CrossFit864
Results or Excuses – You can’t have both
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
-Nahum 1:7
“Better to be strong than pretty and useless.”
-Lilith Saintcrow
Today’s Schedule: 5:15a.m./9:00a.m.
WOD A.)
Skill work – posted on board (This is part of the workout – not optional)
A thorough warm up is more than a few static stretches. Your warm up should get your heart rate up and get blood flowing through the muscles that you are preparing to work. Once you complete the first part of the workout (A) you will have time to work in your own mobility work, etc. before the group starts.
WOD B.)
Complete 3 Rounds for time – AFAP
30 One Arm Kettlebell Swings (15 ea. side) 24kg./16kg.
30 Ball Slams
30 DU’s or 3 x Singles
30 Sit-ups (unanchored)
How have your results been lately? Do you see the benefits of your hard training? Are you putting in 100% or just enough to get by? How is your nutrition looking? 70% in the kitchen and 30% in gym. If you are still trying to eat a diet full of trash in hopes of balancing it out with an intense CrossFit WOD 3 or 4 days a week then you are only fooling yourself. Is your daily intake saturated with useless calories and carbohydrates that you don’t burn? What happens to the stuff that doesn’t get burned? Get dialed in!
Why CrossFit?
At the beginning of the year, I made the classic New Year’s resolution to “Get in Shape”. And as everyone who’s made that resolution knows, keeping with a new workout program for the first few weeks is easy. The hard part comes in sticking with it month after month as the enthusiasm fades and the year drags on.
But miraculously I’ve stayed with the same program three months into the year and I’m still (mostly) looking forward to the workouts every Mon, Wed, and Fri morning. Not to mention, I’m probably in better shape then I’ve ever been (sorry I don’t have any before and after pics for you).
The secret is a program called CrossFit.
What is it?
So what is CrossFit? Wikipedia (as usual) gives the best definition:
CrossFit has been “variously portrayed as a fitness company, a grassroots health movement, a nascent sport, a fad, a publishing business and sometimes, disparagingly, a cult.” Classes at affiliated gyms typically include a warm-up, a skill development segment, and a high-intensity workout that lasts around ten to twenty minutes. Affiliates create a new workout each day called the “Workout of the Day” or “WOD”. Affiliates often use scoring and ranking systems to transform workouts into sport. Some affiliates offer additional classes which are not centered around a WOD, such as Olympic weightlifting classes.
By the way, I love the fact, that detractors call it “a cult”. It definitely is a workout program that people get really into. That said, I would like to highlight a couple of the positive aspects that drew me in:
Full Body Movements: I like the fact that it’s not just doing 20 curls or isolating one specific muscle. It’s all about doing full, natural body movements like squats and pull-ups. It just feels more natural to me, and it builds functional strength rather than beach muscles.
Used By Military & Police: There’s something special about the fact that the men and women serving our country use this workout to get in shape. You get the feeling that you are training with them. The crossfit site highlights this by showing pictures and dedicating daily workouts to fallen soldiers.
At first, I was reluctant to shell out the cash, but I find my workouts are even better when completed at the gym because the trainers push me harder than I would on my own.
WHY DOES IT WORK?
So why does it work so well? I think it boils down to the following key aspects of Crossfit:
WOD: Every day there is a Workout of the Day (WOD) which helps keep it fresh. It’s not like Wed is bench day for the 200th time. Instead they keep it interesting by making workouts like Fight Gone Bad.
Whiteboard: All workouts are timed and each day your scrores are written on the whiteboard. This has a couple of effects. First off, to paraphrase Drucker, you get better at what you measure. Something about writing your time down makes you want to improve it. There are also some key benchmark workouts (like Fran) that you will do every few months to mark your progress. Having a time, gives you something to beat.
Diet: No workout program can be successful without a diet component and CrossFit is no exception. They are full bore into the Paleo diet which consists of the following simple philosophy: “Don’t eat anything that you can’t grow or kill”. In other words, your meals consist of avoiding processed foods, most carbs (because you can’t grow or kill bread), and sticking to Meats and Veggies.
Community: When you are getting up at 5:45 AM to workout, it helps to know that you will be meeting others at the gym to do the same workout. And that if you skip out, they will give you a hard time.
So the only remaining question is could it work for you?
The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.
-Vince Lombardi
Be part of the CF864 Community – post your workout on CrossFit864 Facebook.
Constantly Varied – Just show up and do the work!
-CrossFit
BE STRONG!
Jay and Janice