CrossFit Montgomery County

A good friend of mine texted me yesterday afternoon saying that his training needs a kick in the ass. This of course got me thinking about laziness in general (since he is apparently going for a world record lately), and how laziness applies to CrossFit workouts.

As Jules Renard says, “Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.” Yep, laziness is just a habit. And like all habits, it can be broken. The thing is, if you want to break a habit, you have to break the habit. It won’t magically disappear if you ignore it – it’ll stick around like a stray cat that found a steak on your front doorstep. But isn’t that the way we’ve been conditioned to handle things? We have things like remote controls so we don’t have to stand up, walk three steps, turn around, walk three more steps and sit back down. We have escalators so we don’t have to climb stairs, we have dishwashers so we don’t have to do dishes, and we have Segways so we don’t even have to WALK anymore! We’ve become a race of beings whose entire purpose seems to be spending energy finding ways to avoid expending energy. How “CrossFit” does this seem to you?

A few days ago I wrote a post called “Would You Rather?” where I talked about making choices. With that post in mind, I’d ask each of my 7 readers to take a look inside and answer this question, would you rather be like everyone else, or better? If you answered the latter, I have another quote for you:

Most of the problems with the bodies and minds of the folks occupying the current culture involve an unwillingness to do anything hard, or anything that they’d rather not do. I applaud your resolve and I welcome you to the community of people who have decided that EASY will no longer suffice. -Mark Rippetoe

So do another burpee before you take a breather, one more kettlebell swing before you rest, a couple more wallballs and a few more squats, and go put a steak on your neighbor’s doorstep.

Buy-In:

Arrive at gym

WOD:

“Daniel”

For time:

50 Pullups
400m Run
21 Thrusters (95/63)
800m Run
21 Thrusters
400m Run
50 Pullups

Cash-Out (optional):

Consume post-workout recovery beverage of choice

What’s more satisfying to you…when you absent-mindedly kick a wadded up piece of paper across the office and it bounces off of the wall, the chair, the desk, the computer screen and that picture of your dog before landing squarely in the trash can, or when you can do that 5 times in a row exactly the same way? I think it’s way cooler to be able to do something on purpose than hoping it happens by accident. It’s also a basic requirement in order to be considered good at anything.

Professional athletes are professional athletes because they can make something happen more regularly than amateur athletes – you never hear Tiger Woods say “I dunno how I won all those tournaments – I just closed my eyes and swung like hell.” No way – he practiced his butt off hour after hour, day after day for years and years to be able to make the ball do what he wants it to do. He didn’t become an expert the first time he swung a golf club, he practiced relentlessly. And what’s more, he is now considered the greatest golfer who ever lived yet he still practices relentlessly.

It’s easy to be a beginner at CrossFit – you have all kinds of valid excuses for why you’re no good at the movements yet, and you improve so dramatically so quickly that it becomes addicting. But a word of advice to beginners and veterans alike: don’t ever get comfortable with your current level of ability, because the moment you stop practicing is the moment you stop improving. I’m not as good as I want to be yet, so hand me a PVC – I’ve got work to do.

Buy-In:

With your 5RM Shoulder Press weight, do 3 rounds of the following sequence:

4 reps Shoulder Press
3 reps Push Press
2 reps Push Jerk

*do not put down the bar between movements
*rest for 2-3 minutes between rounds

WOD:

4 Rounds for total reps, no rest between rounds

1 min Row (calories)
1 min Kettlebell Swings (53/35)
1 min Knees to Elbows

Cash-Out:

100 Double-Unders

Damn folks – we had some GOOD deadlifting in here yesterday! We got at least 3 new people in the 400+ club (Kevin, Jackson and Jeff – and chances are good I’m missing someone), and Dan pulled 450 to full extension to take Brett’s place at the top of the Deadlift section of the Leader Board! That’s a 25 lb PR for Dan! Congratulations to all of you – you busted your butt and didn’t let the weights hold you down. Even I finally broke my pathetic deadlift PR with a 315 (a 15 lb PR for me). You can bet that Brett won’t let that one go for long though!

UPDATE: I knew I missed someone when I wrote this last night – Oliver also joined the 400+ club! Fantastic job brother!

In other news, check out the new Logs/Forum page on the website. You can keep a personal log of all your WODs, PRs, Benchmarks, and everything else too. Also please note the login and registration widget at the top left of this page… You have to be registered to contribute to the forum or keep a log. There are a couple of minor bugs I still need to work out in the forum software, but overall it works just fine. As you use it please let me know if you run into any issues. Happy logging!

