Is CrossFit Safe?

Today’s Workout:

AMRAP 20:
5 Bulgarian Split Squats (Per Leg) 53/35
5 Strict Pull-ups
40 Sit-ups

It is not news that CrossFit has been blowing up lately. If you search YouTube for Fran videos you can watch dozens of people flail though the ugliest partial range of motion thrusters and butterfly kipping pull-ups you have ever seen. Are some of them impressive? Of course. Would I recommend any of our athletes move like them? Only in a competition and only if they weren’t getting no repped by their judge. These videos, the fact that all you need is $1000 and a weekend to become a certified CrossFit instructor, and the massive variability in the quality of coaching and programming at affiliates create a lot of controversy over the safety of CrossFit. CrossFit blurs the lines of fitness program and competitive sport and I believe that it is a general misunderstanding of this fact that leads to a lot of the criticisms of CrossFit. There is inherent risk every time you move, but the rewards of fitness far outweigh the risk of injury. Fitness programs should be designed to promote overall health and reduce likelihood of injury. They should improve motor programming, strength, mobility, and cardiovascular ability. Sport tests these qualities with the added variable of opposition. It is important for every athlete to contemplate why they are training and approach their workouts with an appropriate mindset and margin of safety. Each of us must decide for ourselves how far to push the envelope. The truth is at our gym your safety is in your own hands as it is anywhere else in your life. The competitive atmosphere our community fosters in the gym is amazing at promoting intensity in our workouts, but can sometimes cause us to make stupid decisions like throwing too much weight on the bar or moving without a thought to technique. It is important to remember that the main competition for our purposes is not with others, but with our own previous performance. This is why we should seek to be as supportive as we are competitive. Know your strengths and your weaknesses and use your coaches help to make smart decisions to help you achieve your goals safely and efficiently.

Some pro and con articles…

Pro: Is CrossFit Safe? Paradigm Fitness

Con: CrossFit, Is it a safe program? Trifuel.com

A Little Inspiration To Get Your Week Started Right

Squat Deloading

5 Reps 40% WM
5 Reps 50% WM
5 Reps 60% WM

Working Max (WM)= 90% 1RM

Then
For Time:
30 Bodyweight Back Squats (no more than 60% WM)
Run 1 Mile

Mike D. has been killing it lately. His strength numbers are jumping up on what seems to be a exponential scale and he recently took his “Baseline” from 21:29 to 7:09. Mike used to be a football player and is starting to find his old strength after a little break from fitness. It is inspiring to see this kind of progress in such a short time.

E. Prowler

Today’s Workout:

Deadlift

5 Reps 75% WM
3 Reps 85% WM
1+ (max reps) 95% WM

Working Max (WM)= 90% 1RM

Then:
4 Max Effort Prowler Pushes 90/50lb

Everyone wants to play with the prowler until they play with the prowler.

Grunion Home Game Saturday

Today’s Workout:

AMRAP 20:

10 Turkish Get Ups 45/25
15 Burpees
15 DB Bent Over Row 45/25

Imagine how much it sucks to be the guy who has to tackle Mark Kelly…

If you like 2$ beer, violence, and short shorts then rugby is right up your alley. In fact if even 2 out of 3 of those peak your interest then you are in luck. This Saturday at 1PM our Santa Barbara Grunions take on the San Diego Old Aztecs in one of their more important matches of the season. The boys have been training here at CFG and earning their fitness (well the ones who show up at least). Come show them some support on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Elings Park and watch the funnest and stupidest sport in existence.

Progress

Today’s Workout:

Strict Press
5 Reps 75% WM
3 Reps 85% WM
1+ (max reps) 95% WM

Working Max (WM)= 90% 1RM

Then:

7 Rounds For Time
7 Ring Dips
7 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls 95/65

One key take away from yesterday’s discussion was that we need to start having more positive reenforcement in this gym too. I find it ironic that Larisa was one of the ones bringing it up because she is usually the first to tell me to go F myself when I try to be positive and this post will undoubtedly embarrass her. She was the first CFG female to do “Nancy” RX yesterday which is awesome because the OHS weight is more than 1/2 her bodyweight (for 75 reps). Larisa has been with us longer than most and kicks some serious ass.

Larisa’s Nancy Stats:

12/5/10 17:13 Dowell
9/19/11 18:58 53lbs
1/24/12 21:49 RX

If you are stoked on how you did yesterday please share to comments!

Tangible Evidence of Participation

Today’s Workout:

“Nancy”
5 Rounds For Time
Run 400m
15 Overhead Squat 95/65

There has been a lack of participation in a few key areas around our box and I want to take the time to bring them to light. Full participation in our program and our community is required of all of our athletes, not optional.

