Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

The Numbers: 1/31/11

Posted: February 1, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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It was the last day of January, and the weather was rough outside. Snow and ice always make getting to class an adventure, but we had four brave soldiers make it in safely!

The strength portion would consist of Back Squats, working up to three sets, and it seemed like almost everyone PR’d! Generally if we’re doing 5 sets of 3 reps, that final set will be written as “3+”. This means that the goal is to get those three reps, but IF the athlete can do more reps, they should continue on. Jamie got an awesome 6 full reps on his final set! You can see by the picture below that his range of motion was awesome even when he started to get tired. Well done, sir.

Jamie back squat, crossfit, smashby training, crossfit lakewood, crossfit in denver

Nice depth on that squat!

Workout of the Day:
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of-
Power Cleans / Wall Ball

This means that the athlete completes 21 reps of power clean, then 21 wall balls. Next, 18 cleans and 18 wall balls, and so on, all the way down to 3 of each.

Athlete Results:
Back Squat – 5 sets of 3 (5×3)
Jamie- 175 (6 reps!)

WOD
Jamie (65lb Power Clean / 14lb Med Ball)- 18:28

The Numbers: 1/30/11

Posted: January 31, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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Sunday Funday again! The weeks are going by fast, but I guess I can start viewing that as “it seems like there’s less time between CrossFit Classes! This week, Andy came back for another session, too, so I guess we didn’t scare him away last time!

To start off the day, we focused on a movement that is done very rarely in CrossFit, but one that I think is important to go back and hit every once and a while… The Bench Press! Check out Clayton, putting up 165 for 5 reps.

Once we finished the strength portion of the day, we hit a workout that I saw last year, and have wanted to try ever since. I’ll do this myself in the next few weeks, and maybe post a video of it, too. We’ll see.

Workout of the Day:
1 Clean and Jerk / 1 Round of Cindy / 2 Clean and Jerks / 1 Round of Cindy / etc. until / 10 Clean and Jerks / 1 Round of Cindy

The workout is 1 rep of a Ground to Overhead lift followed by 1 round of Cindy (which is 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 air squats). The most common and most efficient way to get something from the ground to over your head is generally going to be the Clean and Jerk. Once the athlete finishes one round of Cindy and one Clean and Jerk, then they complete one round of Cindy and then two Clean and Jerks. This pattern continues until the final round, which is 10 Ground to Overheads followed by the last round of Cindy.

Here are some clips of the guys doing work!

One of the highlights of today was watching Clayton crush the pull-ups with an awesome kip! We’ve talked for the last few months about how much his workout times will drop when he improves his kipping form. I’d say that’s pretty accurate watching this. Great Job!

Athlete Results:
Bench Press 5 Rep Max
Clayton- 165lbs
Jamie- 155lbs
Andy (performed Shoulder Press)- 65lbs

WOD
Clayton (75lb Clean and Jerk / Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups)- 27:45
Jamie (65lb Clean and Jerk / 3 Banded Pull-Ups)- 32:18
Andy (45lb Push Press / 3 Banded Pull-Ups / Wall Push-Ups)- 19:40

Finally, as promised, here is the video of two CrossFit All-Stars completing the workout as prescribed. Both of these men are incredible athletes!

Smashby Training Challenge #1 Winner!!!

Posted: January 31, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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Alec Hanson has done it. He promised an epic video when he reached his 50th Subscriber to his Drive Time with Alec Channel on Youtube, and he has not only delivered, but he has exceeded any and all expectations I had for it!

What is this “Smashby Training Challenge” you ask? Back on December 16th of last year, I wrote a post on Perfection. I discussed that “a lot of times perfection is something we think we need to reach. My goal is to always be: “Better than yesterday”. That means that you’ve worked hard, and improved an area of your life; hopefully helping to make you become a more well-rounded human being.”

Then I ended the post by challenging any reading my blog to attempt to recreate one of the closest things to “Perfect” I have ever experienced…. the DOUBLE DREAM HANDS VIDEO!!!

Well I won’t ruin the surprise, but let’s just say that even though the “video submission” is 31 days late, as the Competition Organizer, I have accepted a late entry.

