Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday January 30, 2009




For FourPlay with Elizabeth Stuart used the Rx'd weights and still smoked me. I used 95 for the Bear but 115 for both the Clean and Jerks and the Power Cleans. Sheri used 35 for all 3 lifts and Parallets for the SPUDS.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Thursday January 29, 2009

Iron Lung

Scott 12:58

Homer

Brandon 12:59
Stuart 15:25

Brenda

Row 500
50 Air Squats
25 Swings (44)
25 Situps
Run 400
4 Rounds for Time

Brenda 30:18 (36)
Eugene 32:18
Brendan 34:45
Lance 35:23
Colin 35:33
Sheri 40:13

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Making Rings






I have 6 sets of rings but it's a pain to to move them around from muscle up to ring dip to ring pushup position so I wanted more for that. I also want to suspend them from the ceiling so you can swing from on to another all the way around the gym. So it was clear I needed more rings. But since I wanted at least another 10 pairs the cost was going to be prohibitive.

Thank you John Deere. I suppose I could have gone to Home Depot but there is a JD store right across the street from my gym and they have the curved plastic conduit. I picked up 10 pieces got some tow rope from another hardware store and began fussing with a design. I decided right away that I didn't like the angle the rope would have to endure coming out of the ends of the conduit. It would have rubbed on the inside edge and probably would have abraded and cut the rope. I added a 45 degree angle piece to each end and that allowed the rope to come straight up from the handle. I messed with quite a few variations but this is your best bet:

The first 10 handles are wrapped with half an old bicycle inner tube. I ran out after the first 10 so for the second 10 I used bicycle handle bar tape. Each package comes with 2 roles and each roll will do two handles. I secured the inner tube to the conduit with white athletic tape and then covered that and the 45's with black athletic tape. With the handle bar tape I didn't bother with the white tape. The handle bar tape is a better solution.

Cut the tow rope into 5 foot sections. Use wire cutters to cut the rope and after you cut it use electrical tape to secure the end then burn the end with a lighter. Put the 45s on the end of the handles and then wrap the handles with the handle bar tape and then tape over it with the black athletic tape up to but not on to the 45s. Feed the rope through one end of the pipe until it comes out the other end then pull off the 45 and feed it through the second time. Put the 45s back on. Tie an overhand knot in each end of the rope and pull/push the ends down into the 45 as you pull the rope taut. The knots will pull into the 45s and be mostly out of sight. I like the tow rope for this part because it is just a bit stiff and doesn't flop over when not attached to something.

Now wrap the ends with the tape just to make the whole package neat. You can now string the handle up at whatever height you want using a climbing quick draw or by just tying a knot with climbing rope or some soft, white polypro rope. For less than $100 I made 10 pairs of rings with just a few hours of work. Easy work.

Wednesday January 28, 2009

Homer (Tim McFarland's original design)

Pullups 10, 9, 8...1
Box Jumps 1, 2, 3...10
Ring Pushups 1, 2, 3...10
Box Jumps 10, 9, 8...1

Once through for time

Lance 18:30
Eugene 15:37
Colin 16:10

Iron Lung

Derek 17:43

Tuesday January 27, 2009

Nordic Nancy

500 m row
15 OHS (40 lbs)
15 GHD Wall Ball
5 Rounds for Time

Benda 23:15

Grace

Scott 2:55

Violet

Brandon 4:19

Snatch and Clean and Jerk today 5 sets of 3 lifts, heavy. But of course heavy is a very relative term as heavy to me is hardly a warm up for Brandon and some of the other horses in the gym.


Iron Lung

Row 500
20 Air Squats and Jump (5 squats + Jump 4 times)
15 Ring Pushups
10 Pullups
5 Burpee/Tire Jumps

Kyle 14:33 (Row 300, black band)
Lance 14:36
Colin 14:40
Eugene 14:05
Sheri 18:46

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Monday January 26, 2009



After Half and Half was Partner Rage Box which is Rage Ball with a toss to your partner on the other side of a jump box instead of a ball slam followed by a jump onto the box.

