Chace, Ribeye and myself sanded, cleaned and painted the pullups bars on Friday. They're no longer rusty, but they are a bit slick.

"Jarabeth"

21-15-9 for time of:

115 lbs Cleans

Ring Dips

Double Unders

-or-

Make -up Day

T-shirts are in! Bring $20 or a check made out to Chace Wheaton.

Fight Gone Bad IV. I've heard plenty of you mentioning you should donate, why not now?

If you're doing the 30 day paleo challenge ignore the below.

There's a thread on the Crossfit forum called "Dietary confessions of a Crossfitter". In this thread various crossfitters from around the world come in to confess there various dietary sins to a welcoming public. I've learned a few lessons from this thread:

1. Everyone cheats. Even the strictest zoner occasionally slips on their blocks, the strict Paleoite lets a processed grain past their lips. And most people don't cheat just once, there's 52 pages of this stuff. It's got to be happening more than once for everyone.

2. Relax. The best thing to do once you slip up on a diet is to move on, try and do better next time and forget that you've messed up, they're is absolutely no reason to dwell on it. You may fell short term guilt and general malaise from the crap you ate, but you'll be fine. Life is too short to worry about keeping strict Zone or Paleo all the time. You don't need to come in and work really hard to burn off those calories because you cheated on your diet. Relax.

3. Sweet, Fatty, Sugar. The easiest foods to cheat with are the indulgences: fried, sweet and sugary baked goods, chocolate and alcohol are big culprits as well. They spike your insulin, blur your vision and lull you into a false sense of security and drowsiness.

4. Celebrations. Don't worry about strict zone or paleo here, get close if you can and if you can't: dig in. It's not worth being that strict, and it places you in an uncomfortable place as a guest having to ask the host if they have a gluten free option. Enjoy yourself, have fun and don't worry about it. In 20 years are you going to remember having cake and too much champagne or are you going to remember that you kept strict zone? Which one would you rather remember?

5. Try and keep your relationship with food on a sensible level. Food is first of all about taste and variety, enjoy what you eat when you eat it. Food is fuel only in it's secondary capacity.

Theresa, Owner of Crossfit Appleton for her Date with 95

Pam, stopped by with Theresa for "Cherry"

Ranjana going through "Cherry"

Hope to see you all again sometime soon!

Over Head Squat

3-3-3-3-3

Fight Gone Bad IV. Less than month. Get excited, 'cause we are.

*Gym is closed Saturday. Watch the blog for Sunday class info.*

The 3 aspects most important to your success in here are:

Recovery

Intensity (w/ virtuosity)

Nutrition

So with that in mind I have a question for you all: How much sleep are you getting? Melissa Byers has a great post for Aug. 26, 2009 and here's a post from Robb Wolf on the same idea. Basically you need more sleep, you need a darker room and you can lose weight doing it. The challenge is: 2 weeks, 8+ hours of sleep a night, I'm willing to try. Who's with me? Sleep is one of the most important recovery process you can use, and probably one of the easiest to implement. Really with this what have you got to lose?

Your Shakespearean Friday Inspiration

The Screamin' Trees!
Roger, notching an impressive 3 round PR on "Nate".

Becky putting on an impressive performance. 18 rounds on Nate and doing slightly modified HSPU's one month in. To put that in perspective, a lot of the women at the Crossfit games were cut because they couldn't do one full depth HSPU for the AMRAP wod. Keep an eye on this girl, she's going to be some kind of monster very soon.

CFHQ

Rest Day

-or-

Make up Day

-or-

Burpee Broad Jump 50 ft.

Tire flip 50 ft.

200 m Overhead Carry (45lb/ 25lb)

3 rounds for time

Why haven't you signed up for Fight Gone Bad IV, yet? We're almost a 1/4 done with our fundraising and it's not too late to help out. Do you have any questions about it that we could answer?

There has been talk of a Labor day pool WOD/ party. Who of you out there would be interested?

Torn calluses suck, they hurt and make life difficult for a few days. Here's my triage guide to deal with torn calluses.

1. Tear the skin flap off. Within 15 to 30 minutes, grab it and pull it off. You want to get this dead, torn skin off your hands and I find that tearing it does a better job than cutting, especially since cutting leaves a ridge of skin that will have to be cut or filed down eventually. If you have a blister that hasn't torn yet, leave it. If you have to drain it by piercing it in one spot and then covering with gauze. It will heal better with the skin over top of it.

