If you have ever encountered the Bear Complex, your knees may quiver a bit at the notion of another go at this WOD. Created by John Davies, a strength coach who wrote “Renegade Training for Football,” this complex is truly a full body kick in the ass workout. Complexes are amazing for all aspects of training. In one session, you train your metabolic conditioning (met-con), muscular endurance, strength, strength-endurance, and mental fortitude all at once.
The above video explains the WOD pretty well, but the rules are as follows:
1. Perform 7 reps of the complex without resting on the floor per set. Touch and go only for the Power Clean.
2. You can thruster the push presses from both the squats, but the first movement has to be a power clean…(no squat clean to thruster).
3. Rest as needed between sets.
4. Penalty for a bar touching the ground is 5 burpees per violation post-WOD.
WOD 02.08.10
Bear Complex
5 sets of the following complex:
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press
Enlightened by a recent Mark’s Daily Apple post I wanted to share with all CF Intrepid blog readers since I know many of you enjoy running and would also find this information thought provoking. Consider this…human beings have been running for millions of years but running shoes have only been around since the 1970’s. It is true however that humans have protected their feet by wearing footwear such as moccasins or sandals, but these have minimal cushion and heel compared to modern running shoes. Daniel Lieberman, an Evolutionary Biologist from Harvard University, recently published a study that has been getting a lot of publicity throughout the running world. His study compared the foot strike patterns of people with shoes to those running barefoot and found, contrary to the what the shoe industry has brain washed us to think, that those running barefoot actually experienced less collision forces. This is due to the way the barefoot strikes the ground decreasing the effective mass of the body that actually collides with the ground. These videos should help conceptualize Lieberman’s findings:
Mark explains the truth that shoe companies are shielding us from:
There are objective truths out there, and the objective truth is that most people aren’t born with genetically defective feet. Everyone’s imperfect, sure, but for the most part we’ve all got the same basic equipment with the same basic biomechanics working under the hood. Unless you have a birth defect, no one is born with feet that “won’t work right” or that “require shoes”.
Sure Lieberman has associations with Vibram, producer of the Fivefingers, and they probably funded the study and its publication but his data is solid and it has CEOs of shoe companies scrambling for their “smoke and mirror” rebuttal. At CrossFit Intrepid we encourage the use of weightlifting shoes when performing our heavy lifts and would ask you to wear some kind of foot protection when running around the block just because of the debris and rocks that could injure your feet, but it seems like the best compromise between barefoot and shoes is the Fivefingers. Sure they look odd but ask Ruth, Marcus, Scott, or Elizabeth how theirs have worked for them and make up your own mind. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of achy knees and hips from the constant heel striking and overextended gait that running shoes enable. I plan on looking into Vibrams for myself and would encourage you to do the same. That being said, if you also choose to go this route or just go plain barefoot please ease into it. This means don’t go for a 5 mile barefoot run just because you read here that barefoot is better. If you’re like me and have worn shoes all our lives, the bones, connective tissue, and musculature support in our feet have adapted to the shoes and will need to adapt to the new stresses that comes with going barefoot. In the end just don’t believe all the hype about the necessity of running shoes and find the right compromise for yourself.
Recently, there was an article link posted on Mark’s Daily Apple about how grass-fed cows were just as susceptible to E. Coli as grain-fed ones. This article argued in a nutshell that the acidity level in the grass-fed cows’ stomachs were higher, but that this strain of E. Coli that was causing numerous food recalls and even deaths, was resistant to the acid level. So, were we completely misguided in our efforts to eat cleaner?
Absolutely not. This rebuttal article clarifies the point. The skinny of it is this: any mass production of beef is going to lead to a serious decline in quality control, be it grass or grain fed. However, grass-fed cattle are roaming pastures, not knee deep in their feces their entire lives. There are several other benefits to grass-fed including a better omega 6:3 ratio, higher in CLA, and lower in fat.
This article goes into detail about all the benefits of grass-fed.
