t sure what to do. He wanted to impress her so much that despite my encouraging him to sit the next few out, he just couldn’t let it go. He jumped in on round three and broke the pull-ups into 5’s. He has an impressive bench and pounded the push-ups. But then half way through the sit-ups he turns green. Stands and breathes with his hands on his head. Finally he gets through the sit-ups. But it is about air squat 16 that pukey hits and he paints the mirrors and floor and a few of the machines as he runs to the bathroom. I hate to be an arrogant Crossfit bastard, but I high-five my cousin and we finish the routine.

The thing is, we didn’t see him for a week. And when we did see him, he said, “That really showed me I am not in shape. Can I train with you two, once in a while?” He’s been training with us and making great progress. But he is of the Crossfit mindset. My cousin be damned, he had the balls to come back for more. And that to me is Crossfit. Swallow your pride and do all you can to succeed and reach your goals.

#53

It is not to your advantage, I think. Although it *is to your advantage that you now know #3. You have a 50% chance of getting the car, regardless of the door choice.

Great story and nothing but respect to Kyle and crew for being an inspiration to everyone inside and outside of the fitness community. Sad when you hear people complaining and making excuses for not incorporating 15-20 mins of fitness into their daily regimen.

My question concerns the 3 days on/1 day off CrossFit protocol. Are most crossfitters overtrained or walking that fine line?

My experience tells me that very few individuals can pull off 6 days a week strict adherence to CrossFit mainpage without experiencing classic symptoms of overtraining. Well at least not for the long term i.e more than a year. I think 2 on/1 off (at least when not competing for the Games) to be much more realistic to make steady consistent progress while downsizing the risk of injury and overtraining.

thoughts?

m/5'3"/160/29

I took the last two days off to rest my shoulder, but it still feels a little tweaked, so I just did half of the pullup wod and the crossfit endurance run.

5 rds (17 sets)
3 45#
5 strict
7 kip

about 15 min

endurance run all out 9 min.

I'm a terrible runner so it didn't take much for me to run my hardest ever for that long, I'm a sprinter if anything.

9:00 min on treadmill 9.5 (mph)
1.4 miles (jumped off from 7:00 to 7:10 to take a couple deep breaths)

I have to go to kentucky to visit my mom and my sisters since they flew out to visit my sister there, so I'll be on the road about 16 hrs the next two or so days. But i got a new jumprope, since my other one broke in half when I tried to practice double unders on wednesday, so I'll at least do something.

Jakes, two fun quickies:
1)Today, randomly heard a blurb in the middle of a convo ...

"Man, I tell you ... that stability ball is the bomb. You don't even feel like you're working!"

FYI stability dude ... that's because you're probably not.

2) While TDY, doing deadlift 3RM at a MILITARY gym in Alabama. Lady asks me if I can be quieter when I lower the weight ... because the noise hurts her ears when the plates clank. I didn't know what to say ... I was already lowering the bar with control. I respond "Ma'am, I don't think that I can lower it any slower ... it's heavy." I then suggest that I'll warn her when my next set come up and she can go stand on the other side of the gym ...

Great video today and great comments by all. I like the idea of people bringing something to the table and opening up a debate or just telling some down right funny s^%t.

The Tale of the Afghan WOD
My personal story of Globo gym goofiness comes while I was deployed to Afghanistan. If you've never been to a gym in a war zone let's just say you see some odd stuff. You have all types coming to the gym at various hours of the day and night. You've got the 'roid types (mostly contractors, but I did see a few soldiers who were using Vitamin S), the crazy endurance runner types who seemed to be running all day (what exactly they did in the Army is beyond me), the guys working hard for the first time, and the local nationals (Afghan Interpreters and random workers). My favorite bunch were the Afghans, these guys had no formal weight lifting training and would usually stare at a soldier for a few minutes and then try to copy what they were doing. Some of the moves they attempted are beyond my ability to describe the, but one day I was in there doing some handstand pushups and then running on the treadmill. I had an audience of about 3 Afghans looking at me while I knocked out a few rounds. They begin to chat with each other and I walked out of the room into the lower level to grab a towel and came back. When I returned to the room I almost fell down laughing. One Afghan was struggling mightily to run in his "man dress" on the treadmill at full speed and went flying off the back of the treadmill crashing into the ground. The other two were dutifully smashing their heads into the concrete floor while attempt to do handstand push ups. Well treadmill guy decided that he wasn't going to let the infidel's gerbil wheel of doom get him down and proceeds to jump back on the treadmill going 10 mph without stopping it. His buddy is still struggling with the handstand push up gives up and starts to walk away shaking his head muttering something in Pashto when treadmill guy comes flying off the treadmill into him. At this point I'm laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes, but go over to the new CrossFitters and give them a thumbs up and a "CrossFit Good!" They all nodded and smiled which seems to be the reaction of most Afghans to anything they don't really understand; but suffice to say I don't think they'll be doing "Murph" anytime soon.

#50
That should be more accurately named "Things liberal white people like."
I found a few pretty funny and correct, but most were pretty inaccurate for me and the majority of people I know. Most would apply to the dirty hippy type, or the wannabe hipsters found in colleges across the nation.

Steve L. #83,
I completely agree with you on the schedule tending towards overtraining. My results with CFing patients from reducing metcons (typically in duration, but also in frequency and % of max effort expended) would also bear this out. Actually, it is exactly the overtraining reason that CFers come to me.

Some may not agree with this. Fine. The results of this approach with me helping Josh Everett organize his training schedule would seem to be pretty self-evident.

I recently had another athlete I was helping to prepare for the CF Regional Games. He went to a Level I cert a couple weeks ago. I told him to take it easy, sit out when he could, don't let ego get the best of him (because many folks know from experience that the Level I weekends can be very draining/taxing). He got similar advice from Josh while he was at the weekend.

Young, brash kid that he is, he didn't listen. Now he's out of the Games pursuit (most likely) with a herniated disc.

#8 Jake

Neither of mine are really long, but I have two.

First one was at the first Globo Gym i ever joined, one of the first days i started working out there. I walk over to the dumbbells to do incline press or something like that and I look over to my left, and see a guy go grab 2 85# dumbbells. He does 2 sets of 4 curls and puts them back and then walks away. I should have known right then that I was in the wrong place...

My second story is from my current neighborhood gym that I go to. I am in there doing a WOD about a week or two ago, and I notice this really intense guy walking around. So he goes to the Lat pull down station, and puts the pin through almost the heaviest weight you could put it on. He then starts the most violent motion I have ever seen in my life. He grabs the bar and pulls back with all of his body weight and gets his butt to the seat of the station; then when he finishes pulling down the bar as far as he can, he lets up and the weight of machine pulls him all the way up out of his seat. He continues this for 8 reps and 3 rounds. I literally stopped mid-WOD and watched this guy, not being able to control my laughter.

Those are my two stories. I have been building out my own garage gym so I don't have to go waste $39 a month and can work out whenever. I just got the Pendalay HD bar (it's amazing by the way). I now have bumpers from Wright, pendalay HD bar, and squat stands (that also have a rack for bench as well), and a pull-up station courtesy of lowe's and some pipe. It is coming together, and hopefully by this summer, I will have it all completed.

Jakers,

I worked at a supplement store next to a 24 hr fit gym. A largely obese man would come in every day after his "workout" and ask my opinion about supplementation and buy a protein shake. About 2 weeks into his "personal training program" he came in with a huge smile on his face. "my trainer says I have lost 20 lbs of fat and put on 20 lbs of muscle in the past 2 weeks" I waited for the punchline....When one did not come, I asked who his trainer was. I knew them all. After about 3 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to explain to him that this was physically impossible, I smiled and told him to keep up the good work. Coincidentally the manager and the trainer came in later that day and the trainer was ripped into by the manager after I asked him if he told his trainee that. I now chuckle in my gym whenever I see a "trainer" giving the free session to vastly different people. Guess what? the workouts are virtually identical.

Drink th kool-aid.

Jaker, my apologies for not following your lead. Finally got off my overlarge backside and wrote this to my congressional delegation. I wonder which low paid staff person will have to read it, if any.

Kyle, Andrew, Jolie and Chuck: friggin awesome work. Humbled and proud to be associated with CF. I'm just counting my blessings today, and invited my kids to do the same. There's a long list and I owe it to people like the warriors in that film - would that we could give it all back to them. Paul
_________________________________________________

Dear Sir,

I am writing to make a simple case that the AIG exec bonus payments are the least of the issues that trouble me about the trajectory of our government. It was completely predictable and of no surprise whatsoever that in handing out money which is coercively extracted from its citizenry, that money would be given to the wrong persons for the wrong reasons with the wrong outcomes. This always happens when government takes the Freeman's money and distributes same in an 'effort to do good.' This abuse of trust is part and parcel of the coercive power of the government, and I might point out that coercion is the only tool of government and therefore federal power was justifiably and strictly limited in our Constitution. I see the current situation as a natural and predictable result of the removal of many Constitutional limits over the course of our nation’s history.

How much money has our federal government forcibly extracted (on pain of imprisonment) from the citizenry and either fully wasted, or given to business interests in the form of subsidy, or given to other citizens (such as the shareholders and employees of AIG and the Big 3) in a pure extraction/transfer fashion? How much money do we the citizenry lose each year through the fraudulent abuse of government 'entitlement' programs? How much of our money is lost in mis-management in federally funded colleges, universities, and public elementary and secondary schools? Where is the money which was extracted from us as a payroll tax (purportedly to be doled back to us, if we live long enough, in our old age), and for what purpose was that money spent? How much in federal money has been wasted, either by incompetence or because it is an impossible mission, on the ‘War on Drugs’? In the light of the incalculable waste that has been inflicted on the supposedly free citizens of our nation by past and present politicians, making political calculations, which have vastly exceeded 100 Enrons, 50 Fannie and Freddies, and a month’s worth of AIGs (not to mention the role of the government in the fantastic failures of these institutions), I can only view the current kerfuffle over a few million in bonus payments as an attempt at distraction. The true outrage of government abuse of the citizenry exceeds this event by an amount the average person can not calculate or even conceive. Viewed with the slightest sense of perspective, I cannot view the current fuss over AIG bonus payments with any outrage; I do however wish that AIG bonuses approximated the worst of what has been done to us.

I assume we are not seeing stronger leadership from the GOP on the issue of leadership because both sides have dirty hands. This makes me wonder if it is possible to reverse the ugly trend of the present towards more government intervention and therefore more of the coercive power of the state applied in the lives of my fellow citizens, in my life, and in my children’s lives. I am a natural optimist but I cannot find any optimism that more government is going to make life better for our citizenry. I ask that you consider how the present trend may be interrupted and moved back towards more liberty.

I ask for your continued assistance in seeking ways to scale back the authority and power of the federal government, and to focus the your efforts on the fundamental charter of government: to protect the personal liberty and property rights of each citizen, and defend our Constitution. We the People give our consent to be governed for those two specific purposes. I support any and all Constitutional Amendments which would constrain our government to the accomplishment of those two ends, and would remove from federal authority the many purposes it has assumed which are extraneous to those ends.

With humble respect and appreciation for your efforts to defend liberty,

Jakers,

#81, mspoet, has it dude!!! That was an awesome story!!!

Haha Ghostrider, I ran into similar situations when I was living on a COP with a bunch of Iraqi soldiers.

The most annoying (not necessarily funny) globo-gym situation I've run into is the meathead intervention. I'm sure many of you have run into this. You're doing a movement properly (kipping pullups, push jerk, etc) and a supplement monkey comes over and tries to tell you that you're not "properly isolating" the muscle groups. Go back to the pec deck, assface.

I work out at the gym at my work. All the usual suspects are there:

The guy who does 1/8 ROM walking lunges with 3# dumbells, then heads to the elliptical to crank out three revolutions forward then three revolutions backwards while reading a novel,

The guy who does 1/4 ROM weighted calf raises.

But the best is the guy with the oversized everlast sweatshirts with the sleeves cut off and the neck cut big and wide, bicycle shorts, and a baggy weightlifting belt. He'll line up a spotter to crank out incline dumbell presses, not letting his elbows break 90 degrees, and with his torso postured up so he basically flat. He does this every other day and never does legs.

There are also a lot of people who do smith machine squats with that tampon back pad.

