Rainier CrossFit

Occupy strength and SCS

Back lever practice is NOT part of your Saturday Challenge Series!

Kurtis and Aaron are leading a group of "strength inclined" RCFer's to Lynnwood and CrossFit Advantage for "Occupy Strength" on November 17th. If you'd like to go compete, here's the link to register. If you'd like to go watch and cheer, we'll be organizing that in November but mark your calendars now! There is a place to enter your "gym" on the form. Be sure to put Rainier as there is a gym score thats calculated and a "strongest gym" award!

http://store.crossfitfootball.com/product_p/occupy_washington.htm

As for your at home, Saturday Challenge Series workout- this one comes straight from The Travelling WOD:

 

1 minute plank

5 push ups

45 second plank

10 push ups

30 second plank

20 push ups

15 second plank

40 push ups

Submit your overall time to comments, to the FB page, or via email :)

 

Meet Doran

Doran may be a new face but he looks at the bar just like all the seasoned veterans.

 

The Perceived Place

So you started CrossFit, learned the basics, changed your diet. Mastered the kipping pull-up, or the snatch, or the muscle-up. Probably all 3. You and your butterflies endured the nausea and entered your first throwdown. You finished respectably in the middle of the pack. Cool.

More time in that CrossFit gym. Now a food scale. You’re hooked. Your family has banned the words “CrossFit” “gym” and “WOD” at the dinner table. You’re consistently RXing workouts, sometimes with the best times in the gym. CrossFit life is good. Carry on.

Until it’s not so good. That new, young kid seems unbeatable at runs. That strong beast can lift more then you, every time. You slip back to the middle of the pack. #$@&!!!!!

It’s not that you’ve gotten worse. In fact, you continue to PR, maybe not as frequently but from time to time.  You’re still making gains, in strength, technique, wisdom. But the top is elusive. And it seems to be slipping out of reach.

There’s something about this next generation of CrossFitters. They’re younger, stronger, fitter, faster, and they’re passing you by. They’re making you look slow, weak, lazy. Old.

What to do? How does one handle this CrossFit fall from grace?  I guess there are a couple options.  Quit. Take your ball and go home. Change your focus- which is just another way of “quitting” because you disengage from the competitiveness of the daily workout.

Or you let it inspire you.

You revel in the accomplishments of this new CrossFit generation and wish it could have been you, starting in your teens, competing at the regional and international levels before marriage and kids take over.  But since it’s not you, you become the loudest cheerleader in the stands. The one who brings extra chairs and ice to that throwdown.

You lead. You encourage using every pearl of wisdom you’ve gained from having a lengthy relationship and you use your vast toolbox to help those around you achiever their dreams.

You still work hard. After all, CrossFit is about being your best you. For 99%, it’s not about making it to the games or having the top time on the whiteboard, it’s about leaving a nice sweat angel on the gym floor. About laughing and group suffering with your best friends in the afternoons.  It’s about camaraderie, like minded people, friends, and dropping barbells from overhead because it sounds cool.

Comparison with anyone outside yourself is saved for days with entry fees and scorecards. It does us no good to let the times on the whiteboard defeat us. Losing your perceived place at the top of scoreboard doesn’t mean you suck, it just means that someone else has pulled ahead. As long as your progress is forward, where you are in line shouldn’t matter.  And if it does, then  maybe you have issues that can’t be solved in a gym.

 

something extra

Vera adds an "extra" little friend to her sit-ups.

We talk about how everything in CrossFit is "scalable" to the individual -- that is, we take the same stimulus and treak it to make it work for the individual.  The obvious scaling option include less weight, less reps, step-ups on a lower box instead of big box jumps, etc.

Can you "scale" diet?  The CrossFit Journal thinks so.

Read: Zero to 60

If you really believe proper nutrition is beneficial to your health and your life, then put on your big-girl panties and keep moving, even if it’s a little uncomfortable. The process will never be totally comfortable until you get to the end, so accept that and keep marching forward. Now let’s take a look at just one of many, many acceptable ways to get you eating right.

time for teachers

Chuck and Colin get their mobility on.