For those of you who only read picture books, these cartoons better illustrate the point:
WOD 02.06.10
Fight Gone Bad
3 rds:
1 minute at each station
Wallball
SDHP
Box Jump
Push Press
Row
Rest
What the heck is a Tabata? The concept originated from a study published in 1996 by Izumi Tabata. He analyzed and compared the effects of moderate-intensity endurance training and high-intensity intermittent training on performance, specifically VO2max and anaerobic capacity. He found that 60 minutes a day of moderate intensity work performed 5 days a week over a 6 week period did increase VO2max on an average of 5 mL/(kg*min) but had no significant effect on anaerobic capacity. However, those who performed high-intensity interval work 5 days a week over a 6 week period experienced an average VO2max increase of 7 mL/(kg*min) and a 28% increase in their anaerobic capacity.
How do you suppose the high-intensity work sessions were structured? Does 8 sets of 20 seconds of all out work followed by a 10 second rest sound familiar? Thus the Tabata interval was born and has since wreaked havoc on CrossFitters near and far. The intensity at which we perform our workouts is key to achieving positive results. So next time we do our Tabata Squats, suck it up and know that your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems are being challenged more in those 8 minutes than if you were to go for an hour run. Crazy, huh?
WOD 2.5.10
Front Squat 3×5
4 Rounds:
10 Push Press
15 Good Mornings
20 Sit-ups
During the various workouts we put you through at Intrepid, it is vitally important to maintain your focus. A focus not only on counting reps, but maintaining good form and intensity. Jon Gilson over at Again Faster wrote a great article about this titled “Now”:
There’s always something.
The bright lights. The Top 20 pop. Someone wanting to talk to you about the something about the time you did the thing.
Ignore them. Not nasty. Not with distain. Because now is the time, the moment when you concentrate on the task ahead, on the never-ending belief that what’s about to go down will go down, that you can’t be beaten.
Every ounce of psychic energy you’re about to bring to bear; it’s easy to disrupt, easy to kill. You have to protect it, feet on the ground, head down, focusing on the simple mental images of success.
Your next personal record, better than last time, better than ever, it’s right here in front of you, ready for the taking.
There is great power in the singular sight, the sole goal, the only reason you came here. Your next personal record, better than last time, better than ever, it’s right here in front of you, ready for the taking.
And now, you have to take it. Two words, three words run through your head, a tight, concise, pithy description of the end state, the moment right before the chest bumps and high fives and screams like a fifteen-year-old’s cracking voice.
When they try to distract you, jump in on your bar, talk about the suck, borrow your 5s, cure your stress, just stop. Look up, make eye contact, not angry but ready, and look back down. This isn’t about Community. Not now. This is about winning, succeeding, making yourself believe that what’s about to happen will happen, must happen, that nothing else can happen, the intellectual certitude followed by physical reality.
And then, get ready to go. Grip the bar. Chalk up, and remember that your momentary lapse in social nicety will be rewarded with what you wanted, the moment of apex. Your short, pithy phrase repeats until there is nothing else, no sound, no Top 20, no mats, no platforms, no nothing except a bar and a goal, the universe bent around you in a cocoon of now.
Don’t think heels down, chest up. Don’t think at all, because you don’t need to. You already did it, and miracle of miracles, what was supposed to happen happened. It’s over your head. It’s locked out.
And now, they fade back in. The sound of a volume knob slow marching to full blast, clapping, screaming, backslapping rah.
You can give in, or you can go back. Sit down, shut your eyes, and bring pithy back. Because it’s not over, and you can shut it out again. Accept that this is just a step and not the end, and it will happen all over again. Another record, not a defining moment, but an ephemeral glimpse at where you were, the shallow footprint of an athlete who’s moving forward faster.
Ignore them, and bring it. Because there’s always something more.
Watching Anna pop into not just a handstand but a 1-handed handstand and then seeing Jake hold a freestanding handstand for a few seconds inspired this post. Beastskills.com is website we use often as a reference to learn about and teach different gymnastics skills. Their tutorial on the handstand is excellent and I would encourage you to check it out. They break down the position by each section of the body, give pointers on how to practice, & ways to bail out safely if you start to tip over. We will continue to incorporate handstand skillwork into our workouts so you feel comfortable being inverted, develop the isometric strength needed to hold the handstand, and to improve your balance. As Ruth mentioned in yesterday’s post, the same strength developed by your abdominals and obliques to keep you upright in a handstand translates very well to many of the lifts we perform, not to mention it’s just fun getting upside-down! Keep up the practice, and I look forward to many freestanding handstands to come.
