WED 6am only - no 6pm due to new years eve
Complete as many rounds as possible 20 minutes of:
95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
95 pound Hang Powercleans, 7 reps
95 pound Sumo Deadlift High-pull, 10 reps
Post rounds completed to comments.
Allison from Crossfit Chicago has a go at Cindy, RX'd.
A few days ago I was checking out one of my favorite affiliate sites, Petranek Fitness, and this list was posted. While long in content, there are lots of little nuggets here. Please take the time to read...and let us know if you have any others...So, what have you learned from CrossFit?
The smaller lessons of CrossFit by Brandon Oto
Some things I've learned in the past 18 months. You may not agree. More suggestions are welcome, though *I* may not agree...
1. CrossFit is very, very hard. Unlike most things, it does not get
easier and may actually get harder. This is a daunting prospect.
2. You can learn to CrossFit extremely well on your own with the
internet as a resource. However, it will add 6-12 months to your
learning curve and 1-2 injuries along the way.
3. You can work out on your own, but working out with others is almost always far better.
4. The impressive feat is not digging deep and pushing through pain at
the end of the workout. Anyone can do that. The impressive feat is
hauling *** as you reach the middle--right after you realize what's
ahead of you and how much you already hurt.
5. The impressive feat is not going balls-to-the-wall in a single
workout. It's doing it the next day. And the next. And the next.
Forever.
6. The hardest part of training is consistency. It is also the most
important. You can do nearly anything if you show up every day.
7. Everyone needs to rest. Your body is not a machine. (Look at how
many people take a week off and set six PRs when they return.) Your
mind is not a computer. (As Garrett Smith likes to point out, continual
stress is not actually healthy.) "Burnout" is physical, mental,
emotional, logistical, and a little bit like combining ennui with
despair. When you no longer want to work out, rest.
8. If your breaks start cropping up constantly, either take a longer
one (or a different training focus for a while) or just slap yourself
and stop slacking.
9. The fewer mundane obstacles to working out, the easier it is to be
consistent. If there are two gyms in your area and one is a little
better but farther, go to the nearer one.
10. Try music and see if it helps. Try planning out your workouts
(picking a time to shoot for and breaking down how you'll get there)
and see if it helps. Try the supplements and see if they help.
11. For 90% of us, diet is crucial to good progress. For the other 10%, diet is crucial to reaching elite levels.
12. Keep your nails trimmed short but long enough to comfortably cover
your fingers and toes. Too long will get broken; too short will cause
bleeding when, say, you use a hook grip. File your callouses every time
you shower.
13. Chalk is better than gloves except to cover a wound, which tape
does better than either except for holes in the web of your thumb.
14. You don't need as much chalk as you think. You keep rechalking because you're a spaz and the bar is scaring you.
15. The workout will last only a little while and you will feel happy
again within a few minutes afterward. This is the only positive thought
you can have while you work, but it is the important one.
16. The fear leading up to your workout can last many times longer than
the workout. Find a way to manage this or CrossFit will begin to
dominate your life.
17. Do not let CrossFit dominate your life unless you are a coach or trying to be the first sponsored pro CrossFitter.
18. The paradox of CrossFit is that it is an isolated system that
attempts to make you better at everything else. If you never leave that
system, you will forget the point. Regularly "step outside" and play a
game of basketball, drop in on a step aerobics class, climb a mountain,
or arm wrestle everyone in the bar. Sometimes you need to be reminded
that you're extremely fit compared to everyone who's not a dedicated
athlete, and that the gallons of sweat you've exuded have accomplished
something significant. Call it ego or anything. The best CrossFitters
may not need this, but they get the ego boost of beating the rest of
the CrossFitters anyway.
19. Regularly learn and play new sports.
20. By the time you are an advanced novice, you will begin to learn
your strengths. By the time you are intermediate, you will know most of
your weaknesses. Addressing your weaknesses is the only way you will
become advanced.
21. Logging your workouts is a little silly at the very beginning, but the sooner you start, the more data you'll have later.
22. You can push harder than that.
23. If your Olympic lifts are more or less correct, but still limited by form, the problem is probably the bar path.
24. Buy Starting Strength right now. You're doing it wrong.
25. Half of the reason your workouts suck is because you're not strong
enough. Get stronger and your "metcon" problems will diminish.
26. Strength develops fast at first then slows at the intermediate level. It takes a long time to lose.
27. Metcon develops quite fast, as long as the strength exists to express it.
28. Technique can take a long time to develop or not very long, depending on many variables.
29. That place you're usually sore is where you're weak.
30. Your grip may or may not limit you right now, but at some point it will if you're not proactive about developing it.
31. When comparing yourself to other CrossFitters, understand that some
of them are lifelong athletes and some of them did nothing before this.
The difference in terms of progress between these groups is massive.
32. Muscular endurance is always a factor.
33. Very few things improve without focused effort on them.
34. Extremely intense and consistent effort on WoDs is a fast jetstream to improvement.
35. A lot of stuff on this forum is useless, but there is at least one
person who knows anything you want to know. Search first, then ask,
read all of the responses, pay attention to the ones that make sense
and match what you already know, and ignore the ridiculous ones. In
this way you can learn nearly anything.
36. Spend time with other websites, forums, and resources to understand the non-CrossFit perspective.
37. You're not fully extending at the hips when you Olympic lift, and you're bending your arms too soon.
38. Everyone has cheat meals. Find out if you do better with small
cheating or big cheating. The advantage of big cheating is that you
feel like crap afterwards and the food looks gross again, which will
help to remind that it's not so great after all. If you cheat small,
this is not an excuse to cheat often; that's not cheating, that's just
a mediocre diet.
39. Seek out new foods and new ways to cook them, or you will lose your
mind with monotony. Everything you walk by in the produce section
should be something you'll eat.
40. Canned salmon or tuna is a good emergency protein source when
you're in a hurry or haven't shopped. Some cans of salmon are exactly
five blocks.
41. Determine how much of your carb intake you can get through
low-density vegetables without exploding or going insane. Get the rest
with fruit and don't worry about it.
42. Expensive extra virgin olive oil is a waste if you're just stir-frying with it.
43. You can stir-fry anything but "anything" will usually be mediocre.
44. Salt improves everything and is almost always necessary.
45. Looking into a mirror with your own eyes is a very unreliable method of judging body fat and muscle mass.
46. You're not supposed to have a chronic pain. You're doing something wrong or you have an injury. Deal with it.
47. Running and swimming are very hard, very specific in terms of
metabolic and muscular development, very technique-dependent, and you
need to work on them more.
48. If you're on this forum, you are probably spending too much of your
time and attention in the zone of CrossFit. If you do this in the long
term, this essentially means you are dedicating yourself to training
for a non-existent life.
49. There is nothing like gymnastics rings, a Concept2 rower, a jump
rope, or a medicine ball. When you sub for these, you're doing a
different workout.
50. Everybody is different.
Post your favorite of this list and what else you've learned from Crossfit in 2008 to comments.
