• 30Mar

  March 31, 2009

  playground 10 Comments

  WOD

  

  Suzanne welcome to the Playground. Great job on your WOD!

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

  Post time to comments

  Today’s inspiration is recovery.

  You do not sleep enough. You sit down, you eat a dinner that’s almost certainly too loaded with flour and sugar, you plop your ass down in front of the television and let it think for you for a couple of hours, then you jump on facebook to make sure that all you’re aware of the minutae of your friends’ lives, you dutifully check the always lucid and insightful posts on crossfitplayground.com, and then somewhere between midnight and 2 AM, you fall into bed, utterly exhausted, and attempt to “sleep fast” so that you’re no more dysfunctional than you usually are when you wake up.

  If this sounds familiar, here’s some words of wisdom for you:

  YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

  If you want to progress as an athlete, you have to recover properly. Just like maintaining the proper intensity in your workouts is key, just like eating properly is key.

  Try this: sleep 8 hours. Do it for a week. See how you feel. See how your workouts go. See how your mental attitude is. Our guess and our experience is that all of the preceding will improve. And if they do improve with more sleep, then stick with it, because it is amazing how being sleep-deprived can negatively impact our performance in all areas of life.

• 30Mar

  March 30, 2009

  playground 7 Comments

  WOD:

  “Nicole”

  

  Brooke during the dip/pull-up WOD. Welcome Brooke!

  Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
  Run 400 meters
  Max rep Pull-ups

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

  Make up day! We will be hitting “FGB” today, so get your game face on, and bring the intensity.

• 29Mar

  March 29, 2009

  playground 8 Comments

  Reminder: CrossFit Playground is Closed Today.

  WOD:

  

  The Playground staff with Rippetoe.

  “Fight Gone Bad!”

  Three rounds of:
  Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
  Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)
  Box Jump, 20″ box (Reps)
  Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)
  Row (Calories)

  In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of “rotate”, the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

  Add your points and post them to comments.

  As you all know, your friendly neighborhood trainers are away today at Day Two of the Basic Barebell C ertification with Mark Rippetoe. Because of this, there are zero trainers available to have the gym open.

  We’ll make up FGB tomorrow, so if you can wait, then please wait. If you can’t wait, sub one minute of burpees for the rowing.

• 27Mar

  March 28, 2009

  playground No Comments
  

  Tallulah and Kendall, saying "So long, suckers!" as they head out for a cruise.

  It’s a rest day.

  It’s also an historic event: It’s the first time since the day we opened that CrossFit Playground is closed.

  Your friendly neighborhood trainers are heading to the CrossFit Barbell Certification for the weekend, the better to teach those of you without hernias to lift heavy weights with.

  We’ll miss you, but we know you’ll be looking forward to us sharing our new-found mastery of lifting heavy weights with you.

  See you Monday.

• 26Mar

  March 27, 2009

  playground 5 Comments

  WOD:

  

  Will working the rings. Good job today!

  For time:

  10 rounds of

  10 pull-ups

  10 ring dips (sub regular dips x 3)

  Topic: Like your Mom said, it’s good for you.

  The reason we pursue CrossFit is because it creates overall fitness. CrossFit, by definition, shuns specialization. Pursuing this programming makes us better athletes over time. Becoming a better athlete is difficult thing because doing so forces us to own up to the fact that there are things at which we suck. Those of us who are on the Brute Squad tend to let out audible groans when “Run 10 k” comes up as the WOD; those of us who love the cardio have been known to bandy about some choice expletives when a CrossFit Total comes up. It doesn’t matter who you are, sooner or later you meet the WOD that you swear Coach designed specifically to torture you (and maybe he did).

  There’s a certain beauty in the humility we’ve all experienced in the programming. There’s nothing like walking into the gym the day after you totally killed a WOD and are riding on a streak of PRs, throwing down your best effort and realizing that for this particular WOD, you’re so far from being on the varsity that you may as well be walking around handing out towels.

  And there it is: getting your ass handed to you is good for you.

  It’s good for you because it forces you to be honest with yourself. There is something wonderful about realizing that you are only as good as your worst. You can go outside and pick up the back end of a pickup truck with your deadlift, but until you can hang with the kings and queens of cardio on the 5k, all you are is strong. You can go knock out four straight sub-3 minute 800s, but until you can do a Linda as rx’d, all you are is a good runner. CrossFit is about being a complete athlete, and the way to become a complete athlete is pretty simple: you need to admit your weaknesses, accept them, and then work on them until they are no longer your weaknesses.

  

  Start them out young. Great work Alessandra!

  Turning your weaknesses into strengths is harder than it sounds, and it sounds hard to begin with. Consider Arnold Schwarzenegger: early in his professional bodybuilding career, Arnold’s calves were underdeveloped relative to the rest of his body. This pissed Arnold off, so, loaded with the type of rationale that can only be provided by eating several pounds of dianabol daily, he cut every pair of pants he owned off at the knee. People proceeded to point and laugh, probably more because of the fact that the giant guy with the shaved legs had the balls to stroll around Venice Beach in capri pants than because of Arnold’s underdeveloped calves. Regardless, he thought people were laughing at his calves, and he got obsessive about doing extra credit calf work. The result? A then-unprecedented 7 Mr. Olympia titles, the result of having a perfect neck-arm-calf ratio. It also helped him score a co-starring role with Danny DeVito in the definitive movie about male pregnancy, “Junior.”

