Skill Guidelines

What I need to work on for 2011/2012

Level 0
- Handstand holds

Level 1
- 5k run
- 400m run
- L Sit
- overhead squat
- snatch
- clean & jerk

Level 2
- 500m row
- 2k row
- push ups
- dips
- pistols
- muscle ups
- back squat
- press
- weighted dip
- weighted pullup
- bench press

Level 3
- 100m run
- pullups
- handstand pushups
- box jump
- deadlift

Level 4
- standing vertical jump

Long Ass Aerobic Workout (LAAW) The new Long Slow Distance (LSD)

Today's WOD

First I established a 1RM Close Grip Bench Press/Power Clean
205/205 = 1.0

My 205 Power Clean is a 20# PR. Last time I tested was in January 2011. Yes!

Then...

10 rounds of
500m row
15 burpees

Time was 37:42 (probably spent over a minute screwing around with the computer/monitor). Feels good to test this engine cause I suck at it! Whoo!

The 2011 Reebok Crossfit Games Recap

So the 2011 Reebok Crossfit Games are officially over! What did we learn this weekend? Here are some of my thoughts

- I predicted 4 out of the top 5 women and I was really close to putting Rebecca Voigt in 5th which would've made me 5 for 5. I predicted 2 of the top 5 men. I predicted both winners (Annie and Rich). I predicted that Crossfit New England would be one of the two teams that could possibly win. Bottom line - I'm the Nostradamous of Crossfit

- Too bad Mikko Salo was out so early. It was such a tragedy. For him to finish that first workout from having his eardrum blown out shows great courage. If he had competed, I don't think he could've beat Rich but he would definitely have top 5 potential.

- Big Congratulations to Crossfit Taranis (3rd place team) and Angie Pye (10th place women), for representing BC!

- Rich and Annie have a legitimate chance of repeating next year being the first 2 repeat champs. I haven't felt like this for the past winners ever.

- The only man who has a chance at giving Rich a run for his money is Josh Bridges. He is LEGIT. In fact, IMO, he was the most impressive this weekend.

- I thought the programming for this year's games was the best programming ever. It truly spanned broad time and modal domains. I felt that it truly represented the fittest man and women in the world. The only error they made was the softball throw, they should have put a shotput throw in place, it would have been a better representation of upper body power/core to extremity power. Softball throw was too biased to those with that skill already.

- I am already excited for next year!!!

2011 Reebok Crossfit Games Predictions!!!

Hello fellow crossfit dudes and dudettes! The 2011 Reebok Crossfit Games are upon us! In T-Minus 1 day, approximately 50 men and 50 women, along with 40 some-odd teams will battle it out for the claim to be the fittest man, woman, and team in the world!

With the announcement of the individual 1st event which includes a swimming portion, and the 2nd and 5th events which includes multiple skills tests, the programming for this year's games are off to a fantastic start! This year's Games has the potential to be the best test of fitness out of all the prior games. With that in mind, it's time for some predictions. You can't have a competition without some predictions from Phatty himself.

Teams:

I believe it's going to be a battle between Crossfit Invictus and Crossfit New England. (I know, not really going out on a limb here). My underdog pick is Crossfit Taranis from Victoria, BC to crack the top 10. BC represent! Woot! woot!

Individual Women's:

1. "Iceland" Annie Thorisdottir - this is a last second change, but I believe Annie is prime to take it this year upsetting Kristin Clever's chance to be the first repeat champ.

2. Kristin Clever - It's going to be close between Kristin and Annie the whole weekend but there can only be one winner!

3. Samantha Briggs

4. Julie Foucher

5. Michelle Kinney

This year's Camille award aka relative newcomer darkhorse to make a name for herself: Angie Pye


Individual Men's:

1. Rich Froning Jr. - no need to explain this choice

2. Mikko Salo - ditto

3. Dan Bailey - He has some weaknesses ie. gymnastics so he could fall, but I think his strengths will pull him up

4. Ben Smith - I like this pick here because not many people have him in the top 5

5. Chris Spealler - hard to choose between Speal, Austin, and Josh Bridges here but Speal has the experience and best overall skillset out of any athlete

This year's Austin Malleolo award aka relative newcomer darkhorse who nobody is talking about: Joseph Weigel

How are the Canadians gonna do? Those 2 guys from Eastern Canada are gonna be near the bottom, Lukas Parker has a chance to crack the top 15-20. Jeremy Meredith will end up 20-25. Both very respectable showings!

p.s. I think either Mikko Salo or Matt Chan will take event 1. See y'all tomorrow!

Crossfit Power Rankings July 2011

Crossfit Power Rankings are based by the most recent performance by the athletes in past Games, Regionals, and the Open. More weight is given to the bigger the stage of the performance.

