Friday 030530

Deadlift 3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1

Go heavy; total loads for all 9 sets.

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Shortly after first getting our arms around a Dynamax medicine ball we gave our others away. Hoover Ball, “Wall-Ball”, and teaching the clean are three wildly different applications for this remarkable tool.

Coaches Jim Crawley, and Bruce Evans of Dynamax are the original sources for our ten general physical skills required of optimal physical competence:

1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance – the ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen
2. Stamina – the ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength – the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units to apply force.
4. Flexibility – the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power – the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed – the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination – the ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movements.
8. Agility – the ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance – the ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy – the ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

Thursday 030529

Complete 7 rounds for time:

Wall-ball 30 shots
Rope Climb “double-up”

Wall-ball target center needs to be nine feet high and two feet long.

Rope climb “double-up” is ascending, descending, and ascending with only a toe touch between descents.

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We got our short parallel bars from AAI. These little “P-bars” are perfect for learning presses to handstand, handstand push-up, “L” sits, pirouettes, and other skills. Parallettes can be made from PVC or you can find them from American Gymnast where an outstanding online parallettes training guide is available. Parallettes or short parallel bar work adds essential depth to your training and fitness.

Wednesday 030528

Rest Day

We’ve observed that every quantifiable measure of health that typically declines with age is improved by exercise. Furthermore, these measures can be placed on a continuum that ranges from sickness to wellness to fitness. From this view fitness is seen to be a hedge against sickness. Blood pressure, body fat, bone density, triglycerides, “good” and “bad” cholesterol, flexibility, and muscle mass each follow this pattern. Done right, fitness provides a nice margin of protection against the ravages of time and disease. Fitness is and should be “super-wellness.”

Doug McGuff, M.D., of Ultimate Fitness suggests that resistance training is the most heart protective exercise in a well-reasoned article. We suspect he is 100% correct especially in the case of a weight training regimen with tremendous cardiovascular demands like CrossFit's.

Tuesday 030527

Clean and Jerk 15-12-9 reps

Pick load for all three sets and keep it.

Rest as needed between efforts.

Post results in comments.

This is not the same workout as Sunday’s!

Garth Taylor is warming up squatting with IronMind’s Pillars of Power and Vulcan Squat Racks. This combo is perfect for self-spotting bench press and the squat – the only two weight training exercises that really need spotting.

Monday 030526

Run 5K

Post time in comments.

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David Leys’ post workout collapse left this fleeting telltale of his efforts on the mat. His sweat-soaked shirt transferred moisture everywhere but through its latex lettering.

Coach Michael Rutherford’s Bootcamp Fitness is one of the best training programs in the world. Functional movements – check out their functional exercise archive, randomized workouts, sound nutrition, and gut busting intensity are all hallmarks of this program.

Sunday 030525

Clean & Jerk 15-12-9 reps.

Pick load for Clean & Jerk and keep it for all three sets.

Divide C&J weight in pounds by number of seconds to completion for final score.

Post score in comments.

Our CrossFit North brothers, Dave Warner and Nick Nibler made a pilgrimage to Santa Cruz and we rehearsed what is to become “The CrossFit Challenge” – three rounds of 400 meter run, 1½ pood Kettlebell or 50 pound dumbbell swing 21 reps, and 12 pull-ups.

In our test run Greg Amundson completed all three rounds in 9:05. We don’t expect that number to hold for long. Let us know how you fare at this “CrossFit Challenge.”

For female competitors the Kettlebell or dumbbell swing will be performed with a one-pood kettlebell or a 30-pound dumbbell. The women will also be allowed a ten-foot section of Theraband to assist the pull-ups.

Saturday 030524

Rest Day

Mike Weaver in the instant before diving under for a clean. Notice he is at full hip and leg extension, flatfooted, shoulders shrugged, and looking up. In the next instant he will retreat towards the squat and meet the bar along the way.

World Class Coaching LLC offers the best video tape instruction on the Clean and the Snatch we’ve seen. The tapes “World’s Fastest Lift” exploring the snatch and “World’s Most Powerful Lift” on the clean are important contributions to Olympic lifting coaching.

