Here is a link to the full, 720P version of the 100K Run video. The file is very large, so “save as” and just let it download. It is in “wmv” format, and 669 MB.
Teen Summer Camp 100K Run for the Disposable Heroes Project (669MB).
I’m joining CrossFit HQ and discounting my t-shirts 40% this weekend. I want to move these shirts before I start thinking about printing another. So, shirts are $12 from now until August 16th. Get yours today!
I have great news for all the Essay Contest entries. They were all so good, so honest.
I had decided to give out two scholarships, the original one from Rich Hodgson and one from us at CrossFit California City. In the very moments I was deciding this, two CrossFit Kids affilates have offered to sponsor two more athletes. The result? All four essay contest entries will receive a scholarship. How cool is that? I will let the individual winners know who sponsored them soon.
I want to thank CrossFit Kids Headquarters and CrossFit On The Move for their scholarships. This is what the CrossFit Affiliate Community is all about, people. Kids, let this be lesson #1. Generosity pays back triple-fold! It’s going to be a great summer!
Sorry, folks, but we’re going into Shuttle landing support this weekend. No class SATURDAY AM or MONDAY PM. I’ll update again on Monday.
LATE NOTICE! Sorry!
Due to work schedule, I have to cancel tonight (Tues) and tomorrow (Wed) classes. Again, sorry for the late notice. Stupid day job………
I’ve written plenty about the efficacy of CrossFit and my belief that CrossFit Kids is the program that I most closely identify as my “niche”. I recently returned from what may have been the most important event CrossFit Kids may ever attend.
Jeff and Mikki Martin and the awesome crew from Brand X and CrossFit Kids staff were gracious enough to let me tag along on their trip to the 2010 Arnold fitness expo in Columbus Ohio march 5,6 and 7. When I first learned from Jeff that he was visiting the Arnold folks and that CrossFit Kids was going to be holding demos, I knew I had to be involved. While CrossFit is changing peoples lives at a rate no fitness craze has ever seen (because it works), I truly believe CrossFit’s biggest impact will be with the stellar kids program that has developed at the little martial arts studio turned world class training center. CrossFit Brand X, simply put, IS CrossFit Kids. I say this because if you are a CrossFit Kids trainer and you’ve been to Brand X, then you know already that you are part of that family, a member of a sub-group of CrossFit trainers that I believe hold a special skill set, setting you apart from your peers. This is the group of folks that Jeff and Mikki cultivate, befriend and inspire, and subsequently invited to Columbus.
At first glance, “the Arnold” is just a huge bodybuilders’ trip to Mecca.
But once you peel back the veil and experience the people, it’s much more than that. Gathered in Columbus are the worlds elite from a varied list of specialties including martial arts, gymnastics, power-lifting, Olympic weightlifting, and now CrossFit, to name only a few.
CrossFit Kids was (luckily) placed outside the main expo area, allowing families to escape the mayhem inside the expo. We were blessed to entertain and educate over a thousand children and their parents over the 3 days, allowing the kids to negotiate our obstacle course and the teens to challenge CrossFit Kids own teens in challenges such as max pullups or pushup in a minute, rounds of “Cindy” in 3 minutes, and ring support holds for time. You can guess how the unsuspecting teens responded to the likes of Connor, Keegan and David. All in good fun. For me, this weekend was much more than just the activities.
There is a moment that occurs when working with children. It’s the “light-bulb” moment when a child’s face lights up, delighted to have surmounted a previously insurmountable task. With kids, that is the golden moment, the Holy Grail of trainer feedback that kept us going all weekend, and the reason we do what we do. While these moments occur with adult athletes and they are rewarding to be a part of, they do not compare to the joy I feel when a child smiles, proudly proclaiming to mom or dad, “I did it!”. One child with that exclamation can fuel me for days. We got to feed off that energy over and over. While our bodies were aching and our bellies were empty, the smiles and cheers kept us on our feet and fueled our enthusiasm. If you do not get this response when you train kids, I respectfully submit you should not be training kids.
