WOD 5/24/12

Warmup


2 Rounds
20 Air Squats
15 Hand Release Pushups
10 Crawl-Outs
5 Squat-Thrusts


Team Metcon


AMRAP 20
20 Back Squats 65/45
15 Low Rows
20 Front Squats 65/45
15 Shoulder-To-Overhead 50/30

One athlete moves through the circuit at a time. Count one round after each athlete's final shoulder-to-overhead rep. Throughout the circuit, on the back squats, front squats, and shoulder-to-overhead, the athlete moving through the circuit may not put the barbell down. Rather, his/her teammates will assist in racking the barbell as well as holding the barbell when rest is needed. Any time the barbell hits the floor throughout the circuit (unless the repetitions for the movement are completed), that will constitute an immediate 10 burpee penalty for all of that team, and then they will continue on.

WOD 5/17/12

Warmup


Team Metcon

Each athlete will run through circuit three times.
10 Crawlouts
20 Air Squats
10 Bag Flips
20 Bag Hops (If bag hops aren't doable, 10 burpees)

Individual Metcon


3 RFT
15 Squat Thrust-Box Jumps
15 Dumbbell Thrusters

WOD 5/10/12

Sh*t Ton of Swings!


Warmup
10 Jumping Alternating Lunges
10 Heel-to-heels (Lateral lunge)
10 Air Squats
30s Samson Stretch
10 "Frog Stretches" (Hold each position for 3-5 seconds)

Skill Reinforcer
American Kettlebell Swing
Floor Press
SDHP (Sumo Deadlift High Pull)

Metcon
5RFT
15 Swings
15 Floor Presses each side
15 Swings
15 SDHP
15 Swings

Food For Thought 5/9/12

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

"New toy syndrome". Everyone and their mother has gone through this stage of temporary satisfaction, this euphoric, artificial sense of happiness.

Remember when you would see a toy on the shelf in a store, a pair of pants on a clothing rack, or a car in the dealership window? The feeling that you just had to have that thing, whatever it was, and that you would do whatever it took to obtain it? Some time later, hopefully, you got that thing that you longed so much for. Assuming you did, you then caught a case of "new toy syndrome". For a couple weeks, maybe months, maybe years, maybe days or even minutes, new toy syndrome thrived in your mind. Every night you would go to sleep with the thought of your new car in the driveway, and you would wake up with the same thought. Nobody was allowed to set foot in your new car with any type of food. You would drive to work relishing in the new car smell. You might even choose a different parking spot so that people could see your new baby. This is a fun time.

After a while though, "post new toy syndrome" takes place. Now, people eating in your car is tolerable. New car smell becomes plain old car smell. And worst of all, after a long day at work, you come back to your car with the next generation model parked right next to it. A slap to the face. New toy syndrome is over.

By all means, this absolutely does not mean the place in your heart occupied by your new car is vacant or replaced. It just means it isn't a new thing anymore. You are now in a stage where your initial love for the car is being put to the test. Enter the "infatuation or love" stage.

Long story short, if the love you had for your new car, that new pair of shoes, or that awesome action figure was genuine, you would do everything you could to maintain said thing. Whether it be the periodic oil change for your car, cleaning your shoes every now and then, or making sure nobody plays with your Hulk action figure, the effort you put in will determine the longevity of your relationship with that thing.

Moving forward, you've maintained your car well past the "new toy syndrome" stage, and you've more than proved your genuine love for this vehicle. At this point, perhaps you can make a few upgrades under the hood, tint the windows, just something that will make your vehicle more spicy. These upgrades lead to more cases of "new toy syndrome". It becomes a vicious cycle. We can all agree that maintenance, as well as upgrades to things we value are good, right? Okay.

Hold ALL those thoughts.

Let's back track. From the moment you saw that car in the dealership window to when you finally purchased it, what happened? Nothing? Did someone buy it for you? Did you win it in a sweepstakes or something? I'm going to throw this out there, and I'm always open to debate, that if you didn't personally obtain it yourself through true hard work, "new toy syndrome" passed quickly, you were only "infatuated" with the car, didn't do much to maintain it, and definitely didn't put in much effort for upgrades. Again, I'm open to debate.

However, if you had to put in extra time at work, skip a couple nights out with friends and family, maybe even pick up another work shift to buy this car, the exact opposite happened. New toy syndrome hit like your first shot of 151, and lasted much longer than if you hadn't worked so hard to get the car. When it came time for an oil change, you never missed it. And now, two years later, you're upgrading your sound system and throwing a fly set of rims on that bad boy. You plan to keep this car forever.

So what was the ultimate difference between the car that someone else bought you, versus the car you had to bust your ass to get? The difference was the hard work. The hard work, the grind, the grueling hours you put in all made it worth it. Maintenance wasn't even a question, and you developed a beautiful relationship with your car. Now you're putting in more work to upgrade it because you love the thing so much.

