Burps

Only the dedicated came today: Melby and Courtney. Way to fight off the soreness and get after it. The workout was all mental today.

Run 400m, 100 burpees, run 400m

Nothing special about this one. Just keep telling yourself one more rep.

Courtney 12:15 (75 burpees)
Melby 14:03 (100 burpees)

Everyone get ready for the Fall CrossFit competition tomorrow. We have three events planned. Meet in the SRC at 3:15. The competition should be done by 4:30 followed by a cookout.

Water In My Mouth

POOL DAY

We love pool day wednesdays. Some crossfitters experienced their first pool WOD today and everyone worked hard and swam like fishes.

WOD:

5 Rounds

In two minutes swim 50m, then in the remaining time complete as many muscle ups on the pool edge as possible. Score is total number of muscle ups.

Rest two minutes and repeat.

This workout was was intense, the swim got tougher and tougher as the WOD progressed. Then we had to fight through the water trying to get in your mouth and nose during the muscle ups. Most of us also experienced muscular failure on the muscle ups, as the fatigue and lactic acid built up. It was great to see Rachel and Pohl who joined us for their first pool WOD!

Scores:

Boch 147

Connor 140

Melby 135

Rachel 97

Pohl 63

Caleb 100

Pyne 97

Karen

Today we did a classic girl WOD: Karen. 150 wall ball shots for time. The task is simple. Completing the task is not as easy.

Karen is a classic example of working from the core to extremities. A tight core, with powerful hip extension drives the medicine ball up, then the shoulders propel the ball upward to the 10 foot target. After receiving the medicine ball the hips move into a squat and then powerfully drive up through the heels. In short, the legs, shoulders and lungs get burned on this WOD. Here are the times:

Pohl 6:27 (18#)

Brieg 7:00 (20#)

Connor 7:27 (25#)

Drew 7:48 (15#)

Pyne 8:21 (17#)

Justin 8:30 (11#)

Courtney 8:44 (9#)

Melby 10:37 (20#)

Solid effort by everyone, especially for those who were feeling the soreness from the pushups and deadlift extravaganza yesterday. Tomorrow the legs get a break and we will be in the pool for some interval training. Your arms are going to feel like they will fall off after tomorrow night, but that is a good thing. 

Girl Pushups

Tonight we had our biggest crew yet: 10 CrossFitters! We continue to hammer home the deadlift, which is the most functional movement there is. The WOD was a simple couplet pulled from the mainsite. CrossFit legend posted a sick time of 6:48 on this WOD that makes you wonder if it is possible to go that fast. Without further adieu.

10 rounds for time:
15 Deadlift (135#)
15 pushups

We had some many people tonight we had to do two heats of the WOD. Courtney made her first appearance after a 9 month hiatus from CrossFit, but she showed tenacity and determination in finishing the WOD. The WOD relegated many of our regulars to doing girl pushups. But what is important is that everything kept the intensity high and finished. Here are the times:

Connor 9:12 (135#)

Charity 10:04 (5 rounds at 65#)

Caleigh 10:16 (5 rounds at 65#)

Rachel 14:07 (65#)

Courtney 14:33 (65#)

Pohl 16:50 (135#)

Drew 17:40 (135#)

Ryan 18:45 (135#)

Pyne 19:34 (135#)

Caleb 21:06 (115#)

Awesome effort by all. We continue to expect more people drinking the CrossFit Kool-Aid in the weeks ahead. Tomorrow is a WOD called Karen. I'll let you look it up if you are intrigued or come tomorrow and see for yourself. Just a reminder on Friday at 3:30 we will have a competition with 3 short workouts and will give prizes to top male and top female with a BBQ to follow. Rest up because tomorrow will leave you shaking.

Be a Man

This afternoon we went out to the ROTC playground for a grip ripper! We did a simple triplet that required  the ability to control the body.

21-15-9 of
Pullups
Pushups (hand must leave ground at the bottom of each rep)
Toes to Bar

The logic behind taking the hands off the ground at the bottom is to ensure maximum range of motion. This fatigues the shoulders and makes the other movements in the triplet more difficult. I do not recommend doing this every time, but it is great to throw in every once in a while for a challenge.

