CrossFit NYC: The Black Box

Josh-I cant make it-but sent u an ameial with soem qs-would like to invest but need some answers. Can u email me at michellefoxman@yahoo.com please? thx

My first total of the year was the same as the last total: 845
Back squat (went up to a new PR) 285
Press (went down 10lbs) 155
Deadlift (Maintained new PR) 405

Looking forward to a great New Year...Thanks Josh and Court for the tips today.

Rob, the 50 burpees were a great way to cool down-thanks!

Martin
To answer your question about the scale from the previous thread: are you asking if the scale is accurate or if it operates at all?

If you're asking the latter, most digital scales require you to tap it (on top, with your foot) to activate it and let the scale reset to '0'. Then you can stand on it to weigh yourself.

If you're asking the former question, everybody says that the scale adds pounds, but we all know those people are just kidding themselves.

that second article is ridiculous. Everyone starts in the same place... everyone starts at the beginning. The people you see are at different point in the progression of fitness.

I miss you all. It was good to see me and Mike up on the front page earlier. China is great. Shanghai is fun. I joined grimy gym ($3 a visit). It doesn't have a good kipping pull-up bar.. but I make due.

32:51 As RX'd (PR)

Post September 23, 2007:

79:55

Started out determined to do this as RX'd, no matter how long it took. After 30 minutes, numerous misses, and 3 good MU's, switched to jumping MU's. Substituted 54 JMU's for the remaining 27 MU's. Very ugly, but at least I have a time to beat when this comes up again.

Great work Hari! That's only after a few months too.

Great job today, Hari. Remember in the Matrix, gravity is a mental construct.

Jeff, I was asking if it works at all. I had tried to activate it previously, but it didn't respond... perhaps I just don't weigh enough for it to register.

Now who's kidding themselves?

Awesome job today Hari! From 3 to 30.... that's pretty sweet.

Concerning todays articles:

I'm highly excited and skeptical of the new miracle sleep drug. Sleep has always been a fun subject for me. I would like to read the results on human testing. If the drug does in fact generate a heightened sense of alertness, usually associated with a good nights sleep, without any side affects then that would be amazing. However, I think there may be some trouble with taking the drug and then the body stops producing the equivalent on its own. As is the case with steroids. Also, I'm not completely sold that this would be an alternative to sleep. Mainly becuase the body does so much during sleep. Taken seldomly to stay awake while flying a plane or another alert oriented task would be awesome. I really don't think that 23 hour awake days are in our future though.

The self-esteem article is an observation piece only done with 45 women. There's a lot of room for compunding variables that may upset the authors results. I would like to see the actual paper for this study and/or another study where there is more power in the test subject numbers.

I think the doctor article depends mainly on the doctor. You're going to get the best results with a doctor who is familiar with your sport. I would imagine that many doctors who run marathons would look at Crossfitters very differently than a crossfitting doctor, like K*star.
I also had a similar experience where a doctor told me to stop playing a sport (racquetball) that I really enjoyed. Very little help.

Another great CFing Doctor is Ahmik Jones!!

Hari awesome work and that photo tells it nicely!

So did this whole Brenda thing start with a typo or is there a deeper backstory I'm not familiar with?

Hari - I wanna be all muscle-up mastering like you one day. Really. Is my white whale of CrossFit these days.

Rob - I understand that Modafinil (maybe you've heard it called Provigil) has been pretty popular amongst the military and the civilian "hard driving" set (students who want to study more and more, Wall Street workers, general "type A's", etc) for several years now. After trying it myself following a few days of getting very little sleep, the results were pretty surprising in how normal everything felt.

I would say that if 23-hour awake days were possible to safely enjoy, many people would jump on the chance to do so - particularly in America and other countries where workers dedicate most of their waking hours to work w/o real complaint. The opportunity to either work longer at the job (or second job) w/o being tired and sacrificing more "me" time would likely be too tempting for most people/companies/nations to ignore. The rest might have to follow just to be competitive.

Trainers - Do you see any techniques here that we should adopt? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cufQD5Y31ZA

What up all.

I am new to the the box and need to stop lurking on the messageboard & wanted to post my first CFT.

705

BS-245
SP-155
DL-305

Big things for the Box in '08!

-George

Good way to start the new year, George.

Moon - I took a quick look at the Provigil information website. It says that it is used to assist sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and apnea(most commonly known as snoring). The way in which it helps is by stimulating parts of the brain asociated with wakefullness when needed to be awake, but it does not substitute sleep. I interpreted tha the drug orexin as being something different because it is "A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin ". It just worries me that many will think of this as a substitute to sleep.