Partner Rage Box

2:49 Jennifer and Lance
2;21 Scott and Bob
1:39 Brandon and Stuart

Half and Half

Hang Squat Clean (95)
Push Jerk (95)
21-15-9

Scott 4:09
Lance 9:56
Jennifer 8:24
Bob 11:52
Stuart 6:19

Aches and Pains

Run 400
50 Lunges
50 Situps
50 Air Squats
50 KB Swings (36)

4 Rounds with the reps decending by 10 each time.

Brenda 33:48

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunday January 25, 2009



Here is the video from yesterday of Amory, a UPS rower, pulling for 50 calories at 1,600 calories per hour. He looks like he is doing a leisurely pull, much as I would if pulling say 700 or 800 calories per hour. Were I to pull 1,600 per hour, in fact if I could pull that much, I would look like I was being flooged with angry cats. Maybe the secret is bare feet.

Busy day today. Paul and Jeff came and worked on their Olympic lifts while several other workouts were being done.

Half and Half

Hang Squat Clean (95)
Push Jerk (95)
21-15-9

Will 4:24
Brandon 45:50
Andy 6:59
Dione 7:11 (45)
Sheri 7:13 (45)
Sonya 7:32 (45)
Colin 9:19

Yvette
Row 500
DB Thrusters (2 x 25)
Ball Slams (30)

Lance 12:00
Jennifer 15:50
Kyle 17:02

Partner Rage Box (30)

Ball Slam
Burpee to ball
Squat clean Thruster/throw ball to partner
Jump onto box

When you come down off the box you wait for your partner to throw the ball to you then you catch, press and slam the ball and take your turn. Do 10 rounds for time

Dione/Sonya 2:52

While I was giving Sonya the chalk talk about CrossFit Will was helping Andy with his muscle up. Andy is very strong and can climb the ropes with one hand on each rope. His pull on the rings was plenty high and it was evident he had plenty of strength for the movement. Problem was he was kipping out of synch with is pull and not quite in the right direction. Will did a great job of coaching him and also demonstrated the movement beautifully. Here are the pointers I gave Andy that seemed to help him along. Belly button to the ceiling in front, elbows to the ceiling in back, head through the window and headbutt the wall in front. It is difficult to pull your hands down and around so that you get your shoulders on top but if you think of driving your elbows back and up just opposite the way you drive your elbows forward and up when you clean the hands just naturally follow the right path. Andy kept at it and clearly was not going home until he got it and in just a few reps he joined the every growing muscle up club. Well done Andy.

New tonight was Sonya a friend of Dione's who did a great job as a walk in with Half and Half. She and Dione were the only ones to do Rage Box and she also did Ab Mat situps, GHD situps, floor wipers, VASA swim trainer ab pulls, the ab roller and some knee ups on the rings. Brandon's wife Sheri came to play again and demonstrated an impecable push jerk on her very first try. How many times have you ever seen that? I'm going to video her push jerk as the model...it's that good. The chicks are taking over the place.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Saturday January 24, 2009





Chum Bucket

Row
Hang Power Snatch
Wall Ball
Ball Slams

21-15-9

Brenda 15:32 (40, 12, 30)

Fractured Runny Angie

Run 400
25 Pullups
25 Pushups
25 Situps
25 Squats
4 Rounds for Time

Sheri 34:40 This was Sheri's second workout and she did jumping pullups for this one and got a pretty good time with no sign of Pukie. Colin did Elevator's Broken in 24:03 and the largest group did the 500:

Ryan 23:49
Jeff 24:25
Amory 24:46
Andy 28:08
Paul 30:00

Ryan and Amory are rowing buds of Paul's and when Ryan was doing his 50 calories he was pulling 1,600 calories per hour which would render me unconscious pretty quickly. He looked like he could pull at that rate all night. As time goes on I am finding more and more people who will be climbing past me on the results board pretty quickly. Colin for example wanted to learn the snatch. So I take him through a basic progression for the lift and before the evening is out he snatches better than me. That is just not right.