Brandon 6:28
Pyne 11:36
Pohl 12:47
Rachel 15:39
Melby: Became a man by tearing his hands open
John: Became a man by tearing his hands open


This workout destroyed the grip and shoulders. If you cannot kip on the pullup then this workout was even harder. So my advice to you is learn to kip. Rest up tomorrow and we will see everyone at 9 pm Monday night.

Michael

Today we did a hero WOD on the outdoor track: Michael.

In honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael McGreevy, 30, of Portville, NY, who was killed in Afghanistan June 28.




3 rounds for time of:
run 800m
50 situps
50 back extensions (we subbed supermans)

Connor 17:23
Brieg 17:33
Pohl 18:16

Melby 19:54
Jay 20:21
Pyne 20:33
Rachael 20:38 (subbed 125 air squats for 800m run)
Caleb 21:14
Charity 23:46

The beautiful weather made this WOD much more enjoyable. I think if it were hotter the run would have been much more difficult. We also had our biggest group yet today: 9 people! Keep spreading the word to people on campus. We will do a WOD at high noon tomorrow on the ROTC playground. Additionally, come out to CrossFit Tri Cities at 9 am to support Thunder CrossFit at Fight Gone Bad 5!

Sweat Angels

We made sweat angels on the indoor track tonight. How did we do it? TABATA! Tabata is a rather simple concept created by Japanese speed skating coach Izumi Tabata to increase the aerobic capacity of his athletes while building muscle. The tabata protocol is 4 minutes in length: 8 intervals of 20 seconds of all out work followed by 10 seconds of rest. You may be reading this and thinking that sounds easy. Go ahead and try it out for yourself. I dare you. Done with proper form it is absolutely punishing. The workout tabata squats, followed by tabata pushups, followed by tabata flutter kicks, followed by tabata handstands. Only the squats and pushups were scored. The goal is to achieve to highest total combined reps of squats and pushups. When all was said and done the WOD last 16 minutes and Pohl, Brieg and Pyne left 3 beautiful sweat angels on the indoor track.

Tabata squats + tabata pushups

Pyne: 184
Brieg: 179
Pohl: 175

I was impressed by everyone's depth on the squats. The improvement in depth is amazing. Not to mention everyone demonstrated more mental toughness compared to a few weeks ago. I am excited to see how everyone performs on the track tomorrow. If you want to come watch the Fight Gone Bad competition at CrossFit Tri Cities on Saturday morning let me know. We will leave here at 8:30 am and be back by 11 for brunch.

Water Wednesday!

As a team you must complete the following as fast as possible.
Each partner does both exercises:

Round 1:

Partner A
swim 25m, 10 burpees, swim 25m
Partner B
30 air squats

Round 2:

Partner A
swim 25m, 10 pool muscle ups, swim 25m
Partner B
30 air squats

Round 3:

Partner A
swim 25m, 10 burpees, swim 25m
Partner B
30 air squats

Round 4:
Partner A
swim 25m, 10 pool muscle ups, swim 25m
Partner B
30 air squats

Round 5:

Partner A
swim 25m, 10 burpees, swim 25m
Partner B
30 air squats

Times:
Shear/Brandon 11:23
Melby/Connor 13:06
Pyne/Caleb 17:34

This was a true burner. The lungs, legs and arms hurt and it only got worse with each round. Rounds 4 and 5 were especially terrible. But in a good way. The way that makes you feel awesome after the WOD is over. Needless to say, water Wednesday is my new favorite day of the week!
 

Tuesday

WOD:

For Times12-9-6-3-6-9-12

Deadlift

Burpees

In between each round, do three handstand push ups

This workout is meant to keep the body guessing after yesterdays intense cardio session. Drew and Pohl had a great race to the finish, with Pohl edging it out by a few seconds in the final set of

burpees. It was tough to keep perfect form on the deadlifts when the fatigue from the workout set in, and everyone did a really good job keeping form. Hope to see everyone in the pool tomorrow!

