a big thanks

This weekend proved pretty hectic-as well as our usual classes-we had a small gym warming party-thanks to all my guys it was great to see you all. A special thanks to the gentlemen in the photo (Colm and Will) who travelled over from CrossFit Ireland http://www.crossfit.ie/

for the weekend and went through a fairly horrible bear complex too, as well as the CrossFit Manchester gang http://crossfitmanchester.com/
and Chet from the functional fitness forum FuncKey
http://www.funckey.co.uk
Great to see you all and thanks again.

Mashup!

So tonight I split the group in two-half did Helen (although a bit scaled for yvonne) and the other half did the Kettlebell bear complex from wednesday-Nice!!

Kettlebear complex.

Tonights 6pm class was all about Kettlebells-normally a bear complex will involve Olympic lifts but instead the work was performed with a Kettlebell and done with one arm then the other
5 Suitcase Deadlitfs
5 Clean and press
5 Overhead squat
5 Push press
5 Front squat

best tonight was Leon with 8 rounds in ten minutes-good work!!

Beatings will continue until morale improves

Last nights wod at the Sidney Walters was Barbara-20 chin up (we subbed jumping chins) 30 pressups, 40 sit ups and 50 squats. This is repeated 5 times with a three minute break in between
Times
Leon 5.23 9.19 6.26 6.23
Paul 4.24 4.25 4.59 5.35 5.47
John 4.46 5.09 6.32 6.40 6.32
Simon 3.43 5.01 6.40 7.20 7.27
James 4.56 5.12 6.41 6.16 6.01
Christine 5.53 5.20 6.33 6.06 6.29

Fastest overall was Paul, fastest single round was Simon with 3.43
Good work gang

Or is it?

Lisbeth Darsh the owner/trainer of Crossfit Watertown http://www.crossfitwatertown.com/ always writes a lucid and well informed website-this piece was written as a counter to the article mentioned in the blog below-see what you think.
http://crossfitwatertown.typepad.com/index/2008/03/crossfit-prepar.html

It's a Cult!

There's a little bit of discussion as to whether what we do and how we do it is a cult-http://themedium.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/in-this-weeks-magazine-gods-workout/
This article is from the NY times-decide for yourself-or have a look at this video from CrossFit North.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pqBNPNcR9c

This mornings WOD

Something to do after the Easter Eggs!

Fgb principle-5mins work and 1 minute rest x3

Press ups

Sit ups

Kettlebell swings

Good mornings

Box jumps

Well done to Leon this morning-he's not encountered the fight gone bad timing system before-good effort!

It's good to be back!

Thanks to everybody who was so welcoming and hospitable on our roadtrip-if you get the chance to have a "CrossFit holiday" its a great thing to do.

Neil Foley put me through a bear complex-20 minutes of Deadliftx5 Powercleanx5 Front squatx5 Push pressx5 and back squatx5-it wasn't particularly heavy but this cycle repeated for twenty minutes is especially gruelling-thanks Neil!

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_TheBear.wmv

Davie Easton and I worked a fgb principle 5mins of work, 1 min rest x3 of Spartans (a large tyre flip followes by jumping in and out) Farmers walks, Turkish get-ups, rowing and ring press ups.

Lastly we stopped into manchester on friday and did nasty girls-truly horrible-thanks Karl!

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/051204.wmv

Roadtrip!

Sorry, we're closed for a week-we're heading upto Scotland-via CFmanchester http://crossfitmanchester.com/and will be training with Neil Foley on sunday at CF Scotland http://www.crossfitscotland.co.uk/ and seeing Davie Easton at CF Central Scotland http://www.crossfitcs.com/
Hope everybody has a good easter if I don't see them on Easter sunday at 11.00
Take care Miles

Tonights WOD

A short sharp one tonight

21-15-9

Burpees

Sumo deadlift hi-pull

Kettlebell swings

Press ups

Mixed bag

Yesterdays classes were a combination of the WOD which was Micheal (800 run/row 50 glute/ham 50 sit ups for three rounds) We substituted the row for the run as the weather was filthy yesterday and did Good mornings to work the hamstring glute area instead.

The later class covered Lynne (body weight bench press and chin ups for max reps for five rounds) We scaled the bench prees down a little too-it's important with Lynne to have a rest between sets too-try it without if you don't beleive me!

Tonights Wod

Tabata something else...

"Six to 8 very hard 20 second intervals with 10 second rest periods] may be one of the best possible training protocols...." ..................Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., National Institute of Health & Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan"

Izumi Tabata' training method was applied to squats, ring jumps, pressups and sit ups, 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest for each exercise-repeated for 8 sets

For more about tabata follow the link to the Clarence Bass website.

http://www.cbass.com/SEARCHOF.HTM

Nice work tonight class-well done.

Beginners class

Tonights class covered the basic movements that help form the core of CrossFit. We looked at the squat, pressups, sit ups and deadlifts. My client has a background in martial arts and boxing-so has had some experience of core control but unfortunately little in functional lifting, yet dealt with the structure of the deadlift very well. A good start.

Tonight's WOD

Tonight we looked at scaling one of the benchmark workouts Lynne

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_LynneWOD.wmv

but applied it so it was more accessable to those with less upper body strength by scaling down the weight on the bench press and swapping the chin ups for ring rows. Good work tonight-especially for Paul who has never done any bench pressing before.

Saturday's WOD

Saturday was really all about technique in actual fact-focussing on the squat and it's big sister the overhead squat. We looked at posture, shoulder mobility, allowing the skeleton to adapt to a natural-if unfamiliar position-and how the core works in the stabilisation of the upper body when dealing with overhead loading. Some homework needs to be done by some, but actually it was all pretty good!

Helen

Tonight's wod was Helen
400m run
12 chin ups
21 swings
x3

Scaled this for the ladies-one ran the other rowed, both did swings and did ring pulls instead of chins
best girls time was Christine with 10.52
best boys time was Paul with 12.40
nice work tonight team-all progressing towards kipping chins-thank you.

Filthy Fifty

Last nights WOD was
50 Kettlebell swings
50 Sumo deadlift hi pulls
50 Press ups
50 Sit ups
50 Lunges
50 Ring pulls
50 Box jumps
50 Burpees

This was a particularly hard filthy-the combination of burpees and box jumps was very daunting-Burpees never being a favourite anyway!
thanks and well done to all those who got through it-top time was Paul's with 19.05.

Simon's Wod

Some of my clients from my classes come to me for one on one work as well, often to work on particular techniques where they need a little help or practice.
Simons workout today looked at components that help towards the muscle-up http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_FalseGrip.wmv
Dips and chins help with this movement
21-15-9
Chins
Overhead Squats 1/2 bodyweight
Dips
26.55
excellent!

CrossFit for all

Part of the beauty of CrossFit is that it is scalable and thus adaptable for all. We tweaked one of the benchmark workouts "Angie", (normally 100 sit ups, 100 press ups, 100 squats and 100 chin ups) to suit Yvonnes ability, halving the work out-so fifty of each and subbing the chins for ring pulls-where the body is held in a plank position, holding tightly to the rings, leaning back in a controlled fashion, then pulling the body back up to upright. Thanks Yvonne great work!

Saturday's Wod

Saturday classes mainly revolved around the weightlifting phase of CrossFit. So it was 5x5 for deadlifts. Everybody starting on a basic weight, and increasing with each set. Personal records were set by all. Thanks Team-Nice socks James!