CrossFit Metropolis –> Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City

DJ Jonas and the Veteran came out today and worked over a rigorous WOD. Hell of an effort gents.    

“A Walk in the Park”
3 Rounds of the following:
1 Minute Pullups
1 Minute Pushups
1 Minute Dips
1 Minute Air Squat
1 Minute REST

This workout results in 15 total minutes, with 12 minutes of work and 3 minutes of rest.  You score is your total number of completed reps summed across all 3 rounds.  

This is a tough workout, and the boys did a nice job in the heat.  I love seeing people get a blistering total body workout in only 15 minutes.  Talk about efficient and effective.  Post results/thoughts to Comments.

We also met a bunch of folks today, two Johns, and Matt from down under all interested and familiar with CrossFit.  Hope you can join us.  Matt, I’m sure you can find an affiliate back in the mother land.  Take care!

I’ll be in the Park later this evening w/ my Rings for today’s Muscle Ups.  Please email me if you are interested in joining in for a practice session.

WOD:
For 10 Minutes, practice/perform as many Hand Stand Push-ups (HSPU) as you can.  Don’t rush, this is technique practice. 
Then,
30 Muscle-Ups for Time

Scale muscle-ups from knees if required, or do jumping muscle-ups.  Or substitute 120 Pull-ups, 120 Dips for 30 Muscle-Ups.  Break into sets however you like.  Post thoughts and results to comments.

The diehards came out this morning for some skills work and nice little WOD under a dreary, cloudy sky and a soaking rainfall.  We showed up dry, and left muddy, wet, sweaty and happy.  Much respect to the Captain, Bruiser, Maradona and Ms Smiles-a-lot for coming out in such dreary conditions; good job!  We worked the press series; press, push press and push jerk followed by:

WOD:
10 Min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of:
10 Burpees
10 Push press w PVC pipe
Post results and thoughts to comments.  Photos below.

This Saturday Bootcamp moved to 1:00 PM.  I’ll be running the Brooklyn Half in the early AM, so won’t be back into Manhattan for our usual time.  See you at 1:00 at the Pinetum.

Please remember to warm up thoroughly.  Post results to Comments.

Thrusters 5×3 (5 sets of 3 reps).  Do max load, post load to comments.  There is no time component.  Rest as long as it takes between sets to achieve Max Effort (ME) for each set.  (Typically rest 2-5 minutes btw sets)

Rest 10 min, then:

“Annie”
Double Unders
Sit-ups
For time:
50 of each then
40 of each then
30/20/10
Post time to Comments.

Benny the DJ Jonas, and the World Bank came out for some skills work on the press series and a classic CrossFit WOD – Cindy.  As always, please post results and entertaining thoughts to Comments.

WOD:
1/2 “Cindy”
AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 10 minutes of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats

We also had the luck of running into Dave Moon from the Black Box and Virtuosity.  After chatting about the local CrossFit scene for a bit, we worked out.  Dave did 200 double unders and I did AMRAP 20 minutes of
10 Double unders
15 Pushups
20 Air Squats.
Dave got his 200 DUs in well under 20 minutes.  I managed 13 rounds of my AMRAP.

Aww yeah...we just finished Cindy

We’re on for our weekly Bootcamp at 10AM Saturday the 23rd.  Meet at the Ross Pinetum.  If you happen to be away for the weekend, please see below for a suggested WOD for you to do on your own.

Superman:
AMRAP in 20 minutes (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes) of:
10 Double Unders (sub Tuck Jumps)
15 Push-ups
20 Overhead Air Squats (if you don’t have a broom handle or something similar, you can use your jump rope, just hold it over head stretched out as if it were a bar).  Active shoulders!

To clarify; the triplet of 10 DU,15 PU, 20 Squats = 1 “Round”.  So perform as many “Rounds” as possible in 20 minutes.  The clock does not stop even if you have to take breaks. 