  Sarcastic digression aside, being honest with yourself and realizing where you suck is the key to getting better. The downside is that acknowledging your weakness is only one piece of the puzzle; you then have to work hard to improve that area. The upside is that just when you’ve improved the thing you’re worst at into some realm of acceptable performance, something else will emerge as your new weakness. Constantly evaluating your weaknesses and fixing them is the key to continual improvement. This little secret is simultaneously horrible and awesome. Enjoy.

• 25Mar

  March 26, 2009

  playground 10 Comments

  WOD:

  

  Lulah doing a sit-up tabata!! Too cute.

  Four rounds, each for time of:
  800 meter run

  Rest as needed between efforts.

  Post times for each round to comments.

  Oh yeah, get your running shoes on!!! This one should be fun – we can have a race!!

  First, we want to tell everyone to look their best tomorrow because we will be taking profile pictures of all athletes for the site.

  Next on the agenda is stretching, something we tend to skip over because of our busy schedules. To avoid injury stretching is necessary. Please take time to cool down. We will start posting a cool down on the white board to accompany the WOD. Look for it and do it!

• 24Mar

  March 25, 2009

  playground 15 Comments

  WOD:

  

  Welcome Kelly! Great job tackling the deadlift/running WOD. See you soon.

  Front squat 3-3-3-3-3 reps

  Post loads to comments.

  Great job to all today. Many of you made up WODs and did extra credit work. For those who are nursing injuries, please make sure you listen to your body and make sure you tell when something doesn’t feel right or hurts. Get pumped for the next triplet. 3..2..1..GO!

• 24Mar

  March 24, 2009

  playground 5 Comments

  Rest Day!

  Rest day for those on the 3-1 schedule. Take advantage of this day and try to hydrate, eat clean and mentally prepare for the next triplet.

  The athletes here at the Playground have been progressing quickly. Many of you are getting your first unassisted pull-ups and learning how to kip. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding new movements. We plan to start up our clinics early April.

  Just a reminder that the Playground will be closed this weekend, we are heading to the Barbell Certification at CrossFit Milford.

  A little footage of Dana rocking out some kipping pullups, for those of you who missed it on the evening news:
  
  Dana rocks her first kipping pullups from CrossFit Playground on Vimeo.

• 22Mar

  March 23, 2009

  playground 13 Comments

  WOD:

  

  Pam bench pressing. Great work today girl - you are strong. Thanks for running with me!

  “Karen”

  For time:

  150 Wall balls (20lb)

  Rant du jour: Why?

  Weird thing about CrossFit. You can pick a name or two or three off the board at the gym, or off logsitall.com or off the main site board, and you can tell yourself you’re going to beat that person, or some other person. You go out there and you kill yourself and try to do it. You might beat them, you might not; it really doesn’t matter. And this is a good thing, but not because it matters one iota whether or not you beat them.

  There’s a million and six phrases out there that cover the proper workout mindset, and a lot of them are available in t-shirt form. From the USMC’s “Pain is weakness leaving the body” to the classic Neitzsche “That which does not kill me makes me stronger” to the downright inspirational “Today we do what no one else will so that tomorrow we will do what no one else can,” right on down to (the gramatically incorrect – damned split infinitives…) “Train to not suck at life (sic)”. These all catch the idea, but they don’t answer why we pursue this.

  So what is it all about? Why do we do this to ourselves? To what end are we working?

  It’s this simple: at the end of the WOD, when you’re laying on the ground, drenched in sweat, gasping for breath, grunting deep and primitive sounds, you’ve won. It doesn’t matter if you’ve beaten your real or imagined foe; you’ve won.

  Think about it. We do these things that, to most people, defy reason. We do them frequently, we do them with passion, and we strive for perfection in every movement. We do these things because in doing them, in going to that place where you didn’t think you could go, by shaving a couple of seconds here and there, by lifting a couple more pounds, by getting out of our comfort zones, by pushing our bodies to the limits, by keeping the body going when the brain is screaming “STOP!!” – by doing these things, we find out about ourselves. We find out deep and fundamental truths. We find out where we break, and in doing so, we address the reasons why. And through this ritual of self-destruction, self-immolation, and self-examination, we become better. Better athletes for sure, but better human beings as well.

  CrossFit is about pushing yourself. You’re not competing against anyone but yourself. Your body. Your mind. Your demons. As you progress from a novice to intermediate to established and beyond, your body and overall health are not the lone beneficiaries. Your mind, your confidence, your truest and most personal self… your very soul benefits as well.

  This is why we CrossFit, and we are both proud and honored to have you join us.

  [Show as slideshow]

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• 22Mar

  March 22, 2009

  playground 6 Comments

  “Lynne”

  

  Mike finishing up his 3rd round of 800's during 3/21 WOD

  Five rounds for max reps of:
  Body weight bench press
  Pull-ups

  Post reps for both exercises in all rounds

  Folks this workout sounds crazy, maybe even a bit intimidating, but it is certainly one that we all should hit, and hard of course. This will help develop the kipping pull-up which many of you are close to mastering. We will add some additional skill work and perhaps a loop or two around the neighborhood for good times.

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