“You can talk all you want about being in good shape until you
do a few CrossFit workouts, and then you will realize - like I did
- that what you have been doing is likely training strong points,
rarely working on weak points, and training efficiency to such a
degree that the workouts you do are less effective than they
might be if you mixed energy modes, duration, and types, of
work.”
- Mark Twight, Gym Jones
We loved the “12 days of Christmas” format so much that we thought we would have another crack at it with a minor variation in the exercise set. It was much harder this time following the Tabata squats yesterday.
For time, adding one exercise per round in reverse sequence:
1 x 100m sprint
2 x 10m laps of broad jump
3 x handstand pushups
4 x burpees
5 x dips
6 x knee to elbow
7 x clapping pushups
8 x squats
9 x situps
10 x pullups
11 x V-ups
12 x tuck jumps
record time to comments and compare to “12 days of Christmas” post comments.
Ross Enamait comes up with great stuff. Here is a video from www.rossboxing.com on budget training. Enjoy!
If the video is not showing up you need the Adobe Flash player to be installed. The flash player is free and is available for download from Adobe. Click here to install it.
As a coach you get used to being given excuses as to why people can’t train. The standard ones include “I am sore from yesterday’s session“, “I didn’t get much sleep last night“, “I am really busy with work at the moment” and my favourite “I have forgotten my ….” where the thing forgotten can be anything from shoes to towel to training fees.
There are three phases to developing a successful training habit. “Consistency” first, ”Volume” second “Intensity” third. The first phase of “consistency” is about establishing a pattern of turning up to training regularly and as planned, regardless of whatever else is happening in your life. So the first goal that I give to new crossfitters is “just turn up to every planned session”. To be honest, in this phase when people are getting used to training, I don’t mind if they turn up and sleep in the corner, just as long as they turn up. Turning up is half of the battle. Success and consistency go hand in hand. The second phase of “volume” is about increasing the amount of work that you are doing in a session or the number of planned sessions per week. This phase involves getting your body use to the workload without breaking it. Once you progress through the second phase and your body is ready, the third phase is when the results start to come. This “intensity” phase is about increasing the effort in each session so that the body is stimulated to change. This is what the CrosssFit workouts are all about, turning up the intensity.
All of these phases require one essential ingredient - commitment. It takes commitment to turn up to every session. It takes commitment to increase the amount of work you are doing or number of sessions, and it definately takes commitment to make yourself hurt more by increasing the intensity. So I would argue that commitment is the singlemost important factor in achieving fitness.
It is very simple. Work through the three phases in order and commit yourself, and you will be successful. So, are you committed?
Committment means that you cannot turn back. It means being unconditional and willing to fail for the chance to succeed. It means letting go of all excuses and focussing on what you can do, rather than what you can’t. Commitment means realising that everybody is in the same boat. We all have things in our lives that make it hard to get to training. A lot of people have injuries, busy jobs, family pressures, money worries, transport problems etc AND are still committed to their training. You can do it too.
Coaches know who is committed and who is pretending. It is not the excuse itself that gives it away, but the intent behind the excuse. If the intent is to get out of the session then commitment has failed. There is a difference between “I have forgotten my shoes” and “I need to train bare foot”, and the difference is intent.
Here is the important bit of information … there is always a way to train, so turn up! No matter what you have going on, the session can be adapted to suit. If you have an injury, a different body part can be trained, if you are tired, a 50% session can be done, if you have limited time, a short technical session can be done. Let your coach decide! If you show up, you are demonstrating commitment.
Gyms are full of people that feign commitment. These are usually the people that grunt through a session that is too hard for them (pretend volume) and then miss the next two sessions (cheat consistency), or perform fast limited range of motion exercises (pretend intensity) and then shortcut the session (cheat volume). The consistency/volume/intensity formula is simple, but it takes strength of character to have the commitment required to execute it.
So how committed are you? In the past few weeks, I have seen true commitment. I have had someone train for an hour in a public gym in their underpants because they forgot their training shorts and refused to miss the session. I have seen someone continue a wallball session after failing to catch one of the throws and wearing a 3kg medicine ball on their face. I have seen someone turn up to training two days after ankle surgery and ask that the squats be changed to pullups so that they could do the session. This level of commitment didn’t suprise me. All three had already demonstrated it by progressing through the consistency/volume/intensity plan.