Friday 030523

Complete 7 rounds of:

Barbell Thrusters 3 reps
5 Pull-ups

Pick weight for thrusters and keep it for all seven rounds.
Divide thruster weight by number of seconds to completion for total score

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”

- Charles F. Kettering
(1876-1958, American Engineer, Inventor)

Thursday 030522

Complete 5 rounds of:

Row 500 meters
35 Sit-ups

Submit time for all 5 rounds to comments.

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Training plates are a “must” for learning the Olympic lifts.

The black plates in the photo above have the diameter of a 45 pound plate but weighs only 5 pounds – note how thin they are in the plate turned sideways.

Training plates let an athlete learn the Olympic lifts, from the floor, with negligible loads.

These training plates came from Bigger,Faster,Stronger

Wednesday 030521

Complete 5 rounds:

Run 400 meters
Clean 15 reps
20 Push-ups

Pick load for cleans and keep if for all five rounds.

Divide clean weight by number of seconds to completion for total score.

Post score in comments.

The Tabata interval shown to maximally stress both anaerobic and aerobic systems is comprised of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times. Dr. Tabata’s research originally applied this interval to the stationary bike and CrossFit’s original contribution was to apply this interval to the squat, but Brad Hirakawa, one of CrossFit’s toughest, made practical use of this interval with Tabata lawn mowing!

Make a practice of experimenting with various intervals and applying them to a wide variety of functional movements. There’s fertile opportunity for discovering dramatically effective protocols.

Tuesday 030520

Rest Day

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IronMind’s “Pillars of Power” are essentially portable power racks. These height adjustable bombproof racks – they’ll support over 4,000 pounds – and are a perfect tool for self-spotting bench press and squats as well as an excellent loading platform for numerous exercises. Spotting is always a dilemma when working out alone. The Pillars of Power are actually a better spotter than a workout partner for the bench press and squat.

Brian Manning Delaney’s Caloric Restriction FAQ is as good an introduction to the science of nutrition and longevity as we’ve seen on the Internet. This site would make our top ten list of fitness sites.

Monday 030519

Shoulder press 65 pounds 90 seconds for reps.
Tabata Squats – “bottom to bottom”
Shoulder press 65 pounds 90 seconds for reps.

“Bottom to bottom” squats start at the bottom and end at the bottom with but an instantaneous stop at the top. Rest is at the bottom!

Shoulder press as many of the reps as possible and then push-press the remaining. Return the score as S/P, “S” being the number of reps shoulder pressed and “P” being the number of reps push-pressed.

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We regularly purchased gym mats from Bigger Faster Stronger in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of our favorite vendors. Then a visitor to our facility pointed out that our mats were “horse stall” mats, available from most any general feed store. Sure enough, our local feed store had the identical mat for considerably less and delivers for $25 regardless of load saving on mats, shipping, and the waiting for freight delivery. The savings in matting a 1,500 square foot facility is well in excess of a thousand dollars.

Sunday 030518

For time:

30 Muscle-ups

Use spotter for manual assistance only when needed.

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Squat racks are the next most important piece of equipment after your Olympic bar and pull-up bar. The IronMind squat racks are called “Vulcan Racks.” They weigh only 50 pounds yet can support 1,500 safely. They are adjustable from 37 1/2" - 64” making them ideal for squatting and pressing, bench or standing. The more we use these racks the more we like them. They are used at the U.S. Olympic Training Center as well as at CrossFit. IronMInd also makes dipping handles that transform the Vulcan Racks into a reasonably stable dipping platform.

Saturday 030517

Complete three rounds:

Deadlift 3-3-3 reps
30 Sit-ups

Move slowly and deliberately while adding weight to each of the nine deadlift sets.

We were inspired by the abmat technology and tried out the “ab bench” which is a popular plate loaded bench that allows for full range of motion like the “abmat”. The shipped product was so short of our standards for strength and durability, i.e., quality that we commissioned Nick Massman to build an “ab bench” that would meet the technical requirements of the abmat concept but improve on several marked shortcomings. The finished product is heavy duty enough to require wheels to move, can accommodate more load than anyone could lift, uses high density closed cell foam, and exaggerates the lumbar curve to assure full range of motion – full lumbar extension to full flexion.