I recall Gabriel, a small (even for his age, I’m guessing five years old) timid boy who came to us with mom and dad early on the first day. Gabriel did not “look” athletic. His attire of cowboy boots, jeans and a sharp embroidered western-style shirt and Hollywood haircut told me he probably didn’t get dirty too often, but never trust a book by it’s cover. His parents were at least visibly concerned with fitness, and were joyed to watch Gabriel on the course. Gabriel was slow to interact with me, but was willing to walk through the obstacle course and learn the challenges. All was fine until he started climbing the cargo net obstacle. Gabriel was hesitant and feared the dreaded “up and over”. After some delay and assurances from mom, dad and me that he would be fine, he slowly made his way up, and finally over the top. (mark light-bulb moment number one for the weekend) Gabriel became one of the most frequent visitors over the next three days, taking on the obstacle course no less than 20 times. If little Gabriel was timid and reluctant to participate in activities before this weekend, I think we got to be part of a small step he took to conquer a fear and perhaps begin a more active childhood. I realize it was only one weekend, but with kids, there are events and memories that spur interest in their lives, and I hope we accomplished a little of that with Gabriel.
Enter the gymnasts.
The Arnold is host to boys and girls gymnastics competitions. There are few athletes on this earth more dedicated to their training than gymnasts. They start very young, train hundreds of hours a month, sacrifice many childhood activities and their families bend over backwards to accommodate the hectic schedule. However, despite what must be tremendous pressure, they are still kids. I had the distinct honor to meet about a dozen of these future Olympians this weekend, and count them as the most most inspirational for me. Not for their skill, but for the glimmer of youth that cannot be taken from their faces.
At 10 years old, one young girl (sadly her name escapes me) has 
spent more time training (7 years) than tying her own shoes probably. She came into the CrossFit Kids area with one of her teammates, her eyes firmly fixed on what the obstacle course offered. Her little face was beaming with excitement, and though she still had a competition to worry about, she was just a kid in our playground. Gymnasts respond to instruction well and with little discussion, she was off on her way, negotiating the course with surprising ease. When finished, I asked if she would like to go again, for time (it was crossfit after all) and suddenly this became a game! If I thought her smile was big when she arrived, it was huge now. She and her teammate set the early course records, and amazed us with ring work and rope climbs. And, like Gabriel, returned again later that day and the next to see how their times held up, instantly getting in line to try to set the record again if theirs had been toppled (likely by another gymnast). This scene repeated over and over, with our lines long, and parents patient.
It was also apparent that gymnasts travel in friendly (read: bubbly) groups of 2 or more and we met quite a few of them as the weekend progressed. Two young ladies came in, both in their competition uniforms and warmups, “bejeweled” proudly with their name and team. One was sporting braces and a beautiful bald head. Her baldness was the only evidence of her story. There is always a story. I didn’t ask, because it didn’t matter. I silently wondered what she was battling, how hard it must be to be a child with cancer, and how wonderful it was to see the seemingly permanent smile that showed her shiny braces. I don’t know her story, how it will end, or what she and her family are faced with, but I do know she has a mission. Many people question (angrily) how God can allow a child to suffer. Well, I believe God gives us what we can handle, and trust me, cancer has not kept this girl down, and I mean that literally. Her mission is to inspire hope. To challenge fear and demonstrate an indomitable spirit. I think we all were inspired by the very sight of her glowing face. Angels exist, you just have to be looking. (this is why I CrossFit by the way). There were two more beautifully bald gymnasts that came through our course over the weekend. I suspect they have a similar mission.
As the hours passes and the kids came and went, I started to notice the other trainers as much as the kids. Every child was met with the same enthusiasm, and every parent greeted with a handshake and a smile. It takes a special cut to do this. Jeff an Mikki are leaders by example, the kind of folks you want in charge. They know their trade and know it well. Truly a team, I can’t picture one without the other. Dan is a silent warrior. I don’t work with him often, but he’s solid as a rock and dependable. John and Kelly from CF Agoge have embraced CF Kids and are an example of how to do it right and ensure success. They are full of ideas, mostly from experience, the best kind. Like Jeff and Mikki, they’ve been there, done that. Todd and Debbie are two other workhorses, both nursing ailments that would keep many folks home for he weekend. Not these two. Debbie is perfectly skilled to work with the tiny ones when big scary guys like me are just too much stranger danger. Todd is in law enforcement so he was aptly assigned to keep control of the kids and parents as they came and went. He didn’t lose one! Nichole and Bingo ran the front table, both of them with great personality and knowledge to handle the never-ending stream of inquiries. Sven and Esther are just a joy to be around. Esther is great with he little ones as well and Sven provided a much-needed physical presence at the front door, although he is equally as skilled as the rest when it comes to kids. Jake is a really cool guy, if I can be so bold to say so, his athletic capacity deserves the “firebreather” moniker.