I don’t recommend training in your underpants as it is a little bit disturbing for your coach, but I do recommend asking yourself honestly whether you would do it. How committed are YOU?
modified “Tabata Squats”
For eight intervals, squat for twenty seconds and rest for thirty before starting again.
Report least number of squats for any of the eight intervals, compare to best Tabata (20/10) squat score, and post to HQ comments. Note the effect of the extra 20 seconds rest.
The last results for Tabata (20/10) can be found in comments on CrossFit HQ for 14/10/2006.
For those of you that have not done a Tabata session before, it is usually done as 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 intervals.
(photo: Ross Enamait, www.rossboxing.com. Check his site out, a great training resource)
Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them. . . . They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally and they don’t stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.”
- John W Gardner
Thanks to CrossFit North for the 12 Days of Christmas workout format.
There are 12 exercises, each corresponding to the 12 days of Christmas. The exercise are done in reverse sequence and added to the previous exercise until all 12 exercises are completed, ie first you do exercise 1 for 1 rep, then you do exercise 2 for 2 reps plus exercise 1 for 1 rep, then you do exercise 3 for 3 reps plus exercise 2 for 2 reps plus exercise 1 for 1 rep, etc continuing until the 12 days of Christmas are completed, just like the song.
We have modified the workout so that it includes only bodyweight exercises and park equipment given that most of our guys will be away from the gym. This workout is a lot harder than it looks
For time:
1 x 80m sprint
2 x Monkeybar crossing
3 x Handstand Pushups
4 x Burpees
5 x Divebomber pushups
6 x Knee to Elbows
7 x Dips
8 x Squats
9 x Situps
10 x Pullups
11 x V-Ups
12 x Tuck Jumps
in effect there are 12 rounds, with each round including an additonal exercise. The last round is all 12 exercises. Post time to comments.
(photo: the aftermath)
It has been an exciting year at swiftFIT. Some of the highlights included swiftFIT becoming an official affiliate of CrossFit in the States (the first in Brisbane), seeing the development of a great group of regular CrossFitters in the morning and lunchtime sessions, and spending some time with the CrossFit guys from Sydney and North Qld. We are well past “startup” mode now, and it is great to see the CrossFit community in Brisbane starting to develop.
However, it wasn’t all good times. We also lost a friend, Keiji Okamoto, in a tragic car accident. Keiji’s loss reminds us to enjoy each minute that we have, to make the most of our family and friendships, to cherish the life we have. Friends and training partners are a gift. Be thankful for those around you.
2007 will see swiftFIT working hard to further establish the Brisbane CrossFit community. We are also looking forward to heading to the States in the new year to hang out with the guys from CrossFit HQ, as well as getting down to Melbourne and Newcastle to catchup with the other Australian CrossFitters that we are yet to meet.
Thanks to everyone that trained with us and supported swiftFIT this year. We are now officially on holidays (read up the coast doing WODs on the beach). The first session back will be Thursday 4/1/2007 at 6am, at Sassom Fitness, 19 Holden St, Woolloongabba, Brisbane.
Have a safe holiday, think about what you put into your body, and remember that holidays mean that you stop working at your job, not your training! Get some, go again.
“Fight Gone Bad”
3 rounds for max reps:
- Wall ball (10kg, 10′ target)
- Sumo Deadlift High Pull (30kg)
- Box Jump (20″)
- Push Press (30kg)
- Row (Calories)
1 min per station then rotate
no rest between stations
1 min rest between rounds
(photo: CrossFit warmup)
Here is a video courtesy of CrossFit Austin Texas of Fight Gone Bad (requires Adobe Flash Player) …
The videos on this site are from www.youtube.com
To view them your browser needs to be able to display the YouTube files. This requires Adobe Flash player to be installed. The flash player is free and is available for download from Adobe. Click here to install it.
Ever wondered what the practical application of a muscle-up is? Very handy if ever you need to do a handstand on top of a bus shelter:-)
Enjoy the rest day!!
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969),
