Steelfit Challenge Finalists... Time to Vote

So, after a prolonged and impressive submission process it has come down to three finalists. Selections were made based on a combination of factors, not limited to but including the following: Pullup quality and variety, beauty/uniqueness of location, originality, and general creativity. The top 3 videos, in chronological order of submission, are...

Tate in Southern California

Andrew in Virginia Beach

Anna and Christina in Sacramento

Voting will stay open until February 1^st. Attach votes to comments or email them to Morrison.blair@gmail.com.

Pullup Challenge Submission

From Anna and Christina in Sacramento... Tomorrow is the last day for submissions. Get them to me.

Fitness is…

Optional.

No rules or mandates, only choices.

It’s 6:00 am. You’re tired, cranky, and your eyes are crowded with sleep. You’re groping aimlessly around the kitchen for the pot of liquid adrenaline that you need to rouse yourself. “No such thing as a morning person,” you mutter while sipping it down gratefully. You shuffle towards your closet and let your gaze pass over the stacks of t-shirts, shorts, compression tights, and hoodies that’ve come to represent your workout gear over the years. You have to admit that they’ve been getting less and less “work” of late. Sip. Sigh. Last night while setting the alarm you swore today would be different, but the inevitable hesitation of the early morning anchors your feet to the carpet and your lips to the coffee mug. The only place you truly want to be is back in your bed, tucked happily away beneath your quilted comforter.

Interrupting your trance is your own reflection, shot back at you by the full-length mirror separating the his & her sides of the wardrobe. As usual, this intrusion is unwanted. The figure before you is slouching and hunched, has been prematurely aged and weighted by years of neglect and obsolescence, and, sadly, appears resigned to this state of being. You’re neither upset nor surprised at this sight, but a frown creeps across your face in spite of itself. That’s not the way you’re supposed to look. That’s not the “you” you wanted to be. You should look younger, stronger, and more vital. A sudden rush of energy rises and falls in your chest as you consider the possibility of remaking yourself in that image, like a match trying to catch in the breeze. But the warm aroma under your nose snuffs it out, reminding you there are routines to keep and habits to uphold this morning, just like every other morning. You console yourself—this is no time for unattainable goals or egotistical pipe dreams. The ideal you is too far off anyway—it’d take years to fit that form. So you turn around and head back towards the kitchen to top off your cup and peruse the sports page. Just another day in the life. Sip. Sigh.

Moments like this come and go a hundred times a day—moments where fitness is a choice to be made or ignored. Moments that may seem insignificant in isolation, but multiply them over the course of a week, a year, or a lifetime and they plot a course between extraordinary and extremely average. Looking at it en masse, the dangers subsumed in such moments are obvious. But in that instant we are blind, our sight limited by ignorance, habit, and frustration.

A couple reasons why this might be the case…

First, most people don’t know how hard it is to be truly committed. They talk a big game come swimsuit season because getting a six pack is supposed to be as easy as working out 1 hour a day, 3 days a week, and choosing whole wheat bread for their sandwiches. They’re not ready to learn that daily commitment and diligence, many times in the face of hot coffee and a warm blanket, are pre-requisites in this pursuit. That section of every training manual and every diet book gets lost in translation. So here it is again, in plain English: The one meal you cheat, the one WOD you tank, the one foam roll you bypass: it all counts. It’s what’s meant by the theory of accumulation—there’s no such thing as an insignificant choice.

Second, bad choices have a tendency to become habitual and, when confronted with 50/50 situations, we like to guide ourselves based on past decisions. Because of this, that workout you shirked last week makes the one tomorrow easier to blow off. Yesterday’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich eases the guilt of today’s chicken parmesan. Every one of our choices has a certain amount of inertia that makes bad ones easier and easier to rationalize the more frequently they are made.

Finally, we too often allow that which is outside our control to influence that which is within it. Imagine the woman driving home from work with her gym clothes in the back seat and the fullest intention of working out. She hits rush hour traffic a little earlier than expected and suddenly finds herself growing irritable and agitated. She realizes how exhausted she is from the long day’s work and remembers her kids are hosting a coloring party after dinner. Groaning in frustration, she decides her energy levels are too low for exercise today and heads home for some downtime. What’s the point, right? She probably wouldn’t get anything out of it anyways. Fitness will have to start Monday, when she’s fresh and ready.