Hello, Crossfit Community! I have an injury to discuss with you. A couple of months ago, following some squat cleans, I noticed some pain and tightness in my knee. Since then, it has gotten better only to be aggravated again the next time i did squat cleans. The pain is mostly in the back of the knee and becomes more intense the more i bend my knee (i.e. quad stretches or deep squats). Does anyone have any ideas what this could be or how to alleviate it? I realize rest would be the best option, but I've been receiving some treatment from my chiro/p.t. guy. He says, based on his evaluation, there's no structural damage. Advice? Thanks a lot!

#83 - Steve

Good point. I think in my own case it comes down to the definition of "strict adherence." I know from experience that I can't do a 3/1 schedule with 100% effort on every WOD without eventually hitting those overtraining symptoms. I "workout" pretty much every day and only take a full-on rest day when something else in my life demands a full day of attention (which isn't very often). But I try to monitor how I'm feeling, look at what I've done for the past several days, and will often take an easy day where I might do a metcon at less than 100%, or even just walk through it without the clock running. Or I might do a 5x5 ME day without pushing my limit. Or I might do a day which is really more form work than anything else, maybe along with some reps of movements that I feel I've been neglecting.

The problem with this, of course, is that it demands honesty and self-awareness. It's very easy to slack off when you don't really need to. The nice thing about just following the mainpage schedule is that you don't need to think for yourself about what you should be doing. The bad thing about just following the mainpage schedule is that you aren't thinking for yourself about what you should be doing.

Once one has been at this awhile, though, I think one should be able to start making some decisions about what works best for them, which might not be what is best for the guy next to you.

I am stuck at a corporate gym but they are really cool about letting me O'lift and such. That said Nothing makes me smile harder then some sweet Kevin Bacon body ripping out lat pull downs in his under amour...

I am on a different schedule, heavy deadlifts here i come...3-2-1...

I guess I am naive but a torn callous is no reason to stop working out no more than a solider would quit because of a massive blister. Pain is like beauty in the mind of the beholder.

Mine is not quite as dramatic as some others but here it goes.

I was at a local YMCA where I do my lifting workouts and was beginning my warmup. In comes a couple that I see regularly. Both wearing tight spandex, "serious" looks on their faces, preparing to hit it hard. I call them the "Uber-Fit" couple because their looks and demeanor are something akin to Mike Myers on the SNL skit "Sprockets." As they begin their normal workouts - upper body for him and lower for her - I set up the equipment to do "Diane". They both look at me oddly while I set up the DL and put my stuff down by the wall beside the smith machine to reserve my space for HSPUs. I hit the clock and begin to bang out the DLs. They begin giving me looks, probably because of the noise (no bumper plates)but the looks intensify as I begin the HSPUs. During this time the female has begun to do squats on the Freemotion machine next to where I'm working. As I finish the last round of HSPUs, I collapse on the floor, pouring sweat, and breathing hard - about 10 min have passed. While I'm on the floor recovering, I notice the female has stopped halfway down on a set of squats and is staring at me. She sheepishly asks, "Are you ok? Do you need help?" I reply, "Nope. This happens all the time. I'm just catching my breath." She looked as if I was an alien or a nutcase. I just laughed and have noticed that they stay away from me and avoid eye contact since that moment.

Funny thing is that I have gotten about 3-4 more people started in CrossFit there since. I guess they will have to get them a set of "designer" blinders to go along with their spandex when they come to the gym in the future 'cause me and the other invaders aren't going away.

CrossFit is awesome and I love being able to perform at a level at 39 that most of my younger co-workers don't understand. Enjoy the rest day!

Long post, hung up in filter.

Comment #81 - Posted by: mspoet
--Helova good story. Jakers, great friggin idea. "Too bad" I have not worked out in enough globo gyms to have any good stories since starting CF. Just thinking about it makes me want to put 700 pounds on the squat bar so I can do some quarter squats. Paul

Yucky.
As rx'd 33:29

To #95, scott

Sounds like a couple things that it could be. It could be a bakers cyst, or possible a calf strain. Couple things to look for. Any swelling around the knee, especially to the back side? Any tenderness to the touch anywhere? Any popping or cracking, joint locking up, difficulty accending or decending stairs? Give me some more details and I might be able to direct you to the right type of treatment. In the mean time, don't do any squats, LOL

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/03/18/2009-03-18_what_was_supposed_to_be_legal_lynching_o.html?print=1&page=all

This pretty well says what I tried to say in the earlier, filtered post. Paul

Jakers,

My favorite Globo story is from years ago when my buddy and I were working out at the East Bank Club in Chicago. Nice place, but most people there are more interested in how they look while they're working out rather than actually working out.

So a friend of ours starts doing EZ-Bar curls with quite a bit of weight, but he's just swinging that weight up. Every set, he swings more and more. My buddy and look at each other in awe, and just watch him do it. Finally I just can't take it anymore and yell out across the floor, "Hey Dave, I swear if you got a running start on those curls you could probably do at least 10 more pounds!"

Everybody turns to look about and people break out laughing while the Dave's face get so red... I seriously think he considered beating me to death right there. Was totally worth it though.

I can't say I've seen too much "funny" in the gym. I started working out in a Community Center (read: gym which charged very little and sold donated brownies at the door).

In this place I saw the useless, 250 lb woman doing ten minutes walking on the treadmill while reading a magazine followed by three sets of ten on the thigh adductor machine at the lowest weight setting; the pointless, quarter-squats on the Smith Machine; the dangerous, three-hundred pound bench press with an open grip and no spotter; and the ridiculous, a guy I worked with squatting four hundred, feet shoulder width, toes pointed out about 30 degrees, and knees tracking as far inward as physically possible. Naturally he could only get about a half-squat, but the torque on his knees must have been tremendous. I'm not the type to go around telling others how they should work out, but I felt compelled (since I knew him and he's one hell of a nice guy) to point out that his form was a little off. He told me he did it that way to "protect my knees". I had no response to that.

Ok, I'll start something:

Why don't we ever see Coach doing a WOD? If those soldiers with no legs can do it, he can do it!

(My Wife asked me this question and I couldn't really answer it)

Never quit!

First and foremost a strong "THANK YOU!" to all the soldiers in the "Warrior Spirit" video for all they have given and sacrificed for our nation.

This video is the most terrific example of 'universal scalability.' No one should find the excuse 'it's too hard,' especially when we see others that must make adaptations to absolutely everything in life (the abilities we all take for granted).

Thank you CrossFit for reaching out once again to make the seemingly impossible once again possible.
This is an exceptional community I'm proud to be associated with.

I have to thank the guys in the video, you have just given me a wonderful gift. You have taken away all excuses. Not doing a wod because I am tired or I can't do it as Rx'd or I lack motivation to get myself to the gym just doesn't cut it anymore. Until I don't have an arm or a leg I don't have anything that would approach a good enough excuse. Even then you guys are still rocking WODs. I guess the only acceptable excuse is death:), and even then I am not so sure.
I love you guys and keep on kicking bums.

Jakers,
All I gotta say is that #45 Viking blood gets my vote for the best story. I thought that was absolutely hilarious.

#102 EREK-

Thanks for your help. There's no pain to the touch, but lately the pain that was pretty localized, but it's now starting to spread throughout the knee. Think knife in the back of the knee doling pain through to the middle and especially the left side as well. There is no identifiable swelling that i can see, and my chiropractor didn't mention anything. I have no pain with change of direction or anything like that.

M/46/235/5'10"

Birthday WOD:

Row 1,963 meters (or run 1 mile) then....
46 Burpees
46 Thrusters #45
46 Wallball (#20/#14)
46 Weighted Walking Lunges (#25/#35)
46 Goblet Squats (#25/#35)
46 KB Swings (#35/#25)
46 Box Jumps

Courtesy of Crossfit Tri-Cities.

Ran instead of rowed because need to work on running:35:21

I think this is my 3rd year of Crossfit: went from struggling & 275 lbs to still struggling but more fit than ever in my life-thanks to the Crossfit community and my good friend TJO for getting me to try it.

Next year I will do this WOD much faster!

I read these comments every night and I have never commented. I have been doing crossfit regularly since about July 2008. I love the comraderie that i feel reading these posts. I finally decided to make a comment because that video of those injured soldiers hit me hard. I am so grateful that they do what they do so that i can do what i do. I hope we can all take a moment out of our busy lives once in a while and feel that feeling of gratefulness. I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be a Crossfitter.

mspoet was pretty good. But as we used to say back home, "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Then it's frickin' hilarious."

So I have Chris and Ghost rider in the lead. The other stories are good and a little polishing and some detail and they could be right there.

Paul, don't forget I've opened it up to pretty much anything fitness based. I know you've been in Dojo's. Dojo's are a silly comedy hotbed.

I'm disqualifying my self on the small chance that the crowd goes wild for this story and demand I declare myself the winner.

A friend invited me to attend his karate class. The instructor has us drilling round house kicks.
He comes over and tells me I'm throwing them to high. I throw a couple of low ones and then the kicks start climbing back up to shoulder height. He comes over again and tells me I'm doing it wrong and that he will show me how.

OK. He lines up in front of me and says go. Me: You mean you want me to try and kick you in the head.

Him: Yep

Me: Full speed?

Him Yep

Me: OK

I hip fake a low kick he puts his hands down and leans forward and my big toe cracks him on the bridge of his eye.

Him: OK. Lets try it again.

Me: Are you sure?

Him: Nods

Lather rinse repeat. He now has a mouse on his eye you could hang your car keys off of.

He turns around around and starts teaching the class again like nothing happened.

Here is my conversation starter. Patriotism, exclusive to conservatives or does the very definition of this solicit the question of authority?

Scott, #95, I've had 2 arthroscopes for torn meniscus, and symptoms were similar to yours. I'd go see a good orthopedic specialist, they may recommend an MRI to rule out structural damage.

Scott:

Sound fishy. MRI would be a good idea. Sometimes torn meniscus can have very few symptoms, but a deep knee bend would place a lot of stress on the posterior side of the meniscus. I agree with #114, see an ortho, he/she will likely want an MRI or tell you too keep resting, icing and taking motrin.

My Global Gym experiences are mainly related to the characters that frequent them. I did have one experience with a staff member who refuse to believe that my membership card was really mine since it stated my name, Tracy, and I happen to be a guy. Really ticked me off since I had been a member for many years.

Here are a few stories on some of the characters:
One of the original American Gladiators asked me to spot him on the bench. Each time the bar was lowered to his chest he would KISS the bar with his lips! Granted whenever I saw him in the gym after that I made certain I was not in the vicinity to spot him anymore.
Three guys were working out on multiple areas. More BS'ing than working out. So they moved to another position so I decided to start using the equipment that was just left alone. Then one guy comes over and informs me they were still using the equip. He was pretty agitated about it and started lecturing me on proper gym etiquette. I looked at him like he was nuts and then he must have realized he was an idiot and apologized.
One day a guy came up to me asking if I was in the latest Men's Fitness/Journal magazine since I looked like the same guy doing the same exercise. I guess when you do non traditional exercises you look like a freak.

Here's a thought... and its out of my technical expertise, but i enjoy checking out the links that some people post within their comments. But whenever i click on a link to check it out and subsequently close out that link i am not returned to the comments page. I then have to go back to the comments page and remember which post i was on and scroll down to that post to continue. Not complaining because it's no big deal but in the interest of making the site better i wonder if there is a way to avoid this and return to the exact spot on the comments page where i clicked the link.

Just wonderin'

Rick

Rick, try right-clicking and opening in a new tab or window.

Playing catchup, I'm so behind I just called it even and went for a run :-)

Warmup:
3x10 box jumps, pushups, situps, pullups (45% assist), dips, stretch

Attempted yesterdays' WOD, but I am so sorry at pullups I couldn't figure out how to do weighted/assisted pullups...got thru 1.5 rounds before my right pronator muscle screamed "enough!"

So I went for a run...1.5 miles 11:03.

Will rejoin the rest of you tomorrow...link up at the rally point and we'll move out.

#118 Goat

You da man!

Are there any military members out there? I was wondrering if anyone knew if you could use tuition assistance or top up to help pay for crossfit certifications?

Jakers,

Howdy, I was in the college gym one afternoon and in the middle of a workout. In my poor mental haze of mid workout I was zoned out and looking towards the TVs. (Also where the eliptical/and other machines are.) I watched some dude get spit off a stair machine. He just got dumped off the back end into a pile on the ground. I thought I was just imagining but other people were trying not to laugh too. I couldn't help it, that's just too funy!

Train hard, then train harder but don't be that dude.

