Do you guys remember back on 8/18 when we did Kalsu? The GYG was slightly confused, so they did it different than the way it was intended. LUCKY THEM, Kalsu came up again, and Bill was right there to make sure everyone knew how it was really supposed to go.

Basically, do 100 thrusters. (60/40kg)
Stop at the top of every minute and do 5 burpees
If you can't finish your 5 burpees within the minute, you're OUT (like the fat kid in dodge ball)
20:00 cut off (because we don't like to watch you suffer)

Before I even made it to the Fort last night, the chatter about the WOD was already flying. The GYG got a taste of Kalsu, and they didn't like it. "Holy Suckness" was the comment on the white board. I heard reports that Garth flopped onto the floor mid-burpee, and laid there for a full 10 seconds....the other GYG members thought he died.  Did anyone stop working out to make sure he was ok? That's the real question.

Great job last night you guys! Nobody did the workout as rx'd.....but somewhere in a far, far away land there are CrossFitters that do this workout rx'd. Let's all keep striving to get to Far Far Away so we can join the REAL CrossFit Fire Breathers.

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"but we just did Helen!"

Check your books guys...the last time we did Helen was 9/11....almost a full month ago. We gotta repeat these workouts so we can tell if they're working.

I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but the weather yesterday was pretty crappy. Some of our earlier classes had sunny skies, but the later evening classes had to suffer through 45mph winds and rain. Due to the weather, some of our classes did Helen in a boat, and others did it with running. It was JUST MY LUCK that Bill decided the 7PMers looked tough enough to run in the rain. The only problem with running in the rain is that it doesn't only hurt all areas of exposed skin....it hurts my soul.

The 6PM ladies class is now officially changing it's name to the 6PM PR Party! You ladies all did amazing! Beth set a new PR by 3:00! Holy Moly is that awesome! Our girl Staci is riiiight there with her pull-ups, and did Helen at the RX'd kettle bell weight, and only used the purple band. Ladies, I'm not sure if you know this, but Boyd is going to give ONE DOLLAR to the next lady to get an unassisted pull-up! THAT'S RIGHT! ONE DOLLAR! Who's going to be the lucky lady to win Boyd's dollar??

ANNOUNCEMENT: There will be a substitute coach at the ladies class tomorrow. I will be out of town visiting a customer in Houston, so Bill is going to do the honors of coaching the 6PM ladies class. Feel free to force him to say "nipples" and "heeeeey" when he's coaching. After all, it's only fair that we keep things consistent for you ladies.

The Ladies ROCK the KB swings

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Does everyone remember playing red rover when you were little? I definitely do. I'd stand there holding hands with my team mates, trying to pick out the scrawniest, skinniest kids to run between so I was sure to "break the line". If you don't "break the line", you were doomed to them join the opposing team.

CrossFit Red Rover is played just a little differently. Since we are all adults, and all STRONG, running into each other at full speed isn't such a good idea. Instead we did the following:

In teams of 3
Person A does 10 burpees
Person B does 10 kettle bell swings
Person C sprints 50 meters

One point is awarded for every successful sprint. The sprinter cannot run until both the burpees and the KB swings have been completed. Person C can only switch tasks with A or B when standing next to them. (KB swings and Burpees were set up at either end of the parking lot)

Clear as mud? Just swing, burpee, then run. Get as many runs as possible in 20:00, and the championship belt is YOURS!

After 20:00, we had 3 teams tied! We had to institute a sudden death show down, where each of our 3 tied teams does 1 more round.

It was no surprise that Brian was beside himself with glee when he saw all the running. Would you guys believe that in all the Team Saturdays that Brian has attended, yesterday was his first time with the belt? UNREAL! Brian my friend, we have wronged you. I know you an I were close to the belt once, but my dizziness and nausea along with Pete and Beth's dominance put us in 2nd place. Great job claiming the title yesterday!

A Brian pyramid

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What better way to spend your Friday night than at the Fort?

Press

3-3-3-3

How are your press numbers coming along? Anyone feeling like they are PR'ing all over the place, but your press is stagnant? This isn't a terribly uncommon problem to have. Developing our strength in the press is kind of a slow process. One thing that will help are the fractional plates that we recently purchased. They are neon colors, and you can find them between the bar racks. If you've tried pressing 60kg's a bajillion times and it goes nowhere, step it back down to 59.75kg's; you now have that ability! Once you are outside of beginner-land, PR's aren't going to happen every time you walk through the door. If your press numbers are stuck, use the fractional plates, work your handstand push-ups and see what happens. It's like magic.