Why I Hated Meredith’s First Grade Teacher: An Open Letter to America’s Teachers

 

And so, teachers, across this country during the next two weeks, most of you will be opening your classroom doors in a first-day welcoming for your students.  As a teacher I am proud to stand beside you in all that you do. But as a parent, well, as a parent I stand in awe of all that you do.  And to Ms. Miner, thank you.

stick it

Nat sticks a full-foot-on-the-box landing.

Strongman is just 4 weeks away and I need help soliciting donations for the silent auction. If you have a contact for a really great donation let me know. I have all the tax paperwork that people need in order to deduct their donations.

CONGRATULATIONS to Aaron and Brenden who took 4th and Jenny and Marisa who were 8th in the Oregon CrossFit summer games. Really proud of you guys for going out there, doing well, and having fun.

The weather is looking good for a Saturday park workout this weekend. What's your favorite local park? It's Labor Day weekend so we'll go early.

 

RCF's Strongest Man and Woman 7!

I can't promise that we will (or won't) be lifting kegs overhead but I do know that registration increases from $50 to $7% on Saturday. Early registration is available HERE but closes August 31st.

Congratulations to Carrie, Cheryl, and Kristi who are all spending this weekend earning their CFKids Trainer certificates!

If you're playing along at home with the Saturday Challenge Series be sure to submit yesterdays score either in comments here on the blog or on our Facebook page!

I apologize for no post yesterday- I was having log-in problems and couldn't get anything up. See Jack, I can do innuendos as well as you can :)

Your Sunday reading: Two Paths from Again Faster

I watch people compare themselves every day in the gym. I watch them stare at another person’s barbell while they load their own. I watch them worry about beating another person’s time so much they completely throw form out the door. And I watch others sink into frustration and sadness when they don’t beat their friend’s score. But what is that accomplishing? How are we improving ourselves if the only thing we are doing is steering off our own course and trying to follow the path of another?

red ball of pain

Dan gets those nasty little pains that settle between your spine and your scapula.

SMR- self myofascial release. In your vocabulary or are you asking yourself "Another acronym? What's she talking about thi time?"

SMR is the self massage we perform before (and sometimes after) our workouts using lacrosse balls or foam rollers. You all know what's sore from the last few days, and it isn't the same for everyone, so while we try to guide you to what we think will be most useful, it's up to you to know yourself and take care of what ails you. 

Here's a site that has great guidance on where to start, where to go next, and how to do it. It has an extensive video collection that can show you how to get into most any of the parts and pieces that are bothering you. Go check out Network Fitness. 

The Saturday Challenge Series

Carter says the magic is in the yellow shoes.

Since our Saturdays are about to be royally disrupted (seminar, strongman, seminar, STRONGMAN, seminar, seminar, seminar) We though we'd give you a fun way to get your Saturday Suck on, "compete" against your friends, work hard, and earn some great prizes.

For each Saturday we'll announce a workout (maybe two options, like this weekend)  The WOD we announce will be able to be performed in your own home - living room, garage, back deck, or almost anywhere else you may be. All you have to do is compete the WOD and post your score, either here on the blog or on our Facebook page. Each time you post a score, your name will be placed in the hat and that will make you eligible to win prizes.  The more you do, the more your name goes in, the better your chances. Yes, it's the honor system but we trust you guys.

Prizes include a free month of training, hoodies for the upcoming, cold weather, and the new long sleeve burn-out T's that you guys saw Marisa wearing.

Each Saturday Challenge Series (or SCS) WOD will be announced on Thursdays. This week, you can go to CrossFit Lifeline and participate in the Fundraiser for baby Ellie or you can complete the following and submit your score: 

10 rounds for time of:
10 squats
10 push-ups
10 sit-ups

Your homework: practice hollow rocks. 

Prizes are for RCF members only, but anyone can play along and post scores! 

RCF WILL BE CLOSED SATURDAY AUGUST 25th

Saturday Closure

RCF will be closed Saturday, August 25th as we host a CrossFit Kids Trainer Seminar.

say cheese!

Sarah finds out what happens when you say "don't you dare".

There is NO STRONGMAN TRAINING tonight. This is the one Wednesday between now and RCF's Strongest Man and Woman 7 that Kurtis won't be in the gym working on tips, tricks, and techniques. 

