Monday

Will had a sore foot this morning so he did a vigorous upper body workout! 21-15-9 of bench press, pulll-ups and dips.

"Fran" for me today!

I'm feeling strong. Got a 205# deadlift yesterday and my kipping pullups are definitely improving.

Pictures from today!

Sunday

Free group workout at 2:00 PM! Come join us!

Personal Responsibility

I frequently read the content on other CrossFit Affiliate's websites. I find that often times they just say it better than I do. Today I'm posting an essay by Jon Gilson of Again Faster, a CrossFit Affiliate in Boston, MA.

"To A Greater World" by Jon Gilson, Again Faster

We're bringing personal responsibility back. You can't do what we do while shirking your load, depending on other people, or otherwise passing the buck. Your WOD time is yours and yours alone. You cannot turn in a fifty-minute "Fran" and then scold your classmates for the result. Blame is not cast in the gym. Conversely, I can't count the number to times I've seen an athlete turn in an epic time and then thank everyone in the room for making it happen. Adulation is shared.I view the gym as a microcosm of the moral world, one in which control of success and failure ultimately lies with the individual. There is no fatalism in the gym. Your maximum pull-up number is not preordained by some higher power. It is determined by speed, strength, coordination, accuracy, agility, and mental fortitude, all qualities that are within your domain and solely within your control. Others can give to the effort through correction, encouragement, and support, but they cannot make your chin clear the bar. Link to continue reading: http://www.againfaster.com/articles/to-a-greater-world.html

What's with all the SNOW!

It didn't stop the 5 AM class from showing up! These folks are amazing!

Workout:

3 rounds

10 pull ups

15 push ups

25 DB swings

50 squats

Katie was a bad girl!

Luckily it turned out pretty good for her!

I usually tell people when they start training with me to stay off the scale for awhile. People get so focused on the number on the scale that slight fluctuations in weight can get them very discouraged. Initially I prefer my athletes focus on learning the movements and improving their functional strength. The time will come soon enough to get concerned about weight, body fat and precision diets! The diet usually takes care of itself once the athlete is focused on performance. The diet becomes a tool to improve performance and is no longer just about losing weight.

Well....Kate got on the scale...curiosity got the best of her...... and in 3 1/2 weeks she has lost 11 pounds. She is pretty excited about that!

What I'm excited about was her performance with yesterday's workout! Kate completed 4 rounds of 20 pull-ups, 30 push-ups, 40 sit-ups and 50 squats followed by a 3 minute rest between rounds. This is a brutal workout and she pushed herself further than I'd seen before. She is really developing the ability to work at high intensity...doing it as fast "as she can".

Lis Darsh of Crossfit Watertown wrote a great article on 'Intensity" today. You can read it at: http://crossfitwatertown.typepad.com/index/2008/03/intensity-and-y.html

Wednesday

I think that showing up at 5 AM 3 days a week demonstrates effort, and my 5 AM class is seeing results! Barely able to complete the warm-up on day one; this group of 3 fantastic people today did the warm up, 5 rounds of 10 deadlifts and 10 bench dips in 8-10 minutes and still had energy left to start learning the shoulder press/push press/push jerk! I'm so proud of them!

video of my best so far back squat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxzc70yDRSE

Effort

It is possible to do crossfit exercises and not lose weight, not get appreciably more fit. Like anything else in life you will get out of it what you are willing to put into it. To get the best results you need to put your maximum effort into the workouts, you need to do them consistently, you need to do all of the exercises (not skipping the running or the heavy lifting) and you need to eat food that will support your exercise. Inconsistent effort will produce inconsistent results.
If you consume more calories than you expend you will gain weight. If you are hitting the workouts hard you can still lose body fat but the number on the scale will go up. In order to lose weight you must expend more calories than you consume. CrossFit.com recommends the Zone diet for the best athletic performance. I recommend eating a balanced diet, avoiding sugar and processed grains. It helps to measure your food and record exactly what you eat. There a number of great online tools to help you with this. Here are 2 that I have used.
http://www.fitday.com/
http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov/Default.htm

I love my job!

I love what I do! I have so much fun and it is so cool. We had great workouts this morning. I love my 5AM group! They are so cool! Dan Hubbard from Vermont is in the area visiting family and joined us a 6 AM for my version of FGB (I don't have any rowers yet) then came back a little later and worked on his overhead squats. He got 5# over body weight! Yeah! He also got some video of me doing a #145 back squat...I know it doesn't sound impressive but it was a personal record for me! Hope to have that video posted in a few days. Over the weekend Craig and I also got PR's on the deadlift! Craig - 375#, me - 195#

Katie was in today for a workout too. She is doing great!