I know you're waiting for my connection to fitness. Here it is.

In health, fitness, and life in general, hard work is key. Are you eating what's convenient for you? Or are you carefully scanning the perimeter of your local Whole Foods market buying top quality fuel for your body? Are you chillin' on the recumbent bike reading a magazine in the gym? Or are you busting your ass grinding out the last 50 out of 200 burpees in a team workout? Are you comfortable in your cubicle? Or are you doing whatever you can to move up in the company?

The harder you work for what you want, the more rewarding it is when you get it. But that doesn't mean you stop. They say "It's lonely on top", but what they really mean is "It's boring on top". Once all the hard work is done, if you're truly a go-getter, you're going to hunger for more of it. The product of that will be more rewards! Duh.

I'm not saying to hope for traffic every time you drive through the Holland Tunnel, but in a figurative sense, the more time you spend driving, stopping, going, and maneuvering through the tunnel, the light at the end of it will seem that much brighter.

Go and do (hard) work!

WOD 5/7/12

Warmup

15 Arm Circles (Front and back)

15 Behind-the-head-behind-the-backs

15 Hug-Unhugs

15 Baseball Swings

15 Golf Swings

15 Air Squats

15 Crawlouts

Team Metcon

200 Air Squats

200 Situps

200 American Swings

200 Kettlebell Ground-to-Overhead

200 Burpees

In teams of 2-4, athletes will complete the above workout. Partition reps as needed. ONE athlete moves at a time. 

Pick a girl, and do her as fast as you can!

Let's finish this round with a bang.

Warmup
Burpee Crowd Wave
Athletes will line up side by side, holding the bottom of an air squat. One by one, each athlete will complete one burpee, then immediately resume the bottom position of an air squat. When every athlete has done his or her burpees, the first person will start again. Athletes will complete three rounds. Throughout the three rounds, there will be a one burpee penalty for every athlete who leaves the bottom position of their squat. After the warmup, all athletes will complete the penalty burpees.


Team Metcon
With the class divided in two, teams will assign athletes to individual workouts based on skills, strengths, or preference. The workout starts with two athletes going head-to-head on one workout, and ONLY WHEN the athlete finishes his or her respective workout will the next athlete begin his or her chosen workout. Today, the prescribed weights WILL be used. 


The workouts will be done in this sequence:


Mini Jackie
500 Meter Row
40 Dumbbell Thrusters 20#/10#
30 TRX Rows (At lowest possible angle)

Mini Elizabeth
21-15-9
Dumbbell Squat Clean 30#/15# (Two dumbbells)
Hand Release Pushups

Mini Karen
100 Wall Ball Shots 14#/10#

Mini Grace
30 Alternating Kettlebell Clean & Jerks 40#/25#

Mini Angie
50-40-30-20-10 Single Skips
25-20-15-10-5 Situps (Towel under lumbar spine)

Mini Fran
21-15-9
Barbell Thrusters 65#/45#
TRX Rows (At lowest possible angle)

When you're done with your respective workout, if you have the energy to, cheer on your team AND the other team.

WOD 4/23/12

Warmup
"Swing-Flip" Instruction


"Virtuosity Gone Bad"


3 One-Minute Rounds for Total Reps of:
Kettlebell "Swing-Flips"
Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
Box Jumps
Barbell Push Press
Crawl-Outs
Rest

Each athlete will cycle through all stations thrice, keeping track of total reps performed. Score is total number of reps.

WOD 4/16/12

Warmup
One Lap each of:
Knee Hugs
Walking Quad Stretch
Inch-Worm
Single-Leg Reach

Skill Builder
Dumbbell Snatch Review

Metcon
AMRAP 15 Minutes
15 Air Squats
5 Hand Release Pushups
5 Dumbbell Burpee-Snatches Left/Right Arm
5 Dumbbell Burpee-Snatches Left/Right Arm

Boom.

WOD 4/12/12

Warmup

Spealler Warmup

Skill Builder

High Hang Power Clean

Metcon

4 RFT

8 Wall Crawls with Pushup

12 Hang Power Cleans

16 Front Squats (HEHEHE)

WOD 4/9/12

Warmup
Team Suicides

Everyone runs twice.


Skill Builder
Air Squat Clinic


Metcon
12 Min AMRAP
12 Situps
12 Dumbbell Renegade Rows (Two is one)
12 Dumbbell Thrusters

WOD 4/5/12

Warmup
Death by Burpee

*Death by (insert exercise here)- Every minute on the minute, perform the corresponding repetitions of (insert exercise here). 


