Greg, Lauren n Co., Thank You for the hard work you all put into keeping the programming fresh and the site up and running.

You guys are great and I appreciate your hard work.

CrossFit has changed my life in every area.

Well earned!! Merry Christmas to all my fellow crossfitters! May your new year be filled with PRs and full buckets

Let's Take a Break!!
But I'll do...

f/40/175/5'11"

I'm full. I've got a little pot belly. It was a great turkey dinner (even if I do say so myself). As soon as I get the kids to bed, I'm going to try out my Christmas present. My dear husband (and my father in law) built a level plywood platform in the garage. The platform is much better for doing lifts on (unlike the sloping, concrete floor underneath). It's a great present and something I'm sure my husband and I will use a lot. I'm wondering, however, what sort of hint I should be taking from him as he also gave me a beautiful leather belt that juuusst fits. OK Dear, I get it... do lots of workouts in the garage that involve Olympic lifts and don't gain any weight. He's so supportive. :)

Merry Christmas everyone.

New to this. Love the past week. On rest day is it ok to go for a 30 minute run?

Really looking forward to doing the bench press workout on Sat!

Measurable, observable, repeatable - the way data was meant to be applied!

Lisa Ray & crew: great photo, great form......naturally. JT

JuliePlatt:
I have a sloping garage too. I'd love to see the plans and/or a picture of what you're husband built.

Merry Merry Christmas,

Lauren, Greg and Staff and All of the CrossFit Community!!
The Best wishes to you all for the Holidays and everyday of the year!
Thank You - 2 small words that seem so small compared to what you given us:
you have taken workouts and formed the WOD, that became the Sport of Fitness,
that became the CrossFit Community that became a Wildfire for Fitness
and a love for the Community worldwide.
Your CrossFit vision truly makes this word a better place!

In the words of the Christmas song:
"Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Man/Womam"
I believe the CrossFit Community lives in these words.
Yes we don't have world peace, but CrossFit builds Strong bodies and warm hearts -
to take care of bad things on earth!

I agree with #1.

Quote doesn't hold water when talking about things that are subjective or individual specific such as artistic merit, musical preference, subjective pain evaluation, etc. The quote is a nice pot shot, however.

Merry Christmas and a Safe New Year to all!
Special Thanks and gratitude to Greg and Lauren and all HQ staff for keeping the CF machine going

I knew that if I did enough rest days that one would finally catch up with me. Whew...having my parents and brother (with family) for the holidays is a lot of work. My great wife has really worked hard keeping everyone fed...and yes, I did help.

Has crossfit changed my life...no, not really. I have been a life long exerciser. Crossfit is just another method for staying fit. I do enjoy the forum and the ever changing workouts. I don't do them all and I am not driven to improve my time or increase my lifts/reps. I just enjoy being fitter than 95% of the other middle-aged folks (and a heckuva lot younger ones as well).

What I appreciate most is the support from this community of our men and women in uniform. Being one of those that has spent a number of holidays underway/away from home, it takes a special person to make that sacrifice. It has even more meaning for those that are truly in harm's way.

God bless our folks in uniform and thank you for all you do! Merry Christmas and come home safe and soon.

Lisa Ray and the crew are awesome!

I agree with the quote, especially as it applies to fitness. At CrossFit Monterey, as in most CrossFit gyms, we are obsessive recorders of performance data.

I would like to add that there are many aspects of life which do not lend themselves well to science. When deciding between different possible courses of action, for example, an abstract value system is as necessary as understanding what is going on. I do not think that you can derive a value system empirically.

Rest day, travel day. I'm taking my rings with me to the inlaws. Hope Annie is Sunday so I can do the WOD before the long drive home!

When describing an object, an event, or any phenomenon, one can use objective measures such as words and the metrics of science. I like to think of objective measures as placing a bound on what can be said about an object. When we look at an object, there is an immense amount of information: edges, colors, sound, light and shadow, etc. We can look at the object and experience it or we can look at its objective measures: mass, height, diameter, and so on. These measures are summaries, abridgments, cliff notes. They are great for supplying a minimum and efficient description, but they cannot capture what subjective measures can: emotion and excellence.

Objective measures are very useful.

Thanks Pat.

Keep the Zone Chronicles coming!! i refer all my "but it's so haarrrdd to eat clean" clients to them :D

Keep the Zone Chronicles coming! i refer all my "but it's soooo harrrrd to eat clean" clients to them :D

CrossFit Flagstaff: Outstanding pic! even better form. I love it. Thanks!

good day for a rest day, hammies are strained.
that was like more than 3 tons pushed this week!