Friday January 23, 2009

Elevator's Broken

Power Snatch 10, 9, 8...1
Ball Slams 1, 2, 3...10
Weighted Pullups 10, 9, 8...1
Ring Dips 1, 2, 3...10

Brandon 16:35
Bob 16:34

Double Play

Sheri is Brandon's wife and she gave Baseline a try originally going for 3 rounds of it but when a Pukie visit loomed large she decided to call it at 2 rounds. Her first workout and she did very well. Colin did some back squats and bench work getting up to 265 with his squats. Pretty much everybody in the gym is stronger than me now.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Thursday January 22, 2009





Rings are expensive and it's nice to have a lot of them. The first part makes the second part hard to accomodate. I got some plumbing conduit, 45 degree angle pieces and tow rope to make my own. I went through a variety of knots, fixed length ropes and various other changes and I think I've come up with the perfect solution. I'll post the final product soon.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tuesday January 20, 2009

Strength day

In the morning I tackled the Deadlift 10 x 2 and OHS 5 x 5 workout but didn't finsh the OHS because it was time to go swim. I got up to 285 on the DL and Bob was just a bit under that. Lance is having back issues so he stayed with 185 and added box jumps and air squats. Both Bob and Lance did the OHS with a 30 lb bar.

In the afternoon Brenda did 75 OHS's with 40 lbs in 6:57. No way I could do that one. I just can't get that OHS. Pat did Fat Bar Deadlifts with some stupidly heavy amount of weight and then jumped up on the two big tires stacked up on a layer of car tires at 44 inches high. Big jump. Erin showed up and did some KB swings, pullups, thrusters and pushups...she's really staring to show. Collin came for his second day and learned to squat snatch and was able to do 75 lbs pretty comfortably. He also got the squat clean and push press down pretty well too. Then he did:

Air Burst

10 RDL
10 Hang Power Clean
10 Push Press
10 Front Squat
10 Pullups
Run 400
3 Rounds for time

...in 21:31. Not a bad start. After he came in from the first run he said, as so many do, "Man, it's like I've never been working out." CrossFit workouts tend to bring that notion out of people. Tomorrow we do the 500.

Monday January 19, 2009





I read a story about a gal that was an amazing climber, in fact one of the best in the country. She went to climb in Europe or someplace where there are lots of really good climbers and stayed in a dorm or hostel or whatever with some other world class women. In her words she lamented the fact that back home she prided herself as one of the best climbers in the country and now she wasn't even the best climber in her room. Now while I'm not the best climber in any but the most octagenarian laden gatherings there was a time where in my gym I was the top dog, the head cheese the main man. Now, unless I'm alone, I am no longer at the top of the board...in my own gym.

This CrossFit thing is creating monsters and I can't keep up.

Sunday January 18, 2009

Unholy Aliance

Grant 25:12

Holy cow...I thought Pat and Scott were fast when they broke 30 minutes but leave it to Grant to set an entirely new standard. What a monster that guy is. Will worked on his King Kong and I took Dione through a grinder of movements from 3 lb hammer hits in each hand and heavy bag hits to a variety of ab movements to Dynamax ball throws to Road Rage.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Saturday January 17, 2009



Here's Andy doing one rep of Road Rage which is Rage Ball with a burpee, a tire jump, a tire flip and a hop through to the other side where a second ball awaits for you to do it again. It was 5 rounds in this workout but the regular Road Rage challenge is 10 rounds as fast as you can. Gets pretty tough after #6.

Jacob's Ladder Mod 1
Will 38:46
Andy 58:19

Row 500
Run 400
5 Rounds for Time
Brenda 23:15
Dione 25:30

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Thursday January 15, 2008





Jacob's Ladder Mod 1

Bob 45:08
John 51:42

While Bob and John did Jacob's Ladder Ashleigh and I did Blurred Vision. Lance and Phil did BV during the morning class.