Friday 030516

Rest Day

By selecting the duration of both the work and rest intervals, interval training can be used to focus on each of each of the three metabolic pathways.

There are, however, hybrid intervals like the Tabata protocol (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated eight times) that have strong anaerobic and aerobic characteristics.

Ultimately, you need to experiment with varying intervals of work and rest in pursuit of particularly challenging combinations. Variances in interval work are important to broad adaptation or great fitness.

Dr. Stephen Seiler is a good source on the subject of interval training.

Thursday 030515

Five rounds of:

Clean 105X21
15 Handstand Push-ups

Submit time to comments. Use manual assistance/spotting for handstand push-up where needed.

This workout is perfectly suited for team workouts especially for those at less than advanced fitness levels.

In this photo Dave Leyes (L) and Greg Amundson (R) are assisting Scott McPeak with his handstand push-ups by a gentle tug up on the traps.

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It is important to note that Dave and Greg are both maintaining effective posture during the assist by keeping their backs arched and chests up with their heels down in the posture learned for deadlifts, squats, and most of weightlifting. This posture is mechanically advantageous, safe, and very stable. Developing this posture until it becomes instinctive is an essential component of CrossFit programming.

Wednesday 030514

Three rounds of:

Run 400 meters
12 Pull-ups
25 Kettlebell Swings (2 Pood/70 pounds)

Record and post total time in comments.

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An all-weather track with pull-up and dip apparatus is a great luxury for run, pull-up, and Kettlebell swing workouts though these simple gems can be done anywhere.

The pull-up and the Kettlebell swing give important balance to running workouts.

Mixing traditional metabolic conditioning like bike, run, swim, row, with weightlifting and gymnastics standards is a CrossFit hallmark.

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Kettlebells offers enough advantages and fun to make them a “must have” addition to your gym. Dragon Door and IronMind both offer Kettlebells. The Dragon Door Kettlebells are single cast pieces and IronMind’s are standard plate loaded handles with collars.

Tuesday 030513

Complete 5 rounds of:

Row 1,000 meters
Rest 3:00 minutes

Add times for all 5 rowing efforts and post total to comments.

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It’s no secret that indoor rowing and the Concept II Rower have played a significant part in our athletes’ successes.

Why indoor row? Why the Concept II Rower?

Monday 030512

Rest Day

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There are three metabolic pathways that provide the energy for all human action. These “metabolic engines” are known as the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway.

The first, the phosphagen, dominates the highest-powered activities, those that last less than about ten seconds. The second pathway, the glycolytic, dominates moderate-powered activities, those that last up to several minutes. These are the “anaerobic” pathways.

The third pathway, the oxidative, dominates low-powered activities, those that last in excess of several minutes. This is the aerobic pathway.

Here from the University of Connecticut is an excellent starting point for additional information on bioenergetics.

Total fitness, the fitness that CrossFit promotes and develops, requires competency and training in each of these three pathways or engines. Balancing the effects of these three pathways largely determines the how and why of the metabolic conditioning or “cardio” that we do at CrossFit.

Favoring one or two pathways to the exclusion of the others and not recognizing the impact of excessive training in the oxidative pathway are arguably the two most common faults in fitness training. Time domain matching of task or sport to training is the first step to effective, legitimate strength and conditioning.

Sunday 030511

For time:

50 Back/hip extensions
10 Rope climbs in “L”
50 Back/hips extensions

Post time in comments

Rope climb is great sport for every age.

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Garvin Smith may have been the best rope climber ever. Here is an opportunity to check out his technique.

We got our rope from AAI but evidently paid way too much. Many have found cheaper, simpler alternatives including tying a length of 1 ½ “ manila rope to a tree limb. The greatest obstacle to setting up a climbing rope is finding a suitable point of attachment.

