Conratulations toBenon being the first guy from our Savage Society to make it onto the officialleaderboard with a Candy time of 20:53. I am toying with a spreadsheet and subpage method of putting up this leaderboard on the site. The reason it is taking so long is because there are basically two tiers of leaderboard stats that you can get on, no matter your training group. Once this Overall Leaderboard is formatted I will be posting group based ones for the workouts you perform daily so everyone can compete on a few different levels.
First of all there are the Named training benchmarks that represent a massive diversity of origins and you can expect this list to get larger as time goes on. Right now there are about 30 or 40 that are already planned to come up periodically in training and you can win a spottwo ways: Perform the workout in front of me during one of the sessions when your group meets up, or submit your score if you do the workout within the following day from when I post it. The honor system is in effect and to make your score count for the Overall Leaderboard you need to perform the training as it was originally intended (scaling is designed to bring you to a level so you can join the overall rankings, don't rush it just because you want to get on the Overall Leaderboard), this is called performing a workout as "prescribed" or "RX'd".
The second part of the Overall Leaderboard is skill dependent and involves the total package of what we want to be able to do as Savages, Crossfitters, Marines, whatever. The skills are largely broken down based on an awesome downloadable scoring system that rates your skill by 4 levels of performance standards (thank you Crossfit Seattle http://www.crossfitseattle.com/knowledge.html) which we modified and added to based on other resources (Like Crossfit Endurance http://www.crossfitendurance.com/). You can download this and other texts by following the links at the top like the one about Skill Heirarchies. If you didn't want to look at either the named workouts or this list you could still end up making the cut because all of this will eventually come up in training. If during a workout someone meets a standard for a fitness level title then they are good to go. I will definitely need help keeping an eye out for that, but I rarely miss things as I go off of those charts often. You can also pick any of those skill level tests and request the test out from me anytime you want. Just email me or call and it shall be done. This will get a lot more fun once more names get up there, it's going to be vicious once the U16 soccer players start smoke checking the fighters.
Rowing, Running, Biking: 20 minute Time Trial To begin the Crossfit Endurance based portion of training you need submit some information first. To start (even if it means walking part or all of it) I need the results of your first 20:00 Time Trial. Email them to me or post them in the current topic's comment section. Once I have that time trial information we can start adjusting all your endurance intervals and tempo training to your current ability. Watch how much progress you will see in the first 10 days of training. If you are unfamiliar with the rowing machine then follow the link for Concept 2's website, which has more technique and "getting started" content than I could wish for. I started using the rowing machine as an infrequent stimulus and now I structure sessions for myself with it by itself. The resulting progress has been an effect felt across the board and my personal logbook and PR's show it.
Training Forecast: -Skill work for this week will continue to address the olympic lifts with variations of the Burgener Warm-up that added some things to. Now that the group knows what we are using for a training format we can keep our warm-ups around 10 minutes. Expect to see three new movements that we will be working on: Kettlebell Swings, Deadlifts, and Handstand Push-ups. -The main workouts will continue to rotate based on their format and what types of training they involve. -For groups that are meeting for the first time there will be a 15:00 class prior covering the basics of safety and training concepts. This has all been reinforced through links on this page and you can expect it to evolve as we go. -For groups that have already had their first real training session there will be a brief talk before training covering everything you will be confronted with during the session. This is to get everyone thinking and developing because an education is mandatory for progress. -Expect to spend some quality time with the C2 Rower as well.
The Garage Gym: I have kept my eyes peeled and now there is too much gear in there to keep collecting stuff. I really need some help with putting down the floor, which will have tires underneath a part for olympic platform lifting needs. The rest will be a huge step in making the place more professional so people actually want to train there. I am thinking of nailing sections of plywood on the walls so that we can drill in some bouldering problems eventually. Space heater will help with the cold as well as the wall liner we are going to staple up. There is so much to do in there and most of it would take me too long to start on my own because I have been working on the site development and affiliation issues. If anyone wants to help out we could plan a day for it and really get the place set up, it would allow training here in Manchester for all kinds of crowds and would be available 24 hours. Email me or comment with any thoughts, please.
This video was on Melissa Byers site so go check it out. It has definitely snowballed into some crazy stuff and now look at how long today's post is. This video scared the crap out of me because at first glance that lady could pass as my Mom, and if it was here I would be scared to say anything about it other than "umm, good job training" because she is a short freckled Irish woman that could probably beat the piss out of all of us.
Laugh at the video and then scroll down to the madness it spawned, and make sure not to forget that John comes home in 23 days
Crossfit and Controversy Earlier I had some other stuff typed up but I decide to go right to the source of todays issues and break it apart for you. It would be great if I didn't have to give this guy any extra attention because he is pretty ignorant on social standards in addition to his comments on our training concepts but it will put things in context for you to see his site and the post he made in entirety. This all supports why I take safety and developing skills and proper technique/body mechanics so seriously, as well as why I scaled everything to as detailed a level as I can. People that put up things like this are more or less attacking more than just something we are doing to workout because so much research and source finding goes into anything before I ever use it. Hours upon hours in most cases, and then whatever program or method passes the “bullsh*& meter” gets a trial period for effective results, which is performed on myself. I am not sure if there is anything else that you could really do to make sure that people are getting the very best and professional product. Wait there is...You could teach and indoctrinate them in both what you are doing and the scientific method that tried to disprove your philosophies in the first place. You could also get the hell out of the fitness industry if you have anything but the welfare and success of your clients foremost in your head at all times. Not a second goes by that I am not trying to help everyone improve during training and in turn this helps me get better both with training you and in my own workouts. I trust what I know and work with because the only way I can do this without question is to create the most brutal process of analysis that I could.
