Kill That Voice.

I saw this great t-shirt from CrossFit CapOp: It just says “Kill That Voice.”

You know what they’re talking about: The voice in your head that has always been with you, right from the early days. It tells you that you can’t do this, that you’re not strong enough, fast enough, smart enough, skinny enough, pretty enough, or sexy enough. It tells you to stop, to wait, to slow down, to quit.

Kill that f*****.

I mean it. Kill it. Today, in your WOD, stomp that voice. Stomp it good and hard so it never wants to come back. Grind its face into the dirt with your kettlebell and beat the everlovin’ sh** out of it. Go hard, go fast, go heavy. Give everything you have. Give everything you ever had. Do it for yourself, for who you were way back when — back when you were a kid and somebody told you to be a “good girl and play nice” or “let the girls win” or “don’t blow your own horn.” Remember all those well-intentioned (and some not-so-well-intentioned) folks who ever gave you the idea that it was okay to be less than you really are. They were wrong. Most of all, do it for who you want to be — and, maybe, for who you want your kids to be.

When you finish your workout today, don’t just put the barbell down. Throw the barbell down. Throw it down with every last shred of energy you have left and yell “Take that mother******!” (Or “Sweet potatoes” or “Jerks” or whatever the heck you like to say. Swearing is always optional.) But yell something. Be aggressive. Terrify that voice. Kill that voice. Kill it dead and don’t let it come back. You’re better than that voice. Start living like you are.

(Words by Lisbeth Darsh/CrossFit Watertown.)

Who’s in???

Check this out. It looks like a great time and many who do it are CrossFitters.

http://www.warriordash.com/register2010_mid-atlantic.php

The Trouble with Double-Unders by Jon Gilson of Again Faster

Jumping Too Early: Time your jump so it happens just before the rope hits your feet. If you jump when the rope is at its apex, it will need to do 2.5 revolutions to go under your feet twice. If you jump when it’s about to hit the ground, it only has to do two.

Making Speed with the Arms: You want your wrists to do the work, not your entire arm. Revolving from the wrists is quick, from the elbows slower, from the shoulders, slower still. We want speed, so keep the arms quiet and the wrists fast.

Making the Rope “Short”: Keep your elbows at your sides and your hands where you can see them. If you push your arms out, you’re effectively making the space inside the rope smaller, and you’ll trip. If your hands are behind you, you’re tensioning your biceps and slowing your wrists.

For more info: http://www.againfaster.com/the-micd-instructor/2009/1/26/double-unders.html

Many of us are starting to work on muscle ups, or aspire to get their first if not second or third in a row.

Here’s a good video from CrossFit Journal of Tucker teaching the Muscle Up Progression

Here’s a good instructional video from Jerry Hill on some of the progression and transition.

This was a challenge that took place in LA, and the results are overwhelming.
The WOD was:

4 rounds for time of:

5 Thrusters (135 lbs)
5 Burpees
5 Weighted Pull-ups (30 lbs)
5 Box Jumps (32 inch)
50m run (heavbag – 85 lbs)
100m run
50m run (heavybag – 85 lbs)

Pro Athlete vs. CrossFitter, who will win… from CrossFit Los Angeles on Vimeo.

His articles are really inspiring and enlightened.

Dedication

Monday, May 26, 2008 at 10:57AM

You think you know pain, but you have no idea. The heart thumping, chest expanding, lactic acid burn of your last workout was a walk through the meadow.

Somewhere, there’s a guy who did it in half the time it took you. He suffered. Plasma forced its way into his lungs, causing him to hack on repeat. He choked down bile halfway through, and ended on his back, pupils dilated to the size of dimes.

While you were walking around, telling your friends how hardcore your workout was, Guy Number Two was still collapsed, the prospect of driving home as daunting as climbing K2 during a snowstorm.

When he finally stood up, he didn’t say a word.

CrossFit is a decidedly masochistic pursuit. To be any good at it, you have to enjoy the pain. You have to push back the threshold day after day, until last year’s traumas feel like an hour-long rubdown at the Canyon Ranch. One day, you find a threshold that takes the whole thing just a little too far, and you get scared to go back.

The men and women that decimate your times are not superhuman. They’re not particularly genetically gifted. Hell, most of the top CrossFitters in the world would get absolutely pummeled in your standard game of rugby, buried by larger athletes begat by larger parents.

What differentiates these individuals is not a gift, but an unreasonable desire to push self-imposed suck beyond its logical limits. What comes out the other side becomes legendary.

Like any human pursuit, we seek ways around the hard part. Limited range of motion and new techniques. Dropping the deadlift from the top, bouncing it off the floor. Squatting above parallel and not standing up all the way. Chicken-necking above the chin-up bar, and reviewing the tape to see if we made it.

We want the reward (speed) without the sacrifice (pain).