Blurred Vision

Row (Calories)
Pullups
Hang Power Snatch (75)
Wall Ball (20)
Ring Pushups
Push Press (85)
Rounds of 15-12-8

Phil 11:11
Eugene 14:58
Lance 16:49
Ashleigh 19:02

John is a captain and an Army Aviator and will be taking off for some training at Ft. Campbell and will be tearing it up at at a CF facility out that way soon. I hope Campbell has something for him as he will be very busy with his school.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wednesday January 14, 2008

Jacob’s Ladder Mod 1


25 Wall Ball (20 lb ball)
20 Pullups
15 Push Press (95)
10 Flip and Dip
5 Road Rage

25 Row (Calories)
20 DB Thrusters (35)
15 Clean and Jerk (105)
10 Ring Dips
5 Pushup/Pullup/Rollup

25 Ball Slams
20 KB Snatches (44)
15 DL-Box Jumps (190)
10 Double KB C&J (44)
5 Bear Complex (95)

25 Cleans (115)
20 Hammer Hits
15 GHD Situps
10 Pullups
5 HSPU

25 Swings (52)
20 Ring Pushups
15 Barbell Snatches (75)
10 Ring Dips
5 Colleen and Jerk with Burpee (35)

Phil 33:09
Grant 36:34
Eugene 38:09
Pat 40:45
Brandon 41:25

Coupled with yesterday's Unholy Aliance, today's Epic workout, Jacob's Ladder (Mod 1), was truly a mind bender. Still, this is supposed to be 45 minutes or longer and all 5 of us that did it today were under the Epic length. Most of my workouts have some sort of rhyming scheme, a meter that is pretty obvious in the rep counts that I choose. That 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 rep decent helps you keep track of where you are and gives you a little break from the previous round...though after the last 5 you have to start over again. Tough day.

Tuesday January 13, 2009

Unholy Aliance

Back Squat (135)
Kettlebell Snatch (52) 5 left 5 right
Box Jump/Ring Pushups

Row (Calories)
Barbell Push Press (95)
Box Jump/Ring Pushups

DB Thruster (35)
Barbell Hang Power Clean (95)
Box Jump/Ring Pushups

Wall Ball (20)
Pullups
Box Jump/Ring Pushups

Deadlift (190)
Kettlebell Clean and Jerk (2 x 44)
Box Jump/Ring Pushups

Rounds of 10-8-6 for Time

Will 32:32
Lance 41:47
Phil 30:23
Eugene 30:25
Brandon 31:41
Brenda 40:52 (Ran a mile after)
Bob 41:31
Derek 45:42

Monday January 12, 2009

Renaissance

Bob 19:32
Jennifer 23:24

Air Sick Bag

Lance 14:56
Sarah 19:08
Kyle 19:55

Grace

Brenda 5:20(60)
Pat 2:31
Brendan 2:52
Phil 1:57
Jared 4:15
Derek 4:55 (105)

Let's Just Be Friends

Hammer Hits
Push Press (75)
Ball Slams (30)
Burpees
21-15-9

Brandon 7:31
Phil 7:35
Jared 10:01

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Someday I'll have a squat this good



Every time I turn around in the gym I find Sammie up a rope, hopping over or crawling under paralletes, doing pullups or box jumps or in one way or another doing the things she sees others do in the gym...or making something up on her own. She had such depth in her back squat here I couldn't help but preserve it as a marker of her 6 year old skill. It seems that much of what we are teaching people to do is in the correcting of poor movement patterns and the return to skills already known.

So when am I done?

Now there are many ways to deal with that question as it relates to things CrossFit but I am speaking specifically about Air Squats and what the top is. Stand up. Now let your hips slop back a bit so that the are "out of battery" if you will. Stand in such a way that your butt is a bit behind your heels. Now, try to clench your butt cheeks. You will find that you can't. Try as you might if your butt is back behind your heels at all you can't pinch that quarter. When you properly finish your squat by explosively opening your hips and get your hips properly under your shoulders, you will be able to break a pencil in you butt crack. Not that I suggest such things and certainly not sideways but the point is that you know your squat is done when you can clench your butt cheeks. I have found that this is a really good cue for people to use to mark the top of the squat. That's when you're done.

