I was thinking about the CrossFit Total a bit (even though I know we have Mr. Joshua today), and decided to graph it out, just to see the progress.

So here it is:

I stumbled across this tonight when I was doing some reading.  It’s a pretty long video, but it gives a view into how the Olympic Weightlifters train.

I found it really interesting to watch some of their exercises – the deadlift that continues on to the start of the high pull; the completion of the deadlift off of raised boxes into the full shrug component of the high pull, and practicing the jerk (including the drop onto raised boxes).  I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the height of some of those box jumps is really impressive.

It’s always interesting to see any given movement broken down to its component parts.  Just like we train the varied components of the Olypic Lifts in CrossFit, the actual Olympic Weightlifters master their timing and technique by breaking the movements down and practicing the component parts.  I’m considering incorporating some of their practice techniques into my workouts to help improve my performance in these lifts.

A few pictures from 20090104.

A couple good ones of the kids getting their workouts in, as well as one of Cindy’s textbook overhead squat.

We re-did the pullup bar this weekend, changing the entire way the bar is braced, moving the bar’s layout 16 inches further from the back wall, and adding lateral stability by chaining the bar into the trilaminate beam.  Even with Cindy and me doing big swing kipping pullups on the bar at the same time, it doesn’t move at all.  Nice to have that fixed, finally.

Image via Wikipedia

I was just reading The Legendary Jon Gilson‘s latest post, which is essentially a transcript of a phone conversation Jon had with Greg Everett.

It’s lengthy, but I gotta say, I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with an assessment of Yoga more than I do with this one:

Yoga around here, that’s a bad word.  That’s the Y-word, and reason being is it’s flexibility for the sake of flexibility.   If that person is going just for stretching and yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, it can get you some strength and stuff like that.  But I say oh, come on, and I hate to be a dick about it and I know I’m  such a cynical asshole when it comes to Yoga and I piss a lot of people off saying this stuff, but, if you want to be flexible for your sport, train for flexibility for your sport.

Yoga is its own little spin.  It’s its own sport.  If you go to a Yoga class, your Yoga instructor doesn’t give a fuck what you do when you walk out the door.  All they want you to do is to pigeon pose and this weird, fucking, you know elbow-handstand and this other thing over here.  And you know what?  If that’s your thing, that’s great.  I’ll support you.  I won’t go to the class with you but I’ll pat you on the back and say, “Hey, did you have a good time?” when you walk out the door.

But, if you’re one of my athletes or someone who is asking me about flexibility I’m going to tell you “No, don’t do Yoga.  If you want to fuck your knees up and not make any real progress where it counts, then yeah, by all means, go ahead.  You know, if you want to go to Bikram and be like fucking go sweat with bunch of hippies in a big Petri dish, then be my guest.”

Greg Everett: you sir, are a genius in your comments on Yoga.

Had to throw this one up here.

The Legendary Jon Gilson defending CrossFit on a radio show in Boston, podcast version.

The interviewer is a bit of a condescending douche, but Jon does a nice job.

Russ, special celebrity guest Mark Messina and I made the trek to Maine today for our CrossFit Level I Cert.

Let me tell you, Maine is far away. Like, four bathroom breaks while you’re holding it so hard that your kidneys start to hurt far.

We made it safely up to scenic (and for once I’m using this term without any sarcasm / hyperbole) Waterville, Maine, after about six hours and several coffees. Russ, being the man with the salesman’s charm, asked Sue, the friendly redheaded desk clerk who was inexplicably wearing a tiara and pushing the free chocolate chip cookies on us, “What would you recommend for dinner?”

Sue was quick to recommend The Lobster Trap, and was even so kind as to highlight the map with directions to the place (3.1 miles away from our hotel) using a blue highlighter.

Off we went to The Lobster Shack, where we were greeted by a highly inebriated evil twin of Uncle Rick, who told us “WATCH OUT, FELLAS!” as we walked in. More on Evil Uncle Rick later…

We proceeded to polish off a couple of beers (and Russ had a pinot grigio), several pounds of lobster, and a 14 ounce delmonico ribeye, as well as some calamari, cole slaw, and marinaded carrots. Messina had cheesecake, because Lindsay, our waitress, told him it was made of meat.

Some pictures, with the raging river in the background:

After dinner, we retired to the bar, where Evil Uncle Rick and his cronies joined us. We watched in cautious awe as Evil Uncle Rick, his cohort “Eminem wannabe,” and the sad fellow that we’ll call “Meth Addict Joe” were denied service at the bar and asked to leave the premises. Fortunately there were no fireworks, and we were able to finish our drinks in relative peace while I text messaged Jon Gilson to inquire as to where the evening’s karaoke festivities would take place. Three hours later, no response. I can only assume that Jon is either mad, nervous, or perhaps both about my plans to use him instead of an Olympic bar with 95 pounds for tomorrow’s Fran.

Ah well, Russ and I are off to bed, sharing a room for the first time in nearly 25 years (excepting a few very drunk nights when I was in college).

Further bulletins as events warrant.

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Somewhere after doing the 120 burpees and 120 pullups, I decided that it would be a good idea to continue with the big push on the wall project.

Background: We’re in a heat wave here in Connecticut. Saturday and Sunday have been well north of 90 in both temperature and percent humidity. Put simply, it’s disgusting outside, although very lush in a weird rain-forest way. The great New England rain forest, I suppose.

So while drinking nearly 2 gallons of water in 3 hours, I cemented all of the remaining capstone on the wall, cemented all of the stairs, moved all of the remaining wall stone and capstone into the woods for long-term storage, moved the leftover driveway seal coating into the woods for long-term storage, raked up all the leaves that were under where the capstone and wallstone were, tossed out the 10 month old and disgustingly decomposed bale of hay that the landscrapers had left for me, started prepping the ground for the final walkways, and filled and leveled the area where the propane tank is going to be re-installed on Wednesday.

In all, I’m guessing it was somewhere in the realm of 2 tons of stone moved over uneven terrain, using only brute strength and a wheelbarrow. As I said to Cindy while she was lounging in the kiddie pool with Odin, “There is no way I could get this done like this had I not been CrossFitting.”

I managed to keep my urine to having only the slightest tinge of yellow in it by forcing myself to drink 500 ml of water either every 2 trips with the wheelbarrow or every 15 minutes. And if you want to talk about sweating, I’ll put it this way: when I came inside, it looked like I had spent half an hour pouring buckets of very dirty water over myself.

But hey, it was like a bonus WOD, and we’re damned close on finishing the walkway and ending the wall project.

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Rest Day

Abs – sore but not overwhelming me

Quads – filled with grapeshot

Feet – the arches and such feel like they’ve got an alien metal in them that shouldn’t be there

Ass – like I had each cheek pierced

Which is about right. It’s good to be sore again. Last week was solidly booked with prep for the Black & White Ball on Saturday and I couldn’t hit the WODs after Monday, so no sore anything for a few days. I’ve reached a point where a sore body feels better than a body with nothing going on in it. When it’s wobbly walking down stairs I know I’ve done a good thing.

Did some more work on the wall over the weekend. Got the rest of the wall backfilled with 0-3/4” stone and appropriately landscape tarped, got everything tamped down, laid and tamped the process, and to my surprise, I was able to screed and get some stones down yesterday.

I’m planning on doing some work on this during the week, and I’m hoping to be in process on the final wall by next weekend.

Pictures:

It was too nice (71 F and sunny) not to go play in the dirt yesterday, so I did a couple of hours worth of work on the wall before we took the kids out for ice cream.

Pictures: