Yesterday’s workout was short and sweet. We started with 3 sets of 3 on our thrusters. The idea is to go heavy and really challenge yourself on the strength workout.

After our blast of strength work, we did a short metcon:

10-8-6-4-2
Pull-ups
High box jumps

This workout is VERY short, and should take you less than 4:00 to complete. The idea was to try and finish in 2:00 if you could. CrossFit is supposed to prepare us for ANYTHING guys. We need to train in all different realms; 25 minute sweat fests, 10 minute killers and even the occasional 2:00 blasts. For those of you that felt the metcon was “too easy” my guess is that you didn’t go fast enough, or your box jumps weren’t high enough. Don’t rest. Not even once. Never ever stop moving for 2:00 and just GET IT DONE. And trust me…if you finish this workout in around 2:00 you’re getting plenty of work! Maybe what you don’t realize is that your body is getting better at recovering from these metcons, so you only have the ILLUSION that you’re not getting enough work.

For those of you sad that you didn’t get a longer metcon yesterday, make sure to hit one of the evening classes at the Fort tonight. I am officially naming tonight’s workout “read it and weep”, but that’s all I’ll tell you.

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Dear Karen,

Again? Seriously? Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson this time KAREN. How does that old saying go? Once shame on you, twice SHAME ON ME!? Well right now Karen, that’s how I feel about YOU. People are unable to walk, and their shoulders hurt a LOT today because of you. Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted? You must get some kind of twisted pleasure out of watching people suffer. Anyways, I have to go take some Advil. I’ll talk to you later you evil jerk.

PS – I’m un-friending you on Facebook

Love,
CrossFit Fire

The workout yesterday was (as you may have guessed) Karen. Karen is 150 wall ball shots for time. Men use a 20lb ball, and women use the 14lb ball. There’s a certain amount of mental toughness that you need to do this workout. It isn’t overly difficult…just squat and throw. However, after about the first 30 you’re breathing heavy, and staring at that target thinking, “dammit I have 120 more to go!” We had everyone scale either the reps or the size of their ball to keep the workout around the 10:00 realm. Everyone did great!

Know what else is great? Pregnant ladies. Mariah is absolutely amazing. She is about 7 months pregnant, and still coming to the Fort and kicking some serious butt. I tell her all the time that I’m glad she’s CrossFitting while pregnant first….it lets me experiment on her so I know what to expect! Tee hee. There’s just something amazing about watching a pregnant lady back squatting and throwing a medicine ball 10 feet above her head. As my sister told Mariah once, “you’re the toughest pregnant lady I know. When I was pregnant I used it as an excuse to sit on the couch and eat pudding.”

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We have some STRONG PEOPLE at the Fort! Yesterday our strength work was 3 sets of 3 push press. Many of you set PR’s! Congratulations! It’s great to see everyone making continuous improvement. Our metcon yesterday was a short 10:00 blast. The workout was: 

AMRAP in 10:00 of

1 TALL box jump
4 chest to bar pull-ups
4 clapping push-ups 

Bill asked everyone to really challenge themselves on the box jumps. If you usually use the 20” box, step it up to the 24” box. It was great to see everyone leaping onto the boxes! It’s a mental struggle for some people to make that jump. We’ve all seen the videos, and watched each other miss a box jump that leaves us with hurty shins. Believe me I know first hand how much it hurts to miss the box. The key is to just jump. Don’t over think it or you’ll psych yourself out. It took about 7 minutes of coaxing, but even Barbie jumped onto the 24” box yesterday! ATTA GIRL! If you’ve met Barbie, you know the 24” box is damn near up to her waist. You’re tiny, but we love you.

I would like to congratulate our latest ramp-up class on successfully completing the program. You can expect to see four new faces in our group classes in the upcoming days. Let’s welcome Ryan, Jeanne, Jessica and Todd!