Henry,

I'm trying to imagine how you even get spit off the back of a stair machine. I mean that takes serious effort.

Good stuff everybody keep it coming.

Chris S and Ghostrider are in the lead.

Jakers- I know you aren't taking votes, but my top two favorites are in this order:

(1) Ghostrider
(2) mpoet

Visualizing the Afghan guy in his dress flying off the treadmill had me rolling.

#121

Anthony,

I just talked to my base unit training office. it sounds like it is up to the discretion of your state whether or not they will decide to pay for whatever course you choose. On the application they request a "degree plan", so if it doesn't have a traditional title such as associate or bachelor attached to it, it might raise a red flag. They also said that the state gives priority to those seeking 2 and 4 year degrees. My advice, APPLY this fall. I am. Worst thing they can say is no. Good luck.

jakers...

i don't have a globo story but i have a story from my brother's gym, an intructor try to show a newbly some GHD sit-ups but with the rush of the moment he forgot to lock his ankles and he literally fly away the machine and land over his head he land vertically aned then all the body that's NOT funny that's sacary but the newbly with a huge impresed and scared face then tell the intructor this; "but Mr. george i may not able to do that it seem too dificult" the intructor was mad because the fall he just said "that's not the exercise that was a fall and it hurts" then we start to laught so hard to the tears it was extremely funny you can't beliave how funny it was

big side hugs crossfit brothers and sisters

jakers,

So, there I am attending a karate tourny, waiting my turn to compete.

Performing for the judges, let's call him, the "Tin Lizard", doing a Kama kata. (for those that don't know, it's a sharp tool used for flailing wheat).

I've known the "Tin Lizard" for quite awhile and he has a bit of an EGO! (somewhat like the globo gym guys)

Now mind you, he must have been up all night sharpening his Kamas, 'cause they was sharp!

Well, he's going along, showboating, when all of a sudden he sticks the Kama through his pant leg, into his calf, and out the other side. OUCH!

(Crowd gasps)

Well, as all good martial artists do, he tries to hide the mess up by not screaming, grabbing his leg, or falling to the ground, by pulling the Kama, or should I say, wiggling the Kama out. OUCH again.

As the blood soaks his pant leg and the crowd's still gasping, he finishes the kata, then limps off the floor leaving a trail of blood behind him.

For the most part it was a flesh wound, the stitch in my side from laughing too hard, that is.

#117 - Rick

Goat's suggestion works fine. Alternatively, you can open remote links as you have been, then when you are done don't close the window, but rather use Alt-left arrow (i.e. BACK). That will return you to exactly where you were on the comments page.

Cricket jumps into the top 3

Unfortunately this is more humiliating than anything else, but it might be amusing to some.

Background: I am relatively new to heavy lifting and slightly neurotic so I try to practice my lifts on an unweighted bar with “performance-level” intensity, hoping to dial in that perfect technique/form. I also tend to be somewhat clutzy at times and have been known to injure myself on the most mundane of tasks.

The Incident: My first go round with 1rep heavy thrusters and I spend the hour before psyching myself up for it with some demo videos, music, etc. By the time I get to the warm up my blood is nearly boiling and I am daydreaming about throwing 185lbs overhead like its nothing. After a bit of rowing I race over to the platform, do a few air reps real quick and then grab the bar in a tizzy and go for it. From what I recall, my form was really great till I got to the top, my hands reached a point and stopped, however the bar did not follow suit. Seems I forgot to chalk up my sweaty hands and turns out the bar was 45lbs, not that 185 I had in my head. Thankfully instinct kicked in and I ducked and covered inside the squat rack while watching the bar come within inches of the ceiling and then come down and bounce from end to end on the platform like a vibrating guillotine of death. Luckily it was the middle of day and no one was around the platform, but management happened to see the whole thing and came racing over. Mortified, I just stood there and smiled, waiting to get the boot. He checks out the bar, reracks it for me, and as he walks away says “Maybe a little too explosive eh?” Pretty sure everyone that works there refers to me as “that guy” but they still let me lift there. Now I chalk up for everything.

Top 3 bloodiest?

Steve #83:

"Are most crossfitters overtrained or walking that fine line?"

Great question, to which the only accurate answer has to be: "Who knows?!"

If we return to the famous "What is fitness" article and some of the earliest writings of Coach we learn that the 3 on/1 off pattern was found to produce the best fitness results (as classically defined by Crossfit) in the athletes under the direct training supervision of Coach and Lauren. So, experimentation on a small cohort with implementation of directed change in response to measured and recorded results observed after manipulation of variables. Sounds kinda like science, eh?

Fast forward to today where we have 3 days of WOD's posted followed by a day of rest, consistent with the empirical findings at CF Santa Cruz back in the day, but we have athletes who are NOT working out under the direct supervision of Coach and Lauren. What is their experience with regard to recovery or overtraining?

Well, the short and most accurate answer is that we have no idea. We have anecdotal reports (more on that in a moment) of overtraining or under-recovery, but we also have rpeated questions along the lines of "Is that all there is? What ELSE do you do after the WOD?" So of course the only accurate answer is that there are some athletes for whom 3 on/1 off is too much, there are some athletes who should schedule in a formal recovery schedule (see Larry Lindenman), and there are others for whom the WOD is simply not enough (see CFE or Mtnathlete.com).

Any other sweeping answer that seeks to establish some global truth is either suffering from a frame of reference bias, the inherent lack of applicability of single anecdotal reports, or is supporting some alternative agenda.

So let us examine the post of DOCTOR Garrett Smith #88. A self-selected population of athletes chooses to visit Dr. Smith with symptoms of over-training. We know nothing else about these individuals. This experience leads the good doctor to conclude that Crossfit is "tending toward over-training." This is an example of frame of reference bias with a small homogenous non-random sample generalized to a larger population. There is no power to this type of examination of a question except insofar as it might generate an examination of a more representative population.

Dr. Smith then suggests that his personal alteration of Josh Everett's schedule by DECREASING volume is responsible for Josh's incredible fitness, and yet at MY cert Josh was an instructor and he did not correct Tony Budding when Tony suggested that Josh is fit enough to do MORE high intensity exercise and that his otherworldly results are in part due to genetic gifts, one of which is his capacity for MORE than what the Main Page asks. We should certainly take Dr. Smith at his word that he has been involved in Josh's training planning, and yet without a clear and objective evaluation of Josh's schedule as it relates to the Main Page this is an example of inappropriate usage of an anecdote since it is not possible to ascertain if the anecdote is at all related to the topic at hand. This is called "name dropping." I am routinely guilty of this.

And finally we have the "associated anecdote", a story placed within a conversation that seems to be related and without careful examination of the details of the story appears to support the contention of the storyteller. A young stud athlete exits a Level 1 Cert with a bulging disc (again, no reason to doubt the veracity of the facts) after participating in all of the cert activities. We are left with the impression that it was the VOLUME and INTENSITY of the cert that resulted in the unfortunate problem, a bulging disc, that will prevent this athlete from competing at the Games. Or, that the athlete in question was unable to recover, was "overtrained" and that this resulted in a bulging disc.

There are several problems with the inclusion of this particular anecdote. Firstly, as Dr. Smith well knows, VOLUME is not the cause of a bulging disc. Nor is intensity. A bulging disc results from technique that is not compatible with the safe performance of a particular individual in a particular task. To ascribe this injury to the activities at a Level 1 cert and imply that "easing off" at the cert would have prevented this injury is disingenuous at best and frankly is potentially actionable (Dale?).

Secondly, the question asked was in regards to overtraining with the 3 on/1 off schedule. How does an anecdote from a 2 day conference relate to this question? The answer, of course, is that it does not. The inclusion of this anecdote is an example of "agenda bias", the inclusion of anecdotes or other "research" of minimal power that are included in a discussion in which they do not apply. This is designed to propogate a particular point of view regarding an issue, subject, or broader category beyond the scope of the question at hand.

To borrow a phrase from Garrett Smith, NMD, the agenda bias in post #88 is "self-evident."

Anthony,

Wow man that's a good point, hadn't even thought of that. I'm about to get out, going to grad school in the fall. The GI Bill can be applied to vocational training, and last time I checked personal trainer is a profession so a CF Cert should qualify for this. Or maybe not...I'm no expert, does anyone have experience dealing with this?

Speaking of certs, what happened to the Ouray vacation cert package? Did it get canceled? It's not listed anymore.

Jakers,
No stories just a gripe. Don't you hate it when globo participants hog a much needed machine for a workout...or worse yet cut into your set WOD killing a possible PR. I grind my teeth to that sometimes. Especially cause most Army gyms are lacking in pull up systems that can be used with kipping. Unless my kip is to wild I sometimes will feel like I am about to tip the tower of power & it's almost impossible to get in on the cable archways machines with the pull up bars in the middle (to many Globo affiliates showing off with the cables).
I've gotten so fed up with it I decided to put my hard earned cash flow into my own CF garage style gym. I plan on goind throught Roguefitness.com to get myself a hi-speed Bravo package. Can't wait :)

Jakers,
I have a 19 year old kid that works for me, he works out as part of his comunity college courses at the gym there. I talk about what I do in CrossFit constantly, and of course he mocks what he does not understand...

He has all of the standard arguements to why traditional weightlifting and standard gym iso movements are better than what we do, and even mocks my zone lunches! So I challenged him to do a mere 4 minutes of CrossFit. I teach him the air squat, explain the Tabata Time interval, and find an online timer...

During the first 20 seconds he bangs out 21 squats. Not Bad. He spends the ten seconds of rest at the bottom of the squat, because I explained both ways to do tabata squats, and he thinks he's tough!

Round 2 begins, and he lasts 13 seconds, doind about 6 squats before collapsing on the ground and crying out "I quit! It hurts so bad!"

Next day, guess who walks in eating an apple...

did Linda today with Mark at Crossfit Loveland garage gym.

185 Deads Mark used 225
165 BP
120 Squat Cleans

29:10 and Mark at 29:24

damn that is a tough workout. not as rx'd but still happy with that weight.

#136 scubasteve hey brother you have a trip to the hell and back LINDA!!!! that name is heavy bro you are tough...big hugs!!!

3-2-1 GOOOO

m/28/5'11/168

"murph" partitioned cindy style

36:14

I'm injured.

Well, just a little messed up, but it sucks.

When I wake up, I have this sharp, deep, ache in my left hip. It goes down the leg a little but. I can also feel a little tightness in my calf on that outside edge but not in any areas in between. I can't straighten my leg out completely and I have to walk with a bit of a bend in my leg until it warms up. If I flex my foot and toes I can really feel it. I can also feel it in my lower back on the same side.

It began hurting when I did squats last week. I felt a little pulling in that side of my low back when I got below parallel. I think I ran that night too (CFE) and it was messed up the next morning. I ran on it a couple times and box jumps really lit me up when I did them between sprints.

What is this? Piriformis? IT Band? Lower Back?

Foam rolling helps temporarily. I'll continue that. What else can I do to help this? Is there anything I should avoid or scale down significantly?

This is the best rest day ever. Hilarious stories and comments. Good video. No bickering.

#81, mspoet, is an amazing story and would have my vote any day!!!

Jakers, my story isn't quite as funny as it was just plain shocking. I was at my college gym (UCSB, incase there is somehow any other crossfitters here reading), and there was this kid doing "something" with a barbell. Not sure how to even name it, maybe rolling deadlifts. He was picking up the bar from a raised point at about his knees, and as he picked it up, his WHOLE ENTIRE BACK was rolled, his lower and upper, with 245 pounds. I go to him and explain that he will most definitly injure himself if he doesn't fix his posture immediately. He goes on to tell me that he is working on his abs and by bending over while he picks up the weight, he feels it in his abs, and it is a good workout. I again explain to him that he is unmistakably incorrect, and i did so only for his own good, and that he needed to stop right away. He again says, he feels it in his abs, and that I don't know what i am talking about and that i should mind my own business. I try once more to explain the workings of the deadlift and the dangers of doing it incorrectly, but he shrugs and says he feels it in his abs, puts on 20 more pounds, and does ten more reps!!!!!!!! First time in 6 years at a gym i saw something so shocking and horrific

These stories are priceless. I'm going to dream tonight of Afghans flying off treadmills, karate instructors with swollen eyes, and puking globo cementheads seeing the light.

I played football in college and our weight room was straight out of central casting. The enormous gay guy who wanted to prove he was stronger than any football player, the 3rd string linebacker who could bench the world but his legs looked like 2 strings hanging out of his shorts, the special teams monster who would pause between sets and challenge himself to remember what classes he'd taken the previous semester...

