CrossFit NYC: The Black Box

I'm calling shotgun on the weight vest.

I'm calling shotgun on the weight vest.

Stupid double post trickery!

1/2 Cindy yesterday followed by a full one today. Good times...

And welcome to the box Morgan!

16 rounds + 5 pullups + 7 pushups

Still can't break 17 rounds...pushups kill me, the squats and pullups are pretty much rest for the pushups.

You know when you're on another level Brett when you call pullups rest! Can't wait until I get to your happy place.

Yeah Rob, I agree-already warmed up from the 1/2 Cindy we did as a "warm -up".

I thought the Santa Slims Down article was funny but do you think we are going a bit too far by attacking fictional characters for their health? Santa represents a Christmas symbol-like the Easter Bunny. He represents giving and coming together and that XBox you deserve to get for being good all year. The tubby guy represents much more-look beyond the bulge people!

I do think, however, that the fat tub of lard actually "playing Santa" at the mall should be on the rowing machine and it should a pillow, not an actual stomach, that is actually bouncing when he laughs. Get on his case but don't attack the icon.

I think if people (esp. parents) did what they were supposed to do-fitness and diet-wise all year, then the plentiful eating done on a few days of the year wouldn't be so detrimental to their overall health. One of the joys of working out and eating well consistently is that it should allow you to indulge in sugar plums and Mom's homemade stuffing with minimal guilt.

Holiday eating may add a few pounds on you, but it doesn't make you fat. Chances are, you are probably already overweight before that.

haha Keith, i'm very surprised that the "rounded back" photo was not of me!

Jack,

Focusing on Santa instead of real people is safe and easy, because Santa's mother doesn't threaten a lawsuit:

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=78903

WOW how real is that? Sending home "fat notices"? Ouch. I get what the schools are trying to do but a little sensitivity and some tact goes a long way. You want the kids to recognize the issue, and motivate them do something; making them social pariahs is not the key.

Thanks Hari.

The mother said the school's action is causing her daughter emotional distress. Apparently the mother's decision to make this a television story, including pointing out that the daughter is overweight, is not a cause of emotional distress for the child.

I suppose that up until the child opened the letter addressed to her parents that neither she nor any of her classmates had the slightest idea who was and who was not overweight.

BTW - If you see Carey, please tell him that he owes me $40 for borrowing my Adidas shorts and never returning them. While you are at it, make him do some burpees.

Is anyone doing Mary tonight? If so, can we tape it?

Keith...this is your future! It's over playa!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw6P4NiLq0o

I just signed up another recruit for Elements--the spots are going fast, so if you're thinking about signing up, get in here pronto!

Preaching to the choir:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/opinion/08aamodt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

which nights are open for elements-i am on the verge of convincing my friend to come but i need to know what is open.

I think I must be one of few people who enjoys burpees. I think we should do a workout sometime that is 200 burpees for time.

Sam...what the hell is wrong with you? Are you daft man?

Michelle
There are a couple of spots in both Elements Workshops. There were some clerical errors and someone switched from Tu/Th to Mo/We and that opened up a couple of spots.

Join up quick. This is the last Elements Workshop of 2007.

Sam...why don't you do that and tell us how it goes? :)

I chose to kick it up and do Mary today for the first time ever. I've done the Cindy workout twice. First time at the black box, 2nd time on my own. First time i ended the workout early on about 15 rounds. It was my first ever Crossfit workout. Pukie was all up in my grill that night. After that workout i have been hooked! The 2nd time I did Cindy was on my own. I ran a mile down to the track, completed 17 rounds and ran the mile home. Here we are again and i chose to kick things up a notch and do Mary. I got my ass kicked. I did well on the HSPU's and pistols, however i fully suck at pull ups! I broke them down into 3 sets of 5 after the 3rd round. I even suck at kipping. I try to kip each time i do pull ups in hopes of getting better, but it hasn't clicked yet. I do feel good about being able to knock out HSPU's now and the pistols are impressive as well. love those, they are so difficult to get down, but once you do it's on!

