The Ten Commandments of Recovery by Strength Guru Dan John. I did not take Recovery (with a capital R) seriously until February, 2010. Now, I'm kind of addicted to it. I give myself a 9.5 out of 10 on Mr. John's recovery scale. More magnesium, meat! How many of the 10 Commandments of Recovery do you obey? Post to comments.
Overtraining vs. Under Recovery. I have always thought "overtraining" was a misunderstood concept. I am just starting to understand recovery.
If you struggle to climd a rope, can you handle Step 1? Step 2? Step 3?
Workout Of The Day
Strength/Skill
Snatch
1-1-1
Snatch Pulls
3-3-3
Metcon
For time:
100 Overhead Squats 95/65
Every time you break, do 10 Toes to Bar. You cannot rest the bar on your shoulders.
Weighted Pushups?
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
We had to cancel the Olympic Lifting seminar with Coach Schmitz and Butch Curry due to lack of interest. I hope that we can build interest in an event like this. We are starting to put up great o-lift numbers, but the presence of experts like Coach Scmitz and Butch is always awesome. Their insight and keen eye are second to none. We'll try it again. If you're interested, make your voice heard.
And it's super short notice, but I signed up for an OPT seminar in San Diego, Oct 7-9. It's a 2 day seminar run by James Fitzgerald, the 2007 Crossfit Games champ, with a 1 day competition on Sunday. It's 99 bucks to sign up until tomorrow, when it become $199. Still a bargain.
Crossfit.com posted an even better video of CF Santa Cruz athletes and Pat Barber (who's back in the states for the Games) building to a heavy single. Please watch this video. Pay close attention to how the athletes work together.
Workout Of The Day
Strength/Skill
Weighted Pushup
In 15 minutes, build to a heavy single. Make sure your chest touches the deck, and lock out at the top. Have fun with this, but work together!
So, Monday was a pretty heavy day, and so it Tuesday. I want to hit both strength sessions and WODs hard. So following Monday's heavy fast squats and thrusters (fast squatting) I took a contrast shower (which is now a daily occurrence) and iced my thighs. I've played a little with ice, but this was my biggest session. Anybody out there using ice therapy regularly? Please post thoughts and experiences to comments.
Head positioning is my number #1 area of range of motion improvement. Looking at photos and video, especially from Regionals, I hang my head down. Gary Baron from Rocklin Crossfit called me out on this. I'm working on it, but it's helped in my coaching as well. Now, I pay particular attention to head positioning in our athletes. But it's harder than it sounds. Check out the break downs that occur when optimal head positioning is lost. K-Star opens a pandora's box of issues, as he gets into jaw positioning as well. First it's your own jump rope, then weightlifting shoes, now an Agility Guard?
Workout Of The Day
Strength/Skill
Cleans
1-1-1
Build to a heavy single
Clean Pulls
3-3-3
Metcon
7 RFT
7 Cleans 175/110
200m run
“It’s what HAPPENS in that six minutes”
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Maybe I have World Cup fever or maybe it's because Vision Quest was one of the great sports movies of the 80's (in my mind, anyway), but this is one of my favorite speeches about the power of sport. If you've never seen the movie here's the rundown: Louden Swain, played by a young and pretty fit Matthew Modine, is about to wrestle the match of his life against "The Schute". He's been building it up for months, and using Elmo, a cook at the hotel where Louden works, as his sounding board. Louden is starting to doubt himself. Enjoy!
I recently had my 5 year anniversary with Crossfit. I found out about Crossfit from my brother on July 4, 2006, and did my first WOD on July 5, 2006. I was given a couple of warnings by my brother: you'll have to squat a lot, do pullups where kipping is allowed, and you'll never bench press again. He was right about the squatting and the pullups. But if you review my first month, bench pressing came up 4 times! This is a ton of benching for a Crossfitter! It was probably good for my entry, as I benched a lot at the time and was pretty good at it. I did Crossfit at a "globo-gym" in Brooklyn, NY, following the mainsite to the best of my ability, for 2 years by myself before I moved out to Modesto.
More important to when I started Crossfit is why. On July 3, 2006, Alison and I took our two young kids to a Thomas the Train fair in Amish country in Pennsylvania. We had spent the last 2 years living in, and enjoying NYC. We ate different foods at great restaurants. I was working a lot, traveling the world through work, drinking after work with colleagues, and generally enjoying life. I was still training, but my consistency was not there, and truthfully, I wasn't working that hard. Generally, I'd lift heavy stuff, then I may or may not get on the elliptical. I was getting fat. In May of that year, my doctor told me at a physical that I should think about losing 5 pounds.
I decided that I would start running to lose weight. The only problem is I hate running, and I didn't really want to be a skinny, weak runner guy. So I didn't really attack my new fitness plan with the vigor I should have.
That day in Amish country was close to 100 degrees with probably 80% humidity, with no shade in sight. I'm not going to speak for Alison, but I was a hot, fat, sweaty mess. My energy levels were all over the place. The only relief was some lemonade they were selling, and I probably drank 3 of em in 3 or 4 hours. For those of you that are educated on the effects of insulin, you have an idea of what was going on here. My kids were running around, I was realizing I was having a hard time keeping up. At the end of the day, I was exhausted: from the heat, the walking around chasing kids, and the insulin roller coaster.
The next day, the 4th of July, my brother got into town. He was going through SEAL training, and he explained to me that Crossfit was what they were doing. He showed me the website, kind of explained the workouts (that they were timed, with a focus on full body, compound movements) and explained that they'll post a new workout everyday. I went back to the gym the next day and did the row/bench WOD posted (my gym had 1 Concept 2 rower that no one ever used). Like many of our first experiences with Crossfit, I was a sweaty mess, and my vision was messed up. It was awesome! I was hooked right there, and decided this was my new fitness program.
I had some rudimentary knowledge of the movements, and no real concept of nutrition. All that stuff has come over the last 5 years
This week, I took my kids to Yosemite and we spent the day running, climbing and exploring one of the most beautiful places on Earth. If I would have continued on the road I was on, I'm sure I would take the kids to places like Yosemite. I'm not sure I would have participated in the fun the way I would have wanted to.
Back in July 2006, 2 days before Crossfit. We're all a little heavier looking.
Five years later.
Workout Of The Day
5 RFT
15 Sumodeadlift Highpulls 95/65
Barbell Overhead Walk
15 Box Jumps
