Thursday 081023
"The Fluffy Cloud Dance" (a.k.a. "The Super Renegade Pistol Party")
As Many Rounds as You Can in 20 minutes of:
Squat
Pistol Right Leg
Squat
Pistol Left Leg
Pushup
Renegade Row Right Arm
Pushup
Renegade Row Left Arm
7 Superman Back Extensions
The pushups and renegade rows are done with the hands on kettlebells. Men should use 24kg and women 16kg. Smaller KBs are less stable, so if you can't row 16kg, then do the pushups with hands on the floor and pick up the KB each time you row. Squats and pistols can be done with or without holding one of the kettlebells. The supermans are done with the belly on the floor and the arms reaching forward alongside the ears and the legs and feet are squeezed together and do not come apart. Lift the entire chest and the legs off the floor.
Post total rounds and partial rounds completed to comments.
Compare to 070912.
Finally, the video you've all been waiting for: Juan vs. Keith in the Battle of the Burpees. Let's all thank Dan R. for filming and editing this video for us with a super-fast turnaround. Thanks, Dan!
Keith vs Juan - Battle of the Burpees from CrossFit NYC on Vimeo.
The case against CrossFit (via)
Is the way you dance written in your DNA?
Stuffing our faces
Roundup of NYC food classes and events, 10/23-10/31
CrossFit Heavy
The pursuit of un-success
Health engagement
aw the fluffy cloud dance. that brings back such warm memories. that was quite a thread as i recall.
If you've never done a pistol or renegade row before and worry about attempting this workout, please remember that there are always ways to scale and/or modify every movement we do to bring it into the realm of the possible.
Your instructor will gladly explain and demo several of them to make sure you have a way to complete this WOD.
If it's a move you've never done before or are not that skilled at, this is the perfect opportunity to start practicing that skill. If today is a rest day for you, consider coming in and doing this WOD at a leisurely "skill" pace rather than a frenetic "WOD" pace.
Also, props to whomever can first correctly identify the pop-culture reference within the title of today's post (without using internet searching to figure it out--you're on scout's honor). Post guesses to comments.
"Case Against Crossfit"'s author removes any credibility and demonstrates his complete and utter lack of knowledge of our system in the following short excerpt:
"2. Focus on a Single Training Protocol. In regards to the concept of specificity, the protocols in CrossFit are not appropriate for developing the highest levels of strength or power or speed. It is doubtful that you will see any elite powerlifters, weightlifters or sprinters using CrossFit protocols as their primary method of conditioning."
Speaking of habitual CrossFitters and elite lifting...
Instead of taking a rest day like I should have after a brutal AM physical therapy session yesterday, I decided to pull some heavy deads at Potomac CrossFit.
warm up
10x 365 (thanks to Chef at Potomac CF for showing me a new breathing technique)
10 MUs
2x 430
1x 465
475 (f)
JO, Lt. Gabe,
Could you elaborate on your posts? I'm not exactly sure what either of you mean.
Thanks
Check out Jason "Rhabdo" do a 2:08 Fran! It's awesome!!!
http://vimeo.com/2037724
Ewen,
The author of the article posted launched another barrage of unfounded criticisms of Crossfit.
I was simply removing any credibility he had by demonstrating his complete lack of understanding in our system. His comments have no educated support base, since he clearly doesn't get what Crossfit is.
Ever since day one Coach has described how training everything together will prevent you from excelling in any one area. But that's the point of Crossfit: to be 80% at everything, as opposed to higher (100% for the sake of argument) at one thing.
Huge deads Gabe. Nice!
No fluffy clouds this morning for the Posse...
Nick and I pushed our way through the Crossfit Total
while our guest Crossfitter, Feng absolutely destroyed the Filthy Fifty and then proceeded to decimate that nasty WOD of fifteen rounds - 7 Med Ball Cleans and 7 push ups! She was a machine! Nice work Feng! I hear she is coming in again to dance in the Fluffy Clouds at the noon WOD...
CFT: 785
LBS 295
Press 155
DL 335
and of course...16 Pull-Ups
Always more things to work on...
GREAT coaching session with Jacinto - really worked on my DL form. Way cooler was the Press: I failed on my first attempt at 155 and effectively worked my way back up from 150 to 155 in 2 and 1 pound increments. It was CRAZY - and it worked...
Thanks for the fantastic support Jacinto!
Ewen, in my experience, CrossFit is the single most effective overall approach to fitness. Poliquin will never acquiesce to this, and thats fine because everyone is entitled to their own opinions. What irks me about his article is his wholesale purchase of all that is misunderstood or decried about CrossFit. Hes basically saying that his system is superior to CrossFit without offering any empirical proof. Specifically this passage:
"The promotional materials I've read about CrossFit imply that this type of training addresses all the strength and conditioning needs of an athlete, but the concept of specificity suggests that if you try to excel at everything it is unlikely that you will reach the highest levels at anything. This is why we don't see individuals who can run a mile in four minutes flat and also bench press 500 pounds."
Having never bench pressed 500lbs or run a 4 minute mile I can't speak specifically to what Poliquin is arguing here. But I'm willing to bet that there are CrossFitters out there who can indeed bench 500lbs and run a sub 4 minute mile (Josh Everrett you out there?).
The major flaw in Poliquin's article is that he fails to recognize that because CrossFit trains the complete athlete, not just the power clean or snatch or VO2 max, its not for everyone. Hey if you're a sprinter or a cyclist or an Olympic lifter do sport specific training. If you prefer to be fit across the board, and be more combat effective (so to speak), I would suggest CrossFit programming. If you improve across the boards, you will see your overall performance in everything you do improve. Crossfitters may not have the heaviest bench presses on the block, but they are functionally fit for the most part and thats more important to me. Additionally, unless you're in the top 1% of elite sport-specific athletes, Poliquin's theories are largely useless to you.
