Why Rich Froning is better than you

"Rich Froning will not beat you in a workout because he is stronger than you, or faster, or can breath better than you. He will beat you because he can move more efficiently, and as a result more productively than you can." -Kyle J Smith

I challenge everyone to focus on movement quality during their conditioning workouts. Strength and aerobic ability will follow if quality of movement is the primary concern, the opposite may not be true.

Tips for 13.2

Tips for Beginners on 13.2:

1. Have fun!
2. Start with push presses, switch to push jerks when fatigue is on the horizon (never fail, never miss a rep; there is no time to waste- ten minutes will fly by!)
3. Always do your shoulder to overhead unbroken. If this means you need to rest an extra second before starting your set, do. You do not want to clean the bar to your shoulders again.
4. When you transition from STO to deadlift, immediately complete at least three reps. If possible, don't break up the deadlifts at all. You will always rest longer than you should, so minimize rest.
5. During the deadlift, lower the bar efficiently. Keep the bar close by sending your hips back and keeping your back straight. If the bar gets away from you it will break your rhythm and increase the risk of injury.
6. Find a nice, even pace where you can keep moving on the box jumps. I highly recommend that you step down from every rep and find a rhythm that allows you to link them seamlessly.
7. Set a goal for the number of rounds you would like to complete and figure out what split you need to maintain to succeed (i.e., if your goal is 10 minutes, each round should take one minute.) Have your judge or a friend keep you aware of the clock and on pace. Surprisingly, in the early rounds this usually means you need to slow down. Adrenaline will make you work too fast and will sabotage your later sets.
8. Keep it pretty. Pretty reps, aka efficient, productive reps, are always better than ugly reps. You're not working hard if your movement goes to shit, you're working stupid.

As we notice more trends in the workout we'll post thoughts here. If you have anything to share- comment! Every thought is welcome and helpful.

Good luck! And again, have fun!

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AM athletes are having a lot of success performing step ups instead of box jumps. Try it during your warm up, see what you think.

Being a designated cheerleader

Here's the most important part of this post- how to be a great designated cheerleader.

First, can the judge be the designated cheerleader? At the games, no. At CFNYC, more often than not. If you are acting as both, remember your first priorities are standards of movement and count.

One more thing before I list, if you are not the designated cheerleader, just an encouraging spectator- yell, scream and curse, while respecting the athlete's plan. You are white noise, along with the Taylor Swift playing in the background. (Note: Julie Foucher listened to Mumford and Sons while doing 13.3.)

How to be the best designated cheerleader ever:

1. Know your athlete's strategy, help them stick to it.

2. Find out how your athlete likes to be encouraged. Some like just countdowns and time reminders, others need to be cursed out and spat on.

3. Learn your athlete's pace (fresh and fatigued) and help them push themselves as hard as they need to go. There is no such thing as 110%, you are only as strong as you are prepared.

4. Stay in the moment with your athlete. If you find out mid flight your plan is shit, be ready to call an audible. Your athlete is going to want to stop and pout, you can be composed enough to finish strong.

5. Encourage your athlete to breath and move well. Looking like shit in a workout is a symptom of screwing it up, not a necessary condition.

HAVE FUN.

Tips for 13.3

We have a few camps for this workout. Decide where you fall this year, then have fun!

I want to do as many wall balls as possible in 12 minutes... Great! Have a game plan. How many wallballs do you want to complete in each minute? Your judge can holler out 1/2 and full minutes at you to stay on pace. Focus on moving as well as possible (use your legs to get the ball overhead), and don't get sloppy when you get tired- that only makes things worse. Never miss a rep, never fail- it's too demoralizing and frustrating.

I want the chance to chew away at some double unders... Ditto to everything above. 15 wallballs/minute will give you 2 minutes to jump rope. If you know consecutive double unders are going to be a problem fatigued, try a strategy like three singles then a double. A rep is counted every time the rope passes beneath you twice, so don't waste energy, just do what it takes to get some points on the board and keep your head in the game.

I wanna try to get my first ever muscle up... Watching folks PR their snatch on 13.1 was pretty cool. The chances you'll get your first muscle up in this WOD are... slim. CrossFit loves a miracle and an inspirational video though, so maybe it'll happen. But for the love of god don't get hurt. Your next month of training is much more important than this WOD. PS- unfortunately we cant teach everyone how to do muscle ups seconds before the WOD starts, so don't ask your coach to instruct them.

Let me know of anything you learn by attacking 13.3. HAVE FUN!

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A few more thoughts. Our AM scientists have learned- WALLBALLS SUCK.

If you are not yet proficient at rx wallballs (bc of ball weight or target height,) make your strategy incredibly conservative. When I say don't fail a rep (slightly different than missing a rep bc of aim,) I mean it. If that means you need to do sets of 3 to post an rx score, do it. There is no shoulda coulda woulda when it comes to testing, you do what you can do today as best you can. Be honest with yourself,

If you are proficient at wallballs your first set should be AT LEAST 10 reps. 15-20-25 would be even better, as long as you know you have fuel in the tank. Some experimented with sets of 5 with minimal rest, it looks pretty off the bat, but oh how quickly that rest gets longer and longer.

