Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for time
45Kg Clean & Jerk, 15 Reps
Pull Ups, 15 Reps
For the Clean & Jerk, we’re adopting a a “get it done” attitude, you may use any technique you want to get the bar safely from ground to overhead, so any combination of squat clean/power clean and push press/push jerk/split jerk is acceptable. Form breakdown resulting in the loss of lumbar curve during the pull is not.
Post times to comments.
Grace-Off, Greg Amundson & Dave Leys…[wmv]
Returning to the Matrix…
I have a confession to make. On Saturday, I went down to the local Globogym. Now before I’m lynched as a heretic, I just wanted to go for a swim, and a friend of mine who works there got me in free.
After the swim I just couldn’t leave without going upstairs and doing something subversive, so off to the weights area I go to do some Olympic Lifting.
Immersed in CrossFit, you tend to forget that most of the population are still plugged into the matrix of 3 sets of 10, supersets, twenty different curl variations. Spending 6 days a week in our little box is the only gym I’m exposed to, so over the last 10 months or so I’ve built up some beliefs about working out that are very much in the wrong about: Everybody works on with intensity. Everybody squats. Gyms are fun places. Scores are kept. Form is important. People train for function. All completely wrong of course but when that’s all you see that’s all you think about, and forget about the other silliness that pervades life in the fitness business.
The first image I’m hit with as I reach the top of the stairs is two guys standing dangerously close to each other doing tricep extensions. It looked like they were kissing their biceps as they looked in the mirrors a mere 6 inches from their face.
Mirrors! I’d forgotten that these are the norm for people. I check to ensure my Oakley’s are on my head just in case I drop the weight and move on to the squatting rack. Amazingly, the bench isn’t in use (the guy ‘benching’ is doing so on the Smith machine. I take the Olympic bar and Jump it into a deep snatch next to one guy on a smith machine and another preparing to ‘squat’ 60Kgs. I overhead squat it a few times.
My snatches felt weird, and I blame the mirrors for putting me off. I note that I’m in better shape than all the curlers around me. Better shape by far. This isn’t vanity (well, just a little I guess). It’s fact. I workout for about 90 minutes a week tops, and yet my quads are better defined than the dudes I just passed, my quads bulge more thanks to cleans than Mr. Leg Press Machine, and I can point the way to the beach better than the guy grunting on Preacher curl bench and super setting.
Once again, concentrating on lifting that extra 2.5Kg or reducing your time by another 30 seconds, you forget about what muscle group you’re working. You’re just working.
I notice the squatter glance at me before he goes into his set. I was horrified by what I saw. He had a nice sting ray attachment that sat the bar comfortably above his shoulder. He quarter squats, his heels lift, and he knees bend in like Marilyn Monroe over a windy drain.
I’ve got to say something to him. But what? “Hey if you were my client I’d slap you for that” seems a bit harsh. Plus nobody’s talking to anyone else. Even workout partners are ominously quiet between sets. In CrossFit we’re always chatting between sets, or before the workout. Here, everyone’s so disconnected. It’s unsettling to be honest. No wonder so many people quit the gym. Every one of the clueless fools around me adopts a stone cold stare that’s better suited to a poker game than a gymnasium.
I wish I could say something to him, teach one soul how to squat properly. But at times CrossFit – our language, our ethos, our attitude, our philosophy – is so different it would like taking to a prisoner in Plato’s cave about sunburn.
I try to catch his eye, maybe offer some tips, but to no avail. He leaves the squat rack to do some calf raises. Calf raises, I kid you not.
I’m genuinely saddened, and a little disappointed in myself for not talking to him. These people read a poorly written article in Men’s Fitness, and then go perform a shitty exercise program in a cold environment. They don’t get results, unsurprisingly. Then they quit, and blame themselves for being so out of shape when the industry has let them down so poorly.
What’s amazing is that this is the norm for people. This is what a gym is.
It’s not our small black iron box, with no mirrors on the walls, just instrucitons on how to squat and a white board displaying scores, and bare floors with sweat stains (mainly Kyle’s). It’s not constant coaching and encouragement. It’s no comaradarie. It’s mirrors, TVs, swiss balls, air conditioning,
I feel like the agents are getting to me, and head downstairs to the changing room where I see the squat guy from before. I know if I don’t say anything I’ll beat myself up, so as he’s filling up his protein shake with water, I say “Hey”
He looks at me as if he’s trying to figure out if I know him, and from where. I better move quick.
“I saw you squat upstairs, and I’m hope I’m not being out of line, but no ones ever taught you that before, have they?” He smiles and says no.
“I’m a Strength & Conditioning Coach. A friend of mine works here so that’s why I’m here for the day. (I wanted him to know I wasn’t just another gym punter who’d read Muscle & Fitness before showing up for leg day) Would you like some pointers?” I ask and he agrees, though I’ve a feeling more out of politeness than anything else.
I tell him the mechanics of the squat, and demonstrate a few, giving him a few tips so he doesn’t irrepairably fuck up his knees, or worse, does that shit in front of me again. I really want to go “Look, I’ll show you how to squat, I’ll meet you at CrossFit tomorrow”, but I don’t want to be a salesman.
He says thank you and I feel relieved. I tried, I tell myself. Now he might start squatting deep, lose the damn comfort aspect of training, and actually achieve some decent level of fitness. I can only hope that if nothing else, I’ve made him think just a bit more about his routine. For me, I’m glad to get back to my gym, where people train hard, smile at each other, and get something out of their time there.
Colm you told me you were going to the gym to do some sneaky bicep curls not swimming.
Some thing just does not add up.
What should i scale that back to, cause i’m still learning this stuff.
