I seriously doubt any of you are drinking as much water as your body wants. Start doing so. Side benefit: you'll have to go to the bathroom often enough that you will always have an "out" in any situation. Example: "I think I love you...!" "Ohhhh....I...um...drank 77 oz. today, I HAVE to run to the bathroom..." Or something like that.
I recommend the always classy gallon jug filled with water. Drink the whole thing throughout the day and you're more than likely good. What's that? Too lowbrow? Too slow?
(can also be used to get in your 100 oz. of...liquid)
Have any of the bodyweight challenge participants been practicing their movements? Anybody try out the programs?
All right suckers. A blog post. Hooray for us. First things first, we have some class names! The winners are:
6am is now "Bitch Slapped Before Breakfast". BSBB was dominant in the polls and you can thank Bruce for the solid name suggestion.
6pm is now "Six Shooters". I'm not exactly sure what that means or implies, but it squeaked out a win so we'll take it!
Maybe we'll make some shirts...and then wear them and bully the other classes. I think that sounds like the appropriate thing to do. Not unlike a gang. What of it, 5:30pm?! Punks.
I have had a couple requests about strategies for the bodyweight challenge. What follows is my blanket answer. If you need any further help or are completely confused, let me know.
Way(s) to get better at bodyweight movements:
practice. A LOT. You are trying to get better at moving your body through space and the best way to get better at that is moving your body through space. Fortunately your body goes with you everywhere (I hope) so there is no excuse for not finding time to practice these movements. You can practice at work, at home, at the grocery store, in a house, with a mouse, whilst eating a grouse. Proper use of "whilst"? Probably not.
I would recommend doing all different versions of the movements. Jumping pullups, pullups, band pullups, negatives (lowering from above the bar), pushups, knee pushups, negatives, planks (holding top pushup position for time), squats, jumping squats, lunges, etc.
I went out and scoured the internets for a few ideas on how exactly to practice these movements. I have personally used some of these, they work.
NASA program (no, I don't think it's THAT NASA): it's in comment #7 in this thread. Read, follow, succeed.
One Hundred Pushups: can't really vouch for this one, but people seem to dig it.
Any one of these will work. The biggest thing to remember when working on movements like this is CONSISTENCY. This is the case with all training, but it really is true. If you do one of these programs for two days and give up I assure you it won't work. You'll lose to Betty and I'll cry. Even if you don't follow one of these programs, consistent practice is the key. Be relentless about it. Make these movements your bitches. Put them under your heel and grind them into the ground.
If you are learning the kip, the same applies. Practice before and after class. Ask questions. Look dumb on the bar, don't be afraid. Watch other people do them, watch videos, be persistent.
Also, when practicing your situps, be sure you know where your cats are:
I gathered all of the nominations I could find and put them together in the polls at the top of the blog. Clearly the 6PMers were a little more inspired to name their class. I imagine it has something to do with the 6AMers not giving a shit what I call them at 6AM in the morning. If any of your 6AMers come up with a nomination you want to add, throw it in the comments and I'll put it in the poll.
ANYONE can vote for these. I don't care if you're Tyler (who?) or a Nigerian prince who stumbled upon this blog ready to ask for some money...VOTE! You can vote for more than one choice if you wish. Your future is in your hands. I think I'll let South Park and Diddy (or Puff Daddy, or Sean Combs...) take this one:
On an unrelated note, everyone did a fantastic job with the double metcon today! There were some killer performances in both classes. The two workouts tend to expose different weaknesses in CrossFitters. Have a hard time with the heavy weight in "Grace" but crushed the 2nd metcon? Or kill "Grace" but have a hard time with those gymnastic movements? Or maybe you killed both. Or maybe you got rocked by both. Use them to determine which thing you want to focus on. For the ladies in the bodyweight challenge, I will give you a suggestion...focus on the gymnastic movements. Before and after class, at home, in your sleep, whenever you can, practice! I'll talk more about this in the future.
If you're feeling fired up and angry about the "Vote or Die" campaign, here is arguably the cutest puppy ever:
If you're not smiling right now, call your emergency contact. You're dead.
I'm about satisfied with class name nominations. I want a couple more for the 6am class and then we'll have a poll. Get crackin!
Screwing around and playing with things in the gym is important! An affiliate is basically a playground for adults. Treat it as such! Beg your trainers to let you play on the ropes, or throw medballs, or try the band sprints. Expose yourself to new challenges. Flip around on the bars, just be (relatively) safe about it!
