CrossFit Playground » 2009

29Apr

April 30, 2009 – Ring Work

playground 9 Comments

WOD:

Suzanne working dips with the red band.

“Elizabeth”

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds/95 pounds
Ring dips

Wow,we are really working the rings this week.. You are probably still feeling the ring wrath from 2 WODs ago, but its CrossFit, so 3..2..1..Go!

Many of you hit the 21 SDHP/21 Ring Dip WOD this week, and many of you experienced the rings for the first time with a band for assistance. Tomorrow, we will have everyone work on supports in the rings and use a band for assistance during the WOD if necessary.

To execute a proper support you will hold your body above the rings with straight arms. Your shoulders will be active or pushing down, not up towards your ears. You want to be actively pushing down on the rings. Keep your arms away from the straps.

Bailey working dips. You will be happy to be hitting dips again tomorrow! Just kidding you can do the strength WOD.

Many times your first experience with the rings will be questionable because you will shake like crazy. The rings are commonly perceived as being unstable, but this is a misconception. “Rings have a fixed point of equilibrium. Push the rings and they will always, eventually come back to where they started.” Your brain is responsible for the shaky, shaky when getting on the rings. Your central nervous system sends a signal telling your arms to hold the rings still, but there is sometimes static or noise within the signal that causes the rings to shake. Since there is no friction to hold the rings in place, the slightest change in muscle tension or movement will cause movement in the rings. Working supports in the rings will teach your body to apply force more productively.

Depending on your comfort level we have other incremental moves for introducing you to the rings. Come talk to us and we will walk you through the moves.

Pam and Dana working assisted rings. The bands are great for ring dips!

29Apr

April 29, 2009

playground 7 Comments

Rest Day or make-up WOD day

Pam is ripped!!!

The Playground looks forward to hearing about your CrossFit stories. “What’s your CrossFit Story?”

Many of you have recently shared some with us. To name a few: Eileen is down two full pants sizes in just 3 months. Tom has seen significant performance and endurance gains with his barefoot skiing. Joe has cut his 5k time down by 10 minutes. The moral of it all is stick with the program, keep working hard, and the results will come.

Other random happenings to discuss – we made almond butter a few weeks ago, its very tasty. Really easy to make and affordable. The recipe is as follows:

Lola and Lulah out for a spin!

4 cups of raw almonds yields about 32 ozs of butter

Roast almonds in the oven at 350 for approximately 10 minutes or until almonds turn color – usually darker

Let almonds cool to touch

Slowly pour almonds into food processor or blender

Blend until the dryness turns into creamy smooth butter.

Add salt to taste

Optional: add 1 tablespoons of honey, for sweetness

Notes:

Please remember to bring a towel and a water to each session.

Please dispose of your plastic bottles in the black recycle bin labeled “bottles”

After finished with the weights please remember to rack and unload.

Thanks everyone for making the Playground a fun, positive, and supportive environment!!

27Apr

April 28, 2008

playground 6 Comments

WOD:

Lulah working hard to disinfect the Playground gear. Good work Lu!

Press 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

Post loads to comments

We will be working the press tomorrow, and we will also have a little extra credit WOD to go along with it. Bring your game face!

The press is a full body movement, it starts at the ground (your feet), and ends at you hands when overhead.

Setup for the press:

The press starts in the rack position with elbows out in front of the bar. If the elbows are positioned behind the bar, the direction of the bar when pressed will go away from you on the way up.

Your stance or feet position will be similar to your pull stance for a dead or slightly wider. Lift your chest, look straight ahead, take a deep breath, hold it and drive the bar overhead.

Make note that the 2k Challenge will end on Friday, May 1st at 7pm. The new challenge will be selected on Saturday, May 2.

27Apr

April 27, 2009

playground 12 Comments

WOD:

Joyce you have beautiful form!

Five rounds for time of:
95 pound Sumo-deadlift high-pull, 21 reps
21 Ring dips

Post time to comments.

Updates:

We have a new leader for the 2k Challenge. Tom rowed an 8:11 on Sunday. Remember this is a weekly challenge. We started the challenge on April 24th, so everyone has until May 1st to throw down. On Saturday, May 2, the challenge will change and anyone can throw down a new challenge after it is completed by you of course.

26Apr

April 26, 2009

playground 14 Comments

WOD:

Welcome Danielle! You rocked the filthy 50.. See you and Courtney on Monday!

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Squat snatch
Chest to bar Pull-ups

25Apr

April 25, 2009 – We got swag!

playground 2 Comments

Rest Day!

