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

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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!