snatch Friday!

CONDITIONING
3 rounds:
15 chest-to-bar pullups
15 overhead squats @ 45lbs barbell

good stuff! pullups unbroken in rounds 1 and 2

WOD
"Isabel" w/25lbs weight vest
30 barbell snatch for time

5:54 @ 95lbs barbell w/25lbs vest

Seriously fun! The vest makes you really work your hamstrings during the second pull. Nice challenge to round out the week!

Watch as Josh Everett crushes "Isabel" below (worth a gander for the textbook split-snatch 15 seconds in):



Have a great weekend y'all!

history

"History is philosophy teaching by examples."
- Thucydides

Sun could set suddenly on superpower as debt bites by Niall Ferguson.


REST DAY!

28 July 2010

Took an long and somewhat leisurely warm-up to work out the kinks and soreness...

CONDITIONING
3 rounds:
5 L-sit pullups
10 GHD situps
1 KB carry (suitcase, rack, & overhead) @ 1 pood KBs

fun!

STRENGTH
4 rounds:
6 snatch-drip deadlift
2 sled drag (fwd/back) @ 225lbs

Deadlifts at 135-135-155-155-155
Yep that's 5 rounds... I was having so much fun I had to do an extra one! Heavy but not overly so. All unbroken save last set. Low back felt good throughout.

A MUST READ

The S.E.C. (Securities and Exchange Commission) says it no longer has to comply with Freedom Of Information requests. Un-freaking-believable.

27 July 2010

Woke up with sore hamstrings and shoulders... otherwise feeling good. Showed up at the gym with my coffee in hand, ready to have some fun!

GYMNASTICS
3 rounds:
10 pullups (kipping)
1 wheelbarrow walk
1 handstand wall walk

fun!

STRENGTH
barbell press
10-10-10-10

75-75-95F(6)-85F(6)
weak, need more work here...

WOD
20 tire jumps
1 sandbag carry (around gym) @ 40lbs sandbags
12 dumbbell snatch @ 45lbs DB

5:17 rx'd. Fun one. Felt good!

A good read: The Power of an Enriched Environment at Mark's Daily Apple.

And just because, Dutch cleans heavy:

smackdown

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
- John Adams

Oliver Stone's bull$h!t taken to task here. Outstanding.

26 July 2010

We worked strength this morning at SICFIT Austin.

GYMNASTICS
3 rounds:
10 ring pushups
10 pullups (no kip)
10 ring dips (no kip)
1 KB carry (suitcase, rack, & overhead)

Fun! All unbroken except round 3's ring dips...

STRENGTH
barbell backsquat
4-4-4-4

155-155-165-165
Feeling good!

playing with the tribe

Nope not the Cleveland Indians, I went down to the AHS track to do weight vest strength training and a workout, and ran into Bonita and her crew setting up! So I did an abbreviated version (max reps time 3 instead of max reps times 5) with the weight vest and then jumped in and did their WOD. Good stuff!

STRENGTH
with 25lbs weight vest:
max parallel bar dips x3
max strict pullups x3

dips: 17-14-9
pullups: 12-9-6
not great numbers but not bad

WOD
for time:
800 meter run
25 burpees
15 SDHP @ 75lbs barbell
800 meter run
25 pullups
400 meter run
100 double-unders

19:11 rx'd. Great start to the weekend - thanks to Bonita for bringing the barbells!

Father Mike's prayer

“Lord, take me where You want me to go,
let me meet who You want me to meet,
tell me what You want me to say,
and keep me out of Your way.”

- prayer by Father Mychal Judge
FDNY Chaplin killed September 11, 2001

23 July 2010

"Rest: the sweet sauce of labor."
- Plutarch


Rest day. Overslept this morning. Got in late from the office and forgot to set the alarm last night... consecutive days with approx 5 hours of sleep a night caught up with me. Took it easy today. I'll be back at it tomorrow.

22 July 2010

STRENGTH
dumbbell press
5-5-5
used 40 lbs DBs for all three sets, felt solid

dumbbell split-jerk
3-3-3
used 50lbs DBs for all three sets, good stuff! (bout time for some heavier DBs at the gym)

WOD
3 rounds for time:
21 DB swing @ 50lbs
10 renegade rows (1 pushup & left/right row = 1 rep) @ 30lbs DBs
10 pullups

8:45 rx'd

Lots of shoulders today... good rest for my legs!

Dan the man!

The indomitable Dan Cnossen got some good press recently in the Topeka Capital-Journal. Some excerpts are below, but the whole article is a quick read and worth your time. Check it out.

