CrossFit Montgomery County

Stamina

Continuing in my quest to educate you in the 10 General Physical Skills, we begin this week with stamina. Stamina refers to the body’s ability to deliver, store, and utilize energy. Fun, right? You can all go around now and tell everyone at work that you know the definition of “stamina”. Congratulations. Then when your boss says something about your upcoming quarterly review, you can challenge him to a pull-up competition to demonstrate your newly acquired knowledge.

I can see it now… You reach into your bottom desk drawer and pull out a telescoping door-mounted pull-up bar and quickly install it in your boss’s doorway before he knows what’s going on. You jump up and do 20 strict pullups (no kipping – this IS your place of business and all), and yell “HA! Top THAT monkey boy!” to your boss when you come down off the bar. You’re not even breathing hard, but you are strutting a little for the crowd that has gathered.

Feeling the pressure from the onlookers, your boss tentatively grabs the bar and to everyone’s amazement (including your boss’s), he performs 3 flawless reps. On the 4th rep he gets about halfway up – he’s pulling and pulling and pulling (but nothing’s happening), and finally he comes off the bar with a “kiss your quarterly bonus goodbye” look on his face.

“See,” you explain condescendingly, “the reason you couldn’t get that 4th pullup is because you lack the necessary stamina. And because you’re a giant weenie.” (You already gave up your quarterly bonus – you may as well earn the punishment) Then you hand him my card and tell him to give me a call to de-weenie-ize himself.

Today’s WOD:

“CrossFit Total”

The CrossFit Total is the sum of the best of three attempts at the following movements:

Back Squat
Shoulder Press
Deadlift

Read Mark Rippetoe’s article about The CrossFit Total for rules on the lifts, general guidelines, and some helpful pointers. If you think you know everything there is to know about these lifts and the CrossFit Total in general, I assure you that you are wrong. Read the article.

Cardio/Respiratory Endurance

Welcome to Day 1 of the “10 General Physical Skills Informational Opportunity/Make Tai Do Burpees Or Do Them Yourself Challenge”, or 10GPSIOMTDBODTYC, for short. Let’s let the fun begin…

Ever wonder why you have so many problems breathing during these workouts? It’s because your endurance sucks, in a nutshell. Anything that takes more than 4 or 5 minutes to accomplish is directly affected by your endurance (or lack of it). You can improve your endurance by getting on the rower and going for a 2k PR regularly, by running a mile or more as hard as you can, by swimming and biking and all the normal ways you would normally think of, but there are lots of other ways to improve it as well. You can bust your ass in the WODs that take more than 4 or 5 minutes (which is most of them), reduce the number of breaks you take during a WOD and reduce the amount of time you take for each break. You can refuse to take the instinctual break between pullups and pushups and force yourself to do 5 pushups before taking that break. Then you can strive to make it 6 pushups, and then 7, and then 8 before taking your break. You can continue doing wallballs until the ball doesn’t go up high enough to hit the target, and not just taking a break when it starts to get tiring. If you want to take a break, do one more rep and see if it makes it. And if it does, try another one.

You improve your endurance by training like you’re trying to improve your endurance. It’s as simple as that.

There are three energy systems used by the body to produce the necessary energy for all the ridiculous things I make you do in the gym (and everything else too). The first can produce a LOT of energy for a few seconds before it burns out (the phosphagen, or ATP-CP pathway), the second can produce a moderate amount of energy for up to several minutes (the glycolytic pathway), and the third can produce a low amount of energy for an indefinite amount of time (the oxidative, or aerobic pathway). In terms of the 10 General Physical Skills, Cardio/Respiratory Endurance refers to the ability to gather, process, and deliver oxygen, and falls squarely in the oxidative pathway.

Yes, I had to get some science in there so I have at least a small chance to avoid doing 100 burpees today…

Today’s WOD:

10 Muscle-ups
20 Burpees
30 Pullups
40 Wallball Shots
50 Double Unders
60 Walking Lunges
70 Pushups
80 Kettlebell Swings
90 Situps
100 Squats

The 10 General Physical Skills CHALLENGE

You’ve seen ‘em up on the whiteboard, you’ve read about ‘em in the CrossFit Journal and you’ve heard me reference them a million times. There’s a reason they’re all over the place – they’re important. I’m talking about the 10 General Physical Skills, as named by Jim Crawley and Bruce Evans of Dynamax (the makers of everyone’s favorite medicine balls, or as I recently heard them called, “CrossFit Stuffed Animals”). For those of you playing the home game, the skills are cardio/respiratory endurance, strength, stamina, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, accuracy, agility and balance. And competency in each of them is CrossFit’s first standard for fitness.

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see that a lack in any one of these skills could cost you the game, your mission, or even your life. But what do they mean? How do they affect you? How can you get better in each of them? Over the next several days (10, to be exact), I’ll take you on a guided tour of the 10 General Physical Skills so that YOU TOO can be an expert.

