Sarah H Gets Ready To Squat
Why Are We Discouraging Failing?
You may have noticed that we’ve been strongly discouraging people from failing on their lifts this cycle. The rational behind this is two fold. Firstly, when you fail, it means you’ve tested your absolute limit. You’ve gone to the horizon of your capacity and fallen over the edge. In the context of Testing new rep maxes, this is okay and a necessary part of strength training. However every day is not a test and we don’t want you to max out to failure with any regularity. Our day in, day out workouts should be considered Training and an opportunity to go a little bit heavier than your previous efforts without reaching your absolute limits. Training to failure too often can be taxing on the central nervous system and actually slow down your progress. If you focus on going “a little heavier than last time” you keep pushing the ceiling of your potential a little big higher instead of busting right through it and having no where to go but back down.
The second major reason we want to make failing a rarity is for the psychological stress and negative expectations it can put on you. If you’ve trained yourself to think, “okay when things get hard I’ve got an easy escape route in bailing” you learn to give up more often and associate missed reps as a regular part of your routine. They don’t become significant, they don’t become a wake up call on where you’re at.. they just become the norm. This can subtly undermine a lot of your self expectations and the mindset you bring into your lifts.
All that being said, we don’t want you to avoid lifting heavy and training hard. Once your technique is in order, you’re expected to grind through lifts. Maximal Effort Method training is a staple of our programming and one of the best ways to get strong. It should feel difficult, it should feel heavy and you should expect to fight for it. Just like in real life, you don’t start fights you don’t think you can win, especially on a regular basis, all that does is screw with your confidence and send you limping home. A skilled athlete doesn’t need to miss reps to know where their potential for the day is. They have an innate sense of what they’re capable of and when to call it quits. Any missed lifts moving forward should be considered learning experiences on your physical capacity, psychological outlook, technique and always put into the context of the intended training stimulus for that day.
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God’s Workout NY Times
Michele Letendre’s Strict Muscle Ups
Amanda Allen Works Modified Ring Handstand Push-Ups
Reposting for those who didn't see this yesterday:
Anyone interested in fielding an SBK team at pub quiz on Sunday night at Pacific Standard? It starts at 8 PM and I'm having people over for dinner beforehand.
stellavision at gmail if you're interested.
6am with coach lady fox
pre wu
foam roll
lax ball shoulder work
WU
6min row
ev 2 min incr spm. 20, 24, 28.
hip openers, calf marches
pvc dislocates
SNATCH
95
felt good. wanna go heavier next time.
WOD
OHS rxd. subbed slam balls for du's.
5 slam balls shy of 4 rnds.
this was a good one.
I'm sure there have already been hundreds of comments about it, but…
…man, I find this NYT article so much more frustrating than the recent Post story. At least there was *some* effort made by the Post to talk to people who were actually doing the thing, people who aren't fire breathers, people who are finding community, etc. This kind of story is exactly what makes it so hard to get my sister or high school buddy to give it a shot instead of training for marathons despite their back and knee problems. I mean, to mention Pumping Iron as a starting point for understanding crossfit is just staggering. I can't believe reporting a story without talking to a single live source, and to half imply that a hero WOD was dedicated to someone who died from a workout as opposed to a military training manoeuvre? And after kind of resolving that, to suggest that the hero WOD itself was sort of courting death? I would be ashamed to be the editor who let this go to print.
Am I being too extreme here? What the hell?
It's common to find articles wildly inaccurate when one has intimate knowledge of a subject, even from the most accredited papers. I see it almost daily.
You're right, JR, I should know better. But most articles at least have *one* person the reporter talked to, even if they misquote her…
90% of media these days in sensationalism, that's what sales. And we are to blame. reality tv? jersey shore? what a disgrace. Sorry for the sidetrack. I did, fyi, LOVE pumping iron.
I guess that's something we can salvage, because Pumping Iron does rule.
" I can't believe reporting a story without talking to a single live source"
you must not read much of what passes for reporting these days alex.
Note that the Times story was from 2008. While it was still a piece of hack journalism if I've ever seen one, back in the day, CFHQ had a much bigger influence on individual gym culture and yes, the glorification of Pukie and Uncle Rhabdo was an issue.
As time has gone by, and CF has gotten more mainstream, and dare I say it, professional, each individual gym has had the ability to define its own culture a bit more. I think in a lot of ways, other than running the Games, HQ is becoming pretty obsolete, and their chest thumping, tough guy approach has waned considerably.
I think we also got lucky that the Post article was written by a "friend of the gym" who at least took a second to consult live sources and get a more balanced read.
Also, read and reread that Training/Testing snapshot above- totally blows the long winded and discursive piece I wrote about the same topic out of the water- much more clear and cogent. Wise words.
