I went to college at a strange place, erectile The Citadel, a state military college in South Carolina.  For all 4 years, but mainly in the first year (known as plebe/knob year) you are given a series of tasks meant to overwhelm you, and force you to keep your composure and make decisions.  It’s basically a 4 year leadership lab, as the ability to stay cool and composed is essential to nearly any task, especially leading men and women.  From day one, upperclassmen would shout commands to get you worked up.  This concept was applied to every aspect of life: academics, physical fitness, personal appearance, you name it.  When you stared screwing stuff up, whether it was tying you shoes, pouring a drink or marching, an upperclassman would scream “DON’T SPAZ!”  I wouldn’t be surprised if a teach told me not to “spaz” when I was there.   While “Don’t...Read more

MobilityWOD. With Opens upon us, website like this it’s a good idea to do what Kelly Starrett calls “organizing” you body. That means doing mobility drills on upcoming movements, # approved recovering sore tissue and working problem areas. In the recovering sore tissue department: a group of us attacked out legs on Saturday, leaving us in a hobbled state. To get back to full mobility, foam rolling is in order, but K-Star shows, sometimes a partner can help. I go in spurts on the MobWOD page, but I anticipate using it a lot in the coming weeks. We’ll share mobility ideas, if you see something cool that works for you, bring it to the gym! Getting Ready for the Opens – Emmaline Goes After Ring Dips and 85# Cleans (almost her body weight) Workout of the Day Strength Front Squat 3-3-3 Use 2-3 sets to warm up. Work as partners...Read more

“Shoe game” that is!  I’ve been doing CrossFit for a few years now, and I have owned nearly every type of shoe that might be conducive to CrossFit.  Aside from my original running shoes, I initially bought some old school, flat bottom Saucony’s. I bought Alison a pair of Inov-8 shoes for Christmas at On The Run in McHenry Village.  I have been aware of Inov-8’s since 2009, and I don’t know why, but I never picked up a pair.  Maybe I didn’t like the color (they were all bright blue).  Later, I didn’t buy Inov-8’s based on some durability reviews.  I was also concerned they appeared overly “narrow” in the toe box. I thought long and hard about my new pair of shoes (It was between the Inov-8, New Balance Minimus or the Reebok CrossFit shoe) and I gotta say, I was way off all this time!  I don’t...Read more

I may have mentioned that I often “score” my soreness on a scale of 1 to 10, check 1 being completely fresh 10 being incapacitated by soreness.  1 almost never happens, sales because I usually don’t rest more than 1 day at a time, and something is usually sore.  I would say I am constantly at between a 3 and a 6.  I don’t know if you tried the heavy front squat/chest to bar pull-up WOD from Saturday on your own, but I am a 10!  We had a great energy class on Saturday, and we went heavy and really fast.  The legs were very spicy Saturday night.  I took my kids to Knights Ferry to scramble on rocks on Sunday, and I was hobbling around in misery.  Alison’s in no better shape.  Foam rolling, contrast showers and an extra dose of fish oil are my remedy! We’re snatching on...Read more

This is the last Saturday before the CrossFit Games Open.  We’ll have a free Bring a Friend WOD at 9am and and an advanced WOD at 10am.  After 2 straight weeks of Saturday competitions, ailment I can’t wait to get back into a normal routine.  The CrossFit Games Open starts this week, sales with the WOD being announced on Wednesday night.  The Open won’t change the CFO schedule at all; we always do a challenging WOD at 10am on Saturday’s, now we’ll be doing it with the rest of the world.   I don’t plan on changing the programming at all during the Open; I’ll just plug the WODs in on Saturday’s.  If we can work the Open WODs into our normal 9am Saturday classes, I will.  I would like to set up Google Doc for all Open competitors to document scores, thoughts and preparations as we tackle the Open...Read more