Lisbeth Darsh of CrossFit Watertown responds to yesterdays NYT article by Virginia Heffernan I posted a link to yesterday....and found by Geneseo crossfitter Cindy Schmitt.

CrossFit: Preparing for Imagined Moments of Heroism
Let’s hope that Virginia Heffernan is right and we’re wrong. Let’s hope, like she writes in her New York Times article (God's Workout), that we CrossFitters are preparing for "an imagined moment of heroism that may never come." May all of our efforts at achieving a fighting level of General Physical Preparedness (GPP) just be the result of succumbing to ridiculous hyperbole designed to make us buy into Greg Glassman’s crazy dream of bringing people home alive. Let’s hope (outside of the military, fire, and law enforcement personnel among us) that we civilians and desk jockeys never once have to use physical strength to survive in this world.
That’s a big hope.

for the rest of the article:http://crossfitwatertown.typepad.com/index/2008/03/crossfit-prepar.html

Happy Easter

There will not be a 2 PM workout today as we are celebrating Easter with my parents. However, it is a beautiful day and I hope you will all find something active to do. Later I plan to run 3 miles and practice back squats.....hoping that plan will keep me from overindulging in Mom's good cooking!

Have a Blessed Easter!

What motivates you to work out?

The answer is probably at least slightly different for everyone and there isn't really a wrong answer, but I think it's important to think about what motivates us. Is it the desire to look better naked? Is it the desire to be able to play with your grandchildren? Is it your desire to win the race? Lift heavier weight? Bragging rights? Being with other people? For me...it's a bit of a combination of all of these, but I think my biggest motivation (and anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this) is to have fun! It may not be very noble, but at 44 I'm probably not going to change! I want to have fun all of the time. Most of my decisions are based on which option will be the most fun. I crossfit because it's fun! Yes, it makes me stronger, faster, more flexible, more powerful, better coordinated, improves my cardio-respiratory status, balance, agility, and I think it has made me look better naked, but I do it mostly because it's fun!

I think Krista Scott-Dixon says it better than I..................

the play's the thing

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious!—(Unknown)
Raise your hand if you have trouble finding motivation to go to the gym.
Now raise your hand if you have trouble finding motivation to goof off, screw around, be silly, and have fun.
Unless your acquaintances secretly refer to you as "Captain Buzzkill and the Bringdowns", you probably have a taste for pointless enjoyment, otherwise known as play. In both humans and animals, play is serious business. It teaches skills used in adult life, builds motor coordination, alleviates boredom, enables the player to try out new things without serious consequence, and provides opportunities for unstructured learning.
to read the rest get thee to http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=71

these are good!
http://crossfitwatertown.typepad.com/index/2008/03/top-10-rejected.html

Crossfit on the NYT blog
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23wwln-medium-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Katie Update!

Kate completed her Week 3 of Crossfit workouts!! She made it here 4 times this week and worked very hard. She is already much stronger and feeling and using muscles she didn't know she had. She and Michelle beat Sandy and I in a Vegas workout yesterday!

Yeah! New Equipment!

This week we got our Abmats, new theraband and 25# bumpers! I drove to New York Barbell in Elmira today and got us 2 shiny new barbells, 15# bumpers and a nice portable squat rack!!

Do you regularly laugh out loud when you are working out?

We do!!

Today's workout for Will and Louise: 5 rounds of 10 body weight deadlits and 10 weighted over head squats. They did great! Will and Louise have been consistently doing CrossFit workouts 3 times a week for 7 months and have seen amazing results in overall fitness. We also have a lot of fun. These workouts are fun! Yes, you will work very hard and you will sweat profusely, but you will also enjoy it.

Thursday

Late post today...was super busy! My other job is working as a RN for a homecare agency. In that job I see the effects of poor diet and lack of exercise. People who don't use their muscles and eat food that is not good for them suffer horribly. Diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are not fun companions in life. Why not put some effort into eating nutritious food and improving our functional ability with exercise? Why not have vitality and strength? I know what I'm going to do! Staying healthy and being fit is not complicated...it's not easy..it is hard work...but it isn't complicated. Eat nutritous food. Work hard enough to breathe HARD and SWEAT! Pick up something REALLY heavy!

Wednesday

It doesn't look like it from this picture but Tom is really making some gains!

