Sickies and links

Well, my last workout was on Tuesday morning. I was all pumped up for attempting to PR on "Helen" on Wednesday morning, since I had just gotten 12 kipping pullups in a row. But alas, the sickies set in Tuesday afternoon. :(

I might've tried to push through it, but my husband came home from work SUPER sick, vomiting and chills and lots of nasty stuff. Seeing him I feared for what would develop if I didn't rest!

So I've been resting all week, though surprisingly I feel a bit worse this morning? But still just congested, tired and headache-y. Nothing horrible, so maybe I've dodged the bullet.

I will be as ready to do the first sectionals WOD tomorrow as I can be! Yesterday I did a couple 55# snatches after judging some of my athletes, and tonight I'm going to practice DUs and try out a speed rope before judging a few more.

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Here's a backlog of links that I've been building. I haven't shared any in quite a while, so enjoy or ignore, whichever is your habit. :)

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Stuck in the SUCK

"We all have stuck in the suck moments. Not the moments where life is difficult externally, but the moments where internally we feel like it’s difficult regardless of what’s really happening. Moments where we lose presence and our highest possible selves cannot be expressed. Those moments are just as much a part of life as the moments where we transcend and achieve."

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Earning your body versus punishing your body

"Stop hating your body, it is not your bodies fault that it isn’t what you want it to be. Embrace what it is. Find out what it can DO. You may be the perfect built to be a weightlifter, you maybe you’d be a really good swimmer. You might be a natural dancer or martial artists. You might love to cycle. Go rockclimb, or do parkour. Run if you want to run. Do something that has a built in reward. Stop punishing your body because it doesn’t fit a mold you want it to."

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I posted about Kallista before. She still rocks.

Two-Time Games Vet At 17: Kallista Pappas 

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"Yoked"

"I got strong for my life. I discovered my life. I found my muscles and I found my voice. "

"I used to look at that girl and wish I was her. I used to look at that girl and think I could never do that, that it was ridiculous, that it was impossible. It was impossible for me. ... But not anymore. No more baggy t-shirts for me. No more being held in place. I went and got strong."

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Go Easy on Yourself - practicing self-compassion will improve your life

“Self-compassion is really conducive to motivation,” Dr. Neff said. “The reason you don’t let your children eat five big tubs of ice cream is because you care about them. With self-compassion, if you care about yourself, you do what’s healthy for you rather than what’s harmful to you.”

H/T Stephanie
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Why Running is Important, by Blair Morrison

"Last, psychologically, running teaches you how thin the walls are between optimal and sub-optimal performance. Lifting weights you often reach a point where you literally cannot do another rep, where your muscles have actually failed and there is nothing you can do about it. At this point, your mind gets a break. It’s off the hook... on vacation. This can’t happen in running. You can always take another step therefore your head never gets a rest (incredible ironman Youtube footage notwithstanding). To get better in this discipline you have to improve your toughness. Period. And that flows over into everything else you do."

"Regularly learn and play new sports"

So, wanna guess what my new sport is?

OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING!

Hells yeah bitches!!!

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The back story. :)

I have been following the blog and Facebook page of a CrossFit gym in my area (35-45 minute drive from where I live) for a while now -- Sandbox Athletics. I noticed several announcements about their weightlifting club, and the results of competitions they attended. Then a few guys from my gym started going to their training sessions, and a few took part in some of the competitions.

I was still just thinking about checking it out, and then 2 important events happened in quick succession.

I had my mind-blowing private session with Aimee at CF KoP, and learned that my clean was stalled because it needed to be completely rebuilt. I knew then it was high time to find myself a local coach who could help me on a consistent basis.

A few days later, an announcement came through my feed reader about Sandbox Weightlifting club looking for new members.

The decision to join basically made itself -- I wanted to improve my lifts, get coaching on a consistent basis, and also learn more about coaching the lifts by working through the process of fixing my own problems.

One thing I didn't expect was to participate in my first competition just 2 weeks after my first practice! It was hectic, but in hindsight I'm glad the timing worked out that way for a few reasons. One, it got me through those "first time jitters". And I definitely suffered from some jitters. :) Two, I learned a lot about how weightlifting competitions are organized. They are very confusing -- hands on experience is a must to figure out how things work. Three, I now have a baseline from the true beginning of my training, which I can use to measure my progress. Yay! :)

My first competition was on September 11th. I know, I am sooo late filling you all in on this stuff!

If you have zero experience with Olympic weightlifting (like me 1 month ago), here's the basics:

• Competitors are organized into weight classes. I lift in the 69kg weight class at the moment. There are hopes I could drop down to 64kg, we'll see. :)
• Each competitor gets 3 attempts at each lift -- snatch and clean and jerk. 
• Weight classes are usually divided into sessions, and all the competitors in a session perform their 3 snatch attempts, then there's a break, then all competitors perform their 3 clean and jerk attempts.
• There are 3 judges who watch each lift, and each judge can either activate a white light or a red light indicating if the lift was good or bad. As long as you get 2 of 3 white lights, the lift counts.

Here's how I did at the competition:
Snatch: 35kg, 37kg, 39kg
Clean: 37kg, 39kg, 45kg

All my lifts were judged as good, so I went 6 for 6! Also, I got all 3 white lights on each lift as well, so that made me super happy. :)

These were very light weights in comparison to my fellow competitors, but the goal for my first competition was just to get 6 good attempts and experience my first competition. Done and done. Now I'll be focused on competing with myself, and PR'ing at every competition. Sometime in the farther off future I'll be ready to compete and try to win something. :)

Hope you aren't disappointed by my "big news" -- it's big to me! I've been training at Sandbox Weightlifting, and also at another local gym with my coach's coach, at least twice a week, and I hope to bump that up to 4. Which explains my measly 2-3 CrossFit WODs per week.

I won't be doing WODs that involve the Olympic lifts anymore, mostly because I need to ensure perfect form every time I approach the barball, and secondarily because my "home" gym doesn't have any ladies bars. Didn't realize how important it was to have a bar that's the right size for your hands! Now I finally understand why I could never get my thumb locked when I "hooked" on a men's bar. :)

I could totally go on forever about this, so I'll stop myself here, and keep my updates on this short and sweet in the future. If you want to know more about the specifics of my training, just shoot me an email. I might start posting my Oly lifting workouts here in addition to my CrossFit WODs, but I haven't decided yet.

