Friday 100430

"Progress in industry depends very largely on the enterprise of deep-thinking men, who are ahead of the times in their ideas."
- Sir William Ellis

Warm-up:
As usual.

Skill Development:
Air squats.
10 minutes practice, working on PERFECT form. If unsure what "perfect form" is, watch THIS VIDEO.

WOD:
As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of:
10 Squats
15 Push-ups

Post rounds completed to comments.

Thursday 100429

'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Warm-up:
As usual

WOD:
3 rounds for time of:
40 Tuck Jumps
30 Sit-ups
20 Burpees

No jump on the burpees and keep your hands at your sides. You must still reach full hip extension, though. Do anchored sit-ups with hands at ears and elbows touching knees at the top.

Post times to comments.

Wednesday 100428

"We will often find compensation if we think more of what life has given us and less about what life has taken away."
- William Barclay

Warm-up:
As usual.

WOD:
Run 5k.

Post times to comments.

Tuesday 100427

"We always tend to play up to the level of our competition and play down to the level of our competition."
- Wayne Marshall

* Make sure you never "play down" to anything. Always give it your all, no matter what it is. Whether it's a WOD, a simple task, a point - ANYTHING - give it your all. Give everything you have, and leave nothing in the tank.

Warm-up:
As usual

Skill Development:
Chest-to-Bar Pull-ups
3x Max reps
Make sure your chest touches the bar on each and every rep

WOD:
5 rounds for time of:
7 Pull-ups
7 Jump Squats
7 Burpees
7 Push-ups

Post times to comments.

Monday 100426

"Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it." - Maya Angelou

Warm-up:
As usual.

WOD:
8 rounds of:
Run 200m

Rest 45 seconds between rounds.

Post times for each individual run to comments.

Friday 100423

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. That little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative."
- W. Clement Stone

Warm-up:
As usual.

WOD:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 rep rounds for time of:
Burpees
Sit-ups

Post times to comments.

Thursday 100422

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
- George Eliot

Warm-up:
2km run

WOD:
Part A. Handstand Push-ups
3 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest 2:00

Part B. Squats
3 sets x Max reps
Rest 2:00

Part C. Sit-ups/Supermans (alternating)
5 sets x 25 of each

Post reps for squats and thoughts to comments.

Wednesday 100421

"People do not lack strength, they lack will." - Hugo

Warm-up:
As usual.

Skill Development:
Perfect Push-ups.
Chest and Thighs to deck, full extension at the top
30 reps at a 1-1-1-1 count (i.e. 1 second down, 1 second bottom hold, 1 second up, 1 second top hold)

WOD:
3 rounds for time of:
100' Walking Lunge
50 Squats
25 Supermans

Post times to comments.

Tuesday 100420

"Vacillating people seldom succeed. They seldom win the solid respect of their fellows. Successful men and women are very careful in reaching decisions and very persistent and determined in action thereafter."
- L.G. Elliott

Warm-up:
As usual.

WOD:
For time:
50 Jump Squats
50 Jumping Pull-ups
50 Walking Lunge Steps
50 Sit-ups
50 Push-ups
50 Supermans
50 Burpees
50 Double Unders

Substitute Tuck Jumps for D/Us if you STILL can't do D/Us...but really, you should be doing D/Us by now, no matter how long it takes you.

Post times to comments.

Monday 100419

"You're alive. Do something.
The directive in life,
the moral imperative was so uncomplicated.
It could be expressed in single words,
not complete sentences.
It sounded like this:
Look. Listen. Choose. Act."
- Barbara Hall

Warm-up:
As usual

WOD:
21-15-9 rep rounds for time of:
Squats
Push-ups
Knees-to-Elbows

Post times to comments.