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Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls, children of ALL AGES!! CrossFit Fire crowned new Team Saturday champions yesterday! (crowd roaring) Our reigning team champions lost due to forfeit. (crickets chirping....crowd booing) Pete, we really missed you on Saturday. While Tom and Dave were ecstatic to take ownership of the championship belt and this week's bragging rights, it's just not the same if it comes by forfeit. I'll be honest though...Tom and Dave DUMBINATED Saturday's workout. The workout was AMRAP in 30:00 of:

14 deadlift (90/60kg)
14 knees to elbows
14 burpees

Tom and Dave got just over 4 rounds higher than the next closest team. They were like two energizer bunnies...both hurting tremendously but unwilling to quit! You two did phenomenal! You're both so modest and humble about your win too...

I'm kind of sad that I only have one championship belt. All our teams bust their BUTTS every Saturday, and I wish you could all be winners! My first nomination for a new belt is, "Most leaking from the face while working out". Our winners this week would be Tony and Renato. Those boys make a sweaty spray...that just lets me know they're trying hard enough!

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What a fantastic Friday we had! I want everyone to give a big welcome to Nicole - she's currently going through ramp-up, and will be joining our regular classes soon! WELCOME GIRLFRIEND!

The workout yesterday was one of my personal favorites - heavy cleans! We did 5 sets of 2, working our way up to our new 2 rep max. If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, this is a HARD movement. Please don't let it frustrate you if you can't pick up the bar and clean like a pro your first night. I've been working my cleans for a year and a half, and they can still use a lot of work.

After our cleans we got to work some sprints! Some of our classes opted to run while others rowed. The Metcon was:

5 rounds
100m sprint
2:00 rest

If you were rowing, you were doing 125 meters instead of 100. Everyone did a great job! I coached the 6PM class, and you guys wouldn't BELIEVE how good your rowing is looking. Nice explosive pulls followed by controlled returns of the handle. Smooth you guys....smooth. Not Boyd smooth, but close.

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At least that's what I kept telling Renato. "It's not going to be that bad. We'll get through it nice and fast". (this is the part where Renato looked at me like I was a big liar) The strength work yesterday was 3 sets of 3 front squats. The PR train was rolling through the Fort AGAIN! I forgot how much I liked lifting heavy...we went too long without this kind of fun!

After our front squats, we did 75 thrusters for time. (35/25kg) Hey, it could have been worse. It could have been BURPEES.

Thrusters and front squats are unique in that they uncover a lot of bizarre ailments and inflexibility issues that you don't see in a normal WOD. You could be the strongest guy in the whole gym, but not be able to front squat properly because of forearm flexibility issues. I have found that it helps to roll the bar all the way back until it touches your throat. It should be resting nicely on your little shoulder shelf. Then just take a loose grip on the bar. No need to put the Vulcan death grip on the thing...just keep 2 fingers on it and VOILA! This usually helps most people get their elbows a couple inches higher.

By the way, where WERE you guys yesterday? It was a really light day at the Fort.

I'd like to gather some suggestions for a CrossFit Fire phrase. Something short and simple that speaks to the atmosphere at our gym. I'm hoping for a unique saying, maybe something even t-shirt worthy that can serve as our inspiration. You know how Notre Dame players slap that sign as they run out onto the field before their games? I want something like that for the Fort. Any suggestions? I'm looking for 2 phrases.

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Bill was so nice yesterday! He gave us about 4 different ways to scale the workout. Personally, I really like his new idea of giving people a time to shoot for. Complete this workout in 11:00 - 15:00...scale as needed. Don't get me wrong, it totally makes my brain hurt, but I really like this kind of training.

For anyone who wasn't at the Fort yesterday, you really missed out! The PR train was rolling! Almost every single person who did their deadlift strength work yesterday set a PR. There are just too many people to mention! You guys are doing great! This is exactly the kind of progress we want to see from everyone. Obviously we're doing something right, so let's keep this rolling! Ahem...maybe it has something to do with the fact that our CrossFitters are eating better? Hmm?

Before the WOD, we worked up to single rep max on our deadlift. The WOD was:

21-15-9
push press (60/40)
burpees
ring dips
row (for calories)

For some people, they chose to use a lighter weight so they finished in the desired time frame. Other people went with less reps (12-9-6) but still used the prescribed weights.

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