High speed gravity

You don't need much for a novel workout: bodyweight, boxes for jumping, pullup bars and a treadmill - and inspiration from one of CrossFit's Hero workouts. Not much else needed.

The workout this morning: 50 pullups, 100 situps and 150 box jumps with a mile run on the end. Here's a couple of pics and the scoreboard from the morning groups:

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Two Ships Passing

Pick two exercises - ramp up reps on the one that benefits from lower rep form practice prior to higher reps while while decreasing reps on the exercise that is lower skill, higher metcon in nature. Today the combination involved squats with half body weight ramping up while burpees started high and ramped down. Squats were 1/2/3/4/5/6......to 16 superset with burpees at 15/14/13.....0 - with rounds being 2 mins long. Group was buttkicked at the end, but managed to hang in there till the very last round.

Climbing in Nepal

Not everyone gets to trek in Nepal and lay eyes on Everest. You'll notice Kenric's name surfacing on the performance boards at CF Summit as a firebreather in our group - having been with us about a year after an introduction through the CrossFit Boot Camp offered at NAU last year. Here's what he had to say about his CF Boot Camp training as it applied to his trip to Nepal a few months back:

The trip took place from Nov 7- Dec 13, 2008 and was a combined climbing and trekking trip that had us climb three 6000m peaks and trek over 80 miles. CrossFit bootcamp workouts comprised a third of my training with running and carrying 40lb pack up and down the San Francisco peaks making up the other 2/3rds. I firmly believe that the high intensity nature of the CrossFit workouts were a huge part of my success on this trip. Climbing the final headwall and ridge line of the first of the 3 peaks, Island Peak, was the hardest thing I have ever done both physically and mentally, but in the end I made it thanks to Cross Fit.

Here is a picture of Kenric and his Sherpa guide with Everest in the background. Nice going, mister.

Extended MetCon work

AMRAP = As Many Rounds As Possible, and this is typically done in under 20 mins in the CrossFit world. However, the benefit of constant variety is breadth of adaptations, so even something as conventional as "AMRAP in less than 20 mins" gets tweaked......and we did.

AMRAP 30 mins is not something we'll do often, but we did on Friday of last week (10/23).

1/4 mile run or 400 meter row

15 KB swings - 1/4 body weight

15 pushups

15 push press - DB's at 1/3 body weight

Here's how the crew performed.

Angie

Angie: 100 pushups, situps, pullups, squats. The crew went after this CrossFit staple workout with a vengeance.

Kudos to newly returned Chris G, who would not quit. The 40 plus minutes it took him to finish this workout took a great deal of tenacity and backbone.

Strength Day Today

Workout (not for time) :
1. Front Squat: 1/2 body weight 5 reps x 5 sets alternating with
2. 4 rounds of 50 yards of bodyweight lunges. Start and finish with the squats and take the lunges to failure - like these.

Brian forgot his workout shoes, and instead of using it as an excuse, dressed up for the occasion. Dessert: 100 minus age of pushups (except for Brian and Tom, who decided to go ahead and knock down 100 minus nothing).

The blend

Marine, dentist, nursing student, banker: what do they have in common? Shared productive suffering. This kind of work, these kind of workouts, create a cohort that enter every workout intent on outperforming each other while simultaneously cheering each other on.

For the record, the dentist usually finishes first.

Tonight the workout was 10/8/6/4/2/4/6/8/10 reps, alternating sets of 1/4 bodyweight dumbbell thrusters and pullups to start out, then up to either a mile run or 2K row. Post your run or row time here.

Exercise is Medicine

About two years ago, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of SportsMedicine (ACSM) announced a new initiative: Exercise is Medicine. This initiative includes a web site (http://www.exerciseismedicine.org/) designed to help physicians promote exercise to patients, even recording physical activity as a vital sign during visits. This development occurred after an ACSM study found 65% of patients would be more interested in exercise if physicians advised them and provided resources, but only 41% of surveyed physicians endorsed exercise to patients, and very few were able to provide resources to implement that advice. To that end, the website holds a broad array of resources, both for physicians and the aspiring or current exerciser.

This initiative assumes that physicians are well equipped to advise their patients on selecting the proper exercises suited to the individual’s needs and interests, and certainly some are. However, our experience at Strong Medicine is that, with rare exception, physicians advice to patients on exercise programming is typically pretty broad: increase activity by walking, biking, swimming, joining a gym, etc. Or, when injury or a chronic musculoskeletal condition is involved, doctors
often turn to physical therapists for safe exercise programming. This leaves a great number of folks without specific advise and help on creating, refining and consistently performing an effective exercise program.

Strong Medicine is positioned as an asset to physicians, and we've not only discussed this synergy with several doctors, we're happy to say that some are in our exercise cohort. Physicians, by virtue of a trusted doctor/patient relationship, should indeed encourage exercise. In a fashion similar to the physician to physical therapist referral, we're positioned to help relatively healthy folks move to higher levels of health and fitness. Our extensive education in human movement, the ability to critically analyze peer reviewed medical and exercise science research and experience in day in/day out manipulation of the human response to exercise are clear assets when it comes to exercise prescription. That kind of understanding, set alongside a solid understanding of pathology and movement dysfunction, is Strong Medicine.We salute the AMA and ACSM for the Exercise is Medicine initiative, but offer one editorial change. Exercise is medicine, yes, but in the right hands, it is more accurate to state that Exercise can be Strong Medicine.