PUBLICLY POSTING WORKOUTS:

Our coaches are going to return to writing down everyone’s name on the whiteboard. This will be to ensure that everyone has space and track attendance. Do not leave the gym without writing up your score. Failure to do so will result in everyone’s favorite motivational consequence: burpees. Like it or not having a measurable outcome to almost everything you do and recording it publicly with time, scaling, etc. is just as much a part of our program as actually doing the workouts. It doesn’t matter whether you are first or dead last you must participate in sharing your scores. If you aren’t counting or don’t care you might as well be drowning in a sea of monotony and boredom on the elliptical while watching the Kardashians on the monitor back at globo gym.

PERSONAL JOURNALS:

A lot of you are doing great with recording your times, weights, and scores in your own journals. There have been a few times lately that I have asked athletes about weights on recent lifts and have been disappointed to find out that they haven’t been keeping track. You know who you are. We are not in the business of letting our athletes come into they gym and shoot into the dark every day. Forward progress can only be seen in the accumulation of workout data. Any serious athlete in any serious training program keeps a journal because there is simply no way to remember every statistic or every variation from every WOD and lift. Write it down. It only takes a few seconds is essential to your progress.

COMMENTS SECTION:

My teachers in high school were big on the whole “show your work” and “tangible evidence of review” trip when they were grading assignments. This was to make sure that I had taken the time to actually put the work in. I spend a lot of time and effort working on this blog to bring you relevant and pertinent information to our training and put up pictures of you guys killing it in our box. Keeping up with the website is important as it is both a learning tool and a place for us to interact outside the gym. This is where the comments section comes in handy. You can post questions regarding technical, logistical, or any other issues and I will answer. You can complain that we don’t run enough, or run too much, or how piss you are about doing 45 Minutes of burpees. Use it to celebrate your PRs, and share how stoked you are about taking 1/3 as long to do “Baseline.” Make us laugh by sharing a link to the new “Things CrossFitter’s Say” video you just found or crack some jokes. Comments prove to me that you are checking out our website. I know we all have facebook, twitter, linkedin, myspace, google +, and grindr but this is OUR space. Our page gets hundreds of hits a day, but the comments section is often empty, or dominated by a few key contributors (thanks guys).

As I mentioned it is not optional to participate in our community if you want to be a part of it. For this reason if we do not get at least individual 5 comments per day the entire gym will do 20 burpees in each class the day after to start their warmup. It is not that hard for less than 10% of our community to check the blog and contribute. Also, if you do not have a score next to your name on the white board you will be doing 20 burpees before your next warm-up. The late burpee penalty is also being changed from this point forward to 20 burpees. These are all very easy things to do, but more importantly are integral to our community. Start contributing; don’t be a lurker (see diagram below).

Post Thoughts To Comments.

Hip Drive

Today’s Workout:

Back Squat
5 Reps 75% WM
3 Reps 85% WM
1+ (max reps) 95% WM

Working Max (WM)= 90% 1RM

Then:
AMRAP 10
3 Front Squat 185/125
7 “L” Pull-ups

Streamlining Your Wendler Progression

Today’s Workout:

Deadlift

3, 3, 3+ at 70%, 80%, and 90% WM Respectively

WM= 90% 1RM

Then:

Pick one of the following:

5 Rounds For Time:

5 275 Deadlift
10 Burppes

or

5 275 Deadlift
50 Double Unders

Caitlin was nice enough to share her Wendler excel spreadsheet with formulas for all of your weights. Check it out: 5-3-1

Happy Birthday Migs!

Today’s Workout:

“Quiet Dog”

4 Rounds For Time:

10 Kb Swings (1.5/1)
20 Box Jumps (24″/20″)
30 Push Press (65/45)
40 Squats

Migs has been CrossFitting since before Rebok. Even before CFG, CPC, and CFV. He is a true OG CrossFitter and has been to the Games when they were the “Woodstock of Fitness” out on Castro’s ranch in Aromas. Shit, he and Su (his epically awesome wife) used to come work out with me and some other crazy people when all we had was an old bent up swell set that was older than I am, a wall ball, and some poorly constructed stages at my frat house. It is an honor to have such a solid and experienced individual raging with us. Happy Birthday my friend this WOD is for you.

The Sport of Fitness

Today’s Workout:

Shoulder Press
3, 3, 3+ at 70%, 80%, and 90% WM Respectively

WM= 90% 1RM

Then:
From CrossFit.com
Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Deadlift, 9 reps
135 pound Hang power snatch, 6 reps
135 pound Overhead squat, 3 reps

Jason Khalipa 3:01, Josh Everett 3:29, Nate Beard 4:03, Kristan Clever 3:50 (95lbs), Katie Hogan 5:04 (95lbs), Miranda Oldroyd 5:06 (95lbs).

One of the many things that makes CrossFit fun is that it is more like a sport than any other workout. Yesterday we discussed the importance of sport, CrossFit competition is also a great way to fuel your competitive drive. There are only a few days left to sign up for the St. Valentie’s Day Massacre at CFV. They always do a great job of making their competitions inclusive, yet challenging. So far we have only 3 teams signed up. Take your fitness a step further and join us on February 11th! Sign up here.