But the best was the naturally-gifted wide receiver (later drafted by Dallas). Almost no real working out for this guy. He'd start up a treadmill, and stand with his feet on the edges. He'd jump on once it was at full speed, run for one minute, and jump to the edges again and look at his watch. This would go on for about 20 minutes. His entire workout consisted of trying to count precisely 60 seconds in his head and then compare it to his watch. He spent 4 years counting perfectly to 59 and 61 seconds, but as far as I know, never really nailed it.

Even though this is custom made for my seeming inability to stay on topic, I think I'll sit this one out. I was all over the place on the last one.

I will insert one comment, though, since to do otherwise would be to be someone else.

I am reading, as I mentioned, "The Black Book of Communism." It is a book which is painful to read. It is in fact a black book. No one who reads about the pointless horror inflicted on the Russians, Ukrainians, Central Asians, Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, Africans, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, and others, can be other than sickened by the evils committed by intellectuals in other nations, and forgiven by intellectuals in our own.

That history is not yet gone. Billions of people still live in Communist tyrannies. And even now leftist environmentalists like Al Gore are publicly calling for an end to our democratic traditions and freedoms, in the name of the Earth.

But if anything is clear in studying this history, it is that the end result these people claim they want is NEVER achieved. Never. It has never happened. There is NO workers paradise anywhere on this Earth. The only people who have come close are the Kibbutzim in Israel, and they succeed because they share a common culture, and common enemies.

Leftists don't care if Global Warming is man-made. They don't even care if it exists. What they care about is the power that issue allows them to demand from sovereign nations.

The nations on this Earth have been through many trying times, and have survived. The United States has persevered through many difficult periods, and survived. There is nothing which says we will not be able to create something new, and better for ourselves in the coming crisis.

But we must remain vigilant. We must remember that it was never forordained that our system of government--the most just in human history--need last forever, or resist indefinitely the assaults of weak minded autocrats, and feeble minded coconspiratorial intellectuals.

History makes me sad. One can see how if only a few more good people had acted decisively when the time came, how justice might have prevailed.

These are gloomy topics. Frankly, going through them hurts just the way WOD's do. But it is necessary for understanding.

I just wanted to get that off my chest.

So I've really gotta hand it to Fox news for pushing the envelope of ignorance and stupidity.

Following is a link where they manage to insult Canadian intelligence, culture, history, military pride, etc... while getting it all wrong. I submit for the consideration of the military and police personnel that I know read this. Keeping in mind as they comment that 'they didn't know Canada was in the war' that the first story in my mind is the Canadian snipers commended and 'medaled' for their gallant action which saved the lives of an American unit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJn5XlbSFk

My question is: why is it that the dumbest people are given the biggest soap boxes to stand on? Crap like this pisses me off!

I cannot get over how amazing #81's story. For a meathead to be so embarrassed, especially in front of a girl, then come back at all for more, shows that a true and special crossfitter is on the horizon. I don't think I could have ever shown my face again at that gym, and it is very hard for my to get embarrassed!!!

This comes from my pre-CrossFit days. I was training with a friend at a local YMCA doing heavy bench, a movement I hardly ever perform anymore. We had an established routine of pyramid sets moving up to 80% of our max and then going back down to cooldown weight.

Back then the cooldown weight for us was 225, nice and strict, and repped out as many as we could. As I break number ten and began heading into the teens, a towel comes flying from nowhere, breaks my peripheral vision, and lands next to the bench. A few inches more and it would have landed on my face while I was 1) fatigued and 2) under significant load during a potentially dangerous exercise, as in cutting my head off if that weight hit my neck if I had slipped.

My spotter and best friend, who I have lifted with for 10's of years, received the weight on that rep, racked it, and about popped his eyes out yelling at little 10 year olds acting like idiots while their parents were doing step aerobics in some side room.

The people who worked there asked why he was so mad.

A few weeks later, I looked online and found Tony Young and CrossFit Ohio; no more YMCA ever again, no more globo. The only way I would ever go back to a place like that is if I wore a pink leotard and did a WOD so hard and tough that I barfed on the posers, but since I hate the color pink, hate leotards, and really hate puking, well, I don't think I'd step through the door. It'd be like a vampire trying to go to Church.

>Start something in comments.
I'm starting a CrossFit in Walnut Creek, CA.

Check it.
www.CrossfitSweatShop.com

Hey guys,

First off-Crossfit is incredible, this site is great, much appreciation to everyone involved. Now, this is irrelavent to the topics at hand, but I'm not quite sure where to post and this seems like my best option. Simply, I am looking to start the Zone diet (give it at least 2 weeks of weighing, not deviating, etc.) and I am trying to figure out what plan (block prescription) to go with (Crossfit Journal 21, May 2004). I am 6'4", 195, pretty muscular. I lift about twice a week (using modified/less intense WOD's), but I play basketball (full court) for about two hours a day at least 5 times a week. It's full court and I am dripping sweat and exhausted by the end of playing each day. I think I would fall under the X-Large male or the Athletic- Well Muscled Male. I'm afraid that latter is reserved for elite athletes who are doing much more weightlifting than I am, yet I feel as if I burn a very significant amount of calories with all the basketball I play. If anyone could give me any insight I would greatly, greatly appreciate it.

Thank you!

F/37/124
Made up yesterdays pullup wod and now I feel like Popeye! 27 sets in about 28 minutes.
Sets 1-3 with 20# (made it thru 1 & 2 without stopping)
Sets 4-7 with 15#
Sets 8-10 with 12#
dead hangs were HARD! Wanted to kick so bad to get my chin over the bar! I'm sure many reps were sketchy whether my chin got over:) And this is actually an improvement over last time! Have a good rest day everyone- I'm off to put in my 36 hour work week for the weekend! See y'all on Monday........

Here is a good one, with me as the patsy....

Two years ago (while I was still Globo gym training), a buddy of mine and I had just finished watching a double overtime football game, while consuming copious amounts of alcohol. Around 2 in the morning I noticed that my dog had not returned from the back yard. I went outside to find him in an 8 foot deep septic well that had opened up under my porch (the concrete topper broke and fell in). In my state, I thought that I could easily jump in, press the 100lb German Shephard out of the hole, and grab a hand hold and climb out (no problem with all of the lat pulldowns I was doing right?). Not so fast. I could not lift the dog above my waist, and grabbed the bottom of my porch only to hang and shake like a chubby middle school kid during a pull up test. Needless to say, the fire department was called and they needed to put a ladder down for me and my dog. Oh yeah, and when my friend called 911, all he told them was that I was stuck in a well, so there were cops, ambulances, fire trucks all with lights blazing to watch me climb out of this tiny hole. The next day there was an article in the newspaper about the incident, with the heading "Man, dog rescued."

The dog and his owner are fine, but after Crossfitting for the last 8 months, I want a re-do!

comment #142

Barry, damn good post man.

At the Globo gym I used to workout at last year I was giving the Filthy Fifty a go. Being that it’s very much a meathead environment (bench, curls, shrugs, and calf raises) my workout caused a few looks.

When I got to the knees-to-elbows section I had a large staff member approach me and tell me to stop what I was doing because it was unsafe for my body. Being tired I was still able to crack a smile at him and asked him to explain. He said I was going to fall off the bar if I kept doing “swinging hangs”. It was at this point I told him I only had 20 more and I would be done. He asked me if I wanted advice on training and then flexed his bicep and told he that he has been doing this a very long time and could offer some tips if I want to work on my pull-ups. Again, I smiled and told him it was a core workout. He gave me a funny look and I told him to do 20 and tell me what he thought. After 3 and looks of discomfort he came off the bar and said he could see how that would be a good workout. He let me get back to my last 20 and on my way. I didn’t PR but for the rest of the year he never stopped me from crossfitting and he NEVER flexed his bicep at me again.

Dropping by to say hello, baby crossfiter over here.
Killed the legs this week, rest day came just in time. and i spent it downloading remaining journal articles and videos, especially of the oly lifts. i envy people with access to real crossfit trainers, hope it gets popular over here some day...
awesome community, lovely friendly people, killer workouts, yeah, i'm hooked :D

Jakers,

I've been doing CF for almost a year now, so I've gotten the, "What are you training for?" question an extra special number of times. So, this question and answer got a bit of a laugh out of me for a change...

I was doing the 30 min of 5 pullups, 5 ring dips and 15 situps. I was running from my rings to the bar to do my pullups when some bench presser asked me if the rings were mine. I rudely said "Yes." When I got to the situps for that round he asks how many sets I have left on the rings. I looked down at my stop watch and answered, "6 minutes." Addressing the entire back half of the gym he says, "Yo, this guys doesn't work out in sets. He works out in minutes." I kept a straight face, but smiled a bit on the inside.

Welocme Thea #152 :) My calves are TOAST!!! Did "Griff" yesterday. I suck at backward running!!! TGIF everyone!

Comment #71 - Posted by: Kells
--Twight's offense to CF was covered on a rest day in 2007, as I recall, perhaps in the Jan-Mar 07 time frame. It's all right there for you to read if you take time to find it. Paul

I'd just like to say that normally I don't like reading the comments on rest days. There's too much bickering and silly fighting over the topics-usually political. It's like all of the camaraderie you see during WOD days is lost. Except today.

I'd much prefer to allow the users to start their own conversations in respects to Crossfit/personal success stories/etc. and leave the political nonsense at home. Heck, even a civilized discussion on the economy will work. I'd love to hear how everyone is coping w/ it on their end. But let's keep our party affiliations and opinions on politics out of the discussion.

Jakers,
Loving the the topic suggestion today.

Jakers

Thank you for the very good entertaining idea.

For what its worth #81 is without a doubt the funniest so far

#'s 114 and 115 - Thank you very much. I'll get on it!

Twight's moment in the CF Spotlight - 070323.

#159 (Mike Hunt):

Googled it.

John Jesse
"Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia"

I know this was asked earlier but I never saw an answer...

Anyone know where I could get that T-shirt from the background? "Ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you"

That is awesome. Funny ass stories today too. Keep em coming

m/35/215/5'11

Couldn't resist not working out today.

7 ascents, 2 decents on a 32 ft. rock climbing wall at my Y.
30 min

I used the auto-belay to lower me down the remaining 5 times.

Anyone in Denver, CO metro area want to meet up at Red Rocks tomorrow? We will be doing endurance training using the ampitheater. Sprints & box jumps up 70 rows of seats, kipping pullups on stage lighting area, scaling and box jumping the side planters, etc. We kind of develop a workout as we go. It is a great outdoor workout and the weather is supposed to be decent all weekend. We will be out there Saturday morning if anyone wants to show up. Then go ahead and hit your local gym for the WOD.

Ok Jakers,

The greatest globo gym story could only happen in one place, Hollyweird, CA.

There I was, at the 24 hr. crustness, you know the one, right under the Hollywood sign. I was doing a barbell shoulder WOD with my female friend at the rack. We were doing shoulder presses and push presses when a guy came over to ask if he could work in. Following proper gym etiquette, I dubiously said,
"ok".

Being a dreadlocked black guy in apparently good shape, didn't make him out of place. What did, were the baggy jeans and short sleeved, button-up, plaid shirt he was wearing, combined with the fact that he was covered in a dirty, dusty crust. So, I assumed he just walked in, forgot his workout clothes and needed to do some shoulder presses. It's happened to the best of us.......right?

Our uninvited workout partner grabbed the barbell, which weighed a little over 100 lbs. and attempted to do...........curls. The weight was WAY too heavy for this guy. But, he was determined to pump out a few reps. He leaned back as far as he could, dust flying off his jeans, veins popping out of his forehead and biceps, and sweat instantly beading up to release the worst scent of body odor that gym has ever experienced!

My friend and I were shocked. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or run away. I picked up my dropped jaw, and told the guy that we were doing a different exercise, and when we were done, he could lower the weight and have the barbell to himself.

"I'm just gonna get in another set, man" he replied.

I increased the weight, and he did another backbreaking set, but didn't leave. Aggravated, I realized he was only there because the girl working out with me was a hot, Olympic gymnast. Being one of the nicest girls in the world, she talked to the guy, keeping him and the cloud of dust and B.O. hovering around the rack.