Example:
Timer Starts, perform 1 Burpee.
At 1:00, perform 2 Burpees.
At 2:00, perform 3 Burpees.
At 3:00, perform 4 Burpees.
At 4:00, perform 5 Burpees.
Etc.
You are considered "dead" when you can't complete the repetitions within the minute.

Metcon
5 RFT
10 Crawl-Outs (No Pushup)
20 Hand Release Pushups
30 Squat Jumps

WOD 4/2/12

APRIL FOOLS!

Double Day today. Have fun!

Skill Review
Dumbbell/ Kettlebell Snatch
Turkish Get-Up

Metcon
AMRAP 10
10 Dumbbell Snatch Left Arm/ Right Arm
10 Dumbbell Snatch Right Arm/ Left Arm
10 Grasshopper

Rest 5 minutes... Then...

AMRAP 10
Work up the following ladder.
1 Turkish Get-Up Each Arm
2 Turkish Get-Ups Each Arm
3 Turkish Get-Ups Each Arm
4 Turkish Get-Ups Each Arm
5 Turkish Get-Ups Each Arm
Etc...

The Art of Scaling

I've been religiously CrossFitting for about 8 months, and teaching it for a little over a year. What made me fall in love with CrossFit was the community, but what made me fall in love with the WODs (workouts) themselves was the characteristic intensity associated with them. All I saw were the videos of the firebreathers (elite CrossFit athletes) crushing WODs with absolute intensity, laying down in pools of sweat afterwards. With the knowledge and experience I had, that was how I wanted to program: to make my athletes look like they were firebreathers. That was a huge mistake, and it didn't hurt anyone, but now I know what must be done to get even better results.

If you watch any of the videos of the firebreathers (just youtube Greg Amundson, Annie Sakamoto, Chris Spealler, Mikko Salo, Rich Froning, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, etc.), you'll most likely run across some awesome videos. Very inspirational, especially when you have the power to program these type of workouts for people! BUT, in most of these videos, you won't see any highlights of them resting too long, dropping weights for more than a few seconds, or absolutely dying out. Obviously, you don't record those things in a highlight video, but you also don't want to experience those events too much!

So how do you get the results that the firebreathers get from their training? You scale.

The Art of Scaling


By now we all know that our WODs are trademarked by their straight, concise, and to the point intensity. Most times our workouts are short, and we want them that way. But a conflict that has come to my interest is seeing people either A) Struggling way too much through the workout, or worse, B) Leaving looking like they barely broke a sweat!


Let's attack both things.

A) If you are struggling too much through the workout, the weights you chose may be too heavy, the reps may be too high, etc. Scale down! Lower the weight on certain movements, lower the rep count, but try and preserve the stimulus to the best of your ability. Scaling is an art, so after a while you will be able to look at the WOD and scale to match your individual needs. BUT! Another thing that may make you APPEAR to be struggling too much is the fact that you AREN'T REALLY GOING HARD! If I see an athlete who is constantly resting, taking a water break, etc, it appears to me that the workout is too hard. But I know all of us have the capacity to push a little more than we are. Think about it.

B) If you're still skeptical about the length of our WODs, throwing around the 5 pound dumbbells, finding workouts too easy, leaving feeling like you could do a lot more, or worst of all, just going through the motions, this is for you. Scale up! Just like someone who is struggling can scale down, if you want to, scale the weights up, add some reps, maybe even an extra round, as long as you are preserving the original intended stimulus. And remember, try going harder and then reassess if you needed to scale at all.

Remember people, scaling is an art. Over time and with practice, you will find out how you can scale each workout to match your individual needs and eventually, you'll just attack every WOD without scaling and crush them!

Just some food for thought. Happy training!

Jan

WOD 3/29/12

Warmup/ Skill Builder
Spealler Warmup
DB Hang Squat Clean
Push Jerk

Metcon
5 RFT
9 DB Hang Squat Clean
6 Push Jerk
3 Burpee Box Jump

WOD 3/26/12

Warmup
Spealler Warmup

Metcon
5 RFT
20 Situps
10 SDHP
*Every minute on the minute, perform 5 Burpees.

Cash-Out
Banded Sprints

WOD 3/22/12

Warmup
Spealler Warmup

Team Metcon
"Love Tunnel"

Individual Metcon
10 Minute AMRAP
As many reps as possible, moving up the following ladder by three's:
3 Barbell Thrusters
3 American Swings
6 Barbell Thrusters
6 American Swings
9 Barbell Thrusters
9 American Swings
12 Barbell Thrusters
12 American Swings
15 Barbell Thrusters
15 American Swings
Etc.