Finally, my last major beef with Poliquin is that he impugns the quality of the coaching. This is something that I have never experienced in my time in the CrossFit universe. I've seen some excellent coaching from trainers with level 1 certs, and thats the rule not the exception.
Halloween at the Brooklyn Box!
Friday, October 31st, 9pm til late
Black Box Brooklyn
817 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Please come bearing gifts -- we will have some starter fluid, but will be relying on you to keep things going (and heaven forbid the party run dry!)
Everyone's welcome -- Halloween falls on a rest day Friday, so this will replace the usual rest day dinner. Please feel free to bring friends, relatives, that girl you met at the bar last night.
Help Out
We're still looking for the following items -- if you own any of these and could lend them for the evening we would be immensely grateful!!
Speakers
Disco Ball
Interesting lighting (black lights / strobe lights / colored lights)
Fog Machine
Skeletons / fake cobwebs / rubber rats / any other halloween decorations you might have lying around
JO,
That's what I thought you meant, and I agree. The whole "specificity" argument is a strawman since CrossFit's appeal is precisely that it is anything but specific.
Gabe,
While I completely agree with what you say in your second post, what threw me off in your first post was "Speaking of habitual CrossFitters and elite lifting...".
Although you have a better DL than me and I'm pretty sure you're a better athlete than I am in most if not all aspects of fitness, with all due respect, the weights you posted today aren't elite level (maybe your actual 1RM DL is 500+lbs, I don't know).
Since your post immediately followed JO's, it got me confused and had me wondering if JO was claiming that CF "[is] appropriate for developing the highest levels of strength or power or speed" and that "elite powerlifters, weightlifters or sprinters [use] CrossFit protocols as their primary method of conditioning".
Anyway, I agree with both of you that Poliquin's arguments are fundamentally flawed.
Talking about that article, I just think it was a little over the top to compare a regular crossfitter to a professional athlete in terms of the strength gains that he made. Obviously a football players entire job during the off season is to train where as the people who do crossfit don't have that sort of luxury.
And Kurt again I want to apologize on having to bail out early on the Crossfit total yesterday but I will be working from home tomorrow so I won't have to rush to get to work.
Ewen,
I was referring to the fact that there are indeed CrossFitters with elite lifts out there. I aimed my comment at Poliquin's claim that CrossFit can't produce highly skilled athletes capable of both feats of strength and speed/endurance. My intention was to illustrate Poliquin's lack of understanding of just what and who, CrossFit is.
If my excitement to be pulling heavy deads after knee surgery made me erroneously think that I was elite (my mom thinks so), please accept my apologies for offending your sense of quantitative measures.
Crossfitters can't get to the absolute "elite" level for power-lifting (in terms of competitions), but they can get pretty close:
Anthony Bainbridge Profile...[wmv][mov]
Height: 5'7
Weight: 170
Age: 29
CrossFit Fredericton
Squat: 405
Press: 205
Deadlift: 565
Fully agree with the many points about this article.
Considering the amount of literature available from the CF Main Site and in particular from the CF Journal(I know, I've been reading it like a maniac lately), I would like to see one of these "experts" actually make a strong, properly researched case. Yet, it seems no one is doing/ has done that.
Also, on that same line, I find that most CF athletes - not even talking about coaches - are regularly (and possibly obsessively) researching everything they can about Crossfit - not just the stuff I mention from the site, but everything they can find. They are buying Starting Strength, they are reading about the Zone, they are researching whatever they can to be better. Now, the coaches are doing that too... This goes far beyond a two-day cert - it is a constant learning process. Show me how a written exam can make you a coach better than that... Sure, there are probably some sub-standard coaches out there somewhere, but not many...and the nature of the Crossfit community weeds them out.
JO, you're hurting me, Man! I was pleased as punch with my CF Total and then you post about Anthony Bainbridge! That is some serious lifting!
Hey Gabe
Nice job with the heavy deadlifts. Any sqauts yet or is the knee not ready?
Brian and Brett: Thanks guys. I've been hitting the DLs really hard lately. I've DL'd 10 out of the past 15 days because its been all I could do for my rehab. Yesterday I was finally able to squat again and was planning on doing a metcon for my evening workout, but it just didn't work out that way. This is what I did in addition to plyos and stability exercises at physical therapy in the morning.
45x 135# OHS yesterday morning
45x bosu ball squats
45x 225# DLs
75x GHD reverse hypers
75x GHD situps
Lt. Gabe-
u will always be elite to me!
am ready for my noose and muscle up lessons next week.
Fluffy cloud- 18 rounds, 16kg bells, pistols assisted by a band, GHD, 45 # plate and some kettlebells. I felt kinda silly with this contraption after watching Martin and Feng (Fung?) go head to head with no assitance what so ever.
Good job lunch class and thanks for giving me even more motivation as I put out yet another DFL.
I got 30 rounds of fluffy cloud dancing with 30lb dumbbells. Feng, however, destroyed me! After being Jacinto-ed this morning, she came back for the lunchtime class and got something like 43 rounds. With 16kg bells. It was both a humbling and an inspiring experience =)
played around going overhead at 205lbs. push jerks, split jerks, from front rack and from behind the neck. Felt flat and sluggish today, being barefoot was a little iffy at these loads overhead on the rubber mats.
BW 160
Did some snatch skill work 3x3 at 95#.
Then did the Fluffy cloud Dance
29 rounds with 2pood(70#) kb's
I'm beat see you guys on Saturday
22 rounds with 30lb dumbells and subbing box pistols.
10x3 Front Squats 245 lbs.-These are a Coach Burg creation and they feel like death... Hit a pr on the strict press tonight at 190 lbs. Now hope that I can find a comfy position in bed.