Tips for 13.4

beginner's tips for 13.4:

this one looks pretty straight forward folks-

so you can't clean and jerk 95/135... this is not the WOD for you. scaling in the open WOD classes is not allowed. stick with your regular programming, get big and strong, and look forward to 14.4 being a fucking joke. 

pace yourself... seriously. while breathing-wise you may be fine. local muscular fatigue, especially in the grip and core are going to be a huge factor. you never want to fail on a rep, so make sure you are taking adequate rest in the beginning to stay on top of it and push in the end. 

push jerk from rep one. take a look at the video of graham and speal- if you can adopt the quick shoulder to overhead technique, do- otherwise just don't waste time in that position. kip your toes to bar- remember, it's the same as the swing for the kipping pull up.

did i mention yet how much this will suck for your grip? don't let that guy fail on you.

we cannot drop weight. period. you can tell your grandchildren someday that you would have scored at least 7 reps higher on 13.4 if you could have dropped, just don't get so crazy that you can't lower the bar under control. 

95/135 may feel light on the first few sets, but it's going to get heavy. make sure you are getting down into a proper clean starting position (as opposed to a dead lift position) so you are not unnecessarily taxing your lower back. 

check in with tips and lessons learned. and HAVE FUN!

Injury and exercise

I have a question about attending class with injuries - I dislocated my shoulder a week ago and have been told by the doc no crossfit for 3-4 weeks while i do shoulder rehab, so sadly no CF open for me this year. When i'm back on deck what's the best approach to return to class, should i try to pick and choose WODs based on what i think my shoulder can handle or can you modify any workout around an injury in the same way we scale weight?

A. Get very specific directions from your doctor on what's appropriate (meaning restorative) and what is not.

B. Take it sloooooowwww. You have the rest of your life to get back into CrossFit shape, your first priority is to avoid re-injuring the sucker. Err on the side of wussy until you are ready to head back into the game 100%.

C. Attending classes that are clearly shoulder-friendly is great. That may be difficult to swing sometimes. With precise instructions from your doctor, a coach (and you) should be able to scale most things to your needs.

      1. Seeing one coach regularly and attending less crowded classes makes this easier for everyone.

D. Don't forget that you can freeze your membership when you're out with an injury.

FEEL BETTER.

When a WOD gets you down

For those of you who were in class today, this will be a repeat. For those who stayed home, let me explain today's workout. It is subtle but brilliant. This is a post I shared with the other coaches to make sure nothing was lost in translation.

30 minute AMRAP

15 second chin up hold

15 unbroken double unders

15 unbroken push ups

Think of this workout as being two strength pieces and one skill practice, packaged into a mildly aerobic endeavor. The chin up hold can be broken up as necessary (no more than 3 slices of 5 seconds, ideally.) This allows athletes to strengthen the range of motion that sucks across the board- the last two inches. The chin up hold (supinated grip) prepares them for beach season- sun's out, gun's out. The 15 unbroken double unders is skill practice. If they fail to do them unbroken, begin back at the beginning of that set of double unders. If 15 is a ridiculously easy range, bump it up by 5s to no more than 30. Do no more than 3 failed sets. (If the athlete is performing single unders, it may involve minor skill development, but is mostly aerobic work.) The push ups are again, strength work. If the rep range of 15 is excessive, suggest 5 or 10 (whatever you choose, it should sound easy for one set.) Both unbroken exercises are purposefully written that way so that you have to rest prior to completing them in order to complete them. Rest is inherent, it is just not mandated.

Today's email is wordy, here are more.

A student texted me this AM: ...when you suck at a WOD and it bugs you all day (slow clap) (Read: a workout has me sad &/or pissed off.)

I gotz thotz...

CrossFit is a huge commercial success (and labelled a cult) because they incidentally figured out how to perfectly merge exercise and emotion: the WOD. We're addicted to the Sport of Fitness not because of the tangible physical results, but because of the huge emotional connection we have to exercise now, whether we realize it or not.

This emotional connection is very important on a person by person level. To get through many of the WODs you need to care on a level deeper than skin. To beat the shit out of yourself day to day and week to week CrossFit has to be more important to your psyche than a stroll in the park or a lifting session at the local gym.

When the emotional connection takes you over, instead of you using it to your advantage, you lose. Exercise should always supplement your real life, not detract.

Is it a bad thing that a workout got you down in the dumps for a bit? NOT AT ALL. It means you're at the perfect level of obsession. The emotional connection took you over, you said fuck you and conquered it. If you cared any less, you wouldn't care enough.

What do we do when the emotion of it all is drowning out the positives? When a workout has us all up in our head? Answer these questions:

1. Did you have fun?

2. Did you learn something from the experience that you can put to good use in the future? (This can mean learning from a mistake or knowing what you need to work on.)

3. Did you meet your goal?

      A. No? Did you set the right (quality or quantity) of goal?

4. Are you going to live to see another day?

In a lot of ways, you can re-read this email, replacing "emotional connection" with "competing against other athletes" and it's still true. Use competition to your advantage, when it beats you, you lose.

Slight digression- any given day's workout does not matter. It is one brick in a huge wall. It's the commitment to consistency and excellence that matters, everything else simply paints that picture. Are you troubled by the little picture? Look at the big picture. Usually it all starts to make sense again.

This email has turned out much heavier than I intended. Here's your moment of zen.