Do I have to mention those dang CF Brand X kids? What hasn’t been said about Connor? How about eight full workouts with the HQ folks for demo on Friday and Saturday and then three of the sectionals workouts on Sunday? Does his capacity have limits? Oh, he was sitting in 79th overall when they kept him from competing in the fourth WOD. Just saying. Keegan and Duncan are right behind him, watch out! This was my first interaction with David, and what a great kid he is as well. He has a real heart for kids. Jon, Gordo (and son) and I round out the team. We sort of did everything. Just being there to help where needed.
It was an amazing experience, I hope I earned a spot on next years team.
Buy In:
CFWU, 3 rounds
WOD:
Barbell Complex:
5 Rounds of the following, resting as needed between rounds
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press (return to backsquat rack position)
Back Squat
Push Press
*Five evolutions of these five exercises constitutes one round
Cash Out:
10 Pullups
10 Knees to Elbows
Why so chipper?
by Bob Guere, CrossFit California City
We’ve all done them. Most of us hate them. Why do we do them? I’m talking about the “chipper”. In case you stumbled upon this article by searching for a new chipper/shredder and have no idea what I’m talking about, allow me to ‘splain. A “chipper”, in this context, is a workout. It usually consists of roughly 5-10 exercises of moderate load, organized in such a way as to impart metabolic distress on the athlete. The exercises are accomplished in succession, with no rest between them, and usually in a “fast as you can” manner. They are typically used in popular boot-camp type fitness programs, and have found their way into CrossFit as a way of testing our capacities.
I recently had a short e-conversation with an online friend about the value of chipper workouts. The assertion was that chipper workouts are the result of a lack of good programming and/or lack of goal-oriented training. I have a hard time disagreeing with that assertion for the most part, because I believe they are used too frequently by trainers who are just trying to get folks sweaty and flat on their backs. This use of chippers, in itself, has really no value other than emotion. However, there is a place for chippers in your training, and I’d like to make a case for that assertion.
A chipper workout should be used as a test of capacity. If you dig deep back to your metabolic pathway (where your body decides to get energy) knowledge, you’ll recall that the body starts an activity of any significant demand, it begins with the phosphagen pathway. This is the energy pathway used for high-power activities, those generally lasting less than 10 seconds. Think heavy lifting. Continue an activity beyond the capacity of your phosphagen pathway and your body moves to the glycolytic pathway, those moderate in demand, and generally last a few minutes. Beyond this, your body turns to oxygen. Why all the science? If you want to know how to properly program a good chipper, you have to keep the energy pathways in mind. If you don’t, your chipper can end up being 20-30 minutes of aerobic hell. If you consider these pathways when programming a chipper, then you find yourself testing your body’s ability to move from one demand to the other, without rest, thereby presenting you with a metric of some capacity.
Let’s talk about what makes a good chipper, by talking about what makes a “bad” chipper. A bad chipper strings together too many similar exercises, for too long. A bad chipper follows pulling with more pulling and even more pulling, or ties squatting, thrusters and burpees back to back. Of course the rep scheme and load contribute greatly to the level of “suck” that you impart with such a design, but you can avoid it altogether by programming properly to begin with. If you are using a chipper as a metcon, or metabolic conditioning, then keep the loads moderate, and switch-up the rep scheme and exercises on every evolution. Allow the athlete to spend no more than a couple minutes on each exercise, or you’re in danger of turning it into the aforementioned “aerobic hell”. When the athlete’s body begins to turn to think about oxygen (aerobic), he or she should already be moving on to the next exercise. The next exercise should task a different capacity, or muscle group. Your lungs will be working overtime before too long, but as you move from one muscle group to the next, you’ll give each group a small period to prepare for another evolution.
Consider the famous CrossFit workout, “Fight Gone Bad”. Do you consider FGB a chipper? It’s certainly more than a triplet. Even though it’s divided into rounds, it’s a chipper. It is five exercises (wall-ball shots, sumo-deadlift high pulls, box jumps, push press and a row) lined up in one-minute intervals, followed by a 1-minute break. Do this three times and you’ve got Fight Gone Bad. The idea behind the workout was to simulate, or exceed, the demands of a 3-round mixed martial arts fight. This is an example of a chipper that can be used to develop a certain capacity; a metabolic capacity. Take notice of the order of the exercises and how each exercise follows something different. Wall-ball shots are very basic core-to-extremity movements, requiring a full front squat and imparting of force on the ball to a 10-foot target, moderately demanding. It is followed by 75# sumo-deadlift high-pulls (SDHP), an exercise that requires solid midline stability and a powerful explosion of the hips, if done correctly. (virtuosity is a whole different article) Next come box jumps, an explosive movement that brings the posterior chain back into action. Fourth on the list are 75# push presses, which go back to a small hip drive and lockout overhead of a load. Finish it all up with a 1-minute row. The order of exercises can be changed to make this workout “aerobic hell”. If we started with the row, follow that with SDHPs, then go back to back with box jumps and wall balls and finish with push press, we would have a very different workout. We’d have 2 minutes of pulling, followed by 2 minutes of posterior chain and one minute of pushing. Certainly not as bad as some chippers I’ve seen, but you can see how it changes things. Of course the strength of the athlete and current conditioning are huge factors on the applicability and effectiveness of this chipper as a training tool. Fight Gone Bad is generally used as a measuring stick, however. The stronger you are, and the better your metabolic capacity, the more you can do in that one minute. Therefore, the “fitter” you are, the higher the Fight Gone Bad score. Which leads me to what I feel is the best use of a chipper: a test.
