Training/Rest day

If you've got an hour or two and feel like knocking out a quick WOD, come by and join us!  Last call at about 4 o'clock.

Here's an excerpt from "FIT: An Unconventional Guide to Using Conventional Methods for Creating Fitness for the Real World" by Lon Kilgore, Michael Hartman, and Justin Lascek:

"Lots of people have a seemingly simple goal of  'toning up' when they start to exercise.  Strength training is the best way to accomplish this...When you train with weights, especially heavier ones, you are conditioning your muscles to produce tremendous amounts of electrical activity.  The baseline amount produced at rest increases and baseline muscle tension increases as an adaptation, thus producing the desired 'tone'--firm and athletic."  (Fit p. 26)

Strength also pays dividends to endurance athletes by allowing them to go further before exhaustion and decrease event finishing times.  There is also correlational evidence that being strong increases a person's overall chances of survival (Fit, p. 25).  Sadly, there is no causal evidence for this interesting theory, but that's no reason not to get strong.

Video Extra

This video was taken this afternoon. Superior Training personal trainer Mike Cadle lands a 51-inch box jump.

What are you proud of today?

Training day

7 rounds for time of
7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
7 kettlebell swings
7 burpees.

Prescribed weights for mens' and womens' kettlebell swings are 53# and 35# respectively.

The world record for most pull-ups in one hour belongs to Stephen Hyland of the UK, who completed 1,009 reps in the alotted time.

Training day

A recent WOD.  Do not be frightened.

5 rounds for time of
7 hang power cleans
20 box jumps
400m run

RXed weight for men/women is 135/95#, and box heights are 24/20".

Training day

We hope everyone had a restful Labor Day weekend!  Today the action gets started with a bang:

Nancy
Five rounds for time of
400m run
15 overhead squats

Prescribed weight is 95# for men and 65# for women.

Training day

5 rounds for time of
40 Double Unders
30 Box Jumps
20 KB Swings

If you can't do double-unders, do 160 single-jumps.  KB swings are 53# for men and 35# for women.

Training day

Today the WOD is CrossFit's trademark manmaker: FRAN!

21 - 15 - 9 of:
Thrusters
Pull-ups

Mens' weight is 95#, womens' weight is 65#.  Is Fran in your kitchen?

I remember the first time I ever saw someone doing this WOD.  Somewhere on the internet a grainy video exists of two men doing thrusters and pull-ups at a breakneck pace.  I couldn't begin to describe how ridiculous it looked: the plates on the bar were too big to be light and I had never seen bumper plates; so to me that was at least 135# they were slinging around.  No one could do that.  And the pull-ups, well...I was good at pull-ups but I couldn't do what they were doing.  None of it seemed possible, but these two guys were repping it out like pros.  Like they did this all day.  Like it was light weight.

People were all around them, and the video was taken from about thirty yards away.  I saw this video in perhaps my first semester of college and wrote it off.  They were fake weights, those dudes were on steroids.  It wasn't possible for a regular human like me.  It wasn't until a couple of years later when I heard about CrossFit for the first time that I was able to put that memory into perspective.  A few months afer that I tried it for the first time.  It crushed me.  But the realm of the possible was opened to me the day I saw that video, and everything I did afterward would be judged in its shadow.