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Random internet goodness for you -- do any of you remember that game for NES where you could do clean & jerk and snatch, and also other weird sports, like cliff diving and log rolling?

Ok, well *I* remember that game randomly today, and wanted to look it up to see if I could play it online, or at least just see a screen grab. At first I thought it was part of "Track & Field", but thankfully Google helped me figure it out.

It was called "World Games", and put out by some random manufacturer. And I found a great page with tons of description, and best of all, pictures!

And I found video of the game play too! Luckily weightlifting is the first sport in the game, so it's right at the beginning. :)



I can remember trying to play this game, and failing miserably. Maybe now that I understand the point I would be able to play it better. :-D

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Also, I wanted to throw in a link with this post. Here's a cool blog from some chicks who lift -- I love the name: Pretty Strong Blog.

They're just getting started, but I have a feeling they'll be posting some good stuff!

Squat clinic deets, "10"

Well, this morning was my first shot at the squat clinic, and I think it went well!

It was a nice manageable group of 5 at the 0830 class, and several of them really seemed to enjoy working on the basics. Got some feedback, and will tweak a tiny bit in the 2 evening classes, but overall I like what I came up with. Should be interesting to see how everybody progresses through the week, and beyond.

At some point I will try to make a short video of what am doing in our clinic. I'll have to find a volunteer to do the "ass lowering" drill, though. :-D

Honestly, just watch this Dan John video. You will be glad you did. Stick around for about 30 minutes, or at least make it to 20. He does go off on a few little tangents, but they're little nuggets of good info, not rambling, so it's all good. I am pretty much copying all of his techniques and cues.

Here's the sequence that the athletes will repeat each day after their warmup:

• Samson Stretch/Lunge -- 30 seconds total for each leg; open hips fully
• Bottom of the squat stretch -- 30 seconds total; elbows pressing knees out; make sure everybody has feet wide enough, and angled enough; make first assessment on depth
• The "Amazing Ass Dropping Drill" OR "Mr. Universe & Buddha Belly" -- this one is where the Dan John video comes in, very hard to explain written out*
• Potato sack squats -- extend arms down, with fingers interlaced like you're holding a sack of potatoes; squat down and touch backs of fingers to the floor; provides a tactile cue when you've reached the bottom postion
• Potato sack squat to OHS -- lay PVC on floor in front of athlete; perform P.S. squat, then grab PVC with wide grip and lock out overhead; stand up; viola, an overhead squat!
• Wall squat -- you can't beat the classics; great for reinforcing sending the butt back, tall posture as you drop, weight in heels, and knees tracking out over toes

* So here's a written explanation of the Amazing Ass Dropping Drill, as I have now named it. :)

1. Athlete squats in goblet squat position -- elbows pressing at knees
2. Trainer stands behind athlete and provides support by bracing the outside of the athlete's butt with the inside of their calf/shin
3. Providing support allows the athlete to drop lower than their normal "comfort zone"
4.  Trainer cues athlete -- "Big chest" or "Mr. Universe" or "Break the finger"; these are all aimed at improving the lumbar curve and spreading the chest out and up and moving the torso into a more upright position
5. Trainer cues athlete -- "Buddha belly"; athlete relaxes lower belly, or actually pushes lower belly outward; this will cause the butt to drop, so trainer must be ready to provide support with their legs
6. Continue to give alternating cues -- "Mr. Universe" and "Buddha belly" until athlete is at the bottom position, or is becoming unstable
7. Lift athlete up and out of bottom position -- they will not be able to stand up from here on their own, as the stress response to push upward has been basically "switched off" by the drill

 So now go watch the damn video! :-D

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In addition to squat therapy, we're also doing pushup therapy this week. Now that it's my chance to run the show for a week, I've instituted a "no knees" policy for pushups. I'm so excited to see if the ladies (and gentlemen) at our gym take to this new progression, and if they do, how much improvement it will lead to. Squeee!

If you don't know what I'm talking about here, see "Get Off Your Knees" by Lisbeth Darsh.

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The WOD today was very simple, and gave everybody a chance to reinforce what we talked about during the skill session. Despite it's simplicity, if you execute it at a high enough intensity, it will feel like hell!

"10"
10 rounds:
10 pushups
10 situps
10 squats

Results: 15:58

I finished last out of all the 830 peeps, which I thought was kinda hilarious! Though I did stop a bit here and there to check out form, and give some feedback. But still this was slow. My metcon/cardio has gone down the freaking toilet since I haven't really worked on it lately. I'm much more concerned with strength right now, and I think I probably always will be biased toward strength.

Which is where another Lis article comes into play -- "Lighten Up While You Still Can". That article is all about having a focus for each WOD -- either go heavy, or go fast. Commit to one and stick with it and don't fuck around. So true.

I think very soon it will be time for to unload the bar, stop trying to be the strongest at everything, and work at what I *really* suck at -- intensity.

Up the rope...

Another workout that changed things up a bit today -- doing lots of different movements is good for me, I like it.

3 rounds:
5 Legless Rope Climbs
25 Sledge Strikes Right
25 Sledge Strikes Left
14 Single Arm Power Snatch Right (40/20)
14 Single Arm Power Snatch Left

Results:  30:02 -- regular rope climbs

What took me so long was the resting I did between rope climbs. I just had no confidence in that today, and honestly just didn't feel like doing it anymore after the first few trips up the rope. I was just standing at the bottom of the rope thinking to myself, "wow, I so don't want to do that at all... can I just skip this part?"

Sometimes I crack myself up with my mental dialogue. heh

In any case, even though it took me a while, I still did all my climbs. But damn if my foot didn't hurt from wrapping the rope around it and stomping down with the other one. I need to rethink my footwear choices on my next rope climb WOD -- something a bit more substantial is probably a good idea.

I am the bomb diggity with dumbbell snatches. My first CrossFit gym didn't use barbells at all, we did everything with kettlebells and dumbbells, so I first learned to snatch with one arm and a dumbbell. It was fun to just power snatch because that's sooooooo much easier. And my legs are *hurting* from back squats yesterday, so that made me happy.

Speaking of hurting, holy shit, my chest and upper back are so tight from that handstand walk thing yesterday that I can barely take a deep breath! Seriously! Seems like I should keep doing those on a regular basis, because they definitely worked me out in a new and interesting way! :)

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Looking for your input on improving squat technique. Do you have any personal experience about fixing your own squat? Have you been able to help others? Do you know of a great online resource that you could point me to?

