Posts from — January 2010

Thankyou to everyone who made the transition to the new spot. The move did not mean more convenience for most. I am stoked to see that you are committed to your health and well-being. Many of you have found the program to be an effective means of reaching your goals, things are only going to get better.

Thankyou also for being the laid back bunch you are. You’ve all shown your true colors, and they’re great. CrossFitters as a whole are not a fickle bunch. As CrossFit One Wallers, you’ve shown you embody the CF spirit. Again, things are only going to get better.

Here’s some picture from week 1.

Strong Dude

So many good things in life come from nothing but hard work and mental fortitude. An expanded comfort zone is one of these. The basic means of expanding your comfort zone are by stepping outside of your comfort zone. And yes, the further and more frequently you step out of it, directly correlates to how fast and wide it expands. It takes mental toughness, the likes of which you thought you didn’t have, but do. Whenever possible, do one more rep, sprint the last 40, or try a new thing. This will fast forward your progress.

“Get comfortable with uncomfortable”  -  OPT

Sometimes, when going heavy, people make jumps that are too large. Realize that when you get smoked trying to come out of the hole on rep 3 of a 3x Front Squat, the likelihood of your next turn being a successful 10lb or 20lb jump is minuscule. You’d be better off either sticking with the same weight (tinker with a slightly shorter rest interval) or putting some sprinkles on the bar.

Many times in Weightlifting meets, the winner is decided by as small an amount as a 1/4 kilo. If you’re familiar with your wall then you’ll know why, and you’ll likely know when to apply the sprinkles. If you’re not, go with the “F*&% that last rep was hard” rule of thumb.  Going for a big jump, when you know deep down you won’t get it, is robbing you of your return on investment. You’d be better off with a full max effort rep than a heavy halfy.

It’s so fitting that Mariah reached a major milestone – her first pull up! – while our old website was down and amidst the hustle and bustle of the move when we couldn’t make a big deal of it. You see, Mariah comes in three times a week and barely makes a peep, yet is quietly working her butt off and has major strength gains to show for it. Even though she never calls attention to herself, we see her. You want to see some pretty cleans? Great rowing form? Just watch her (but don’t let her know). Congratulations on your first pull up Mariah (it was actually two of them!) and props to you for all your hard effort.

CrossFit has it’s roots in the garage. Look at 99% of CrossFit boxes, they are nothing but big garages, it’s design echoes the simplistic, no BS structure of the program. For every CF box there’s liable to be quite a few more garage CrossFitters with nothing more than the bare essentials and a solid work ethic. They take pride in there stash and their anonymity.

I went back into the garage today for a workout. The garage is where I started crossfitting a few years ago; it’s where many crossfitters find the spark. I did “Mary”. I opened the door, turned up the music, pushed, pulled, blistered, ripped and PR’d. I hadn’t done a workout in the garage since I moved all of my equipment over to CF Seb and now CFSR. All that is left is a pull-up bar, 2 mats, a set of parallettes, and a chalk bucket. Plenty.

The old white board.

Handstand push-ups

Progress on the new spot.

Here’s some pics of what has been taking place at the new spot.