2. Also in this time frame your going to want to disinfect and clean the wound. Use whatever you like, in the gym we use Bacitine, which works well. Speaking from personal experience I'd avoid Hydrogen Peroxide. What a torn callus is is basically a burn, a friction burn, and you want to treat it the same way you'd treat a burn.

3. The next couple of hours are going to suck and be painful. You might want to have some non-stick gauze pads around as your wounds will have some drainage. Tea bags also work. I've also found that some pain relieving Neosporin really helps. For the next 24 hours you're going to want to try and keep the wound covered either with Neosporin and gauze or some Second skin. Having your hands bandaged up is gonna look weird in an office environment, but if you've told your co-workers anything about Crossfit than they already think you're weird. What 2nd skin or neosporin is doing is keeping the wound covered and moist for the first 24 hours. This promotes healing and well let you do things like pick up a glass and use a fork normally

4. After those first 24 hours the only thing that will help is time. Don't expect to be back to the gym for a little bit. Expose it to the air, let it breath. keep it clean and freak your friends out with your battle wounds. Hands are especially prone to painful cracking when those torn callus are healing. Keep 'em well moisturized and it will mitigate this.

Good luck.

"Nate"

2 Muscle ups

4 Handstand Push ups

8 70lb Dumb bell swing

20 minutes as many rounds as possible

Have you signed up for Fight Gone Bad IV yet? Every little bit helps. Give what you can, when you can, if you can.

*The Gym will be closed Saturday, we're encouraging you to go The Garage in Woodstock, see Monday's post for info. And it's up on the whiteboard in the gym.*

"If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."

-Samuel Johnson

How many time's have you attributed your soreness to lactic acid? Turns out you could be wrong. What your soreness is probably related to is the muscle fascia itself tearing: an actual physical damage rather than a build up of a chemical, soreness comes from the repair of the muscle.

Have you signed up for FGB IV yet? Karin and Curtis did! Way to step up guys. Remember the person who raises the most money will receive a special prize package.

"Date With 95"

5 Thrusters 95 lbs.

7 Hang power clean

10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

The gym will be closed Saturday. We're encouraging all of you to make the journey up to Woodstock to do Mr. Joshua with them. More info can be found in the blog post for Monday, August 24.

Something else to look forward to: a couple of posts on the topic of hands and hand care. We'll be talking about gloves and why you don't really need them and why we'd prefer you didn't use them, Torn calluses and what to do to take care of them and get you back in the game as soon as possible and finally how to tape your hands, one of the most effective ways we found to tape up.

Brian and Lee stopped by to see what its all about.

"Cindy"

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 squats

or

"Mary"

5 handstand pushups

10 one legged squats (alternating legs)

15 pullups

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes

Two events coming up in the next couple of weeks:

This weekend, Saturday August 29th, The Garage in Woodstock is hosting an event for one of their members killed in action. The WOD will be Mr. Joshua. They'll have different levels of difficulty and cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, it's $10 to participate which includes all the food and drink you can handle after the workout. Go here to sign up.

Fight Gone Bad IV is coming up in 32 days, We've raised $40 of $2000 and only Chace and I have signed up. Who's going to be the first one to sign up with us? Who's going to set the bar on donations? Who's willing to step up?

" Only you can decide what level of mediocrity you're willing to accept today."

-quoted by Eugene Allen from an unknown source

Hang Power Clean

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Read yesterday's post about Fight Gone Bad IV and sign up!

***There will be no class on Sunday, August 23. Enjoy your rest day!***

Chace's Grandpa getting after some wallball's, not bad for 70!

100 feet of walking lunges

21 pull ups

21 sit ups

100 feet of lunges

18 pull ups

18 sit ups

100 feet of lunges

15 pull-ups

15 sit-ups

100 feet of lunges

12 pull-ups

12 sit-ups

100 feet of lunges

9 pull-ups

9 sit ups

100 feet of lunges

6 pull-ups

6 sit ups

For time

Compare to 6/03/09

Fight Gone Bad IV info:

The Charities

Wounded Warrior Project:

What these guys are doing is so cool. They saw the need for more support for wounded veterans when they came home from Iraq and Afghanistan, they wanted to avoid the homelessness and substance abuse that happened after the Vietnam war . Many of these men came home injured by IED's, insurgents weapons and other devices. Injuries that were both physical and mentally debilitating were treated medically and unaddressed afterwards, this is where Wounded Warrior's stepped in and fought for these men. They fought for their rights, for their humanity and for their respect. Wounded Warrior has held Level 1 certs for their athletes and provides a place for veterans to find succor in their times of need.