Superboy:
AMRAP in 15 minutes of:
5 Tuck Jumps
10 Push-ups (do from knees if required – key is full range of motion, tits and hips hit the ground)
15 Air Squats
 
Lois Lane:
AMRAP in 10 minutes of:
10 Jumping Jacks
10 Push-ups
10 Air Squats

Congrats to CrossFit founders Greg and Lauren Glassman on the Twins!!

WOD (Workout of the Day):
“Twins”
Two rounds of each couplet for time:
750m Row
20 Handstand Push-ups (HSPU)

20 Thrusters @ 115lbs
20 L-Sit Pullups

For clarity this workout goes as follows:
Start the clock. 
Row 750m, do 20 HSPU
Row 750m, do 20 HSPU
Do 20 Thrusters 115lbs, do 20 L-sit Pull-ups
Do 20 Thrusters 115lbs, do 20 L-sit Pull-ups
Stop the clock

Post thoughts/time to comments

I am excited to report; this morning we kicked off our inaugural Crash Course with 8 eager participants.  We met at the Ross Pinetum, got to know eachother and laid down a framework for what we will be trying to achieve in the next 5 sessions.  Today we introduced the squat series (squat, front squat, overhead squat) with a wooden dowel.  Next time  I will have more dowels, sorry team?!  We then worked through a short but intense WOD (recently on the Main Page) to finish the session.  Photos below; click on them to see full size and be able to comment.  Please post your results to Comments so we have a running record of your results.  We will meet again next Friday 06:30.  Same location.   The presses will be next – shoulder press, push press,  push jerk.  Great job everybody! 

WOD (Workout of the Day):
Superman:
4 rounds for time
400m Run
50 Air Squats

Superboy:
3 rounds for time
400m Run
30 Air Squats

Lois Lane:
4 rounds for time
200m Run
15 Air Squats

I was asked about diet today after our Course.  

A general prescription:  Eat meat (protein) and veggies (carbs).  Nuts and seeds (fat).  Some fruit (carbs).  Little starch (carbs).  No sugar (death).  This will get you most of the way there.  This is referred to as a “Paleo” diet.  Think like a caveman.  You can think of the Paleo diet as a “quality of food matters most” regime.  All fresh stuff, nothing processed.  If whatever you eat comes in a box and you’ve never seen it on a tree or in the ground; its probably not really food so you shouldn’t eat it.   

To really take it to the next level you will need to Zone which is prescription based on “quantity of food matters most” regime.  Check out the article on the right sidebar on Nutrition to get an idea on how to eat.  The Zone prescribes a diet in which you eat each and every meal as a balance of protein, carbs and fat.  While prescribing quantity, the Zone is somewhat agnostic to quality.  For example you can Zone on beer (carbs), steak (protein) and butter (butter). 

The ideal world is a combo: Paleo (quality) & Zone (quantity) diet.  Where you eat a certain number of Zone Blocks a day, and the composition of those blocks come from the Paleo diet.   Throw yourself onto a Zone Paleo and WOD 3-4 times a week; you’ll be lean and mean in no time. 

As an example of Zone Paleo; here’s what I ate yesterday.   I shoot to eat roughly 19 Zone Blocks a day, give or take.  I’m not perfect on the Blocks, but I try to be relentless about being Paleo, and really eliminating all Sugar.  
 