This guys name that he posts with is called “Fatman” (irony noted) the post and the topic thread can be found at http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10966 for reference incase anyone has a problem with the context of content. I am trying my best to even give this guy, who I think is ignorant and uneducated in everything he says here, a fair answer to his statement and it bears noting that NONE OF THIS WOULD BE AN ISSUE IF THIS WAS THE PROTOCOL ALWAYS FOLLOWED. I really didn't want to get too into this but as I started typing I just couldn't stop getting more frustrated and feeling like you NEEDED the facts here and it was unnacceptable to let things go unchecked when they are so insulting on a professional and fundamental level. It is a hotly debated topic right now, and has hit mainstream media a few times recently. Before you read on please note that text from the source is italicized and emboldened to clarify where I am commenting in response (as if you needed the help).
“Ah, Crossfit. Essentially, doing a shitload of stuff within a set time frame with crappy form. Olympic lifting - again improper form, high reps (a definite NO-NO with Oly lifts). You take an untrained corporate desk-jockey and have him perform 20 clean and jerks in 3 minutes, or something. Of course the poor f***er's going to get injured.” -I am not going to try and define what “shitload of stuff” equals in the number of exercises a workout contains I think that Fran which involves only Thrusters and Pull-ups proves this a false statement. Most of the programming follows a format of singles, doubles, and triples for combinations of what stimulus to involve in training. The time frame is a way for us to compete with each other in the form of ranking as well as constantly monitor personal progress. I will never accept crappy form in anything we do. A footstrike doesn’t land in the run portion of training that we don’t fundamentally address the mechanics of so why would we administer a program involving complex weightbearing and load manipulation without the same standards? This is not just a safety thing, but a HUMAN EFFICIENCY THING.
"Pointless mixing of exercises with the sole purpose of inducing nausea. Bodyweight for high reps against the clock = good. Deadlifts for high reps against the clock = short lifting career. Check out Patrick's, EvilOne's, Dave's, cheesedog's, plenty other logs to see how it's done. Cheesedog is especially good at "Crossfit without Crossfit" type WOs." -Anything involved in training went through such a rigorous vetting process that to call it pointless is an insult professionalism and a lot of Crossfitters get so angry with their responses because to be questioned on something that is blatantly something they spent so much time working to validate ends up feeling like a kick in the balls. Bodyweight for high reps against the clock means that we scored awesome if our time happened to be small intervals. Most people I know can perform 200 bodyweight squats in a 9 hour period of time (work in a cubicle at an office?) getting up from a chair. The short lifting career would be true if someone used anything other than the technique and bodymechanics we instruct with which are backed by such a mountain of research that I don’t know where to start. Oh, we also scale every load lifted, rep number, movement type…damnit, we scale everything to the individual in minute detail! Excuse poor Coach Glassman for not wanting to do that for the millions of people that check the website for the days training, he only asks them to do a little number tweaking which can be done with a link he posted under the Crossfit Mainpage called “Start Here”.
"The old adage "Jack of all trades, blah blah" is taken to the extreme. These people take immense pride in not being very proficient at anything. C-fit is also 100% conditioning, you are never supposed to do any real strength work. This is okay for some people, depending on personal goals." -The entire quote is “Jack of all trades, masters of none”, obviously something that Coach Glassman was not the first to say and is thus not a quote 100% indicative of Crossfit. We take our level of fitness seriously, and so does the rest of the world because it affects everything you do. Crossfitters are proud because they work hard and to say they are not proficient is a terrible lie. To help the Fatman understand I would like to respond be applying a different quote to our style of training, I am not speaking for Crossfit but after being a part of their community for a while now I would like to explain using my own interpretation of how most Crossfitters would probably define what they are doing in everyday conversation with over-simplification in mind: --"We don’t care about setting a world record against athletes that care about nothing but the actual record, we care about destroying competition and working everything at the same time to develop an ability to excel in anything. To excel requires proficiency and we will work endlessly to develop this in everything we do." This is something anyone could click on the website for 15 minutes and discover. Coach Glassman is kind enough, however, to post a true definition on his website which contains quite a few resources someone starting out could read (hint hint you lazy bastards out there http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-crossfit.html) --"CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide. Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist. The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs. " -Crossfit.com The comment about strength training is completely false, especially considering the 10 aspects of fitness I posted recently. On top of that I would like to point out that a workout that comes up in their program involves single rep sets of max effort loads, so enough said on that.
"They also ridicule bodybuilders, but have a physique-oriented mentality. This has been discussed earlier in another post. They hold "functional training" in high regard, but their workouts are only "functional" for fat-melting purposes, so they find themselves in a loop of self-denial which can be summed up as follows: Bodybuilders train to look good. That's lame. We train to burn fat off and parade our chiselled midsections, using "functional" exercises like 21-rep snatches with a barbell. We're much cooler than dumb bodybuilders who also develop other muscles apart from abs. Big arms, chest, back and legs are stupid and vain. A six-pack is functional, unless it is accompanied with hypetrophied other bodyparts, in which case it is gay and bodybuilder-y." -I am tired of all the ignorance already but I will continue. Functional training is just a phrase that is used to describe stuff that makes you good at doing stuff you do outside of training. The other part of this statement is right out of grade school, but just because I am trying to be so fair bodybuilding methods are shunned because they are attempting to elicit a different form of muscle hypertrophy than us, this is fact by biological cross-section comparison. Everyone wants to look good, no one denies this at all. Crossfitters like to be ripped and jacked too, they just don’t measure progress visually or with inches on measuring tape because this does little for those of us who need our fitness to also pay dividends when people are trying to paint a wall with our brains and skull frags. I have no idea how to approach responding to this third part but I think this guy made up a word.
"Pretty much everyone on this site knows how to Crossfit better than Crossfit. Training is not a puking competition. For general fitness I guess it is okay, but as preparation for sport - a resounding NO. If you're absolutely determined to destroy your tendons and joints, my opinion is that lifting heavy weights is a much more honorable method" -Sigh, I am not going to comment on that last part. I think you get the picture and I am tired of typing. Post your thoughts in comments and lets get back to business.