RCF will be CLOSED this Saturday, August 25th as we host a CrossFit Kids Trainer Seminar.

Enough of the bad news - now onto something *completely* useful and life changing:

Protein Ketchup

With 15 grams of protein, zero fat, and two servings of tomatoes in every "dipper-style" one-ounce cup, Protein Ketchup delivers the taste and mouthfeel you expect, with the nutrition you want.

uhh, sure.

slammin

Rob and Rich "slam ball" the 35 pound stones.

Looking to lose fat? Here's a good, brief overview 

Blood Sugar is the Key
Eating healthfully normalizes your blood sugar which in turn allows stored body fat to be used as your primary source of fuel. It also promotes strength building. So again, the main idea of this plan is to reset your metabolism so that your body uses stored fat as its primary source of fuel by keeping blood sugar normal.

To lose fat successfully without losing lean tissue (muscle and bone), it’s best to eat in a manner that keeps your blood sugar levels normal and supplies you with adequate amount of quality proteins. The amount of glucose (blood sugar) that our adult body considers normal is about a teaspoon or, a few grams at most. To put this in perspective, your morning multi- grain muffin can have as much as 10 times this amount. Add this to the sugar in your coffee, your glass of juice, your banana and perhaps that “healthy” bowl of cereal in the morning and you have shoveled more sugar into your blood in the morning than you should eat in a week. Most people are completely unaware of this.

When you keep your blood sugar normalized, this keeps your level of a hormone called insulin normal. This in turn allows more fat to freely exit your fat cells and makes it much more difficult to store calories as fat.

According to the current edition of Lehninger’s Principles of Biochemistry, when blood insulin levels are high, fat is more readily stored in the adipocytes (fat cells) and is less available for usage:

“High blood glucose elicits the release of insulin, which speeds the uptake of glucose by tissues and favors the storage of fuels as glycogen (sugar) and triaglycerols (fat), while inhibiting fatty acid mobilization in adipose tissue.”

What this means is this: the more foods you eat that raise your blood sugar, the higher you will raise your insulin levels. When insulin is high, you will potentially store more body fat and less body fat will be burned as fuel.

Believe it or not, you now know more than what 95% of all registered dieticians know on how lipids (fat) are stored and used for fuel. What you need to know now is which foods cause the problems and which foods don’t.

Read: How to Lose Fat Successfully

 

Mom and athlete

 
Do you model good behavior for your kids? Brushing your teeth, wearing your seatbelt, eating your veggies? How about in the gym? Are you modelling "good behavior" there? Showing them hard work, perseverence, sweat, smiles, and fun?

The very most important thing we can do in the gym for our kids is indellibly link fitness with fun. This HAS to be fun, especially in the eyes of kids and in their own experience.

That's EXACTLY why our kids share our gym space rather than being seperated away from our activity.

Having kids in the gym has a downside, though. Kids need supervision and it takes a group effort to make sure they are safe, relatively quiet (so the athlete can hear the coach) and having fun.  Parents are expected to be parents, even if it means interrupting your workout. Fortunately, thats rare because there is usually another parent willing to step in and help.

Know that your child is welcome at RCF. As long as we can keep them safe - ie. out of the way of swinging kettlebells or spinning jump ropes- and not *too* disruptive we'll continue to have kids in our gym. 

If you're bringing kids into the gym, we have a "parent agreement" that we'd like to share with you so our rules and expectations are clearly outlined. If you haven't seen it yet, just ask. It's at the desk!

type 3

Sometime what we do out of necessity looks a lot like what we do for fun!

From Natural News: Alzheimer's is really just 'type-3' diabetes

Emerging research on the widespread degenerative brain disease known as Alzheimer's suggests that this prevalent form of dementia is actually a type of diabetes. Published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, a recent study out of Rhode Island Hospital (RIH) confirms that Alzheimer's is marked by brain insulin resistance and corresponding inflammation, a condition that some researchers are now referring to as type-3 diabetes.

and:

Diabetes of the Brain

Now some experts are proposing an avant-garde way of approaching Alzheimer's: as a form of diabetes. Some even dub it "type 3 diabetes" or "diabetes of the brain." The idea is that memory loss and cognitive deterioration in at least some Alzheimer's patients may be caused by low insulin or insulin resistance in the brain, much as lack of production or poor response to insulin in the body is central to the pathologies of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Effective Alzheimer's treatments, then, might aim to boost brain insulin levels or decrease resistance while addressing destructive factors like inflammation andoxidative stress. If the theory holds up, as early research suggests, it could be a boon to a field scarred by disappointments and dead ends.

punishing

Yesterdays post linked to a hearts-flowers-unicorns post about how everyone can do CrossFit -- today, some visual evidence that sometime's we're just not nice to our bodies. Or at least the jump ropes aren't nice.

