From the CrossFit BrandX forums, some advice on how to approach today's workout:

Today everyone should try this WOD as Rx’d.

If you are unfamiliar with the lift try watching the videos below, spending some time working on your form and then try a little weight.

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/push-jerk.wmv

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/cfj-nov-05/push-jerk.mov

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/SPPPPJ155.wmv

LOL

175-195-205-215f-215

The fail on 215 was 100% mental. Neck was tweaking and I lost my nut. Got back on and got the sucker though... coulda gone heavier...

135 x 3 across the board...

Still trying to work on my form...

135, 145, 155, 155, 165x2

Allison,

You made my day. BTW, if anyone wants to come over to pLot Multi for a quick lesson in digital advertising...we have a great "All you can eat" plan for very cheap

We're the only ones...

I'd love to get feedback from members on usage of the whiteboard. Are your instructors making sure that times/scores get posted? Is there anything we can do to improve your whiteboard experience? Do tell...

I know this has been asked and answered before, but what is the recommended daily intake of fish oil?

The oil I'm taking is 825mg EPA / 550mg DHA but there seems to be a lot of different opinions on how many grams should be consumed a day.

Wow, an official recognition! Virtuosity is so honored. Y'all know Keith just can't help wanting to give EVERYONE a chance to train with the best ;)

Allison - Yes for the most part, we have put them on the board when I have worked out in Manhattan lately.

For improvements, possibly reserving a section of one of the boards for top 3 mens & womens times/weights/etc for benchmark WODs or acheivements (ie 2k row time, max TGU), and keeping those names there till they get knocked off.

In BK the other night Deverell (sorry if I mispelled) went for a 500m row time and set the new fastest time on the board there. I think it'd be cool to get that same thing going on in Manhattan.

115-125-135-145-155 (2 OK, 3rd F)

Mike,

What was his row time? I think Lambert and I might try to break it.

This is not an ad. :)
Sorry if my posts come across as ads. I helped start the crossfit movement in NYC (along with Josh and Court) and have always been trying to unify and grow the community. I want to let you guys know that we are doing fun things out in Williamsburg and hope you'll come out and join us for some wods and friendly competitions and BBQs.

IMHO The NYC community rules and should continue to grow and I'm just trying to help it along.

Sorry if I offended.

Gabe, I think it was 1:25.4

Hey Everyone,

I've been doing starting strength with some great results. I've begun to add one or two short metcons a week as a supplement (per Rip's approval). I've gained ten pounds in two weeks and seen my totals climb steadily.

Yesterday:
Squat-275# 3x5
Press-135# 3x5
Power Clean-205# 3x5

Then I cashed out with Fran and set a pr 3:00 even.

Pretty good day.

I agree with a portion of the whiteboard being used to track Top 3 M / W scores for various baseline ests (1 RM's, 500m Row, 2K Row, 400m Run, 5K, etc.) and benchmark wods.

Torch: Nice work - way to get back on and hit 215#. Heavier next time.

Brendan, you're my hero;)

145-155-165-175-185(2)

145-155-165-175-185(2)

Black Box (190,190)

I may be the only person who doesn't like permanent fixation of top times for certain workouts on the whiteboard. The reason for this is that from most things I've read, Crossfit is about cumulative fitness... when I read commentary about crossfit games qualifying the phrase "to weed out 'specialists'" was one that I thought I saw fairly often... and praising individual feats in certain areas, in my opinion, is all about specialization, and a step away from this concept of "cumulative fitness" and the whole lottery dropper approach to fitness that crossfit preaches.

It would be cool to keep the top X scores from the last WOD up though in a corner...

Or alternatively we could have a "torch" column with his scores up, and since someone does better than him on a WOD all of 3-4 times a year or so, we could use that as a pretty good benchmark as to what to shoot for. It's pretty much what I already do - if Torch doesn't beat me by a factor of 2x, I feel happy about myself. Plus, that would be much more "cumulative" than picking and choosing select exercises and keeping track of the best scores on them.