Website Updates and Details: 1. I really need to know if there is some format or breakdown that anyone would like to see in the posts to make things easier to read or find content. I know they all look long and bulky so if it is a popular request I can break them into multiple different posts or whatever you think. I didn’t know the RSS feed thing was messed up so I registered us with the Feedburner website and if you click on that link you should be able to get notified of new topics and responses to your comments. Still learning.
Savage Society/Affiliate Developments: 1. Still have the Crossfit Level 2 Certification to attend next weekend (I only get to go for day two and I won’t get certified but I will learn for free and meet people) 2. I am working on both a video and physical library of resources. It includes all the Crossfit Journals, Instructional videos, books I have collected over the years, and tons of scientific research/journal articles. I want to make everything available so eventually we can make the ultimate base of our efforts here (Manchester Mills or maybe parking there sucks? Just because I have no money for affiliation doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan.)
I hope everyone had a chance to relax during Thanksgiving and heal up a little... we all know know Ben and Mike did with their strict diet regimens (containing the rough and disciplined staples of beer and hamburger fried in other fattier hamburger). All I can ask for is to have all my dear savages to be able to feast like these fellows below... This post is to update everyone on what is going on for training in the next 24 hours. I will be coming down to Nashua to train any fighters that want to come in between 6:00-7:30. Last time things ran a little bit longer but only because everyone was unfamiliar with the format of how our sessions run. If you are planning on coming in please let me know so I have something for you that is adjusted for where you are in the program. I know Nuri is taking the rest of the week off (he definitely could use a break after spending the last few months trying to set everything up down there at the gym while also trying to get married)
Also coming tonight is a materials list that covers common things that would be easily aquired if we just pay attention, we can all trash pick together.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on some more gym equipment and the next project in my queue is tobe make some kettlebell imposters out of disasembled dumbbell pieces for everyone, at least you will have something that weighs a decent and challenging weight but still allows the dynamic movements that KB's are awesome for. Still not a single spent penny on gear, which means I am either stubborn and ignorant or thrifty as hell and saving really well for a not too distance Crossfit Cert in the future. I don't know about anyone else but within a month I think we will be well on our way to an affiliated business here, the final step before I can really just start providing awesome detail to everyone's training sessions.
It is becoming important for me to hurry up and schedule a second group of training because a lot of people have been asking about it. Within the next week or so the format with what I am posting will adjust slightly with a small divider so everyone knows where to get their training assignments and submit scores head to head against other people in their own groups. So far (yeah I know it hasn't even been that long) the logs I have been keeping are working fine, but I will try and master one of the data ranking websites soon so everyone has more control over what gets put where.
So right now I am in Nashua on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:00pm onward and we will be putting any other groups that want to form around those time slots (I have no problem with other days during the week I just felt that the more exposure each group had to the others the faster the environment could be fostered where everyone is basically right at home going 110% against each other and having some serious competitive fun with it.
Last night I got some great feedback on the garage gym (soon enough we will have sessions for 2-4 people to come train here in Manchester in the morning, and I it will be available to anyone else whenever they call me and set up a schedule they would like to use it. I can can arrange things so I will be able to come by and unlock it and then whoever is using it can re-engage the lock by just twisting the lift handle so there will be no key needed really. I think everyone appreciates some privacy now and then to get crazy with some weight stacks... which I am about to go back and get to work on right now.
Justin joined the site last night and then came by and got to try some kettlebell and Slam Ball stuff. He gave the impression that it was a pretty nice set-up and had a lot of potential. Those of you that know me should understand that I would never let anyone near it unless it was a perfect training hovel that exuded a sense of being in a truly professional and thus beneficial training evironment to immerse yourselves in. I am getting all fired up thinking of the opportunities we are going to have soon. The affiliation with Crossfit comes up once agian! (When they finally let me throught their cert. I will get right to work turning the local Mom's or Average Joe's into physically mutated, car-tossing, acid spitting beasts. I am also very optimistic in regards to the Mountaineering, Rockclimbing, and Adventure Racing training group I would am pushing forward with as well. Just because mountains are big doesn't mean they are tough...I mean look at the Old Man in the Mountain, he just gave up on himself once day. The creative aspect of training groups that need a little more specificity in training (what is it they want to get out of this) is a whole I also want to keep all our doors open to one another so new guys or other group members can persue any curiosity or interest they have in a different kind of programming.
No more posting until I level more dirt floor in the garage damnit! Well this one didn't turn out to be in the "short" note family but whatever. I hope we get a good crowd tonight, I have some new and exciting stimuli for all the lab metabolic lab rats out there in the shadows (I count 15 so far under the training disciples section...mmmm sweet like protein).
This post is about the results of the first contact that I made with the Concept 2 company in regards to using their articles as resources on our site. I got and e-mail the following morning and things have definitely grown from there. I wanted to show how accomodating and supportive this lady was considering I didn't expect a reply soon or ever because Concept 2 is huge and I am a single celled organism (shut-up Justin) by comparison.
Sam, This is awesome; we’re psyched to see an affiliate in NH. We’re in VT and have a lot of the staff CrossFitting in our gym here. We’re big fans! I forwarded your information to Greg Hammond (our MMA guy) and Tracy Desrocher (our CrossFit sales manager) and they may be in touch shortly looking for more information. This is very cool! Meredith
I already told you that Greg replied to me (two posts back) and when I wrote him back the e-mail was massive. I definitely felt like I couldn't leave anything out since this was a huge opportunity for people like Meredith and Greg to even check out the site and let me know what they thought. I told both of them about how I was going to enter the photo contest with Concept 2 so we could try and win a model D rower (1st prize is a lofty goal, I know, but think about having a rower here in the garage gym...mmmm delicious). I was secretly hoping they would just tell me that they had a few lying around that they would Fed-ex to me by the following morning but I got the next best thing, an insider tip on the spread. Below is here response:
Sam, This is awesome – it sounds like you are really building up the affiliate from the ground up. It rocks! And yes, get some cool photos in the contest for that Model D giveaway. Some hints…. Would love to see people look tough & strong (and not necessarily about to puke – maybe even smiling in a “this is killing me” way) in some neat environments… anything from outside, to your basement, to the new affiliate. Get a group together doing other fitness activities in the background. Mix it up! Get some MMA fighting moves in the photo with the indoor rower in the background. Would LOVE to see that. Happy Turkey Day! -Meredith
Ok, here is my idea list so far. 1. Light myself completely on fire (like the Rage Against the Machine cover with the monk on it) and after a pheonix like rebirth we should claim our prize. 2. still thinking...