At our box, there are tons of people with squat issues, myself included. I have the chance to program a week of workouts, and I want to use that time to focus on the squat and help people get started on improving it. Right now no one really wants to focus on that as a goal, despite the fact that it's so important. Achieving below parallel on the squat with good form is not the "sexiest" goal, but certainly one that will reap huge benefit once achieved.

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Pay Now Live Later: How I Ditched the Chemicals in my Bathroom Cabinet

This blog post really intrigued me, especially in light of my current Primal mindset. It was only after reading The Primal Blueprint and The Omnivore's Dilemna that I started thinking about pesticides and how it's important to know where our food comes from and how it's grown / raised. (plant & animal)

This article takes that next step and makes you think about all the health and beauty product you use, and how those might be manufactured in an unsafe way, the same way the food might be grown / raised in a manner than is less than optimal for health.

I don't think I'll give up my whitening toothpaste anytime soon, but I might try the soap and shampoo suggestions, just to give it a shot...

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To read:

F* Off Fit: So I was watching Fight Club

"We push societies limits on what is normal for women. We dont run and do pilates and eat air salads and aim to see our bones. We eat fats, and animal proteins, we celebrate our guns and love our strong legs. WE have calloused hands in which, when we are in normal groups of peoples, make them frown or look at us oddly."

Already Pretty: An Argument for Self-love

"Happiness is important, but serenity is vital. And it can feel impossible to achieve when you’re busily judging yourself. Because even when the more immediate worries clear out, self-loathing is still there, whirring busily in the background and keeping you agitated. Make it stop, and serenity is within reach. Learn to love yourself, and happiness follows close behind."

Healthy Girl: Has the Number on the Scale Ever Ruined Your Whole Day?

"No offense to your doctor, but for anyone who’s even slightly weird about food or their body, weighing themselves daily is a prescription for Crazy! I know why he or she advised you to do it—the National Weight Loss Registry, this big survey of people who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off—showed that many of them weight themselves often, even daily. But as people with disordered eating issues, we can’t just directly apply info like that to ourselves."
--> completely agree with everything in this article

Fun and different WOD

Am I getting old if I actually thought about writing about how I think our coach Paul is creative and enthusiastic due to his youth?

I think, maybe, yes. Must be time to just start saying I'm 30 even though I'm only 29. :-p

But seriously, Paul had a cool WOD on tap for us today. It made me kinda nervous looking at it, but now that I've finished it, it was pretty fun!

6 rounds:
5 back squat (185/135)
Handstand walk, 50ft

Results: 24:55, 135# and "on the shoulder" wheelbarrow walk for 100ft

Ok, so for the handstand walk I definitely had to substitute -- if I hadn't, I would've busted my freakin' head open on the rubber mats. Or broken my neck.

Sooooo, we did the badass version of the wheelbarrow walk -- instead of holding your partner's feet, you put them up on your shoulders, so they're more inverted. Then the person being held just has to "pike" their body and get as vertical as they can, like in a modified HSPU, to simulate a handstand walk. Crazy, yet fun! I actually "held" two of my peeps before I took my turn, so I got some extra work in. :)

Holy shit 135# was really heavy for me on back squats. And I'm left with sore quads, which tells me that I was rolling up onto my toes a lot. Boooooo. But when I tried to keep my chest high at the bottom, I lost the bar off the back. Urgh. Need to have someone video me doing this so I can assess. But in any case, I still did all the reps, I just had to break them up into 2s and 3's starting in round 3. Thank GOD will was there to clean the bar back up for me the two times I dropped it.

Oh yeah, and that handstand wheelbarrow walk is hard on your abs!

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I've been following the Primal Blueprint Fitness stuff going on at Mark's Daily Apple, and like what I see so far. Except I'm sad about what I saw in his pushup video.

I was really hoping that after starting off with the wall pushup, he would tell people to just keep lowering their hands until they could finally do pushups on the ground. But instead he instructs you to put your knees down. Boo!



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Robb Wolf was interviewed on T-Nation about his new book, The Paleo Solution.

He also released a video where he talks about the book. After listening to his Paleolithic Solution podcast, it's kind of weird to "see" him talk.

I've already pre-ordered the book, and I'll post my thoughts here once I read it. If it's even half as good as the podcasts, it's going to be awesome. The only problem I have wit the podcast is I listen to it in the car, and then I can't take notes on the little tidbits that interest me. :)



I hope they didn't edit out his sense of humor from the book, because he's fucking hilarious. This guy seriously needs to join The Daily Show as their health/fitness correspondent. :-D

Interesting chipper, lots of questions

I envisioned this WOD taking *forever*, but it really wasn't that bad. I could improve my time on this one, but I was pretty happy with the work I did.

WOD:
4 rope climbs
50 thrusters (45/25)
400m run
50 thrusters
1 mile run

Results: 22:39 Rx; time for 1 mile: 9:32

The 4 climbs went well! I used the "standard" rope around the leg technique to go up, and then experimented with different feet placements to come back down again.


Rope Climbs from c wiss on Vimeo.

For some explanation about the different stuff I was trying, check out this video on rope climbing tips from Beastskills.com.

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Our gym is talking about having another Paleo challenge... And I'm not sure how I feel about it. At the start of our last challenge I had been eating Paleo on my own for several months, had seen excellent results in losing fat and improving performance, and was super gung-ho about getting others on board.

Then the challenge started, and all hell broke loose. Some kind of latent adolescent rebellion kicked in, and suddenly didn't want to eat Paleo because now I "had to".

And honestly, my Paleo mojo has been majorly fucked up ever since. To the point where I'm reading "The Primal Blueprint" and eating a bowl of ice cream.

Recently I read a blog post -- Is Competition Always Good? -- that was good food for thought.

[O]verall, I think this kind of competition is counterproductive. I’m not saying “don’t run a 5K” or don’t challenge yourself in a way that feels right to you. I am saying that the challenge or competition mentality, when it comes to our bodies and our health, is probably more of a distraction than a help. I think it pushes us into a more narrow definition of what’s acceptable for ourselves.

I can't find the link, but I also read a blog post once about a woman who started a challenge, and had it derail her from a good routine because she wasn't able to be a perfect competitor. So, if I can summarize, she had a good thing going, hitting the gym regularly, doing her thing, good results. Then the gym started a challenge -- you know the drill, start with a benchmark WOD, 6 weeks, repeat benchmark WOD. She had this grandiose plan about how she would "pump up" her current routine so that she would blow her old time away at the end of the challenge. But the pressure to be a perfect competitor completely stalled her ability to even continue what she had been doing. She stopped going to the gym completely because she wasn't able to do it perfectly, as the perfect competitor.