House returned and did a great job today, although he did not manage to catch up with Cindy and Eileen who absolutely rocked the workout this morning!

For 20 minutes they did 10 overhead walking lunges, 5 burpees, and 10 SDHP. Eileen got 8 rounds!!

Tuesday

Jessica just learned the deadlift. She looks great!

8 Rounds for time

20 overhead walking lunges

10 burpees

10 pull ups

"The deadlift is unrivaled in its simplicity and impact while unique in its capacity for increasing head to toe strength.
Regardless of whether your fitness goals are to "rev up" your metabolism, increase strength or lean body mass, decrease body fat, rehabilitate your back, improve athletic performance, or maintain functional independence as a senior, the deadlift is a marked shortcut to that end."

this is a great article please continue reading at:

http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/12_03_Deadlift.pdf

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had a new crossfitter in the barn this morning....I'm just going to call him "House"

Dan stopped by yesterday for the Sunday afternoon work out! He will be training with Joe at http://crossfitrochester.com/ but he stopped by to play with us!

Three Brave Souls started their 2nd week of crossfit today with a vegas workout. They did a super job! So much stronger already!

Craig put in a wall ball target yesterday.....you'll be seeing wall balls in the workouts soon! We haven't done those since the weather turned ugly!

75 overhead squats for time. I did 55 lbs. 10:18

Katie's Second Week

Kate completed 4 workouts in her second week at CrossFit Geneseo! She has already made big improvements in her form and her ability to work out at high intensity. Kate reports that she feels stronger and has more energy, and she even thinks she has already noticed a change in how her clothing is fitting her! She is doing a great job and I'm very proud of her. Ready for week 3 Katie?

Today's workout was a lot of fun. The ladies went up against the gentlemen to see who could complete more rounds in 30 minutes of a tire flip, a box jump, 10 DB swings, 10 jumping pull ups, a box jump and a tire flip. Ladies - 44, Gentlemen -43.

My husband went to CrossFit Charlotte and all he got me was....this really great tee shirt!!

Sunday

We are working out at 2:00 PM today! Come join us!

Burpees

We all love to hate them, but they are an extremely useful exercise if you can't get to the barn or a gym. They combine a squat, a push up, cardio, core training and a jumps! A complete work out in one poetic movement! They can be done in your living room, back yard, hotel room, beach......the list is endless! Here's a workout to try at home (ahem......Luanne!)

Kate's form is suffering a bit d/t some fatigue!

6 rounds

10 burpees

20 sit ups

"Dog Fit"

Will likes to call what we do here at CrossFit Geneseo "Dog Fit". We all laugh and think it is very funny. I have also noted several CrossFit Affiliates have dog logos or actually have dogs wandering around the gym. Think about the fitness of a dog for a minute. A dog is always ready for whatever challenge is presented to him. A dog will run until he drops, rest a minute and get up and run again until he drops. A dog does not makes excuses, or say he is just too tired today. A dog does not complain. He always gives all he's got. Any time you are willing to take him for a walk he is READY! A dog is always ready to play, go for a walk, protect his family and property, or chase a squirrel. Dogs really seem to enjoy running, jumping, wrestling, or whatever tomfoolery they can think of.

I think "dog fit" is a goal to strive for. We should be READY for whatever challenges life might throw our way. We should be READY to sprint a quarter mile to catch the bus, we should be READY to lift a heavy object out of the way to protect the safety of our loved ones. We should be READY to play with our kids and dogs.

Wednesday

3 Brave Souls returned at 5 AM this morning! Tom, Cindy and Eileen did a great job today!

Craig is in Charlotte, NC this week for work....but he managed to get himself over to see Andy Hendel at Crossfit Charlotte for a work out last night. He had a great workout and felt very welcome. Crossfitters are nice people! Andy has a great facility. Crossfit Charlotte hosted the certification seminar I attended in December.

http://www.crossfitcharlotte.com/

If you're looking for some great "do it at home" workouts....check out http://www.crossfitrochester.com/ today. Joe posted 4 creative workouts you can do at home!

Thanks to Bill Lloyd for discovering this article on push ups! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/nutrition/11well.html?ei=5087&e

Intensity

CrossFit in as few words as possible to describe it is...."constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity"

Jessica and I were working out this morning (very intensely I might add) and were talking about this concept of intensity. I also read a post on the crossfit.com page today speaking of the "as you can" aspect of crossfit workouts. As many "as you can" , as fast "as you can", as heavy "as you can". I teach exercise classes at a regular gym and everytime I walk in there I see people on treadmills watching television. I think that if your exercise does not require your full attention, you are not doing it at the proper intensity. If your exercise is so boring that you need to watch TV you are doing the wrong exercise.