WOD 3/19/12

Warmup
3 Rounds
15 A-Swings
10 Air Squats
5 Crawlouts


Skill
KB Clean
KB Shoulder to Overhead

Metcon
12 Minute AMRAP
8 KB Clean & Jerk Left Arm
8 KB Clean & Jerk Right Arm
16 Situps

WOD 3/15/12

Warmup
SMR Glutes, Hamstrings, Upper Back
Samson Stretch
"Frog Stretch"

Skill
Deadlift

Setup
-Hip to Shoulder Width Stance
-Back locked
-Shoulder blades over bar
-Bar in contact with shins
-Grip staggered or overhand, outside the knees just enough to not interfere with movement

Execution
-Extend legs, while maintaining back angle until bar reaches knee level
-Once bar passes knees, extend hips (KETTLEBELL SWING!)
-Head neutral and back locked the whole time
-Keep the bar as close to the body as possible (PAINT YOUR LEGS WITH THE BAR)

Descent
-Push hips back and shoulders forward until bar reaches knee level, maintaining back angle and neutral head
-When bar passes knees, maintain back angle and return to start position

Strength
Deadlift
Max Triple

Lolol.

WOD 3/12/12

Warmup
Spealler Warmup (By now we should kinda know this. Hehe.)
Tabata Bottom-To-Bottom Squats

Skill 

Sumo Deadlift High Pull


Press Series
Strict Press
Push Press
Push Jerk
Split Jerk

Metcon
Partner Intervals
Athletes partner up, while one SPRINTS through a round, the other rests. 
5 RFT
15 SDHP
10 Shoulder to Overhead
5 Burpees

Cash Out
Partner Intervals
Stay with the same person.
3 RFT
10 Strict Situps
10 Reverse Crunches
10 In-And-Outs

WOD 3/8/2012

Week 1-2


Warmup
Spealler Warmup
SMR Glutes, Thoracic Spine plus Super Friend (Lol.)


Skill Builder
American Kettlebell Swing
-Rest Position Drill 
-Kettlebell Deadlift (Rising Tempo)
-Russian Swing
-Full American Swing


Metcon
"Terrible Twos"
Sets are performed in couplets, doing 2 reps of one 2 reps of the other, 4 reps of one 4 reps of the other, 6 reps of one 6 reps of the other, until 20 and 20 is reached. For time.


Swings
Hand Release Pushups


Finisher (Time and Weather Permitting)
8 Pier Sprints, 2 Minutes Rest between efforts

WOD 3/5/2012

This begins a pretty big round of Virtuosity. We got a bunch of new faces, a bunch of familiar faces, and ultimately, a gang of enthusiastic individuals who are serious about their fitness. (At least I hope you are.) I've had the privilege of working with some amazing personalities, and I like to think I've developed myself as your coach as well. Before I get to the WOD, let me start off by disclaiming a couple things.

One: If anyone asks, we do CrossFit. By definition, we are doing CrossFit. I just can't legally refer to our class as CrossFit, lol. The only thing I want to do more of is strength-biased training, but our in-house resources don't permit that. The stuff we do is mostly "Metabolic Conditioning", or "Metcon".

Two: To build on why we do mostly metcon work, I'll put it out there that it's because that's what the majority of our members want. We sure as heck get some serious strength work in, but we have a little more of a metcon-bias with our group. Of course, I'm always open to suggestions. More on that next.

Three: OPEN YOUR MOUTHS! If you want to do something, add something, take something out, repeat a workout, work on a skill, bias a certain aspect of fitness (Strength, Endurance, Power, Agility, Flexibility, etc.), SAY IT! All of you have my number, and all of you should be comfortable enough to tell me what you want out of the program. I'm always open to discussion.

I'm going to TRY and make this round of Virtuosity more.. Structured. Sounds nuts, considering CrossFit by definition is "Constantly VARIED, high intensity, functional movement", but we'll work it. All I mean is I'm going to organize better. Let me know how I'm doing ;]

Week 1-1

Warmup
Spealler Warmup (You'll be familiar with that soon enough. I tweaked it to expedite things.)
Intro to SMR (Self Myofascial Release), BKA Foam Rolling

Skill Builder (This means I'm either going to introduce a new movement, or we're going to practice old ones.)
Dumbbell Deadlift
Dumbbell Hang Power Clean
Dumbbell Thruster

Metcon (This is our workout for the day.)
15 Minute AMRAP (As many rounds as possible of the following sequence)
5 Dumbbell Deadlifts 30/20 (The numbers are the weights that I'll use to count as class representatives. We compete between the afternoon and night classes, usually taking the top three athletes' scores.)
7 Dumbbell Hang Power Cleans 30/20
9 Dumbbell Thrusters 30/20

Update.

After two workouts, I am tied for 12050th fittest in the world, and 1172nd fittest in my region.

Two Studs.

Sadrack Skins a Cat.

Jan Almost Dies.

CrossFit Open WOD 12.2.. Lesson Learned.