"Mary"
5 HSPU
10 Pistols
15 Pull ups
as many rounds in 20 minutes as i could do
6 full rounds completed
Horrible first showing. The pull ups killed me.
It's only improvement from here folks.

Cindy: 17 Rounds

Xuan Mai,

I noticed from the board that after just getting your first pull-up, you are already doing Cindy as RX'd. Amazing!

yeah Xuan Mai Allison pointed that out to me right before I started the workout-I have to keep chasing you! :) I just did 5 rounds of Cindy rxd. They were the slowest pullups in history.
Congrats-that is so amazing! I can't wait to watch you blast a bunch out!

Hari,

A wise man once told me that I should aim to do the workouts as RX'd as soon as possible, even if my initial numbers are terrible.

And, so with that - Cindy: 4 Rounds, 1 Pullup as RX'd.

All the pullups were singles. A little bit before I got my first pullup, I also started doing full pushups. Those also disintegrated into singles by the end of the 4th round.

Even though the numbers for my first Mary are piddly, I comfort myself with the fact that my chin cleared the bar on every single pullup that I counted as a rep. The same with the pushups - chest to the deck.

Hope to see you soon.

Xuan Mai and Michelle--

You two impress me so much with doing Cindy as Rx'd, despite being so new to pullups. To me, that's more impressive than watching a Greg Amundson video. I don't mean that as a slight to Greg, I just mean it in the sense that you 2 embody the CF spirit of going for it, no matter how hard it may be.

Xuan Mai and Michelle, YOU ROCK!!!!

my heros...

bad bad very bad

My first torn callus. I didn't want to be a member of that club.
Made pull-ups hard. I had to hang on by my fingers.

Push-ups were also a lot harder with the handle things. The bigger ROM was worth the pain if it's gets me closer to my MU.

11round + 5pull-ups + 3push-ups

thx guys-truth be told i had the thin green band all set up for the workout figuring well if i dont have a band i will barely get through any rounds-but Tyler said nope-no band. do the pull ups. does not matter how few rounds you do. just do singles.
excellent advice.
and seeing that Xuan Mai did it this morning absolutely motivated me to do it. Xuan Mai- I look forward to working out with you soon!

did cindy yesterday. 21 rounds plus 5 pull-ups.

Mary as rx'd 10 rounds + 5HSPU + 7 pistols

Cindy: 17 rounds + 5 pull-ups + 7 push-ups

Tried to do one round per minute, held on until 11th round. Push-ups are still to blame, of course. I even tried to pace myself by splitting them 5+5 from the start, but that wasn't enough.

Solid work everyone, with special props to the two heroic Rx'd ladies.

Michele - back not that long ago, Josh used to call that last band "Dumbo's Feather." By the time you've gotten your pullups to that level, you really don't even need the band - it's more a psychological crutch than a physiological one.

Congratz Xuan Mai. Well done.

The anticipated Beginner's Herd for today may be iffy. We all had a great time...last night but now my girl seems to be stuck on saying "Advil", when I whispered the "Do you want to go to CrossFit?" across the bedroom where my friends are, one asked why I was screaming and I see an large, empty pizza box on the stove that could explain why my tummy seems rock solid. And not because of my abs.

posted on the main site
but anyone who's interested should come to lost battalion hall for an oly meet today or tomorrow

i'll be there in a blackbox t handing out key chains and barf bags.

I can't make it, Allison, but thanks for representing us at LBH and spreading the word.

Wow. Lots of love on the blog! Thanks for the kind words, everybody!

Michelle - I'm sure we'll see each other soon. Good job!

Saturday:

While I should have been concentrating on assisting with the beginner's class, instead went back and forth making up Thursday's dead lift WOD:

245, 255, 265, 275, 285

(Thanks for the help Rob.)