And since we're talking torture:

50 Shades of Gray (Cook) 
Gray Cook is a physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach and was one of the early voices in the functional training movement.

a sampling of a few of my favorites... 

3.  First move well, then move often

19.  Your brain is too smart to allow you to have full horsepower in a bad body position, it’s called muscle inhibition

20.  75% of world spends at least 30 seconds per day in that position (sic-deep squat going number 2). Why shouldn’t you?

21.  When challenged the brain will always choose quantity of movement over quality of movement

 

 

 

dive right in

Meet Marisa A, she's new to CrossFit but comes to us with a beautiful squat and really outstanding form.

We're re-writing On Ramp, trimming the noise, streamlining the delivery, and changing things up for the next group who begins our 28th offering beginning September 17th. We'll be including a little more "theory" to answer some of the most common questions about CrossFit throughout the month.

Space is limited to 8 people in each of the 6am and 6pm classes. Sign up here!

 

A really nice article on CrossFit that is aimed at the CF curious. It presents what we do in a non scary, everyone-can-do-it light, which is correct. 

CrossFit: Redefining Fitness Inside and Outside the Box

In almost every way, CrossFit has turned the conventional wisdom of fitness on its head. This is largely because the big picture in CrossFit is overall well-being, achieved through nutrition and fitness, coupled with a philosophy of incremental improvement and sense of community.

With its prescribed method of "constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement", CrossFit's approach is not to specialize, but to improve each person's competency at all physical activities. This is achieved through carefully programmed Workouts of the Day or "WODs" that combine Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics (rings, pull-ups), and running, rowing, biking and swimming -- performed in a high intensity sprint that lasts anywhere from an excruciating five minutes to an agonizing 30 minutes. Especially grueling "Hero WODs" are held periodically to honor fallen heroes and remind CrossFitters to think beyond themselves.

 

Totally

Joe tries to catch Kristi...

Reminder that our Saturday Suck this week is the CF Total. We will open at 9:30 as usual and we'll start with the squat as soon as we have lifters ready. We'll run 2-3 stations of each lift (Squat, press, dead) The Total takes some time so be prepared to be around until 11ish. If you need to get out quickly we'll do what we can to accomodate you.

THERE WILL NOT BE ANY OTHER, ALTERNATIVE, FASTER, METCON WODS THIS DAY.

 

More strongman today!

The yoke (and Marisa) will probably make an appearance at RCF's Strongest Man and Woman 7 on September 22nd.

Registration for the event is OPEN!

Mt. Rainier's Strongest Man began in 2006 as a way to combine a love for Strongman and a need for funding and awareness for a little known genetic condition called Fragile X Syndrome. Our son Casey has Fragile X, the most common cause of inherited mental retardation and the most common known cause of autism yet largely unheard of and drastically underfunded. We heard our call to action, paired with The Old Cannery, and MRSM was born. The contest has grown from 5 local competitors to 4 divisions of men and women, more than 40 competitors from 5 states, and has raised over $45,000 to date. In 2010, we added a CrossFit spin, saw a surge in interest and competitors, and knew we hit our mark with a fun, challenging event supported by our peers and the best people around- CrossFitters

motivational

Mike returns from the 400m run WITH an extra 45#

A great post on motivation from CrossFit Hustle

When you ask (ever-so-bashfully sometimes), “Can I come in early to practice my _____?” Really? You asked me if you could work on becoming more awesome? That’s what fires me up.

*Warning: In this post I combine letters that when pronounced, create sounds that rhyme with “puck”, “fit” and “brass”. You’ve been warned.