Also, on the note of 23 hour awake days I'm going to link a very interesting (and hard to find) article by Warren Buffet about the decline of the Greenback. It's related in the fact that if other countries are working non-stop then America will have to follow suit lest we fall further behind in production/exports.

http://64.236.22.104/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/11/10/352872/index.htm

Hari-that is just amazing. i am buying u dinner to celebrate.

u will however need to change ur shirt.

and no jeans.

I want to meet AllisonNYC. :)

Hey all, I've been off the message boards for a while now. I recently had a baby boy. 12/13/07 @ 1:40pm. I'm trying to make it back to my crossfit routine. The 3 weeks i took off and lack of sleep lately really took a toll on my WOD. Strength is still pretty goog.

In case you're asking "who is this guy?" My name is Paul and I'm a trainer that is hooked on CF. I'm using the posting name P$ so not to cause confusion, as there are a few other Paul's on the board. I visited the box once to see what this was all about in 2007, attempted a CINDY as my first WOD ever and was immediately hooked on CF. I will try to stop by the box again and make an apperance to put a face to the P$ for you all, but until then, I'll keep posting.

Paul
31 Male, 5-10, 168#

CF total:
Squat 245 (down 5lbs)
Press 130 (up 5lbs)
DL 260 (up 5lbs)

Total 635
My last total was 630.

Goal for 2008 is 745
Squat 275
Press BW 170
DL 300

Another FOB throwing her hat into the ring...

2nd Total

weight: ~130
height: 5'1"

BS: 130 (PR)
SP: 70 (PR)
DL: 160 (PR)
Total: 360

Love the lifting!

Jeff: "Brenda" began as a typo, as it always does (Thanks, Kevin). But it always turns into some unofficial nickname as soon as someone accidentally discovers that "Brenda" is "Brendan" minus an n. I'm sure you didn't need me to explain that.

Keith: good work with the caption. Funny stuff. I'm just touched to be included.

Congrats on the bambino, P-Money! Way to go!

We should start your baby on the Turkish Star Wars training program immediately.

Margie-awesome-I have been doing cf for a year and I don't think I could back squat that much!

Thanks, everyone.

I think there may be an alternative conclusion to be drawn from the "self esteem" article.

"Kulik's team found that women spent just under three minutes on the pull-down machine when working out next to the fit peer. Alone, they worked out for four minutes, while they used the machine for more than five minutes when working out alongside the unfit-looking peer."

Maybe, the women worked harder (i.e., faster) when they were seated next to fit peers. It is typical globo gym idiocy to use time as a proxy for work. Without knowing either the resistance or number of reps, the conclusion makes no sense.

Frankly, my time decreases when I work out along Jacinto because he makes exert more power, not less. Maybe we should sent the researchers some Black Box t-shirts, so they can learn the physics.

Steve: I'll be there tomorrow :)

30 Muscle-ups for time
Sub:
120 false grip pull-ups. jumped through the transition for the 1st 12 but I couldn't do more than that. Switched to pull-ups with all the weight on my wrists. Full extension at bottom.

120 ring dips. Really worked these. Jumped up and locked out. Held it for as long as I could then lowered down ALL THE WAY as SLOWLY as I could. I really tried to control the movement instead of just jumping up and down. I don't see how that really transfers to a muscle up or even getting a dip.

I did 10 pull-ups then 10 dips. I only made it through 9 rounds so 90 pull-ups and 90 dips. I ran out of time and my wrists were torn. If I did one more pull-up my wrists would have started to bleed.

I can't find the card with my time. It's probably at the gym but I think it was around 45 minutes. This one killed me but I'm a little closer to my muscle-up. :)

Margie: Great job on the total. Awesome press. Your hard work is paying off!

1st time with this wod.

12:13, note to self. Tape wrists, pace better. Sub 10 next time.

10:10 first time doing this.

It's a meh time I think. I really miss doing MUs on wood rings: no slipping. Oh well. I'll aim for 5 minutes (or faster) next time.

11:36 as Rx'd
First time with this workout.

So I finally got down to the Box!!! The CF WU in Elements was humbling ( I thought I had been doing it right this whole time on my own). Turns out my OH Squats and shoulder flexibility need work. Also doing supermen is way harder when using the Abmat ( first time for me).

Tomorrow I'll either do the CF Total or the 30 MU's on the rings at a Globo-gym( one of the few WOD's I can do as RXed). I'll try to get to get to the Beginner class on Saturday.

Looking forward to meeting everyone, I'm glad this place exists, this is going to be so much better doing CF on my own.

First time doing this workout. 18 minutes! Thanks Adam, Paul S, Tom and Christine, and Coach P for the push today!

Really strong work, Greg.