Buy-In:

1000m Row

WOD:

“Karen”

For time:

150 Wallballs

*This is one of the benchmarks on the Leader Board, and the standards for the wallballs will be strict: hip crease must be below parallel at the bottom, and the ball must TOUCH the wall IN the black stripe (e.g. I have to be able to see black under the ball when it hits the wall). This will be explained and demonstrated in class.

Cash-Out:

1000m Row

You hear people say it all the time: “I can’t do [insert movement here] – it’s too hard.” Whether they’re talking about body weight pullups, 350 lb deadlifts, handstand pushups or muscle-ups, the song is the same. Another version of it is, “I can’t do that because I’m too big,” or even, “this is hard – I wish it were easier.” These statements are all 100% pure grade “A” crap. The fact of the matter is that it’s not too hard and you’re not too big – in both cases the truth is that you’re too weak.

This is actually great news because you see, strength is a choice. Hearing that you’re too weak should make you jump for joy – I mean, all you have to do in order to accomplish that thing is get stronger and better! Good news folks – we know how to do that! What we can’t do is make a task easier (a 350 lb deadlift will always be a 350 lb deadlift), but we can definitely make you better.

But the choice is yours – if you’re convinced you can’t lift big heavy things because you’re a little guy, then you pigeon-hole yourself into the category of “can’t lift heavy things.” If you have decided that pullups will always be hard just because you’re a big guy, then your wish is my command. If, however, you choose to change your “little guy” status and build up some strength to lift heavy stuff, you certainly can and you definitely will. The same is true for you big guys too – you are the only thing keeping you from becoming better at stuff you’re convinced you can’t get better at. This is true for every single excuse imaginable.

So the next time you say something stupid like, “I can’t do that because it’s too hard,” do 100 burpees to remind yourself of the truth. Stop blaming the exercise for the fact that you’re not currently strong enough to do it, and then choose to do something to change that.

Buy-In:

Deadlift 3-2-1-1-1

WOD:

21-15-9 Reps for time of:

Overhead Squats (95/63)
Pullups

Cash-Out:

1 min Ring Support position (total time in support)

Ever wonder why the guy or girl next to you seems to be getting better and stronger and faster, and you seem to be struggling with the same things you’ve been struggling with since you started doing CrossFit? The reason isn’t because they’re genetically gifted or because you’re somehow at a disadvantage because of anything your parents did to you (or whatever reason you make up), it’s because they are using the CrossFit program to its potential and allowing it to work for them. They come in to the gym and do the WOD posted on the board, the way it’s posted on the board, whether they like the workout or not, whether they’re good at the movements or not, or whether they expect to have the fastest time in the gym or not.

The goal of CrossFit is to make you better, but CrossFit can’t do it if you don’t do CrossFit. The more you invest in your own results, the better the results are that you’ll get. That person next to you who was a noob a couple months ago and is now near the top of the board every day got that way for a reason – they busted their ass for it.

CrossFit doesn’t do itself. Work the program and let it work for you, and you’ll improve dramatically. Argue for your limitations, and they’re yours forever.

Buy-In:

Power Clean

5-5-3-3

WOD:

10 Rounds for time:

5 Ball Slams
7 Pushups
9 Squats

Cash-Out:

2 min handstand (total time inverted)

It’s just the WOD today folks. No insightful ranting, helpful suggestions, or life advice. Nope…I’m not going to fill your head with strange metaphors, boost your mood with funny anecdotes or even make fun of anyone at the gym (at least not in this post). That’s right folks, you’re completely on your own today. If you happen to come up against an obstacle which requires that you step out of your comfort zone in order to successfully negotiate it, I will be of no help to you today. I truly and sincerely wish I could be of help, but alas – some things you just have to do for yourself.

Like overhead squats, for example. And pullups, wallballs and burpees. And kettlebell stuff, box jumps, rings and running. And everything else you don’t like doing. I’ll put together the programming, but the work is yours to do. Do it like your life depends on it, because someday it just might.

Buy-In:

3 max sets STRICT pullups – 3 min rest between sets

WOD:

5 Rounds for time:

200m Run
10 High Ring Dips (You’ll need to do a muscle-up to get to the ring dips)
10 Burpees

Cash-Out:

15 reps, Skin the Cat

There’s been some confusion as to why there is all this “Buy-In/Cash-Out” stuff plaguing the WODs lately, so I thought I’d take a moment to explain it.