Fine, fine, I'm naive. But I've been part of few companies and a government institution that got regularly murdered specifically in the Times, but the wild inaccuracies were always accompanied by at least a tiny bit of reporting. This seems particularly bad from what's supposed to be a paper close to the top of the pile. I thought I had already adjusted my expectations low enough. Okay, enough from me on this topic.
Nope, one more thing from me: aha! 2008. I missed that and thought it had come out this year. Now I don't feel so bad (but also not very observant). Alright, officially shutting up now.
I remember when the NYT article came out.
If I'm not mistaken, they actually did send someone to Santa Cruz to observe Glassman and Co for a few days. From HQ's end, the reporter was really positive and into it while they were there and then when the piece came out a bunch of stuff had been over dramatized and sensationalized for print. There was an old video with Glassman talking about media/journalism and how they turn down 99% of the reporters that come to them because they learned people just want to twist things around to make their story more outlandish. In my short experience working with local media outlets, a lot of details are often inaccurate or oversimplified to the point of being comically misleading. We recently had the History Channel shoot at the gym which I had to explicitly ask them not to use the words "CrossFit", "CrossFit South Brooklyn" and try to avoid any logo's in the editing since the exercising they shot was absolutely bonkers.
Anyway I came across it again and thought I'd post it up. Glad it got a conversation started.
Regarding Failing, it's something I've been working on since Josh and I have been doing conjugate. We test a heavy single two days a week and its been a challenge for me to not be a hero and try to add on an extra 5-10 lbs when I know the last set was barely there.
Also Noah- you're being too kind.
Warm-Up
Kneeling Alter Boys
Worked Up to 25lb DBs in each hand for a set of 5
Box Squat
Worked up to 240, 5lbs above the test we did 3 weeks ago. My last set was my best above 200. I wasn't staying as tight as I could have at the settle point. Took my 5lb PR and called it.
Kettlebell Front Squats
20kgsx 12, 24kgs, x12x2
Holding the two green KBs was more challenging than squatting them by far. Especially my left arm which wanted to drop it the last few reps each set. This lit up my upper back more than anything else.
Glute Ham Raises
Used band assistance this time to make sure I was keeping my hip open on the way up. 3×8 on this.
Sticky Feet
5 Minutes with the thin green band
101 Sit-ups to Ring Touch OH
Much harder/better than normal sit-ups. Coming to a Group Class near you..
Afterwards I foam rolled for a little bit. The combination of the blood pump to my hips from sticky feet, the 101 sit-ups to my abdomen and the foam rolling made me truly feel like a "supple leopard" when I was done.
Be very careful with the media.
– Terrified almost burned Jimmy
Squat
255×3
285×3
320×8
bench
205×3
235×3
250×11
superset x3
db rows 80s x10e
banded GMs 20
Made up Saturday's front squats:
Got up to 225×2 (still hitting PRs, old 1-RM was 216)
Then did slightly modified version of Sunday's WOD. Skipped the row.
Started at 135 for the bench, but dropped it to 125 for the second set onwards. Did 6 in the last round, because I was failing a lot, and squeezing out singles. This was way harder than I thought it would be. Did 15-9-6 for strict chins. Finished in 9:30. Big thanks to DMak for timing me, spotting me and keeping me going. Thanks to Ron for cheering me on! (Dude, how'd you get those guns?!)
Tried to make up Sunday’s WOD but my shoulder didn’t want to bench (funny how pushups don’t bother my shoulder but benching does).
Sooo… went for Saturday’s WOD – 9 rounds plus one K2E.
Big thanks to Samir for counting, keeping time and being a great motivator! Always such a damn pleasure working with you!
super low carb lifting sucks my whole asshole.
@mmb, Wow your whole asshole! You crack me up!
Post Murph Murph — I will not be here on Memorial Day for Murph (insert sad face emoticon here) and plan on making it up on the Tuesday. Anyone interested in doing it with me?
Michele, so true. Also it is hard to play (longer than 15 minute WOD) sports on paleo. Cramping sucks. For real. All I want after a soccer game or a 3 hour olympic lifting sweat-a-thon is a milkshake, a salt lick, and like 4 pixie sticks. I have been drinking water like a champion, but since my workouts started getting longer, I get cramps if I don't get my salts on.
As for the milkshake, IDK, but I read recently, that ice cream is very similar to mother's milk in terms of fat-sugar-protein makeup, so maybe its a genuine thing?
Today I did 10 strict HSPU (highlight)
then after 3 rds of wall ball, and a few k2e i attempted 10 more HSPU. Kipping & strtict it didnt matter after 3 i was done. I eeeeked out 4 more but alas, not today.
I will say i fell rather uh gracefully
Sunday's workout. 600m row 21-15-9 bench, 15-9-6 strict pullups. Started with 145# but dropped to 125#. Took about 12:30. Was pretty dead after.