Friday 100416

"For my part, I rather distrust men or concerns that rise up with the speed of rockets. Sudden rises are sometimes followed by equally sudden falls. I have most faith in the individual or enterprise that advances step by step. A mushroom can spring up in a day; an oak takes 50 years or more to reach maturity. Mushrooms don't last; oaks do. The real cause for an enormous number of business failures is premature over-expansion, attempting to gallop before learning to creep. Sudden successes often invite sudden reverses."
- B.C. Forbes

Warm-up:
As usual

Skill Development:
Handstand Push-ups
3x Max Reps
If you're unable to do HSPUs yet, work on kicking up to the wall.

WOD:
6 rounds of:
2 minutes of Double-unders
Rest 30 seconds between rounds.

Post number of D/Us completed to comments.

Substitute tuck-jumps for D/Us if required, but by now you should be working on D/Us!

Thursday 100415

Is CrossFit Hardcore?

CrossFit doesn't look like your workout. No, it doesn't.

There are no '3 Sets of 8.' Not a single 'triceps kickback' to be found. And while we have lots of novel exercises to 'work your core' and 'improve your stability,' we prefer to teach you to move better in your own skin than stand you on a blue-pimple novelty and watch you quiver.

We make big claims: that we create an elite level of fitness. That we get you places you've never, ever, ever been before. That their workout is our warmup. To back those claims up, we have to do movements that are efficient, challenging, and get you far more bang for your buck than a selectorized machine ever could.

A clean and jerk, for instance: once a staple of the workout crowd, and a fundamental lift for improving your grocery-carrying and storage, is banned from nearly every 'fitness club.' For all the wrong reasons, too: it requires coaching, chalk, and the occasional drop of a barbell from overhead. Knowledge plus cleanup plus noise? Not an option if your teenage 'personal trainers' have to learn it all in a two-day course.

But a clean and jerk is a big lift, requiring a lot of energy. From a purely mathematical standpoint, it's four times as challenging as a bench press. If it seems scary, it's only because you haven't seen it around much - or have you? Lifting your bike onto your roof racks - that's a clean and jerk. Storing your Christmas lights on the top shelf - that's a clean and jerk. Doing it in the gym first just makes you break fewer bulbs. And fewer backs.

That's right: contrary, maybe, to what you've been told, this stuff prevents injuries. The strongest, safest backs in the world belong to powerlifters, NOT bed-resters. Knee injuries are typically the result of misuse, imbalanced use (the knee extension machine, anyone?) or non-use. Deadlifts don't hurt your back - given the right chance, they'll save it. Ask around: chiropractors, physiotherapists, and doctors send patients to us. We modify our methods for the injured, yes. But they're on the same road as our competitive CrossFitters, albeit a different starting line.

We choose to exercise in stark boxes. While exercisers from the 1920s,1930s,1940s, and 1950s would feel right at home, the modern machine-indoctrinated fitness pursuer will struggle to comprehend our methods. At least, at first. Slowly, they'll recognize little glimmers of sameness. "Hey, I did that as a kid!" "We do squats at my gym...but we don't go that low." "I've seen this on TV, but I never thought I could do it...."

Our workouts are short, but tough. But you'll want more. After a month, you'll find yourself checking our website on a daily basis, and joke about 'drinking the Kool-Aid.' After three months, you'll start breaking your own personal bests and bringing your friends. We've grown because CrossFit is amazing, not because we have a special limited-time offer on our membership.

Now, there's no denying that for most people, once they've been immersed in CrossFit, they can't ever go back to average. It tattoos you. And once you've offered up your fresh, pink skin to the prick of the needle, its mark is indelible. You can't undo CrossFit; once you've been painted, you can't go back to beige.

There's joy in sweat. There's family in common discomfort. There's a chemical addiction that comes from challenging yourself this way. There's pleasure in learning new stuff every single time you're in the gym. That's what CrossFit is: sweat+community+knowledge. Call it what you like.

Warm-up:
As usual

WOD:
3 rounds for time of:
Run 400m
30 Squats
Run 200m
15 Pistols/leg

Post times to comments.

If you are unable to do Pistols, use a wall, chair, broomstick, etc. for balance.