Pacific Fibre makes custom climbing ropes, Burma bridges, zoo nets, cargo nets, gangway nets, climbing nets, and more. They are a perfect source for building your obstacle course. With Nick Massman and Pacific Fibre CrossFit could build an obstacle course that makes all the others look like playgrounds!

Wolverine Sports advertises a good low priced manila climbing rope with attachments.

Draper offers a variety of climbing ropes.

Saturday 030510

50 Sit-ups
Tabata front squat 65 pounds
50 Sit-ups

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There is greater potential for serious strength and conditioning in a two-car garage than nearly all commercial health clubs or “gyms”. Many of our friends have long ago given up on the hope that their local gym will surrender the bodybuilding model to incorporate serious athletic training and started over at home with great success.

The premier issue of the CrossFit Journal, September 2002, details outfitting a world-class strength and conditioning facility in your garage.

Strength and Conditioning: Abdominals from Tulsa World of Gymnastics Tips. These exercises are ideal warm-up and cool down movements. We suggest that you practice them all regularly.

Friday 030509

Five rounds of:
Push press 15 reps
24” Box jump 20 reps

Pick load for push press and keep it for all five rounds.

Divide push press weight by number of seconds to completion for total score. Post in comments.

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In the picture on the left, Tom Crubaugh is looking down at the box during his box jump launch. This causes a reflexive loss of lumbar extension that impedes sound mechanics of the jump.

In the picture on the right, Tom is looking straight ahead which allows for full lumbar extension and consequently powerful hip extension and an efficient jump.

In addition to the postural reflex error, head down postures (looking at your feet) motivate a disruption in proprioception generally and balance specifically. Most well directed gross motor movements require longer sight lines and more distant visual targets. Train yourself to look towards the horizon and trust your peripheral vision for the acquisition of important local targets.

On the subject of postural dynamics here from Tulsa World of Gymnastics is a brief article on the importance of chest position in functional movement.

Thursday 030508

Rest Day

This is our thick handled, rotating pull-up bar. Built by our staff engineer and friend, Nick Massman, this beast will take someone with 30 pull-ups and bring them down to 10 or less. The combination of a two-inch thick bar and bearing mounts wildly increases grip requirements. Just hanging from the bar is a challenge. When your grip tires there’s little warning – boom you’re falling!

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The “Anatomy Coloring Book” by Wynn Kapit and Lawrence M. Elson offers an extraordinary opportunity to learn basic anatomy without which an understanding of biomechanics and heightened body awareness are out of reach. Though this may seem a less than a serious way to learn, this book has been in regular use by universities and professional schools worldwide since 1977.

Read the “Preface” and “Extremely Important Tips” sections before buying your coloring pencils or felt markers. This is very important.

Once you’ve purchased your pencils/markers start with the “Introduction – anatomic planes & sections.” From there we recommend you jump to the skeletal system and muscular system working the plates from core to extremity.

The section entitled “muscular system/lower limb – muscles of the posterior thigh” is especially valuable to understanding the basic mechanics of many of CrossFit’s stable of basic exercises. The sections on muscles of the anterior thigh, abdominal wall, and pelvis will greatly enhance your understanding of CrossFit’s trunk and hip flexion exercises and discussions.

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Wednesday 030507

Deadlift 3-3-1-1-1-1-1

Go slow and heavy!

The late Dr. Robert Atkins was the Louis Pasteur of our times. If you’ll remember from science history Pasteur was ridiculed and vilified by the media and medical community for maintaining that disease was caused by microorganisms that lived all around us. Dr. Atkins suffered similar condemnation for revealing that carbohydrate not dietary fat was the culprit in heart disease.

The medical community is rapidly coming around to Atkins’ position and highly acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes brought the world’s attention to this shift in a piece in a July 8th, 2002 article in the New York Times Magazine entitled “What if It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie?” This article had an enormous impact on the public’s awareness of the medical community’s emerging acceptance of Atkins’ position.

Reason Magazine published a poorly researched and strongly biased criticism of Taubes’ work by Michael Fumento in March entitled “Big Fat Fake.” Longtime fans of Reason Magazine, the CrossFit staff were sorely disappointed by Mr. Fumento’s piece. Michael Fumento, otherwise, a first rate journalist, has published several articles and a book on nutrition that reveal his ignorance on the subject.