Merry Christmas to all! I would especially like to thank Coach for finally cutting the political propaganda that has been posted on this site in the past. The crowd was heard and the rest days have changed. Thank you!!!!

I like the Zone Chronicles. Lets us see there's a way to eat while on the road, and really are no excuses for eating poorly.

One week ago, I woke to the alarming news that another member of my father's bridge club had died. In just 12 months, 14 members of the group, which last Christmas was 42-strong, have perished. The "stated causes" are wide-ranging - from cancer, to aneurisms, stroke and domestic accidents.

Being of a scientific mind myself, I have done some research into the matter. Statistically, there is obviously something inherently dangerous about bridge - but I couldn't prove it straight away. I pleaded with Dad not to play anymore - at least until we'd investigated further - but my appeals fell on deaf ears. He is still playing multiple times a week, obvlivious to any risks, with a bunch of vulnerable older people. My heart skips a beat every time he goes out to meet up with them.

I quickly sought out information on the dangers of bridge. What is it that makes it so deadly??? And I found NOTHING. Not even a paragraph or a footnote. In fact, several sources cited that it carried - get this - "psychological benefits for older people".

Next, I amassed a mountain of statisitics on what current science acknowledges to be high-risk activities like BASE-jumping, handgliding and open-water diving. Only one non-bridge club ever, in Brasil, had suffered this kind of attrition over 12 months. Their deaths clustered around a horrible weekend-away trip, involving a drunken tour of a fireworks factory. Tough on their families, but at least open-water diving is at least a known high-risk activity.

I am left to wonder what vested interests are at work, what blinds science to this threat and what will it take for someone to cry "STOP" to this carnage.

Lord Kelvin, would that you were around today.

Anybody ever have problems with the CFJ vids? My Girl bought me a sub for Christmas and i cannot see the vids. It tells me to login, even when I am logged in.... I asked the CFJ tech people, and they don't know either..

Numbers are great. Numbers help quantify success. But, you can't quantify feeling. I feel good, I don't need a scientific study or numbers to tell me that.

Thanks Pat!

Airports and take out make the Zone tough so this is a great topic to cover...

Good job explaining the task and meal at hand.

Lord Kelvin was also a detractor of biological evolution because under his calculations, the sun could not be more than 40 million years old which would not leave enough time for natural selection to work. Thus, his point about being able to measure something to know about it should also be accompanied by the caution that even if you can measure something, it doesn't mean you know everything (or even the most important) things about it.
Considering Kelvin in the context of crossfit, apart from Fran times, heavy singles, etc. (the strictly measurable), crossfit has several unmeasurable but not unnoticeable effects. To do this exercise regime takes will power. And that will power translates not just across exercise modalities, but across life. I think Crossfit Durham's T-shirt says it best: "We don't use machines. We make them."

Thank you for giving freely. It is very encouraging to see people who value the beauty and importance of fitness enough to share it.
The information, exercises and form instruction have become a valuable resource to me as a personal trainer and as a developing athlete. It has definitely helped us progress beyond what I would have figured out just on my own. I have always believed in well rounded fitness so these techniques are superb. Thank you, they help us a lot and I'm on my way.

Keep the Zone Chronicles coming! Can get enough education on Zone eating for the the normal way of life. Thanks.

Interesting quote. I like it. God's love was also measured out, by three nails, which pierced through His body, thus expressing His love for us like no one else ever has. -What an awesome warrior King!

Pat Sherwood:
Thanks for another outstanding article on how we can eat better while traveling. I appreciate it!

Greg

Pat Sherwin. Please, for the love of everything holy, drop the diet drinks from the regiment. That stuff is rat poison and can not do anything positive for your Fran time.

And yes, I saw you huffing and puffing on the side of the hill in the background of the CFG 7K video on the journal site.

To the Glassman's. Thanks for your terrific program and the format by which you have disseminated your plan.

I am 42 years old and about two years into discovering crossfit.com. And, even though I only follow the program in the 70% range it has revealed to me the blueprint for how my body was designed to work. More importantly, because of the clarity and format of your program it has gotten me interested in me again. Something that, prior to crossfit.com, had not happened since my senior year in high school.

Thanks again for all that you do. Have a safe and happy New Year and we will see you every day next year.

DALTON its strongly recomended to do something on rest days run swim, nothing too rough though never know whats going to happen tomorrow.
CrossFit shirts on beastly!!!

What? Lord Kelvin actually believed that X-rays were a hoax. Like many scientists, he did make some mistakes in predicting the future. His over-emphasis on the quantifiable was his downfall.

