CrossFit NYC: The Black Box

Ahh it is written-I must continue running.

Margie - no worries....thank you (and AllisonNYC) for your help and encouragement yesterday.

why is it always FIVE rounds-wht happened to the nice ol THREE rounds?

Equinox Recommendation? I know a lot of you had some connection to Equinox at some point can anyone recommend a personal trainer at the one near Union Sq or 44th/Lex? I have tried to work my CF magic and I am sure I will eventually break them down but until then....thoughts?

Michelle aka Hot Mom, the reason for the 5 rounds:
During this Lenten season, we are challenged to give up something precious to us-in this case 5 rounds are to ensure you give up breathing normally since Coach Glassman thinks we always take that for granted.

Kinda like the WODs with the 2 pood weight-apparently we use this now to remind us of the simple joy of being able to hold a glass of water without trembling like a crack addict in withdrawal.

However, if you don't ascribe to any religious philosophy then the shit just hurts.

Michelle aka Hot Mom, the reason for the 5 rounds:
During this Lenten season, we are challenged to give up something precious to us-in this case 5 rounds are to ensure you give up breathing normally since Coach Glassman thinks we always take that for granted.

Kinda like the WODs with the 2 pood weight-apparently we use this now to remind us of the simple joy of being able to hold a glass of water without trembling like a crack addict in withdrawal.

However, if you don't ascribe to any religious philosophy then the shit just hurts.

Jack, that was hilarious.

For any of you considering trying my advanced moves pictured above, do remember that I was a high school cheerleader. Not just anyone can do a shoulder sit like that. ;)

I really wanted to try a shoulder stand but unfortunately the ceiling's too low for that. Next time we're in the park, though, I want to give it a try (but preferably with someone a little smaller than Brian). Any volunteers?

Michelle,

You must not have gotten the memo.

150 is the new 100
30, 30, 30 is the new 21, 15, 9
5 is the new 3
2.0 is the new 1.5

Rumored to be coming soon:

30 minutes to be the new 20 minutes
15K to be the new 10K
10K to be the new 5K
Ibuprofen withdrawal to be the new crack withdrawal.

I'll volunteer for the shoulder stand, Allison.

The general trend is definitely moving towards even harder wods. I think it's an obvious and expected response to monsters like AFT, OPT, Speal, Greg A having their way with the Crossfit bread and butter wods. The wods are no longer kicking some peoples' asses, so the wods must get harder. Foreboding news for the rest of us.

As/if this trend continues, I think many of us will have to ask ourselves if it is worth it or even useful to do certain WODs as Rx'd. If the workouts are designed to produce certain effects on AFT, they won't have those same effects on me. AFT will be getting the intended benefits (say, a tough metcon in about 30 minutes), while I stumble through an hour of muscle failure. AFT will keep progressing thanks to the program set out by Coach Glassman, while I... well, who knows what gains or losses I'll take away from those workouts?

Maybe AFT is ready for thirty 2 pood swings and 5x800m. Maybe I'm not.

The workouts aren't being adjusted for certain people.

Just like every workout they're meant to be done as RX'd for the people who can and scaled for the people who can't.

The guys like Greg A, Speal, OPT and AFT do heavier versions of benchmark workouts or just kill it as RX'd. Now they have workouts that are a little more challenging.... good for them and everyone like them.

Shouldn't we all be striving for low low times and then bumping up the weight? It's just what will happen over time when we all get stronger and stronger. We'll need to adjust the workouts to make them harder instead of making them easier.

That's the beauty of CrossFit. The workouts are infinitely scalable -- in both directions.

They're just coming up with new workouts. Don't worry. They're not phasing out the "easy" ones to replace them with "hard" ones for a select few. They're just adding some doosies.

The maybe people like me aren't so shocked by the new workouts because we're still used to scaling a few workouts (not too many for me anymore).. and the people who have been doing everything as RX'd are uspet that they have to scale. It's not so bad. It will give you something to work for.

:)

Ewen: Think about it this way -

Eva was probably a much different experience for you than it was for AFT.

I bet "Fran" is different for a total newbie with no conditioning than it is for you.

Should Glassman make every workout easy enough for all newbies to do as RX'd and fast?

Go back to your comment and replace AFTs name with your own and read it as a total beginner or just an average CrossFitter who's just not as strong/fast/ powerful as you.

30 back extensions is the new nothing.

Coach P recommends warming up with a weight heavier than you're going to be doing in a WOD--it makes the WOD weight feel a lot lighter when you get down to the actual workout. He is absolutely right.

If throw in just a few practice reps with the 40kg kb into your warmup every day, the 2 pood doesn't feel so bad.

uhh jeff -- that wasn't coach P that was me! and I got it from my TNation boy.. hahaha

So how is the WOD being done today at the Box? Are we doing the back extensions outside or are we going back up the stairs?

Jeff, for morning and lunchtime classes, Keith and Court had people use the GHD and/or barbells (good mornings).

There are two ways of scaling the workouts. There is the obvious way, and then there is simply doing the workouts we like as RX'd while skipping entirely those we don't like.