Hope that made sense to you guys -- I'm bummed I can't remember what blog that story came from.

Today I read a post on PaleoChix, which is the first in a series of posts about members of CrossFit Scotsdale who have participated in a Paleo Challenge. This post had a very positive outcome for the athlete.

I'm left wondering if they'll include a story that turned out badly for the athlete, like what happened with me. Where a person that had made a relaxed and gradual switch to Paleo found themself derailed by the challenge, because it created pressure to adhere to a perfect standard.

Thoughts from you all? Have you done a Paleo challenge?  If you have, did you like or dislike it? Did it help or hurt your overall efforts?

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For 2 weeks earlier this month I had the opportunity to assist with teaching swimming lessons at our pool on base, since I had just completed (and thankfully passed!) my Red Cross Water Safety Instructor course.

And you know what? I'm pretty good at helping little kids learn how to swim. Except the making them submerge when they don't want to part, I am not good at that yet. But other stuff, I'm pretty good at.

It was so fun to see the students in the 2 classes I helped with progress! They worked so hard, and learned a ton, and never gave up, and had so much fun and were so excited.

And so now I'm seriously thinking about signing up for the CrossFit Kids certification, especially because one is being held in Atlanta soon, and that's actually within driving distance for me...

Some additional inspiration came from:
 - Melli: CrossFitting Kids
 - Raw CrossFit: Imagine if you CrossFit as a kid
 - Miss Jovina

Those of you who CrossFit and have kids -- let me know your thoughts on CF Kids. Are your children already too busy with other sports to participate? Or is it something they would enjoy making time for? Would you like your kids to have class at the same time as you? Or at a different time so you can watch them and maybe participate a little bit in their class?

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CrossFit Is A Gateway Drug

I think metabolic conditioning is our “bait” – it’s the bright shiny object we use to reel them in.

 Did CrossFit draw you in with the "great sweat" workouts, and then you found yourself becoming obsessed with barbell lifts or gymnastics? This was true for me, so I'm just curious if it was true for you guys too?

Swimmy

I coached 0830 class this morning, then had to run off to the pool to help teach lessons at 1000, so no WOD for me. Since it's a gazillion degrees (heat index over 100) here in the Georgia swamp, I decided to do a workout entirely in the pool. Plus I needed to practice my strokes.

2 rounds:

• 100yd front crawl
• 100yd breaststroke
• 100yd back crawl
• 100yd sidestroke
• 100yd elementary backstroke

I rested as little as possible between strokes, and not at all within each 100.

To finish up I did 50 flutter kick, 50 breaststroke kick, 50 dolphin kick and 50 butterfly. My 'fly wasn't too bad today! I need to practice it more often.

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Question for you guys. If you're doing a workout with multiple runs of the same distance, do you care at all what your times on each run are?

I coached a very "grinder" WOD today, and instead of just standing there making inane comments while people were trying to grind out their burpees, I timed their 400m runs. I missed a couple people heading out and coming in, but got a lot of times for them to see.

Personally, I love any and all metrics, and would've appreciated this. Just curious what you all think -- a worthwhile endeavor, or just something that was distracting me from providing coaching to my athletes?


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10 ways to be a better CrossFitter -- Lisbeth Darsh

I recommit to practicing #3 approximately once a day, or more.

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Pistols -- Beastskills

Don't we all want to be better at these (or learn to do them, in my case) after watching the CrossFit Games?

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Via my friend Stephanie Vincent:

This explains the “factual reasons” I choose not to eat grains: Whole grains, Wholesome Goodness?

This explains the "emotional reasons" why: Radical Hate Loss via Paleo

Steph is also a Bas Ass Bitch. :)

Why can I not be just satisfied with doing CrossFit 3 times week- scaling everything forever? I could still have fun. I would still maintain health. I could resign myself to the idea that my body was neglected for way to long to be able to improve much more than it has. I’m healthy, I am strong….isn’t that good enough?

Sometimes I wish it could be that way. I see other people happy that
way, but I am a different animal. I am passionate, intense and courageous. Sure new experiences and lofty goals rise fear inside me, but I find I am the kind of person that is willing to stare fear right in the face, grounded in its polar opposite...LOVE.

Loving all these comments!

Wow, I am really loving all of these comments on the last 2 posts. It would be awesome to have more discussion here, so keep it coming ladies!

I was giggling so much reading Andrea's comment about wanting "scary arms". I have been flexing as a party trick since I was in high school -- I love blowing people's minds with my bi's and tri's. :-p And I am with you on the big legs. When my "side quad" first started popping out from squats, I was sooooo excited!

Angie got her stats up in her sidebar already, and OMG -- her 1RM on OHS is 110! That must be getting close to body weight, am I right? That kicks so much ass. :-D

Can't wait to see your stats too Kelsalynn!

Oh, and KD and Sara, you ladies need to join in the fun as well, since you were my original CrossFit mentors. :)

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I'm still freaking sick. What a pain. Especially since I'll be in and out of the pool tomorrow for my Water Safety Instructor class, plus I'll be teaching 4 10 minute swim lessons. KILL ME NOW. At least I might have a tiny bit of a voice by then -- I'm actually able to force out some real sounds and not just whispers today.

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When I hit the urgent care clinic on Monday I wore this shirt to help myself feel super tough. Bad ass, eh? :-D

If you watch the Games live web cast, watch out for Kate!

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And finally, my real reason for today's post.

Last night I was hacking up a lung, so I gave up on trying to lay in bed and got up and watched some TV and also looked at some stuff on the computer. Since it was late, that meant lots of new WODs had been posted that I could look at! Yay! Yes, I am such a CrossFit geek that I am subscribed to the blogs of several affiliates so I can check out lots of different WODs. :)

Anyway, CF KoP included a link within today's WOD post. And it got me so freaking excited, because it is *exactly* what I need right now.

Among all of my WOD "catchup" posts, I posted about a very bad day that I had with a WOD that involved muscle ups. At the end I said I'd like to do strict muscle up progressions moving forward -- the only problem with that plan was my not actually knowing how to go about doing that. All the MU progressions I knew about involve assisting a kipping-based transition.

This is the same spot I've been in before with gymnastics (body weight) movements. I want to practice, I'm dying to improve -- but everything I try to practice, I can't actually do yet. It is a totally frustrating place to be in, and in all honesty I don't handle it well. AT ALL.