I am looking for any ideas or volunteers or anything here, I really think we could do a few pretty sicky things, maybe make Nuri wear all his belts because they mentioned trying to connect MMA and Concept 2 is a priority for them. Throw down some ideas in the comment section and see what other people think, don't be scared to comment to other people even though you might not know each other yet because the benefit of you guys accepting this as an open forum that is always developing is something I am striving to encourage.
Everyone please meet "Pukie the Clown" After last night the fighters know why this is Crossfit's mascot
Nuri decided to cancel the Thursday training session, I guess he is celebrating some waste of time holiday or something. I will continue to post new workouts for different groups as needed. Ben and Chris wanted to keep going so this would be the next session I included in the Fight Team Program.
Skill Based Warm-ups (Speedrope and wooden dowel) "Burgener Drills" for 3 rounds with 2:00 sets of speed rope inbetween them
Run for 20:00 (time trial) I really need this data before we jump into crossfitendurance.com programming so do this part first, you will also score better if you run outside and note at what intersection you stop at with a watch set for 20:00, then plot the distance on mapmyrun.com
Candy: 5 Rounds for total time 20 Pull-ups 40 Push-ups 60 Squats
If you can do 20 pull-ups then great but if it takes you 5:00 in between sets of 2 reps at a time then your score will reflect that, its by any rep scheme you need to finish the session but make sure you do it in order. 20 pullups THEN 40 Push-ups etc. Post your scores in the comments section.
Score keeping madness, I asked for it when I asked the guys who just finishd the training to record for the rest. Thank god I had video data to keep track of who was where on this poster.
Before I get to the details from last nights training I wanted to post two links from the people over at Concept 2. I was reading through the seasonal articles and saw that they have a ton of information and topics directly related to what we are doing. I have a link to the most recent publication they put out and it has a bunch of items that I would recommend for you, the three best being an article about Crossfit and Concept 2, a description and background of interval training and why it is a training staples EVERYONE should be including (research articles sited), and a brief but concise synopsis of where Tabata intervals come from (get used to that name).
A list of PDF downloads about Concept 2 and Rowing published by the Crossfit Journal, this was how I taught myself to row (in addition to recording myself on video and then devising ways to reinforce mechanical improvements) http://www.concept2cts.com/markets/crossfit/crossfitjournal.asp
Fight Team Training Results 11.25.08 Important Notes before we cover the results: First and foremost is safety. When I am training all these guys I do my best to maintain a hyper-vigilance for signs of dehydration, potential technique flaws that can cause serious injury, and a whole list of other stuff that I have seen people do to themselves by taking the "smart" part out of the session. Yes, we are always going hard, and some of our groups like the fighters or special military populations will want to really ramp up the intensity. Training this way will exponentially increase the results you see, but it needs to be said that with all the thought that is put into the creative and challenging aspects of the regimen we need to heed the issues of safety and injury. I am no saint when it comes to this with myself but none of us are slaughtering opposition or setting world records if we are dead or so injured we can't train for the rest of our lives. It sounds like we are being a bit too serious but it's more being professional and actually caring about our people here than anything else. READ THE ARTICLES LINKED AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE!!! They are free to download in PDF format from those links (Crossfit Journal Articles are great sources of knowledge).
I also don't want anyone just grabbing a workout that was applied to another training group unless I have given you the ok. The fighters are training harder than someone starting out (even though most of them aren't anywhere near in shape since they all took 3 month layoffs...) and there is no reason you can't accomplish the same training feats in the near future, but please respect the fact that if they are performing this workout then they already took an initial fitness battery of some sort and I checked their scores to see if they were above the level needed to TRAIN this way without getting injured.
If you want to take a starting point test then look for the post where I addressed and laid that out, send me your results and if you want scaled versions of what a particular group is doing then ask me for it. I will happily scale anything down to microscopic efficiency for you based on your fitness levels so we can keep your progress curve steep, I just need more and more data from you to keep refining your training.
The training performed was modeled after "Fight Gone Bad" which was designed by Crossfit for MMA fighters. This workout is tough as hell and it happened to be the first WOD we did at Greeley Park with a group of Crossfitters that met through the mainsite boards, (link to that discussion page in the friends section many of which have been trickling into our little society here. Here is a link to Crossfit's actual description of "Fight Gone Bad" http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#WOD2 obviously don't have all the resources to perform some of the training as it was originally listed (this is called performing a "wod as RX'd") but who the hell cares because we can get creative enough as it and make things way harder...aka "Fight Gone to Hell"
I am not going to list everyone's stats but just to let you know there were 3 groups of head to head challenges, but more important to me was the 9 total fighters that got to see how I incorporated skill development as part of our session warm-ups. This will always be our format and will pay dividends in the skill development arena. I know that if I get nervous about workout out around other people at the YMCA and refuse to let people see videos of me training (I get am working on getting over it, @#!holes) then most of the fighters won't want me to put up stats and videos of them training either. I will use the videos (last night was all recorded) as a tool for people to see and compare progress as well as adress technique and fundamentals of body mechanics. I want to thank Ben and Mike for letting me use their info as an example up here, both of them performed very well, especially considering it has been awhile since I have been able to train anyone.
Important Note: The Burgener Warm-up drills are in my own words so I can explain them better to you, the link to a video of the original 5-part drill is here: http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/53_06_Burgener_Warmup.pdf (The version we used will be something we perform regularly. It is applicable to all the explosive olympic lifting and reinforces the mechanics of almost everything else we will do as well.)