This is crap. If you ever find yourself skipping scheduled training for anything less than an injury, illness, or a family emergency, take a minute, step into someone’s office, and head butt a coffee table. You are pathetic. No amount of frustration will change traffic patterns. No amount of self-sacrifice will better prepare you for a coloring party. And no amount of “downtime” will help recoup lost energy levels. It’s simple: Either stop allowing external forces to influence your decisions, or stop wasting your money on training. Pretending like you take your health seriously will only impress other pretenders. It will not fool age, injury, or gravity… this I promise you.

Remember this: Fitness doesn’t start Monday. Or any other day for that matter. It started the day you were born and will continue until the day you die. It’s an accumulation of moments and choices that require your constant vigilance and attention. Whether you live a life wrought with disease, discomfort, and immobility or one full of opportunity, strength, and vitality are direct products of these moments and choices. Don’t believe me? Keep eating sandwiches on wheat and hitting the snooze the next thirty years and tell me how you feel. Maybe you’ll re-consider your options and knock the dust off that stack of hoodies.

Or maybe you won't. Either way, I don't have time to waste... Only so many moments left, and 6 am comes early.

Deadline Extended

After discussing things with the SteelFit higher ups, it's been decided to allow video submissions until Friday of this week. So any of you who waited too long or are still editing, get 'em to me at morrison.blair@gmail.com in the next 3 days. So far, the bar is very high. Keep it up.

Workout of the Day

Snatch 3, 3, 1, 1, 1

3 rounds for time:

20 burpee pullups

20 front squats (185 lb)

20 box jumps

This was my first day of hard training for a while due to the holidays and all I can say is ouch. The snatches went very well—I made 100 kg and it didn’t feel hard. But the metcon was absolutely miserable. My quads actually starting cramping during the end of the second round. I pulled this WOD from the main site almost a year ago and have been waiting to try it. Honestly, wish I would’ve waited a little longer. My time was 15:50, which isn’t terrible, but I know for a fact I’m going to be sore as hell for the next 3 days. Maybe this is a great omen for 2011 or maybe not. Either way I anticipate a low intensity jog in the morning.

Also, here is a video from last week in Pacific Beach that I forgot to upload. Without sounding like too much of an asshole, people living down there have absolutely no excuse not to be fit. Ridiculous how much opportunity the surroundings and the weather offer.

Last Minute Submissions

Drew and Jordan in Davis

Andrew in Virginia Beach...

Aaron in Canada...

AnywhereFit Dec Reader Challenge from Aaron Griggs on Vimeo.

Pullup Challenge Submission

Henry in Salem.

Pullup Challenge Submission

Zvi in Israel... TOUGH workout.

Pullup Challenge Submission

Here's Tate in Southern California

Pullup Challenge Submission

This is from Tom Collinson in Swansea. Great location.

Christmas Eve

Workout of the Day

100 yd weighted lunge (100 lb)

200 yd run

100 yd burpee broad jump

200 yd run

100 yd bear crawl

200 yd run

100 yd overhead carry (100 lb)

It’s Christmas Eve so I’m not going to write much here other than I hope everyone has a very happy holiday. A few members of my family and I went to the beach this morning and did the above workout.

Pullup Challenge Submission

This from Justin in East Sacramento... Love the use of the I-Beam

Pullup Challenge Submission

Thanks to Ben for sending this in. Check it out below and get yours in soon.

Rest Week

This past week marked my 6^th in a row of training, meaning the next 7 days I’ll be de-loading and trying to rest as much as possible. Coincidentally, it’s also the week before Christmas and my family and I are heading to southern California to visit my grandmother in Laguna. Not a bad locale to get rejuvenated. Hopefully the weather will be decent enough that I can get in the ocean a few times—wouldn’t mind taking advantage of mother nature’s healing salts.

I’ve been getting lots of messages from people regarding the pullup challenge so I know everyone is thinking about ideas. Get the videos to me as soon as you have them because this is a seriously valuable prize package.

Wet Weather

Workout of the Day

10 rounds for time

50 meter swim

10 pushup

10 situp

I didn’t post it, but yesterday I went to CrossFit East Sac and did some heavy squats. I missed my top set at 425 lb but not for lack of strength. The weight felt fine on my back but I think I rushed the descent a little bit. I had already hit 405 lb like it was nothing so I had the confidence going in. But for some reason this set just didn’t have the spring out of the bottom like it normally would. Justin didn’t leave me much time to grovel over it though, because we went right into a conditioning WOD thereafter. Freddie’s Revenge, as it is called, consisted of 5 shoulder to overheads with 185 lb and 10 burpees for 5 rounds. This took me 4:30 to complete, including a 5^th round blunder where I dropped the bar from overhead on my 4^th shoulder to overhead, forcing me to clean and jerk the weight to get back on track. Cost me at least 20 seconds but overall still happy with how things felt.