Reason recently published a rebuttal by Gary Taubes to Michael Fumento’s criticisms on Reason’s website that hit the mark. Following Taubes' rebuttal is a reply by Fumento.

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The picture above is of an Olympic Bar from Bigger Faster Stronger ($189) and Gymnastics Still Rings and Straps from Norbert’s Athletic Products ($135). The versatility and utility of both pieces make them both absolutely indispensable to the CrossFit program, yet the rings are largely unfamiliar to even the hardcore workout public. We couldn’t forge the athletic prowess that we have without the rings.

Here is a video clip of Loyd Lewis doing a “backward roll to a support.” Learn then practice this move – we’ll give you several weeks to play with it and get rings if you haven’t yet before it is included in these workouts.

Tuesday 030506

Five rounds of:
Hang Clean 12 reps
12 Dips

Pick load for hang cleans and keep it for all five rounds.

Divide hang clean weight by number of seconds to completion for total score. Post score in comments.

Scoring the workout in this manner dramatically rewards and motivates greater strength, power, stamina, and cardiorespiratory endurance.

Tommy Kono is clearly one of the greatest weightlifters ever. Here from Clarence Bass is some background on Tommy and a review and information on ordering Tommy’s book “Weightlifting Olympic Style. http://www.cbass.com/Kono.htm (Recommended to us by Dan John)

Derek Ray solved the Florida Police Corps’ problem of insufficient places for pull-ups and dips with some 4X4’s, pipe, “Readymix”, a drill, and a posthole digger. They won’t be waiting in line to do pull-ups any more. Total cost: less than $300.

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Monday 030505

Five rounds of:
Thruster 12 reps
12 Pull-ups

Pick load for the thruster and keep it for all five rounds.

Divide thruster weight by number of seconds to completion for total score. Post score in comments.

Our “thruster” is nothing more than a front squat - push press combo. The movement represents one of the most significant accelerations that can be performed by the human body. It requires a full range of motion in the ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, and wrist all working against the normal force of gravity with entire body mass plus a load. It doesn’t get any harder than that.

The decline of college gymnastics is a tragedy to U.S. physical culture. Ironically, the decline came immediately on the heels of the U.S. finally acquiring world competence and by some measures world dominance in the sport of men’s gymnastics. http://www.freep.com/sports/college/mgym7_20030307.htm

As a result of this decline there are some great deals on used apparatus and mats available on line.

Don’t forget this important stretch and warm-up: the overhead squat.

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Sunday 030504

Rest Day

Fred Koch, Robert Blom, and Vidar Jacob made an important contribution to our understanding of abdominal training with their “abmat” work. http://www.abmat.com/intro.htm.

Learn, train, and practice the “abmat” style sit-up as well as the “L” sit , glute-ham/Roman Chair sit-up, and hollowrock. Set goals for each of these exercises.

On the glute-ham and Roman Chair sit-up learn to lift with the Quads’ rectus femoris as well as the typically dominant psoas. The key to this is to attempt to extend the leg even though it may be nearly fully extended and to lift up sharply on the shin supports. If you have equipment that let’s you adjust the contact pads, move the hip pad away from the hip and towards the knee to encourage more quadriceps use.

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Saturday 030503

Complete 5 rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
Bench bodyweight 10 reps
10 Pull-ups

Dan John’s the real deal. There isn’t a more honest, no B.S., knowledgeable voice in lifting and throwing than Dan John’s. Check out “Get Up!!!!” http://danjohn.org/coach.html

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Eva Twardokens demonstrates her false grip start to the muscle-up. Eva is the only female in our muscle-up club but several others are close. Here’s a clip of Eva’s muscle-up where you can see how she keeps the rings very close to her body for a smooth transition

Friday 030502

Snatch 5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1-1 reps

Thanks to John McCracken for recommending “Men’s Gymnastics Coaching Manual” by Lloyd Readhead
https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861260768/202-5178524-3150227

“O lifting is an amazing sport for carryover. I once, on a stupid bet for a twelve pack of beer, raced a ten kilometer run without ANY (zip, zero, nada, nothing, any) running in the past year or two or three (or maybe five years), but I was getting ready for an O meet. Lots of people...lots...finished well behind me. In fact, this Nazi psycho running chick at the job I had at the time finished behind me, too.”