So the WOD was 10 minutes to move up the following ladder for as many reps as possible:

Snatches
30 at 75#
30 at 135#
30 at 165#
210# for the remainder of time.

I got 43 total, meaning I got through 30 Snatches at 75# and 13 at 135#. Lesson learned: WORK ON YOUR FREAKIN WEAKNESSES. The best possible thing for your fitness or your life in general (open to debate) is to pick out what you suck at, and hammer away at it until it's one of your strengths! Remember, we strive for the broadest fitness possible. Very simple thing, but a very hard pill to swallow for most people. Everyone hates being outside their comfort zones. But I guarantee it, once you step into that realm, you'll be glad you did.

WOD 3/1/12

Alright people, this week has been, by far, the easiest week of Virtuosity, ever. Today marks the final class of the round. This means that some of our athletes will be participating in their last WOD, but also that some new faces will be joining in on the fun. Whatever the case is, all of you have made this a very fun experience for me, so let's continue that with the final WOD of this round.

Warmup
3 Rounds For Quality
15-20s Samson Stretch both sides
20 Squat Jumps
15 Hollow Body Situps
10 Shoulder Taps (two is one)

Individual Metcon
21-15-9
1-Arm High Pull Left Arm 30/20
1-Arm High Pull Right Arm 30/20
Burpee Box Jump 4 steps/2 steps

Team Metcon
One athlete will complete one workout, in relay fashion. (One workout is done, followed, by the next, in order.) Class will be divided.

Row 800m

"TRX-Fran"
21-15-9
Barbell Thruster 60/35
Low Row

"TRX-Cindy"
5 RFT
5 Hand Release Pushups
10 Low Rows
15 Air Squats

"Mini-Annie"
50-40-30-20-10 Skips
25-20-15-10-5 Towel Situps

Row 800m*

*If needed.

Team WOD! Nobody advances until everyone is done. 3 Rounds Row 400M 15 Shoulder to Overhead 45/30 15 American Swings 35/25 15 Rollouts 15 Box Jumps (Full Squat) 15 Jumping Med Ball Slams

WOD 2/27/2012

Headrush!

Warmup

Tabata Situp/ American Swing

Skill Builder

Wall Crawl

KB Windmill

KB Snatch

Metcon

5 RFT

5 Wall Crawls

5 KB Windmills Left Arm

5 KB Windmills Right Arm

5 KB Snatch Left Arm

5 KB Snatch Right Arm

I want this shirt.. I know you do too..

LADIES! (And anyone interested..) CLICK IT!

If I haven't already convinced you..

Check it out people.

WOD 2/23/2011

TWENTIES!

Warm Up
20 Turkish Get-Ups Each Arm, Note Weight Used

Metcon
2 RFT
20 Grasshoppers/ Mountain Climbers
20 Shoulder Taps (Two is One)
20 Hand Release Pushups
20 Dumbbell Renegade Rows (One is One, You can alternate or do consecutive reps) 25/15
20 Dumbbell Hang Squat Cleans 25/15
20 Box Jumps (Full Hip Extension) 8 Steps/6 Steps
20 Single Skips
20 Crawl-Outs
Note time and any scaling of movements/ weights.

The 2012 CrossFit Open.. Lesson 1.

So I dropped 20 bucks on an open worldwide competition that is designed to find “the fittest on earth”. No big deal. I have now been religiously CrossFitting for a little over 6 months. As my coach says, “I wish I knew about this shit sooner.” Given, I’m only 20 going on 21 this September, but I really do wish I knew about this awesome community/ program a long time ago. But, as much as I can babble on about how much CrossFit has changed my life as a whole, I’m here to talk about my experience with the Open. I’m going into this thing with low expectations, and high hopes. It’s going to be a learning experience. My first real competitive CrossFit event, and it will help highlight kinks in my training and programming. I’m already through WOD 1 out of 5, and considering my training, diet, and all other things, I did pretty well. 106 Burpees in 7 minutes.

LESSON 1 LEARNED FROM THE CROSSFIT OPEN: You will always fall to the level of your training. 

Now this is my personal opinion, and also me being honest with myself. A lot of people speak like this. Whether it’s doing formation drills in the Army, or, to stay relevant, training for a competition. “I’ll rise to the challenge on game day.” Now as much as I honestly believe I can step it up a bit mentally on game day/ competition day, I also believe that your training and programming will ultimately be highlighted when you’re mid-workout. I experienced this exact thing during Open WOD 12.1. Not to say my training sucks, but I do sometimes justify a bad day with me saying “I know I could have done better.” So ultimately, to reword my first lesson learned about competitive CrossFit, train as you would compete. (My Drill Sergeants from Basic Training would say “Train as you would fight.” So same thing, kinda.) 

By the way..