Read them carefully, because there will be pop quizzes each day at the gym. Answer the question right and I’ll do 10 burpees. Answer it wrong and YOU’LL do 10 burpees. This challenge will be cumulative, meaning that any skills previously addressed are fair game. And the best part of this whole thing is that you’re already entered in the challenge! Oh happy day!!

This is a chance to make me do a shitload of burpees. Take advantage of it, because it may not come up again for awhile (since I hate burpees). The challenge begins on Friday Feb 26 – you’ve been warned.

Today’s WOD:

For time:

40 Handstand Pushups

Every time you have to stop, do 10 situps

The CrossFit Heart

I recently heard someone described as being “CrossFit Strong,” a condition that is instantly recognizable to any of you who have ever seen a fire breather hammering a WOD on a video, or better, in person. It’s a great way to describe the result of doing CrossFit for any length of time – probably the best I’ve ever heard. Becoming “CrossFit Strong” takes a lot of work and dedication, and requires something far beyond a big deadlift or a 30-minute 10K run. It requires heart – a “CrossFit Heart.”

The CrossFit Heart is what makes you pick up the bar again when every fiber in your being tells you to rest. It makes you push yourself to run harder when your legs feel like jelly, and it makes your hands go back to the ground to start one more burpee. It makes you transcend the fatigue and forces you to keep going even though you know it’s going to hurt. It makes you show up early for class to practice snatch balances with PVC and makes you stay long after you finish the WOD to cheer for the one still struggling through it. It’s why you keep coming back to endure more pain – it keeps you young, and it keeps you strong.

Having a CrossFit Heart won’t make you a fire breather, but you won’t ever become a fire breather without one. And by the way, the guy in this photo (Paul)? He’s got one.

Today’s WOD

“Cindy”

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Squats

Another Level 1

Congratulations to Brett – he went to the CrossFit Level 1 Certification this past weekend in Atlanta. For two whole days he did squats, deadlifts, presses, and listened to lectures from Chuck Carswell and Miranda, and represented CFMC proudly the whole time (just look at that awesome shirt he’s wearing in the photo). I’ll put his certification on the wall as soon as he remembers to bring it in, and maybe I’ll even write up his bio for the website too.

So great job Brett; you deserve congratulations CFMC-style: Mop the floors and clean the bathrooms, and do some burpees every 30 seconds.

Today’s WOD:

“Michael”

Three rounds for time of:

Run 800 meters (yes, really)
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

FilFest was a blast. I met so many great people and learned a lot about how people do what we do. Now I’m tired, a little sunburned (about which I’m both bragging AND complaining) and ready to come back to sunshiny Maryland to be with all you fine folks. Yes really. Except for Dave. I’ll see you at the noon class today…

Today’s WOD:

For time:
155 pound Squat clean, 15 reps
30 Toes to bar
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
15 Muscle-ups
40 pound dumbbell Push press / push jerk, 30 reps
30 Double-unders
135 pound Thruster, 15 reps
30 Pull-ups
30 Burpees
300 feet Walking lunge with 45lb plate held overhead

Very Varied

Routine is the enemy. It’s one of the reasons people quit the globo gyms and join CrossFit gyms – they’re bored out of their minds with the routines the trainers give them. (Well you know, that and because CrossFit actually works.) In terms of exercise, routine will make you good at everything in the routine…and nothing else. CrossFit is comprised of constantly varied high intensity functional movements – this isn’t any secret to any of us. However… It is most certainly possible to get into a routine in CrossFit as well if you’re not careful. Doing the same movements – the EXACT same movements – will get you good at those movements. And while becoming good at the movements is ONE goal, it’s not THE goal. That’s why part of the fundamental dominant themes of CrossFit is to “learn and play new sports.” Without that practical application part, CrossFit can easily become a routine like at the globo gym (albeit somewhat more painful).

It’s important to screw with the routine once in awhile just to make sure you avoid that routine. What would this look like in practice? Maybe doing deadlifts with 75% of the load on one side and 25% on the other. Or perhaps the spinning pullups thing we did recently. Or any number of seemingly bizarre things that we can (and will) dream up for you to do. Take today’s WOD, for example. You’re going to get friendly with the resistance bands in some ways that are probably outside your comfort zone, and you’re going to like it. Or not. But either way, routine is out the window today – and you should be thankful for it, because you’re a CrossFitter and can handle it.

Today’s WOD:

5 Rounds for time:

25 Resistance band Push-ups (full lockout at top, fight the resistance)
25 Resistance band Squats (full lockout at top, and fight hard at bottom to maintain lumbar curve against resistance band)
25 Resistance band Assisted Pull-ups, Chest to bar no kip

Men: same band for the whole workout
Women: one band higher for pullups

Make It Count

Part 2 of 2

Another issue that doing only the top half of the workout raises is the validity of the time or score of that workout. For example, in the named workout “Angie”, your ability to do 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 situps, and 100 squats is what is being timed. If you do any of the reps of any of the movements with less than the full range of motion required for a valid rep, then not only did you cheat on the workout, but your overall time is meaningless since you never finished the workout. Your time doesn’t reflect 100 pullups, 100 pushups, 100 situps and 100 squats, it reflects how long it took you to do a bunch of crap movements that got worse as you went on. It’s like the Barry Bonds record-breaking homerun baseball in the Hall Of Fame with the great big asterisk on it.

