CrossFit Ocean City

CrossFit and "The Slight Edge" Philosophy

A good friend of mine was kind enough to introduce me to a fantastic philosophy earlier this year.  Written by Jeff Olson, "The Slight Edge" is a philosophy wherein every little decision you make, each and every day, will either lead you up the success curve, or down the failure curve.  Quite simply, if, for example, you have a goal to loose weight, then you must make a decision each and every time you eat or drink something.  Each simple, little decision will lead you to a healthy choice of food, or an unhealthy choice.  Sure, that Oreo may not make you fat today and not eating the Oreo won't make you slim today.  But eating one Oreo each day will result in 365 Oreos eaten by the end of a year!  I guarantee that eating 365 Oreos will make you fat, or at least contribute to it.

The same goes for spending money.  If you're trying to save $5 a day, but you also like to get a venti hazelnut latte from Starbucks everyday, you're going to have to make a choice.  Latte vs. saving $5.  Sure, you pay the price for not having your favorite coffee drink, but you also save $5.  Doesn't seem like much, but added up, skipping that latte and banking the $5 will save you $1,825 over the course of a year!  (Not to mention the extra calories you'll save and the extra money you'll have to buy additional CrossFit classes!)

So what does "The Slight Edge" have to do with CrossFit?  This philosophy has everything to do with CrossFit.  CrossFit is all about "The Slight Edge"!  You can choose to work hard, use perfect form, and be consistent each and every day, or you can choose not to.  You can choose to do the WOD today, or not to do it.  If you workout or not today, it really won't make a difference in whether you're fit tomorrow, but doing it 3 days on and one day off over the course of a year will result in 274 workouts completed (and 91 rest days too!).  Staying consistent with your workouts will put you onto the success curve to elite fitness.  Not staying consistent will lead you straight to mediocrity, or failure.

If you can get ahold of a copy of "The Slight Edge", then read it!  It will definitely change your philosophy and, if you CrossFit, help improve your motivation to train hard.

- Steve

Here are our friends and fellow CrossFitters, Shelly and Erick Bruder.  Shelly, Regional VP for Arbonne International, introduced me to "The Slight Edge" philosophy.  Click HERE for a more detailed summary of "The Slight Edge" philosophy.

THE COST OF FITNESS

What does fitness training cost?  Well, you really can't put a price on your fitness.  Your health is, or should be anyway, one of the top priorities in your life.  Yes, you have to earn a living and you will always have family commitments, but there's a price to pay for anything in life worth having.  Sometimes you have to give up something in order to gain in another area.  In other words, the cost of fitness for you might be time. 

Like most fitness training programs, CrossFit requires a commitment of time and effort to see results.  Those who CrossFit with us three to four times per week see the most dramatic results.  Can you get there doing CrossFit twice per week?  Absolutely, but it will just take a little longer to see those same results; however, if you only show up when it's convenient for you (and that's only once every week to 10 days), then you're wasting not only your money, but your time.  Plus, it will take you longer to get back into shape once you do make the time for fitness.   

With CrossFit, you always have to remember that it is a program, not a single class format.  Every day is a little different and the skills you learn this week will help you next week.  Stick it out long enough, and before you know it you're doing 300 pound deadlifts, consecutive muscle-ups, and running 400 meter sprints 30 seconds faster than when you began CrossFit.  So, if you give up a little more of your freetime, or just rearrange your schedule a bit by sacrificing that trip out to eat in favor of more training time, you'll see significant changes in your fitness.  (And your overall health!)

That said, CrossFit training requires a less overall time commitment than other training programs.  You'll get more from a one-hour CrossFit class than an hour of any other program out there.  Period.  Plus, you'll see the best results with CrossFit.  If the price you have to pay for fitness is giving up some of your time, then it's time to pay that price - or as we say in CrossFit, "it's time to 'Drink the KoolAid!'"

PROPER CLEAN TECHNIQUE

We talk a lot about doing the clean, and doing so with proper technique.  Here's a demo video of CrossFit Santa Cruz's Annie Sakamoto executing heavy, one-rep max cleans.  This video just makes you want to get out there and go for it!

Click HERE for the video.

INDIVIDUAL FIGHT GONE BAD RESULTS

The individual Fight Gone Bad fundraiser results are in.  Click HERE for a listing of all participants and their scores for all 880 who participated nationwide.

REMINDER:  NO CLASSES TODAY (SATURDAY 10/20/07).  NORMAL SCHEDULE ON SUNDAY.

Can anyone guess this mystery CrossFitter is and what he's doing?  Post to comments.

