Today we opened the new Box 5 minutes from my home. I don’t have to spend 40 minutes round trip any more to get a WOD on !
You typically see CF gyms opened by trainers with freshly minted CF L1 certs. I’m very fortunate that the coaches at my new gym have an average of 6 years of CF experience.
I guess I will have a lot more to learn in the years ahead.
CF Harmony Grand Opening WOD
12 minutes partner AMRAP
– 7 shoulder to overhead (95/55)
– 4 burpee box jumps
With over 6,000 CrossFit boxes in the world and tens of thousands of certified trainers you would expect that the WODs would become quite different from box to box or at least some brand new movements would get introduced.
In my experience most boxes follow a quite simple formula:
– set up the box with standard CF gear of pullup rig, weights, KB, rope, etc
– provide 1-hour training blocks
– program a combination of strength and metcon movements
– schedule some time for skill training and warmups at the beginning
– host community events for competition and fun
This formula is actually sufficient to train great athletes but boxes could greatly differentiate by specializing more on their edge as some already do.
There are competitive boxes with RX+ scales, CF Endurance boxes with longer than hour time horizons, weightlifting and powerlifting sites and SealFit boxes for extra stamina WODs.
Where is the next generation of WODs are coming from? Swimming, slacklining (balance is a required physical skill), alpine crossfit, more bicycles in the programming? Freebord?
I hope in the next 5 years the emerging thousands of new CF gyms will evolve the sport not only with improved performance on current movements but by inventing new and more fun ways to challenge our definition of fitness.
Photo from pedallingscot
It has been over 2 years of five times a week WODs and Constant Pondering about CrossFit (the disease I share with many CrossFitters). While back in June 2011, I thought I would try this thing for a couple of weeks to see if ‘this is really better than P90X’. Well, that is how it started anyway. I do not think I took more than a day off ever since and recently rest days became endurance days.
While I posted 27 CrossFit life lessons as I progressed with the sport and learned more about myself in the process – I wanted to get to the One Big Lesson CrossFit has taught me so far. And without it sounding like some cliche (quite hard really).
I thought about what every WOD feels like as you get going, struggle alongside your team, fight through it, turn off the inner voice, cheer others on, push harder and harder until finally you get to draw those sweat angels on the floor.
Then the One Big Life Lesson became obvious:
Step Up. Give It All. Encourage Others. Finish Strong. Celebrate. Every Day.
Photo source: Hardass Fitness
Today a heatwave returned to Philly and with that I ventured back to our corporate gym with cozy air conditioning. This may sound soft but I found the colder the surroundings the more intensity can be packed in a WOD. The day was too good to miss a nice 3-mile run outside though.
9 more days until the Vermont Spartan Beast, but who’s counting?
Baseline:
Row 500m,
15x strict press,
row 500m,
15x clapping push ups
Strength:
Strict press – 3-2-1-1-1-1-1
Stamina:
Chipper, not timed:
50x floor presses 95#
100x 4-count flutter kicks,
100x leg levers
Work Capacity:
30x clean and jerk (135#)
1000m row
[5:35]
Durability:
– Run 3 miles @ moderate pace
– Swim 10 minutes
It is one of those days. I managed to squeeze in a WOD but programming got cut shorter than I had hoped. Even CrossFitters get overwhelmed, right?
Baseline:
3 rounds
– Run 200m,
– 10x back squat (45#),
– 10x dips,
– 10x sit ups.
Strength:
Front squat – 3-2-1-1-1-1-1
Work Capacity:
Complete 5 rounds for time of:
– 20m underwater swim
– 20x push ups
– 20x squats
– 20x situps
Stamina:
4 rounds, not timed:
— 10x Front squat 95lbs
— 10x ring dips
— 25m barbell weighted overhead carry 95lbs
Durability:
SealFit Mobility