I continued to increase the weight. Each set, he used every ounce of energy to curl up at least one hideous rep. Completely ignoring me, he talked to my friend. Telling her,
"women are trouble". He knew because he had "a baby mama who he knocked up before he got in trouble with the law." My frustration had turned to pure amusement by that point. I figured, as long as my friend kept talking to him, I would let him stick around for pure entertainment.

Finally, when this dude couldn't contort his body enough to get the bar up to his chest without having and aneurism, he decided to show off the fruits of all his hard labor. He ripped off his shirt and began flexing in the mirror! Oh yes. Full body builder poses. Sweaty and dirty, he showed off each gun as he squeezed it with the hand of the opposing arm. For nearly two full minutes he narcissistically admired himself until he was satisfied and left. The weirdest thing about the whole situation was, on weekday afternoon when the gym was packed with people, nobody even stopped to look twice at this character.

Not sure if I had hallucinated or not, I said, "Holy sh*t!" as he left.

"Ya" my friend replied, "He stank!"

I like #130....self depricating stories are great. So here goes.

I was doing weighted pullups one day with 45# weight hanging from the lifting belt. I had done several sets and you know, that darn weight belt can slide down on the hips a bit after some time. So, grabbing the belt, I gave a little dip and a pretty good hike on the belt. Can you guess where the plate ended? I can tell you that I ended on my knees! When I finally got up, I gingerly removed the plate and belt and eased on to the locker room to inspect the damage.

Sorry for you pain Bill but that was funny

Almost forgot about this story when I was about 20.

Working out @ a local gym and the this bodybuilder trainer told me I need to take amino acids. He tells me not to go to the local GNC but go to a feed store and ask for a product for horses called Liquid 747. And get the one for Studs since it is more powerful! He said it was cheaper and just as good for you. Just take a smaller dose. Granted I did not take his advice.

jakers- dont have as many stories beyond the 300# half squat on the smith machine followed by the cheer and flex of ones muscles, but this was a funny adventure 3 of us had one day.

After wrestling practice my senior year of high school, i was doing an extra workout with the 2 other captains of our team. We didn't know what CrossFit was but we trained very similarly. Our workout was going to consist of sprints around the fieldhouse combined with 45# plate workouts (swings, shoulder press, hip to hips, around the world, any wrestler will most likely know and fear plate workouts)

So we started out first 400m sprint. We immediately went to our plates and started 50 swings and 50 shoulder press. Midway through, a soccer coach who was watching the freshman B BBall level tournament happen (barely counts as basketball) came over to us and said we were too distracting to the fans. There were 7 fans.

So we left because everyone hates wrestlers anyway so we went to do stairs and use the plates for a similar thing. While we are there, the swim coach says we cannot be in there because we cant. That is bullspit since we are always in there. They just didnt want a lawsuit incase we got hurt with the plates. So we left again,

At this point, we move to the hallway to do burpees and plate workout where at this point, the pure weight room fanatic football offensive/defensive line coach (granted he was an amazing college wrestler that was drill partners with tolly thompson for any1 interested) told us we werent allowed to have the plates out of the weight room. We told him there is not enough space in the weight room to do this but yells anyway since no person should be working out after 6. My friend then proceeds to ask if he would rather have us smoking crack. This angers him so we finally go back to the weight room, absolutely nothing accomplished and about to start again when the weight room closes.

No one likes people that work out beyond the norm.

Not sure where to get the t-shirt in the picture but I think it's originally a Bill Maher quote found in this youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1f2abGUnM4

And here's where you can buy the shirt.

http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/getting-off-your-ass-light-tshirt/179044097

"But if anything is clear in studying this history, it is that the end result these people claim they want is NEVER achieved."

"Leftists don't care if Global Warming is man-made. They don't even care if it exists. What they care about is the power that issue allows them"

*cough*
War On Terror
*cought*

ok, here is without a doubt the most entertaining thing happened to me during my 3 years working at florida state's Leach center.

I was a PT there from 02-05 and we had our share of characters coming through regularly. Easily the most entertaining and clearly off-balance patron was a little russian former gymnast that we all called "Igor". Igor would do his best to get in everyones way and occasionally stare people down for no good reason (as I said he was mentally a little off-balance). I made it a point to ask him whenever possible to towel down the machine and/or re-rack his weights just because.

He eventually after about a year of this snapped... I told him as usual to rack his weights and as I turned around and walked 10 feet over to the water fountain to take a drink he apparently hocks a lugie at the back of my head. The timing on this was perfect... as I ducked down to take a drink the lugie sales over my head and in the hair of a poor girl having nothing to do with this lunatic.

I couldnt help but have a huge smile as I escorted "Igor" out of the gym and of course he was never to return.

True story and one I wont soon forget.

#132 BINGO
Wow Bingo that was an amazing response to the Dr. (comment #88) and soooooo true. Very nice job!!!! I think everyone will be a little bit more enlightened by your words.

I will be starting my journey to compete in the crossfit 2010 games tomorrow. All of your support will be necessary.

josh
26/210lbs

#176 Joshua:

Yeah brother, get after it!

"So with that said, I hope everyone has a Deeeeelightful rest day, for those of you that are taking it, and hope everyones day is filled with sunshine, lolipops, magic fairy dust and pony rides!"

Hey I don't know if I like the pony rides part... I'm a good girl LOL

Bingo - Not sure about actionable. Maybe. That's both a legal and pragmatic conclusion. Looking forward to our trip this year, bud. Seeing you and Paul will be a gas, again.

Paul, thx for the email to our good Colonel. Perfect timing. I showed it to him in the midst of being asked a question. IT was my own "F U" to the guy asking.

mb, prole, barry, dr. glassman - Consider this your own personal rest day.

Best wishes for your training everyone.

I have a couple ideas/questions I was wondering if you all could reflect on:

First, the videos... awesome video today. But I have an idea for a video that i think would benefit crossfit users that i havent seen yet. a warmup video. i know the lifts are basics and all, but for someone like me, who is only starting to be able to do full intensity rx'd workouts, it would be very helpful. to show a "from entering the gym to end of workout vid". for example if i am warming up for a "fran" and do the rx'd 3 sets of warmup pullups... that is going to affect me considerably cuz ive just burned all my "no effort" ones.

i know all about scaling (trust me) but i just think it would be very helpful to show a good warmup/stretching video, especially with the growth this community is experiencing in the under-educated category.

Second: I love a good post workout sauna. now i drink plenty of water and eat healthy, but should i be worried about dehydration, or any other side effect of saunas combined with the high intensity workouts?

Third: Jakers -- sorry, all my stories are mostly just funny in my head and wont compare with these... like the nicknames i give all the usual globo people like "Mr. Intensity" who you can hear grunting out his lat pulls from across the gym or, "MeatHead" who can curl more than he can squat. I love big guys with tiny legs. hehehe.

Jakers,
Told a new client we were going to do some squats, they're response was "no, no we won't need to do legs, i run 20 miles a week"!!!!

SoxFan,

Alamo crossfit sells it, google them and give Rick Martinez a call, he's the owner, its a little different than the one on Cafepress, it has a Kettlebell on the top and what not. Hope that helps.

totally inspirational people...we have been training a wounded warrior for over 7 months now and if there was ever a doubt about scaling and abilities you should see these warriors work out.
nothing moves you more than just being in their company while they train..
all heart! never any doubts, they push themselves more than our healthy clients!
gob bless you Wounded warriors for staying strong and having the courage to keep fighting!
Hector and Andrea..you guys are very special!

nice job Coach and Coach Thompson..

Dojo stories - yes.

You don't want to ever be number 8.

Master Jacques comes out at a tourney to do a demo. Blindfolded, holding "nunchuks" aka two pieces of wood on a string, you can imagine him standing in a circle of his students (selected for courage and/or devotion, but intelligence ... questionable). Eight students, forming an octagon - as Master Jacques prepares himself for the task of deftly but powerfully whacking the apples from their mouths (yes, they're standing their with apples in their teeth).

This would be an impressive feat – striking the apples but leaving the students unscathed – even with open eyes. But with a blind fold? The crowd was riveted.

Master Jacques completed his intense meditation, and swinging his nunchucks in a flash of motion, popped Number 1 squarely on the jaw. Dropped him like he was hit by lightening. Then ... he hit Number 2, Number 3, Number 4, Number 5, Number 6 and Number 7 ... they flopped to the ground like a grenade went off. Something - perhaps the hollow sound of a skull bouncing from the floor - keyed Master Jacques in to the fact that all was not going as planned. Maybe it wasn't the heads hitting the floor, perhaps it was his refined situational awareness or ninja like intuition. Whatever the reason, Master Jacques raised his blindfold to peek at number 8, as if to clarify the correct range and bearing for the final impressive blindfolded strike. Perhaps that is what gave Number 8 the confidence to do what I don't think I could have ... hope I wouldn’t have …. to stand there so that Master Jacques could knock his stupid ass out too. Which Master Jaques did.

So please, my CF brethren and sisteren, should you be in position to do so, remind me NOT to be a figurative Number 8 and will do my best to perform a similar service for you.

This story brought to you courtesy of my beloved instructor, mentor and friend, the man who introduced me to my bride of the last 9+ years, Mr. Alan S. Gardner, of Bath, Maine. He died the night I started my trip home from Iraq in 2006 for R&R. I was in the group phone booth in Kuwait, on the way home after 8 months, crying like a baby. It still feels like I lost him yesterday, probably for all of us who knew him. 800 people converged on Bath, Maine for his funeral, but I was back in the desert by then (that was within two weeks of my discovery of CrossFit. He would have said "the old saying goes that when the student is ready, the teacher will be there"). He could tell this and the other two episodes of Master Jacques’ tournament appearance and keep a crowd of 50 crippled from laughter. The legacy he left was a very small version of CrossFit; people who loved to sweat and learn together, people who worked hard to excel, people who found a teacher with no end of knowledge, people of passion and at least some courage who formed a community around a man we loved.

Forgive the indulgence – but having started the tale of Master Jaques, I found the rest of the story too compelling to leave out and I offer it as an altogether inadequate thank you and tribute to my friend. Paul

B/F CrossFit I was working out doing lateral raises w/ dumb-bells. The things that sorta look like an Iron cross. Anyways I was pumping em out like I was Arnold in Pumping Iron, and smashed my man-hood between two 35lb dumbbells. Dropped the bells and ran to the head to see if everything was still intact. Yes, but the wife was wondering why I wasn't in the mood for a good few days.

stretch and wu

scaled helen
3 rounds of
400 meter row, 21 10lb kb and 12 assisted pullups

15:55

outstanding effort today shawn says keep it up and I will loose all my lbs to hit my goal.

#144

.... Not sure why there is the overwhelming tendency to degrade someone who has not been introduced to Crossfit.... seriously does the guy deserve to be called a meathead?

In general I am not sure I even like the concept of these posts. I must admit I find it a bit odd that people take so much delight in taunting and laughing at those who have not yet drank the Crossfit Kool-Aid.

I love Crossfit, I have drank the Kool-Aid but I don't see the need to make fun of those who haven't caught on yet....

Up until 2 months ago... I was one of the people you guys were laughing at... I did curls... I had bad form on the lat pull down... I took the latest supplements and ate the wrong foods... I never had an inherit belief that my way was the right way or that I knew better. I did these things because I was overwhelmed by all the advice out there and because I didn't know better. Its pretty crappy to realize that while I was unknowingly doing the wrong things that there was whole group of people out there who would would rather laugh at me behind my back than lending a helping hand.... May be if someone had reached out... I would have seen the light a little sooner.

Again... I love crossfit... the people here have helped me really get my life together... but right now.... all these posts... you sound like a bunch of elitists and I think the community should hold itself to a higher standard.

jakers - this story is not in the same league as some of the others, but here goes. Happened yesterday. I was doing cleans with a buddy of mine who has form even worse than mine. Yes, that is possible. Anyway, I tried to explain getting under the bar. He said, "if I tried that I would fall on my face." I laughed and said I was more afraid I would fall on my ass. Then I proceeded to the bar, tried a clean, FAIL in spectacular fashion. I dropped the iron weights on the floor and, yes, fell (hard) on my ass.

#187 theNine

I think that, first and foremost, the majority of us are laughing not just at the meatheads, but at ourselves back when we were like the meatheads. But there are some meatheads who truly believe that their way is incredibly good, the best, in fact, and I am laughing extra hard at them.

Had a small cheat moment today, 6 slices and four donuts. Trying to stop it at that but I don't think I will. ICE CREAM!

Thanks Paul. Got it. Coach Glassman must be a forgiving soul not to have sued the pants off this guy.

theNine at 3:16 PM

Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.

