• 30Jan

  January 31, 2009

  playground 4 Comments
  

  Hooverball on the White House Lawn. Makes me anxious to see what the hell Obamaball is going to be.

  Rest Day

  For various reasons, not a lot of the Playground Crew managed to take care of Nicole yesterday.

  No wories, kids, we’re open for business tomorrow. We know we’re going to be busy tomorrow. I know that more than one of you has more than one workout from the last triplet. We’ll run you through whatever you need.

  We roll at 7:30 AM for the first set of WODs, and we’ll see you here at your appointed time.

  A bit of a “Playground Update” for you: we placed an order for a whole bunch of new Dynamax balls this week. We’ve got a 4, an 8, and a 12 pounder on the way. “What good would a four pound medicine ball be for me?” you ask? Or maybe you know better…

  Get ready for some Playground-style Hooverball on the weekends once the snow is gone, kids. If you’re not familiar, Hooverball is pretty much volleyball for CrossFitters. Invented during Herbert Hoover’s Presidency to keep President Hoover in some sort of shape while he led us into a massive recession (sound familiar?) that ultimately led to the election of FDR, Hooverball is played with a medicine ball, generally a six pounder, although you can scale the game to fit. The game is scored like Tennis, and can be played best three out of five, best four out of seven, best eleven out of twenty… you ge tthe idea. Expect to see “SUNDAY HOOVERBALL SPECTACULAR” as the WOD more than once in the summer of 2009 here at the Playground.

  Our favorite rule of Hooverball:

  • You cannot take a step after catching the ball.

  Bingbong, that’s going to be something else.

  And here’s your quote, from Herbert Hoover himself, in an attempt to tie the quote into the post:

  Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.
  -Herbert Hoover

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• 29Jan

  January 30, 2009

  playground 6 Comments

  “Nicole”

  Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:

  

  Joe back squatting O

  Run 400 meters
  Max rep Pull-ups

  Post number of pull-ups completed for each round to comments.

  This will be a high risk WOD tomorrow at the Playground, given that the driveway is a sheet of ice. Bring your skates!

  And a bit of history for those of you who are unfamiliar with “The Girls” as the named CrossFit WODs.

  The Nicole WOD is named for Nicole Carroll, who is one of the original badass CrossFit HQ (back when HQ was in Santa Cruz, California) trainers / athletes.  If you want to see exactly how badass Nicole is, all you have to do is watch this video:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dRlyPvphqk

  Bodyweight overhead squats for 15 reps.  I don’t care who you are, that’s impressive.

  Bring it like Nicole and give it hell tomorrow, kids.

• 28Jan

  January 29, 2009

  playground, wods 7 Comments
  

  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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• 27Jan

  January 28, 2009

  playground, wods 4 Comments
  

  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

• 27Jan
  general No Comments
  

  Mark Rippetoe coaching the squat

  CrossFit Milford will be hosting the CrossFit Basic Barbell Certification on March 28 and 29th at their facilities in Milford, Connecticut.

  This is a great and rare opportunity to learn the squat, bench press, deadlift, and power clean under the watchful eye of Mark Rippetoe, or “Rip,” as he is better known.

  Rip, along with Mike Burgener, are the two major CrossFit strength coaches.  Rip is a funny man who tells it like it is, and you can expect a whole lot of memorable quotes as well as a large amount of knowledge if you can make it to the Certification.

  Cindy and I will both be attending the Cert, and if you’re interested in improving your technique with any of these lifts and can find the time and money to attend, we encourage it.  If you do decide to go, let us know, as we can probably arrange to carpool.

  A favorite Rip quote of ours:

  Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.
  - Mark Rippetoe

• 26Jan

  January 27, 2009 – Goat Rodeo?!?

  playground 1 Comment
  

  Alex ripping out sit-ups! Great job!

  Another rest day..or perhaps a day to host a “goat” rodeo. Create your own “goat” WOD – pick movements, or skills that you fear or hate to do.

  Throw them in a hopper (a hat or a kids bingo game turner works well), pick 2 or 3, and hit it. Goating will make you a stronger athlete..

  
• 25Jan

  January 26, 2009

  playground, wods 10 Comments
  

  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!

• 25Jan

  January 25, 2009

  playground, wods 4 Comments
  

  Annie at the top of her 200 pound deadlift, a PR

  WOD:

  “Barbara”

  Five rounds, each for time of:
  20 Pull-ups
  30 Push-ups
  40 Sit-ups
  50 Squats

  Rest precisely three minutes between each round.

  This one is going to be a gasser from hell.

  To the right, Annie rocking out a PR in the deadlift to wrap up her CrossFit Total yesterday.  She PR’d across the board for a banner day.  Great work, Annie!

  A late in the day update, some pictures from today’s workout:

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• 23Jan

  January 23, 2009 – Total

  playground, wods 7 Comments

  “CrossFit Total”

  Back squat, 1 rep
  Shoulder Press, 1 rep
  Deadlift, 1 rep

  Oh the long awaited total. Have a crew coming early tomorrow. Rise, shine and hit the total.

  Will finally got 500 during the Total:

  
  Will Deadlifts 500 from Will Malz on Vimeo.

• 22Jan

  January 22, 2009 – Rest Day!

  general, playground 4 Comments
  

  Christmas 2004. Odin looks concerned that Dad might eat him. Thanks to CrossFit, he doesn't worry about that any more. This might be one of the worst pictures of our family in existence.

  If you are following the CrossFit main board WOD schedule, I recommend sticking to it, and taking a rest day. Rest days are important for your body to have a chance to recover. Enjoy your day and if you are itching to do something.. Of course its got to be constantly varied, so put on your snow gear and go sledding with a friend or a family member.

  Irrelevant aside, but we just awarded the win for our logo design contest.  Expect some new chrome, and some new schwag to be up on the site in the next couple of days.

  And of course, in the interest of keeping the quote of the day going:

  “Once, someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding so long. “Pleasure” I said. “I don’t understand the question.” I didn’t do it for pleasure. I did it for pain.
  Lance Armstrong

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