Standing on his own legs, Lt. Dan Cnossen used to be about 5 feet, 9 inches tall. Now on his two mechanical legs, he is roughly the same height.

Somehow, though, he seems to stand taller....

Cnossen's story is known to Topeka by now. The Shawnee Heights High School graduate lost both his legs Sept. 7, 2009, when an improvised explosive device detonated near him as he led a patrol in Afghanistan. With that incident and subsequent surgeries, Cnossen earned the unwanted distinction as the only double above-the-knee amputated Navy SEAL in history.

"He could have been depressed, he could have whined and complained," Landers said. Instead, he kept his emotions in check and forged ahead. Impatient to the wait for new legs, he took to a hand-cranked bike and rode a half-marathon a mere four months after the explosion. Then he rode from Miami to Key West.

And just last month, he put on his mechanical legs, grabbed his lightweight canes and pounded out six miles in a New York road race, the Achilles Hope & Possibility run....

While living near the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland, he often drives himself into the hills in Virginia, straps on his mechanical legs that require 30 percent more power to use than regular legs and hikes for hours.

He isn't without setbacks and still has some internal injuries for which he will have to re-enter the dreaded surgery room. Those are just bumps in the road, Landers said. What comes next, who knows. Riding an upright bike is a goal. So is running.

All these things are happening so fast, Landers sometimes has to remind herself — it hasn't even been a year since the explosion.

photo credits: the Topeka Capital-Journal


For more on Dan Cnossen's story, read his blog: http://www.dancnossen.org/

HOOYAH Dan! You are inspiring sir!

21 July 2010

Mark and I showed up at SICFIT Austin this morning thinking programs were back on. Oops. Coach Nate didn't mind us getting a workout in so we ahead sans Jeremy!

STRENGTH
back squat
5-5-5-5-5

135-155-155-155-155
felt solid at 155lbs (my bodyweight) and my lower back is prob 95% recovered, easy day!

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the back squat. What's not bueno in this photo? His knees are bowing in, which can happen at heavy weights, but it's far from ideal...


WOD
5 rounds for time:
5 power cleans @ 135lbs
1 sled drag fwd/bkwd @ 160lbs

9:12 rx'd. Feeling good!

be dangerous

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
- T.E. Lawrence


photo credit unknown

games day!!

“Victory is reserved for those willing to pay it's price.”
- Sun Tzu

http://live.crossfit.com/

never let any setback stop you

Erasmus' principles on
"How to be Strong While Remaining Virtuous in a Dangerous World"
7. NEVER LET ANY SETBACK STOP YOU IN YOUR QUEST.
We are not perfect – This only means we should try harder.

Jon posted all twenty-two over at Barbells and Bacon, go check 'em out.

The stage is set...

Good luck to all the athletes from CrossFit Central competing in the 2010 CrossFit Games! Y'all are already champions!

I'd also like to see Chris Spealler win this year... dude is awesome!

Rest day!

14 July 2010

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."
- Thomas Edison

SKILL/10K HOURS CONDITIONING
2 rounds:
10 overhead squats @ 45lbs barbell
10 pull-ups
10 ring dips
20 lunges (10 L/R)
10 KB swings @ 1.5 pood
10 KB sumo-deadlift high-pull @ 1.5 pood

WOD
5 rounds for time:
power clean @ 115lbs barbell
sled drag fwd/back @ 160lbs

My time was 7:08. Fun one!

13th of July 2010

Still working out the kinks in my lower back. Seriously, I'm way too young to have a "back problem." So, with the low back a little tight, and this morning my shoulders were pretty sore from all the handstand push-up work yesterday, I wasn't thrilled to see shoulders on the menu for today's training. But what's life without a little challenge?

STRENGTH
barbell press
1-1-1-1-1

barbell push-press
2-2-2-2-2

barbell push-jerk
3-3-3-3-3

press: 95-100-105F-100-105F
not a great start, actually quite disappointed with this, I've done heavier strict press before...

push-press: 110-125-130-135-140
as soon as I switched to push-press I started feeling better

push-jerk: 130-135-140F(x2)-140-145F(x2)
shoulders were getting fatigued here, but my technique felt better, so I'm happy with these numbers, really wanted 145lbs x3 though... next time!

All in all, a pretty good training session.

George Steinbrenner passed away today at the age of 80. Love him or hate him, he took an already storied baseball team and made it the most successful and well known brand in the world.


