It's What I do

So, once upon a time it was my job to ask questions and get answers.

I'd like to think that I was good at it. Certainly I was better at it during my last seven years as a newspaper reporter than my first five years as a TV reporter.

Because let's face it, I was too busy partying in the beginning. No other way to put it.

Anyway, I'm bringing this up because I realize, with all my journalism experience I have never taken a critical look at Crossfit. This blog has been all about how great it is and how it's helped me, how much I love it, etc etc etc.

Hey, what can I say? I've had mostly nothing but good experiences and it has changed myself and my body for the better. I'm happier because of Crossfit.

Actually, strike that, I'm happier because of Raw Fitness Maui. It's not just a gym, it's friends and family. It's a good place to be.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't at least TRY to look for some negative commentary about Crossfit. I mean, geez, it's been two years. I can have ONE post where I attempt to be critical.

Plus I love setting Beezlebump off. Who knows, Kehau may even chime in too. So here goes.

Here is one of the earliest critical articles about Crossfit, written back in 2005 in the New York Times of all places. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/fashion/thursdaystyles/22Fitness.html?_r=1

In my eyes this reporter had an agenda. Find something insidious about this new workout craze. There's a paragraph in that story that reads like this:

---The emphasis is on speed and weight hoisted, not technique. And the importance placed on quantifiable results has attracted hard-charging people like hedge fund managers, former Olympians and scientists. But some exercise experts are troubled by the lack of guidance for beginners, who may dive into stressful workouts as Mr. Anderson did. (He had not worked out regularly for two years.) "There's no way inexperienced people doing this are not going to hurt themselves," said Wayne Winnick, a sports medicine specialist in private practice in Manhattan, who also works for the New York City Marathon.---

Did you read that first sentence? "The emphasis is on speed and weight hoisted, not technique." According to who? The reporter? How about some attribution buddy? Like, "Sports therapists say . . " or "My mom says . . ." Guess he's too smart to quote anyone. Genius. This is what passes for journalism at the NYT? I should have sent in a resume.

Read it though, it's a good, bad article. Kind of like looking back in time and shaking your head and thinking, "How much they did not understand back then. Tsk, tsk."

Now this guy wrote this last year, and I have to say I don't know if he has a point or not but he seems to make more sense than the first guy.

http://freakstrength.com/2011/12/16/why-is-crossfit-bad/

He starts off his blog like this:

--- I like CrossFit. I hate it too.

I like that it gets you doing some worthwhile things. You’ll squat, pull, press, and all of that good stuff. You’ll do body weight stuff, which I’m a huge fan of. In that regard, it’s better than a lot of “fitness” regimens out there.

But there are two huge downsides. The first is that form doesn’t matter. Really, it doesn’t. The rules state that you have to get from point A to point B, but how you get there is arbitrary. This is why people are doing power cleans that look horrible. I remember tuning into ESPN to watch the games (out of curiosity), and there were guys falling to their knees on cleans due to fatigue. ---

Okay, so, this guy also says form doesn't matter in Crossfit and attributes this to what he's seen at the Crossfit Games.

Wellll . . . yeah, I fall down on my knees with fatigue all the time. Is that bad? I'm pushing myself. I know this, I'm stronger today for doing what I did yesterday at RFM.

As far as form, well, shoot. My fellow WODmates and I start off with decent form but once you get to round six . . . well yeah, we get fatigued.

Again, is this bad? I'm going to defer to Beezlebump and the Camacho Man if he would like to chime in from CrossfitOneWorld. That is if my blog allows him to comment. Damn the blogger gods if they don't. Sorry in advance Freddy but try to post if you can.

Okay, so the next guy says he actually attended a Crossfit certification and thinks it's great. But he had some critiques about it as he came from a non-Crossfit fitness background of some sort. It's definitely worth a read: http://www.stupidgymshit.com/2011/01/18/good-or-bad-crossfit/

His main concerns are quality of instructors, physical capabilities, program variability and complexity of movements. This guy actually makes a lot of sense, and not because he likes Crossfit. I just like the way he already wasn't a Crossfitter but went through the certification. I think his different background helps him look at everything more objectively.

Now this last one is from some fitness forum. If you click on the link it goes to some video about Lulu Lemon day at Crossfit LA. It just looks wrong and makes me want to never workout at this gym ever.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=120204311&page=1

Anyway, that's it. If you know how to Google you can find much more but the gist of it is, Crossfit can really mess you up if you don't have the right instructors who teach you the right technique and have the right attitude. Which is why when a friend of mine said he wanted to check out Crossfit in his hometown I said check out every gym until you find the right one.

I just got lucky because Beezle is my classmate. (SABERS!!!)

Oh yeah, the workout. Three snatches, six box jumps and a 200 meter run, AMRAP for 12 minutes.

I did six rounds and my back was fatigued. But guess what, it's fine now.

And tomorrow I'll be stronger. Suck it NYT.

Later,

Rod

Competition and the WOD After

Haven't been blogging for a while because of work, but I sure as hell made it to the competition.

That's right, the RFM Spring Cleaning competition. My first official Olympic Weightlifting competition.

We each had three tries to put up our best weight. The girls did faaaaaaaaaaantanstic. Lori and Patty won first and third place respectively.

Here they are in the winner's photo.

Ikaika did awesome, pulled up 260 bls or rather he got under 260. Damn it I was jealous. Here's a good pic of him getting under the bar.

See, when the weight gets too heavy you gotta get underneath it because you can't just pull that damn thing all the way up. Get under it and lift just like Ikaika's doing.

For some reason I have a mental block. It's damn scary. So I'm trying to pull the weight up as high as possible and squat as LEAST as possible. Like so:

Yeah, that technique works up to a certain weight. This is 185. Check out the struggle on my face for 210.

Yeah, got harder. Can you guess what happened when I tried 220? Let's just say I'm glad there's no picture for it.

I failed. AND IT SUCKEDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dropped the weight and did like a funky karate kick jump and yelled ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! In front of everybody. I couldn't help it, I was so disappointed.

Man, I know I can do more weight, I just need to get that technique down. I was so pissed on Saturday.

Then again this is way better than when I first started. I couldn't even bend my wrists back. Just gotta keep it in perspective.

Maybe that's why I was so ready for a WOD today. It looked short and terrible, just what the doctor ordered. It's a seven minute ladder, one thruster, one pull-up, then two thrusters, and two pull-ups, then three and three and four and four and so on until you die.

Oh man, that's exactly what happened. The first three sets were okay then once I hit four thrusters I was like, "Yeah, this is getting hard."

By the time I hit the 8th round I was breathing hard and had a hard time gripping the bar to pull myself up. The thrusters were terrible and I knew there was know way (and no time)  to get a 9th round.

But 8 is enough. At least it was today. Good job everyone.

Later peeps,

Rod

ps - If you haven't heard Bruce tell you the stories of his youth and how he used to scrap in the streets you're missing the funniest stand up routine since Sinbad. He's as funny as he is strong so you know he's funny. Good times. Good job Bump and Kristi, can't wait for the next competition.