Sure hope you like wallball…

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Allison Bojarski

ELEMENTS WORKSHOPS UPDATE!
Manhattan Elements:
#44 M/W/F @ 8:30pm, starts March 30 (only 1 spot left!)SOLD OUT!
#45 M/W/F @ 7:30pm, starts April 6 (only 3 2 spots left!)
#46 M/W/F @ 8:30pm, starts April 13
#47 Tue/Thur @ 8:30pm, starts April 14 (5 spots left)
#48 M/W/F @ 7:30pm, starts April 20 (5 spots left)
MORNING! #49 Tue/Thur @ 7am, starts April 21st
Brooklyn Elements:
#5 M/W/F @ 7pm, starts April 13
Monday 090323 (62)
“Karen”
For time:
150 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
Post time to comments.
Compare to 080807.
“Ignore everybody”
What is strength?
Echoes
“The iron never lies to you…200 pounds is always 200 pounds”
Fat firefighters and rescue workers alarm researchers
Researchers find gene that turns carbs into fat (via)
Vegetable gardens: at the White House, on Fifth Avenue, on your fire escape, for the recession
When “consult your doctor” might not be helpful: nutrition
The 13-year-old basketball player who’s practically a pro
Every day I compile links for the blog and almost every day someone comments to me by email or in person about how much they enjoy the links. I love gathering them together but I love it even more when they engender debate right here in our comments section. So please post to comments which of the above articles was most enlightening/intriguing to you. (And feel free to do so every day, not just today!)
Last Friday’s Rest Day dinner at Le Barricou in Williamsburg, Brooklyn was a big hit. Thanks to Luke S. for taking this group shot:
IMG_0661

  • brian

    CFE tuesday 615p

  • Jeff

    I found a gray RossTraining beanie this morning at the box. I’m taking it.

  • Allison Bojarski

    Scaling options for today’s workout, courtesy of the CrossFit Brand X forums:
    Big Dawgs:
    as Rx’d to 10’ target
    Women 14# Ball
    The Porch:
    100 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball to 10’ target
    Women 14# Ball
    Pack:
    150 Wallball shots, 14 pound ball to 10’ target
    Women 10” ball
    Puppies:
    100 Wallball shots, 10 pound ball to 8’ target
    Women 6-8” ball
    Buttercups:
    50 Wallball shots, 4-6 pound ball to 8’ target

  • Luke N

    8:09 rx’d

  • http://www.self-aggrandizement.com the ant

    Helpful tip I re-learned this morning:
    When possible, avoid catching the ball with your face.

  • torch

    5:52 Rx’D. Face in tact.

  • Kurt

    I swear that more than just my legs showed up at the Rest Night dinner!
    Brian, I wanted to discuss some CFE stuff with you. Would you please send me an email at kurt period tullar at gmail dot com, when you get a chance? Thanks.

  • Rickke

    10:14 rx’d

  • Hari

    I think Josh’s point can best be summed up as folows: “Keep your eyes on the ball!”
    As obvious as this sounds, people forget once it leaves their hands. Watching the the ball until it is back in your hands will not only keep it from hitting your face, but also allow you to position yourself, maintain your balance, absorb the impact, and time the decent of your squat in a way that minimizes the shock when you catch the ball.
    Watching the ball is critical. We like to believe it will return to the point where it leaves our hands, but that ususally doesn’t happen. Once you catch the ball, you will probably want to look forward briefly while you squat, so you don’t spend the entire WOD looking up.

  • Rory

    Allison – I love the links, and am glad that you enjoy putting them together everyday.
    That Henry Rollins, “200 pounds,” quotation always reminds of the Gym Jones post on Quality:
    http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=20
    “200 pounds is only that when moved through a complete range of motion”
    I had never read Rollins’s original article, though. Interesting stuff. I can definitely relate to weightlifting alone for personal self-reflection and self-improvement. However, my results are stalling out a bit on my own, so I’m excited to start working out in the more social Crossfit atmosphere (starting Elements tonight).
    On the firefighter article, that is concerning to say the least. I wonder what tends to happen once they get on the job. Do the less-fit firefighters tend to quit from too much work? Get in shape (either on their own or just as a result of the work)? Get fired? Or, grimly, do they ultimately have a higher incidence of death/injury?

  • Jeff

    14:00
    I’ll need to work on my accuracy/coordination. Next time I’ll use the butt ball to see if it helps.

  • Jeff

    I got 11:44 last time. And I thought I was throwing the ball higher back at Box 2. According to the notes, I counted my misses last time. This time I didn’t, so I had to do about 10-15 good ones to make up for them.

  • Allison Bojarski

    Great lunchtime class today with a nice mix of newbies and old vets. Brendan paid us a visit and set the time to beat: 6:03.
    We did some headstand practice (including headstand raises, where you have to touch your toes to the ground and then lift back up into headstand, all with straight legs) for a little post-WOD skill work–fun stuff.
    I did the WOD on my own this morning (with intermittent encouragement from Jacinto) in 12:25. Perhaps could have gone faster in a class setting but wanted to get it over with rather than wait til an evening class.

