Sport or Spectacle

I was in a restaurant on Friday night talking with some people about whether or not crossfit has succeeded in branding itself a sport. They were of the opinion that it had. This was based on crossfitters saying it is a sport and competitions being televised. My counter was that they have not so much created a sport as they have created a spectacle. Just because its on ESPN doesn't mean its a sport, just because a bunch of people say its a sport doesn't mean its a sport. If they had some standards, some non subjective scoring method and some legitimacy in the field of athletics then maybe we could call it a sport but until then its just a spectacle. Like looking in the rear view mirror of your car and seeing the little car go out of control, start spinning just as the truck enters the freeway and you know something bad is going to happen and you can't stop looking.

MONDAY'S WORKOUT
2 rounds
DROM
KB circuit
Ab wheel 1 x 5 (I started these in the fully extended position and rolled back to the kneeling position sort of a negative. I wanted to get a sense of being fully extended and the type of bracing that is necessary to pull back to kneeling)
Goblet Squats 5 x 8 @ 12K
(starting at the bottom and exploding up, working on speed out of the bottom and flexibility)

...and then i stretched and went home about an hour.  

...or Strongish.

I never seem to get strong as fast as people that I hear about. Either I am just kind of weak sauce or they are lying. I prefer to believe the latter.

WEDNESDAY'S WORKOUT
3 rounds of:
KB circuit
DROM
Turkish Get up x 1 ea

Press 5/3/2 @ 90

...und, das ist alles.

Duff-Nuts and Deviations

It has been several years since I have had a donut and yesterday seemed the perfect time to break that dry spell. One jelly donut please. It was as delicious as I remember them being. I am so glad that I don't belong to some draconian, fascist group of health nazis that insist on changing my life and keeping me accountable.
The donut, like the cherry cheese danish are necessary parts of life. To deny yourself these is to be only  half-alive.
The simpler the better on the workouts.
MONDAY'S WORKOUT
I did the Flexible Steel exercises at home.
One round of:
10 halos/5 windmills ea side/10 bootstrapper squats
Dead lift 5/3/2 @ 235
2 more rounds of the above KB circuit
back ext. 3 x 10

I figure in about six months I should have everything I need to do all my workouts at home and that will make my happy.

Those Darn Scientists and Athletes

World and Olympic champion weightlifter Tommy Kono said,
"There is a "diminishing return" for an excessive amount of work. When your workload gets to the point of fatigue, all the previous good lifts performed beforehand will be erased by sloppily performed or imperfect lifts..."
Elite power lifting coach Konstantin Rogozhnikov said:
"The mistake of many athletes (and coaches, my comment) is they do not know how to stop in time. It always seems to them that they are not doing enough and they ought to do more....More does not mean better."
(both of the above quotes were taken from Easy Strength by Dan John and Pavel)
What do those clowns know? The genius of crossfit will put them in their place. Here is workout 13.1
There is already 12 unconfirmed reports of injuries including labrum tears, blown out disks, hamstring pulls and one guy dropped a bar on his teeth.
Crossfit has this science thing licked and they know best. Here is a link to a video showing how things are done.
solid performance.
(...and once again, just in case, this is facetious)
SATURDAY'S WORKOUT
A new warm up:
leg swings Forward, back, side to side 10 each way
arm circles double and single front and back
10 halos/ 5 ea windmills/10 bootstrapper squats
10 ab wheel roll outs
fire hydrants
wrist circles

10 halos/ 5 ea windmills/10 bootstrapper squats
10 ab wheel roll outs

tactical frog series

10 halos/ 5 ea windmills/10 bootstrapper squats
10 ab wheel roll outs

5 single hand swings and 5 snatches ea 

The above is going to be the warm up for awhile as I am trying to get a program together that I can do without the dubious honor of belonging to LA Fitness.

Bench Press 5/3/2 @ 140

Revisting

Riffing on Monday's post about the sister in law that wants to become a trainer. It seems as though folks have somehow gotten it into their heads that just because you work out you can become a trainer. Kind of like saying because you have driven a car for a few years you think you can become a race driver. My area is over run with boot camps and little gyms that are headed by people who were told by their friends that they were really good and should become a trainer. Like people telling you are really funny so you should become a comedian. There seems to be a disconnect between being kind of good at something and putting in the work to be truly outstanding.
Being truly outstanding is a lifetime pursuit, a constant search for more knowledge and experience and investing the time and effort to really know your subject matter.
I would see this all the time in CF gyms; someone would post some decent times in the benchmark workouts and they would get kind of strong, they would go to a week end certification and the next thing you know the newly minted "coach" is on the floor teaching a class. It takes years to develop the critical eye you need to teach someone to move properly. It certainly takes a lot more than just being good at exercise.
In closing, don't let me catch you doing that shit or I will call you on it.
And here is a link to my article How To Injury Proof Your Crossfit Gym.

WEDNESDAY'S WORKOUT
Ellip 5 minutes
DROM
Did Dan John's warm up there are 2 videos one is the warm up with goblet squats and the other is doing the Bootstrapper squat which is what I substituted for the goblet squats.
2 rounds of:
10 halos ea way
5 windmills ea side
10 bootstrapper squats
Press 5/3/2 @ 85/90/95
Back Ext 3 x 10

It's Not Much of a Blog

...but I'm sort of attached to it.
Went with a further simplification today. I was in and out of the gym in 1/2 of an hour. I felt good. I am going to try to get in the DeFranco Agile 8 and Simple 6 every day for a month and see how I feel. Knowing, though, of my predilection for grand plans and precipitous falls we'll see how that plays out.
My sister-in-law came over yesterday and said she tried CF last week. I proceeded to try and talk her down. She wasn't all that impressed with it so that is good. She does, however, want to become a trainer because she has been working out for two years and she figures she pretty much has it wired. She's friendly enough, good with people so despite her complete lack of experience she will probably be fabulously successful. What are ya goin' to do?

MONDAY'S WORKOUT
Ellip for 5 minutes
DROM
5 halos/3 goblet squats/1 TGU each side and 5 wall touches
Deadlift 5/3/2 @ 225
Farmer's walk out and back with 2 65 lb dumb bells

I did the above as a circuit with rest between.

Please Hold

I have been sick again. It started right after the workout I did last Monday and is only just now going away.
I did the 55 workout which, in this incarnation, was 1 goblet squat/10 push ups/2 goblet squats/9 push ups  down to 10 goblet squats and 1 push up.
It was fun. Tried some get ups but my shoulder opted out so I stopped.
I have an article up on the Breaking Muscle site called How To Injury Proof Your Crossfit Gym
It's a fun read so get on it.