I can remember when I couldn't do a dead hang pullup with the green band. Not being able to get my chin over that bar made me feel like an utter failure. Lately when I've failed at attempts to do pullups on the rings while maintaining a false grip, I feel that same way. Or when I've had to resort back to a band on ring dips when my strength gives out. It's like I bottom out.

What I have to remind myself is that I didn't get better at pullups until I started working on them every time I was in the gym. If a WOD didn't include pullups, then I was on the bar doing some afterwards. Even if it was just 5 or 10.

But also, there was an incremental nature to my pullups, once I did manage to get going on the green band. There's a next step -- blue. Then white. Then mental floss. Then you're ready to kip and deadhang unassisted. That ability to progress incrementally is what's lacking in my muscle up practice.

So, back to what I watched last night. An incredible video with several options for progressions that work toward a strict muscle up. Hallelujah! And they are brilliant progressions in that you can easily measure your success and incrementally increase difficulty in each one -- foot placement, bands, used, etc. (If you don't subscribe to the CF Journal, do it now, it's worth $25/year)

This is where gymnastics is so frustrating, and so rewarding. You get in these "sticking points" where you can't do the movement yet, and you're not even sure how to go about getting there. But once you get on the path of the proper progressions and start practicing, next thing you know you've amazed yourself!

It's in these "sticking points" that you realize how little you know. I feel fortunate that I'm experiencing these moments as an athlete, because I think it's making me a much better coach. If I had the brute strength and "balls to wall" attitude to just fling myself up into a muscle up, I would not be looking at progressions like this. And I would less educated and less prepared to help others who need a much more incremental approach to practice.


And this highlights something fundamental that makes CrossFit special to me. With all the skills that are incorporated, CrossFit puts me into these incredibly uncomfortable positions, where I'm consumed with "I can'ts" and my outlook gets to bleak. But when I persevere, next thing I know, I'm doing things I never thought would be possible.

Last year at this time I was 20 pounds heavier, and hiding inside all day because I hated the heat and hated living in Georgia and hated myself. I had just purchased summer clothes in bigger sizes because I didn't think I was going to take the weight off. It would be another month of misery before I even considered getting back to the gym.

11 month later, and I've just completed Murph as Rx. Yeah, it took me 90 minutes, but who cares? I got that shit done! Freaking amazing.

And can I just take a moment to be snarky? There's no way in hell these changes would've happened via elliptical machines, Zumba classes and Jillian videos. :-D

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One final thought on muscle ups. If you're a chick, and you have a kipping pullup and you can do a couple rings dips, have you considered adding this skill to your goals? Has your coach encouraged you in that direction?

As a coach, I think I want to bring this skill down from "holy grail" category and help my athletes perceive it as just another skill that is scalable and achievable for them, with time and practice.

And by "scalable" I sure as hell don't mean doing gazillions of pullups and dips on any day where MU's are programmed. I personally think that's total fucking crap. Let's start subbing movements with progressions of that movement people. (This is a pet peeve of mine, along with substitutions for rope climbs)

I'm making it my mission to make sure the ladies at my gym are setting their sights on going for a muscle up from the very moment after they get their kipping  or deadhang pullups.

I think when you're just exiting the process of achieving unassisted pullups, you're used to being in that "sticky" zone, you're used to being uncomfortable. And the key is to keep one step ahead, and introduce a new "sticky" skill, so the athlete never has the chance to adjust back to being very comfortable. It's hard to get yourself back into the uncomfortable place once you're feeling a little cocky that you can do pullups Rx. At least that's how things have played out for me. It has been hell trying to push myself back to that place, but I'm working on it.

Also, more chicks on the rings for dips, please. Off the bars and onto the rings!

PS - I'm gonna be making some more videos of my work on gymnastics stuff. Be prepared to laugh because I'm sure to make an ass of myself doing HSPUs. :-D

Keeping up the momentum

Wouldn't you know that as soon as I get determined to start posting WODs again, I get sick and am unable to WOD?

The virus from hell has got me people. And I say "hell" because I talk a lot, and I have lost the use of my voice for the past 2 days.

However, in an interesting development, I think that's what motivated me to blog my entire WOD backlog yesterday -- if I can't talk out loud, then I can at least "talk" here. :)

All this aside, I do have some links and information I've been saving to share. So I'm going to do that instead of WOD post to try to keep my blogging momentum going. :)

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First, a shout out to Albany CrossFit! I have been subscribed to their WOD blog for a few months now, so of course when they asked for comments from readers I chimed in to say "THANK YOU!". Cause I love their multi-level scaling options -- it's really a great hands-on example of how WODs should be scaled, both up and down, and they are awesome for sharing their knowledge with the Internets.

And guess what they did? They linked to my blog! Too fun! Thanks again guys (and gals) of ACF -- I will most definitely be dropping in for a WOD next time I'm up north visiting my friend at Cornell. :)

For those who don't live near a CF box, or want to try to start CrossFitting at home, I would definitely recommend the ACF WODs over the main site WODs. Yes, there's the BrandX scaling for main site, but when I was a CF newbie looking at the BrandX boards they succeeded more at making me feel intimidated, rather than convincing me that CF was something I was capable of doing by way of scaling.

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Next, I've added a few links to my "Blogs" list in the sidebar, and also updated the title to: "Bad Ass CrossFit Ladies". Much more appropriate. :)

Disclaimer: I'm not subscribed to all of those blogs; I keep my feed reader to a minimum of "must reads" otherwise I spend 3 hours a day over there. Anyway, back to my point. Anytime I come across a woman blogging about doing CrossFit, I always add her to my list. As my friend Andrea pointed out in a comment yesterday, there aren't a whole lot of women posting results to the main site, and it can be hard to find women who are at your level to compare yourself to. So if you're looking for CrossFit ladies who blog, check out the list!

If you feel like the WOD results that I post are at the "level" that you're looking to read about, definitely check out Angie's blog. With her dedication the last few months, she is blowing me away in the areas of gymnastics and strength. Way to go girl, you are one of my role models. :-D

And if you need inspiration to keep doing CF even without a box nearby, go visit Erin or KD -- they both manage while living overseas, so no more excuses. :)

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During my little hiatus, I had some interesting interactions with my father in regards to my training.

First, he was flat-out disturbed that I wanted to purchase a 45# kettlebell. This conversation happened on the phone -- he saw some kb's for sale at a local store, and was calling to tell me the price.