Fran everyday

What if I told you that the most important thing this year was to get a sub 2 minute Fran, RX'd. EVERYONE. And to make that happen, we'd be doing nothing but Fran, every day.You'd be *thrilled*. For maybe a minute. 

If I told you that we'd be doing pvc thrusters in our warm-up and nothing but thrusters and pull-ups (21-15-9, of course) you'd start to wonder if I had lost my mind. After all, we go to CrossFit for many things, but a sub 2 minute Fran probably isn't one of them. Sure, we'd take it if it happened...

It would be like me saying that everyday we're going to take a French test. We can tell if our comprehension of language and our vocabulary is improving if our test scores improve over time, right?

The part I forgot to mention is that we're never going to speak French. Or read it. Or study it. We're just going to test, everyday.

Stupid, right? That's no way to master a foreign language.

Well guess what. Trying day after day for that PR, that first pull-up, that muscle-up. It's like taking a test everyday but never studying.

STOP. "Testing" doesn't work. "Studying" does.

After you "study" for a time, you "test" to see where you've progressed to.

The "study" I speak of: lets take that muscle-up. Heading over and yanking on the rings won't get you on top of them. How about working on chest to bar pull-ups, belly-to-bar pull-ups. How are your ring dips? Have you worked that transition enough times that it's automatic? On the low rings? fast? You become proficient at chest to bar pull-ups, a rock solid transition, and from deep-in-the-bottom legit dips -- now you're ready to test out that muscle-up. Go try it. See what happens. It may be there - A+, or it may not. F.  If you get an F, go back to studying. 

You don't speak French fluently by taking a test.

This "study" "test" principle applies to everything we do. Deadlift. 5K run. Overhead squat. Clean. Handstand push-ups.  

Everyday in the gym- study.  Every once in a while, we'll spring that pop quiz on you and see how you're doing.

Oh, and no, we're not doing Fran.

for openers

Chuck opens his chest - also know as practicing his pin-up girl pose.

KStar from the MobilityWOD gives us some food for thought.

Here's your Sunday reading, what do you think?

People, We’ve Got to Stop Icing. We Were Wrong, Sooo Wrong.

Ready to slay a sacred cow?

Here goes. You should stop icing.  We were wrong.  I know.  I’ve even been guilty of advocated for short icing stints on this blog.  I was wrong.  For the past year, I’ve been engaged in a personal moral debate about icing that in retrospect, seems silly if not out right obvious.  We should not ice.  For the last year, I’ve advocated for no icing with every athlete  with whom I’ve helped  either  post-surgery or post-injury.   The outcomes have been nothing short of stunning.  Even  way back in Episode 204, “Donnie Thompson, Strongest Powerlifter Ever, Cares About Your Swelling,” (15 months ago) we started shifting our management of swelling chiefly to compression.  And that was before I met Gary Reinl ofMarc Pro.  Every athlete worth his or her salt knows of the old RICE acronym.  And dammit if I wasn’t already hearing and experimenting with reduced icing protocols for the last few years (remember numb and done?).  My problem with NOT icing, I told myself was that I didn’t have other good tools on hand to minimize the pain of swelling (which is the real athlete problem eh?).  As it turned out, the solutions presented themselves (excellent compression apparel, Dick Hartzell’s compression protocol, and the Marc Pro) at the same time that common sense matched up with my own clinical experience and test/retest ethic.  Maybe it was because I finally felt like I had other mechanisms with which to deal with the swelling, that I could resolve the dissonance I had around this outdated modality.  Don’t get me wrong, if you need to make something numb, ice is great.  As Mr. Reinl points out, “Yes, (making something numb is good) if the short-term goal is pain control and the prevention of the body’s normal cellular and vascular response to injury.”

 

one word

What's the one word you say to yourself when you're cleaning?

Forget recipe books and websites--- there's an app for that. Here's one I'm about to try from The Food Lovers Kitchen: (The food lovers primal palate on FB)

We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of our iPhone & Android app, called myKitchen! We have been working closely with our development team for nearly 4 months to bring you this highly interactive paleo meal planning app that you can take anywhere with you. myKitchen can work alone, or as a companion app to your account on The Food Lovers Kitchen. The recipes you save as favorites on the website will automatically sync to the app on your phone (and vice versa!) That means that you can browse our website on your computer and then when you go to the store, you’ll have everything at your fingertips on your phone with the myKitchen app: our entire catalogue of recipes, your saved recipes, a customizable meal planner, and it will even generate shopping lists for you.

