Sherri and Kelsey, mother and daughter team going at it! Nice job ladies!

5 Rounds of

400 meter run

15 Overhead Squats (95/65)

It could be worse. You could be doing "Swayze" again. Arabesque demo compliments of Bailey.

WOD:

“BEG FOR GRACE”

1. Know your bodyweight

2. Multiply it by 40

3. Select a weight that you can handle for a very high rep count to go from the ground to overhead.

4. Divide your (bodyweight times 40) by the weight you have selected.  If there is a fraction, round up.

5.  Select a movement you will use to take the weight from ground to overhead (most common is the Power Clean into the Push Press).  You must use the same movement for the entire workout (but you can change your load if necessary).  Bonus points for doing the entire WOD with one-armed barbell snatches.

6. This workout is for time.  And since time is money, this workout is for money, too.

Example: Jimbob weighs 235.  235 x 40 = 9400 lbs.  Jimbob  selects 115 as his weight.  9400 / 115 = 81.74 reps, which we round up to 82 reps.  Ergo, Jimbob is banging out 82 reps at 115.  Assuming Jimbob does the workout in 15 minutes and 24 seconds, and that Jimbob’s income is $0.0625 per second, Jimbob will have not only rocked the crap out of the workout, but he will have made $57.75 during the workout.  Now all we need is an athlete named Jimbob who has a sustained average income of $225 per hour, and we’re in the Twilight Zone.

Don’t worry, we’ll explain all it to you in mind-numbing detail if you’re still confused in the morning.

Also – quick reminder – hours are bright and early 7 AM to 9 AM tomorrow, as Odin has his first day of hockey and we need to be prompt.  For those of you interested in scoring a compulsory “look the other way” card when you forget to put away your weights, we both take our Dunkin’ Donuts coffee light, no sugar.

Thankfully, we can back-date the post, so in a few months’ time, no one will be the wiser.

The Adventures of Z-Girl and The Bald Marauder continue with… The Twelve Pains of Christmas.  Enjoy.

x.

“‘Tis The Season To Tabata”

For the uninitiated, a Tabata is 8 work sets of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest (4 minutes in total). Each of the below movements will receive your complete attention to detail, love, and admiration for the full four minutes. 5 movements, 4 minutes per movement…. hey, 20 minutes. Well, really sub-20 – the last 10 seconds are rest, so 19:50!

Tabata Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95 lbs / 65 lbs)

Tabata Ring Pushups

Tabata Pullups

Tabata Thruster (95 lbs / 65 lbs)

Tabata GHD Situps

Beating the drum of quality over bullshit yet again, we give you today’s rant: DO IT RIGHT

We’ve written on this topic enough times in the last year that these type of posts almost write themselves… almost.

There is a reason that we explain the standards of movement to each and every movement before you start you WOD. And while we do in fact enjoy the choir of angels singing that is our speaking voices as much as you do, we are actually telling you these standards because we expect you to strive for them.

A few quick bullets:

• Chest to deck means that your chest should touch the floor. Several of our athletes who are former Navy / Merchant Marine / Pirates (yeah, we mean you, Captain Steve) have said we should say “chest to floor,” since we don’t have a deck in the garage. Deal with it, you crusty seamen.
• Pullups: if you have to ask if your chin is over the bar, it’s not.
• Squats: below parallel. We’re going to start having the offenders stop their squat and hold it (on command) so that we can apply a level to your upper thigh. Seriously, we think this will be awesome.
• The clock doesn’t matter any more than your scale does. Doing the workout properly does. If you do the workout properly, the time on the clock will elapse more slowly. It won’t be because you’re traveling at near-relativistic speeds; it will be because you’re improving.
• “I can’t…..” Zip it. You can. If you want someone to agree with your excuses, we’re not the gym for you. If you want results, you’ve come the the right place, but you better bring it. If you want to tell us the things you can’t do, give us advance notice so we can bust out the fiddle and play you a sad song while you tell us the things you can’t do (and we demand that the list starts with “I can’t poop gold nuggets!”).
• Pro tip: your legs are strong than your arms. Stop trying to pick weights up off the ground using your arms. We promise you’ll lift more.
• Midgets. They’re awesome.

That is all.

Tom's KTEs are retarded; retarded good.

“Helen”

3 rounds for time:

Run 400 meters
21 KB swings
12 pull-ups

Will great work today with “Linda”, you rocked it. Tom rocked out “Goat Gone Bad”, putting up an impressive 473 – good work Tom.

See you all tomorrow for a mellow WOD in comparison to the “Bad Goat” and “Linda”.

Early morning crew and those who have been on vacation will hit “Goat Gone Bad” tomorrow.