Dad: I picked up that one you said you wanted. And it was heavy.
Me: It's fine Dad, I use a 35# one all the time.
Dad: It just seemed really heavy. [dramatic pause]
Me: Yes I know, it's fine.
Dad: OK, well I just don't want you to hurt yourself...

*sigh*

The more disturbing conversation happened a couple days later.

Dad: You don't want to get too muscular, because when you stop exercising the muscle will turn into fat.*
Me: Dad, hold on, muscle doesn't turn into fat. As you lose muscle mass, your metabolism decreases and your store more of the calories you eat as fat.
Dad: Well, you just don't want to get too muscular, that's all, it doesn't look right.
Me: Do you think I am at that point?
Dad: Maybe getting close to it.
Me: Well, I don't care what you think about my appearance, I'm happy with it and my husband is happy with it and his opinion is the only one I care about.
Sis: [[quickly breaks in with small talk to diffuse the situation]]

*WTF? "When you stop exercising" -- as if it's a phase? Way to make negative predictions about the end of my healthy habits dad!



I'll admit that I kind of pushed this one along, by asking that loaded question "am I close", but I just couldn't stop myself. I wanted to know if he really felt the way I thought he did. And he does.

So yeah, great conversation, huh? I can't believe this is the same man who attended nearly every soccer game I played in during high school, and made a trip to DC to watch me run the Marine Corps Marathon 10K twice. Where in his brain is this CrossFit thing different? And as for commenting on my body composition, it would've been more appropriate for him to express concern about the 20# of fat I put on last summer, than to be critical of lean muscle mass that I've gained! Argh!

I probably wouldn't have blogged about this (I did tweet it right after it happened) if I hadn't read this article from Gubernatrix this morning: Femininity and Muscle.

You know how sometimes you have this great idea bouncing around in your head, but you just feel like you can't quite get it out, and then someone wiser than you says exactly what you wanted to say? That's how I feel about Gubernatrix and Lisbeth Darsh. I think they are secretly related.

Anyway, that article is awesome. And so is this companion piece, The toning problem.

I have another post in my drafts also on this subject that I might post while I'm still out sick from WODs. We shall see.

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For now I must eat lunch and get back to studying. I've got the last sessions of my Red Cross Water Safety Instructor this weekend. I'm learning to teach swimming lessons and water safety. :)

WOD-ing with ThomASS

I'm visiting one of my best friends right now, in the town where we both did our undergrad degrees. He's graduating with his PhD this weekend, and I am so damn proud of him. :)

He did a quick vacation WOD with me yesterday.

10 rounds:
10 pushups
10 situps
10 squats

We didn't time ourselves, but we were sweaty and breathing hard, and he said he's feeling it in his arms a bit today. I definitely convinced him that simple workouts done for time can be pretty effective. :)

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Today I finally dragged myself off the couch around 7 (we had some drinks last night, so it was a *very* lazy day) and did a ramped-down version of this killer WOD.

5 rounds:
10 dumbbell hang squat cleans
10 dumbbell push presses
10 dumbbell front squats
10 man makers

Results: ~27 minutes

I used my 12# dumbbells, which was a lot easier than the 20 pounders I used last time I attempted the full version of this one. But still a good workout. Those man makers are a freaking arm-killer!

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Erin is certified! And I really need to finish the write-up of my cert...

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Why Can't You?


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And in a similar vein -- But what CAN I do?


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This is a great explanation of why I need to get started with a new list of goals. And a plan to achieve them...


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Top 10 intermediate mistakes

#10. Taking yourself too seriously. I get it, this Crossfit stuff is awesome and fun. However, in the end it is about working out. You aren’t good enough to get mad. Maintain some perspective on the whole thing. Your family, your religion, your country… these are things to take seriously.

If you don’t enjoy the journey, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.

Bonus: #11. Newsflash: You probably aren’t going to make it to Aromas. Neither am I. Here is the weird part- it doesn’t really matter. Honestly, it is a little anti-climactic. You have to love  training and working hard for its own sake, not for the sake of some competition you probably aren’t going to make.

I added the italics. Lately CrossFit hasn't been fun for me. And reading this reminded me that it should be. And if it's not, something needs to change. I'm working on it.

Grinder, but not the yummy kind

In my opinion, anything over 25-30 minutes is automatically a "grinder" or a "grind-fest". I have such a hard time keeping up a steady intensity for long WODs, so I just try to get into a decent rhythm and let it roll.

Tonight was a grinder, and I probably could've finished a bit faster, but what the hell, I still did all the damn work so I'm OK. :-p

WOD:

7 rounds for time:
21 deadlifts (155#/115)
150m waiters walk (45#/25#)
9 knees to elbows

Results: 45:22 Rx

There was a 45 minutes cut-off, so I guess technically you could say I DNF'd, but 22 seconds over wasn't horrible so I think I'm OK. :-D

Deadlifts felt decent. I wish I had on long socks, because I didn't keep the bar in contact with my shins as much as I should have. Something sent me to this video yesterday (maybe Twitter?), and I used the really straightforward advice Rip gives on setup a lot today -- I think it really really helped me. It made me realize I roll the bar towards me alot when I get setup. Which is OK for cleans, but not cool for deads. It's good to recognize bad habits in myself, I like to find 'em and kill 'em.

Rip's deadlift setup:

1. With feet below hips, move feet under the bar so the bar cuts your foot in half. Your *whole* foot in half, not just the part in front of your ankle.
2. Grip the bar outside your knees -- but don't roll it toward you!
3. Bend your knees until your shins touch the bar
4. Raise your chest high while pressing the bar into your shins
5. Viola, you are ready to deadlift!

Major victory for today -- K2E's didn't make me want to cry, even though the WOD as a whole made me feel like I was going to hurl. Hollah!

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I am extremely aggravated that I wasn't given the chance to take the new exam at my Level I certification, because they just published some guidelines on testing requirements on the affiliate blog, and "take the exam only" spots at upcoming LI certs near me are already full. BRILLIANT, RIGHT?!?! Um... NOT.

Honestly, I am just going to let this one settle before I worry about it. I am not going to spend a ton of time and money driving somewhere far away to take this test. Two of the Level II trainers that taught at my cert run their own affiliates in the big town an hour south of here -- I feel certain that once there's enough of a system backlog they'll institute some kind of local testing, which those guys will be qualified to sponsor, and I will be able to pop down there on a Saturday, easy peasy.

