If you missed your beloved Met-Con on Sunday, your wish was dutifully fulfilled Thursday night. It’s been a while since we’ve done a nice chipper, and it seems class was not disappointed.
Our standard 1k run is the block plus the church run – so out the back door, but to finish, pass the back door, and then enter through the front door (via the parking lot).
The plate push was accomplished by placing a bumper plate (45lb for guys, 25lb for girls) on a towel and then pushing it across the court. 1 Plate Push = down and back the length of the basketball court.
Wall Walk(ers) were done wherever you could find available wall space was. Although the standard is often expressed as “chest to the wall,” this often encourages athletes to walk their hands within three feet and then simply collapse the core and over-arch their backs in order to make their chests touch. Instead, the standard for Thursday night was “hands as close to the wall as is manageable.” The goal being that each person could maintain good body position (tight mid-line maintained through-out) while achieving an endpoint that suited their own ability.
One Bear Complex = 1 deadlift, 1 power clean (from the floor), 1 front squat, 1 push press, 1 thruster. Movements had to be individualized; i.e., no squat cleans into a thruster to take the place of the clean-front squat-push press triumvirate. Rx’d weight for 75lbs for the ladies, 115lbs for the guys.
Sub for toes to bar was a 1-3 ratio of ab mat sit-ups (or 72 ab-mat sit-ups for those like me who are mathematically challenged).
Sub for the 48 burpees was 48 burpees.
Awesome work by everyone for pushing through their own personal trouble spots, as well the 48 burpee-ending. Also, don’t forget tonight’s HH at Madam’s Organ:
And if you’re unsure of what to talk about with your fellow CFDCer tonight, here’s a little conversation starter for you all: check out this article from Ms. Penny Love Hoff of the Huffington Post, as well as some follow-up food for thought from CF One World. (Cheers to Tex and CF Dupont for the links).
Finally, best of luck to all lifters competing at the Gold Cup Challenge in New Jersey tomorrow, which I believe includes Henry, Reggie, Jenn Sargent, and Coach Mike Choi. If you have access to a computer tomorrow, be sure to log on to East Coast Gold’s website to watch the meet webcast LIVE!
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Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. For me, last night was the latter. 115# on the bear complexes was absolutely devestating. Physically, I had difficulty with the push press and thruster. Emotionally, I was crushed after completing the complexes and limped my way to the finish on the toes-to-bar and burpees.
Congrats, Ethan. You smoked me by over five minutes. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Lastly, I’d just like to point out how spoiled we are at CFDC with respect to programming. Many CrossFit “boxes” cycle their members through a series of workouts hyjacked from CrossFit.com and, maybe, program some bastardized version of Jim Wendler’s program for strength training. Our coaches actually take the time create their own programming based on what they feel is best for our development. Trust me, you don’t see plate pushes, walk-walkers, or bear complexes at most affiliates. You certainly don’t see box squats, sumo speed pulls, good mornings, or some of the other cool strength stuff we do. It’s great, and I feel very fortunate.
See you all at happy hour!
Ha, “sub for 48 burpees was 48 burpees.”
I apologize in advance for the long comment. I’m making up for lost time while we were away.
I like that picture of Max! It was good to see you Max! It’s always awesome to watch you do burpees, no matter how tired you are they are still legit. As the ladies put it, “Max eats burpees for breakfast.”
That was a great grinder, just what I needed. I subbed 1K row for 1K run, used a 35lb plate for the pushes, and used 65lbs and 60lbs for the bear, the rest as prescribed.
The 1K row was slow, 5 something, and I’m sure I didn’t get the increase in heart rate as the peeps who ran did as I was still trying to get my form down.
The plate pushes were a burner, but with only 3 and being so far behind everyone, I pushed through with no rest.
The wall walkers were the easiest in the entire workout for me compared to the other exercises. After almost 20 on Tuesday, 6 didn’t seem too bad.
The bears were rough. Shared the 65lb bar with Erica and 60lb bar with Amelia, 6 on each.
I briefly considered doing 72 sit-ups, but the number 72 was too large that doing 24 T2B just seemed so much better. Not sure if anyone else feels the same way, but for me toes to bars are actually easier than knees to elbows.
I had initially wanted to do the burpees unbroken but had to break at 25 and then 38.
Completely agree with what Sebastian said about Tom and Chris’s programming! Thank you for being great coaches!
So ready for tonight! See everyone there!
Great workout. It combined a few exercises that I am weak at(running) with some stronger ones(bear complex). I made up all of the time on the bear complex and just tried to push through the burpees.
I won’t be at HH tonight, but I will see everyone on Sunday.
I couldn’t agree with what SBV said, we are so fortunate to have awesome coaches.
Yesterday was awesome. I want to start off apologizing for my whining and complaining during (especially to AM), and for my potty mouth throughout the day.