Also, for the record, my name is scribbled at the top of that whiteboard not because someone forgot to write it, but because I missed the WOD on the day that everyone did it and made it up the morning after while everyone else was busy running a 5k (and it's a lot easier for me to write something at the top of the whiteboard than at the bottom due to my height...).

The leader board is not for determining who is the most fit overall (the stated objective of the Games). The leader board is for declaring which members have the best (legitimate) time for various WOD's.

I'm a bag fan of having permanent a record board.

Aside from allowing visitors to quickly gauge the bad-assery level, or lack thereof, of any given Box, I think it's a good way to see who's performing highly across the many areas Crossfit wods cover. All the boards I've seen typically have a lot of "repeats" and by repeats I mean athletes who are crushing A LOT of wods. This includes 1RM lifts as well as the Girl wods. There is nothing about having a leader board that distracts from the goal of cumulative fitness. I would argue the exact opposite, that it proves that athletes can be firebretahers at a great many wods over a number of time domains, lifts, etc. See Torch for demonstration.

I like the idea of a leader board as well. It's an interesting way to gauge the most well rounded athletes at the Box and to see people getting better (as their names may replace some of those at the top).

Alexei, I have no idea where you comments come from. They don't really make sense and don't really touch on the nature of the whiteboard.

The whiteboard kind of gives everyone something to shoot for. More of a motivational tool.

Alexei -

Again, I'm a huge fan of leaderboards. I think it benefits everyone at the gym and everyone visiting the gym, as Brett mentioned.

For your argument about cumulative fitness - I don't think it makes any sense. That is exactly the point of the leaderboard. It puts on display the performances of our athletes across broad time and modal domains. Heavy vs. BW metcon. Chipper vs. short and explosive. (Think 1 RM DL vs. Angie, Cindy or Barbara; Filthy 50 vs. Fran, etc.) The idea is to be comprehensive in the list of baselines included on the board so as to give a glimpse of the 'cumulative' or 'specialized' fitness of the people on the board.

Ultimately, the leaderboard can serve as a great motivational tool for everyone in the gym, whether you're on it or not.

I'll try to explain what I mean a bit better.

Yes, the white board is a great motivational tool, it gets people, myself included, to try harder. Yes, a lot of people kick ass at several different aspects of crossfit. And seeing what the top 3-5 Fran scores of a gym are is a fairly quick way to gauge somewhat accurately the "badassness" level of a gym. I'm not debating any of this.

BUT

Lets say I have a 5 minute fran (I don't... but that's a different story!), and the board starts at 3 minutes. I'm going to see this, think I'm pretty close, and skip other WODs that I don't like (like, oh, 6 rounds for time of running and burpees) to train for Fran to try to get on that board("specializing" myself at Fran, if you will). Noble pursuit, yes. But I probably should be doing more prescribed workouts and less Fran... and in the end, while I'm getting better at Fran, I'm probably not getting better at everything else at nearly the speed that I could be, if at all.

I've heard of other crossfit gyms integrate into web apps such as http://beyondthewhiteboard.com/ to allow their members to gauge themselves compared to other members (and their own previous efforts) of their gym. Is that a possibility for CFNYC as well?

Alexei -

Isn't your thought what the blog does already?

Also, if you're going to skip certain WODs to get onto the whiteboard then you're probably doing it already anyway. The whiteboard & putting up the top times/weights is not going to make people change their training style.

Instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing you could also look at your own times, weights, ROM, etc. and try to improve in those areas against yourself.

Alexi,

"Lets say I have a 5 minute fran (I don't... but that's a different story!), and the board starts at 3 minutes. I'm going to see this, think I'm pretty close, and skip other WODs that I don't like (like, oh, 6 rounds for time of running and burpees) to train for Fran to try to get on that board("specializing" myself at Fran, if you will)."

We run Black Box based on the notion that our members aren't idiots. True, this may not be 100% accurate, but it's close enough.

I don't see how you could have a good fran time but suck at everything else.