Times:

Just Row

Today we went mono-structural with the WOD. Meaning that it was one movement, and one movement only: row. The WOD was simple in that it was one movement, yet punishing because it was all out sprints. This workout is designed to push the cardiovascular limits, while exerting a massive burn throughout all the muscles in the body. The rower has the unique ability to build muscle and cardio/respiratory endurance at the same time. If you were not passed out on the ground by the end then you did this one wrong. 4 all out 500m row sprints with 3 minutes rest in between rounds is enough to punish any athlete. This was one of the most fun workouts to watch because everyone left it all on the rower.

Four rounds for time of:
row 500m
rest 3 minutes

The picture provides splits for everyone. Here is the total times of the four rounds.

Jay 6:21
Pohl 6:36
Melby 6:40
Brieg 6:40
Pyne 6:51
Caleb 6:69
Ryan 7:06
Charity 8:46

Mad props to everyone. A gutsy effort by all and nothing to be ashamed of after this WOD. Rest up for tomorrow. I guarantee it will not get any easier, but everyone will get fitter.

Rain WOD

Rain WOD!

Today we got primal with our workout, emphasizing functional fitness. No weights, just ourselves and some toys courtesy of the ROTC playground. Its fun to play in the rain!

WOD:

Run 800m loop starting from the ROTC playground, up to university, down to president, and back along college ave.

3 Jumps over and back over balance beams

6 Log flips

15 Pullups

Run to the front doors of traber

6 Jumps over and back

9 Log flips

18 Pull ups

Run 800m Loop

3 Jumps over and back

6 Log flips

15 pull ups

Results:

Breig: 18:05

Connor: 19:30

Pohl: 19:50

Pyne: 20:30

The Pretty WOD

Named by Danny (for reasons still unknown) today we did the Pretty WOD.

WOD:

3-3-3-3-3 Back Squat

Get heavy while maintaining PERFECT FORM. We have been practicing the squat, and today we worked on mastering it with a heavy load. We got super heavy, and we saw some great form out of Danny, Brieg, and Pohl. Good stuff.

Here Johnny P demonstrates excellent form and mobility. Notice how his head is up, back is flat, knees are tracking over the feet, heels on the floor, and his thighs are LOW, below parallel, awesome.

Then:

10 to 1 pullups

1 to 10 pushups

Do 10 pull ups, then 1 push up. Then 9 pull ups, then 2 push ups. Continue this pattern until you do 1 pull up and 10 push ups. Killed the arms and shoulders, fun little way to end todays workout.

POOL TIME!

So we decided to mix it up this wednesday and spend some time in the pool. We spend a lot of time on our feet, and have been neglecting this aspect of fitness. Two thirds of the earth is covered by water, so this is one area where we need some work!

WOD

As a team complete all of the following, for time. The swim cannot be completed until all of the reps of the movement have been completed as a team.

Swim 50m

30 muscle ups on pool edge

Swim 50m

75 Pushups

Swim 50m

150 Squats

Swim 50m

75 Pushups

Swim 50m

30 Muscle ups on pool edge

Boc and Connor: 11.20

Danny, Caleb, and Jordan Y: 13.40

This one killed the shoulders, we were all feeling like we had lifted hard. It was brutal going from muscle ups and push ups to the swim. Awesome workout overall, we will be hopping in the pool on wednesdays so get some goggles!

PS: Thunder Crossfit Speedos are in the design lab. Ladies swimsuits as well. Get excited.

E.T.S. Endure the Suck

What is different about elite crossfitters? Its no secret, they are willing to push themselves harder than anyone else. This video, from again faster equipment, does a good job of describing it. The beauty of crossfit is that everyone at every ability can get the best workout possible. It doesnt matter how you scale it, how much weight you do, you can push yourself as hard and harder than the people next to you!

No Big Deal

Tonight was fun. Why was it fun you might ask? Because we did handstands then did WORK! It was about time we started learning some gymnastics. We kept it simple by learning how to flip up into the handstand onto the wall. It takes some self-confidence to flip up onto wall but once you get it, its easy. Then we did tabata handstands on the wall. So flip up onto the wall and hold for 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds and then repeat 4 times. This was a fun pre WOD! Now onto the WOD. It was no big deal or was it? Each lap is about 177.77m. The men's prescribed weight for Dumb Bell swings (DBS) is 50#, women's 20#. Men's weight for push press (PP) was 27.5# and women's was 10#.