Anyways, after yesterday’s heavy workload a lighter bodyweight WOD was the right call today. Justin met me over at the pool this morning around 8:30 so I wasn’t braving the stormy weather alone. No thunder and lightning, mind you, just wind and rain. This marks the 3^rd consecutive week that I’ve done a swimming workout and I’m starting to feel my body adapting. The 50 meters felt short every set, even though I’m sure my times were getting slower and slower. What really made things difficult were the pushups in between sets. By the 3^rd or 4^th set my arms started feeling heavy in the water and I had to really focus on kicking hard to keep myself moving. My final time for all 10 rounds was 14:40. Justin came in at 17:00 even. I would love to see a true swimmer do this and set the bar high.

Afterwards we took 10-15 minutes in the hot tub to relax and recover—so worth it. I’m looking forward to doing things like this frequently throughout the winter and really trying to improve my times in the water. I encourage everyone else to get outside their comfort zone and do the same.

It's all happening...

CrossFitAnywhere.com

Steelfit Reader Challenge

Here is my version of the Steelfit Challenge workout.

100 pullups for time

Every dropped set = 15 vertical jumps

Most creative workout wins a Steelfit bar and t-shirt including shipping.

14th and H

Workout of the Day

WOD 1 – In the morning…

Deadlift 3, 3, 3, 3

5 rounds for time:

20 squats (45 lb)

10 push press (45 lb)

10 good morning (45 lb)

WOD 2 – In the afternoon…

10 story sandbag carry (100 lb)

50 hand release pushups

20 wall climbs w/ bag (6.5 foot wall)

WOD 3 – In the afternoon…

10 x 10 story stair run

BIIIIGGG workload today. After some heavy deadlifting using a new technique, Bodie and I did a light metcon intended to be done unbroken. The weight was light enough that the lactic acid would only build to the point of discomfort rather than to that of failure. This was nice for a change. Such would not be the case in the afternoon.

We had a great crew together though, so it honestly didn’t seem as bad as it felt. Plus there was a little bit of rain on the top deck of the parking garage to keep us cool during the workout. It felt great to be back training outside, in the middle of the city with skyscrapers rising up around us and a little bit of weather pouring down. Made me think of when I was living in Leiden training at the old citadel.

In all there were 6 of us at 14^th and H in downtown Sacramento. We staggered our starts to avoid congestion on the stairwell—worked great. We all finished at different times but never got in each other’s way. The toughest part of this routine was actually the pushups. 50 hand release pushups after carrying 100 lbs up ten stories is no joke. The wall climbs were a blast… definitely needed to re-introduce these into the routine. Since I came back from Europe I haven’t been scaling near enough immovable objects.

Afterwards a couple of us stayed around and did a sequence popularized by local fire captain Chad Augustine. 10 times up and down the stairs, single steps on the odd rounds and double step sprints on the evens. Now, ten floors is a lot of steps but because it takes a good while to get down, the rest interval actually works. I always felt ready to go again by the time I reached the bottom. This was a great way to finish off the day and I’m grateful Chad, Milo, and John convinced me to stick around for it.

Below is a video from the sandbag workout... That’s right, got myself a new camera finally. Enjoy.

Clean PR

Workout of the Day

Clean 3, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1

Front Squat w/ pause 5, 5, 5, 4

Gymnastics Play time

PR’d my clean today! My heaviest 3 rep set was 265 lb and my heaviest single was 295 lb. I tried another couple at 305 lb and was well under it, just couldn’t secure the rack position to squat it out of the hole. Still, it was an overwhelmingly positive day.

Afterwards we played around on the green turf doing handstand holds into somersaults, somersaults into pistol squats, archer muscle ups, front levers, and a handful of other skills just for fun. I’m starting to see the benefits of these types of “play” sessions in my coordination and balance. I feel a lot more control on my hands and a lot more confidence in trying new things.

Tomorrows WOD is shaping up to be amazing. 14^th and H parking deck in downtown Sacramento with some of the fire department guys at 1:30. Bring your sandbag…