One of my brothers who was in town is into Crossfit big time and he convinced me to go along with him to one of the local gyms this Saturday.
When we got there I was asked if I had done Crossfit before. My answer was ‘sort of’. I had done Crossfit style workouts several times, and knew how to do the lifts, but had never actually trained at a Crossfit before.
Since I was substituting my normal Hill Sprint workout with this one I was hoping it would be more conditioning focused and I wasn’t disappointed.
Here’s the workout:
3 rounds of 400m Run, 12 Deadlifts w/ Bodyweight on the bar, & 21 Box Jumps done for time
My time was 11:52. I finished second in the group of about seven. Only eight seconds behind (but I was using a bigger box to jump on).
I’m not going to lie. It feels good to go into someone else’s house and perform near the top. Of course, I train hard and heavy all the time, just differently from what is typically done in Crossfit.
And I know there are certain other workouts that could have happened that I wouldn’t have performed as well on.
There are great benefits to training like they do at Crossfit. It develops all around fitness using all manner of exercises. From gymnastic and bodyweight exercises to Olympic and power lifting. You’ll build strength and endurance almost always at the same time.
The randomness of it can be both good and bad. It will keep you excited and the body will never really adapt. However if you have certain goals you want to achieve its not the most direct path.
The competitive element pushes you to work harder then you might normally do. However, I’ve seen some people neglect form to go faster and also due to being tired. This can lead to injuries which is never good.
It was a fun time and a good workout. I may be going back every once in awhile just to test myself and shake things up a bit.
They also have a bunch of knowledgeable coaches. I know I’ll be going to get some help on Olympic lifting which I have little experience in myself.
Sometimes you need to train outside your box even if it’s a good box that you train in.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Next time I’ll have a video for you of a somewhat extreme feat of strength. I’ll tell you I can feel the soreness in my head and neck right now from doing it yesterday…
Filed under Barbells and Dumbbells, Bodyweight Exercise, Conditioning, Strength Training Concepts by on Aug 3rd, 2009. Comment. 
Over two years ago my friend and I first pulled a truck by our hair. It was a feat of strength designed to pay homage to one of my favorite oldtime strongmen, The Mighty Atom.
For several reasons its been that long since we revisited our feat. That was until this past week. Here’s one small clip of the several sets done that day.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT76FWM-xXc]
You can see the strain especially in getting the van moving from a stand still.
And if you happen to be crazy enough (stupid enough?) to want to do the same feat here’s what you’ll need:
Long hair, a vehicle, and a way to attach the two. From there it takes a strong neck and a high pain tolerance. And if you can get a good scalp massage later that day, all the better.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Feats of Strength, Oldtime Strongmen by on Aug 6th, 2009. Comment.
An important part of a complete training program is to do some sort of conditioning work. Of course, this can come in many shapes and sizes.
Sprints, kettlebell swings and snatches, skipping rope, and high rep bodyweight exercises are a few of my favorites.
And just like in any other training, your conditioning work should be made progressive. The thing is its not so easy as just adding more weight like you can with a barbell.
In these cases you’ll most often be working with volume and time. That is to do a certain amount of work (no matter the exercises or tools used) in a period of time.
If you can do the same work in less time, or more work in the same amount of time you’re doing better than before. Since this is a conditioning based activity progress means you’ve improved your conditioning.
You can change up what you do to condition yourself from session to session as long as you have a ‘test’ workout. That’s a specific workout you come back to again and again to see if you’ve improved.
I’ll share with you what I use later on to test out my conditioning levels, later on. But for now just make sure you do progressive training when it comes to strength AND conditioning.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Conditioning by on Aug 11th, 2009. Comment.
Last night I joined my friend Jeremy at his rock climbing gym, Planet Granite last night.
I don’t have much experience with that kind of training but I always like to get out and try new things. Plus it’s a lot of fun.
Before we began bouldering I showed him a few things on the ropes and rings. I’ve wanted to do this video for a long time but didn’t have access to any rope until now.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zTYDPBio78]
This video shows how you can climb a rope upside down. (Hint: using your legs is a big help.) In fact, Jeremy was easily able to do it with a little coaching.
The second piece is climbing with a rope in each hand. Tougher on the grip but just as fun.
If you want some more detail on rope climbing be sure to check out Rope Climbing in the Feats of Strength section.
I’ll have a couple other videos from our excursion later on.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise, Feats of Strength, Hand Strength, Videos by on Aug 19th, 2009. 5 Comments.
I got a special announcement coming next week. And then an even bigger one sometime next month.
In the meantime, a small tip for today.
No matter how on top of it all you are, there will be days when you don’t feel like training. Today was one of those days for me.
But instead of ditching the workout, and curling up on the couch to watch a movie I went outside and got started.
Got through the warmup and I wasn’t feeling particularly strong. Somewhere deep inside my brain a voice came out saying “the warmup was enough, you can go inside now.” Of course, I silenced that voice immediately.
And I got started. Instead of going for the big weights I used something lighter. I figured if I tried and failed to move the weights I should have done I would have been disappointed and wanted to quit even more. So I just did more reps with a lighter, but still tough, weight.
The reason for my lack of energy could be I have been busting my butt business wise on a whole slew of different projects recently. You know, burning the candle at both ends as they say.
Today was no different so another thing I did was chop out some of the assistance exercises and stick with the basics. My training finished in just over 30 minutes.
Despite going lighter it was a productive session. I’ll come back to the same exercises next time with more strength and energy.
And instead of feeling crappy the rest of the day for skipping out, I feel good from getting the exercise and also the feeling of accomplishment.
The gist of the message is to just do it when you feeling like you don’t want to train. You may need to make some modifications but get out there and get it done.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. This is actually some cycling in action here with the lighter weights. For a simple and easy to understand read on cycling (and much, much more) check out Pavel’s Power to the People.
P.S.S. For more on what to do when you don’t feel like training check out 10 Motivators to Get Out Of A Slump and Ready to Train.
Filed under Strength Training Concepts by on Aug 21st, 2009. Comment.
I’ve just released The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups.
This book covers every detail you could think of on one of the greatest exercises, handstand pushups.
If you are working on doing your first rep you’ll find details on how to get there (not to mention a day by day training guide for that goal).
If you can do tons of reps you’ll find many ways to make them harder including changing positions adding weight and height.
And there’s much more covered like one arm handstands, how to do freestanding handstand pushups, common problems and more.
Check out the The Ultimate Guide to Handstand Pushups to find out the full details.
In strength,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Oh yeah, and you can get a discount on it now but only until Saturday. Check it out now.
Filed under Bodyweight Exercise by on Aug 25th, 2009. 1 Comment.