M/29/145lb/5'6"

Made up the bench press WOD today. In the battle of me vs. the bench, the bench definately won.

185(PR)-165(x10)-175-125(x12, then 105x8)-155-65(x30, too light. probably should've gone 75/80)

In hopes of finding redemtion following the above ass kicking, I decided to max out my deadlift and reached what I previously thought was an unattainable max this year - 300lbs.

Thanks CrossFit and all the wonderful folks who make up the community for helping me get off my ass, back in shape, and generally a happier and healthier guy. Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

While I am eternally grateful for Crossfit and all the benefits it has given to me, I believe that it is important to give an individual the space to express his/her opinions and thoughts whether they are measurable scientifically or not. I find it fascinating to hear other people's results and experiences. That doesn't mean I or anyone else is required to agree with them and vica versa. If we all thought the same all the time, life would be incredibly boring. It would be like doing the Fran everyday for the rest of your life. That seems to fly in the face of Crossfit. Ironic isn't it?
There is a lot about fitness let alone life that we don't know the scientific answers to but if we stopped asking the questions, then certainly we will never find out. I think feedback is a key component to anything to see if something is effective or not and it takes gumption to be able to digest criticism.
Maybe this already exists and I am just not aware of it, but I would be interested to have an area that discusses the wod or 3 day series and the intensions behind it. If this already exists, I would appreciate someone directing me. Keep up the good work!

Pat! Good to see the Chronicles up and running again!

That IS my awesome crew! Lindsey Oberst, Katie Lowe, Tara Paprocki, and Dylan Carlson showing you don't need traditional weights to weight train! We have some great pictures of us deadlifting heavy rocks, handstand pushups, pullups off tree branches, box jumps onto boulders, team situps with trees on our chests, and we clean and jerked rocks and logs! Great day!

Merry all holidays, everyone!

Anyone ever lookup INFANTDEL? What is the meaning? Please email me if you know.

New PR on Fran!! 3:00 on the button!
21 - 1:03
15 - 1:12
9 - 0:44

Did Isabel, since it had been a while. Pretty gassed from Fran, though... 5:13 :(

Oh well, PR's in both departments.

1 x 275
10 x 225
1 x 295
20 x 205
1 x 295
30 x 185

Total = 1,480

Pat,

Keep those "zone chronicles" going. It is real world stuff that alot of us need to see. Especially crossfitters that are on the run and may have to resort to airport/hotel ect.. type meals in a pinch. Your delivery is funny and keeps it real. Thanks for your time!!

Noob here. Glad for the workout today. We did the bench press at my Crossfit in Pleasanton, CA.

1x95
10x75
1x115
20x75
1x125
30x65

Looking forward to On-Ramp class tomorrow morning.

The quotation by Kelvin reminds me of the last statement in Wittgenstein's Tractatus, (translated, paraphrased): "of that which we cannot know we must not speak."

Now, as we know, the Tractatus pretty much spawned the logico-positivist movement, which sought to reduce all of philosophy (and they would assert all of meaningful knowledge) into statements which can be proven true or false. In this way, they hoped to eliminate all value statements. So that, all that we can meaningfully talk about would be science and math.

The problem I see with this, and later Wittgenstein saw with this as he broke away from his earlier position, is that all of life's interesting questions can no longer be talked about. For example: God, Love, Right and Wrong, etc. because try as you might, these are things which are not quantifiable, and any attempt to quantify them makes them less meaningful.

So, I appreciate being able to take data, and know whether or not I am making progress in my quest for fitness, or whether the students I am working with are making progress based on the particular intervention I have employed, based on comparisons to baseline data taken prior to the intervention. However, there are important questions which data cannot answer satisfactorily. And these questions I will strive to answer according to standards that satisfy my own intellectual integrity.

Thanks Coach for this amazing program.

Happy Holidays everyone.

This was the first time I have done any bench presses since about 1999...LOL...So let's say I was a little skeptical about the weights to use!
Ran through 10 with only the bar, then did a set of 10 with 135 as a warm up.

185-170-185-165(19+1)-175-155(failed at 22)

So, the 20 set I got 19 and failed at 20. I did not have a spotter, or I probably could have really pushed it up. I got up and re-racked it, and did the last rep.

Tried 190 on the 3rd heavy lift, no luck! Dropped down to 175 and it was too easy.

Failed at number 22 on the 30 set. Re-racked it and tried again with the same result. finished the last 9 of the set using 135#.