The metcon yesterday was a chipper - my favorite! We did 1 round for time of:

10 cleans (60/40kg)
50 sit-ups
8 cleans
40 sit-ups
6 cleans
30 sit-ups
4 cleans
20 sit-ups
2 cleans
10 sit-ups
15:00 cutoff

Since full cleans were prescribed, we took the barbell off the floor, and caught it in a full squat. It's an amazing full  body movement! Know what is NOT an amazing full body movement? Anchored sit-ups. Anchoring your feet is an assistance, thus allowing for more speed. Just to be fair, we don't allow anchoring for any record board attempts. If you'd like to use anchored sit-ups in one of the daily WODs, go for it! Just be aware that you're altering the movement slightly, just like kipping pull-ups alter the movement slightly from dead-hang pull-ups. If you want to do what MOST people at the Fort are doing, do unanchored. If you want to go really fast, do anchored. Personally, I vote for unanchored. When you are 87 and have to sit up in bed, do you want to have to search for something to hook your feet under to stabilize you enough to sit up?

Connie shows us her triple extension

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Are you ladies getting excited for our Ladies Only Event? I AM! I have been pimping our day of fun to local businesses trying to get some prizes donated, and a lot of cool things have come our way! I am officially changing the name of the event. The October 17th's ladies day will officially be referred to as an EVENT rather than a COMPETITION. I have WAY too many cool prizes to give them all to just one winner. The tentative time for the event is from 11:00 - 1:00. We'll play some games, answer trivia, discuss nutrition THE GIRLY WAY, and round out the day with a team WOD. Gentlemen, know what this means? Team Saturday on 10/17  is very likely to be lady-less, so prepare to unleash your Spartan fury! Bill will have something special planned for Team Sausage Fest Saturday.

Yesterday our strength work was back squat. We were working heavy sets of 5 for 3 rounds. I have to say, we have some amazingly strong squatters at the Fort. We have a "Strong-like-ox" alert! Our new up-and-comer, Heath, back squatted 100kg's for 5 reps! Excellent job Heath!

One of the cues I like to use when I'm coaching the back squat is to tell the ladies to stick their butt back like "Heeeeey!" Unlike our other squats, we back squat with an intentional forward lean in our torso. The best way to get the proper lean is to stick your butt WAAAAAY back so your weight is fully on your heels before squatting. Say it with me ladies, "Heeeeey!"

The Metcon yesterday was:

21-15-9
Dead lift (125/85kg)
burpees
knees to elbows

After our run-in with Angie on Tuesday, the last thing our hands wanted to see was heavy dead lifts and knees to elbows. Know what we WERE glad to see? MATT WELTZER! It was a wonderful surprise to walk into the fort last night and see our buddy back.

The Garth Show....he's so dreamy.

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Sorry I missed the workout yesterday! I have committed myself to being at my full time job until 11PM on the last day of every month, and I couldn't break away long enough to come workout last night. Sounds like I missed a fun workout!

Clean

3-2-1-1-1

I love the opportunity to set a new single rep max on cleans, and apparently so do you guys! Dave, Season, Kris and Bethy all set new PR's yesterday on their cleans! Congratulations!

Once the cleaning was over, the metcon was a repeat from late August:

AMRAP in 20:00 of
5 thrusters (60/40)
7 hang power cleans
10 sumo dead lift high pulls

After a month of busting your butts, a lot of people PR'd on the metcon by racking up some additional rounds this time through.  (evil laugh) IT'S WORKING, IT'S REALLY WORKING!

It's great to see that our Leslie is still pushing hard and continuing to come throughout her pregnancy. Check out her adorable baby bump!

Her hump, her lovely baby lump

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Really GYG? You guys are nutso. The workout yesterday was "Angie":

100 pull-ups
100 push-ups
100 sit-ups
100 squats

All movements must be completed before moving on to the next movement. In order to make the record board, you MUST complete the movements in that order. Our GYG finished the workout amazingly fast, but then went on to say that "we think we can do the workout faster tomorrow". This is a bad idea, in case you're wondering. If your hands didn't tear yesterday, they'll tear today if you try and rep out 100 pull-ups. I love you guys, but let's try and stay grounded in reality.

Know what's reality? KELLI DOING 20 CONSECUTIVE PULL-UPS. Know what else is reality? KELLI SETTING A PR BY 16:00! Her old time was just over 40:00, and last night she completed this challenging workout in 24:21....exactly one second faster than I finished! Congratulations Kelli!

Another congratulations goes out to Brittany. Last night was her first attempt at going through this workout as prescribed. Somewhere around pull-up number 60, her right hand just erupted. Brittany wouldn't be defeated, and she kept going even though her hand was bloody. Oh, and I saw that you put gloves on for like a minute...don't think that escaped me. Great job pushing through girlfriend!

Even though I'm cheering for Brittany for pushing through, a callous tear is an injury. Let's all practice good hand maintenance to minimize tearing our hands. Tons of chalk + big kipping + not well maintained hands = torn hand.

Lo-Man contemplates what he got himself into

I hope everyone has been keeping an eye on the Better Body Challenge....the competition is FIERCE! I know we have a lot of people with double digit weight loss at this point, and they're still going strong! I'm hoping to get updated pictures from our participants in the next week so that we can show off everyone's progress at the half way point. You guys are doing amazing! Keep up the good work!

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