There is nothing like making a group of cops come out in an ice storm to your unheated, broken floor garage (because you are installing a platform) and watch them thrash the ever living shit out of each other while somehow still managing to laugh while gulping in air. I still think Mike is nuts for counting out loud and on his fingers the "five breaths that his is allowed" before he can continue if he gasses out during a rep or set. One thing is certain, it definitely works for him, and he can keep giving those breaths the special attention they need to make him feel better because his time showed he had some hardcore mental discipline.
I had a strange sense of "thank god I am here right now" after Jefe met me outside my apartment. It was already cold as hell and raining, and people must have been wondering why we were unpacking huge bags of camo-netting and barbells from his truck. Jefe and I turn to find out that the other two guys meeting us somehow didn't see the spectacle we were putting on and were buzzing random people in the building trying to find me.After we collected the rest of our little "fire team" we started heading out to the garage, which seemed a bit epic to me. It is rare that I find myself feeling so comfortable around people I have just met, but it was clear that these were guys just like me. I mean hell, they were about to get started on "Nasty Girls" in the freezing rain, at a dungeon garage that
some guy they just met has slowly been building. Makes you think about how crazy the Crossfit Community is. Don't forget that we wouldn't have been able to do this wod except David came through for the Society and let us have some rings out of his personal stash of self-administered torture devices. The rings are FUN AS HELL.Like I mentioned above, Jefe brought over his barbell to ass to our arsenal here which will be a great asset due to the face that now we can load up two separate Olympic barbells (letting guys do the wods head to head for time instead of starting on different movements). Once we got things all set up and threw on some tunes I introduced the "Burgener Warm-up" and the Overhead Squat to everyone. I think that such simple seeming little things like that have been able to make a world of difference for me in my ability to rip out Olympic lifts with good technical form, and they will make or break someone trying to learn how to do this stuff from scratch.
After we warmed up a bit with the Drills and OH Squats we got ready to send people through the wod.
Garage Gym Crew's WOD: "Scaled Nasty Girls"
Complete 3 Rounds for time of
50 Bodyweight squats
7 Muscle-Ups (Assisted if needed)
10 Power Hang Cleans (95lbs)
Scores
Jefe 12:52 The muscle-ups frustrated everyone, but Jefe is as VERY close to being able to get them.
Mike* 11:49 Top spot for today's wod and a new personal record, he was possessed tonight and it was bad ass to behold.
Jake 8:39 (2 rounds) Jake has never done Crossfit before but he is very familiar with it, and was really moving fast... we were impressed with his ability to execute the cleans, he had pretty immaculate form. After the workout he told us about how he developed his skills through training for sports, which will pay off huge for him in our training.
Slaughterfest Part II: MMA Team
My fun for the day wasn't going to end here in the garage gym either, even though the satisfaction and enjoyment of being able to participate with a "firebreathing" crew like the guys above would have been enough. After everyone picked their sweating corpse like bodies off the floor and we nailed down a time for tomorrow's WOD, they all took off into the freezing rain. I locked up our new home and headed inside to grab my whiteboard and gear for the MMA Team which by now should have been on their way to the gym in Nashua.
Driving down there was a little retarded with the roads all frozen, but I could care less because I knew it would be a great time. The fighters were going to look at the whiteboard with the wods on it and think to themselves,
"Eh, that doesn't look that bad."
Much like many experienced Crossfitters learned NOT to do on their first day of training. This was a bit of my plan because sometimes the best workouts of your life that you always remember turn out to be the hardest and most underestimated.Tonight there were about 10 Fighters there training with the Team and "rolling" on the mats, but when I sounded the conditioning bell there were only six stalwart figures that came forward. Everything is continuing to get better by the session, and a large part of it comes through exposure and experience. This is not only true of the Fighters, but for me as well. I try very hard to make sure that all the training sessions adhere to strict structural guidelines, two important reasons for this are 1.This will always allow for planning training in a fashion that covers not only the hard work part of things but adds in a great amount of detail and attention into skill work and learning, and 2. The Team can come to count on and expect certain "laws" and they won't have to spend their whole technique and fighting drill time with Nuri over concerned about any mayhem coming at them. Every night we will start with a blend of skill work and warm-ups designed to teach at the same time that the heart rate is getting ramped up. After this they get a quick break and while they drink water I will review form/technique with them one on one, as well as answer questions. Next is the primary part of the conditioning, and this is the magic hat part of the deal for them. The end involves a stretching and detail work 10 minute segment and that is all she wrote.
The more training I run for any of the groups or teams, the better I get and the more I can refine how the class moves. Right now things are pretty smooth, and the only thing I could really hope for is more gear, equipment, and space... but who wouldn't want that?
MMA Training Details:
Warm-ups and Skill work
-Run .50mi
-Burgener Style Drills (1 rnd of 5 Reps per mvnt)
-Run .50mi
(The Burgener Drills that we have been using are looking much better and the fighters are really starting to understand the principals of Olympic Lifting. Tonight they had the option of trying the drills with a 45lb barbell instead of the dowels and we only did a single set of 5 reps per movement, but I also got to get a little more hands on and watch how they did while "under load", even though it is still considered a light weight.)
After the warm-ups are completed and the Team re-hydrates the Fighters get to pick their doom: Scaled Helen or Scaled Nasty Girls
Scaled Helen: 3 rounds for time of
400m Run (incline @ 1.0)
Swings (20-35lbs) x 21 reps
Pull-ups x 12 reps
Nuri 14:53
Wrestler John* 9:02
Tyler 13:52
John 16:22
Scaled Nasty Girls: 3 rounds for time of
Bodyweight Squats x 50 reps
Pull-ups x 7
Dips x 7
Hang Clean Front Squats (95lbs) x 10
Ben* 4:56
Sam 5:39
The training tonight was some of the best these guys did, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood at the end. They torched themselves in classic Crossfit fashion, and the more people that I can help do this the better I feel. I have a bunch of other pictures and videos from the night (my sister has been helping record things) but mostly it was so the Fighters can compare how they are doing and look at their technique more than for posting up here. I will get some more glory shots up here once my sister send them to me because I did notice quite a bit of pride on everyone's faces.
All around great day for me, I remember thinking many hours earlier at 5am that I hoped I could live up to everyone's standards here and these thoughts taunted me through my own training. I think every trainer needs to constantly be measuring themselves against the hardest standard they can find and fortunately for me all I have to do is think about my experience at Crossfit Boston. Thanks everyone for working your asses off. It was great motivation for me to have before I threw on the flak and gas mask and got to work while Ben and my sister taunted me. Training with the mask is an excellent way to ramp things up for me, and the only reason I let those two snots bother me the whole time is so they could grab a few pictures for us to try and WIN THAT GODDAMN MODEL D ROWER. I had to suck up my embarrassment and let other people see me look so strange training, but the hell with it if we get a tool like that in our belt, right?
Thanks Ashley for helping the Team tonight, and again for helping me.
See you in 13 Days John
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