This is not conscious cowardice. It’s pure out-and-out rationalism. Atsomepoint, the next threshold is the one that takes it too far, leaving us in an exercise-induced hallucination that lasts a few moments too long. Our hearts bounce around our insides for one beat too many, and our lungs beg to explode for an unwanted extra second. Every exhalation coincides with a constriction of vision, and the cold taste of copper.

No sane human being would enjoy such a feeling.

Still, the glory beckons. Surely, with enough training and the right supplements, there’s a way around the Hard Part. Enough sleep and enough vitamin B will get you the sub-whatever time without the attendant pain. There’s no need to redline your heart rate or pop capillaries. No need to ache so badly at night that you can’t sleep. Surely, there are ways around this.

Fortunately, the steroids are a no-go, and the exercises are done correctly or not at all. The only way to legend is through ever-mounting piles of pain. The meadow has to tilt at 45-degrees, and he rubdown at the Ranch must be done with Brillo Pads. If you can talk, you’re not trying hard enough. If your nerves aren’t frayed and ready to rebel, you’ll never get there.

Do yourself a favor, and realize that there’s no technique in the world that will save you. There are no pills, no secrets, no passwords on the path to greatness. You’ve got to embrace the pain, push the threshold, and feel the suck, and then you’ve got to muster the courage to go back six times a week.

After all, the world is a lot brighter when your pupils are the size of dimes, and massaging your sternum with your heart starts to feel good after a while. The plasma finds its way out of your lungs, and eventually you’ll be able to drive.

Sometimes, lying on the floor is its own reward.

Dave Castro takes his kettlebell for a walk. Picture courtesy of CrossFit.com.

Jon Gilson

Click on his name for more writings by him.

10 ways to be a better CrossFitter

by Forrest on January 21st, 2010 – CrossFit SouthBay

                                                                                                                                                                             Image from www.crossfitwatertown.com. Thanks Lisbeth! 1. Have fun – Whether it be in CrossFit or your favorite sport or shopping with grandma, make sure you try and have fun. Honestly, you can do CrossFit just about anywhere with anyone or by yourself. You choose to come to CFSB for a reason. You work hard all day, make the time at CrossFit be the one hour a day where you can be yourself and let loose.

 2. Show up on time – Actually show up early and leave late. Foam roll, stretch and get rid of all that junk in your lower back and shoulders. Showing up late will only cheat you out of a sufficient warm-up. Without a good warm-up, your chance of injury increases exponentially. If you show up early you have two options, cheer on the class that is finishing or start warming up.

 3. Don’t whine – It’s okay to cry, just make sure that we can’t see or hear you and remember to clean up your tears when you’re done. Maybe the song that comes on isn’t your favorite, in the immortal words of Josh Everett “If you need music to motivate you, go find something else to do”. Be careful of asking me to change the song, I might just put on Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA on repeat. I’m your coach, not Mix Master Mike. You have a task to accomplish, so do it. Yes I know that every workout is hard and I know that you hate running and I know that the bar hurts your delicate hands, but there comes a time when we have to nut up or shut up…or both. CrossFit is constantly varied, so the odds are that you will see some workouts you hate. That’s why it’s CrossFit and not alltheshityoulikeFit. When you come to CrossFit, be ready to work. Come prepared to face all those pains and things you hate head on. Accept the suck.

 4. Give it all – More than strength, speed, flexibility or endurance, effort is what matters most. I don’t care if you’re Joe Thruster with a sub 3 minute Fran, if you half-ass a workout, you’re a pussy. Grandma doing jumping pull-ups and thrusters with a PVC kicked your ass because she gave everything she had just short of a stroke. Times and weights matter, but they fail in comparison to effort. Keep pushing yourself to your most extreme limits. I don’t care if you have a 500 lbs or 50 lbs deadlift as long as you put forth the effort and don’t sandbag.

 5. Listen to your coach – We are here to help you get more fit and accomplish your goals. When we say things like “you’re lifting with your back, use more hips” don’t act surprised when your lower back is sore. When we tell you that the foam roll and lacrosse ball works, we aren’t just being sadistic. We tell you to rest because you need rest, just as we tell you to get in the gym more because you need to be in the gym more. If you want to get better at something, you have to practice it. Plain and simple. Yes there are some of you who are naturally good at some things, but why not get better? Why not be the best? Our goal is for you to accomplish your goals.

 6.Fail sometimes – The unique thing about CrossFit is that the only way to achieve excellence is through failure. The strength portion of our workouts are designed to where you may fail at a set. If you don’t fail you aren’t trying hard enough (see #4). CrossFit is an environment where no one will laugh at you or put a permanent letter in your file for dumping an overhead squat. Don’t be afraid to fail, there’s always next time. Pushing yourself to fail is more of a mental thing than it is a physical thing. We have conditioned ourselves to think that failing is bad and therefore don’t push ourselves in fear of failure. Take that fear away and see what you can accomplish.