  • Kirk

    Best advice from Jacinto this morning – catch the ball and then flow into your squat. Don’t catch it and stop it and then squat. Seems so obvious and yet…
    as Rx’d: 9:49
    Couple things re: the “Fat Firefighters and Rescue Workers”:
    - First, the BMI is total bullshit and doesn’t measure shit. If you have any muscles, you are considered overweight. A comparison of hieght vs. weight, which is what the BMI is, does not really do anything useful.
    - Second, that said, this kind of trend is disturbing. I’ve seen it in police and military as well as security areas. In many of these forces, outside of any “specialized units” there is no training after basic training. Once you’re in you don’t have to prove it anymore… This is problematic. I knwo the Canadian military has become desperate enough to lower its fitness standards in order to get people into specific “non-combat” areas such as electrical generation systems, water, electrical, etc…and the requirements were already too low…
    I know too many fat – and more important, unfit – security people who are going to have to shoot first, ask questions later because they could never chase someone down, or use another less-lethal method to deal with the situation…

  • http://www.crossfitvirtuosity.com Tyler Durden

    Squats 285x5x3
    Presses 122.5x5x3
    Karen as Rx’d
    7:31
    Damn you, redheaded bastards!

  • Jeff

    “Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.
    Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn’t see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness.”
    I do not recommend this. Deadlifting with a boner in your sweatpants doesn’t do anybody any favors. In my culture, it is “frowned upon” and considered poor etiquette.

  • Allison Bojarski

    I missed Torch’s comment earlier. Apparently 5:52 is the time to beat… : )

  • Sara

    8:54, 14# ball
    pretty sure there needs to be a scaling option for short people… just sayin;)

  • Brendan

    Fine work, Kevin. If that is your real name, of course.

  • torch

    Brendan, it is me! Fine work to you too!

  • Aram

    I did the 2 X 20# dumbbell sub from the main site FAQ. 12:00 (52, 20)

  • Avery

    20# Ball (no 14# ball available)
    12:38 minutes
    Yes, as a shorter person I would prefer the 4 foot target range also.

  • jim

    6:58 – first 50 unbroken.

  • Tony T

    13:27 rx’d
    Crap form towards the end.
    (56,30)

  • george

    made up lynne
    still trying to lay off my knee
    @185 lbs
    12, 9, 9, 9, 8, 7
    Pullups
    22, 17, 18, 12, 24

  • Allison Bojarski

    Still waiting to hear from Court as to what tomrorrow’s Black Box WOD will be, but I can give you the schedule for tomorrow otherwise:
    6:00 AM: Instructor’s Choice
    7:00 AM: Instructor’s Choice
    8:00 AM: Instructor’s Choice
    12:30 PM: Instructor’s Choice
    6:00 PM: Black Box WOD or Deadlift/Run WOD
    6:30 PM: Black Box WOD or “Lynne”
    7:00 PM: Black Box WOD or “Karen”
    8:00 PM: Instructor’s Choice
    (Also don’t forget CFE with Brian H. tomorrow night. Meet at Box at 6:15pm, starts at 6:30pm.)

  • Jon S.

    8:30 as RX’d. Gotta work on catching ball lower.

  • Gabe K

    9:01 RX’d
    very happy w/ the time

  • vadim

    Observation: if you are very close to the wall (i’m talking differences in just a few inches), the likelihood of catching the ball with your face goes up exponentially. A “healthy” distance from the wall, and you are actually bouncing the ball off the wall a bit, and the catching process is more controllable. Thoughts? What is “your” distance from the wall?
    9:30 for me this morning… torch, can i borrow your ham-springs next time? ;-)

  • Chris O

    10:00 rx’d
    last time was 11:32 with a 14# ball, so pretty happy. but there were some great times being put up today
    then made it to 8 rounds + 8 on the dead hang pullup ladder workout we did
    (48, 33)

  • Reagan

    Karen, as Rx’d
    10:44
    Black Box (62,62)

  • http://davinacohen.blogspot.com Davi

    Wallball and I have a rough relationship. Makes me feel like a midget.
    14#
    11:30
    then we did the kettlebell ladder
    12 rounds +6 @ 24 kilos
    braking was challenging on the ride home
    I am super inspired by Avery and Sara – rockin’ the heavy medballs, ladies, and fast!

  • Mike

    8:29 rx’d, not bad – but thought I would do better
    13 rounds + 8 on the 2 pood KB swing ladder afterwards

  • Jeffrey B.

    RX, 7:20

  • Levi

    No med balls, so subbed 20# dumbbells
    10:09

  • Hari

    11:03 (62,48)

  • Hari

    Vadim,
    On the way up and down, the ball is affected by forces in two directions, vertically, there is gravity, and horizontally there is the force with which you throw the ball forward towards the wall. The harder the ball hits the wall (it only hits with forward velocity, not vertical velocity) the harder it will bounce off.
    The odds of your being hit in the face are proportional to the speed with which the ball returns. (The vertical component of that speed is a fixed number for any given height, but the horizontal component is directly related to how hard the ball hits the wall).
    Also, improving the odds of your being hit is how close you are to the wall. If you are right on the wall, you need to rotate your head early 90 degrees and look straight up, not a great angle.
    In sum, there is a tradeoff. You need to be a distance from the wall that allows you to hold your head comfortably, and then you need to hit the wall hard enought for the ball to bounce back to you, but not much harder. Hitting the wall harder not only decreases your response time, but also is a waste of effort.