Adding work
Ok, standby for a long post. I’ve been chewing on this for awhile…
Coming out of the Open, we had 5 athletes qualify for the Quarterfinals/AGOQ. That’s a great accomplishment for a gym of “regular” folks. And by “regular” – I mean folks that religiously wake up early, put a heavy bar on their back, exercise to the point of nausea, hand tears and sometimes both at the same time. By “regular,” I mean, no one at CFO is that genetically gifted that they are getting paid for being good at working out. YET. We have a bunch of folks that work hard, enjoy each others company and like rocking cool t-shirts.
What is especially exciting is that we had s BUNCH of folks score in the 80-89 percentile in the Open. We could have had 15 (!)folks in the next step of the CrossFit Games qualification process.
Here’s my offer to you – if you found yourself in that 80th percentile or above, and thought, schucks, I could have made it – I think you owe it to yourself to give it a serious try.
Side note – I had the pleasure of participating in the Games process from 2009 to 2014. Every year for 6 years, I would train for a months for a weekend that would test everything you had done over the year(s) in the course of the weekend. Each time, by Sunday morning, I would be basically destroyed. It’s hard to articulate how you can be so sore, so emotionally raw, yet know that the hardest work is ahead of you. You will have to perform your best when you feel your worst. Over the years, I was able to perform beyond my expectations. I also crashed and burned. Sometimes in the same day. I always said I wish I could share this roller coaster with everyone that comes to the gym. Well, that’s exactly how I felt on Sunday of the AGOQ. This challenge is out there if you are willing to take it.
But how? The answer seems simple – do more, right? Well, kind of.
Here’s what I have experienced, both for myself and I’ve seen happen again and again.
- The flame gets lit. You’re fired up, you sign up for some comps, train for em, maybe you do well, maybe you don’t, but you fall back into the routine of the “regular” CrossFit athlete. And that’s ok.
Or.
2. You’re fired up. More is better. You’re doing the daily WOD. You’re running in the morning. You’re secretly working a Hatch Squat Cycle in your garage. You’re walking on your hands so much you have shin splints in your arms. You’re at every open gym, kicking your own ass. Then you tweak your back, or fuck up your foot and can’t fix it for 3 years. Or whatever.
3. There’s probably other variations of this, but you get my drift…
Flash forward to 2021. COVID changed some stuff, and it changed how we operate the gym. In a lot of ways, it’s better. Classes are way more organized, it’s safer. At the very least, you know where to stand. But we sacrificed some freedom for order and cleanliness. Pre-COVID, we would generally allow folks to do “extra work” off to the side. For whatever reason, some of the extra stuff got a little too extra and became a distraction.
So we will begin posting additional work, but it will be done in a controlled manner.
!Some caveats!
For now, any additional work will not utilize the barbell. Let me say – we are pretty darn good at the barbell, and if you want to squat more, you need your head examined.
If you are looking for extra work, but you are not coming to Denny’s Friday night weightlifting sessions – you are messing up! These sessions are chock full of great info, drills and done in a collaborative environment. If you want to take the next step, you need to be there on Friday nights.
Additional work will be programed on Sunday and Wednesday nights. It will be relatively small at first. You may say, “that’s it?” The answer is yes, that’s it. For now. For example, tomorrow’s additional work is just 5 pullups on the minute for 10 minutes. That will add 50 pullups to the week. Next week, you may see this again (you will) but you will have added 100 pullups to your program over 7 days. See how it feels.
This work is meant to be done AFTER class. So, if you finish the 5:30 class, please wait for the 630 class to brief and clear out of the briefing room. Then you are free to do your pullups – no pushing or elbowing, share the annex rig. You can go on the minute, and your partner can go on the 30 second mark.
Workout of the Day
AMRAP 30
15 calorie row
Parking lot run
5 Burpee Box Jump and Overs 24/20
Rest 1 minute after each round
Additional work for Thurs-Sun
OTM 10
5 pullups