Today on facebook, I saw a video posted by my buddy James. After watching it, I saw it was actually a part of a three-part short.
This is probably the coolest video short series I have ever seen! I’ll paste the description straight from the Vimeo page of Rick Mereki (the series Director), but the videos will speak for themselves.
“3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..
= a trip of a lifetime.
move, eat, learn”
Please pass these on to as many people possible. These projects need to be seen by everyone.
Let me start this post by saying how much I LOVE having a full house at CrossFit Lakewood! Lovelovelove it!
Today we did one of the most effective Strength movements for increasing overall power: The Back Squat. For such a powerful movement, you’d think people would like it more. 🙂
The workout of the day had a heavy thruster and high box jumps for reps. We’re stepping up our fresh here at the gym. You are all doing an awesome job with it, too!
Workout of the Day
Strength:
Back Squat 3×3 warm-up, 5×2 working sets
WOD:
As Many Rounds As Possible in 10 minutes
8 Thrusters (115#/75#) / 16 Box Jumps (32″/24″)
Class was so full tonight we had to run two heats! Thank you all so much for remaining focused and helping this run so smoothly.
Finally, I want to show you guys one of our resident “Manimals”, Alon. For the few months he’s been at CrossFit Lakewood, there’s been no doubt about how INCREDIBLE his improvement has progressed. GREAT JOB, Alon!!
We got a little crazy today, I’m not going to lie to you. I told you guys that our time together on Sunday would be “constantly varied.” Tonight was definitely varied, wasn’t it? Either way, you all did an amazing job of pushing through!
Two workouts today. The first was a 10-minute AMRAP. The second, a 21-15-9 with a bit of a twist. Read below for what they were, specifically, and check out the first ever installment of “Video Results.”
What do you think?
Workout of the Day
WOD #1
As Many Rounds As Possible in 10 Minutes:
5 Squat Jumps / 10 Hand-Release Push-Ups / 15 Sit-Ups / 20 Jumping Jacks
WOD #2
21-15-9
Ball Slams / Overhead Walking Lunge Steps (each Leg)
After each round, carry Slam Ball 100m
Feel good moment of the day for me was watching Wes and Casey (father and daughter) finish the workout together. You guys are so awesome!
Aaaaaaaaand, here are your results! See you guys next Sunday!
“Incredible Athletes” posts continue with one of my favorite clips of the last few years.
I don’t think that a single athlete has made my jaw drop during a single event than when I first saw Usain Bolt come onto the scene. The power he produces is unmatched, and there are a lot of people who think he will only get faster.
Today’s strength portion of the workout introduced a new movement for many athletes: the one-legged deadlifts. Most of the work today was to learn balance and technique, but you all did an awesome job! We only lifted kettlebells in the afternoon, and everyone only used one, so balance was even more important!
After that we had a quick workout today. It’s a Benchmark CrossFit workout called Annie. The only two movements are Double-Unders and Ab-Mat Sit-Ups, and you go from 50 of each in decreasing intervals of 10, down to 10 of each. Pretty simple.
My favorite moment of the day happened in class tonight, so read below the first video to see what it was. SO awesome!
Check out Nicole LEARNING Double-Unders for the first time EVER tonight…. and then doing 150 of them in the workout! This was the highlight of my day. GREAT JOB, Nicole!
Clayton introduced me to this song a while ago. It’s called “Through The Fire And Flames” by a group named Dragonforce (the link is to their “OFFICIAL Music Video”). To me, this song is the epitome “Face-melting” rock and roll. Something you’d expect to see in a bonus round of an old Japanese video game or something.
Given my pretty eclectic interest of music, I DO think there is a time and a place for music like this (if not in relatively small doses so your heart rate doesn’t explode).
The reason for this Thought of the Day, though, is to also share with you guys the World Record Attempt that two kids made to play this song on Guitar Hero’s Expert Level. There is no doubt in my mind that what they do here… is incredible. But how many hours did it take these two to get to THIS level of accuracy, coordination and quite frankly rhythm?
This lead me to my question, how much time is too much for one to spend on a “HOBBY”?
I spend a LOT of time coaching, training, reading and learning about CrossFit. I mean a lot. But it’s just a hobby of mine! I was wondering this because I found myself judging these kids while watching their amazing video. “How much time did they spend inside playing video games when they COULD have been… (insert any other parent line here)?”
I have no idea why I cared what they could have been doing, but CrossFit has taken me to a point where I think improving one’s fitness level is a “worthwhile” dedication of time. Who’s to say that crushing video games isn’t worthwhile? So I wondered, is there too much time that can be spent on things that a person does just because they like it? Or does everyone else (me, in this case) need to shut up and mind their own business?
Not every act in the world needs to add value, but I feel like someone who volunteers to build schools in a third world country in their “free time” would be looked at a lot more favorably than someone who works towards building the tallest stack of playing cards because that’s what makes them happy.
Does it matter?
Not even a complete thought on this post today, but I just thought I’d share the ridiculous thought process I went through today. Oh well, back to watch the video one more time and play air guitar like a baus!!
Now that I’ve had 3 days in a row of “Extreme Sports” Moments of Awesomeness, I felt it was time to bring it back to some incredible Weight Lifting clips.
This video below (that I got from Zach’s facebook page) is from the 1996 Olympics, and features what is, in my opinion, the most epic Weight Lifting battle of all-time. Watch below as Valerios Leonidis and Naim Suleymanoglu go head-to-head.
There were 4 World Records broken in less than 5 minutes between them! Love this.
“Please start warming up on your own when you arrive. The Workout will be starting about 6 minutes after the hour.”
That’s what the sign said today at the gym. Oh man… that meant it was going to be a long one!
It’s so rare that we do REALLY LONG workouts, so today was a great time to remind our bodies (and our MINDS) that… even if you don’t like it, LIFE may need you to keep moving for an hour straight.
The two hours of classes I was lucky enough to watch today were nothing short of inspiring. I hope you guys all left tonight with your heads held high. Tonight’s session was epic.
I’m proud of all of you!
Workout of the Day
3 Rounds for Time:
5 Rounds of “Cindy” (5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Squats) / 1000m Row / 25 Burpees
Even without this video, everyone either tied their all-time PR’s, or established a new one today! GREAT JOB, team.
The workout was “only” 10 minutes long, so it was pretty easy, huh? No, I didn’t think so either! Somehow, whether the workouts we do take 3 minutes or 60 minutes, I still feel just as tired at the end. How about you guys? GOTTA love that intensity!
Workout of the Day
Strength:
Split Jerk
3×3 Warm-up, 5 sets of 1 establish a max
WOD:
As Many Reps As Possible in 10 Minutes
10 Sumo DL High Pull (95#/65#) / 20 Wall Balls (20#/14#)
Smashby's Training Blog 