Jack- as a Jew I think 3 rounds will be enough-and the other two will be spent discussing the Talmudic origin of the 5 round WOD. All are welcome. Coffee and Rugulah will be served.

And as Josh correctly noted when Gideon was used by Keith as a kettebell-that is a "Yiddish Getup"

hari- u kill me.

my leg feels better!!

i discovered itb stretches help with the hip flexors! who knew that they're all connected. hmph.

all else fails, go back to basics.

tyler made me do some leg stuff to get it moving

3 rds for time:
500m row
15 kte

14:38

i feel pretty good

A2
Sorry, I get you two confused sometimes, especially when you're standing close to one another.

Hari...that was hilarious. Your genius is only matched by your high pullup numbers.

Greg-did u change ur flight for the cert? Bc i just got a confirmation that u r leaving Saturday morning-can u email me please? thx

For those that missed yesterday's WOD ( which is much more my kinda WOD, I hate Metcon). Which class today would be a good time to come and make it up ? Also, what do you all advise at the Box when a WOD is missed, make it up or skip it ? Or it left more to the individual, to chose which WOD is better suited to his/her goals ?

The video post was great, it's not often that I'll sit fascinated in front of my computer for an hour lecture. I just ordered "Good/Bad Calories" and look forward to reading it. I imagine that he's making a pseudo argument for Paleo, but does he explicitly mention any dietary regimen in his work?

Joseph_b, Here's my theory:

If I miss a WOD, it's gone. The alternatives are (1) making it up during the next WOD, which is just a fancy way of removing some of the randomness from CrossFit by choosing to skip the current unpleasant (because it emphasizes a weakness) WOD and replacing it with the missed WOD. (2) Making it up on a Rest Day, which only leads to delaying Rest until the day of a future unpleasant WOD and is thus no different than (1). As a corollary, to this rule, I try to decide before I see the WOD whether or not I'm taking the day off.

We all tend to get pretty good about telling ourselves the truth during any given WOD (e.g., whether our head goes over the bar, number of rounds, power cleans versus squat cleans, etc.) but we can be ingenious about otherwise fooling ourselves.

Hari,
good advice, but I'm not following the 3on/1 off Schedule right now. I'm averaging about 3 WOD's a week ( I hope to increase this). So I think it's a good Idea to make those WOD's follow the 3 day pattern, metcon/strength/met/con. I care more about strength anyway, and as much as I like Crossfit, I'm not a Kool-Aid drinker, and I don't want all my WOD's for a given week ending up being all Met/Con because I missed the strength day on the day it was given.

Hari, there's a third alternative that you didn't mention which is, "Do the current WOD and then make up the missed WOD later that same day." I'm certain that you didn't mention it, though, because it's colossally stupid... as I found out yesterday and was reminded of today.

Just remember, kids, CrossFit bonus-points are measured out in Ibuprofen!

Thanks for link to the lecture. That was a really interesting 70 minutes and something that explained the hormonal causation of lipogenesis much better than Sears does in the Zone book. I am in the middle of one of those right now and am continually frustrated by its self-congratulatory nature and unnecssary dicohtomy of everything into the categories of "good" and "bad." Still interesting reading, but two thirds of it could have been cut out and it would have been just as convincing and informative.

That video may actually move me to cough up the money for his book, an impressive feat for something I previously looked at as a "maybe" read.

Joseph - It sounds like you just answered your own question. If the strength WODs are more important to you, then just make those up whenever you can.

However, I do think there is tremendous benefit to what Hari is saying about the 3 on/1 off schedule. It's much more challenging than the pick and choose method which I sometimes end up doing or the whenever I can get to the Box because of work method.

25:57 minutes (Box Stairs + good mornings at 45#)

In response to Joseph_B, it was my impression that the reason crossfit applies such rigorous metcon is to push people passed the inevitable "strength plateaus" reached during conventional strength training. As much as it's hard and hurts, it seems integral to the goals you're setting Joe.

Besides, lifting a big weight once is much less impressive then 67 consecutive pullups (I still can't believe that number by AFT, second post to reference it).

31:49

Thanks for all the feedback.

29:31 on the GHD

subbed 24x300m, alternating 30 seconds and 60 second rest breaks. 37:16, including the breaks.

30:33, sub 65lb good mornings for back extensions

29:32 sub 65# GDs and 500m rows. Really liked the row portion of the workout and reminds me that I need to find an excuse to actually go rowing this summer.

Good work to the 6:45 crew. It was good pacing to hear people on the steps while I was rowing, to push me faster. Kudos to Brett who did it by himself and got locked out twice!

31:32 on GHD

Brett was getting locked out in the rain? That's rough, man.

23:44, sub 65lb GM. Legs were toast afterwards.

28:15, full RX.

Yeah, that video is fascinating. Does anybody know where I can pickup a copy of "Obesity and Leanness" by Hugo R. Rony? Amazon is sold out.

it wasn't so bad in the rain maybe a 3 sec wait. The GHD was killer though, my lower back is fried. I found leaning forward on the runs ala POSE helped back tightness