The other day several of you wrote publicly about your goats, those horrible abominations of cruel and unusual physical punishment that are 100% conquerable if you have the will and the desire to choose to defeat them. The Buy-In/Cash-Out is here to support and facilitate the eradication of these unwanted farm animals, and contrary to popular belief, not simply to watch you suffer more (though I do enjoy that too). During the Buy-In/Cash-Out you will be given important tasks to accomplish and skills to practice that will make you better at stuff you’re not good at, as long as you allow them to. Think of it in terms of yesterday’s post – would you rather have things that kill your workouts and hold you back or just be good at everything and not have to worry about it?

I’d also like to personally thank my new favorite lurker, Eric Pelletier, for posting about his goat: running. Eric my friend, your post clinched today’s Cash-Out (which I’m sure I’ll hate you for since I hate running too). This is a guy who doesn’t even live in this state, but he posted his goat publicly on this site for all 7 of my readers to see anyway. Good work brother… now you HAVE do today’s Cash-Out (and post your time here too)!

Buy-In:

Snatch 3-2-1-1-1

WOD:

“Tabata Something Else”

20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times for each of the following movements:

Pullups
Pushups
Situps
Squats

Score = total number of valid reps completed

Cash-Out:

1 mile run for time

Let’s play a game called “Would You Rather?” It’s a fun party game with a simple theme: you are presented with two (usually horrible or very strange) hypothetical options from which to choose, you make a choice and then defend your decision. Great fun, right? Here are a couple sample questions:

• Would you rather kiss a jellyfish or step on a crab?
• Would you rather immerse your naked body in a bathtub of cockroaches or dive naked head first into a pool of tobacco spit?

You get the idea…and can probably see how the overall [ahem] quality of the questions can diminish quite quickly in certain situations. Still though, lots of fun.

However, the game I’m actually talking about is one that you play internally every day as you make the choices that define who you are and what you do. Would I rather wear the brown shoes or the black shoes? Have cereal or eggs? Take the highway or the back roads? They’re all presented to you every day, and always follow your initial desire perfectly, right? I mean, if you decide to wear the black shoes then you would expect to see the black shoes whenever you look down at your feet that day. It wouldn’t make sense to put on the black shoes and then later look down to see they were orange or blue or red, and it would make even less sense to get upset that they had not magically become anything other than what you decided to put on that morning.

The choices you make are real, they are obvious, and they will stay exactly how you’ve chosen until you make a different choice. Would you rather be strong or weak? Would you rather get better at everything or avoid stuff you don’t like? Would you rather set a new PR or get a drink and catch your breath? Would you rather have a great body or eat like crap? Each choice has two options, and you only get to choose one (and remember how ridiculous you look when you choose one and then get upset when you don’t have the other).

Make the choices for what you’d rather do, be, or have – not just dream about how nice it would be, but actually MAKE the choice – and then get ready to enjoy all the benefits of getting exactly what you want. Or don’t – the choice is yours.

Buy-In:

Shoulder Press

5-5-3-3

WOD:

7 Rounds for time:

7 Wallballs
7 Pullups
7 Burpees

Cash-Out:

20 Bulldogs

Yes, I wrote something about your goat before. Your goat is the thing that consistently kicks your ass, the thing you’re no good at, the thing that you would pay money to see wiped off the whiteboard. For Brett it’s handstand pushups. For me handstand pushups aren’t that big of a deal, but I’m no good at rowing or running and Brett kills me every time when one of those is involved.

So let’s all decide to euthanize our goats. Tell me what they are – and do it publicly (e.g. in the comment section here) – and we’ll work on them in the gym in a “buy in/cash out” format. Seriously – write them here so we can work on them together…that’s the whole reason I’m here!

Buy In:

5 Turkish Get-Ups (each hand)
5 Windmills (each hand)

WOD:

“Diane”

21-15-9 Reps for time of:

Deadlifts (225/185)
Handstand Pushups

Cash Out:

100 Double-Unders

This past weekend we hosted American Kettlebell Club coach Marcus Taylor for a kettlebell seminar, and we all learned some great things about kettlebell training. We learned the basics about body position, hand position and hip pop, we learned how to swing it, clean it, jerk it, snatch it, half and full get-up with it, windmill it, bulldog it, figure-8 snatch it and bottoms-up clean and press it. All in all it was a terrific seminar and we’re looking forward to welcoming Marcus and Jolina back in the future.

In this photo we see Marcus teaching Mike the bottom position in the windmill. Either that or they’re examining a problem with the ceiling. Or they’re rehearsing their synchronized interpretive dance for the school talent show. Or they’re holding up a very large imaginary tray of cookies. Or Marcus is checking Mike for earwax. (ok…I can get carried away sometimes)

Today’s WOD:

Back Squat 5-5-5

-THEN-

Using only a set of rings, do as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:

5 Inverted Ring Dips
6 Knees to Elbows
7 Pullups