RIP George.

attitude is everything

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will."
- Vince Lombardi

The following article is a must read. This outstanding soldier is a living example of the power of attitude...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/nyregion/04soldier.html

Big Mike goes over supplements in this installment of Tasty F'ing Meals!

Visit sicfit.com for more Videos

learning lessons the hard way

My favorite recurring minor injury is back: a lower back muscle strain. Over the last two days I've had a couple of trips to the chiro, and done a lot of trigger point work. So I was feeling good this morning during the warm up...

STRENGTH/SKILL
full barbell snatch
5-5-5

65-65-65
I stayed light to save my back and work technique, felt OK throughout, and was confident going into the workout...

WOD
21-15-9
full barbell snatch
pull-ups

DNF. 7 reps into round one my back started to seize up. But I'm stubborn so I kept going... just very, very slowly. One rep at a time slowly. I wasn't even breathing hard, I was just being stupid and trying to work through the pain. After I completed the 15 round Jeremy stopped me.

So, I'm going to be smart and take a recovery weekend. I'm not taking it "off" though. I will be eating clean, stretching, and hitting the trigger point kit a minimum of 3 times a day. I'm gonna be sleeping in too!


If you're out and about tomorrow morning come by SICFIT Austin for the Black & Red Challenge. I'll see ya there (as a spectator of course)!

The CrossFit Journal recently profiled four CrossFit Games competitors from CrossFit Central. See the interviews with Lindsey Smith, Carey Kepler, Jen Cardella, and Jessica Sharratt right here.

Have a great weekend y'all!

persistence

“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."
- Babe Ruth


Rest day!

Tuesday 06 July 2010

Woke up sore... again. The "hurts to move" kinda sore. Yesterday's tabata deadlifts rocked my world. Got in some foam roller work before class and warm-ed up well albeit slowly, then got into what should have been a quick workout.

WOD
3 rounds for time:
20 kettlebell swing @ 1 pood
20 kettlebell snatch
20 kettlebell clean
400 meter run

DNF. I had to stop after round 2. My hamstrings, butt and lower back were not happy even after the warm-up, and in the middle of round 2 my lower back got really tight. I felt bad for stopping mid-workout, but going on would have just been stupid and inviting injury. So, with some pointers from Jeremy I did some more foam roller work while the rest of the guys finished the WOD a got a short breather.

I then jumped back into class to see how I could do with today's strength work...

STRENGTH
dumbbell split-jerk
5-5-5-5-5

35lb DBs-40-45-50-50

Not bad! I've never really done the split-jerk before, but the technique and the weights felt solid. Nice to end on an up note.

Just gotta keep rolling out my back...

Big Mike is back with his latest Tasty F'ing Meal!

Visit sicfit.com for more Videos

deadly Monday

Woke up sore from Friday's back squats yet again. Ahhh DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) my old frienemy... My hamstrings got no rest today!

WOD 1
4 rounds for time:
8 sandbag cleans @ 80lbs
20 box jumps
200 meter run

10:47 Good one. Legs felt like they were filled with lead after the first round...

WOD 2
tabata deadlifts @ 185lbs barbell
8 rounds of 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

13-9-7-6-4-4-3-4

Smoker! I was toast at the end of this. Another great training day!

independence day weekend

The year 1776 was the first time in history that anyone wrote down the words that declare: "We hold these truths to be self evident..." As the current stewards of those revolutionary principles, our independence day is truly a day to celebrate! Happy 4th of July y'all! Enjoy your weekend!



IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

le Tour 2010

Go Lance!

ass kicking Friday

And it was mine that got kicked! I strolled into the gym feeling pretty good after a day off. JT took care of that in a hurry! ;)

After warming up we broke out the kettlebells...

CONDITIONING
3 rounds
5 dual kettlebell clean & press @ 20kg KBs
1 wheelbarrow walk

Fun! Feeling good at this point...

WOD
5 rounds for time:
10 bodyweight back squats
15 ring dips

19:20 at 150lbs barbell. This just flat out crushed me. Well, honestly, the back squats did. I completed all 5 sets of ring dips unbroken. The squats were a different story. I had to break 'em up into pathetically small groups (the last round being 5 sets of 2!). That was the toughest thing I've done at SICFIT Austin thus far. Big thanks to Jeremy and the guys in class for pushing me through!

called or not called...

"Vocatus Atque Non Vocatus Deus Aderit"
- Carl Jung's epitaph

Rest day!

Check out John Welbourn's post "Be Smart" on his kick-ass new blog: Talk To Me Johnnie.