You appear to go through life with feelings. The Horror.

I'm going to guess that you don't believe anyone should be called a 'meathead'.
How about the 'Flexer' in comment Comment #151 Jeremy F at 11:48 AM. Can we call him a meat head?

Is there a clinical diagnosis for 'meathead' that will shortly jump on the euphemism treadmill?

I'm also going to guess that you don't believe comedy should exist. I'm sure you will protest my assessment and tell me all about the rich humor found in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

But as I've said here before we have a rule that you have to let people catch their breath and wipe the tears from their eyes before you explain to us why what we are laughing at isn't funny.

And your protest is way to close to apolloswabie's knee slapping #8 story to be taken seriously.

Nothing to see here people move along.

Continue with the funny.

PS Paul, You are dq'd unless you wish to resign your position as a judge on the blue ribbon panel.

ZONE question:
If im 20 blocks 2X fat thats
20 protein
20 carb
40 fat right?
i know it sounds stupid but im a simple man.

Jake,
I am standing next to a couple guys who are quietly talking amongst them selves and keep staring at an attractive woman doing double leg raises on a bench. As she reaches the peak of her leg raise i hear one of the guys say "Ya I'd lick that" and proceed to walk over and flash her a quick smile. Also heard a trainer and his client discussing if smoking weed regularly would have a negative effect on his training. The trainer seemed to think it wasn't that bad of an idea.

My rings just came in this afternoon! Have never tried rings before and am excited not to have to do x3 dips anymore and especially x4 on muscle up days. At first I couldn't even do 1 ring dip because of stabilization but can now sequence 4-5.

All right Jakers, a couple tales told on myself:

An oldie but a goodie...I'm doing Tabata FGB in my upscale Globo. There are renovations under way so I have to do the row and the wall ball in a little out of the way room right across from the front desk, my last two exercises. I__am__dying at the end and each stroke on the row is accompanied by a grunt, and each WB is accompanied by what morphs into a combo grunt/sigh/squeal. Louder and louder until...crash, I'm done. Down I go, rolling on the ground quietly moaning. The front desk girl runs over to the head trainer. "Laura, come quick; some guy was yelling in there and now there's no noise. I think he's DEAD!"

Laura pokes her head into the door, sees it's me, and says with a chuckle: "Oh, it's just Darrell. He'll get up eventually. He just kicks his own @ss every day but hasn't managed to kill himself yet!"

Then there was the time I was using 55# DB's for the bench press in "Linda" and dropped one on my "mid-section." I iced my injured parts. When questioned I simply replied that I was "swollen"!

:=)

Jesus, I thought I was clumsy. Am I the only one who hasn't hit himself in the goods with a dumbbell? What's that say about me...?

this is not a tale this is a premonition tomorrow

L I N D A!!!!!!!!!!!!

RUN FOR YOUR LIFES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goat,

The target area is to small?

22 / M / 5'9" / 135lb

I'm behind, trying to catch up, so:

5 rounds of
155lb hang squat clean, 9 reps
15ft rope climb, legless, 3 ascents

scaled to

5 rounds of
85lb hang squat clean, 5 reps
15 towel pull-ups

I had to drop to the ground after each towel pull-up and only did 3-5 at once--and still barely made it through. Yeesh.

34:45

Jakers,

To paint the picture I'm a member of a globo in a very posh area of Orange County, CA. Anyways, I get myself set up in an open space near the free weights to do a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 WOD of 255# DL and burpees. I'm a little more than halfway through, on my knees praying for air to return to my lungs, when I see this dude in brand new clothes rocking the worst spray tan you've ever seen with his blue tooth in his ear. He knocks out a couple of DB curls then does the obligitory 5 minutes of walking around checking out the chicks. As he makes his way back towards me I hear him talking his phone saying "I'm just at the gym, as always I'm the only one doing any f*cking work around here!" What?! Even as I was close to a visit with pukie I had to laugh, the dude didn't have a drop of sweat on him but he was stepping over a puddle of mine as he said it!

#199 WhiteOak

You shoulda puked on him, he would have noticed then.

Bingo,

That is awesome. It reminds me of a quasi similar story.

I had stressed my psoas (the muscle that runs from the inner thigh past the recreational equipment the belly button and attaches to the spine)
I was going to kinesio tape along said route. But before I did, I had a conversation with my wife that I did not have a girl friend or a mistress but that I was going to be doing some "maintenance'so I could tape up.

S'MORE,

Please, don't say that. My first and only Linda was when I first started C'fit. I refused to scale and I payed dearly. It's the scariest WOD ever.

#197 Jakers:

They keep setting em' up...you keep knockin' em' down.

Well played sir.

Jakers,

My Globo Gym has a warden type owner. He is known for his famous outburts and kicking people out. He runs the gym much like a prison. There are cameras that cover every inch of the gym.

The cameras send a live feed to the front desk which is monitered at all times. Should he notice that someone has not re-racked there weight, he will shut off the music and make an annoucement on the PA. ie. "Whoever was using the 100 lb. dumbells put them back NOW".

If the weight is not returned he will play back the video, find the responsible party and verbally assault them in front of everyone.

One day he picked the wrong guy, and it got very physical. The entire gym stopped and watched these two men pummel each other till the police arrived. GOOD TIMES!

#197 jakers

Don't make me tell the naked power clean story.

Jackers,

If you ever met me in real life you would realize the last thing I am is one of the bleeding heart hippies who waits in the lurk to spring into action at the slightest off color or non PC joke / comment. And yes there is certainly a people deserve to be called meathead's and a great many other colorful terms.

Many of the stories on this thread had me laughing out loud in my cube. However then I started thinking about what I saw in this post and in the "What I saw in the globo" thread in the forum.

While surely no one can begrudge a good chuckle at mishap or something comical. There is something odd about the posts in which people are laughed at because they don't know about crossfit... IE the punch line of the joke is that a guy was doing curls... or leg presses or some other lift / exercise that doesn't hold water in the eyes of crossfitters.

The whole point of those jokes is... I know something you don't... and the fact that you don't know what I do is funny....I am in on the joke... and you are not...

In the end my comments may be geared towards the thread I referenced in the forum... rather than these posts.... but... these posts just got me thinking

Ha ha ha ha= Ghostrider that is hilarious! I almost fell out of my chair reading your story!!!

My CF funny= was fairly new to CF and had taken to loving some burpees. I was doing a workout involving some OHS and burpees, proudly wearing my new workout top that showed my back. (My neice and I love tops that show our backs.) So anyhow, there I was pounding out those burpees. Sweat is dripping, feeling the air...oh my...really feeling a lot of air! When I hit the bottom of the burpee and was in the push up position....oh was I feeling some air. My top, which hooked around my neck, came un-hooked, and there I was, topless in the gym. I, new to crossfit, single-handedly, increased the enthusiams and support for this new and wild workout program ;) I grabbed that top and in one swoop had it back on, and in one second, was out the door. That was one of only two workouts I did not complete ;)

I have since fixed that top.
Erin

you are totally right John-in-Jersey but come on Coach will hit the forhibben girl soon or later...it's scary indeed i hit it as Rx too and bro it's a PAINFEST

Jakers,

“Lady Balls”

This is my story. I trained at CrossFit London, Ontario since April 1, 2008. On Friday, June 5, 2008 our WOD was the Abdominalizer:

2 Rounds:

50 Knees to Elbows
40 Ab Mat Sit Ups
30 GHDSU (Glute-Ham Developer Sit Ups)
20 V-Snaps
10 OHS

Time: 21:14

You may have heard of that guy (feel free to remind me of his name in the CF Journal Article) who’s balls swelled up to the size of a grapefruit after doing GHD Sit Ups. Something similar happened to me. After the Abdominalizer I could not use my abdominal muscles at all. Upon rising in the morning I had to lift my upper body out of bed with my arms. I took a couple of rest days and on the third rest day my abdomen was swollen. Gravity took over from there. My labia swelled up to the size of a male’s testicle. Yes, I had developed “lady balls” as a side effect of the Abdominalizer.

In the beginning I thought the WOD had induced an inguinal hernia (where the coils of the intestine are forced anteriorly through the inguinal canal, pushing all the way into the scrotum in men or labia in women) so I went to Urgent Care to have a Physician check me out. In the case of the “guy with the grapefruit balls” his build up of fluid in the abdomen travelled down his inguinal canal to this scrotum. Although composed of the same elements, the inguinal canal of females are considerably narrower than in males because they contain a thin band called the round ligament of the uterus. It took a couple of days for the fluid that had accumulated in my abdomen to drain into my labia and, in theory, would have drained faster in a man because of the difference in size of the inguinal canal. I waited two weeks for the swelling to go down before I returned to CrossFit London.

theNine...in a way you are right. CrossFit has taught me to humble myself and hold myself to a higher standard. I should not insult others, but only criticize myself. However, I come from New York, where MeatHeads really DO exist. Dozens of them in my gym, hundreds in my towns. They all thought that they were better than everyone else around them, bigger And tougher. They put me down and shoved me out of the way, just to get to the dumbbells. I was once one of them, trying to beat them. Then i discovered Crossfit, and decided i wanted to participate in ELITe athleticism. We laugh at those who laugh at that. When I called that person a meathead, it was because he thought he could do anything just because he could bench press 3 plates. Ends up he was weaker than the girl that probably weight more than 100 pounds less than him. I do my best to educate those around me in the ways of CrossFit, but for anyone who laughs in my face due to ignorance, I will most certainly laugh right back.

However, again I do understand that the CrossFit community should hold themselves to a higher standard, but hey, a good chuckle is good for you here and there!

Reply to #8 Jakers...

I was doing thursday's pull up workout 3 w/ 45lbs, 5 strict, 7 kipping x 10 rounds when a woman from the front office at the gym came over and asked if she could take a picture of me doing my "very interesting workout" to put in advertising for the gym... This is the same woman who has threatened to cancel my membership for "grunting" and for dropping weights (even though they are bumper plates and on power racks!). What a joke.

#209 Danielle,

WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER WINNER

I think the mental image from Daneille's story has scarred me.

Bingo,
Go to Josh for his comments on how I helped him. I'm not concerned, because I'm not lying. Maybe you want to call it name-dropping because you don't want to ask him directly only to find out I'm right.

Why did so many people, based on their "empirical" experience with CrossFit, start gravitating towards Larry Lindenman's planned rest protocol, Starting Strength, or hybrid training? Why is Steve Liberati, an avid CF fan and affiliate, feeling the need to post the question? Do you have any idea how many affiliates have started gravitating away from the mainpage WODs towards a higher strength-training bias with shorter metcons? Some are, like it or not. I personally know of three (through regular email contact), I'm sure many more could be found simply by searching affiliate blogs.

CFHQ's "empirical evidence" (ahem, collection of anecdotes that are no better than anyone else's, no matter how much Kool-Aid one guzzles) is very likely guilty of the same mistake many private practice healthcare practitioners make when they claim (unsubstantiated) success rates--they simply discard the folks who abandoned the program.

Your knee-jerk defensive reaction is noted. That is all.

#209 has got to be the winner. I had a story but, after reading that, it doesn't come close.

I'm chuckling still, even while typing this up. Danielle, you probably could have gotten away with telling guys you had bigger balls than they do (and proving it!)

Jakers, please give her the prize. She earned it.

Can everyone please give Jakers a rousing round of applause for the idea for "Best Globo Gym Story". Granted, it may have spiraled off track but I thoroughly enjoyed LMAO at some of the storys today. #8 was hysterical. Danielle, the mental picture is great....I can almost picture you with some gnarly goat-hair growing on your chin, right along with your "balls"! Too funny.

Most of the stories don't make fun of meatheads just because they're meatheads. Heck, I love to just lift every now and then, too. But meatheads that do or say stupid things are still moron meatheads

I train with my friends in my garage and every now and then one of my mates, with no work out experience, will stop in and check things out.
One day my friend Dan came over and it was a crossfit rest day so we hit up some muay thai practice (I train 3-4 times a week before x-fit or when i can on the weekends). We were doing 3 min rounds of heavy bag, pad work and skipping; double unders if possible. So I explained the workout to 3 of my friends and Dan picked up everything I explained. I held the pads and he finished his first round. He then proceeded to the heavy bag and in turn finished that.
I then sent him outside to skip on my driveway. After 30 seconds into this round one of my friends burst into laughter and told me to come check out Dan who I observed skipping (not with a rope but like a 13 year old girl HAHAHAHHAHA) down the street.....