The workout was actually more daunting prior to being in the middle of it than during. I was cool with the 1K run, but the plate pushers were hard core painful for me. I need to remember to keep my form. My wall walkers were okay (felt stronger on Tuesday). I was really nervous about the bear complex at 65 lbs (and I didn’t complain ONCE about power cleans, so that in and of itself felt like an improvement), but got through the whole thing and feel like 75 lbs may not be too far out of site. Situps, not a strength of mine, but went through the burpees relatively unbroken (a few short breaks).
Inspiring to watch everyone else work out. Agree with Steph, definitely ready for happy hour tonight. GOOD LUCK to the lifting crew tomorrow. And now to read the articles since I have no idea what else I would talk about with CFDCers…
Double echo Steph and SBV on the programming comments.
Great grueling workout. Nice work Steph using 35lbs on the plate pushes. Like Ethan said this was a mix of good for me exercises and harder for me exercises. I use 75lbs on the bear complex and 25 on the plate push. I think I could have pushed through the bear a bit faster. Same with the plate pushes. When I was on the plat I was fast but think I took too much rest in between.
Toes to bar was the easiest part of the workout for me and Steph I agree T2B are easier for me than K2E.
I did the burpees in sets of 8. Looking forward to watching lifters at east coast gold cup tomorrow. See you all Sunday.
Tough tough workout but another great one.
I was totally daunted by this workout seeing it written out but once I got in the gym after the run for the plate pushes I felt better. I used 25lb for the plate pushes (next time I think I should try 35lb) and I used 60lb for the bear and did the abmat situps.
I tried to do the burpees in sets of 12 but that quickly became too much.
Couldn’t agree more about the programming! Last night was a great example of a total body strength and conditioning workout.
See everyone tonight!
Another testament to how great Tom and Chris are — check out this scaled version they created for me, which was just right for my level:
1 K run
2 plate pushes
8 “plank walks on to a small box” (not sure if there is a real name?, this was instead of wall walkers)
12 DL, 12 FS, 12 PP, and 12 DL (with 7.5 lb dumbbells, instead of bear complexes)
55 abmat sit-ups
20 burpees
“Plank walk on to a small box” = start in plank position with both hands to the right of a small box and toes in line with the box, walk your left hand then right hand up on to it, then down left, down right to the left or the box — then right, left, up on to the box, and right, left, to the right of the box — that’s one. I shall henceforth call them PWOTASBs, as I’m quickly learning CrossFitters like to use acronyms for everything. :o)
Running has always been tough for me, and this was no exception, but I finished. I was really pleased that I did two plate pushes after Sunday’s knee-bruising, painful push through just one. Chris and Sara’s tip to keep at the front of the plate and really push it forward, rather than down on it, helps a lot getting through those. PWOTASBs were tough, there was sweat dripping off my nose and I know my butt was up in the air more than it should be for a plank, but I pushed through, and it was a great scaled option. I think next time I could do 10 lb dumbbells for the DL/FS/PP/DL sets, as 7.5 weren’t too challenging for the lifts and squats. The sit-ups felt good, too — next time I’ll try for the full number. Burpees in any number are tough for me, but I hope to improve in my scaling and speed on those, and I’m sure it’ll happen given the frequency with which we do them.
Thanks, Tom and Chris, for an awesome scaled workout!
Katie, awesome job, especially on the db deadlifts. Anne, welcome, and way to handle the 65#! Sara – holy batman! Now those are plate pushes.
Re: last night – I subbed a 1k row in place of the run, and had the considerable advantage of a plate and bar all to myself.
Re: CFDC coaches – I’ve been crossfitting, on and off (these days, rather more of the former than the latter), for about a year now. I didn’t fall in love with Crossfit, I fell in love with Crossfit as Tom and Chris program it and teach it and coach it. I wouldn’t do this stuff with anyone else, and every day I walk into the gym I’m grateful to be a part of what they’re building here.
Re: happy hour – will be a bit late, but I’m so there! TGIF.
Nice work everyone! It is really inspiring to read all of your comments about how you pushed through this workout. The times were really impressive. Can you believe I’ve never done plate pushes! I keep missing out. Alas, the sky was falling here at work around 6:00 last night…again! Of course, none of it matters today (sigh).
A colleague forwarded me the Penny Love Hoff article a few weeks back. Penny wrote, and the Huffington Post published, an article based on a perusal of the CrossFit.com website, YouTube videos and the opinion of another writer. Where the hell were the editors? Well, perhaps journalistic integrity is an outdated notion and I’m the one with the problem. At any rate, Penny can kiss my “CrossFit cult member” ass.
Thanks for spoiling us Tom and Chris. The spoiling is appreciated.
Good luck to everyone tomorrow competing at the East Coast Gold Cup. I’m going to check out the webcast.
See you all on Sunday.
I still believe plat pushes are the hardest thing we do