                                          

Run 5 laps
10 DBS, 10 PP
Run 4 laps
15 DBS, 15 PP
Run 3 laps
20 DBS, 20 PP
Run 2 laps
25 DBS, 25 PP
Run 1 lap
30 DBS, 30 PP



It was fun to see some CrossFit competition during this WOD. Pohl and Brieg duked it out while Caleb and Pyne battled to the finish.

Pohl 19:06
Brieg 19:48
Damon 24:35
Pyne 24:55
Caleb 25:22
Charity 26:28






Tomorrow the joints will get a break as we will be in the pool. Meet on the indoor track but have clothes on for working out and you want to get wet. It will be a team WOD and be a blast. I'm super stoked.

Throw Up

We were back in the weight room tonight after a rest day yesterday. Today Connor and I decided to put the guys through the workout we did last week. 5 rounds for time of

row 250m

10 Front Squat (109#)

15 GHD Sit ups

20 Box Jumps (24")

This workout gave the legs no rest and kept the heart rate really high. The row jacked up the heart rate and fatigued all the muscles. The front squat was the heaviest part of the workout. The GHD sit ups were killer on the hamstrings, glutes and abs. The box jumps were just pure suck. This WOD left the lungs burning for a good while after and left people feeling a little light headed. Everyone dug deep today and really gutted this one out.

Pohl 22:13

Brieg 27:35

Ryan 27:35

Brad 28:09

Pyne 4 rounds

Caleb 3 rounds

Brad came out for the first time and looked beastly on the rower. So much power. We also are hoping to have more girls get involved in the weeks to come. Tomorrow will not disappoint. Be there or be square.

Helton

Last day of the week. Legs sore. Body fatigued. Raining outside. It was gut check time today and it was more of a mental battle than a physical one. The workout today was called "Helton" and is the newest Hero WOD. 

"U.S. Air Force Security Forces 1st Lt. Joseph D. Helton, 24, of Monroe, Ga., assigned to the 6th Security Forces Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., was killed September 8th, 2009, while on a mission near Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Helton is survived by his mother, Jiffy Helton." 

With today being 9/11 it is a good time to take a step back and remember the people who have died in the armed forces to protect the freedom we enjoy in this country. To remember to people who died 9 nine year in the World Trade Center. And to remember the people who gave their lives on those planes to save the lives of thousands. 

So often we take everything in this country for granted. Seeing Hero WOD's show up is a sobering thing and helps put everything in perspective. 

We had four people show up to get after it this morning. It was a grind, but everyone dug deep and found out a little more about themselves today. The WOD consists of:

3 rounds for time:

run 800m

30 dumbbell squat cleans (50# each hand)

30 burpees

Brandon 27:57 (50#)

Connor 30:49 (50#)

Pohl 32:09 (40#)

Shear completed (25#) not sure of his time

Not much more to say. Hero WODs are always a battle. 

The Stadium revisited

After watching Pohl and Sbraccia suffer on the stadium last Sunday I had to give this one a try. Rather than going solo, I brought a whole crew along with me. We even had someone try Crossfit for the first time: Seager's roommate, Johnny. With 7 people out there, it was definitely a motivating environment. So much so that the girl's basketball team running laps on the track gave us funny looks. I know they wish their conditioning was as cool as Crossfit, but just did not want to say it. If you have been keeping up with the blog then you know what the workout is, but for all the new readers out there I will put it up again.

4 rounds for time:

25 pushups

hop up the stadium steps

50 air squats

bear crawl down the stadium steps

This was a killer workout. There was some muscular failure involved, but it was definitely weighted more toward respiratory fatigue as all the movements were bodyweight. The repeated bodyweight movements jacked up the heart rate and made it feel like you were breathing in thin mountain air. Here are everyone's times:

Brandon 10:32

Nate  12:13

Johhny 14:55

Brieg 17:55

Pyne 18:42

Drew 21:03

Charity 16:30 (2 rounds) Mad respect for being the only girl out there. If you are a girl reading this blog, Crossfit is not just for guys. It is for all citizens. That means men, women, children, boys, girls and yes even senior citizens. No excuses. 