3 Rounds of Treadmill Runs x Skill Based Warm-ups Execute the drills and exercises at a pace that allows the reinforcement of efficient technique and proper body-mechanics Running sets #1: 800m #2: 400m #3: 400m (1% incline, keep it less than 6mph) "Burgener" Based Drills Jump Shrugs x3 Wide Grip Explosive High-Pulls x3 Muscle Snatch (no heel drive or jump) x3 Snatch Land (from static overhead squat execute “heel drive jump down”) x3 Power Snatch (from waist level) x3 Power Snatch (from mid-thigh level) x3 Power Snatch (full “olympic standard” range of motion) x3 Overhead Squats x3
“Fight Gone to Hell” Perform each exercise for the time allotted, there are no breaks except for the time between rounds to recover. Each rep counts as a single point, total points is for score Round 1 -Thrusters (95lb Barbell) x 1:00 -Burpees (must jump and clap to count as a rep/point) x 1:00 -Pull-ups (as little swing/momentum as possible) x 1:00 -Box jumps (24’’) x 1:00 -Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls (95lb Barbell) x1:00 -1:00 for rest/recovery Round 2 -Thrusters (95lb Barbell) x 1:00 -Burpees (must jump and clap to count as a rep/point) x 1:00 -Pull-ups (as little swing/momentum as possible) x 1:00 -Box jumps (24’’) x 1:00 -Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls (95lb Barbell) x1:00 -1:00 for rest/recovery Round 3 -Run 1-mile Time Trial (walking or crawling on the treadmill counts if you are too gassed out)
The Results Ben (1:00 per mvmt/5:00 rounds) Total Score: 141pts (Team High Score) Rep/Scoring Breakdown Thrusters 20/10 Burpees 12/12 Pull-ups 15/10 Box Jumps 30/20 Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls 6/6 1-Mile Time Trial Run 10:31
Mike (1:00 per mvmt/5:00 rounds) Total Score: 86pts Rep/Scoring Breakdown Thrusters 18/3 Burpees 14/6 Pull-ups 8/5 Box Jumps 9/3 Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls 10/10 1-Mile Time Trial Run Completed (still need score)
Everyone kicked some ass, the video actually looks great. We also got a weight stack/tree that the gym was going to throw out and some weights to make homeade kettlebells out of. I have to get back to work on the grant proposals I am writing. Things are going well in that department as well, Concept 2 got right back to me when I requested permission to use their articles and I got the bonus of making contact with some of their Crossfit guys up in Vermont. Greg Hammond and the rest of the crew there sent me some great encouragement and we will be inviting them down to train with us as soon once we are set-up and actually affiliated. I am also persuing and have e-mailed some Operation Pheonix contacts as well as the guy that runs Crossfit Radio in an effort to track down ways we can overcome our lack of money to get training gear.
Tonight I will also be trying to move the page over to TheSavageSociety.com, I already own the site so let's see if I learned anything since the last time I screwed it up.
I want to welcome Miller and Justin, two freinds who are new readers of the site. I hope people remember to sign up with the google reader thing so they can comment, I love the feedback and there is no better way to tailor this content better to what you guys want.
25 Days of "watching dots on a screen" left for John
Congratulations to Jenny who was sworn in as a police officer yesterday, I know she will make Manchester a safer place one curb stomp at a time.
Here are a few quotes to kick off a pretty good sized post this morning which is meant to cover some basic foundations, concepts, and definitions that will help put some of our training in context for you. I think the quotes below do a pretty good job of summing up the CrossfitEndurance.com training mentality, keep in mind they most definitely do not cover the entire mindset of these firebreathers (Yes, Jefe, I actually said firebreathers).
I have no idea where I found those first two quotes, or even if they are part of the third so hopefully no one faster, quicker, and more explosive than me copyrighted them and gets pissed. 1."Speed kills. And gut-wrenching toil is the only way to improve it. Speed destroys the competition emotionally and physically. It eliminates your competition's opportunity to battle back and will render them useless. But to possess speed you must be prepared for the relentless and unyielding approach. While speed is the ultimate weapon of destruction, in truth it is manifested through the undeniable will of the human spirit." 2."High maximum speed does not by itself guarantee athletic success. EXPLOSIVE POWER is required to accelerate rapidly, change direction rapidly, or get your entire body or a body part moving rapidly." 3."Fast, explosive movements of the entire body, which occur in the starting and acceleration phases of sprinting or of adjusting a body part to start a new movement or rapidly change direction, demonstrate an athlete's QUICKNESS." -from Dintiman, Ward, Tellez Sports Speed, Human Kinetics 1997
Everyone is probably familiar with the terms stated in the quotes and could explain what they mean without looking in a dictionary. I think (hope) that people are visiting this site and training with us because they want to be faster, quicker, and explosive while also being proficient in a number of other physical forms of prowess, the development of which makes for easy and overwhelming kills in the cage, field, or sporting arena.
I would like everyone to please read through the 10 aspects of fitness that I am listing below. I am sure some of you have stumbled across these already by looking around our posted links and resources but please note the Crossfit version is broad, inclusive, and probably the best bet for finding some way to "define" fitness.
It will benefit you if you actuallyread the definitions thoroughly, and I bet that most of these words come with explanations that are in many ways different from what you previously thought they would be. These aspects and how they relate to your capabilities and performance levels are only a small piece of the foundation we are trying to put down here, they absolutely a great place to start our travels on this uncrowded road that happens to be littered with new and challenging concepts.
The following is verbatim out of a free Crossfit Journal Article that I will post a link to so everyone can download the PDF (it is full of top notch information regarding training)
Ten Aspects of Fitness
1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance: The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen. 2. Stamina: The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy. 3. Strength: The ability of one or more muscular units to apply force. 4. Flexibility: The ability to maximize the range of motion involving a given joint. 5. Power: The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in a minimum amount of time. 6. Speed: The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement. 7. Coordination: The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement. 8. Agility: The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another 9. Balance: The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to its support base. 10. Accuracy: The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.
