Last Thursday (August 30, 2007), myself and my workout buddy Shane went over to the UK to meet some of our Crossfit brethren.

Funny thing was, the whole idea behind the trip had changed since we’d first set it up. Back in July, it was just to get some training in with a Certified Crossfit Instructor. Then I thought, “hey, I’d like to go to a certification”, so I booked myself into one. Then I realised that I could bring Crossfit to Ireland, so I applied and was accepted. So the original plan had changed somewhat since I first spoke to Kempie!

After arriving in Durham Kempie greeted us and we hit the road. It’s truly amazing that this was a guy that I’d never met, only chatted to over the phone for a total of about 10 minutes, and yet we got on like a house on fire straight away. Thank you Crossfit!

We talked about our aims for Crossfit, the challenges we saw for the future, and what we wanted out of the weekend. It was great to feel we were on the same page – delivering quality and excellent service.

Chris then introduced us to his home gym, where he takes on private clients. It’s the very definition of a garage gym, with great use of space. It was the first time I’ve been introduced to GHD sit ups and then Chris took us through kettlebells swings. He emphasised that KB swings were all down to poping the hips – vigorously extending the knee and hip joints – with your arms.

Mpg of the KB Snatch (right click, save as – 35 secs, 8.8MB)

First workout of the trip, For time:
15-12-9
Ring Dips
Burpees
KB Swings

Previous to this there’s only been one CF workout where I’ve beaten The Shane – I’m two minutes faster on Murph. Thursday, I managed to get the best of Shane – although he had me after round one.

The lesson – pace yourself. As a new coach I’ve noticed it already that people will fly into their metcon wods and try to rip through the reps. What happens? They suffer a massive degradation in technique and performance, stumbling home with single reps and long breaks where they gasp for air.

“Take the easy reps”

Friday:
Crossfit Manchester were our hosts – Karl and Mark teaching a class in their dedicated 2000 sq ft facility. This, to me, was what Crossfit was all about. A lovely open space, great multi person pull up station, and a shed load of weights.

Karl and Mark introduced us to Snatch technique, bringing us through the Burgener warm up. They have a great back and forth as they coach. If Karl is explaining the technique in slow motion, Mark will run through the movement at real speed a couple of times. The result is like watching an instructional split scene video.

This was also the first time I’ve gotten to wear squat shoes, and they made some difference to how I felt. My previous 1RM on the Overhead Squat was 45Kg (cleaned off the ground). I was easily squatting 40Kg in these shoes, and felt a lot more secure at the bottom than had previously done.

Vid of Colm OHS 40Kg in lifting shoes (20 secs, 5.1MB)

The WoD at Crossfit Manchester called for
15 Minutes, as many rounds as possile of:
5 Pull Ups
10 Wall Ball Shots
15 Walking Lunges

This was quite the challenge. Even though I’ve reported my times on the main site and competed with friends, I’ve never competed side by side with a bunch of people. It really pushed you and forced you to keep going. If Shane or Chris got ahead of me on the Pull Ups (not my strength) I’d race across to the wall balls and try to bust them out as quick as possible.

The great thing was our calls to Karl were split seconds apart “Shane!” “Colm!” “Kempie!”, “Colm!”, “Kempie!”, “Shane!” – with each round one of us would nudge just a bit ahead, spurring the others to keep going. After all, there was a two hour car journey afterwards, and bragging rights were at stake!!!

(FYI: 12 rounds, 5 Pull ups)

It’s a truly great feeling when you have an idea in your head of what something should be, and it turns out to be as good as you hoped it would be, just with the volume of camaradarie, dedication, commitment and fun turned way up!

We stuck around to watch the evening classes and shoot the breeze with the guys. What really impressed me were the non athletes that Karl and Mark were training. It’s easy for fit, young, athletic males to show up. What is really impresive is to see housewives in their forties and fifties train in exactly the same way – this is what Crossfit is all about. Sure it’s thrilling to see a Sub 3 minute Fran, but to see Lawraine, a 57 year old women, perform a technically proficient WoD at high intensity was aspirational. I can only hope I’ve that Range of Motion, dedication, and ability when I’m older.

The one regret is I didn’t get a video of her completing a round. I’ll have to have her over to Ireland sometime soon to show people what intensity is all about. 9 Rounds, with Jumping Pull ups. Great technique on her wall balls and lunges. Bloody inspiring! And you know she’s set herself up nicely to enjoy a high standard of living in her golden years!!!

Saturday:

For once, it was sunny in England – which was great, since we were off for a beach workout. Chris has started running these free workouts to try and spread the word of Crossfit across North East England.

Being sunny, I took the opportunity to go topless for the beach workout. Somehow, I ended up with the nickname of the “skinny fat little white Irish guy” – unfortunately, I have no comeback against any of those titles, unless of course my parents lied and I’m not actually Irish!

Our first workout was Hang Cleans, Burpees (Kempie does love his Burpees) and Sprints in a relay race fashion. Once more I was pitted against Shane, who at one point informed me his team had an unassailable lead. It was assailed

The next workout was some good old fashioned Spartans – that’s tire flips and jumps with each one. Ben clearly had some skills in this area, with the balance and agility to jump in and out of the tire before it stopped rolling!

• Video of Kempie flipping the tire (32 secs, 8.2MB)
• Video of Ben flipping the tire (22 secs, 5.6MB)

The sledgehammer swings, sprints and KB workout was next. Ben was a half step ahead of Kempie when they did their first round, but forgot to carry his KB home. Instant DQ, days worth of slagging! Afterwards, by way of Atonement, Ben did a double. This time he didn’t forget the KB!!!

Vid of Shane doing the sledgehammer workout (1:45, 26.2MB). You can see how solid Leon’s technique was in his KB swings, all hips, like a metronome.

The next mini workout (all of these lasted between one and a half and five minutes, which gave us adequate time to work on explosive power output with adequate rest intervals) involved sprints, and burpees with a keg clean and press at the top. Another fun workout, particularly because everytime I tried to drop into a burpee I just slipped back on the sand!

For the finisher, more KB swings and a tire drag. My first go was on the “light” tire, and my silly sprint technique seemed to work well. So confident in the silly sprint technique, I drew a lot of attention for the “heavy” tire. The vid is here (1:02, 15.5MB), and you should check it out for Shane’s comedy coaching, if nothing else!

All in all a fantastic experience, and I’m really inspired to bring the Crossfit Revolution to Ireland and provide the absolute best service I can to my clients.

A massive thank you to Chris for showing us around and organising it all, to Jane for putting up with us, to Karl and Mark for the inspiration and hospitality (tee shirts on the way soon I promise!) and to all the Crossfitters in England we’d the pleasure of meeting. You’re more than welcome anytime in Ireland.