We got swag!

The first round of logo wear is in, get it while it lasts. All of the tops have the same saying on the back, “Being Weak is a Choice. Be Strong.”

The Playground is open until 11:30 today and on Sunday, from 8am to 10:30am. See you all soon!

23Apr

April 24, 2009 – You Are Awesome

playground 19 Comments

WOD:

“Michael”

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

Post time to comments.

Compare to 081228

Brooke has mad hops!

Bang your head on the wall, 200 reps, for time.

Topic du jour: You Are Awesome

You are awesome. Yes, you.

Give yourself a pat on the back.

We were very impressed with the efforts put out yesterday across the board. We saw the sense of dread on every single athlete’s face when the Filthy Fifty was up on the board. We saw you trying to figure out what would suck the worst. We saw you doubt…

And then we saw every single one of you take a few breaths, nod when we asked if you were ready, and give it hell.

500 movements. None of them easy. And ALL of you did it. You pushed yourselves, and you pushed hard.

Seeing the efforts you all put forth yesterday, seeing the way you all have progressed, seeing the way people cheered each other on – it was, in a nutshell, the reason that we started this gym.

What we saw at The Playground today was nothing short of spectacular, and it was spectacular because of you. We thank each and every one of you for validating the reason we started CrossFit Playground. You are awesome.

22Apr

April 23, 2009

playground 17 Comments

WOD:

Dana is a natural athlete! We gave her a few pointers on double-unders and she rocked them!! Way to bring it girl!

“Filthy Fifty”

For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

BRING IT!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

21Apr

April 22, 2009 – AS RX’D

playground 12 Comments

WOD:

Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

Welcome Chloe! Good work showing "Helen" what's up!

Topic: as rx’d

As rx’d, or “as prescribed,” is CrossFit lingo meaning you did the day’s WOD with no scaling.

Doing all of your workouts as prescribed should be a goal of yours, even if it seems so far away that you can’t imagine it. We’re not saying this to fill you with a sense of dread; instead we’re saying it because it will help you evolve as an athlete, and it will help you better yourself.

There are several schools of thought about scaling. We’ve seen countless presentations involving more physics equations than any adult should be looking at which detail why someone performing a Fran with 75 pound thrusters but completing the work in 5 minutes is actually putting out more wattage per second than someone doing Fran with 95 pounds (as prescribed) but doing it in nine minutes.

To the people who advocate the above approach, we have one word: bullshit. Take the math and shove it. Anyone who tells you “you should scale” is selling you something that’s not CrossFit.

To be fair and clear, let this statement placate those of you who are flipping off your monitor right now: it’s one thing to scale because you haven’t developed the strength / technique / endurance to do the work. It’s another thing to scale because it’s easier to do so. We’re advocating that you should never fall into the latter trap. If you are capable of doing a WOD as rx’d, you should. If you can’t do it as rx’d, you should try anyway. You can always scale after you fail, and at least you tried.

Pam takes flight!

Brings us back to a tried and true point. What is the goal of CrossFit training? All together, now:

The goal of CrossFit training is increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains.

So, the people who are all into doing physics equations to show you that you’re doing more work when doing a lighter weight in a shorter time in the Fran example are right when they point out that your average wattage per second is higher. But (and there’s always a but), these guys are missing the point.

We want to put out wattage, horsepower, joules, or whatever physics term you want to slap on there, sure. But we also want to be able to keep that output jacked up for four, five, ten, twenty minutes. So while doing a balls-out Fran with 75 pound thrusters will still leave you panting on the floor, you will still have done substantially less work than someone who did it with 95 pounds, even if it takes you twice as long.

The reason we want you to do it as prescribed is a simple one: the load in Fran (and most other named workouts) isn’t going to change. Next time you do Fran, it will still be 95 pound thrusters. When you do Fran in March of 2012, it will still be 95 pound thrusters. So once you get the work pieces down and can do them as prescribed, the amount of work you are doing isn’t going to change. At the point where you perform the movements with the prescribed work load, you only have one domain in which to improve: time.

Sooner or later, you have to put a mark on the wall and do any given WOD as rx’d. Sometimes, it’s humbling, because you’re not as good as you’ve led yourself to believe with your “just a little jump” on your pullups, or the “I’ll do 65 pounds next time” promises. It doesn’t matter. Once you do it as rx’d, you’ve baselined. Once you have your baseline, there’s no going back – only going forward, to ever-faster times and ever-increasing performance.

Get out there and kick it in the ass.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]