So annoying that I couldn't get this taken care of just because my cert was 3-4 weeks too soon.... gah.

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Best quote from this article: Why We Like Olympic Lifts

"Oh come on, it’s not that weird to practice at home with a broomstick, you wear toe shoes for God’s sake."

In general a decent writeup on how C&J and snatch embody all 10 of the general physical skills that define fitness.

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Jen Sinkler tweeted the link to this video about Gwyneth Paltrow's workout routine and trainer. The trainer actually says "women shouldn't lift more than 3 pounds." OMG!

This reminds me that I need to finish the post I started writing in response to my friend Kate's post about chicks being afraid of lifting heavy weights.

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Britney's Unretouched Photos from Candie's Ads

What pissed me off most here was the second picture, where the completely removed her quad!! I love that Britney has muscles and an overall strong and athletic body for a "Hollywood starlet", so these retouches that eliminate those "real" elements just anger me.

Good for her for releasing the un-retouched photos, though. That I love. :)

Oly lift combo

Considering my love of the Olympic lifts, this morning's WOD should've been something I banged through quickly and with enthusiasm.

Instead, it was like freaking pulling teeth.

My intuition is that I ate crap and did 2 WODs yesterday, and that did not do me any favors. Barely any protein, so my recovery was probably sucky. And I didn't sleep well, despite being tired, and that is always a bad sign.

WOD:
Using the same barbell for all movements - 95#/65#
5 rounds for time:
3 power snatch
7 OHS
3 squat clean
7 push press

Results: 11:39

This should've been more in the range of 10 minutes, which is right around where Mandy finished it Rx. No other females did this Rx -- the OHS are the limiting factor.

There was so much resting and pacing and bullshit in my performance of this WOD. If I want to see results, I need to bring more INTENSITY and focus to my WODs. Yes, it's good that I got out there and participated, but to see improvements I need to put the effort in. And improvements are what keeps me motivated to stay on this CF journey.

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Remember Kallista Pappas? I know I definitely remember watching her video from the 30 100# C&J for time event at the 2008 games. Just happened to come across her again in my web travels, and wanted to share. Definitely a badass CrossFit chick. Also, she is a blogger.

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This Rx Skills Checklist is kinda neat. Some of them I know I could definitely do, the heavy lifts, but the body weight stuff I am still lacking. Sadly, I can't currently do 25 chest-to-deck pushups in a row. I am thinking my next set of goals I write down will be body weight focused...

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This post is awesome and epic -- Things I Hate About CrossFit, Part Deux

I am most in agreement about how ridiculous it is when CrossFit HQ de-affiliates / fires people like Robb Wolf and Melissa Urban/Whole 9. So much for inclusiveness!

2-a-days

It wasn't my original intention to do two WODs today, but what the hell, I did anyway. :-D

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AM WOD
 
This morning I did a makeup of yesterday's WOD between coaching the 0630 and 0830 classes. My back was just so tight yesterday, I couldn't get myself to the box to get the WOD done.

WOD: 150 kettlebell swing (32k/24) Every time you drop the kb, run 150m.

Results: 23:59 (sets of: 20-20-14-16-20-15-15-15-15)

I have to admit this one intimidated me. I feel pretty confident with the 45#/20kg bell, but the 53#/24kg bell is just BIG. After the 3rd set of swings, when I only got 14, I wanted to just cry and give up. I'm proud of myself for finishing.

And I also must admit to resting a bit too much, and wearing gloves. I had wussy grip today, ew.

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PM WOD

This WOD was created by one of my best buds at our box, Allie. She is amazing and inspires me every day. She was the winner of our Paleo challenge, and in addition to some other not-so-great prizes, she got to make up her own WOD! I think she did a great job coming up with something challenging but fun. :)

"Allie"
For time:
400m run
20 pullups
400m run
15 wall balls (20/14)
400m run
10 burpees
400m run
5 tire flips

Results: 14:49

Um... in a word -- SLOW. I came out of the gate pretty fast, but my runs were just sucking by the 3rd and 4th 400's.

And can I just say the wussy hands factor came into play majorly in how long it took me to do my pullups. I was back down to sets of 2 and 3. BOOOOOOOOO. I know it was my 2nd WOD, but seriously! I need to be doing a minimum of 3 pullups every time I get on the bar.

Coming soon -- tire flips video. Our tire is only ~100#'s, so it's not that hard to flip, but it still *looks* badass. :-D

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With WODs covered, here are some links I've seen the last day or two. The first one I'd really like your comments on.

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Lisbeth yet again provides some very meaty food for thought, this time the subject is females scaling pushups, a topic that I have actually spent a lot of time thinking about and researching. This, to me, is a breath of fresh air. I have a hatred of knee-pushups.

Get Off Your Knees

"Do tire push-ups, bench push-ups, ring push-ups, wall push-ups. If you don’t have real honest-to-God, chest-to-deck push-ups, then do whatever you have to do in order to get the push-ups done. Tire, rings, wall. But NEVER knee push-ups. 

Seriously. Simply decide that you would rather eat glass than ever go to your knees again."

Post thoughts to comments. How did your own pushups progress? Do you think putting down your knees to scale, rather than changing the angle, hampered your progress to "the real deal"?

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Stop Being Content and Become Great

"No matter what happens in life or in your training, if you live outside your comfort zone then nothing can knock you off your game.  Sure things might knock you back a step or two, but you are the type of person in which problems and other negative things just bounce right off of because you are used to being outside your comfort level."

I really need to cultivate this type of thing in my life, because I definitely get too set in my ways, and too upset when things suddenly change.

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I haven't been gainfully employed in over 1 year now, and that still feels really... strange. Reading this article about what "work" really means was good for me. It's hard to uncouple your self-esteem from job performance and salary, and instead derive self-worth from things you accomplish on your own.

Some quotes:

"My definition of work now is that it’s an activity which is undertaken for a productive outcome."

"This turns work into something more like a state of mind than a set of particular activities."

"Work isn’t a place which I go to, or a certain portion of the day; it’s the meaningful stuff which I do, the contributions which I make in the world."

WOD at Ultimate

On my way home from visiting my sister, I joined in on a noon WOD at Ultimate CrossFit. It was good to be back! Especially since I got to catch up with Mie on her new endeavors in Oly lifting.

Deadlift 3-3-3

145 - 175 x2 - 170

My low back is aching, so I'm thinking I didn't do so well on form... Seems like if I go a week without doing longer sets of deads, I go back to being really really shaky on form. Yikes. Time to incorporate into a weekly post WOD cool down...