Wednesday 100414

"Our delight in any particular study, art or science rises in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment."
- Joseph Addison

Warm-up:
As usual

WOD:
As many rounds as possible in 5 minutes of:
5 Jump Squats
5 Dips
As many sets as possible in 4 minutes of:
20 unbroken Double-unders (sub Tuck Jumps in unable to do D/Us)
As many reps as possible in 3 minutes of:
Overhead Squats with a Dowel/Broomstick
As many lengths as possible in 2 minutes of:
Run 10 metres
As many Pull-ups as possible in 60 seconds.

Post results for all exercises to comments.

Tuesday 100413

"You can sit around and wait to die or you can fight to live."
- Mary Castillo

Warm-up:
As usual

WOD:
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
15 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
45 Squats

Post times to comments.

Compare to 100121.

Monday 100412

Read 'What Sets Great Leaders Apart'.

Warm-up:
As usual.

Skill Development:
Vertical Jump
Measure your vertical jump 5 times. Average your results and post to comments.
Measuring procedure:
- Standing flat on your feet against a wall, with a piece of tape around the top of your middle finger (Sticky side out!), touch the wall as high as you can reach to find your standing reach height.
- Place another piece of tape on your middle finger.
- Standing next to the wall, jump and reach as high as you can, and slap the piece of tape against the wall (no running start).
- Measure the distance between your standing reach height and your jump height to measure your vertical jump.

WOD:
For time:
150 Tuck Jumps
Run 1200m

Post times to comments.

Friday 100409

"People with integrity do what they say they are going to do. Others have excuses."
- Laura Schlessinger

Warm-up:
As usual.

WOD:
5 rounds for time of:
15 Pull-ups
15 Squats
15 Tuck Jumps
15 Push-ups

Post times to comments.

Thursday 100408

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."
- Winston Churchill

Warm-up:
As usual.

Skill Development:
Chest-to-ground Push-ups
3 sets, max reps
Make sure your form is perfect. When it starts to break down, consider the set finished.

WOD:
10 minutes total Straight-arm Plank hold
Stop the time whenever you fail, and do 10 Sit-ups

Post impressions to comments.

Wednesday 100407

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude."
- Colin Powell, former American Secretary of State

Warm-up:
4x 400m run, rest 1 minute between efforts.

WOD:
For time:
21-15-9 rep rounds of:
Chest-to-bar Pull-ups
Burpees

Post times to comments.

Tuesday 100406

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."
- Winston Churchill

Warm-up:
As usual.

Skill Development:
Pull-ups.
- Chest-to-bar
- Work on getting a strong pull, and touch your chest to the bar with each rep. Failure to touch your chest counts as a fail.
3 sets, max reps to failure

WOD:
Tabata Bottom-to-Bottom Squats
(A Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times.)
For Bottom-to-Bottom, you start in the bottom of a squat (below parallel), and each rest period is also in the bottom position of the squat.

Post reps to comments.

Monday 100405

"Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged by only one thing: The result."- Vince Lombardi

Warm-up:
As usual.

WOD:
Run 2km

Rest 5 minutes, then:

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
10 Tuck Jumps
20 Push-ups
10 Sit-ups

Post rounds completed to comments.

Thursday 100401

'Had I the Choice' - Walt Whitman

Had I the choice to tally greatest bards,
To limn their portraits, stately, beautiful, and emulate at will,
Homer with all his wars and warriors--Hector, Achilles, Ajax,
Or Shakspere's woe-entangled Hamlet, Lear, Othello--Tennyson's fair ladies,
Metre or wit the best, or choice conceit to wield in perfect rhyme,
delight of singers;
These, these, O sea, all these I'd gladly barter,
Would you the undulation of one wave, its trick to me transfer,
Or breathe one breath of yours upon my verse,
And leave its odor there."

Warm-up:
As per usual.

WOD:
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
Max Rep Pull-ups
Run 400m

Post number of pull-ups completed and number of runs to comments.