Reformation

We're going to do a little change to the format of the workouts.

We've advertised start times at 6AM, 7AM and 5:30PM, and most of you come in a bit early to engage in a general warm up on the treadmill, bike, etc before we start the workout time. Given that most of the actual training times last about 20, maybe 30 minutes long, we typically dismiss well before an hour has past, even with "dessert" times.

Beginning tomorrow, we'll spend between 10 and 15 minutes in a specific warmup matched to the main event. Any general warmup time you do prior to the central training event is a bonus. We're making this change to insure everyone, particularly the early morning groups, has time to perform a warmup routine prior to the workout.

All of you have made great gains under the prior approach, this should insure that you'll continue to progress to even higher levels of fitness and health.

High Altitude Pushups

You outdoorsy people, staying in shape so you can go hiking all over the place here and there for a vista of God's great wide creation. And then doing pushups on the ledge of a big drop. Because you can.

Krista Duran at Horseshoe Bend, near Page, Arizona, on the edge of a drop several hundred feet down. Because you don't need a doctorate degree to know a handstand pushup here would have been just plain stupid. Although, just in case, she has earned one (DDS).

Lunge and Pullups on MetCon Monday

Sometimes simple isn't just simple, it might also be elegant. Two exercises alternating ("superset" fashion): one with high volume lunges with relatively low load, one moderate volume with bodyweight pullups, turn out to be a quick dose of intense functional movement. Blast the legs and butt and core using lunges with a bar, blast the upper body with pullups.

It is always odd to me that lunges finish with talk about how fatigued the quad muscles feel, but later the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is in the gluts. Really interesting in an exercise geeky sort of way.

Here's Kevin and Joe demonstrating a proper bar lunge, somewhere in the middle of knocking down 150 of 'em. That's 150 each leg, so technically, somewhere in the middle of 300 of 'em.

The couple that works out together...

Mike: nobody loves to hate and hates to love these workouts more - Mike pushes himself full on into MetCon land till there ain't enough oxygen in the room.

Chris: what it looks like when a dancer brings movement awareness to Olympic lifts - fluid movement and long levers at work.

We get some great folks into our little cohort - easy to see why we love having the Glovers in the group.

Fountain of Youth discovered

In the news this week is a promise of extending life by simple genetic manipulation! The research indicates that by manipulating the S6Kinase1 protein (S6K1) in mice helped mimic the health benefits of reducing caloric intake.

Follow the logic here. A reduction in caloric intake extends life and promotes better health. Eat less and eat better food and we will be healthier and live longer. Yes, it takes some planning and discipline, but the benefit is clear - it is like discovering the Fountain of Youth.

Or.....we could consider genetic manipulation that mimics the same process without all that pesky work. I read and re-read the article and missed the recommendation to skip the genetic stuff and just start eating right and exercising. As you read the article, look for opportunities to insert the terms "exercise and eating right" into every space that mentions genetic manipulation and drug treatment as a means to improve health, treat disease like diabetes and extend life.

I've got my Strong Medicine - exercise and smart eating. Okay, and a little red wine for the resveratrol and anti-oxidants as well. Just keep away from my genes!

Transplanted Workout

John Brown and his wife, Kelly, a physical therapist, run CrossFit Agoge in Montrose, Colorado. John, a former Navy SEAL, created the workout in memory of Ryan Jobs, a student and friend from the same elite community. Today, the group tackled what our space and equipment allow to honor this young man's courage and accomplishments.

Our modification to "The Trial of Job" and pics of the group engaging it are below...great job engaging intensity today, gang.

Sorensen back test

Quick little workout yesterday followed by data collection on the Sorensen back test using a GHD bench - we introduced this test to the group last week and promised the full test. There is a great deal of debate in the physical therapy literature as to the true predictive value of this test for future incidence of back pain, and that is not our application here. We'll use it as an occasional test to gauge improvements in isolated back extension among our little cohort.

Here's the results:

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and a few subjects in the testing position: hips supported on bench, back horizontal.

Hero Workout Forthcoming

Next week one of the workouts will honor a former Navy Seal named Ryan Jobs, who unfortunately passed away last week following a surgery in Phoenix to repair an injury he sustained a couple of years ago deployed in Iraq. To learn more about this valiant young man, please go here.

Back Extensors

All kinds of advice exist for preventing back pain and injury. The medical research literature offers the Beiring-Sorensen fatigue test as one specific test that assesses back extensor strength. Following the workout today (Front Squats in 10/8/6/4/2/4/6/8/10 fashion), the class received introductory instruction in this test from Carl DeRosa, the Strong Medicine Science Officer. Carl holds a couple of doctorate degrees, teaches in the physical therapy program at Northern Arizona University, has authored medical texts, presented internationally to therapists and physicians and is an all around super guy. Here's some pics of the test introduction using the Glut-Ham Bench for testing. Stay tuned for the test results (to be conducted next week) as well as analysis on how it compares to population norms.