CrossFit NYC: The Black Box

Thanks for letting me work out last night! I really appreciate it. I was beginning to get depressed being away from the gym for a few days. If I am in NYC again I will stop in.

Grace: ~6:05 at 70# (benchmark). Weight felt too light or maybe I just wasn't doing enough in a set (6 sets of 5 reps). However, my form was bad as most of the pulls ended up somewhere between a power and a squat clean. Taking off 3 months from O-lifting since elements definitely shows. That, and it probably led to me pressing the barbell into my chin somewhere around rep 22. That was brilliant. Sigh.

Nice rest day WOD

Back Squats
225x3
225x3
235x3
245x2
245x1(failed 2nd rep)
255x1
started fatiguing so did the last 4 sets of singles at 225

Pulls
70x3, 88x2(failed 3rd attempt), 75x3,
75x2, 80x2,
80x1, 94F, 88x1, 80x1, 88F

Not feeling it this morning.

Question: Is just doing handstands a way of becoming more adept at doing handstand pushups?

Brendan,

It seems to me that if handstands alone could improve handstand pushups then standing alone could improve squats. Of course, if one never stands, standing would be a sure first step to improved squatting. (And since most people don't do handstands, this is a basic first step to handstand pushups.) But I think that in both cases, the basic stationary skill is necessary but not sufficient for improving the related exercise performance.

Quoting Robb Wolf, "Refined carbs are analogous to an alcohol soaked Ecstasy binge at the PlayBoy Mansion."

Ummmm, can somebody please help me find some refined carbs? They're not for me of course, they are for a friend...

"An alcohol soaked Ecstasy binge at the PlayBoy Mansion". As far as I can recall, a plate of spaghetti never got me in that much trouble. And I'm guessing "refined" isn't the main factor in that analogy.

Agree 100% with the marksdailapple post on our increasingly sanitized environment. Thankfully this phenomenon hasn't hit Europe yet, at least not in the same crazy proportions as here. But like widespread obesity and the latest Grey's Anatomy season, it might just be a matter of time.

Brendan

That really depends, if you cannot handstand well then handstand pushups are a reach.

Similarly if you cannot sit in the BOTTOM of a squat without weight for time, then squatting with weight is also a bit of a reach.

If you're unable to maintain a good handstand at the wall for a minute, then that says something about your strength, flexibility and proprioception. If you are unable to sit in the bottom of a good squat for a minute, that says similar things about your strength, flexibility and proprioception.

Given what I know about your level of strength especially in the shoulder press, I would venture to say that your issues with handstand pushups are due to shoulder flexibility issues and being upside down issues, not to strength issues. So being upside down more often for longer periods of time would do you some good.

Hari since your issues are at the Bottom of the squat, I would spend less time standing and more time sitting in the bottom of your squat.

Tyler, So noted.

Do we have to do the back squats first or can we mix and match?

I have a feeling the box is going to be chaotic tonight..

Here's a complement to the article about sanitation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30curious.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Thanks, Ty.

Survival after the apocalypse:

http://www.aldenteblog.com/2008/01/cheeseburger-in.html

beefsteak
red meat AYCE

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30beef.html?em&ex=1201842000&en=754ea2f14a926532&ei=5087%0A

In the interest of cross-concept pollenation, I'd like to suggest that people check out some of the postings on this All Japanese All The Time site that I found. The author, a young guy living in Japan, has an immersion approach to learning and doing things that might seem somewhat familiar to us here. There are many good posts on the site and lots of information, but since this particular page is huge, I just wanted to relay a highlights to give a sample of his themes. Some of these ideas could come right off of our message boards if the language references were changed to mentions of exercise techniques or levels of ability.

----------------------------
So, like I said, we need to calm down. Calm down, and accept being noobs. It’s OK. Everyone who starts is a noob, including Chinese babies: their Chinese sucks :). And we need to hurry up. Stop wasting time, and just hurry up and get down to work. The reason we don’t know the language(s) we want to know yet is that we didn’t work hard enough (if at all) in the past. The past is the past, we can’t change it. But we can change the future. And all it takes is one small payment in the present. Everyone who ever learned a language to fluency busted tail to do it: everyone. Whether they knew they were busting tail or not is immaterial, tail was busted. Accept that. Accept that you suck now and that tail needs to be busted. But…but…also accept that your tail-busting will be handsomely rewarded with fluency. You WILL get there. You WILL get fluent. IF you work now, IF you do just this one small thing, IF you take one step in the right direction — that’s all you need to do, take one step, rinse, repeat — then you’ll get there. You just will.
...
Think of your work as water and your ignorance as a jagged rock — you need to pour water on that rock to smooth it out. The good news is that it won’t take geological time to erode the rock of ignorance, but it will take a lot of water, and so you need to keep pouring. It may not look like anything’s happening, but it is. Just focus on pouring, keep the water moving.
----------------------------

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/category/attitudestechniques

Moon-do u think we could fit that on a t shirt?

you absolutely can't squat if you can't stand, and you absolutely can't do a HSPU if you can't do a handstand. So yes, getting a rock solid handstand will certainly help at one aspect of a handstand pushup.

But I actually came to post this:
A big study suggests that exercise significantly slows aging. Previously known effects: Exercise prevents heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. New finding: It also slows the shortening of telomeres, which mark biological (not necessarily chronological) age. Data: 1) Counting by telomeres, moderate exercisers were 4 to 6 years younger than non-exercisers. 2) Heavy exercisers were 9 years younger. 3) Even among twins (who share genes and birthdays), heavy exercisers were 4 years younger. Theories: 1) Exercise reduces "oxidative stress" on cells. 2) It reduces inflammation. 3) It reduces psychological stress. Critiques: 1) Biological susceptibility to faster aging may cause lack of exercise, instead of the other way around. 2) Or the two variables may be joint products of some other factor. Rebuttal: The study ruled out such alternate factors. Old futuristic advice: Take these pills, and you'll live 10 years longer. New old-fashioned advice: Stop relying on pills, and get off your duff.
http://www.slate.com/id/2182930/

Good find Moon.

In a similar vein, there's was once an old school drawing professor, Kimon Nicolaides who said. "The sooner you make your first 1000 mistakes the sooner you can correct them." That's stuck with me since high school.

This has been a very existential kind of day here on the blog. Marisela, is there some astrological reason for this? Wait a minute, I'd rather not know.

Squat

145x3
165x3
185x3
205x3
195x1

Weighted pullup

8kgx3
8kgx3
8kgx2
8kgx1
8kgx1

kouvenhowen
wow I didn't know that about the age factor.
just kidding,
jacinto

Well said, Father Time

That's funny; I learned about telomeres and their affect on biological aging a few weeks ago. Now I understand a lil bit more about them.

First official WOD after Elements
Back squat - started with empty bar then moved to 65, 95, 115, PR 140
Pullups - 9 with red band then moved to black band for 2x and 1x

Special thanks to Tyler Durden for the great coaching and spotting.
Thanks to all for letting the NYU camera crew film The Box.