You may wonder from time to time why we have integrated skill work in our classes (handstands, ring support/dip, L-sit, etc) when our warm ups, strength movements, and WODs take up so much time already. Jim Bathurst wrote an article in the Performance Menu about the importance of bodyweight skill integration into our programming. He says that, back in the day, all strongmen (and women) could ‘move a mountain of iron’ and control their bodies in various gymnastic balancing acts that we could attribute to Cirque du Soleil performers today. Somewhere along the way, handstands, planches, pull ups, one-arm push ups, front levers, and iron crosses were cast aside and forgotten.
What we may not realize is the weightlifting and bodyweight exercises both challenge your body’s ability to create muscular tension and full body coordination in a singular task. The tension you need to exert in your trunk in a handstand is not all that different from the tension during a back squat.
The down and dirty is this: working on handstands, pistols, and levers will add mad weight to your lifts!
By the way, the Tabata Challenge began today and here are the preliminary results:
If you’ve tuned into previous installments, you may have read Ruth explaining that strength training won’t make women bulky. And hopefully after reading Sean’s post explaining that women can’t reach the same absolute strength as men, you didn’t despair since you women can develop better relative strength. But a recent article in the NY Times brought to light that strength training (hint: if you didn’t figure it out yet, that’s a large part of what we have you doing here at Intrepid) may have yet another benefit for women who choose to partake:
Older women who did an hour or two of strength training exercises each week had improved cognitive function a year later, scoring higher on tests of the brain processes responsible for planning and executing tasks, a new study has found.
So you heard it here first — keep working out with us and we’ll shape up your mind too! Who needs sudoku?
Thus concludes the 2nd month of the Intrepid Cup Challenge. We had some amazing gains in Double Unders Skills this month with many people making 100-200% gains on their Dubs. In the end though, Nick took the cup with a gain of 30 dubs. He went from an already impressive 29 to 59, mostly spurred by Avelyne’s 20 dub gain. Brian and Jake were also in contention for the cup, but I inadvertently cursed Brian…sorry.
Honorable mention to Scott, Becky, and Elisabeth for getting their dubs this month for the first time!! Also, huge honorable mention to Anna who got her ONE HANDED HANDSTAND (with her ‘healing’ clavicle)!! Well done you guys. It was great to watch your improvement and entertaining to listen to the trash talking all month!
Drum roll…
Announcing the February Cup Challenge: Tabata Squats
Athlete with the highest score (NOT cumulative) by the end of February takes it. I have high hopes that there will be quite a squat off at the end of the month when there are multiple ties. Official tie breaker TBD.
Since CrossFitters can’t help but measure their worth in Fran times and FGB scores, let me take a moment to bring up a worthy point. Fran, Rx’d, is 95lbs for men, and 65lbs for women (you already know how I feel about Rx’d weights). If you are a male who’s front squat PR is 190#, then you’d be performing Fran at 50% of your 1RM. Still with me? Now, if you get strong and improve your lift to 240#, Fran would be 40%, meaning you’d be using 10% less energy, and thus taxing your body a lot less metabolically.
If you participate in sports (i.e. skiing or running), increased strength means better performance and, more importantly, less injuries!
Bottom line: getting stronger = win-win
**There’s a special class on Gluten-Free cooking at Whole Foods El Segundo today at 10:30!! Here’s a little description:
Guest speaker Peggy Curry will join us today to demonstrate how you can enhance the flavor and benefit to your gluten free foods, as well as the many choices you have in baking and dairy alternatives. Come sample Gluten Free products and learn the magic of menu planning.
It’s only an hour long and there will be free samples!!**
WOD 01.30.10
400m Run
5rds:
15 Deadlift
12 Box Jump
9 Push Press
400m
Charter Members
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