Remember, in CrossFit we measure Power Output. Power Output is what gives us all the wonderful benefits we enjoy from doing CrossFit. That’s Force times Distance divided by Time. If any one of the reps don’t go through the FULL range of motion, the total Distance is lower than what it should be, and your total Power Output is therefore lower as well.

So whatever the WOD calls for, do each rep of each movement all the way, bottom to top, every single time, until you’re done. The moment you accept a crappy rep as “valid” in your mind, you’ve cheated yourself of achieving your maximum potential. If you suck at that movement, watering it down by doing it halfway when you start getting tired is not going to remove it from your list of “things I suck at”, and it certainly isn’t going to make you a better CrossFitter. Force yourself to do it all the way, bottom to top, every single time, until you’re done – even if it takes you a month to finish the workout – and you will be amazed at how quickly you become good at it and everything else.

Besides…mediocre just plain sucks.

SCHEDULE ALERT (yes, again): Brett will be running classes today, and will be running a 4:30pm, 5:30pm and a 6:30pm class. So stop by to say hello, and do the WOD with him tonight.

Today’s WOD:

7 Rounds for time of:

7 Power Cleans [Men - 95# | Women - 65#]
7 Back Squat [Men - 95# | Women - 65#]
7 Kettlebell Swings [Men - 53# | Women - 35#]
7 Burpees

Make It Count

Part 1 of 2

Would you climb halfway out of a hole? Would you stop halfway when crossing the street? Climbing halfway out of a hole is a hell of a lot easier than having to climb ALL the way out though, isn’t it? Damn right. How about the street thing? That’s not even hard, but maybe you just don’t feel like taking those last 5 steps. Yeah, neither of those makes much sense. The results in both cases are binary: you’re either out of the hole or you’re not; you either cross the street or you don’t. It’s as simple as that.

Every movement in CrossFit has the same binary quality: either it counts or it doesn’t. Look at them like crossing the street – if you don’t get all the way across, you haven’t crossed anything. That’s how you should treat every movement in CrossFit: unless you do it all the way, bottom to top, every single time, it doesn’t count. The top half of a pushup is not a pushup. The top half of a squat isn’t a squat. If you’re going through all the trouble of doing the workout in the first place, then do the whole workout, not just the top half of it.

Keep in mind, this rant is not about technique…I’ll save the technique rant for another time. This one only deals with what counts as a valid rep and what does not. The message here is that “almost a pullup” does not count, even if that “almost-pullup” comes after an unbroken string of 49 perfect ones. But if that 50th pullup is the ugliest squiggling monstrosity ever attempted in the history of pull-ups, it counts as long as it starts with locked out arms at the bottom and ends with their chin over the bar. Otherwise, it ain’t no pullup.

To Be Continued…

SCHEDULE ALERT (again): Check the updated schedule for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday. There will be NO 4:30pm class on Friday. The Friday 5:30 and 6:30pm classes will be run by Mike, who has asked me to mention that he will be here as soon as he can after work (usually right at 5:30) and that he will be happy to stay late if there are people around.

Today’s WOD:

Weighted Pullups 3-3-3-3-3

Tabata “Fight Gone Bad” (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times) for each of the following:

Wallball Shots
Sumo Deadlift High Pull [Men - 75# | Women - 55#]
Box Jumps
Push Press [Men - 75# | Women - 55#]
Rowing (for calories)

That Special Moment

It’s fairly common, really. Maybe not the gesture, but certainly the feeling. You collapse after a horrible WOD and want nothing more than to pass into a peaceful oblivion, away from all the pain and suffering your life has been about for the previous [insert WOD time here]. Your diaphragm still burns from breathing so hard, your heart rate is still WAY above your target zone (according to the helpful training chart on the treadmill you saw 9 months ago), and your muscles feel like they’ve been replaced with electric barbed wire. It’s always right at that certain moment when an onlooker has a sarcastic comment for you about your performance. And not long after their comment is when that feeling hits you to supply them with your own pixelated appendage.

I love CrossFit.

SCHEDULE ALERT: This Thursday, Friday, and next Monday’s class schedule have been slightly altered due to my leaving town to attend the 2010 CrossFit Affiliate Gathering. Check the SCHEDULE page for more information.

Today’s WOD:

5 Rounds for time of:

12 Steps Overhead Walking Lunge (with barbell – snatch grip) [Men - 75# | Women - 45#]
4 Rope Ascents/20 Burpees*

*If the rope is available, you use the rope. If someone is using any part of it the moment you finish your 12th Overhead Walking Lunge, you do the burpees.