Excellent write-up Colm!
I’m getting hold of a free 4 day pass for westwood in leopardstown, strictly for swimming of course! Obviously I want to do at least a few WoDs while I’m there, the daydreamer in me thinks I’ll go in there, bust out a fran or some such and blow everyone in the place away with my superior training methods, what will probably happen is I’ll get a lot of who-does-this-dickhead-thing-he-is looks and if I’m really lucky a comment about not doing pullups correctly!
Is there a conversion rate for crossfitters in globogyms? Is Colm’s experience typical?
Eoghan,
Where are you having issues with you C&J? Can you rack the bar at 20Kg? Can you do Hanging Power Cleans? Power Cleans? What can you press?
These would be considerations I’d have if I was with a client.
If you’re interested in technique development, ignore the clock and ensure that your technique is solid while going through the workout. Even just practicing the Olympic Lifts has a lot of benefits.
I’m having trouble with the clean part, basically using my arms too much i think, haven’t really got the technique down.
Commercial gyms really freak me out too. It’s so weird walking into a room full of people all ignoring each other and drearily wandering around looking depressed and bored.
When I was in that hotel gym in Galway there were all these guys sitting on weight machines between sets staring into the middle distance…dragging themselves from one pointless device to another for a few half-hearted reps…they looked like they were about to cry.
And then there were the cardio hamsters. I walked in and they were jogging on the treadmills staring at Dr Phil with a glazed look on their faces. I warmed up, banged out a 20 round Cindy, lay on the floor for a while, got up and had a quick stretch, then as I was walking out I noticed they were…still jogging on the treadmills while staring at Dr Phil with a glazed look on their faces. Kinda creepy.
I don’t know how you’d begin to help those folk…”Hi, I’m Will. I just wanted to let you know that everything you believe about health and fitness is probably bullshit”…I can’t quiet picture it.
today a guy in globogym stopped my stopwatch. I had just started 21-15-9 of thrusters and dips and he moved it out of his way so he could swing his knees up and down a couple of times on the dip machine. Luckily for him he had moved away while I finished my 21 thrusters, but I know he heard me swearing. Then another guy just parked himself in the dip-rig thing to just stand there and look about while I still had my last set of 9 to finish. I had sweat in my eyes and could just about grunt ‘MOVE’ and he did ….like a little kid. I do all my wods in globogym and each morning the same guys are there, doing the same curls and the same stare…and all the same women are always there, on the same treadmills. I’m like a little entertainment monkey to them – giving them something to look at while they ‘train’ and I crossfit
Wahooooooooo,
I have talked to Colm about this, its brilliant,
I am a member of Westwood in Leopardstown,
Shane gimme a shout and we can piss off LOADS of people up there.
Agree with Helzy, I remember doing some workout there and some lad appalled at me for doing pullups and sweating like a lunatic while watching the clock, he genuinely looked appalled,
WOD’s in there are difficult as there are so many people around and getting in the way, so I am going to do 5×5 and a crossfit workout on wednesdays with whoever is there,
Well, I came to CrossFit from the background of doing MMA and grappling for a few years as opposed to coming from a globogym background. I had literally never trained with a barbell before I came down and met Colm, I totally missed out on the whole weights thing.
I’m kind of glad I missed out on the conventional gym lifestyle, but then again I wasted my time doing traditional martial arts for ages before I found out about MMA, so I’ve probably done even more silly things over the years.
I wonder what proportion of people who start CrossFit actually come from a conventional gym-going background, or who get into it from having no athletic background or who come from a particular sporting discipline?
—
Needed to squeeze in a quick workout today because I can’t make it down to the gym but I more or less rested on Saturday on Sunday because I felt knackered.
Only thing I had onhand was a 16kg kettlebell. I decided to vary a workout we did a few weeks ago.
AMRAP 20 Minutes
5 KB swings
5 KB snatch (from ground to overhead, one movement)
5 KB swings
5 KB push press
5 KB front squat
12 rounds
As usual not as tought without someone to race, also I probably should have left in some form of overhead squat, I think that would have dropped the rounds down significant. Switched side each round.
I also played around a bit with releasing the KB in the air and catching it with the other hand during swings (did a minute and a half of this). I don’t think this is really feasible when doing american-style swings unless you want to run an even higher risk of destroying something in the vicinity.
I need spellcheck.
chasing fauns around the phoenix park is enough for me at the moment.
Great blog Colm. Does everyone else find the following since the started crossfit: (1) When you’ve had a few, you start talking about crossfit and just how good it is (2) You start smiling to yourself as the people around you do half-squats, triceps extensions etc (3) You leave pools of sweat on the gym floor after you finish
Re (1) I’m disgraceful about this. Last time I was having cans in my buddys house I ended up in the kitchen teaching his mam and sisters how to deadlift with a few brooms and mops.
I crossfitted for a long time in my local globogym back in the states and it was really, really hard not to offer unsolicited advice. The problem is the folks that need it the most are generally the ones that are least open to advice (the guy do 1/4 squats on the leg press machine loaded up with every 45 plate in the gym).
Colm–didn’t we do tabata on Friday? Any chance you saved those scores?
Kyle – I moved everything on the camera to the mac, so I’ll check tonight.
Rob couldn’t do Cleans yesterday so he got this little doozie
5 Rounds,
500m Row
10 spartans
10 push ups
10 pull ups
22:40
Dan – 15:47 (40kg,3×10)
Paul – 14:45 (40Kg,5×5, pull ups need work)
Paddy, Hang Power Cleans x 3
20,22.5,22.5,25,25,25,27.5,27.5,27.5