Tag Archives: Crossfit

Rest Well.

26
May
2016

How well do you Rest?

boxer

There is a story in the Bible about Gideon, who was charged with finding an army of men capable of fighting a foreign invading force.

 

One of the criteria was how the men took a drink of water from the local river.   Gideon took 10,000 men down to the river to quench their thirst.  Those who lapped water like a dog were asked to leave, and those who used their hands, and remained ready and aware of themselves and their current surroundings were allowed to stay.   

This is merely my opinion, because is not noted in the story, but those men who used their hands to drink water(and were allowed to stay), and remained on the ready while quenching their thirst in the middle of a hot middle eastern day.—–“rested well”

 

During the Regional Training Camp at Hyperfit a few weeks ago, I either overhead a conversation, or briefly talked about how well the regional athletes were “resting” mid workout.

 

Those who appeared to be suffering during their rest inevitably did not finish as fast as those who didn’t allow their inner struggle to be seen in their body language.  Even at CrossFit Legacy, there are those at the gym, who are told, “I can never tell that you are suffering so much in a workout!”   Yet, there are also those who would like to entire gym to know that the workout is hard whether others are looking or not.

 

The take away here is that how you maintain your composure during a workout will affect how you progress through a workout and how you finish.

 

—-Keep your head up

 

—Control your breathing(belly breathe)

 

—Have a plan before the workout begins

 

—be willing to adjust your plan(after you get hit in the face)

 

—Positive self talk

 

—being dramatic won’t make you go faster

 

—always keep moving

 

—keep your hands off your knees

 

These are just a few things to keep in mind, but the next time a workout makes you feel like your soul is being ripped out of you, don’t show it.  Rather, say to yourself, “this is tough, but I am tougher!”

 

The better you rest, the faster you will go and the fitter you will become.

 

By the way, only 300 men remained after Gideon took them to the river, so it is a rare thing to rest well.

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Technique vs. Load, written by Andrew Sokolowski

23
May
2016

Technique vs. Load

group pvc

Where do I draw the line between the two?
Walking into any gym or CrossFit box can be an intimidating sight. Often times you find yourself walking into a packed house with a bunch of people throwing what appear to be massive amounts of weight overhead, or picking up even larger amounts of weight from the floor. We’ve all been to the point where we are flat out amazed by a lift we have seen or a number on the whiteboard when we first started.

 

Speaking of the whiteboard.

 

After crossfitting for a while and becoming a “veteran”, it is easy to get caught up in how everyone else is scoring. We see that our friendly competition has maxed out his snatch for the day and that number happens to be 20 pounds greater than yours.

 

So what is our first instinct?

 

Load that bar until we hit a lift that is greater than our counterpart regardless of how rounded our back is—right?

 

Wrong.

 

If we did this, we are obviously more focused on amount of weight lifted rather than technique used.

 

Okay okay get to your point.

 

The point is that many CrossFit boxes, or fitness gyms are so focused on amount of weight lifted that form and technique are often thrown out the window.

 

Let’s get back to that friendly competition up on the whiteboard. It may say that your counterpart out lifted you, but how are they moving?

 

Is their lift one that is technically sound without any hiccups or faults?

 

Are your lifts technically sound without any faults?  If so ignore the rest of this and continue on with your day.

 

For those of us who do not have the perfect lift, or the best mechanics in the world, this article is for you. The whiteboard can be a deadly thing and it can make us try to beat someone in all aspects of fitness while forgetting the fundamental aspect of CrossFit—”the fundamentals”

 

We must get back to the basics. Working technique and building a foundation are the most important concepts you can perfect and have a full understanding of, especially within the CrossFit community.

 

There’s a reason you started to snatch with a PVC pipe.

 

So what are the benefits to hammering technique prior to lifting heavy weights? Well for starters dialing in mechanics will prevent injury. Many of us find ourselves in the gym upwards of five times a week. Improper mechanics will surely put an end to that. Many injuries heard of within the fitness community are due to improper mechanics whether we want to believe it or not.

 

Stop loading the bar if you know your back is rounded!