- Dan John

Bad dip. Good dip.

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Thursday 030501

Perform 3 rounds:
Jump rope 2 minutes, max “double-unders”
Pull-ups 25 reps for time

“Day on, day off diet boosts health”, from New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993668

Your CrossFit staff played with this diet last year (thought we invented it!) and found it doable – almost fun. Eat anything-eat nothing, repeat.

The new site launch is the perfect occasion to thank all of you for your support and encouragement! The entire CrossFit.com project has been an incredible journey of the “build it and they will come” variety.

We dedicate the new site to Coach Derek Ray, Brian Mulvaney, Otto Lejeune, Ben Elizer, Ted Socha, Robb Wolf, Dan John, Dave Werner, Nick Nibler, Athena, Jason Highbarger, Greg Amundson, Loyd Lewis, Dave Leys, Lani Lau, Eva Twardokens, Dave Young, Jim and Debie Baker, Tim Silva, Garth Taylor, Claudio Franca, BJ Penn, Cameron Earle, Nick Massman, and Philippe and Sonia Kahn

- Greg and Lauren Glassman

We know many of you have already “met Pukie”, and we’re sorry. For the rest of you here he is!

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Wednesday 030430

Rest Day

There's but one way to determine the efficacy of a fitness protocol: pit that system against a second system and test them both against the standards of a third. By this standard CrossFit has no peer.

- Greg Glassman

Michael Johnson is the world record holder at 400-meter sprint – 43:18. Here he explains his strategy. http://www.sprint.r2.ru/400_johnson.html

Discover how a ten foot loop of theraband becomes a simple, inexpensive, effective, and portable approach to assisting the pull-up in May’s CrossFit Journal.

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Tuesday 030429

50 Glute Ham Sit-ups
Tabata “Bottom to Bottom” Squats
50 Abmat Sit-ups

The Tabata Bottom to Bottom Squat is a Tabata Squat but each rep begins at the bottom and ends at the bottom. The turn around at the top is immediate - no pause. The ten-second rest for each interval is also held at the bottom of the squat as opposed to the top. Interestingly, this squat, in contrast to the “normal” Tabata squat, motivates full hip extension. Also, the ten second rests don’t seem as short with this protocol!

Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.

- Corita Kent

Here’s an interesting story about the Navy’s reevaluation of the sit-up:
http://www.abmat.com/navy1.htm

Monday 030428

Shoulder Press 15 RM X 15 reps
20 Pull-ups
Push Press 15 RM X 15 reps
20 Pull-ups
Push Jerk 15 RM X 15 reps
20 Pull-ups

Work at a pace that allows for max load. Complete each round of pull-ups in as few sets as possible.

The load for the presses should increase from the shoulder press to the push press to the push jerk. The progression of these presses is from lesser to greater functionality, max load, metabolic stimulus, and total body involvement.

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Dave Leys' push jerk a moment before the catch; the hip is dropping, and the bar is rising. Notice his hip is back and his weight is on his heals.

Sunday 030427

Complete three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
Deadlift bodyweight X 15 reps
24” Box Jump X 20 reps

This workout contains three different functional applications of hip extension. Note the seeming incompatibility of these movements. The benefit here is largely a function of pace or total time – don’t dally!

Saturday 030426

Rest Day

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Friday 030425

Tabata Squats, Push-ups,and Pull-ups resting one minute between efforts.

1/2 Tabata Squats, Push-ups, and Pull-ups resting one minute between efforts.

“Variances in effort, intensity, enthusiasm, and performance are an inescapable part of life. The belief that these natural variances can be planned for months in advance in order to optimize performance at a later date is hogwash.”
- Greg Glassman

American Gymnast is a good resource for all things gymnastic:
http://american-gymnast.com/index.shtml