ALEC HANSON WINS!! Congrats, Alec!! Your prize will be mailed to you by the end of the week!
If you haven’t subscribed to his channel yet, you really should by clicking here and then subscribing. His material is fun and he has some great opinions on topics that are relevant to either life, CrossFit or both!

Without further ado…. enjoy your Smashby Training Challenge’s first Winner’s video entry!!!:

Moment of Awesomeness: 1/30/11

Posted: January 30, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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I’ve talked to a lot of people who say they’ve seen or heard about crossFit, but won’t try it because they’re scared, or because it looks too intimidating. CrossFit Milford put together a really awesome video about “Fear”. I like it because I know a lot of CrossFitters will understand the message behind what fear was, and what fear has become.

At first we fear CrossFit because we don’t know if our bodies will physically be able to complete the work asked of us for the day’s workout. We don’t know if we’ll even be able to do it… or if we’ll fail. Once we experience the program, once we start to learn more about ourselves and what we are truly capable of, once we see how many areas of our lives improve through this enhanced fitness, we then begin to see the true realm of our own possibility. At that point, many of us no longer fear our ability levels at all… we just fear the workout of the day.

Given the choice of fearing failure in my life, or fearing a single day’s workout on a board… I think you know which I’d choose.

Have you wanted to give CrossFit a shot? Have you considered trying to do it more often? Let go of the fear… You just might become fitter/healthier/happier than you’ve ever imagined, so give it a shot. Just try.

Fear from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

2011 CrossFit Games: “Open Sectionals” Information

Posted: January 30, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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CrossFit Founder Greg Glassman took some time to speak with several people last week and share more information as to how the 2011 Sectional Qualifiers will look. He also shared his opinion as to why he thinks his “Open” structure (where literally anyone from anywhere in the world will be able to submit their times for the workouts) will work just fine.

Gym owners and athletes have surely been wondering how crazy these workouts are going to be for the athletes. Here’s a quote directly from Glassman:
“So I would expect that first round to have a very classic “CrossFit” flavor to it.”

Then he gives a clue that it will likely be at the next round of qualifiers, one of the 17 Regional Competitions around the planet, where he would expect there to be an “urge to get outside of the box.” Glassman jokes that we could expect “moats and alligators,” and everyone laughs. Let’s be honest, though… is it really even a joke? I wouldn’t put it past those guys!

Several times during the video (which can be seen here) he reiterates the two goals of this type of event (the Open Sectionals).

1- “To find, mine, develop, watch and point to the world’s fittest man and the world’s fittest woman.”
2- “… and along the way, we want the process to be as inclusive as possible. So even those that feel like they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, will play… to maximize participation.”

Here’s the entire post on the CrossFit Games’ web site! March will be here before we know it, guys and gals!

The Numbers: 1/28/11 *Special Edition*

Posted: January 28, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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Many of you know my class schedule:

Sundays- 5:30pm-6:30pm
Monday / Wednesday / Thursday- 6pm-7pm

This week, however, was a special circumstance. Friend and past CrossFitter Melissa moved back to Denver for her next rotation! She had some friends in town with her and they all wanted to get in a CrossFit session to see what it was all about. If that wasn’t enough, Pam (friend from college) moved to Denver YESTERDAY and wanted to check it out. Now if that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is… these folks wanted to work out, and who was I to tell them no!? So, I offered a special Friday class for the four of them.

After spending quite a bit of time warming up, explaining what CrossFit is, and going over proper form for some basic movements, we were ready to hit a variation of the “Baseline” workout. Tom Nugent, friend and owner of SnoRidge Crossfit told me that they do the “Official Baseline workout” twice. Here’s what he shared with me:

Baseline is a great eye opener. We program 2 rds rather than 1 simply because anyone can complete 1 round with relative ease. The 2nd round becomes the test, teaching relative intensity and perseverance. Completing that challenge then really exposes someone to CrossFit.

That definitely made sense to me, so from now on, I am going to adopt his theory! What is “Baseline”? With my modifications from the original, our workout for today was:

Workout of the Day:
2 rounds for time of-
400 meter Run (or 500m row) / 20 Pull-Ups / 30 Push-Ups / 40 Sit-Ups (Ab-Mat) / 50 Air Squats

You all did a great job today! For the “out-of-towners”, I really hope you check out your local CF gym, you’d both be great at it!