To get the full benefit of the time you are spending on exercise it needs to be done intensely, requiring your full attention, and as fast, heavy, and as many "as you can". Only then will you realize the gains in overall fitness that you are seeking. Anything worth having is hard work to get. It requires commitment, concentration, trying harder than you ever have before, dripping with sweat and breathing hard. At crossfit it is also fun! Intensity.

Check this out! http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4385601&page=1

and this....love the quote at the end! http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/accent/interactives/girls_lift/

Monday March 10 - Laura's Birthday!

Three Brave Souls visited the barn for the first time at 5AM today! Three Brave Souls taking their first step toward Elite Fitness....poetry!

Katie started her second week of Crossfit today. She did great in spite of no sleep. Katie has two very small children.

Our workout today was done in honor of Laura Wadsworth's birthday! Yes she is 22 today and we did 22 reps of box jumps, clean and jerk, pullups, dips, DB swings - 3 rounds. Happy Birthday Laura!

Sunday

Free group workout at 2 PM today. Come try us out!

This is an article on choosing a personal trainer that I read a few years ago and just re-read. I think it has very solid advice on choosing a trainer and I work really hard to meet these standards!
http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=67

Katie completed her first week!!

Katie made it to the barn for 4 workouts this week! She started learning pushup, pullup, squat, front squat, back squat, deadlift, GHD hip ext., sit ups, broomstick overhead squat, shoulder press, push press, push jerk! She worked out hard, got some DOMS and I'm REALLY proud of her!

We are playing with front squats today!

Pictures from this morning

Will and Louse are stars! They work so hard and so consistently. They both have made huge gains in strength and overall fitness! We all have a blast at 6 AM!

Thursday

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

Yes, I am experiencing some today! No one is exactly sure what causes it, but it happens when you use muscles in a way your body has not yet adapted to. i.e. new exercise, heavier weights. I have read that it is worse when the muscle is stressed on eccentric contraction rather than concentric contraction. I have also read that DOMS is worse for a trained athelete because the neurological adaptions in a trained athelete allow them to push the muscles beyond what an untrained person could do, resulting in greater stress on the muscle tissue. Whatever the cause.....crossfitters regularly experience DOMS because the constantly varied nature of the workouts insure that you will be using your muscles in new ways. The best thing to do....is keep moving. DOMS is not a good reason to skip a workout, in fact, working out may be the best way to relieve the discomfort. Todays workout if you are doing it at home: 5 rounds: 100 rope jumps, 40 squats, 20 situps, 10 pushups

Wednesday

Another Mother/Daughter Team! Wendy and Katie

Today: More Squats!

Will and Louise did an awesome job this morning.

Tuesday

Katie was in for her 2nd workout yesterday and she did great! Someone had already taught this girl to squat! She was able to squat a 35# bar for 40 reps

Luanne, Louise and Craig rocked the workout yesterday!

Today:

Jumping pull ups and front squats!!

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/FrontSquat.html

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/jumping-pull-ups.wmv

Craig's 360# Deadlift!

Monday

Workout:
300 rope jumps
20 pullups
75 back squats (ladies 45#, guys 75#)
20 pullups
300 rope jumps
Quote from "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore
"There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that produces the level of central nervous system activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density enhancement, muscular stimulation and growth, connective tissue stress and strength, psychological demand and toughness, and overall systemic conditioning than the correctly performed full squat. In the absense of an injury that prevents their being performed at all, everyone that lifts weights should learn to squat correctly."
And a great article on why to squat from stumptuous.com
http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=53

Katie's First Crossfit Workout

Katie was in for her first workout today. Katie is a young mother of 2 small children who has a strong desire to get back in shape. She would like to look better but she also needs to be in better shape to keep up with her husband and small children. Kate has graciously agreed to allow me to log her progress here.

Kate arrived and we weighed and measured her, took some pictures, established good form for her pull ups, push ups and squats and she did a mini Cindy (10 min. 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats...as many rounds as possible). She got 5 rounds plus 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 1 squat!!

Please check back periodically to see Kate's progress!

Sunday

Come on over for a great workout at 2:00PM

March!!

We're going to do some deadlifts later this afternoon!
Here's some inspiration...compliments of my second favorite dentist (my Dad has to be #1- sorry
Randy).... the good Dr. Raetz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9P_yYBtkBs
Very funny!