 

RCF's Strongest Man and Woman 7!

Registration is now available at http://www.mtrainiersstrongest.com
or here. 

play ball!

A small but enthusiatic baseball crowd last Saturday.

Two more things in the works: a gymnastics session at Roach and a pool WOD...

When Listening to Your Body Doesn’t Work – Part 2  

As I wrote last week, we can’t always trust what our bodies are telling us to do. Our bodies send us a lot of other confusing and even misleading signals – but they don’t always pertain to food. Any of our base physiological processes will manifest as messages, cravings, and desires. That’s how the body gets us to perform tasks (like eating because of hunger, drinking because of thirst, and sleeping because of drowsiness), by creating physiologically-driven desires and motivations. In theory, these motivations match up with what’s best for us in that given situation and improve our chances of survival. Our bodies mean well. When they tell us to do or not to do something, they’re doing their best with the available information. If you place yourself in an evolutionary novel environment, your body is going to interpret the situation as best it can. When it perceives a high stress office environment with free coffee on hand, or a world where doing nothing is a viable mode of subsistence, or the aforementioned bright lights in the dead of night, things get complicated and the signals can get a little screwy. Read on to find out how this can all play out.

Back to school

It's only a few short weeks until our kids go back to school. Get them off to a great year and then it's time for YOU! September ON RAMP starts just after school gets started--- sign up here to reserve your spot!

Not sure about getting started with CrossFit? Give us a call to stop in and try it out. We'll show you around, answer your questions, and give you the information you need to decide. We won't pressure you or try to sell you anything - we'll just let you see what we do.

What is On Ramp?

 

we have lift off

Aarons triple extension (ankle knee and hip) includes a shrug.

When Listening to Your Body Doesn’t Work from MDA

part one of two really great articles.

Hunger largely comes down to perceived energy and/or nutrient insufficiency. Your body thinks that it needs more calories and more energy, and hunger sets in to get you to eat the food that contains those nutrients. Now, if perception matches up well with reality – if you truly do need more nutrients – things are good. You need some food, you eat some food, and you stop when you’ve had enough. In this situation, listening to your body is a good idea. That’s what all those Primal people (including me) are talking about when they tell you to “just listen to your body, maaaaaaan,” because for those people, it truly is that simple. Eliminating the excess carbs, the refined sugar, the grains, and the processed seed oils while adhering to the other Primal laws regarding exercise, sleep, stress, sun, and all the rest was enough to right the ship.

which direction

Simply from the position of Jenny's elbows can you guess what's going to happen next?

Reminder that this afternoon is Strongman training from 4-7pm
Also, we've scheduled a CF Total for Saturday August 18th. It will take longer than a regular Saturday Suck so be prepared for that! 

The 10-Minute Workout, Times Three from the NYT

“Every four years, the summer Olympics get people excited to exercise,” says Glenn Gaesser, a professor and director of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, who oversaw a new study about exercise and high blood pressure that was inspired in part by the coming games in London.

The streets and gyms fill with people who, fueled by stories of Olympic success, “run or work out for an hour or more,” Dr. Gaesser says. But “within a few weeks, most people have quit” and resumed their sedentary lives. “We wanted to see if there were approaches to exercise that would fit more easily into people’s lifestyles, but still be effective” in terms of improving health, he says.

Specifically, he and his colleagues hoped to determine whether breaking up exercise into small, manageable segments performed throughout the day would work as well as one longer, continuous bout.

 

How about just one, 10 minute bout of *intense* exercise? Something like Helen?

 

up!

Meet Eric- he's one of our newer faces and he's catching on fast!

Do you have your own foam roller? I've been wanting to try one of "the grid" rollers. Have you tried one? what do you think? He's one guys comparison between a plain, molded roller (ours) and the grid: The Grid Foam Roller vs Molded Foam Roller Comparison Review

Strongman Wednesday!