Jakers,

I agree with Bill, "Best Globo Gym Story" was lots of fun. Well done.

I just ate 11 chocolate chip cookies

All right fellas. Calm down.

I have to admit Danielle's story is funny but let's not give it the Oscar award late in the year rush vote.

I have to admit I huddled up to the screen on this one and expected to hear a little chika whaa whaa base mixed in with some ... There I was minding my own business...One thing led to another...and then we did it all over again, but that is a story for another time. (For those of you unsullied that is the general format for every letter ever written to the Penthouse forum with the ... containing salacious details.)

I'm a little weirded out by it but I'll bring it to the judges.

We still have time for more stories people.

This has been far funnier than I ever imagined. I expected mildly amusing but some of you have really delivered.

Thanks

Yo Jakers,

Great idea about the funny globo stories..how about making it a regular feature on rest days to go along with other topics...I really enjoyed the stories...In my globo, the stereotypes abound..there is lover man, coach, the Critic, the gym stud who cannot pass a mirror without flipping his shirt up to check out his abs, the dudes who need to congregate by the squat rack, cable guy, Ms. 10lb dumbell tight pants...the list could go on...anyway, thanks and keep the stories coming...

Dr. Garrett Smith:

For the remainder of our conversation please address me as Dr. bingo. That would be bingo, M.D. no "N".

The original CFHQ data was observed data, measured and recorded, from which an objective decision was made to follow a 3 on/1 off schedule. Or are you calling Greg Glassman a liar?

Re-read my post. I note throughout that there is no reason to not take you at your word regarding your assistance of Josh. I also note that there is no reason not to take you at your word regarding the injury to your young athlete. Implying that I have accused you of lying is consistent with your tactic or obfuscation and evasion.

I will certainly contact Josh with whom I am friendly and explicitly discuss the actual question that Steve asked regarding the 3 on/1 off schedule. I recall that Josh has clearly stated that in the past he has only followed CF Main Page WOD's for one month/year. Perhaps his training has been informed by your counsel. It will be interesting to discover if his VOLUME and INTENSITY is greater or lesser than the Main Page WOD's, and whether and how he has altered his schedule of workouts. Josh is quite gracious--I am sure that he will be quite forthcoming.

There are now 1000+ affiliate Crossfit gyms. My perusal of the Affiliate Gym blogs now and over the last couple of years leads me to believe that the vast majority of them do not follow the Main Page WOD's and never have. As you are well aware Crossfit is much more than the Main Page WOD. For Heaven's sake even CFHQ did their own thing when Coach was programming there! The observation that they do not follow Main Page WOD's is quite accurate and totally irrelevant, especially in light of the fact that most never have.

Re-read my post. I clearly state that a global answer is unknowable. Some find the 3 on/1 off schedule to be perfect; others need to program in a scheduled rest protocol; still others need MORE in order to fulfill their needs. Stating that your "patient" population of CF "drop-outs" is proof that the 3 on/1 off protocol is excessive has as little validity as mountain athlete's population is proof that the 3 on/1 off is insufficient. Both descriptions of observations are accurate and true for those populations, but neither can be generalized to the basic program. Neither is sufficient to comment on the fat middle of the Bell curve.

Are all of these athletes truly abandoning CF? Why do athletes do SS or Performance Menu? Um, perhaps to concentrate on pure strength or olympic lifting? Why do some athletes do a Crossfit Hybrid program like CFSB or CFE? Oh, I dunno, maybe because they have personal fitness goals that are more directly addressed by those programs? Nah...it must be because there's something wrong with Crossfit.

Bullsh!t.

My answer to Steve is still orders of magnitude more accurate than yours for the reasons I stated in my post #132. Who knows? Who really knows where the middle of the Bell Curve is in a program whose founder states that it is designed to bring elite athletes to their knees?

Knee-jerk? Nah, Dude, I applied some science to your post #88 and found it lacking. Not rigorous. Just barely this side of ad hominem. No science. Kinda like me saying that my friend the owner of an affiliate in my town whose arthritis got WORSE when he stopped nightshades and dairy proves that nightshades and dairy are GOOD for you. Bias. In truth, as I stated, there's not a lot of science out there now to give any answer to Steve's question with any significant power. Your "answers" did not even address the question.

That your (unsubstantiated) name-dropping, blatant frame of reference bias, and advancement of agenda bias is simply worse than no answer at all is noted.

That is all.

Full disclosure for Dr. Garrett Smith and any other interested parties:

It is no secret that I have spent the majority of my gym time since late August as one of the Crossfit Strength Bias "Crash Test Dummies". As such the number of workouts in which I participated neither increased nor decreased; the volume of work increased; the intensity of that work remained constant (or at least I'd like to think I worked that hard).

My personal fitness decision had nothing to do with recovery issues or "over-training" on Main Page, 3 on/1 off training.

--Dr. bingo

Hey Jakers,

My dad got me started doing a couple crossfit moves this past Christmas break to get me used to the moves before starting xfit full out. We were at our local globo gym playing wall ball on the perimeter of the basketball court. Needless to say pretty much everyone stopped shooting around to stare at us for a couple minutes. Then we each grabbed a dumbell to do some Turkish get-ups. One guy came over to us and asked us what we were doing. My dad proceeded to briefly explain crossfit and the get-up. After attempting and failing twice (im not really sure how you can fail) to get up, he put the weight down, said it was too hard, and walked away embarrassed. I guess he just wasn't the xfit type... even though i'm still working with jumping pull-ups i never give up because its "too hard!"

What a fantastic journey for ALL CrossFitters.

Thank you Andrew for "We focus on what we can do."

The inner drive, strength, determination, and perseverance shown in this and other videos shows how CrossFit can be adapted by all.

To think I was humbled by doing Murph two days ago is negligible compared to seeing the image and video of the warriors posted today... Seemingly impossible, insurmountable odds these heros face and then, magic ~ enter CrossFit.

#60 bingo - my thanks for the link to Jon's comments...his ability to write so elequently is such a gift.

And Jakers - I can't resist a story that only a grandmother could find so endearing...I train at CrossFit Persevere, my daughter's (Fit Mom) garage gym/affiliate. Yesterday I was warming up and my youngest granddaughter, Mallory - age 5 - decided to come practice jumping rope while she waited for her Mom to take her to gymnastics class. After a few more misses than she anticipated, she tossed the rope, hopped up on the GHD and said (loudly) "Meme, why can't you B-L-A-S-T the music like Momma does?!?"

Hope everyone enjoyed their Rest Day.

F58/140/5'2"(almost)

Jakers,

At my college's gym there was some girl on the treadmill. She must have had the thing's grade up to its highest, and she was holding on the the top with both hands while jogging. All of a sudden she starts yelling "somebody help!". She yelled that the speed was increasing and she couldnt let go with her hands or else she'd fall off.
Another guy and I rush over to her as she's Trying to sprint at like a 45 degree angle while holding on to the top of the treadmill. The other guy hit the stop button, she lets go before it slows, and is shot almost 10 feet away. She was fine, but i couldnt stop laughing at the long streak of sweat she left on the floor!

Best globo gym story just happened recently. We have an Icarian tower in my gym with a variety of different attachments that can be used for, well, a variety of isolated and somewhat useless exercises.

Last week, one of the trainers who is regularly there in the morning when I workout (I go early so that my WODs aren't interrupted and don't "offend" anyone), had a client performing some sort of a squat-to-above-the-head-axe-chopper movement using a leather, fleece lined ankle-clamp.

I noticed the movement, and the attachment, and found the situation peculiar to say the least. On rep twenty or thirty, just as I'm finishing up my CFWU, I hear the client ask the trainer, "So what is this supposed to be training?" The trainer responded, "Are you feeling it?" The client replied, "No, what am I supposed to be feeling?" The trainer answered, "I don't know actually, I was trying something new."

What the f**k?

comment #12

Blisters or torn calluses shouldn't stop us from training. When mine ripped, I had more pullups the next day. My hands have somehow adapted now, but they are not pretty.

i don't think showing calluses or rips are anything more than a visual of the pure dedication, heart & soul and the No Quit No Matter What attitude true crossfitters have. we don't have an average day at the gym and we aren't your average athlete either. I personally loved getting calluses and rips as much as I loved getting the shin scars from deads and blood on the bar. just my opinion though.

Garrett, Darrell,

I think the question the started your sparring is a question Coach already answered. In his lecture to teh war college, in the Q&A, he stated: "The WOD is an advanced routine designed to exceed the capacity over time of the world's fittest athletes." Not really a quote, a remembrance, I think a close one.

So I think based on that - unless you count yourself as one of the world's fittest athletes - the answer to Steve's questions is obviously 'yes.' Which is why one must do what one must always do - take responsibility for one's body, and one's training, with or without a doctor's advice, and behave accordingly.

Perhaps your statement of the obvious was necessary and helpful, Dr. GS, for highlighting better what Coach said. Often times what Coach says, he says with such a spare precision that folks miss the significance until it becomes relevant to their learning journey (at least mine). Paul

My Globo story...

I was doing a WOD which called for 30-25-20-15-10-5 of pullups and burpees. I guess I was about halfway through when I started grunting as the burpees were killing me. One of the gym staff came over and asked me if I could stop grunting as I was "disturbing" some of the other patrons. I couldn't believe it.

F***KING AWESOME VIDEO!!!

ALL YOU CROSSFITTERS ROCK!!!

i have to say that i sometimes thank God for CrossFit...

sometimes its selfish and is about what it has done for me...

sometimes it is for what i see it do "in" others...this video for instance, my clients, my family, my friends...

Game over

First my best CF story and I have a couple:
I was working out at KAF in Afghanistan and my goal was pull-ups - kipping pull-ups - and I was doing 100. I could only do about 3 at a time - but I was getting through it with a very ugly kip. On the last 10, a guy walked up to me and asked if I wanted help - I smile and say, "no, I am almost done." and he takes a couple steps back. He then says, "you are really going to hurt your back, you should stop or let me hold your legs." I say, "I am fine and this is 100". He just walked away shaking his head. BTW - I was fine, my back wasn't even sore - even if I couldn't lift my arms the next day. :)

So far my best CF story and it is thanks to Ken at CFSW and my most wonderful friends. I asked my friends if they would do a CF workout with me for my birthday. I had 7 friends who had never CF'd before show up and Ken had us do FGB! My friends rocked it, Ken trained it like a champ and it was the best birthday ever! Thank you CF for giving all this to me!
Trish

Paul #235,
My thoughts exactly. I have been involved with CrossFit over 5 years now and have watched as people disregarded Coaches statement that these workouts will crush elite athletes. My experience is that most people over estimate their capacity for both work and recovery. This leads to all kinds of trouble. A man has to know his limitations.

#53 and #56 -
That can't count. You stole that from the movie "21" - it's the question Kevin Spacey asks in class when recruiting the new guy.

Now if the three doors had Fran, Murph, and a rest day behind them and the first door opened had Fran, then of course you'd switch to ensure you got Murph...

my globo gym story would have to be when i was in the gym one day getting ready to start my warm up to do angie, a girl i know from the gym came up and started talking to me for a few minutes. at this point she gets a text message from a guy who is a trainer there and is on the other side of the gym. she goes to see what he wants and i do angie. afterwards, as i am laying on the floor panting, she comes back to tell me that he just wanted her to come and watch him do a set of seated shoulder press...because he was doing 85s!lol douche bag deluxe. needless to say we both got a good laugh out of it.

24 hours

as rxd

Master Jacques part II. After an few more events at the tournament, the announcer returned to announce, with a somewhat ambiguous tone, that Master Jaques was to return for a second demonstration. The crowd quieted - how even a Master follow up such a knock out first performance? His students brought out a box, a sledge, and some glass bottles, and a another carried boards - clearly, there was to be a board breaking demo. The purpose of the glass was revealed when the audience watched and heard the students breaking the glass bottles, then they poured the contents into a circle drawn on the stadium floor.

Cool! Man stands on glass and punches through wood - that's a gutsy demo, especially for small town Maine. Perhaps Master Jacques has game after all?! Master Jacques takes his position in the center of the glass, his students line up, four of them, one on each side of the Master.

After a dramatic, deep breathing warm up, Master Jacques signalled his request to the students to present his four targets, which they did. However, the student facing him presented the board at angle that could only mean the Master's intention was to execute a spinning technique. Every karateka in the room immediately winced - spinning kicks on glass? Are you kidding me?