I am sure with a spotter I could have done a tad better and finished the sets, but I am satisfied with this since my bench press hiatus was so long...LOL.

meant to post that for yesterdays WOD...

Me: 43yo/M/5'10"/184lbs/14%BF (yuck)

Warm Up: Greg A's warm up + some bar muscle ups

WOD: Angie

100 Pull Ups: all kipping, various grips. 15-10-10-10-and then sets of 5's

100 Push Ups: Various hand positions, chest to floor up and down as one unit. 15-15-15-10-10-10- and then sets of 5's

100 Sit ups: Un-anchored hands by my sides knees bent. 25-25-25-25

100 Squats: jumped of the ground on every rep. 25-15-15-10-10-10-10-5

Cool down: one bar muscle up attempt, that wasn't going to happen....

I have decide to do all of the named workouts in A-B-C order for the new year on a 3-on-1-off schedule until I get to the last WOD, Tommy V and then follow the mainsite WOD again :-)

I got this i-phone crossfit app that is pretty great from Tracker Fitness called Train Hard Track it all. Its got a lot of great features.

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

I'm 19 years old and have been doing Crossfit for a little more than a year and really have been enjoying it. Before it I have been doing the Ripptoe Starting Strength and other programs, but I like this one the best and have been seeing great results from it. Several months ago during my physical it was determined that my scoliosis has increased from what it was 2 years ago. Taking the doctor's advice I have eliminated axial lifts (squats, deadlifting, overhead press, cleans...) from the WODs and just do the bodyweight exercises in them. I did some research and found that there is a 50/50 split decision on the fact that axial lifts make scoliosis worse, and am at a split too of what to do. Am I missing out not doing them/what can I do to replace them? Is doing everything but the Oly lifts going to inhibit my results?

no rest! more more more!!!

John, comment #49, here are my two cents on lifting and scoliosis.....

Keep lifting.

Your back will definitely not get stronger or straighter if you keep your back muscles weak. I am of the opinion that all therapy must include making the muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones stronger.

I would ask Kelly Starett. He works at San Francisco Crossfit. I follow his advice on these types of subjects....

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

Hey everyone,

I have been doing Crossfit for about 3 months now. Dropped 20+ lbs and have increased in strength faster than I can believe. A friend in the military told me about it and it totally blew my mind. Previously I only ran long distance. I am a biologist by trade and everything Crossfit teaches just made so much more sense than anything else. I love it. Anyways I'm just getting to the point where I can finish some of the prescribed WODs.
One thing I am striving for is the pullups. I have never really ever been able to do pullups, even when I was a 3 sport athlete in highschool. I use a pullup assist machine and have been making improvements (ie decreasing the assist weight). I do these everyday in the crossfit warmup and then whenever they are prescribed. I can only do like 1 maybe 2 from a full hang without assist.

My question: is this the best way to attack this problem? Should I be adding another exercise to my warmup to specifically improve my pullups? Do I just need to have more patience?

-K

"Angie" as rx 10:47 sit-ups unanchored

Big hugs and bad english for all

"Angie" as rx 10:47 sit-ups unanchored

Big hugs and bad english for all

S'more comment #53 54, kick@ss time brotha man, very nice.

umnklang comment #52, "what should I do to get more pull ups?"

Using the pull up assist machine is one way to go, keep decreasing the weight until you get to zero for a set of 15 reps. Another is to get some rubber bands to hang from the pull up bar (look around online, you'll find them) and reduce the size of the bands until you can get to 15 reps unassisted. The big thing is to get in the habit (like you have) of doing pull ups as part of your warm up. Give it six months, by that time, you will be giving others advice on how you got form zero pull ups to 15 at a shot.

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

How many workouts are truly observable, measurable, repeatable in a pure scientific sense, meaning all variables in the experiment can be controlled? Not many at all, I reckon, but I think there's one event that can be included in next year's CF Games that won't take too much time or resources to accomplish.

Whenever a monster WOD from a firebreather ("FB") is posted on the mainsite, there are usually three different streams of comments: (1) hearty congrats from fellow FBs, (2) critiques of form, and (3) rabid "how dare you criticize a legend..."-type vitriol and the eventual challenge to manhood of the critic. I believe what CF means for a large part of the community, in fact to the core of the company's target audience, is all that matter is lifting weight to the required height to complete a movement in any way possible. So, with that in mind, here's my suggestion for the end-all be-all of work capacity WODs, an exercise that is observable, measurable, repeatable, and fair: The overhead clean (if that's the right term).