Breakfast:
 - protein – 3 eggs, 3 slices of turkey bacon, 1/2 oz shredded cheese
- carb -3/4 cup of plain oatmeal, 1/2 an apple
- fat - 1 tablespoon of peanut butter stirred into my plain oatmeal, a small handful of almonds (6)

Lunch:
protein – 1 can of tuna
carb – half can of black beans
fat – a large handful of almonds and cashews (~24 nuts)

Afternoon Snack:
protein/carbs – 1 cup yogurt
fat – 9 almonds

Dinner:
protein – medium sized chix breast
carb – head of broccoli
fat – 1 tbl spoon of olive oil for cooking the chix breast, 1 tbl spoon of butter on my cooked broccoli

Bedtime snack:
3/4 cup of yogurt

I have a number of friends that are pretty accomplished endurance athletes: marathoners and ironmen.  Very impressive stuff.  We have a running debate about the value of CrossFit training to their endeavors.  I’ve lobbied aggressively (with moderate success) to get them to give it a shot.  But usually running/swimming/biking long distances takes priority over any CrossFit WOD.  The routine of the endurance athlete is so ingrained and hard to break.  I get, “well maybe after my season, or maybe once a week to supplement things” or “well I need to run x miles this week, so I don’t really have time to CrossFit.”  Essentially the claim is that CrossFit gets in the way of the endurance training.  All which I understand, but which I disagree with.  I find it hard to argue that if you can’t do an Air Squat, or a handful of Burpees, are you really the best endurance athlete you can be? 

So far, I’ve decided the best way to make this point is to be a guinea pig.  Today I ran a 10k in Central Park at a 7:20 pace.  Far from blistering, but not bad considering that I’ve only followed CrossFit WODs and the last time I ran more than 800m was the Bronx Half in February.

But now we are about to take this to another level.  On June 7 Iwill enter a Half-Iron Man.  1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run with no sport specific training.  My good friend (an Ironman himself) has been doing zero CrossFit and all sport specific training whereas I on the other hand have done all CrossFit and zero sport specific training.  I have no doubt that he will beat me, but my goal is to finish respectively.   He should beat me but I hope that a reasonable finish by a CrossFitter with no swimming, biking, or long runs as part of training may validate the CrossFit model as valuable to ALL Athletes.  Taking on an Iron Man is like jumping into Calculus 2.  Tough.  Taking on an Iron Man without ever trying CrossFit in my mind is like jumping into Calculus 2 but without ever taking Calculus 1.  My contention that is if you master Calculus 1 before 2, Calc 2 will be far more manageable and heck, you might even end up better at it than before.   

If all else fails, I’m looking forward to the challenge of Half-Ironman.  Wish me luck.  Next time you see me I’ll probably be doing deadlift, cleans, kipping pullups, ring dips; any time spent on biking and swimming will get in the way of my CrossFit.

Congrats to those die hards that made it out this morning and welcome a new comer to the club: Brittany Beck!.  We had a brutal WOD and I think we were all humbled by the experience.  It even stopped raining for us.  (Results and Pics below).

Today was about working on some of our weaknesses; mainly double unders and kipping pullups.  Heck, let’s be honest, today was about busting our ass and pissing Vince off because he doesn’t have double unders or kipping pullups yet.  But you will be there soon my friend.

Superman:
4 rounds for time
100 ft walking lunge
100 ft sprint
20 double unders
30 pull ups
40 air squats
Kiley – 18:38
Love – 22:38 (coach got rocked)

Superboy:
4 rounds for time:
100 ft walking lunge
100 ft sprint
20 tuck jumps
30 jumping pullups
40 air squats

Superboy/Superman variation
Vince – 16:54

Lois Lane:
4 rounds for time:
100 ft walking lunge
100 ft sprint
10 steps ups
10 ring rows
10 air squats

Brittany – 13:00

We had the distinct pleasure of a fellow CrossFitter from Swansea in Wales joining us for a WOD recently in Central Park.  Tony, great to meet you and great to get connected with part of the international CrossFit community.

WOD:
400m Run
30/30/30 Box Jumps/Pushups/OHS
20/20/20 BJ/PU/OHS
10/10/10 BJ/PU/OHS
400m Run

On account of the rain, my crew failed to show today.  I had a viscious WOD planned however, which I’m psyched to try when I see them all next.  As follows:

5 Rounds for Time:
250m Run
10 Double Unders
20 Pull-ups
30 Squats

Enjoy