Master Jacques began his demo with a ferocious kiaa/yell, which finished in a sort of a wailing wimper as he quarter spun on one foot and froze in place. He hobbled out of the ring and left bloody foot prints across the floor as he beat a hasty-as-possible retreat. At this point, a few in the audience clapped as Master Jacques devoted acolytes cleaned up the glass ... and blood.

The tournament spun back up, and the buzz began about Master Jacques' memorable performances. Later in the tournament when the announcer returned and trumpeted the news that Master Jacques would be presenting another impressive demonstration, the crowd went wild! Which I will try to present after brief interlude to assist three year old. Paul

#235 Paul

classy post

Ahh the torn calluses...as I type I turn my hands over and laugh at my torn hands. Last week's Fran WOD put me out of commission for 3 days. I had minor tearing from a few days prior, that tore open on my last set of 9. Man did it hurt! A rush of emotion fell over me when I finished. I Rxed it, and PR'd woohooo I was soo excited!! Then the pain set in, my hands felt like they were set on fire. I looked over at my hands and the F word came out of my mouth cause I knew it was going to be awful washing my hair that night. Then I felt so dumb for letting this happen.
It's been a solid week and I've had to scale back or tape the hands, which then have hindered my pullups and grip. But, it's something that happened and you better believe I'm going to take care of these babies cause honestly it's hard to not involve your hands in any crossfit workout.
I've stopped shaking hands when my hands are all torn up, it's just too embarrassing for me to have burlier hands than a man.

Garrett #218,

Calling yourself a "doctor" is unethical - in fact it is a lie. You ought to be ashamed and I don't know why it's not reason for kicking you off of the board. We've certainly debated it in the past.

I spoke with Josh before during and after your involvement with him. I told him you were an idiot too. Josh was training too hard, too much, too often - doing more than he could recover from with no serious commitment to nutrition. The glandulars you sold him had nothing to do with his getting over being overtrained. Had he listened at a cert about overtraining or read getting started from these pages he'd have fixed his problem years ago.

Here's what you don't understand because of a very limited training experience and education: There's nothing inherent in the work-recovery cycle that leads to overtraining. Overtraining comes from working too hard during workouts - either by volume or intensity. This is true of working out every single day, 3 on 1 off, or 5 on 2 off, or working out once each year.

I say this at every cert - when you come back from your scheduled off day(s) and you don't feel energized physically and mentally then you went too hard on the last iteration. It's that simple, Garrett. There's no formulation or prescription that can replace that bit of common sense. That you've taken three or four people out of several hundred thousand doing this program and gotten them to avoid overtraining through your silly easy workouts demonstrates nothing.

CrossFit has been implemented in scores of municipal, state, Federal, and foreign military and police agencies. In every case CF was found to be safer, more effective, and more efficient than prior programs - regardless of origin. In each case the testing was done by skeptical observers often hoping that the experiment would support your false assumptions. That you find this Kool-Aide guzzling is just more evidence for 1. what a fraud you are 2. how little you know about the scientific method and experimentation, and 3. what a mousey little puke you really are.

Why don't you contact Ensign Andy Stumpf, andy@crossfit.com, and tell him that his CrossFit experiment at BUD/S was wrongly called "emprical evidence"? Why don't you contact SSGT Matt Kostielney at the Marine Scout Sniper School and tell him that he too doesn't have evidence just Kool-Aide guzzling? How about John Barba at Colorado State Patrol? Or Capt JT Williams and Maj Wade Rutland from the Canadian Army that their implementation of CF doesn't meet your standards. You won't because evidence, measurement, physics, science, math, prediction, experiment, science, and scientific method are not what you as a "Naturopathic Physician" understand, utilize, or acknowledge. I'm willing to bet that we've seen more agency implementations than you have "patients".

Doctor my ass. Smart people will avoid you like the plague.

On a friendlier note I'd like to debate you on CrossFit radio. I think I could end your "medical practice".

58/M/195 - 2xCFWU
- front squat warm up; 10x45, 3x135,3x155
- front squat 3x3; 170, 175, 180PR
- back squat 19x155

Coach & Bingo,

Dr. Garrett Smith makes training videos at Expert Village wearing a CrossFit T. He should have one with a duck on it.

Why did you expect more from a Doctor of Naturopathy? It is branded quackery.

Where can I find the "Ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you!" shirt?!?!

I'll listen.

Caoch,
Unlike Josh Hillis, you'll get no apology or backpedaling from me.

For you to claim that I'm not a licensed physician (I am, check with my state naturopathic medical board), well now, that's just libel. That could hurt later.

No, I won't come on the Kool-Aid commercial radio show...I've heard about the set-ups you've done on others.

And all over a comment about the work/rest schedule. Sheesh.

I've become addicted to reading this board because it's so damned much fun.

Let me get this straight, some states actually have "Naturopathic Medical Boards"?

Iridology, Reflexology, Chelation therapy and Coffee enemas. Psuedoscientific Quakery! Designed to rid you of the 20 lbs of excess crap clinging to the walls of your colon and any spare change rattling in your pocket.

As to your claim of being a physician. Bah! You sir are NOT a physician!

Patrick S Baldwin MD

I just use prune juice.

Well, at least Garrett followed the prescription: he definitely "started something in comments".

Hey, since I've got a J.D., do I get to be called doctor instead of "ambulance chaser"?

I had one request and that's enough for a ham like me to put Act III up even though this story has been overtaken by other events:

Master Jacques returned to the floor to enthusiastic cheers. His students, who trailed behind The Master, brought two chairs and some boards for a breaking demo. The set up was quick and no could figure out how this would top his previous attempts - anticipation was keen. Master J set up the first board on the chairs. They were folding metal chairs. And they were facing away from each other, which in hindsight, was a spectacular oversight. After a suitable warm up and kiai/yell, he dropped a wicked and obviously well polished sword hand chop directly on the middle of the timber suspended on the back edge of the seat of the two chairs. The chairs folded up in a spectacular fashion, and the momentum of the event resulted in the chairs arriving on opposite sides of Master J's head in more less simultaneous impacts. Master Jacques succeeded in knocking himself out in perhaps a one and only version of the act. He departed the stage - carried by his dismayed students - to a standing ovation.

I heard this story many times and met one other martial artist at a tournament who confirmed it. Paul

Yeah, and garret can't even spell coach right. What kind of doctor is that?

#258 - Roni

It's always best when making a post of this nature to carefully check your own spelling (particularly the names of any parties involved).

Did a modified version of Murph on Friday:

Bike 2 miles on level 10
100, 200, 300
Bike 2 miles on level 10

34:23

Paul,

Those Master Jacques stories are great. In my own experience, martial arts teachers that have their heads fully screwed on straight are quite rare.

As far as the overtraining, I'm going to stay out of the main part of the fray, other than to say that of course people need a bit of a break from time to time. We're all adults here, or under adult supervision. If you're tired, rest. Surely that doesn't need to be posted or given as an instruction? Does it?

The thing about CrossFit, though, is once it gets in your blood, you can't really imagine permanently training without regular workouts that take you to the limit. You can't look at all the guys in the gym doing 1/4 squats or leg presses, or tricep kickbacks and say "THAT'S what I want to do". That's the point.

If you do 6 metcons a week or 2, in my book you're "CrossFitting".

Couple more fun little things that are generally unknown, but would have been front page news had Bush done them:

1) Obama is named "Newsmaker of the Year" by a group of black newspapers that includes the paper published by Louis Farrakhan. Award is to be given behind closed doors: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/obama-newspaper.html

So much for transparency. Of course, they appear to be left wing, so perhaps too much publicity would be embarrassing. Sometimes the truth is something that you want to hide.

2) Obama thanks himself for attending a meeting in Ireland, after the teleprompter he apparently needs to be coherent breaks down.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/teleprompter-gone-bad-obama-thanks-irish-pm-repeats-speech/

3) Even Steve Kroft starts thinking Obama is a bit loopy when he keeps laughing about our economic crisis and in particular the Meltdown of the Big Three: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20344_Page2.html

Even Kroft, who stands out in my mind as one of the most braindead journalists on the planet, seems to realize Obama is a lightweight when he asks him "Are you punch drunk?"

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Obama is neither intelligent, nor even an effective orator. He's not good at anything except taking donations, talking big generalities, pretending he's black, and doing what he's told. Right now, he's not good enough to even act the part of someone who deserves to be Commander in Chief convincingly. He's an airhead that got be President by riding the coattails of an effective leftist propaganda offensive.

4) For anyone who doesn't know about this, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi--i.e. the 3rd person in line to be President--said that we were losing 500 million jobs a month:

http://www.examiner.com/x-1528-Baltimore-Personal-Finance-Examiner~y2009m2d5-Nancy-Pelosi-500-million-jobs-a-month-at-stake

No grade school kid should make that mistake.

When you start connecting the dots, it quickly becomes apparent that the Democrats are not just suffering from mistaken--misguided--ideology, but that they just plain aren't very smart. Not these two at any rate.

Imagine the mileage the press would have made of these things had Bush done them. It's ridiculous. Now Thomas Friedman is whining about partisanship. He's wrong. Partisanship, right now, is the only hope we have of keeping this ship afloat until the midterm elections.

Couple more fun little things that are generally unknown, but would have been front page news had Bush done them:

1) Obama is named "Newsmaker of the Year" by a group of black newspapers that includes the paper published by Louis Farrakhan. Award is to be given behind closed doors: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/obama-newspaper.html

So much for transparency. Of course, they appear to be left wing, so perhaps too much publicity would be embarrassing. Sometimes the truth is something that you want to hide.

2) Obama thanks himself for attending a meeting in Ireland, after the teleprompter he apparently needs to be coherent breaks down.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/teleprompter-gone-bad-obama-thanks-irish-pm-repeats-speech/

3) Even Steve Kroft starts thinking Obama is a bit loopy when he keeps laughing about our economic crisis and in particular the Meltdown of the Big Three: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20344_Page2.html

Even Kroft, who stands out in my mind as one of the most braindead journalists on the planet, seems to realize Obama is a lightweight when he asks him "Are you punch drunk?"

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Obama is neither intelligent, nor even an effective orator. He's not good at anything except taking donations, talking big generalities, pretending he's black, and doing what he's told. Right now, he's not good enough to even act the part of someone who deserves to be Commander in Chief convincingly. He's an airhead that got be President by riding the coattails of an effective leftist propaganda offensive.

4) For anyone who doesn't know about this, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi-i.e. the 3rd person in line to be President-said that we were losing 500 million jobs a month:

http://www.examiner.com/x-1528-Baltimore-Personal-Finance-Examiner~y2009m2d5-Nancy-Pelosi-500-million-jobs-a-month-at-stake

No grade school kid should make that mistake.

When you start connecting the dots, it quickly becomes apparent that the Democrats are not just suffering from mistaken--misguided--ideology, but that they just plain aren't very smart. Not these two at any rate.

Imagine the mileage the press would have made of these things had Bush done them. It's ridiculous. Now Thomas Friedman is whining about partisanship. He's wrong. Partisanship, right now, is the only hope we have of keeping this ship afloat until the midterm elections.

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that Obama is neither intelligent, nor even an effective orator. He's not good at anything except taking donations, talking big generalities, pretending he's black, and doing what he's told. Right now, he's not good enough to even act the part of someone who deserves to be Commander in Chief convincingly. He's an airhead that got be President by riding the coattails of an effective leftist propaganda offensive.

You're not helping your case, Barry.....

good to know i can always count on bucket after bucket of truthiness from barry's posts.

Friends, should you choose to join the adults in the other room by offering content, the door's always open.

Until then, please understand that--your education to the contrary notwithstanding--opinions unbacked by facts or even an attempt at the use of logic don't count for anything.

You are asserting you are right, and I am wrong, with no effort to support much less prove your case.

Of course, you ARE wrong, so I don't envy you your uphill battle.

Out of it for a week or so after torn up hands and jacked shoulder...just made something up for fun on my day off:

5 rnds for time (30:26)
.25 mile run
25x GHD situps
25x Pushups
25x Back ext

Between heat and time off this about ruined me - stumbled back to my bunk and passed out for 30min - barely avoided Pukie

15:45

GOD BLESS THE YOUNG WOUNDED SOLDIERS AND GOD BLESS AMERICA. I THINK ITS TIME FOR A REVOLUTION TO SAVE OUR GREAT NATION!

Hooray for rest day. I sooooo need this!