Sunday January 11, 2008

Dione came to play again today and I found out she has lost 100 lbs. One Huuuundred pounds. That's like another whole person. Amazing. She got down with Renaissance and finished in 29:51 using a 25 lb ball, 15 lb dumbbells and a 40 lb barbell. Great work.

While she did that Will, Jeff and John did Clean and Jerks for 8 sets of 3 and then fat bar deadlifts for 8 sets of 3 with each set followed by a 4 foot tall tire jump. Will got up to 315 with the dead lift and 235 for Jeff and John. In the C & J Jeff got to 175, John 135 and Will 195. Great lifts all.

Saturday January 10, 2009

Up the Down Staircase

5 Floor SPUDS
10 Burger Flips
20 Double Unders
30 Ring Pushups
40 Air Squats
50 Jumping Pullups
40 Flutter Kicks
30 Situps
20 Lunges
10 Under Overs
5 Squat – Tire Hops

Brandon 20:58
Eugene 22:57
Bob 24:47
John 25:06
Ashleigh 25:30
Jared 37:47

While the above workout was going on Brenda hammered out a 10 miler on the CT and then did some bench and pushup work while Phil and Will tore up Renaissance. Will did 17:36 and Phil edged him in 17:26 and both of them beat Grant. Now that's saying something. We have to have those three monsters go at it head to head and watch the fur fly.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Friday January 9, 2009

Nobody showed up this morning to train so I climbed on a CT and rode for 10 miles. I had to get out early to pick up the kids for lunch anyway so that worked out.

In the afternoon we had some more people who attacked:

Renaissance

Grant 19:38
Lance 25:55
John 23:223 2 rounds
Jared 26:21 2 rounds
Pat 21:38

Now I'm confused. Lance did Barbara somewhere along the line too. Well, whenever he did it he scored:

3:56, 4:35, 5:06, 5:31, 5:14 which totals 24:22. Pretty consistent performance.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Thursday January 8, 2009





In the morning Emily did Renaissance while I did a short CT ride and then in the afternoon Brandon and I did Air Burst while Lance and Grant did Renaissance. As is generally the case Grant ate all our lunches and knocked out the best Renaissance time of a blistering 19:38 again turning in a medium time for a long workout. want to be Grant when I grow up. Derek showed up as we finished and did Air Burst and then later in the evening John and Jared showed up and did Renaissance. Both are Army Aviators and though John has been CrossFitting Jared has not so just two rounds of Renaissance seemed to be plenty.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Wednesday January 7, 2009






Renaissance. I love writing or typing that because I know how to spell it. One of those spelling bee words it's nice to have in your head. Great workout too. If you want a really tough metcon hit, give this one a try. It's a long but when Grant gives it a go he will be the first of us under 20 minutes which will push it down into the Medium category...for him. Muttonchops Jeff just did a cert at Rainier CF along with Will which makes them my first two certified folks...well done guys.

Tuesday January 6, 2009

Deadlift 7 x 3
Bench Press 10, 8, 6, 4, 2

Brandon did this in the morning and then in the afternoon Pat and Stuart teamed up for the same workout. Pat did Baseline Gone Bad on his own this morning and Derek came in after Pat and Stuart were done and did BGB as well:

Pat 4:30 + 5:06 + 5:40 = 15:16
Derek 5:52 + 7:52 + 9:09 = 22:53

Brenda and I did a hard CT ride and since it had hills in it she wiped the course with my non-hill climbing self and beat me by about 5 minutes. Then in the afternoon we swam and cramps consumed my, my left leg anyway. We did a 500 pull with a buoy and then 10 under overs which is to saw we swam with Zoomers underwater to the far side and then returned on the surface as one rep and sent on the 1:30 for 10 total rounds. Then we drilled for 500 more with a 50 yard swim counting strokes, 400 yards of drills and then a final 50 counting strokes. On the last 100 of drills I took my fins off because my left calf was starting to cramp. On the last 50 the cramp was so bad I had to stop pointing my toe, then I had to stop kicking and then I had to stop swimming. My foot locked on pointe and even standing on the ball of my foot I couldn't drop my heel. It took me a good 15 seconds of effort to flex my foot and I had to swim back with my foot fully flexed so as not to attract the cramp monster. Thus endeth the swim workout. So much for Bike/Swim workouts.