Playground Challenges:

Strength: 60% 1 rep Deadlift x 20 for time

Endurance: Max effort run, 6 rounds of 2 mins on, 1 minute rest

Pull-ups: 40 C2B

This week’s schedule

Monday, August 10th – all sessions
Tuesday, August 11th – no 5:15AM
Wednesday, August 12th – all sessions
Thursday, August 13th – no 5:15AM
Friday, August 14th – no 9:30AM session
Saturday, August 15th – OFF (PIG ROAST!!!)
Sunday – 9:00 to 11:00

Jenny C. doing an overhead carry.. go Jenny go!

“J.T.”

21-15-9 reps of:
Handstand push-ups
Ring dips
Push-ups

Post time to comments.

Eileen and Bailey ripping out "Fran". Good effort today ladies!

3 rounds for time of:
Row 500 meters
21 Burpees
Run 400 meters

Post time to comments.

We get to run and row all in the same WOD, this will be a first for me. AND not to mention we get to do my all time favorite exercise – BURPEES! Wooo!

As a special treat to our loyal athletes, Will and I are offering a free trial with the weight vest. We will let you chose between the 20 and 50 lb vests. Sleep fast, and see you in the morning!

Great morning at the Playground. Lots of people with high intensity. Most of our folks old and new doubled dipped with WODs today. Everyone brought it hard and had smashing times. Well done! Can’t wait to see what next weekend brings

Marc rocking the SDHP! First WOD of the day, followed by burpee hell! Good work Marc!

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Jen working her first ever deadlifts. Big numbers for the first time, Jen. Great work!

WOD:

“Elizabeth”

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips

For the record, this isn’t like Grace. It’s not “any way overhead.” This one is squat cleans. Looks like we’ve moved on from an intense abdominal programming regimen to stabilization of the midline under load while holding weight in the rack position. Good deal, we all need work there.

Women’s weight is 95 pounds. If you need help with the movement, we’re here to help.

For those of you who missed today’s thruster WOD, we’ll work out the plan for you to make it up.

And in case you missed reading the post for yesterday, we’re still looking for your input about the record board.

Quote:

“The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says.”

-Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club

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Christopher knocking out some thrusters in his CrossFit Kids Fran workout

Thruster 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

Thrusters are a tricky movement.  They combine a lot of elements that we have you work on as pieces of the fundamentals: the rack position, the front squat, a tight and stabilized midline (core), the push press, a full lockout overhead, and the transfer of energy from the big muscles in the legs to get the weight overhead.

We will be working hard with you on getting this movement grooved so that you can do it safely.  If you haven’t done a lot of thrusters, you’re going to need to be patient before you start piling the weight on.  It’s more important to us that you learn how to do the movement safely, correctly, and with the confidence to fail safely than it is that you get a big asterisk next to your name and a PR or a gym record.  The numbers will come, but you have to have a solid foundation.

We all need to work on our strength – none of us are anywhere near our potential.  These heavy workouts of seven sets of one rep are the workouts that make us stronger.  Your legs may still be sore from the Barbara we did on January 25, your core may still be trashed from the January 26th GHD and back extension workout – that’s ok.  Start now, and envision the lifts.  Think about staying on your heels, chest up, good rack position, and think about driving the weight up.  The mind is your most powerful tool when doing heavy lifts.  If you see it with your mind’s eye, and you believe it, you will execute it.

Get ready to bring it tomorrow.

And one more thing that just popped into my head: What do you say we make the gym record board a part of this site?  Men and women, every named workout, every record we’ve got.  Post your thoughts to comments.

Your quote for today:

“Those who say it can’t be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
-Chinese proverb

Sue nearing the top of a deadlift in her CrossFit Total. Cindy cheering her on.

WOD:

Five rounds for time of:
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
25 Back extensions

Post time to comments.

As Cindy and Jen and Joe were just discussing via Instant Messenger, it almost feels like there should be a run thrown into this one to make it complete.

We’ve been through a tough

couple of cycles when it comes to abdominal programming. In particular, there’s been a lot of glute-ham situps of late. More in one spurt since I became a CrossFitter. So let’s keep it in perspective: even though your abs may not have fully recovered from Mr. Joshua and the last triplet, and even though knocking out 200 situps during the Barbara workout yesterday wasn’t easy, remember that grinding it out when you’re not at 100 percent is what’s going to make you better. This is where the gains come, whether you’re new or a CrossFit veteran, whether you’re young or old. Hitting it hard and being honest with yourself about if you’re giving it everything is the name of the game. Bring it hard tomorrow, and you’ll have earned the rest day.

In other news, Sue B finished her first CrossFit Total. She learned all three movements that day and was still able to rock them out with weight. You go girl!! Great job!