Athletes for a Cure:

Athletes for a Cure is the fundraising and outreach arm of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer sometime in their life. 2 men in my family have been affected and I'm sure you may know many more in your own family. Athletes compete in triathlon's, marathons and crossfit workouts to raise money to help find a cure and viable solutions to end prostate cancer as well as to raise awareness about prostate cancer.

Check 'em both out and see what you think.

The Details

How to register:

1. Find Register on the main page

2. Follow the directions from there, we have an existing affiliate page under Crossfit Sandy Springs

3. Two ways to raise money: Donate directly or ask friends and family for donations. Our gym goal is $2,000 that is about $50 from each crossfitter.

4. Whoever raises the most money will win a prize package of: A special free t-shirt and a month's membership free.

If you don't want to sign up you can donate directly to anyone in the gym and it will be added to our team total. Find Donate on the FGB IV main page and search for our gym.

Watch this space for more info!

Friday Video of the Week: 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

Karen

150 Wallball (20lbs.)

for time

The affiliate will be participating in Fight Gone Bad IV, We'll have more information and ways to sign up as soon as we know. Watch this space!

FGBIV is raising money for Wounded Warriors and Athletes for a Cure, which is a subsidiary of Prostate Cancer Research. We'll be doing the workout on September 26, 2009 which is a Saturday. We'll do the workout and then grill out, drink up some adult beverages (juice for the kids) and enjoy the post exercise euphoria with friends and families.

Satori, is a concept in Buddhism when a practitioneer first recognizes the essential nature of Buddha. It translates as a "Sudden Flash of Awareness". I believe that in Crossfit there are also Satori moments. The movements we do are complex multi joint compound movements. Nothing is simple. Most everyone struggled with Double Unders when they first started. Just think of that, all of you brilliant well educated people (and your humble writer) struggling with a simple piece of rope. And if it wasn't that then it was Cleans, Jerks, Deadlifts, Squats, running, rowing the list can go on infinitely. Rest assured you will meet your goat somewhere in here. But one day it will just make sense, everything will click, it will become effortless. But much as the Buddhist monks didn't realize their infinite Buddha nature by leading their everyday lives, you may not reach your Crossfit Satori without practice. Days, Weeks, Months of practice. Think of it as working meditation. And you'll have to put in a lot of it.

But one day you'll be working your clean and you'll get one just right, perfect. This is your Kensho moment. Your first peak at what is to come, keep working and you too will conquer these movements, reach virtuosity and maybe get a little taste of Crossfit Satori.

Nothing like the smell of bumpers in the morning.

CFHQ

Rest Day

-or-

Make Up Day

-or-

3 rounds for time:

400m Medicine Ball Carry

21 Medicine Ball Clean

In a marathon race, the Crossfitter will always lose to the marathoner. In a powerlifting meet a Crossfitter will always lose to the dedicated powerlifter. When you combine the two: a duathlon of marathon and powerlifting, the Crossfitter will destroy both.

This is an excellent example of sport specific training trumping general training. The general nature of Crossfit doesn't allow enough frequency and specificity of training to truly excel anywhere in rigorous competition against dedicated athletes. In a casual competition (the neighborhood 5k, A small powerlifting meet, a casual pick-up game of soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee) you'll do alright .We did a 2k row recently. Some of you wondered how to improve your times, it's really quite simple: The more 2k's you pull the better at 2k's you get. Of course your Olympic and power lifts suffer, but for a rower that's besides the point. To get better at any sport from Curling to Jai-alai you need to play that sport. This doesn't equate to not needing general conditioning however.

Due to the general nature of Crossfit we can enter any sport and with a little bit of specificity, excel. Think of it as building a house, Crossfit is a strong, deep foundation of Aerobic base, Strength and Power. Not to mention the ability to endure suffering. Once you have that general base you can put any sort of sport (or house) on it and it will be stronger, longer and faster. My metaphor is a little muddled, but the message should come through as this: With Crossfit we are building do-all-athletes, prepared to do anything in any sport. You can come out of a year of Crossfit and play in any competitive league sport in the nation. And do well

Let's get the marathoner under the bar squatting, let's get the powerlifter out running. Ultimately they will both benefit in their sport and in their life.