Chippers can be a great test, a measuring stick, of how your programming is working. I’ll continue to use Fight Gone Bad as an example. Suppose your programming consists of 7-10 metcons vs. only 1-2 strength workouts in a 2-week cycle. Sure, you are regularly flat on your back, panting, sucking all the air out of the room proclaiming proudly “THAT SUCKED!”, but what capacity are you building? You’re building aerobic capacity. (see “Beware the Lure of the Sexy Metcon” by Melissa Urban) You walk into the gym and tackle Fight Gone Bad and you can’t hit 150 because 75# is too heavy for more than a couple reps. On the other hand, suppose your programming is generally strength biased, lifting heavy more than anything, with only 1-2 short, heavy metcons in a two-week period. Now walk in, tackle FGB, and you’ll suck all the air out of the room by the end of round 1, you simply cannot move that fast. Even though 75# is flyweight for you. Finally, suppose your programming was what folks generally call “strength biased”; regular widely-varied (in load and exercise), short-to-medium length metcons, coupled with regular heavy lifting to include explosive movements like the Olympic lifts. Suddenly 250 to well over 350 and even 400 on Fight Gone Bad will generally be the result. What does that mean? It means your capacities have increased across broad time and modal domains. Your heavy lifting has made you strong, therefore moving moderate weights and your own bodyweight has become less of a task on your metabolic system. Your regular, intense metcons have given you the aerobic capacity to continue a higher demand for longer periods without rest. You are fitter.
While there may be disagreement about what constitutes “fitter” among trainers, there seems to be agreement among CrossFit trainers, that getting stronger is paramount, and should be a priority to our programming. If we can agree that “fitter” is increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains, then chippers are way to see how “fit” your programming is making you in a certain domain. Let’s call it the “chipper domain”. Likewise, a 1RM deadlift tests your fitness in the “lifting heavy stuff” domain, and a 5K run or row tests your fitness in the “long, slow distance” domain. Don’t assume a good FGB score means you can deadlift 400 lbs and run a 16 min 5K. However, if you can deadlift 400 lbs and run an 16 min 5K, you’ll probably have a pretty good FGB score. You know what they say about correlation and causation.
There is also an intangible benefit of the occasional chipper, or longer (4-5 round) triplet. An athlete gains mental strength when presented with a seemingly insurmountable task and then conquers that task. It may not be hard numbers on paper, but it is certainly a benefit to programming a good chipper once in a while, especially if your client base is made up of mostly inexperienced athletes.
So how often should you program a chipper? Whenever you want to, just don’t substitute chippers as a training program. Keep your eyes on getting stronger; running faster; jumping higher; all for varied periods of time and you’ll be OK. Throw in a chipper once in a while for whatever reason, and record your results. Repeat again in a couple months and see how you have progressed. If your lifts are stronger, your runs and rows are faster, and your jumps are higher, then you should see improvement in your chipper-of-choice. If you do not, refer to previous paragraphs about lop-sided programming. You have tunnel vision somewhere.
Chippers can also be used for a large group of folks with widely-varied fitness levels are together for a group workout. It should never be the staple of a training program, but on an “open” or “free” day where you want to give folks the taste of metabolic distress, a workout that can easily be scaled like a chipper can be useful. Many CrossFit affiliates have “fun” workouts as well, or team workouts, and a chipper is a great way to keep things moving and dynamic.
Remember, a chipper is part of a large arsenal of workouts we can use and abuse. Be smart about frequency and implementation and you will avoid abuse.
We will be at UC Riverside attending an Olympic Weightlifting meet, so there is no workout this Saturday. Everyone is invited to attend the competition if you wish to go. Cost to spectate is free with only a small charge for parking at the university. See Coach Bob for more information.
In the meantime, CrossFit Peru’s Stephanie Molina offers some Daily Reading.