-Improvements in Endurance, Stamina, Strength, and Flexibility come from training in the sense that you will perform an activity designed to enhance performance through measurably organic changes in the body. -Improvements in Coordination, Agility, Balance, and Accuracy come from practice as related to an activity that stimulates change in the nervous system. -Improving Power and Speed require adaptations involving both training and practice.
My objectives for a minimum of the first month of training is to develop a solid foundation of fitness for each Fighter, Sniper, Marine, Cop, Criminal, Mother, or any other category of nutcase. Other efforts that are designed to paralell this fundamental and critical objective will have a heavy emphasis in the realm of skill development. This will allow us to draw on a greater and thus more effective pool of stimuli without losing valuable time learning everything from square one (by the way, you are all minimalists now when it comes to training philosophies).
The quote below is the best conceptual outline of what we are striving for as a terminal objective when preparing someone for any arena of combat.
"We are working here to develop in each fighter the ability to actively recover using multiple metabolic processes while maintaining the overwhelming ferocity of fighting at a tempo the enemy considers on par with maximal, near maximal, or humanly impossible.”
Moving on... The next block of information is the simplest example available explaining the different types of metabolism we are capable of and how this is related to physical expenditure (a fancy way of saying "how we are able to produce and use energy") I don't want to throw too much content at you all in one shot otherwise I don't think anyone will retain anything (I forget sometimes that not everyone enjoys the science behind what we are doing here, but I am going to force feed you anyway). This will be your last "class" for the day.
The content below also comes directly out of a Crossfit Journal Article (same one actually) and it should be noted that this content (the 10 accepted physiological aspects of fitness and the breakdown of energy and metabolism) is not in any way original or exclusive to Crossfit. All these articles do is collect and present a compilation data in a format that is both easy to understand and use as a teaching tool because the Crossfit people put the effort into making it as inclusive as possible.
Metabolic engines (your energy systems) Providing energy for all human action. Total fitness requires competency and training in each of these engines: 1. Phosphagen engine (anaerobic) -dominates the highest powered activities (those that last less than 10 seconds.) 2. Glycolytic engine (anaerobic) -dominates moderate powered activities (those that last up to several minutes.) 3. Oxidative engine (aerobic) -dominates low-powered activities that last in excess of several minutes.
I lied, one more reading assignment for you below and then you are done ... This is a great 3rd party resource that explains in a bit more detail and includes details on the infamous "lactate shuttle". Enjoy, you savages. http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TLEnergySystems.html
I would like to introduce everyone to two partners in crime. The fellow on the left is a 25lb slammer named "stonehenge the dirty druid", one of a pair of slammers that John and I made during the summer. The other guy is a communist named Rummy, my very first pet kettlebell.
I wanted to show the simplicity and longevity 20 bucks and a tiny amount of time can get you. All we did was cut open basketballs (after giving up on pouring sand in through a puncture hole, if you don't let some air escape while adding sand this project will take you days to finish) and pour in sand while they sat on a scale. We managed to get 24lbs in and then I just went nuts with some leftover camo tape (stonehenge) and black gorilla tape (John's slammer) until the weight was around 25lbs. I have tried to kill this damn thing every which way and it still maintains exactly 25lbs and hasn't leaked at all. The slammer instructions you can find around the net will most likely have some tire repair kit ideas and sealant ideas, and other waste of time stuff. I tried all those and found that just using a crapload of ducktape is easier, faster, and cheaper.
Some creative spraypainting and an embarassing childhood full of Dungeons and Dragons should fill out the creative aspect of giving your little slammer an identity so you may one day introduce it to your online buddies.
The Schedule (I will post this in calendar format on the top of the page once I figure out how...)
Ultimate MMA and Self-Defense Class: Monday, Wednesday, Friday starting at 6:00pm
Fight Team MMA Training and Conditioning Tuesday, Thursday 7-8:30pm
Nashua Girls Soccer Training TBD
Functional Fitness Conditioning Classes TBD
Garage Gym aka the "Cave" Hours TBD (trying to have it up and running for the this coming Monday)
1.Johncomes home from wherever the hell out west he is in 30 days from today... now I just have to add a countdown for that somewhere on here. (He's finishing the vetting and OJT process for Air Traffic Controllers)
2. Over on the right hand column under the heading for Links to Downloads you will find some text documents. The first two text files are references to exercise types, and an overview for the heirarchy of how to develop them.
3.Nashua High School South beat Pinkerton in an incredible game, Congratulations to the new Class L Football State Champions.
I asked Nuri to describe the training facility and what he is doing with instruction and here is how he put things together for you. I think this will help a lot of questions that I am getting through the Crossfit Boards (linked above) and e-mails.
To The Savage Society from Nuri Skakir:
What we teach at Ultimate MMA & Self Defense (UMMA) is Mixed Martial Arts, Small Circle Ju jitsu (Self Defense art), and Ultimate conditioning. The head instructor Nuri Shakir has been training in Martial Arts for over 16 years. Mr. Shakir has earned a black belt in Small Circle Ju Jitsu and holds a 3rd degree brown belt in Judo, a brown sash in Tien San Pai Kung Fu and has won six championship belts in MMA, in addition to numerous trophies and medals in grappling and sparring events.
Mixed Martial Arts is a sport form of Martial Arts that combines mostly Boxing, Muay Thai kickboxing, Judo, Wrestling, and Brazilian Ju Jitsu. In a controlled and friendly environment students are taught a broad range from the very basics to an advanced level. At UMMA, MMA is taught as a whole art - combining all of the arts, not just each one individually. Small Circle Ju jitsu (SCJJ) is a self-defense art that is geared toward people of all ages and teaches individuals how to effectively defend themselves against muggers, bullies and an unexpected assailant. The first main goal in SCJJ is to develop a sense where you are able to recognize a potential threat and get away safely. Once attacked, you will learn how to close, shut down; strike and Joint lock your attacker in a smart and effective way. Along with learning different ways you might avoid a confrontation, if unavoidable, students are trained on how to end a confrontation fast. The training provided at UMMA is scenario based and hands-on.