The last couple posts were from my "Food For Thought" emails I was sending out a while back in December. I know some of you actually read them (Cough Karen) so here they are, and more to come!

Work and Rest.

"Without rest, one cannot work. But without work, the rest is of no benefit."

Let's take a minute to analyze that, shall we?

We all need rest. Rest is a crucial component of our health and fitness, and without it we would all suffer some pretty messed up consequences. But why is it exactly that we need rest?

For those of us that have careers and/or families, we need rest so that we can be fully attentive to our daily tasks. We have to make ends meet on a daily basis and take care of what seems to be a plethora of errands and miscellaneous things. Sometimes things get "intense" (See post on intensity), but I believe the reason why we deal with all the things we deal with, ranging from small errands all the way to utter bullsh*t, is because we have reaped the benefits and/or seen the benefits of all our hard work. Times will come when you're stuck at work til midnight, throwing off your entire weekend plan, but remember the whole reason you even have the dough for the weekend is because of what you're doing in the office. Your boss, your coworker, or even your coworker's girlfriend will give you sh*t for no apparent reason, but it's just one of those things that happens in everyone's life. Ultimately, all of these things would be much harder to endure without proper rest. Nothing is worse than two cranky coworkers bashing heads while there are deadlines to be met, emails to be sent, and stuff to get done.

So that's our story. We bust our asses, day in and day out to bring home the bacon. (It's a saying.) Therefore, we need rest to keep us going. (Along with the staple caffeinated beverages we're all fond of. And proper nutrition, maybe a couple of intense workouts a week, but who am I to tell you..) By now then, we should all agree with the first half of the quote that "Without rest, one cannot work." What about the second half? (If you don't remember it, scroll up.)

Think of rest as a vehicle. It doesn't matter what quality vehicle you have, if you have nobody to drive it, you ain't getting anywhere! Work is the driver. Now the driver can be a number of things. The driver can be your day job. If your driver is your day job, now your vehicle is taking you to "I-have-a-stable-life-land". The driver can also be your family tasks. Now your vehicle is taking you to "My-family-isn't-dysfunctional-land". (I need that driver, ha.) Your driver can be your health and fitness regimen. Now your vehicle's destination is "I'm-not-going-to-die-and-I-will-be-sexy-and-healthy-land". No matter who the driver of your vehicle is, the point is you need a driver. You need to put in work to see the benefit of rest. Happy training.

Jan

Our Specialty is NOT Specializing

This post will help us better understand why we strive to do so many things at once. I will use myself as testimony to the program I implement with our class.

Hopefully, you read "CrossFit's Three Fitness Standards". If not, it's okay. Haha.

In that post, one of the last things stated was that "Our specialty is not specializing. Life rewards our kind of fitness and, in most cases, punishes the specialist."

Let's talk about some of these specialists. (Disclaimer: I am typing my thoughts, and I have no intent on bashing anyone. Okay maybe. Kidding. If I offend anyone, my apologies in advance.)

The Slow, Long Distance Cardio Bunny

This person USED TO BE my exemplar of fitness. He could run for days, swim for miles, and bike for galaxies. I envied his ability to sustain activity for that long, and, quite frankly, his ability to withstand what would have bored me to death. When is this person useful though? He has bragging rights when talking about who completed the NY marathon and an iron man, sure. But I've also completed a long distance event known as the "tough mudder" (look it up), which is arguably just as difficult, if not more so, than the aforementioned long distance event. Okay so we know you're a patient person, because you don't die of shear boredom on the treadmill, or during your 1000 mile weekend trail runs just enjoying the scenery. But what happens when your kid is stuck underneath a car? Or, to be less extreme, what happens when one of your smaller acquaintances happens to crawl behind the big old leather couch and gets stuck? Would you call our super running man hero? Or Karen from our class who's been deadlifting her bodyweight consistently? What about Sadrack who just hit 300 on the deadlift? I think you know my answer. No offense, bunnies.

The Powerlifting Specialist

Let's dip into the opposite side of the spectrum. He's an impressive guy. Benching 600 pounds, squatting 800, deadlifting 900, I don't even know if I should continue because I wouldn't want to get this guy mad at me if I'm offending him here. OH WAIT, scratch that. I don't care if he gets offended by this. He won't even be able to catch me! HA! Take that big guy! You're big and strong, but not very fast. If any of you watch fighting events, any of them, speed kills. So I'm not even scared of you anymore, Mr. I-lift-things-up-and-put-them-down! (I just hope you don't read this and catch me when I'm not expecting you.)