Over My Head

Today was the most complex movement we have learned so far: the overhead squat. This movement quickly exposes weaknesses: tight shoulders, weak lower back and inflexible hips to name a few. The overhead squat is all about high and active shoulders, a tight midsection with a straight lumbar curve and getting the weight back on the heels so that the hip crease gets below parallel. This is easier said than done. We spent time working on shoulder flexibility and hip mobility then hit the WOD:

As Many Rounds as Possible (AMRAP) 15 minutes

7 O/H squat (75#)

14 Double Unders

21 Situps

Pohl (75#) finished with 7 rounds + 2 O/H squats

Brieg (45#) finished with 7 rounds + 7 O/H squats

Pyne (45#) finished with 7 rounds + 3 O/H squats

This WOD was not super taxing in terms of muscular failure, but required technical proficiency. Depth on the squats proved to be a limiting factor for speed and weight. Everyone improved on the double unders but it definitely fatigued the shoulders. The situps were a grind. All three pushed hard and worked up a good sweat. I hope they come out tomorrow morning to experience the essence of CrossFit...Fran...enough said.

Endure the Suck

Tonight two people were fortunate enough to experience Crossfit: Danny and Caleb. Althought I don't know if they would call themselves fortunate. The skill we worked on was power clean. The power clean is one the two classic olympic lifts. The other is the snatch. Both are technical movements and all about explosiveness. In order to become proficient at the power clean, one must be able to forcefully engage to hips. A powerful hip extension allows more weight to move upward against gravity. Crossfit uses the power clean, as well as the snatch, to develop explosiveness and a great test of athleticism. The power clean is extremely technical, and therefore cannot be mastered in one night. Today merely served as an introduction to the movement and I hope everyone practices this to become more proficient at the movement. The WOD today incorporated the full squat clean but with an added bonus. The workout was a simple chipper:

50 burpee clean and jerks for time

Brieg (30#) 7:36
Danny (30#) 10:04
Caleb (25#) 11:28
Charity (10#) 7:20



The task was simple: take two 30# dumbbells perform a pushup, then bring the feet to the hands, clean the dumbbells up the shoulders, catch the weight in full squat and push press the weight overhead. The weight was not excessive, and proved to be more a mental battle as fatigue and shortness of breath set in quickly. Everyone did great work tonight and should be sore tomorrow.

Nutrition

Nutrition and Your Fitness Goals.

The following is a an excerpt from the original "What is Fitness" article posted in the CrossFit Journal about the role of nutrition in athletic performance and overall health and well being. Notice in the graphic for the Heirarchy of Development that nutrition is at the base or foundation of the other developmental aspects of fitness and performance.

"Nutrition plays a critical role in your fitness. Proper nutrition can amplify or diminish the effect of your training efforts.

A theoretical hierarchy exists for the development of an athlete. It starts with nutrition and moves to metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, weightlifting, and finally sport. This hierarchy largely reflects foundational dependence, skill, and to some degree, time ordering of development. The logical flow is from molecular foundations, cardiovascular sufficiency, body control, external object control, and ultimately mastery and application. This model has greatest utility in analyzing athletes’ shortcomings or difficulties."

In other words if you have been working really hard on the top 4 sections of the Heirarchial pyramid but you are not getting the results you want in either body composition or performance then you need to get a handle on your nutrition. Go here for an overview of CrossFit's approach to nutrition.

From Crossfit Carbondale's website

Why we do what we do

What is Crossfit? This is a difficult question to answer in a short sentence. Grueling, tough, a great workout. Ask anyone who has tried it, if you're looking for results, want to drastically increase your level of fitness, and are willing to work hard, its gonna happen. You're going to do things you never thought possible, and learn about hard work and dedication while meeting awesome motivated (and good looking ;) ) people. Check this out, this is the highlight video of the 2010 CrossFit games, skip around and check it out. These are the fittest men and women on earth! If this doesn't get you motivated you should check your pulse.