Metcon
21-15-9
Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95/65)
Box Jump (24/20)
Kettlebell Swings (1.5/1)

Results: 8:13

Not too bad, considering the crap I've been putting into my mouth. Yikes.

Coaching tomorrow and Friday, we'll see what I get in for WODs. I'm thinking I should get back in the pool tomorrow or Friday, so I don't lose the conditioning that I built up over my 3 weeks of swim and lifeguarding classes.

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I've been reading Katie's blog for a while, and you should all head over to her place and read this post.

And for the first time in my life, I am SURE that I am made of pretty tough stuff and I already KNOW that my team is. For the girl who two years ago was overweight and couldn't do a pull-up or a push-up to get 18th place in the DC/WVA/VA sectionals shows just how powerful CrossFit (and this community) is... and to that I can really only say one thing.... Hooah!

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War on fat needs to be turned into a war on carbohydrates. Let's see what the 2010 nutrition guidelines do to help our country get healthier -- if anything...

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Are you giving it your all?

Includes this classic Glassman quote: "Optimizing fitness is a product of regular workouts whose intensity is only briefly sustainable."

I'm wondering if a statement like this is too harsh to throw up on our box's whiteboard: "If you are not progressing at a fairly substantial clip month over month, it’s most likely the intensity that you are bringing day after day that is to blame.  Up the intensity and the results will come."

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HSPU tips -- I'll definitely be implementing several things from this article.

Lots of links

Well, I haven't done a CrossFit WOD since Tuesday, but I had swim class on Wednesday and Thursday evening, so that was plenty! I also did a little swimming in the ocean this afternoon -- I'm in West Palm Beach, FL for my Level I certification seminar at CrossFit BGI.

Over these last few days I have collected a ridiculous number of links.

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"I CrossFit because it's ridiculous." - great post about why CrossFit is different, and why we love it. H/T tarynrom (twitter, blog)

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Chef Rachael tried CrossFit, and loved it! Woot!

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Lisbeth Darsh -- I would love to visit her gym, be trained by her, WOD with her, and then pick her brain. Her newest post is a thing of beauty: "Call It What It Is".

It’s your mind calling the shots, not your body. It is your mental discipline that is failing, not your physical capacity.

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I want to try this recipe: Paleo Fried Shrimp. It uses almond meal. The only problem is my fear of cooking shrimp -- I am always paranoid that they're not cooked enough...

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This video of movement standards really made me think about how we do things at our box. I would like to incorporate their standards for wall ball shots. Now that I've thought about it, not catching the ball after throwing it is totally a cop-out and it makes sense that would cause a rep to be thrown out.

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Informative article about building bones -- osteogenesis.

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I want to order a spiral vegetable slicer so that I can try making zucchini noodles. At which point I can try to make zucchini spaghetti and meatballs.

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After tweeting with @jensinkler and reading this (quote below), I feel like I shortchanged myself by not signing up to compete in a CF Games sectional... My thoughts have/had already been on doing a local competition, like the Garage Games that were held in February, to "get started". But why couldn't it have been CF Games? So what if I sucked compared to the top 20? I could still say I did it. Ideas to ponder...

"Just as you need to practise in the gym to get good at the lifts, you have to practise competing. From controlling your nerves to warming up effectively or getting in the zone, there are circumstances that are unique to the competitive environment and very difficult to reproduce in the gym. So practise them by going to lots of meets and just getting on with it."

Rest day hodge-podge

Cool article about women in CrossFit, and how they can become more competitive. Some of the statements made about women are a bit stereotypical, but I think they're still valid for enough women that it's not over the top.

I love this enough that I want to put the main points here:

• Embrace your competitive nature
• Challenge your definition of beauty
• Nourish your body
• Track your progress
• Train with the guys

That site is great, but the URL makes it hard to share links with lots of people, since it's so offensive... Dayum.

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A few thoughts on eating Paleo that I like. Here are two slightly edited quotes:

"Eating without regards to hunger, satiety and fullness, eating just because you can without regard to a block prescription, is a recipe for disaster."

"What is working for me may not work for everyone, which is why I love the expression Your Mileage May Vary.  It is so wonderfully vague!  What that means is that Paleo has no rules.  Paleo is indeed very freeing.  It forces introspection, experimentation and adaptation. Goals factor into what constitutes YOUR perfect Paleo."

 Working hard to find MY perfect Paleo. It has been a challenge so far, but I know it will make a huge difference in the rest of my life once I figure it out.

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Train the mind as well as the body, and make winning a habit. Zach Even-Esh posts cool stuff. Which I now find cause I'm doing Twitter.

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I am dying to sign up for a CrossFit Endurance certification, and I just saw an announcement about one in my local area... Now to talk to husband about spending yet more $$$ on my CrossFit stuff...

This new urge probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm thinking about signing up for an Olympic distance triathlon sometime this summer or fall. Olympic (or intermediate) is the next step up from sprint distance -- 1.5 km (~1 mi) swim, 40 km (~25 mi) bike, 10 km (~6 mi) run. Instead of spending money on a cert, I probably should spend it on a bike with a frame that actually fits me.

My biggest reason for trying the next "level" is that I want to swim longer. My 2005 sprint tri I swam for 13:47, and in 2007 I swam for 18:43. I need more time in the water, cause that's where I kick ass. :-D

PS - I did the Philly Women's Triathlon (sprint distance) twice. It rocked. Hence I'm leaning towards the fall tri because it's a women-only event.

PS2 -  Why Swimming is Different from CF Journal. I'm so excited to be getting back into swimming. Can't wait to see how my upper-body strength gains will translate in the pool.

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Did some searching and found a bit of information about the accreditation process that is underway for CrossFit certifications. The biggest impact it has on the community is the introduction of a 50 question test as part of Level I. There's a study guide linked from the FilFest page, which I have read -- it is an awesome compilation of some of the best CF Journal articles.

• CrossFit message board thread discussing test
• FilFest test registration FAQ

Crossfit Apex

I was reading through some articles on the CrossFit Games, and then meandered over to the home gym of the 1st place female competitor, Crossfit Apex. What I love about this site is that they post a picture of their whiteboard at the end of the day, so you can see the different loads and times of their athletes. Love it! Much easier to digest then reading through the comment on the main site.

The only downside is that their main web page has that damn FeedJit widget. That thing still pisses me off...