Men:

1. Rich Froning Jr.
2. Graham Holmberg
3. Chris Spealler
4. Matt Chan
5. Mikko Salo
6. Dan Bailey
7. Austin Malleolo
8. Ben Smith
9. Jason Khalipa
10. Josh Bridges
11. Daniel Tyminski
12. Joseph Weigel
13. Nathaniel Schrader
14. Philip Kniep
15. David Stowe
16. Mikko Aronpaa
17. Patrick Burke
18. Gabe Subry
19. Pat Barber
20. Nick Uranker

Women:

1. Kristen Clever
2. Annie Thorisdottir
3. Jessica Parmanian
4. Julie Foucher
5. Samantha Briggs
6. Michelle Kinney
7. Becky Conzelman
8. Rebecca Voigt
9. Stacie Tovar
10. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet
11. Angie Pye
12. Elyse Umeda
13. Lisa Shiu
14. Amy Dracup
15. Christy Phillips

Get Rid of Western Disease Once And For All

Patty's Great post, informative and concise on gluten. See original here.

Ok bear with me here….I might get some terms a bit off and some dates have a tolerance, but I am going to paraphrase why Gluten sucks so bad for your health.

After hanging with my old pal Robb Wolf for 4 days it has become apparent that there is a chemical war going on between our bodies and the nature of grains to defend themselves.

Now Robby correct me where I have Pattersonized this too far. (see comments section)

In short: It is not the fat that is trying to kill us…..nor are the high glycemic foods 100% the culprit, nor is it necessarily sugar or starch.

The worst part of our diet comes from grains and more specifically a protein in them called gluten.

Here is how it all started: We have evolved for over 4 million years. We have subsisted on a hunter gatherer diet consisting of game meats, fish, seasonal fruits and vegetables, nuts and tubers. It has only been the past 5,000 years or so that grains were introduced into our diet. Cultures that switched to grain as a major source of nutrition shrunk by over 6 inches and lost over 25lbs of lean body mass.

The tallest people on earth in the late 19th century were plains indians (5 ‘ 11″ average ht) who lived on a hunter gatherer diet. By contrast the average height of a US calvary man was 5’4″. Also Hunter Gathers showed no sign of Cv disease, type II diabetes, various cancers, Alzheimer’s and a host of other gnarly diseases that are killing us in record numbers.

The difference……grains

Why? Think of the goal of every living thing on earth………..especially think Tbear.

It’s goal is to procreate. Now also recognize that every living thing has some sort of mechanism to defend itself from being killed so it can pas on its genes (Try to get the remote from Tbear when there are females present and you shall see)

Clams have shells, roses thorns, snakes have venom (Tbear has skinny wrists, but watch out for the elbows). Grains have gluten and its purpose is to beak down your gut and kill you.

Stop eating gluten (none….zip….zilch) for 30 days and see what happens. Talk to Tbear or check Robb’s site for what to eat in combination with zero gluten.

Crossfit Regionals Week 2 Recap

So Week 2 of the Crossfit Games Regionals we had the Mid-Atlantic, Norcal, Canada East, and Europe. In my opinion probably the most competitive of all the regionals. This weekend's regionals had everyone talking about one guy, A.J. Moore.

Mid-Atlantic

- A.J. Moore finished 1, 2, 2, 30, 2, 6. His 30th place finish in the 100s workout (it should be officially called that) is definitely an outlier. Apparently he had 59 missed reps on his kettlebell swings during this workout and there is video evidence of this. You be the judge.

My 2 cents: Sure, some of them shouldn't have counted but given the context of the situation, as a judge, you need to balance being strict but also give some leeway according to how your other fellow judges are judging the other athletes. If the other judges are being more lenient and letting things slide, you should back off a bit also. I can understand 10 no-reps, maybe even 20. But 60 no-reps when you have to do 100 total? I think that's a little too harsh.

- There is now a campaign to get A.J. Moore to the Games, and deservedly so cause he would be a beast in Cali.

- Ben Smith won the last 3 workouts, look out for him. Current prediction: Definitely top 10

Norcal

- Maybe the most stacked regional of all the regionals. We have 5 athletes in this regionals who were in last year's games and they finished 1-5, duh.

- Jason Khalipa dominated the weekend

- Neal Maddox gets to go to the Games because Khalipa gets a free pass for being a previous Games champ.

- Too bad, Big Dawg, Joey Warren just missed out. If he was in any other regional, he woulda made it

- On the girl's side, big ups for 30 some-odd year old Annie Sakamoto for qualifying. Old School.

Canada East

- I don't think any of the men who qualified will be big contenders this year. They should've combined Canada as one regional again this year. It would've been interesting to see how that would have turned out with 4 guys qualifying. I haven't checked the numbers but all 4 guys potentially could've been from out west.

- Camille (F'n hottest badass chick in Crossfit) Leblanc-Bazinet completely annihilated the competition. She won every event except for a third place finish in the last workout which she probably could also have won if she wanted to. She is a force to be reckoned with. At this rate, wouldn't be surprised to see a top 5 finish from her at the Games.

Europe

- Outstanding performances for Tuomas Vainio but he can't do muscle ups well so that's his Achilles heal

- The other Mikko needs an extra year to be truly competitive.

- Annie dominated to nobody's surprise and it will be damn fun to watch her and Kristin battle it out at the Home Depot Center. Can any woman challenge these 2? Camille? Becky Conzelmen? Angie Pie? We'll see....

Next week, we'll have Central East, North West, South West, and Asia doing battle. Until next time.