The Bodybuilder

Roar! You look great! To some people. You're also pretty strong! To some people. You're super fit! To some people. I do not fall into any of those categories. You work a lot in isolation, meaning your body isn't developed for efficient movement because you're working your muscles in ways they weren't meant to be worked, and possibly overtraining them. Your biceps are assisters in pulling motions like rowing or pullups, and endless bicep curls won’t save you if you’re stuck on the edge of a cliff. To add on to this, the fact that you've been overdeveloping individual muscles means you're not as flexible as you should be, so good luck getting into a nice three-piece suit or touching your toes or worse, going number two after a nice cheat meal at Taco Bell. Long story short, you're stronger than the cardio bunny, MAYBE a little faster than the powerlifter, but not as strong OR fast as Chris Fu, Homer Frizzell, or Don Johnson. BOOYA!

The Pink Dumbbell Crew

Feel the burn?! You're definitely getting more fit rocking with those 5 pounders! My mistake, 7 pounders. Yu go gurrrrrrrrl. Did you just do 1000 situps and a million half-squats with your BODYWEIGHT?! I need to hire you as my trainer. As a matter of fact, what're you doing Friday night? I'd love to take you out for dinner and a night on the town. SIKE! Let me introduce you to my friends, Mary, Nicole, Ada, and Sharon. They can school you on what a real fit woman looks like.

The Virtuosity Athlete, BKA The CrossFitter

We train under the guidance of CrossFit's Three Fitness Standards, meaning we don't focus too much on anything. We don't strive for 3:00 miles and 900 pound deadlifts, but rather 5 minute miles and 500 pound deadlifts. We want to be above average in everything. (Key word is "above", and yes it is doable, and we're doing it.) We have seen athletes with lower back issues deadlift their while doing burpees and swinging kettlebells. We have seen people who have never squatted properly before squat better than ever. We're getting people to do kipping pullups, box jumps, double skips with a rope, and our athletes don't even need to turn the treadmill on to make full use of it! If there was a zombie apocalypse tomorrow, I would most certainly call all of you guys versus any of the above mentioned people. Happy training.

(And I apologize one more time for those of you who got offended by any of this.)

J

Jan

CrossFit's Fitness Standards.

From the CrossFit Journal:

CrossFit's Three Fitness Standards

Before you read on, know that our view of fitness is "contrarian", and iconoclastic to no limit. People sometimes look down on our ideology, but let the haters hate! (9 out of 10 times the hater is in way worse shape, based on any standards.) You may have heard me say something like this, but we do not see endurance athletes like marathoners and triathletes to be exemplars of fitness. That in itself will already cause some debate. But I will continue anyway. Hate on, haters!

Each of the three models are critical to our community in evaluating an individual's fitness. With that said, it warrants mention that I am not attempting to legitimize this program through scientific principles. I am moreover sharing the methods of a program whose legitimacy has been CLEARLY established through the testimony of athletes, soldiers, cops, firefighters, and others whose lives or livelihoods depend on fitness. (At this point I feel as though some of you who may be reading this can be added to the testimonial list as well, but correct me if I'm wrong.)

CrossFit's First Fitness Standard:

There are 10 recognized general physical skills, including cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. I will define these clearly later. You are as fit as you are competent in each of these ten skills. A program develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these ten skills.

Importantly, improvements in endurance, stamina, strength, and flexibility come about through training. Training, referring to activity that improves performance through a measurable organic change in the body. By contrast, improvements in coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy come about through practice. Practice, referring to activity that improves performance through changes in the nervous system. Power and speed come about through training AND practice.

CrossFit's Second Fitness Standard:

This is the "hopper principle". Picture a hopper loaded with an infinite number of physical tasks written on ping pong balls. From Burpees (Rufees), to thrusters, even throw some pilates and yoga in, to jumping, swimming, rowing, running, anything you can imagine that is a physical task. Now randomly draw any amount of ping pong balls. This suggests that your fitness can be measured by your capacity to perform well at these tasks in relation to other individuals.

This implies fitness requires an ability to perform well at tasks, even unfamiliar tasks, all combined in infinitely varying combinations. This encourages athletes to disinvest in any routine of sets, reps, rest periods, exercises, etc.

Life frequently provides largely unforeseeable challenges, and we should train for that by keeping the training stimulus broad and constantly varied and progressive.

CrossFit's Third Fitness Standard:

There are three main metabolic pathways that provide the energy for everything we do. They are the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway. The first, phosphagen, dominated the highest-powered actvities, those that last less than about 10 seconds. The glycolytic takes moderate-powered activities lasting up to several minutes. The oxidative is responsible for the low-powered activities, those lasting in excess in several minutes.

Total fitness requires competency and training in all three of these metabolic engines. Balancing the effects of these three pathways largely determines our programming, and the how and why we do our "metabolic conditioning".

Favoring one or two to the exclusion of the others and not recognizing the negative impact of excessive oxidative pathway training are, arguably, the two most common faults in the fitness world.