The third part of our training at UMMA is Ultimate conditioning. This training is also geared toward people of all ages as a means to get in shape and stay in shape as a sport. We use, but are not limited to, a functional fitness module of fitness. These modules are principal strength and conditioning programs for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide. Based on fitness level, this type of conditioning/training can be tailored for each individual. " -Nuri Shakir
This little gem is a staple workout that the use on the Main Crossfit Website quite a bit. This is for the fighters that I trained the other night or anyone who feels they have an athletic background. Workouts I post are always intended for people I have had the chance to talk to, watch train, and gain an understanding of safety points and guidelines.
We never want to have someone hurt themselves due to something that could have easily been prevented.
Remember, safety is paramount and our first priority, then comes a drive to excel with near perfect technique, once we learn to watch for those first two we can start slinging brains all over the walls with intensity.
Your warm-up of choice for a minimum of 10:00 (basketball, jog, speedrope, heavybag, etc.)
Cindy: complete as many rounds in 20:00 of 5 pull-ups 10 push-up 15 squats
rest 2:00 before moving to the next part but make sure you keep moving! no leaning over, sitting, or laying to catch your breath. If I was fighting you for your life and you wanted to lay down and recover I would gladly get to work taking out some of your organs.
Run 400m/600m/800m/600m/400m/done (Classic CFE.com pain fest wod) inbetween each sprint rest the time it took you to do the run. Example, run 400m in 1:55, rest 1:55 then proceed to your 600m sprint.
Post your score for cindy (number of rounds), and the time it took for each sprint, as well as how you warmedup in the comment section. Soon an overall leader board will get posted up here and at the gym.
Good news for us came up today. I got a message from Patrick Haskell today which led all the way to a sign up for the level 2 Crossfit Certification Seminar in Boston (Dec6-7) Beacuse we are the Robin Hoods and Hoodlems of the Crossfit industry the opportunity came up to attend the cert as a guinea pig for the rest of the people there to practice their coaching and instructions on. Have no fears, you may or may nor know how adept I am at eating souls so the time I spend there will be great for me to grab what I can and bring back some knowledge and maybe networking for the rest of you. I'm just going to bring a tent and stake them out until I work myself into the strange social society of crossfitter instructors. I just thought this was kinda cool so I want to let you guys know.
From the calendar and pics Melissa is putting up there will be training workouts put together already in case the team isnt getting together that day. We will have to be sorta flexible with this, all you have to do is keep slaughtering yourselves and drink tons of water. More to come later, for now I will be over here in the shadows listening.
I just wanted to make a quick note/post before I get to some serious upload work in a bit, coming later today will be a calendar with the training schedule so people can add groups or single sessions around that (email me or call for a request).
Notes from Tuesday Night: I got to finally meet David Sailor and plan out some things for his soccer team training, which I am really starting to look forward to running with him. He is a Crossfit Certified Instructor so it was a great head check for me to show him what I am doing in regards to programming and design. Nuri, Ben, Brad, Todd and the rest of the fight team also came in. I got to meet some new guys as well and it was motivating to see them all work that hard on their fitness test the very first night. We covered a basic overview of what we are doing here with the fight team, who I am, and why I am bringing these styles of training to them. I went through a cursory definition and background of the aspects of fitness, the exercises and skills we use in programming, and how it all fits together under the competitive and fun as hell umbrella of competitive scoring. Hopefully we start to see those guys trickle by the site today and join, they all should at somepoint because I will post workouts and challenge hw for them to do on their training days that they don't come to the facility. I am still toying with the layout of the ranking system and how it will look best but for right now I will put up some of the leaders in the pack so far.
Training: -8:00 easy jog warm-up while covering run basics (following the P.O.S.E. guidelines) -3 rounds of (400m sprint/1:00 recovery walk) Scoring distance(mi) -Walk recovery and drink water 2:00 -Max reps of Burpees in 2:00 Time Trial It sounds simple but these guys were tearing through it all out
Ben was able to hold the best pace getting .2 .22 .2 for his three distances. This test isn't so much a test of how far can you go each set but if you can recover in enough time to repeat and hold you near maximal pace.
Dan tore through the burpees scoring 36 in the 2:00 but there were some demons on his heels.
I'll be putting up some picture slideshows on the site a little later too, I am just getting some help for stuff like that from Melissa (webdesign wizard)
I know I haven't been posting as much as I should but it was worth taking a quick break from the blog, the reasons are listed below. Oh, and it does say "Doom" above the chaplain placard FYI.
Reason 1: Melissa has been a tremendous help with adjusting this damn layout for ease of use.
Reason 2: So many people are coming out of the woodwork for this I can barely keep up answering questions (about both the mma/training facility and my dirty little garage gym) but I am definitely not complaining in any way.
Tonight: First MMA open house class is tonight at 6. I will be there at 5 to meet David Sailor and help him scout out what we can do for his soccer team's training. There is A LOT of buzz going on right now, check out some of the questions and answers coming up in the NH forum posting area of the Crossfit main site. Most of the current topic content is near the end.
http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=34856 Garage Gym Info: If there continues to be demand for the garage gym to be available in the morning then I will set up some hours people can work with and they are more than welcome to use the shower I've got here. Based on the number of requests I have gotten so far I think people might have to bring their own towels, I don't think I have that many actually. I do keep a very clean professional place here and my office is open to anyone that wants to get in there and grab some information, I have tried to make it as easy to follow from charts etc. as possible. Check the pics to give you an idea of the office.
The biggest obstacle with the garage gym is getting the floor fixed, leveled, and then putting down some tires and putting the platform on them. It is more than capable of being used now, here is the gear I've got so far.