Monday, January 05, 2009

Monday January 5, 2009

Baseline Gone Bad

Row 500
40 Air Squats
30 Situps
20 Pushups
10 Pullups

3 Rounds for Time

Grant 3:53 + 4:04 + 4:09 = 12:07
Eugene 4:33 + 5:00 + 5:53 = 15:26
Brandon 4:45 + 6:07 + 5:32 = 16:24
Phil 4:30 + 5:40 + 6:27 = 16:37
Lance 5:19 + 5:19 + 6:07 = 16:45
Stuart 4:49 + 6:42 + 6:50 = 17:41
Kyle 5:46 + 7:50 + 5;53 = 18:39
Sarah 5:44 + 6:55 + 7:30 = 20:09
Jen M. 6:19 + 9:18 + 7:29 = 23:06

Quite a few people with only 2 rowing machines so the rule was that you had to do at least one of each and if the rower was busy you could run. Like FGB we rested for 1 minute between each set and that was one fast minute. As expected Grant did his superhuman best and tore us up.

Sunday January 4, 2009

Cloak of Despair

Row 1000
25 Push Press (75)
25 Pullups
25 Ring Pushups
4 Rounds for Time

Lance 42:43
Pat 40:04

Saturday January 3, 2009




Here's the hot new CT set up. I have the Computrainer 3D software installed that lets riders race each other on screen, some rear race videos where your performance is shown on an actual race course on race day and another virtual program called Fitcentric where your performance is reflected on a virtual course against other actual racers or made up ones. While I did a ride Phil did a Nordic 300 which was very heavy, very hard and took 40 minutes. That boy can move some weight.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Friday January 2, 2009


Here's a shot of Brenda's bike on the CT platform. The carpet piece makes for improved traction when mounting and dismounting the bike and also serves to keep the cleats from tearing up the platform. I still have some wiring to take care of and spent time today setting up the second CT that UPS brought by this afternoon. I have a too short of a cadence wire to have resolved but have most of what I need to get us up and riding. With this set up the CT's will go to a computer and the monitor will display our riding performance so we can race each other and not have to deal with traffic, weather, dogs or flat tires. If you like to ride, more to the point, if you like to train for riding a bike and you live in a place (like Washington) where half the year is rather damp (maybe more than half) a Computrainer is really the way to go. Coincidentally they are made in Seattle.

Fight Gone Bad

Stuart 323
James 307
Kyle 252 15 lb SDLHP and PP, 6 lb WB
Lance 244

Five and Dime

5 BB Clean and Jerk (115)
10 Pullups
5 Box Jumps
10 KB Swings (52)
5 Ring Dips

5 Rounds for Time

Brendan 10:47
Derek 19:50

While that was going on Brenda did a 400, 800, 1200 and 1600 meter run with a deadlift and box jump combo in between with reps decending as her run distances went up. She had a 2,000 yard swim workout in the early afternoon on top of that.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Thursday January 1, 2009




Fight Gone Bad

Erin 189 (6 lb wall ball, 35 lb PP)

Erin is 5 months along and is still motoring along very well. I'm avoiding having her do anything that makes her grunt with effort and box jumps are out...she did box steps for FGB.

Here's a couple shots of Ben from Turkey doing a handstand in front of a Crusade castle in Payan, Turkey and the other showing off his medicine ball that he made out of mutton, road flares, a sheeps bladder and C4. OK, maybe my ingredients are off a bit. He actually made it out of gravel, plastick bags, duct tape and bubble wrap.

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Fight Gone Bad

Phil 284

Phil came out of the chute like gangbusters with a first round around 117 as I recall and was on his way to a killer score. Sadly, the crushing reality of FGB took hold and the second two rounds were a bit less robust. In the afternoon:

Fight Gone Bad

Eugene 317
Brenda 249 (12 lb wall ball, 45 lb PP and SDLHP)
Derek 197

Ivan the Terrible

Lance 20:04
Jennifer 32:39
Kyle 31:58