Wednesday evening from 4-7 Kurtis will be doing more strongman training. Plan to join him if you want something different, want to learn something new, and want to play with the "toys". Free to RCFers and anyone competing in RCF's Strongest Man and Woman 7 on September 22nd.

Hollow

One of the very few times we want your low back "rounded"

This is the "hollow" position we speak of. It's a another core stabilizing movement (like the GHD hip extension) that allows us to train the core generally and the abs specifically for their real role in human movment: stabilization.

A couple of ideas for increasing the difficulty of the hollow body position, from Gymnasticswod

Today is the one year anniversary of the helicopter crash that killed 31 service members. "The 31Heroes Project came about in response to the Chinook helicopter crash that took place on August 6, 2011 killing 30 military service members and one military working dog." For more information about the 31 Heros tribute WOD, go here: http://www.31heroes.com

It's about power

What's your reaction when the first thing you see walking into RCF is a bunch of rowers lined up? Probably the same feeling I get when I drive in and see you guys running...

So I joke that's there's only one mathematical equation that I know. Seem familiar?

FxD=W/T=P==I

Force times distance equals work
work divided by time equals power 
I couldn't show it here but the 3 bar equal sign means "equal by definition" so for us power is equal, by definition, to intensity. 

Intensity is where the magis happens. Thats why we like it. 

So there are a couple of ways I can increase your power output: increase your force (weight) or your distance.

Oftentimes, these two things are are pretty set. I can't change your body weight (today) and I can't change the length of your arms so the work required for you to do a pull-up is pretty much set by you. (Yes, I can add a weight or use a band to "remove" some of your weight, sure. That is one way I can alter your work load)

I can add more weight to your bar or have you move the weight farther (think thruster vs front squat and how far the bar travels.)

~or~

I can decrease the time it takes for you to move.  

Take a 200 pound man squatting down 12 inches.
200 x 1 = 200 footpounds (FxD=W)

now add a 200# pound bar to him:
200+200 x 1 = 400 footpounds.  More work, right?

Duh- of course it's more work to squat 200#.

So say 200 pound man can do 30 airsquats in a minute:
200 footpounds/1 = 200 ftpounds per minute.  Thats his power output.

But it takes him 3 minutes to do 30 of the weighted squats:
400 footpounds/3 =  133 ftpounds per minute.

Sure, he CAN do 30 squats with 200 pounds but he SHOULD do 30 squats at body weight because thats where he has higher power output. His intensity is higher during those body weight squats even though they are *easier* than the 200 pound front squats.

CrossFit is about maximizing power output. 

Yes, you need to do the 200 pound squats to get stronger. But you HAVE to do the the lighter, quicker, shorter duration training to maximize power output.

The art is in figuring out the correct weight that maximizes your power output. It's a weight that you can move fast. If you slow down , your power is blunted.

Just because there is an "rx'd" weight on the board and even if you CAN move it --- it doesn't mean you should. 

 

the intrepid 6am crew

They are fierce.
They are driven.
They are up *early*
They like to sit on foam rollers when they're done.

Our 6am group is probably the biggest, most consistent group we have. They set the bar high everyday, often remaining unbeaten (until Aaron arrives at least).

The new leaderboards are up and the binder has been updated with all of our recent "girl" times. It won't be long before we have an obvious goal to chase and more jockeying for those coveted top 10 positions. Remember, it's your responsiblity to add your top scores to the binder, complete with last initial and date. Please write neatly!  The white binder usually resides on the log book shelves although it's away getting retabulated right now. There will be many changes with the additional people and scores that were added over the last few months.

with a twist

Twisted wall ball made a repeat appearance on Tuesday.

The work in twisted wall ball isn't in the launch, it's in the eccentric, or slowing, of the returning ball from an off center position. Ever pulled a box off of a high shelf and tried to catch it without it hitting you in the nose? There's your real world application.

Have you been watching the Olympics? What events? 

 

kids eye view

You'll never know what you'll find on the SD card after you give the kids the camera.

Just a reminder that we're closed this Saturday to all but the CF-L1 attendees. That means no Saturday Suck . INSTEAD-- plan to play baseball with us, the details are on the community wall, and there will be an event posting on Facebook soon!