100lb heavy bag (few types of gloves) 50lb heavy bag(not hung) for tossing around and beating on the ground 25lb slammer 1-pood kettlebell Sand filled weights set up for 95lbs-125lbs on a matching barbell (excellent tool for snatch dev.) Olympic barbell Rubber coated plates (not bumpers but you can slam the bar because I don't care) 45lbsx2 25lbsx2 Two dumbbell handles that hold the sand size weights (we can make it 55lbs for stuff like "Helen") Mir weighted vest with up to 30lbs Flak jacked with sand pouches and 5.56 magazines for weight up to 50 lbs Weight belt for weighted pull ups Box made for box jumps (thanks Todd) Various Rucks and Backpacks for load bearing runs or hikes Small speakers for music and some more odds and ends in progress, I'm always looking for new stuff to McGuiver into training tools.
Current other gear I am building now: Milk crate and Skis used for sled drags on pavement (toss some rocks in there) Slosh pipe Sea bag with sand Water filled Keg Much more hellish stuff
I refuse to spend money so today I am going to find a way to make a solid pull up bar to hang opposite the heavy bag from the main beam. I used two nylon straps cinched around my hands and then looped over the beam but I know you guys will want something much more solid so standby. Also have a bunch of poncho liners so I am putting those on the walls to insulate and muffle sound, I actually have almost enough to do every inch of wall minus the one window so that will be nice for us. Got a space heater on the way too, and there is an outlet with surge protector so anything you want to charge or use is good to go. There are some awesome hills here for the run parts of wods or Crossfit Endurance training as well and I can show you on Mapmyrun.com the best spots (with the info conversions for average elevation gain in feet converted to incline over distance on treadmills so you can go back and forth from here to the gym and break PR's accurately).
Ok, gotta get working. Let me know how I can make any and everything I am talking about better.
I know it isn't at the forefront now but soon there will be subsections on the page for training groups to go find daily wods and instructions for scaling. I trained Derek last night and he had nothing but positive feedback about how the skillwork is part of a warm-up and the actual training (and he was cynical as hell going in), so he is now looking forward to becoming a force to reckon with for peakbagging in the White Mountains.
This picture should give you an idea of where we are headed.
Ok, here are the top answers to questions we are getting about the gym. Feedback from all of you guys is more than influential about how these things turn out so keep it coming. It's nice to have Crossfitters on the site that are familiar with how blogs and comments work now haha.
For pricing I am always a bit nervous about throwing numbers out there because I would do this for free if I could afford it. If someone wants to train at the gym with open access any time, train in 3 MMA classes per week, and take part in the 3 functional fitness style conditioning workouts that bookend the MMA classes (including warm-up, cooldown, flexibility training) the price is $150.00 a month. I will have Nuri post his info here so he can post other pricing and combo options, I just know that is the "all included" fee he is offering.
I am trying to put together some hours (totally dependent on feedback from you guys) so that I can offer three classes during the week in addition to this where we will be training as a group and covering all the fundamentals which are so important to developing real world fitness. Once I get affiliated these three classes will morph into a more traditional Crossfit workout, where terms are easily recognizable off the main site. Any money earned right now on my part will go directly towards a cert and affiliation, so hopefully by the new year we will be running our own Crossfit Affiliate hand in hand with Nuri's MMA gym.
Right now the gym is being equipped as we go with all kinds of functional training tools, bumper plates is next on Nuri's mind. As we go things will only become broader in our opportunities to train.
I was thinking along the lines of 100.00 a month for three sessions per week or $20 per session for those that can't make it that often. Classes will start next week on Tues for MMA Fighter conditioning and if the demand is there I will run something before or after I train all the fighters. The first class will cover basics, safety, and concepts. We will workout but learning is much more important in the first half of this hour session. I also want to leave the first session anyone attends as free so people don't lose anything by trying something new.
Ok, give me some feedback, I am hungry for some more criticism.
Expect some website tweaks as well, thanks to Melissa and her expertise in this area. Her site kicks ass and if anyone wants to check her out there is a link under our friends section.
On a final note CrossfitEndurance.com is going to play a huge role in our training here for running and rowing as well. I have had immense success in my first month of training with their program, and now that I am in month 4 the results have only multiplied and assimilated into other athletic endeavors. Definitely check them out. Going to one of their Running Certs is an immediate priority once our Affiliate is on the official Crossfit Map.
Just a quick note to everyone (seems strange to actually have blog readers and visitors now!) I am all set up at the new apartment and have the internet back online so please forgive my short hiatus. Things in Nashua are looking good and Nuri was down there with some of the other guys last night trying to put up the wall matting.
I wanted to say hello to some of the new members here that have come over to check us out from the Crossfit Mainsite. I know a lot of the local Crossfitters in New Hampshire are coming out of their hermit holes now that we are sort of sounding that call.
I finished the programming for a foundation and abilities training schedule, very easily scalable to any level of fitness, and by the end of this week we should have a class schedule set up for the Nashua location.
I also have been working on the "garage gym" which is actually turning out pretty badass and will provide anyone very near the Manchester area a great spot to rip some new PR's on wods and such. I am still not ready to move this over to the custom domain site because I am not familiar enough with google apps, but it should happen shortly. I will be back later today with more tasty information and some training examples for you guys to try out until we can all get together. We should be in the final push here now, and as soon as I have the money I will be travelling to the cert and affiliation seminars that are the closest on the calendar so we can really get started up here in New Hampshire... I don't know about you but I am tired of bullshit gyms and wouldn't mind the competitive environment other crossfitters bring to training.
Thanks for the website feedback, please keep it coming.
Conratulations to Ben on being the first guy from our Savage Society to make it onto the official leaderboard with a Candy time of 20:53. I am toying with a spreadsheet and subpage method of putting up this leaderboard on the site. The reason it is taking so long is because there are basically two tiers of leaderboard stats that you can get on, no matter your training group. Once this Overall Leaderboard is formatted I will be posting group based ones for the workouts you perform daily so everyone can compete on a few different levels.
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