Snooze you lose Tues!

WOD:
5 Rounds for time
Run two laps on indoor track
10 burpees
10 deck squate 25#
20 db swings 25#

Times: John - 22:57
Drew - 23:39

Drew and John were lucky enough to show up and learn the deck squat (click to find out!), sweat a bit, lift some weights and run around. This was a good 20 min workout, you could really push it and it provided a great all body workout. We are seeing results everyday! Stoked!

It feels like preseason wrestling

On Sunday afternoon we were back at the Stadium. This time it was Pohl and Sbraccia who were ready to do work. Before the WOD we learned to kip. A kipping pullup uses momentum and allows one to do more reps before dropping off the bar. It takes lots of practice, but we made great strides. The main event today was intense. Much like Friday, this was all bodyweight. The idea behind this WOD was to really target the legs and shoulders with a pair of movements for each body part.
4 rounds for time:

25 pushups
hop up the stadium steps
50 air squats
bear crawl down the steps

This one was punishing and Connor and I are excited to try this one. Both Pohl and Sbraccia were strong on the first set of pushups and stadium hop. But the air squats right after the hop made fatigue set in quickly. The bear crawl/pushup combination wreaked havoc on the shoulders. The next three rounds were purely survival as both just chipped away at the pushups and squats. They fought hard and finished strong.

Sbraccia 20:04
Pohl 21:46

I am pumped to try this and I think 16 minutes is definitely possible for this WOD, even though I might be laying on the floor for awhile. This is Crossfit and in the words of Sbraccia after he finished "it feels like preseason wrestling"

Death on the Stadium

On Friday Connor, Goebel and I decided to have some out on the stadium. As a three man team we set up a list of tasks that needed to be completed as fast as possible.
12 Buddy Carries up the Stadium
9 jump up the steps of the stadium and bear crawl down
run 400 meters
100 meters of lateral burpees
run 400 meters

Total time 28:09

This workout was a doozy. The buddy carries proved to be most difficult and set the tone for the entire workout. I cannot adequately describe the burn felt in the quads during the exercise. You have to do this one for yourself. On every carry the last 15 steps were brutal. The pace slowed and you just wanted to lay down and cry. The stadium hops were not too bad. I think all of us managed to do these unbroken. It was the bear crawls that were punishing on the quads and hip flexors. I did these unbroken, but it left me in a lot of pain. Connor and Goebel took a breather about half way down on each rep, but it was still a burner. The first 400m was a nice change of pace and it felt good to shake the legs out. Then we went straight into the burpees. These got the heart rate up and were not easy by any stretch. The lateral jumps made this classic exercise more difficult. We ended with one more 400m run and everyone was gasssed. Overall a great workout and we did not even touch a weight

9/2/10 Fight Gone Terrible

Today was an awesome day of training! We had a small group of four, one of whom was new, but boy were they ready to work. The skill of the day was push press. This movement is critical to learn before moving onto any sort of overhead work. The push press allows one to put more weight overhead than a strict press. A powerful dip drive makes putting greater weights from shoulder to overhead possible. Everyone picked up on the technique quickly and was able to push press 135 pounds. Not bad for first timers! The workout of the day was based on the classic Crossfit benchmark Fight Gone Bad (FGB). FGB is normally five consecutive one minute intervals follower by one minute of rest. This sequence is repeated two more times for a total of three rounds of work totaling 15 minutes. We varied this slightly to do four founds of four consecutive intervals for a total of 16 minutes of work. The four exercises were burpees, box jumps (18"), Push Press (75#), row (for calories). Each round is scored by the total number of reps and then each round is totaled. The idea is to have the highest total score. Here is how it shook out.

Nelson: 331
Ryan: 251
Judd: 246
R.J.: 239

As the scores indicate this was an incredible amount of work done in 16 minutes. Everyone pushed themselves more than what they thought was within their perceived limits. Everyone became fitter today and demonstrated the spirit of Crossfit.