Four measurements are needed before the exercise begins:

(1) Distance from ground to palm of the hand when arm are stretched straight above the head with elbows locked and body standing rigidly.
(2) Distance of ground to center of barbell shaft when plates ore loaded and barbell is sitting on ground.
(3) Total weight of barbell
(4) Stopwatch.

The participant begins with feet planted where they will be for the duration, and both hands are on the bar. The object is simple: bring the barbell to the completed overhead press position in any way possible. The exercise begins when the barbell leaves the ground and ends when the barbell returns to the ground and cannot be lifted again in five seconds or less. This will force the body to rely on the first two energy pathways. The participant can only release a hand from the bar to change positions, apply chalk, or wipe off sweat, but the weight must leave the ground and move upwards in five seconds or less. Dropping weights is not allowed, nor is outside assistance of any kind. The referee will monitor time and judge movements, plus have the unpleasant responsibility to call "no joy" if the elbows do not lock overhead, the plates are both not on the ground when the movement commences, and if the five-second rule is broken.

I gave this a try today, and here are the stats, using metric measurements, which I believe are the standard in scientific experiments:
(1) Ground-to-palm: 200.7 centimeters
(2) Ground-to-bar: 21.6 centimeters
(3) 1. - 2. = 179.1 centimeters, or 1.79 meters, which is the total travel of the weight from ground to overhead position.
(4) Total weight of barbell: 29.6 kg (65 lbs)

Yeah, I'm a weenie, I managed ten lifts in 75 seconds before I had to stop and rest longer than five seconds. Okay, what does all of this mean, and what the heck did I measure?

I moved 296 kg for a total distance of 17.9 (1.79 meters x 10 lifts), or 16.5 kg/meter in 75 seconds, directly against gravity. I'm not a physicist, but I believe this comes out to a power output of 0.22 kg/meter per second.

By insisting that the participant not move around and maintain the same foot position and hand position throughout the exercise, we ensure that the same muscles will be used and fatigued at a steady rate.

Of course, there are the obvious questions, like power is measured moving up but almost impossible to ascertain in a negative movement (lowering the weight without dropping), but negatives will affect the next power move. Should the weight be allowed to be dropped at the top and quickly reset within 5 seconds? Also, should bodyweight be involved in the calculations? Plus, how sexy and exciting will two-digit decimal numbers be for the audience? "Ladies and gentlemen, J.T.'s work capacity for that WOD was an incredible 0.38 kg/meters per second! Let's give it up for his incredible effort!"

I think that the above exercise will measure work capacity in an easily observable and repeatable fashion with little room for interpretation or cheating. Having said that, I'm sure I missed something, and comments are most assuredly welcome.

If nothing else, I believe this exercise can be used on an individual basis to measure work capacity change trends in an easy way.

Did my traditional 100 burpies for time on boxing day.
Time 8:52

M/29/145/5'6"

Wrote a longer post earlier, but it didn't post right. Gist was, bench press stomped a hole in me. While I did get a PR at 185lbs, the rest was seriously ugly. In an effort to end on a little higher note, I decided to try 3 reps to max on my deadlift (skipped the DL WOD the other day). I hit my goal for the year with a new PR of 300lbs.

I would like to say a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the folks at CrossFit Hqs and everyone in the community. It's thanks to you guys that I got off my ass and back in the gym this year. I'm now happier, healthier, and in the best shape of my life. Cheers!

29yo/m/6'0"/170 lbs
front squat: 225-155-245-155-275-135x20,135x10 (wrist gave out on last round)
deadlift: 385-275-405-225-415f-185 (got greedy on last single)
bench press: 315-225-295-175-275-135x25,135x5

Pat I would'nt know what to do with my life if I did'nt have the Zone Chronicles!!! PLEASE keep them coming!!!!!

M/17/5'11"/182

BP'
245,185,255,155,260=1000

not bad I guess. Then I ran a mile.

Fantastic quote today.

Thanks, Greg & Lauren.

245+185+255+155+260+135=1235

This one hurt but I was surprised how heavy I could go having not done a heavy single in a couple of years. Cool...now if I could just drop 25 or 30 pounds.

Pat, the turkey and broccoli looked way better than the turkey slices, mayo and strawberries. To each his own, keep up the good work!

Mr. Tate, your right, no one likes fake or B.S. encouragement, no one. One of the keys to being a good trainer or training partner is to know when to; encourage, cue, or just stay out of the way. and by the way, if you'd like to try something intense forget DogCrap and try Crossfit. I've done them both, no offense, but D.C. isn't in the same ballpark.