My Daily Near Death Experience

Great article from Scientific American.

Key Concepts

• We are used to thinking of intelligence as largely a matter of genetic inheritance, but that is not the whole picture. What you do affects your mental well-being: staying physically and mentally active helps us stay sharp as we age.
• Nevertheless, our personal efforts to bolster cognitive enhancement cannot forestall all declines in our cognitive performance.
• What is especially surprising is the powerful link between physical activity and mental acuity. Staying fit helps us keep cognition more robust as well.

Read it all >

Saturday morning’s workout was the infamous “Fight Gone Bad” – 17 minutes of intense physical effort, where you are pushing yourself to your limits.

The workout consists of five stations. You complete as many reps as you can in one minute at the first station. At the end of the minute you move on to the next station for, again, as many reps as you can do. Do this for all 5 stations. There is no rest period between stations and the clock does not stop. You get 1 point for each rep (calorie for rowing).

The last time I did this was December 6th. I scored 214 then. Let’s see how I did this time.

3 sets of the following:

• Station 1:
  1 minute as many reps as possible:
  Wall-ball: 10 pound ball, 10 ft target, then move on to:
• Station 2:
  1 minute as many reps as possible:
  Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds, then move on to:
• Station 3:
  1 minute as many reps as possible:
  Box Jump: 20? box, then move on to:
• Station 4:
  1 minute as many reps as possible:
  Push-press: 75 pounds, then move on to:
• Station 5:
  1 minute as many calories as possible:
  Row: calories

My results:

I increased my score by 27 points since December, which is not bad. The next Fight Gone Bad is September 27th. Let’s see how I do then.

Fight Gone Bad

Fight Gone Bad – Explanation

I haven’t done a WOD for over 2 week now, having chosen to focus more on Olympic lifting. Feeling that I had not had a near death experience for some time, I thought a lunchtime workout would be in order. I lucked out – today’s WOD did not involve any kettlebells, barbells, or running. As it was, it nearly killed me anyway – I’m still seeing stars.

Workout of the Day
3 rounds for time
10 pull-ups (30 total)
20 wallballs 20# (60 total) – 10ft target
30 box jumps (90 total)

Time
11:21

CrossFit Kipping Pull Up

Wall Ball

CrossFit Delaware Valley Box Jump Battle

An amazing athlete/gymnast/acrobat

Friday’s workout was a variation on one we’ve done before: 3 clean-and-jerks in 3 minutes, repeat 8 times.

This workout is similar:

As many sets as you can do in 3 minutes:
1 set =
1 power clean 95#
1 thruster 95#
1 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 95#

Rest 1 minute.
Repeat for a total of 5 cycles.

Add up all your sets for the total number of sets.

My total:
44

This one left me on the floor gasping for air, as usual.

What evil mind thinks these things up?

Mike Burgener: Coaching The Power Clean

Jerry Hill’s CrossFit Tip – Barbell Thruster

Jerry Hill’s CrossFit Challenge – Sumo Deadlift high Pull

Forget sit ups (except for the half turkish getup) and ab machines. Try hanging from a pull up bar and bringing your knees up to your elbows. It’s that simple. And that hard. My abs started cramping up after about rep number 25 (during round #2).

Workout of the day

3 rounds for time:
30 kettlebell snatches (53lbs/24kg)
21 box jumps
15 Knee to elbows

Time
14:03

Knees to Elbows

1/2 Turkish Getup

No, this is not some biker gang or some kids who just got back from a camping trip. “Filthy Fifty” is the name of another freaking crazy insane CrossFit workout. And, for once, the name has something to do with the workout (as opposed to, say, a workout named “Fran” which gives you no clue as to its insidious nature).

The Filthy Fifty is pretty much what the name describes: 50 reps each of 10 exercises performed in succession. That’s 500 total reps – which probably where the “filthy” part comes in – as you mutter something under your breath that expresses your precise emotions when your abs are cramping in the middle of 50 knees-to-elbows. Then your mind blanks out and your body takes over. You wake up later wondering how you wound up lying on the floor barely able to move.

And you come back the next day for more.

The Filthy Fifty

For Time:
50 box jumps
50 jumping pull-ups
50 kettlebell swings @ 16kg/35lbs
50 walking lunges
50 knee to elbows
50 push press
50 back extentions
50 wallballs @ 20lb medicine ball
50 burpees
50 double-unders (substitute jumping rope 150x)

Time
31:10
15 seconds slower than last time. Arrrrrrgh!

Muscle & Fitness – the CrossFit Filthy Fifty
The Toughest Workout Ever?

That’s me waaaay in the back holding the barbell overhead.
(photo courtesy of Flatirons CrossFit)

I’ve been involved with CrossFit since January 2008. When I first started doing overhead squats, I could barely even get more than 1/3 of the way down. Now, after much practice and some improvements in my form, I can get my butt pretty much all the way down. Woo hoo!

Thursday’s WOD (workout of the day) was:

For time:
21 overhead squats @75#
21 kettlebell swings 32kg
Run 400 meters

15 overhead squats
15 kettlebell swings
Run 400

9 overhead squats
9 kettlebell swings
Run 400

Time
11:25

CrossFit Nicole OHS Competition

Tim must be bored. How else do you explain these fiendishly brutal workouts that leave my friends wondering about my mental health?

Consider his blog post from Sunday: “Monday is the start of Hell Week. We will be doing some brutal hard versions of our favorite workouts.” To paraphrase an old saying, “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”

No kidding…

Today’s brutal workout:

5 rounds for time:
15 wall ball shots (100 total @ 20lb medicine ball)
10 KB snatches each arm (50 total each arm @ 24kg kettlebell)
200 meter sandbag carry (1000 meters total @ 75lb to 85 lb sandbag – whatever was available)

I did this one with my eyes closed…otherwise it would have been too scary.

Results:
20# wall ball
24kg KB
70# to 85# sand bag (whatever was available)

Time
22:41

LaLanne Fitness – Powered by CrossFit “Wall Ball”

Have we been scammed for the last 37 years?

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk

The painful truth about trainers:
Are running shoes a waste of money?

Thrust enhancers, roll bars, microchips…the $20 billion running – shoe industry wants us to believe that the latest technologies will cushion every stride. Yet in this extract from his controversial new book, Christopher McDougall claims that injury rates for runners are actually on the rise, that everything we’ve been told about running shoes is wrong – and that it might even be better to go barefoot…

By CHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL

Last updated at 8:01 PM on 19th April 2009

Every year, anywhere from 65 to 80 per cent of all runners suffer an injury. No matter who you are, no matter how much you run, your odds of getting hurt are the same.

Read it all…