"Lets say I have a 5 minute fran (I don't... but that's a different story!), and the board starts at 3 minutes. I'm going to see this, think I'm pretty close, and skip other WODs that I don't like (like, oh, 6 rounds for time of running and burpees) to train for Fran to try to get on that board("specializing" myself at Fran, if you will)."

Let's say someone were to do this. This would represent a major problem with the trainee's programming, not the whiteboard.

"I've heard of other crossfit gyms integrate into web apps such as http://beyondthewhiteboard.com/ to allow their members to gauge themselves compared to other members (and their own previous efforts) of their gym. Is that a possibility for CFNYC as well?"

The comments are pretty handy for tracking this type of info. The "compare to" link, allows you you to look at previous instances the workout has come up.

I'm going to shut up now before I dig myself a bigger grave...

No push jerks for me. I did, however, attempt a 4am "taper run" in preparation for Ragnar. At 4am, even my enthusiasm for running is a bit drained.

As for the whiteboard debate - I'm pretty much a fan of encouragement, recognition, and camaraderie of all kinds. Listing top scores would give me concrete things to use to make people blush, so I say go for it.

I am a big fan of beyondthewhiteboard.com and have been using it to track my progress for the past 6 months. For me it's has been a great motivational tool and well worth the $3 a month fee. I think it would be a good addition to the CrossfitNYC community. Plus, it's free for the gym to join.

CFE - Lactate Shuttle
5 min on - 2:30 rest - 6 min on - 3:00 rest - 7 min on - done
Max Effort:

0.9 mi - 1.1 mi - 1.2 mi. Felt them blisters from the half marathon.

135-155-175-185(2)-185...a little wobbly on the last one. Thanks for the pointers Dan.

I'm totally for the whiteboard stats! It promotes competition and pushes others to improve on area's they can't perform so well in and at the same time it keeps you on your heels if you have other people coming close to catch you.

95x3
135x3

185x3
205x3
215x3
225x3
235x2

185x3
195x3
205x2 - really ugly
205x3 - 1st was ok and got progressively worse from there
205x2 - 1st was good, 2nd was pretty bad

Need to work on not dipping the knees forward when it gets heavy and being more explosive. Also on getting weight moving straight up and not up and back.

(40,37)

140, 145, 150, 155, 160 (PR)
(68,54), (55, 42), (46, 36)

185, 205, 215, 225, 230(1)

Heavy

the leaderboard is a staple in most crossfit gyms. We have a lot of unusable wall space where this can go. IMHO the board actually honors peoples achievements and hard work, rather than trying to make you feel bad about your current level of suck. I guess its all in your perspective, and if looking at the numbers of your peers is a motivational tool for you, then by all means its a good thing. I agree though it should be broad and highlight most named workouts, major lifts, running, rowing, etc.. as to not highlight only Fran and a few other workouts which could put more emphasis on these workouts for newbs walking in the gym.

Oh yeah, forgot my time for yesterday's WOD...took me 25:21...soooo, slow

Sick time Deverell, do you bike race cat 3?

185, 185, 205x2, 185, 195 great coaching Dan

85-95-100-105-110(2)(PR)

115-125-135-140-115

Not very pretty most of the time. Lots of form work to do.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the lively whiteboard debate, it's much appreciated. My suggestion on how we most easily manage a leaderboard, logistics-wise, comes from Nicki Violetti of CF NorCal:

http://www.nickivioletti.com/?p=273

Yesterday
35# DBs, 1 Pood KB for PUs
18:34. Grip sucked on PUs...chalk would have been nice. Or reversing grip.

Push Jerks:
[95 X 5]
185
205
215
225
230(f)

98-105-115f-110-115f

Sara: we're working on these...

Torch: yes please... Amongst other things

you know where i live! next week!!!

Hey everyone, Dave Lipson here. I know alot of you but for those that don't, I'm a devote CrossFitter and coach in Manhattan. I need the help of the CrossFit community. I'm up for a position as fitness expert on the NBC network at I need the CrossFit nation to vote for me.
Here's the Facebook Group link with all the info: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=146039273160&ref=mf
Thanks guys