 

Another benefit to perfecting your mechanics? More personal records! That’s right, chances are if your technique is dialed in and you are consistent with a program and put the effort in your PRs will not only happen more often but the jumps will be greater. Who doesn’t want that?!

 

So before you go loading that bar to try and beat someone else, why not take the time and better yourself, not only now, but in the long run as well. Take the time to use a PVC pipe, an empty barbell, or just running through the movement within your mind.

Trust the process.

 

“Build your empire on the firm foundation of the fundamentals”

— Lou Holtz

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Be Incapable of Discouragement

20
Jan
2016

Crosmexican-wrestling-9-622x415

No matter what your goals are at CrossFit Legacy, or in life, these words can offer some insight encouragement, and focus during some of the more difficult times. 

Stay the course to your goals and your aspirations.

BY

It’s going to take longer than you originally thought.

You are going to need to invest more effort than you ever would have liked to exert.

You are going to have to endure more pain than you planned.

Face more failed attempts than you thought would have been necessary.

Experience more setbacks than you rationally and logically should have ever had to go through.

There’s going to be many times where your effort will not be rewarded, or even acknowledged.

Yes, at times, it’s going to suck.

For now.

You need to get through the suck.

Success always lags hard work and effort.

When you have put in more effort than reward received, you have to double down on belief, confidence and enthusiasm.

You have to continue to work yourself to the brink of collapse and tears.

You need to be able to do this indefinitely.

You need to have faith in the process.

For this part of the process is the final filtering system to creating greatness.

As your reward is not being unjustifiably held from you, it is actually being deferred for you.

Stored up, to be given to you in a lump sum, rather than in incremental pieces.

At this point in the process it is more important what you do not do, rather than what you do.

In order to receive the reward of your hard work.

The reward you deserve.

The reward you have earned –

You need to be incapable of discouragement.

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Squatting with strangers 24 hr AMRAP

16
Oct
2012

Here’s your mission should you choose to accept….

1.  Find a friend, neighbor, co-worker or complete stranger. Get them to do squats with you, video it and upload it to the Public Legacy Facebook page. Comment with the number of squats completed. The person with the highest combined number of squats recorded on video(s) (everyone in the video counts) will be crowned the winner and go home with a brand new Rogue Jump Rope of their choice.

2.  But that’s not all. We want to know which video you think is the best… So cast your vote and the video with the most likes as of 4:00pm 10/18 will win a Legacy T-shirt. So get everyone you know to like your video!

Lets break it down: (note: we changed where to upload them!)

  • Find someone, a stranger, or 100 strangers, friends, co-workers or family members…
  • Other Legacy athletes do not qualify
  • Video yourself and the others doing air squats together
  • Each video you submit must have the other and yourself completing a minimum of 1 squat together but your goal is to get as many squats with each person as you can
  • Upload your video each time you complete a new set of squats with a new person or group of people throughout the day or night
  • You must upload the video to the Public Facebook page and say how many squats were completed in each video
  • Again, You must upload the video from your account to the Public Legacy page and tell the number of squats performed in the video so that there is no confusion of who the squat points go to (lets be honest here)
  • Videos not on on Legacy Page and videos without a squat count will not qualify
  • Video’s must be submitted with Facebook time stamp between the 24 hour time period 4:00pm 10/16 to 4:00pm 10/17
  • Any video’s posted outside that time frame will not count toward the total number of squats
  • Each persons squat in the video’s count toward your total. Meaning if you, your butcher, your baker and candle stick maker shoot a video doing 5 squats each, your total count for that video would be 20 squats. (Wear a CrossFit Legacy Tshirt and get 5 extra bonus squats per video)
  • The total number of squats will be tallied and the person with the most squats wins
  • A second prize will be awarded to the person with the most video likes as well. So get everyone to like your videos!
  • Video polling will go until 4:00pm on 4/18 so make sure you get your votes in by that time.
  • Both winners of the Rogue Jump Rope and the Legacy T-shirt will be announced on 10/19 on the Legacy Main Facebook Page and blog.
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