Life of a CrossFit Nomad

Posted on April 6, 2012 by

The best part of CrossFit is the community which typically centers around the local box. This is great but for those of us frequently on the road, the Crossfit community needs to expand and take on a whole new meaning.  For cities with a box it is awesome that we can always drop in for a WOD. My home gym is in Philadelphia, but I have CrossFit friends in many cities due to the drop-ins. I even get to keep my scores in other box scoreboards… Coach Burgener once said that it takes many years to master the olympic lifts. I think the same is true for CrossFit. Being a Nomad therefore becomes the most interesting apprenticeship. For the next years I will get to learn from many coaches in boxes all over the world who approach the Elite Fitness in different ways. I’m sure to come out much stronger and faster in the end in this community without boundaries.

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Crossfitting the Company Gym

Posted on April 5, 2012 by

I have to admit I have company gym envy. Ever since Reebok raised the standard for employee gyms – well, the bar has been set… Until my company opens their own city-block size Crossfit facility, I will have to make the most of what they got: C2 rowers, free weights and plenty of room around the Star and Life Fitness equipment.
So apart from dropping the barbells I can do most WODs except pull-ups as someone in some policy department decided that pull-up bars are against humanity.

Strength
– Shoulder Press 5-5-5-5-5  (115)

Metcon
5 rounds of
– 5 shoulder press (95lbs)
– 25 double unders
TIME: 7:40

Endurance
Tabata Rowing for distance (750m)

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Game of Thrones WOD

Posted on April 4, 2012 by

I was watching the new season of the Game of Thrones and thought there ought to be a WOD as fierce as the series. There is everything in the Universe and it seems also on the internet. Here is one of the Game of Thrones WODs I found and it seems there are some others. I think the best way to measure success is how far in the episode you fail the WOD. Based on the various versions out there I created mine below. I lasted this WOD for 22:47. Pretty tough and you’ve gotta pay attention to every word… I wish I did it fresh and not after another WOD…

GAME OF THRONES WOD
As long as possible during an episode. Perform movement for every mention/showing of the trigger words. WOD stops if movements cannot be finished by the next trigger.
– King  – 10 burpees
– Queen – max one-handed pushups
– Ned Stark – 10 jumping jacks
– Stark children – 5 jumping jacks
– Any Lannister son – 10 tuck jumps
– Any Targaryen  – 10 pushups
– “Winter is coming” – 50 sit-ups
– “Lannister pays his debts” – 50 squats
– White walker or Wildling – 20 bench dips
– Anyone killed – 10 leg levers
TIME: 22:47

REGULAR WOD
21-15-9
– Rowing calories
– Ring pushups
– Cleans (115lbs)
TIME: 14:51
then
30-20-10
– Situps
– Push Presses (65)
TIME: 3:05

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Home Advantage

Posted on April 3, 2012 by

After a weekend of snowboarding I got to skip the air squats today… Spring now starts the season of endurance training and some fun races…

Warmup
1000m row

Strength
Clean Pulls @ 165lbs

MetCon
25 pullups
50 situps
50 pushups
25 push presses @ 75lbs
TIME: 4:45

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CrossFit Life Lesson 17 – Go Back to the Basics

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

Some of the lessons from the Olympic Lifting certification finally started to sink in. Coach Burgener’s instructions point way beyond lifting and help us get back to the basics in other aspects of our training and maybe our life.

When dealing with the highly complex lifts, the trainers remind us that ‘if you can jump you can snatch’, which is to say – ‘you can do it unless you are making this harder than it really is’. This is true of a lot of new beginnings and learnings. We should all get back to the basics. If the complete lift is too complicated, they encourage us to go back to the parts of the lift and start again from ‘high hang position’. It helps us return to Square One. There are so many situations in life when just taking a deep breath and going back to simple steps could solve more problems and avoid the pain…

In relationships going back to the basics might be just listening. Or when we get stuck with a big problem, we should ask ourselves: ‘what am I really trying to accomplish here? what is my outcome?”. Many times making the challenge smaller helps too; like snowboarding this weekend I didn’t need to worry about coming down a mile of icy moguls on the mountain, only remembering the basics of turning left and right…

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