Friday, 08 Oct, 2010

Did anyone see Phil's black canteen? He left it last night either outside or in the gym. I'll be there tonight to get it...hopefully it's there!!!

I think we have it in the office here!

Awesome, thanks!!!

18:14 rx'd

20:31 Scaled

Weight as rx'ed; reps as follows-

Back squats-25/20/15/10/5 (unbroken)
Rope climbs-2/2/2/2/2

~33min, RX'ed. Felt them squat rounds deep in the upper hammies and glutes; muscles will congeal nicely sitting and writing reports today. While never graceful, my progressive pace run later today should be...interesting.

What is the Rx'd weight for women?

65#/85#/95#/105#/115#

Nice article on sleep, and the study they did.

I think we all forget how vital sleep is to us. I can DEFINITELY tell the difference if I'm short on sleep (sluggish, don't wake easily, drag through the first part of the morning). I aim for 8, but usually only get about 7. Then on the weekends, I can easily sleep 10, if there's no alarm clock involved.

Quetion - How do you answer this: "What's Cross Fit?" without spending more than 90 seconds telling them what it is while covering it all so that they REALLY get what you do for physical fitness?

^QueStion

Thanks!!!

Kristi, the first thing to do is make sure your audience is really interested. In my experience most folks want to hear that you take some magic pill, supplement, surgery or shot. Eyes glaze over when they learn CrossFit involves hard work. I value my time and have given up trying to explain CF. I refer them to CrossFit.com, tell them to read the "What is fitness" article, give them the CFHSV webs and street address and tell them when about the Sat. free class. No one... not one. Has shown up yet. I have a good friend that I've known for almost 20yrs that is CrossFitting with his wife in their garage and making great progress. We talk shop all the time. But, I really don't spend much time trying to explain CF any longer. Now, as soon as someone comes back to me and says "hey, I read that article. Cool stuff. Tell me more." They have earn further attention.

Probably should wait for Russell to answer but I'll bite.
I've always told people "it's the most kick you in the face fitness training I've ever done, if you like blood, sweat, tears, lifting heavy loads fast and pushing yourself to the brink of a seizure, then you'll love Crossfit". Seriously though, my usual reply is something like "It's a lifestyle. It's two parts. The first is the wod, which usually consists of fast and intense combinations of varied funcitonal movements involving olypmic weight lifting, gymnastics and cardio endurance. The second is the diet and committing to eating and living healthy." Then inevitably their response is, "It kinda sounds like P90X. Have you heard of that? My cousin does it and he loves it." Which results in a swift kick to the head, well that's what I imagine doing, then I respond, "No." Also, if they're genuinely interested I invite them to check out the CFHQ and CFHSV websites, do some research on their own and come to the free class on Saturday.

RX'd - DNF - completed the 3 rope climb set at 25 min cutoff

Kristi, this happened to me just today.

I ran into my dentist today at lunch, and, we ended up talking about CF (she had asked if I was running the Liz Hurley run, and I told her a bunch of us from CF were in on it together). She has a friend and her husband that live in Miami, that have started doing CF, and love it, so, at least what I told her wasn’t her first introduction.

She was eating lunch with a g’friend and she asked what CF was.

‘High intensity, constantly varied, functional movement’ was my immediate reply.

And, like Aaron’s scenario, she asked if it was like P90X (because she had done that before), and I said, kinda, but without the boring video and monotonous comments. Then, I told her that, although P90X’s main goal is to make you ‘look good naked’, CF makes you strong too, AND a ‘symptom’ of getting stronger, is, that you’ll look good naked.

I invited them both to a Saturday class. My dentist said she was going to sign up for the 530 am Boot Camp (that TONS of my friends who are afraid of CF do), and, if she survived that, she was going to give CF a try.

So, we shall see if I see either or both of them by January. I have my dentist appt. next month, so, I’m hoping to put the bug in her ear again then….

This is the link that I’ve sent those that have asked if CrossFit was like P90X, but the other link is good too.

http://www.catalystgym.com/2009/02/crossfit-vs-p90x.html

http://devinglage.com/fitness/p90x-vs-crossfit/

Rx'd
18:05

Still feeling a little sluggish

Honestly, I just get a reading on the person I'm talking to, and anything they want to hear, that's what CF is and does. I would call this the "snake-oil" approach... but it really is the only way to communicate with people who have never tried it. If you talk about intensity and variance and power output you will lose a lot of people, if you talk about blood and sweat you lose a lot of people, if you talk about "functional movements" you lose a lot of people.

In the wise words of coach Greg Glassman, don't even bother trying to explain. Say, if you want to know, come see it at my gym. As the put it, the people who take the majority of your time in terms of needing information and explanation about your program are going to be the least likely to every actually show up anyway.

Rx'd
3 rounds + 10 back squats @ 25 min cutoff

Although mostly out of my control, I figured the time I took off would dig a hole in my CF performance, but I think it's steeper than I was expecting. Today was tough, it looks like it will take longer than I thought to climb out. And although I continued to do CFE runs, the lesson learned is there is no replicating CF.

Sub'd 135# sled pulls for the rope climbs, kept rep scheme the same.
Back Squats as Rx'd
26:13

Even if I manage to avoid the hand and leg burns, rope climbs inflame my knuckles for days. 2-3 is about all I can do without paying the price. Uncle Arthur(itis) is a bastard.

29:36 as rx'd - felt this one all weekend. Starting to feel some relief.