Rain, WODs & Joe Venuti

Today's WOD involved a crazy amount of overhead lifting spread out across three of the 9 Fundamental CrossFit Movements (which we consider a religion by now).  The general rule of thumb when it comes to these movements states that you should ideally be able to lift 30% more load in the Push Press than the Shoulder Press, with another 30% increase in capacity for the Push-Jerk.  This rule assumes that technique, energy levels, and all other variables contributing to your ability to exert yourself were at a consistent maximal level...and of course most of us lowly humans will likely never experience such an alignment of the stars (except for Mike once he finally drops to 3 total blocks per day with his zone nutrition...).

  

The idea here is to see how much of a capacity increase we can elicit by moving from the pure strength side of things to the dynamic side. The resulting success (or failure) experienced should provide some contextual insight into the relationship that loads and movements share across your capacity to perform.  

Even after watching PR after PR topple today, the most satisfying aspect of each athlete's success was not the actual load lifted, but instead their profound and universal belief that technique refinement was the single most potent accelerant for performance capacity.  

Translation: All those thousands of reps I made our Savages do were not in vain... 

Overhead Insanity WOD (04.07.2009)

Shoulder Press 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Push Press 3-3-3-3-3 reps
Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Scores/loads will be posted tomorrow once the stragglers get in here...

The Lunge-Fest WOD (04.06.2009)

Complete the following for time
Walking lunge 100 ft.
21 x Pull-ups
21 x Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
18 x Pull-ups
18 x Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
15 x Pull-ups
15 x Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
12 x Pull-ups
12 x Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
9 x Pull-ups
9 x Sit-ups
Walking Lunge 100 ft.
6 x Pull-ups
6 x Sit-ups

Scores

Fogle 17:37

Mike L. 23:41

Chalupa 23:18 

Jefe 14:39*

Mike C. 20:12

Ring Rows Subbed in for Pull-ups

Jess 15:35*

Kristie 22:24

I know I am supposed to just be keeping things brief and all but it just feels wrong to omit the fact that Fogle, Mike L. and Chalupa have made inhuman strides in their pull-ups.  Chalupa tore through his first set of 21 without stopping once, and this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night plotting and planning.  Nothing is more exciting than watching these athletes go from nothing to something and from something to amazing in just a few weeks of hard work, and the results show across the board.

Kent is now warming up with what he struggled to complete his first day, and he's threatening me because he needs a new wardrobe even though all I did was grow a beard and scribble some stuff on a whiteboard.  

Our female firebreathers are also all in hot contention for who can develop their deadhang pull-up first, and it won't be long until we start posting Fran times as Rx'd for them.  Ok, I feel better now that I got all that off my chest...

Mutation I (04.06.2009)

Complete the following for time

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Pull-ups x 18

Sit-ups x 18

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Pull-ups x 15

Sit-ups x15

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Pull-ups x 12

Sit-ups x12

Scores

RJ 9:29*

This was RJ's first official WOD in our humble Stable for Dark Horses and he crushed it.  RJ came to us over the weekend with a decent background in CrossFit to see if we could provide the kind of home he needs to seek an elite level of fitness.  We are always happy to have new people track us down but we consider ourselves truly lucky if someone arrives with the exact mindset needed to learn and excel in this kind of driven environment.  It is going to be an absolute pleasure watching RJ crush personal expectations and begin to realize his true athletic potential. Thanks for hunting us down and Welcome to the Family.

Mutation II (04.07.2009)

Complete the following for time

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Jumping Pull-ups x 21

Sit-ups x 21

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Jumping Pull-ups x 18

Sit-ups x 18

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Jumping Pull-ups x 15

Sit-ups x15

Walking Lunges 50 ft.

Jumping Pull-ups x 12

Sit-ups x12

Scores

K$ 12:57

Joe 11:25*

Garage Gym Love

Joe Venuti of CrossFit MASS finally came up to visit us in the Stable Sunday (he was tired of waiting for me to get an afternoon off and head down there).  Not only did he hang out and coach our athletes through two of the Fundamental movements, but he arrived bearing gifts... the kind of gifts you are all going to love to hate: Plyo-boxes.  Wondering why some stranger would drive all the way up to visit our little shack of doom and bring us invaluable tools of the trade?  Well, I met Joe waaaay back in Decemeber of 2008...  

Joe had his first glimpse of the beard when I snuck my devious little ass into a Level 2 CrossFit certification in Boston as a "test subject".  The experience was an amazing one for my un-indoctrinated mind, and being surrounded by the highest caliber of CrossFit instructors would provide me with the foundation needed to help bring athletes to an elite level.  My excitement was at a fevered pitch and despite repetitions of the fundamentals movements nearing the several hundred mark the only thing I could think of was, "Memorize every second."  At the time I think everyone just assumed I was certified and failed to recognize a true CrossFit Vagabond in their midst, fortunate for me as I met and made friends with several awesome CrossFitters.  Joe is a great example of such a friend, which seems to be the standard of character for this entire community.

Eventually Joe noticed what ridiculousness we were trying to pull in the dirt up here and gave me a call, we've been talking shop and bouncing ideas back and forth ever since.  He owns and operates a CrossFit Gym out of his garage in North Andover (which naturally would put him on holy ground in my eyes by mutual association, affiliates like us may be small and strange but we go for the throat).  CrossFit Mass has been an amazing and stalwart friend to us during our infancy in the CrossFit world and it's a comfort to have someone in a similar situation to talk with about all the things little garage gyms like us need to figure out.

The plyo-boxes are gorgeous and I can't wait to see everyone's angry little hoofs landing repeatedly on them, not to mention that now I won't have to construct nearly as many makeshift contraptions for WODs.  

On another exciting note, Joe and I have been conspiring as the Regional Qualifiers for the Northeast draw near and we are going to be running two separate WODs in celebration of this.  The WODs we picked are straight out of the competitive pool of suck-fests and we will be executing them just like the competition for the CrossFit Games: Two Judges per athlete with strict and unwavering adherence to standards of movement.  This will be a blast and an awesome challenge for CrossFitters with Regional Qualifier aspirations and anyone else looking to get a sicky WOD under their belts.  The dates and times are TBD as we have yet to nail everything down all the details, more info will become available as we have it.  We do know that the first event will be here in our Stable, and the second will be held down in North Andover.  I can't wait to see who's going to bring the lumber for those WODs...

Joe: Thank you so much for the plyo-boxes and for helping our guys crush their Max Effort WOD, your instruction was a huge catalyst for them and I know they appreciate it.  Now that it's official and you marked our colors, Welcome to the family.

Rest Day Warriors WOD (04.05.2009)

Max effort triple and single sets for the movements listed.  You only get one attempt for each set, rest accordingly and go for the maximal load you can lift.  

Front Squat 3-3-1-1-1

Deadlift 3-3-1-1-1

Scores

Kent

FS 105/115/135/155/165F

DL 135/155/175/205/225*

Joe

FS 105/115/135/155/165*

DL 155/175/205/225/255*