 7. Eat good food – The short answer is eat Paleo. If you don’t want to eat Paleo, just eat meat, some fruit, vegetables, little startch, no sugar, no grains no dairy. If you’re low on energy, then you’re not eating enough. I remember a lot of people starting off on Paleo complain of low energy then proceed to tell me that they didn’t eat anything all day because they didn’t know what to eat. Is it that hard to eat meat and vegetables these days? I ate ice cream every day and pizza every other day. If I can do it, you can too.  

 8. Count it – Tracking your workouts matters. That’s why we printed the log books for you. When you don’t count the reps on your workout, you lose valuable information that will keep you accountable for your progress. Make sure to record as much information as you can. Write down what you ate for the day. Everyone has those days where they ate like crap and had a crappy workout. Those are the hardest days to write down, but those will provide you with the best motivation to get better.

 9. Be nice – CrossFitters are notorious for making fun of people who go to globo gyms (present company included). People achieve their personal fitness goals in their own ways. Some may like the pace of a spin or pilates class and some may like the intensity of CrossFit. Instead of pointing out their propensity for douchiness on the elliptical, try introducing them to CrossFit. You’ll get a better reaction and won’t come off like a jerk. You were once that guy on the hacksquat machine or that girl on the eliptical. If someone made fun of you and then said CrossFit was the way to superior fitness, you would tell them to go F themselves.

 10. Get involved – CrossFit is more than just an hour of working out. We are a family and you can get as involved as you like. Just like anything else, you get out what you put in (TWSS). Hold monthly social events and do quarterly charitable events. Other events like our Redondo 5K team and our CrossFit affiliate team will compete this Spring. During the summer we are planning on having a co-ed flag football team, volleyball team, kickball team and 6-man team. There are many opportunities for you to get involved and if you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them!

1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance – The ability of the body systems to gather, process, and transport oxygen.
2. Stamina – The ability of the body to process, store, deliver, and utilize energy.
3. Strength – The ability of a muscular unit, or combo of muscular units to apply force.
4. Flexibility – The ability of maximizing range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power – The ability of a muscular unit, or combo of muscular units to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed – The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Agility – The ability to minimize transition time between one movement pattern to another.
8. Coordination – The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
9. Balance – The ability to control the placement of the bodies’ center of gravity in relation to its’ support base.
10. Accuracy – The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

The best armchair introduction to CrossFit might be looking at some of our beloved workouts. Of course, the WOD – Workout of the Day – changes daily.  The common denominators in our workouts are intensity and functional movements; and a series of exercises which meet these requirements. But there are essential, classic, “benchmark” workouts that exemplify CrossFit. Many of these workouts are named; collectively we call them ‘The Girls’. (Another group of workouts, ‘The Heroes,’ are visited less often and pose longer duration, more austere challenges.)  Another important feature of a CrossFit WOD is the simplicity of its performance metric. Most of the workouts are performed FOR TIME. For time means your goal is to complete the workout as quickly as you can; it’s a race. It also means your performance has a single score: the time it takes you to complete it.  A consequential aspect of CrossFit is that our workouts become competitive events. This simple fact has enormous portents, which you’ll experience both as an ongoing motivation to work hard and as a growing embrace of CrossFit as a sport of fitness. 

  Functional movements. These are good exercises:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

-Greg Glassman, Coach

Foundations 

By Greg Glassman April 01, 2002 

 

CrossFit is a core strength and conditioning program. We have designed our program to elicit as broad an adaptational response as possible. CrossFit is not a specialized fitness program but a deliberate attempt to optimize physical competence in each of ten recognized fitness domains. They are Cardiovascular and Respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy. The CrossFit Program was developed to enhance an individual’s competency at all physical tasks. Our athletes are trained to perform successfully at multiple, diverse, and randomized physical challenges. This fitness is demanded of military and police personnel, firefighters, and many sports requiring total or complete physical prowess. CrossFit has proven effective in these arenas. 

Aside from the breadth or totality of fitness the CrossFit Program seeks, our program is distinctive, if not unique, in its focus on maximizing neuroendocrine response, developing power, cross-training with multiple training modalities, constant training and practice with functional movements, and the development of successful diet strategies. Our athletes are trained to bike, run, swim, and row at short, middle, and long distances guaranteeing exposure and competency in each of the three main metabolic pathways. We train our athletes in gymnastics from rudimentary to advanced movements garnering great capacity at controlling the body both dynamically and statically while maximizing strength to weight ratio and flexibility. We also place a heavy emphasis on Olympic Weightlifting having seen this sport’s unique ability to develop an athletes’ explosive power, control of external objects, and mastery of critical motor recruitment patterns. And finally we encourage and assist our athletes to explore a variety of sports as a vehicle to express and apply their fitness.