A WEEK OF PERSONAL RECORDS & FIRSTS

Most of CFOC took the week off while we were out-of-town this past week.  Not everyone, of course, but most.  Upon our return, those who were well rested ended up with some new personal records (PR) and some firsts.  Andy Luzier, after several months of assisted pullups, can finally do them unassisted.  Lorie Crisanti finally figured out the kipping pullup.  And several of our CrossFitters PR'd their deadlifts today:  Jill Van Orden (150#), Linda Perlozzo (150#), Pat Greer (110#), Thuan Dang (295#), Kim Dang (135#), Lorie Crisanti (125#), Jen Kukel (125#), Leslie Corbin (100#), and Teri Boulanger (150#).  Way to go gang!

Here's Pat going for her PR!  You've come a long way!  Look at the perfect form here:  bar against the shins, arms locked out, shoulders slightly in front of the bar, back set with a proper lumbar curve, eyes looking at a point about 10' in front.  Proper form will enable one to lift max loads safely and attempt post-maximal loads without injury.

REMINDER:  NO SATURDAY CLASSES THIS WEEKEND!

CONCEPT 2 ROWERS - PROPER TECHNIQUE

We row a lot.  In my opinion, rowing makes running look easy.  Like all CrossFit workouts, technique is key and proper technique is paramount!  Here are some tips on proper rowing technique straight from Concept 2.  Click here for more info.

PROPER ROWING TECHNIQUE

The Catch

• Extend arms straight toward the flywheel.
• Keep wrists flat.
• Lean your upper body slightly forward with back straight but not stiff.
• Slide forward on the seat until your shins are vertical (or as close to this as your flexibility will allow).

The Drive

• Begin the drive by pressing down your legs.
• Keep your arms straight and hold your back firm to transfer your leg power up to the handle.
• Gradually bend your arms and swing back with your upper body, prying against the legs until you reach a slight backward lean at the finish.

The Finish

• Pull handle all the way into your abdomen.
• Straighten your legs.
• Lean your upper body back slightly.

The Recovery

• Extend your arms toward the flywheel.
• Lean your upper body forward at the hips to follow the arms.
• Gradually bend legs to slide forward on the seat.

The Catch

• Draw your body forward until the shins are vertical.
• Upper body should be leaning forward at the hips.
• Arms should be fully extended.
• You are ready to take the next stroke.

RUNNING DISTANCES AND CROSSFIT

In about 90% of our CrossFit workouts, we run 400m and 800m distances.  These are fairly straightforward, short, and hard.  On those days when you see 5k and 10k for time posted as the workout of the day, most of us often wonder how we'll ever measure the distance, much less get out there and actually do it.  Measuring a course by car isn't all that fun.  Now, you can go online to www.favoriterun.com and design your own course online.  I did one for a 5k boardwalk run not too long ago.  It works great!

THE BENEFITS OF BODYWEIGHT EXERCISE

One hallmark of CrossFit training is the use of functional bodyweight exercises.  The pullup, pushup, situp, squat, and other bodyweight exercises allow you to enhance flexibility, agility, coordination, balance, and overall conditioning.  Plus, you can do bodyweight exercises just about anywhere without additional equipment.  More difficult bodyweight exercises will develope elite fitness, which is something we should all strive for.  Such exercises as the muscle up and handstand pushup challenge us to the core - both mentally and physically!  Beastskills.com has a few tutorials for some of these more challenging movements.  Click here for the tutorials, then go try out a few on your own.  Oh, and plan on seeing more of these in our workouts in the weeks ahead!

TEAM WORKOUTS

Sometimes we like to change things up a bit from our normal individual efforts.  Team workouts are fun and challenge us in different ways, but always in CrossFit style.  Here are some pics of our most recent team workout, involving overhead walking lunges, waiter's walks, and rowing.

CROSSFIT OCEAN CITY TACKLES THE 300

Last Saturday's classes tackled the "300" workout.  What is "300" you ask?  In 480 B.C., 300 Spartans took on an army of 1 million Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae.  You can guess the outcome, but the bravery of these few Spartans was made into the movie "300" earlier this year.  Mark Twight, the CrossFit certified trainer for the actors in the movie "300", utilized CrossFit methods to develop the actors into peak conditioning for the demanding roles they would play in the movie.  As a final challenge to those actors, he came up with the "300" workout.  As prescribed, it is:

25 Pullups

50 Deadlifts of 135 lbs

50 Pushups

50 Box Jumps on a 24" box

50 Floor Wipers with a 135 lb. bar

50 Kettlebell clean and press with a 35 lb kettlebell

25 Pullups

It's a great workout, even scaled, and our group worked hard.