Category — CrossFit

I filmed this little video a while back. My daughters and I were on a movie date. My oldest was a little upset with me because we were late. You see, the 2011 CrossFit Games were re-running on ESPN and I made her watch. She was a little less than enthused I was delaying our departure just so we could watch people exercise. Ha! I wasn’t surprised by her reaction but I did want to make sure she saw what some of the women of the Games were capable of doing.

We finally made it to the movies. As expected, due to our tardiness, the line was a bit long. So again, my daughter expressed her displeasure with me. She also expressed the fact that she didn’t understand why I thought the ladies were so great. She said, “They have too many muscles anyway.”

Wait? What??? I told her she had to be kidding. I said, those women are beautiful. And, I told her, they have just the right amount of muscles. I also asked wouldn’t she rather be strong than not? I was actually surprised when she said she wasn’t sure. With that, I’m asking the women of CrossFit and the fitness world to help me convince my daughters that it is ok to be strong. My oldest is in middle school and at a vulnerable age where boys notice her and she cares about how she smells. Ha! But I don’t want that to turn into devaluing or limiting all the things she can be in life to fit a mold that may not be meant for her. Isn’t that the worst thing a young girl can allow herself to do? Diminish her own possibilities?

So again, I’m asking the fit ladies out there to leave a comment for my daughters. Let them know why strong is also beautiful.

I have made half-hearted attempts at going Paleo in the past but now I think I’m really going to give it a go. The hardest thing for me to give up will be the bread, pizza and bagels. (Wait, that’s all bread right?) But I’ve now heard from enough people and listened to their anectdotal evidence to jump in with both feet.

I put together this little example menu inspired by an old diet plan Lee Labrada published years ago. I just fixed up to suit my Paleo and my athletic needs. Sometimes, those two things are in conflict but I try to resolve them as best I can. One thing I definitely took to heart is Cordain’s 85/15 rule where he states in The Paleo Answer,

…if you are 85% compliant with the diet most of the time, significant improvements in your health can occur. The other 15%… are open meals, meaning you can choose to eat a normal amount that fall outside the diet plan.

Trust me. I’m going to take full advantage of that little Paleo loophole. I listed my typical cheats in a section on the diet plan. Let me know what you think of the thing and I welcome any feedback, comments or suggestions.

My "computer" bag.

CrossFit teaches us to be ready for the unknown and unknowable. I guess I’ve taken that to heart somewhat. My computer bag contains everything but the computer. Unless you count the iPad. But it does contain everything I might need in an low-grade emergency. Bandages, athletic tape, books, pens, ground coffee (yes, ground coffee), weapons (non-lethal), overnight garments, toothpaste, ibuprofen and can forget the gymnastics rings and jumprope. You never know when a wod will jump off.

What’s in your bag?

Childhood is passing. Adolescence is in full swing. But worst of all, so are school dances. T-One had her first experience yesterday with a school dance. And reports have it she had to endure the advances of at least five different boys who wanted the honor of escorting to the after school affair. It is no surprise to me she is popular. She’s got the 3 G’s: gorgeousness, greatness and gregariousness. And I’m not at all nervous about the boys sniffing around her. They know I carry a big stick. But I must admit I’m a little dispirited.

As she shopped her closet for dresses and bemoaned, “I have nothing to wear”, all I could think about was how she won’t be dancing with dad anymore. Yeah, maybe I’ll get a few more in at her sweet 16, and possibly her wedding, but from here on, those dances will be few and far between.

*Sigh*

But instead of feeling sorry for myself (woe is me) I’ve decided to dance with her while I can. And, if I play my cards right, down the line when she’s “all grow’d up”, maybe every now again she’ll throw her old man a bone and let me cut a rug with her.

Metcon (endurance):
Row (Concept II): 5:00 on, 2:30 off, 6:00 on, 3:00 off, 7:00 on

Warm Up:

Metcon (am):
“Camille”
AMRAP 8 min
3 Snatch Complexes @ 125#
3 Wall Climbs

Metcon (pm):
Teams of 2
AMRAP in 5 min of:
5 Push Jerks @ 155#
Rest 2 min
AMRAP in 5 min of:
5 Deadlifts @ 225#
Rest 2 min
AMRAP in 5 min of:
5 Supine ring pulls

Result:
AM metcon: 27 reps
PM metcon: 317 reps

Over the last two years I’ve really struggled with the amount of time I spend on thinking about and engaging in Crossfit. The time I want to spend on it is not the time I have. I’ve struggled with this balance for over two years. My time with my girls is hard to come by and I find myself having to sacrifice other things, especially Crossfit, in order to just hang with them.

I was supposed to meet friends at the box to do the pictured wod. But I also had to get my girls ready for school. To be able to do both I had to enlist the help of my father to drop the girls off to school. Feeling guilty about my selfish decision to Crossfit instead of dropping my girls to their school steps, I dilly-dallied this morning, hanging out with the girls a few more minutes before I left for the box. As a result I was late to wod with my homies. So instead, the wod became my warmup, greatly modified.

Instead I decided to re-do “Camille”. The first time around I did it with friends at Brazen Athletics sort of half-assed. In fact, I wasn’t even going to do it then. But it was something about seeing my friends attempt the wod, suffer through it, miss some reps and then be blasted at the end, that made me want to jump in. It’s one of the weirdest things about this Crossfit community. Things you never have done or just unlikely to do, you do because this community provides one of the greatest support systems I’ve ever seen.

This morning for instance, I had no plans of re-doing “Camille” but my cronies stayed behind just to cheer me on while I did the wod. I had to do it at that point. Within in the wod I wanted to stop several times saying to myself, “I don’t want to do this.” But the voices in the background saying, “C’mon Ben!” motivated me to continue. In football we call the crowd The 12th Man. When the 12th man is making noise he can motivate the team to extraordinary feats. In every Crossfit box around the country, there’s the 12th man. Some voice or voices you hear bellowing from the corner urging you to keep pushing. I love this community. Sometimes stealing a little time away from parenting feels worth it.

The ropes at Guerrilla Fitness

All the cool kids are doing it so I figured I’d join in on the fun.

Today’s wod:

Strength
Front squat at 5 – 5 – 3 – 3 – 2 – 2

Metcon:
4 rounds
3 rope climbs, 15′
15 static lunges @ 95#

Result:
Strength: 255/255/275/275/305/305(1)
Metcon: 6:30

I haven’t done any sort of strength based squat in a while. So this felt good. But it’s clear I need to build my strength back up in this area. I think a strong squat is essential in Crossfit as well as life.

I failed my last rep and I could feel my knees buckle in a little. My coach pointed out that little flaw to me. So next time I’ll bring my feet in a little and hopefully that will help me out with my knees.

The lunges in the metcon were a challenge especially after the squats. But I’ve worked hard on my footwork with rope climbs and feel comfortable with the movement now. It used to be I could only climb the rope using all arms. It goes to show you a little perseverance goes a long way.