Athlete Results:
(All athletes used banded pull-ups and Ab-Mats for sit-ups)
Pam- 19:30
Ashley- 20:18
Mel-Mel- 20:46
Mel- 21:51

Moment of Awesomeness: “Inspiration” 1/27/11

Posted: January 27, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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I have absolutely no idea why I was looking for inspiration today. I also have absolutely no idea why THIS video came to mind. But I’m very glad it did. When I watched this video for the first time, shortly after learning about and getting into the Crossfit program, I new I’d never forget it.

Back in 2008, a 14-year-old girl named Kallista Pappas competed in that summer’s Crossfit Games. She weighed 103 pounds, and was working out with women who were much older and much stronger than she was at the time. She didn’t care. The last workout came up, and it was 30 reps of squat clean and jerks for time. The weight used was 100lbs.

I’ll say this again in case you don’t understand. A 103 pound 14-year-old took her own body weight from the ground, and put it over her head 30 times. Oh, and at rep 23, that entire weight fell on her shin. And she still finished. She picked up that barbell, let out her war cry, and completed the workout. This is one of the most inspiring performances I have ever seen.

The moral of the story — You can do so much more than you think. —
Don’t be afraid to dream big in ANY part of your life. Work hard to do whatever it takes to reach your goals, and you never know what might happen — you just might reach, or dare I say, surpass them. I’ll leave you with a quote that I like:

Aim for the moon, that way, even if you miss you'll still be amongst the stars! - W. Clement Stone

Thank you for this performance, Kallista! It will always serve as an inspiration to me.

Kallista C&J Finals from CrossFit Newcastle on Vimeo.

The Numbers: 1/26/11

Posted: January 26, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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Today’s workout was a good one! The primary focus of the WOD was a movement that most athletes at the gym had never done before — The Turkish Get Up. The video below shows a well-executed lift… WITH A PERSON! We decided to stick with kettlebells for tonight. We’ll use people next time 🙂

Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for time of-
5 Turkish Get Ups (each arm) / 15 Weighted Squats / 20 Double-Unders

Athlete Results:
Jamie (8kg kettlebell / 15lb weighted squat / doubles!)- 28:43
Clayton (12kg kettlebell / 45lb weighted squat / doubles!)- 32:04

2011 CrossFit Games: Qualifying Information!

Posted: January 24, 2011 in CrossFit, Media, Training
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The first announcement, of what will surely be many in the coming weeks, has been released!

From the CrossFit Games website comes the following news:

“The CrossFit Games Open is a six-week competition that will begin Tuesday, March 15th at 17:00 PDT. This competition is the first step in qualifying for the 2011 CrossFit Games. Each week, one event will be announced each Tuesday, and everyone has until the following Sunday at 17:00 PDT to complete the event and record their scores.”

There are two ways that people will be allowed to qualify:
1. Compete at a Registered Affiliate: Attend a workout session at a registered affiliate and submit your score for the affiliate to validate.

2. Compete Anywhere: Perform the workout as prescribed anywhere you can or want, and videotape it. Submit your score and upload your video.

It’s crazy to most CrossFitters to imagine how they’re going to organize, validate and report back on what could be hundreds of thousands of entries from around the entire planet, but I’m sure they’ll find a way!

I’ll keep you posted, as always, when more information is released. Until then, keep training…..

What do you want from me?!?

Posted: January 23, 2011 in About Tom, CrossFit, Media, Nutrition, Training
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Ok, maybe that post title is a little dramatic….

But I’m serious!

I want this blog to be a place you want to visit! My goal is for the material to be informative, relevant and FUN!

Let me know what types of things you would like to see more of, less of, and everything in between!

Consider this post your “Comment Card” that you get at the end of a course. I’m always looking for honest and constructive feedback!

Ready… go!

Oh, and as a thank you for your participation, here’s a pretty awesome demonstration of ALL of the 10 Physical Skills (Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Accuracy and Balance) we improve through CrossFit training! Amazing stuff.

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