Conclusion

The motivation for these three standards is simply to ensure the broadest and most inclusive fitness possible. Our first model evaluates out efforts against a full range of physical adaptations, the second focuses on breadth and depth of performance, and the third is put in measures of time, power, and consequently energy systems. Our specialty is not specializing. Life rewards this kind of fitness and, on average, punishes the specialist. More on that later.

Jan

Prioritizing.

This post was inspired by MY coach, Darren Taylor. More on him later, but here's his take on prioritizing, blended with a couple words from myself:

"I'm too busy to work out!"

If you feel like you're too busy to work out, maybe this will help. There are 168 hours in a week. How do you prioritize your weekly tasks with this time limit?

Some things are inevitable. You GOTTA sleep, and hopefully 42-56 hours (based on 6-8 hours of sleep) are used just for that. Your body needs its rest. That leaves us with at least 112 hours.

If you work, manage a family, or both, it's going to add up to at least 55 hours (based on an 8 hour nine-to-five and 3 extra hours of miscellaneous activity, 5 days a week.). We still have at least 57 hours left!

Let's take 7 hours a week out for traveling, assuming some people don't work right by their houses. Now we have 50 hours.

Let's be crazy and say you accumulate another 40 hours of random and spontaneous errands and stuff. This leaves a measly 10 hours.

Can you use 10 hours a week to forge elite athletes? Absofrigginlutely yes! Now are we even striving for elite athleticism- maybe yes maybe no! But do you see where I'm going with this? General recommendation for activity is 3-5 times a week at a moderate intensity level. Now take that recommendation, and inject it with some nitrous, then feed it some high quality food, and you then have US! Most of us strive to BRING IT every workout, and sometimes we work out more than the recommended frequency for activity! But remember what intensity yields- results! Pat yourself on the back athletes, (especially if you've been trying your best to eat clean!), we are among the few who see fitness and health as a priority.

And thank my mentor, coach, and brother, Darren Taylor, for inspiring today's Food For Thought.

Jan

A Word on Intensity.

In terms of health and fitness, what is intensity to you? Is it how fast your heart is beating? Is it how much the gorilla is grunting as he lifts and drops his dumbbells? Whatever it is to you, I'm here to establish a standard among us. Exercise physiologists define intensity as power. That's right, intensity three-bar equal sign to power. This means that intensity as a value is (force times distance) over (time). Put simply, how much weight did you move, how far did you move it, and how long did it take you?

It has been suggested that intensity, in health and fitness AND in life, is the independent variable that will MAXIMIZE the rate of return on your efforts. Don't think about that too much, but I just wanted to throw it out there.

To be relevant to our workouts, intensity is why some of our "WOD's" (Workout of the day) have you "done" in 20 minutes, many times less! Our WOD's are short, intense, and to the point. In my experience with CrossFit, I have very rarely had a prescribed WOD that was above 30 minutes. And yet, when the situation arises that I have to be active for 30, 45, 55 plus minutes, I still feel great getting through whatever it was.

With that said, with our little 30 minutes to an hour and a half that we spend together 2-3 times a week, you have to give it your all! (And obviously give it your all on your independent fitness endeavors as well.)

It's a long shot and not everyone will agree with this, but you want to treat your workouts like you would your life. (Although, health and fitness should be a priority to all, in my opinion.) If you strive for less, you'll get less. If your life is more intense by definition, you'll get more out of it! Compare someone who chose to major in physics at MIT versus someone who chose to major in sociology at a local college. No offense, but the physics major is probably going to become more of a success than the other guy because he chose the "intense" route of education! (This is hypothetical, and the sociology guy could have ended up more successful, but this is just a hypothetical example.)

Now apply this to fitness. You've seen these people. The regular gym goers who are in decent shape, but they look the same as a couple months ago. You might even know their routine by now. At this point they're just going through the motions and maintaining, maybe even regressing. This is the sociology guy. Now look at us! Look at the members of our little group! We strive, each class, to do things at a high intensity, to do things we never thought we could do, sometimes things we never wanted to do. We are the MIT physics majors of the fitness world. That's something to be proud about!

What's the gist of all this? In health, fitness, and life in general, always strive to make the more "intense" decision. Sometimes you'll enjoy the intense experience, sometimes it will suck. But regardless, take my word for it that you will yield the best results with this mindset. Happy training!

Jan

Welcome.

WELCOME! If you're reading this you are either 1)An athlete from my Virtuosity Class in Jersey City, 2)I told you to check it out, 3)A combination of 1&2, or 4)other. But anyway, WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME! This blog is intended to keep all of my athletes on the same page, literally and figuratively. From here on out you will be able to access the workout of the day for Virtuosity and a bunch of other random posts about CrossFit/ fitness/ life in general. If this looks like I'm trying to make my own CrossFit-style web page, it's because I am. HAH. Let's get this thing rolling!