Yesterday Mike Heinz and I were screwing around in the gym during our workouts and decided to try something screw around with the resistance bands. The night before I had introduced my 6pm'ers (name voting coming soon!) to partner band resisted sprints. They are brutal! With those fresh in my mind, Mike and I decided to attach some bands to the anchors in the floor for the slackline and see how far we could sprint with the bands around our waist. It was a blast! Mike, however, quickly made it a workout by setting up a target dumbbell on the floor and doing tabata sprints out to the dumbbell. We both decided to do this after doing our lifting and our own separate metcons. It was a blast until Mike made it look easy and I ended up getting pantsed by the bands and wrecked by the workout.
The anchored bands offer a pretty unique feeling. You start out sprinting as hard as you can and within 10 feet the band is pulling you back hard enough that you have to fight for every step forward and barely move. Once you reach the target you have to try to control yourself going backwards with the band yanking you back. Recipe for good times! I was pretty surprised at how tough it was, my legs were smoked afterwards.
As a testament to Mike's badassery, here is a video of our efforts. It shows Mike's 1st and 8th rounds on the tabata interval, then my first two, and my implosion at the end of round 7... Note the difference in how we look at the end of our respective efforts! Mike ended up with 25 total sprints and I got 23.
We need to get a harness to prevent the 'ol losing of the shorts phenomenon...
UPDATE:
Sometimes I make my classes have fun, whether they like it or not. As you can see here, Chauncey takes some liberties in the band sprints and harnesses Mike G...not unlike a sled dog.
ATTENTION: I am underwhelmed by the class names "6am" and "6pm". You should be too. In the comments post your nominations for class names. Once nominations are in, I will post a poll and we'll decide on the future names, shirts, tattoos, and such for the classes.
As I said a week ago, I have been wanting to do a post on focus/state of mind during WODs. Well, here we go. In light of the Winter Open, I thought I would post a couple strategies that have worked for me and others to achieve better WOD times. The first one we'll talk about is composure.
You know that feeling when, if you're like me, you get 3 reps into a workout and go "oh fuck no. no no no no no!" It's this voice that creeps into your head and starts reminding you how many MORE reps you have, how much it already hurts, how impossible the task is. This voice is a bitch. You have to ignore it. Put it under your heel and grind it. Every workout, no matter how simple looking, is going to hurt. You might do better or worse at workout, but they all hurt. So accept it, and get going with those reps! It is important to remain calm, or at least look like you're calm. When you're in a lot of pain and you start scrunching your face up and yelling and whatever else you do, it sends a signal to your brain to settle the fuck down. You don't want this to happen! Don't let your reactions freak your brain out. Stay as calm as you can, clear your head, and only think one rep at a time. Liz was kind enough to demonstrate the two extremes of composure during the Winter Open (courtesy of Aimee's rocking photography):
(my name is Liz, and I will eat your children)
(my name is Liz, and I'm crushing you in this WOD)
If you can remain calm and (relatively) relaxed during a WOD, your body will reward you for it.
The mental part of WODs that I struggle with is clearing my mind. I'm the guy who gets 3 reps in, panics, and starts calculating how many more reps I have, how long it will take, how I'm off my goal speed, if I paid my electric bill, am I retarded for doing this, etc. My friend and coach, Dutch, has more than once got on me about getting out of my head. One of the things he said that stuck with me was to not worry about breathing and just do the work, the breathing will happen. One of my continuing goals is working on my ability to "suffer". Easier said than done.
Finally, along the same lines as clearing your head, don't waste time between exercises! When you come in from a run and start thinking about how many power cleans (or whatever other exercise) you have to do, time passes FAST as you sit there and stare at the bar. Just grab the bar and start doing a few reps. Catching your breath is a waste of time, I promise you won't feel better until 15 minutes after the workout is finished. I find that starting on the next exercise actually calms me down and helps to regulate my breathing. Try it out. Start the next exercise before you're ready. Then don't stop.
Aimee (pictured below) got her first kipping pullup this morning! I think she's about to rain pullups on the 6am class, so bring your umbrella.
(raise your hand if your name is Aimee)
Also the pull-up front, that asshole Keith beat me to 50 pullups. Last week during class Keith said he was "feeling it" so he just hopped up on the bar and 50 pullups later I had lost our competition, some self respect, and the will to live. I actually haven't tried a max set since I did the 43 about a month ago, but it's part of my training today, so we'll see.
If you see Keith congratulate him, that's a great accomplishment! Here he is not dominating me:
Between moving, losing internet, and christening my new bathroom with a night of hurling, I have been waaay behind on my posts. Never fear! I have a bunch of great ideas brewing. A few of them are even useful. What's that? You don't care?! All you want are animal videos?? FINE! Have at it:
That bastard of a dog is a better dancer than I am.
I'll accompany that video with this one, just in case you were feeling strong today:
You're not. That guy is. Triple bodyweight? Triple bodyweight. If this whole USA vs. China thing ever gets out of hand and we go to war, I really hope this guy has something going on that weekend, otherwise we're hosed.
