Another golden oldie

Scaling options for today’s workout, courtesy of the CrossFit BrandX forums:
Big Dawgs and Pack:
As Rx’d
Puppies:
Two rounds for time of:
Walking lunge 25 meters
Sit-ups, 25 reps
or
Three rounds for time of:
Walking lunge 15 meters
Sit-ups, 15 reps

Forgot to add… 26 floormats was considered “50 meters”

Rx’d 10:30
Brian thanks for the CFE workout today, I need to make wednesday mornings a regular thing.

About the sit-up standard: at the cert this weekend nothing was said about any kind of sit-up standard except shoulders make contact at the bottom, sit all the way up, with a complete stacking of your spine at the top. Straight from Speal’s mouth came the words “when I do Angie I anchor my feet and use my arms to generate as much momentum as I can”. We use our arms when we do GHD sit-ups, I don’t see why we shouldn’t do the same for abmat situps.

“By torch on September 14, 2009 12:17 PM
HQ standard is the frog stance. Your shoulders must touch the floor. Butt stays on the floor. Your arms cannot come above your knees (so effectively no swings to assist the motion. small jabs kinda work). The top is when the base of your neck is even with the base of your spine (so sitting all the way tall)
I got this as per two HQ coaches on staff at CF Old Town.”
I couldn’t personally find this in a video or written anywhere on the main-site however.

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#Exercises10
2.11. What kind of situp should I do for the WODs?
Whatever you like; recommend picking one style and sticking with it so you can compare performance over time. Lots of folks like the ab-mat. Some of us do “military” situps, which come in a couple of flavors. Hard-core: Hands behind head, feet anchored, knees at 90ÔøΩ. All the way back until base of shoulder-blades hit the floor; up to near vertical. Or “Air Force” version: arms crossed in front, hands on shoulders or arms; feet and legs as above. Down position same as above; up to where elbows touch knees or thighs. Hands must stay on shoulders or arms. “Janda” situps are tough; you place a bar, board, partner’s hands, or whatever behind your calves. Keep your feet flat on the floor; dig in with your heels and pull back hard with your calves against the bar. This should de-activate your hip flexors, thereby making your abs work harder.

Inspirational pull-ups!
Here is another great Crossfit vid. More inspiration!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPeAE8qTy6M

This should be our new Elements program:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/walking/SM00060

CFE today
400 m
40 squats
800m
30 squats
1200m
20 squats
rested
did the WOD 9:20something

So what about anchoring? Is this considered ‘acceptable’ or ‘rx’d'?

Keith
Just to clarify, you’re recommending that WODs for time should be done anchored?
(In this case, I’m considering feet with heels on the floor, although not necessarily being held down with weights or anything else, to be “anchored”.)

I recommend that for timed workouts situps should be done in a full range of motion as fast as is possible. For me (and most people) that means anchoring the feet, using an abmat and swinging the arms. Some people prefer doing it differently. As long as you are using a full range of motion (and not cheating by pulling yourself up with your arms on your thighs) then I think whatever works is fine. I just think telling people that they have to use froglegs because it is the HQ standard is both wrong and without proper rational justification.
That being said, Torch is your coach so do what Torch tells you. When you come to my gym I’ll tell you to do it differently.
PS – We are doing “Barbara” at CFV tomorrow if anybody would like to come and do kipping pullups and anchored situps.

My 2 cents:
I think i’m going to stick with frog sit ups. I believe that they are better at developing my abs, and they aren’t hard enough that I can’t knock 200 of them out in decent time with okay form, therefore I see no need to scale down. If that means I’m going to do a couple of workouts as “above RX’d” for that portion of that workout by CFNYC standards, then so be it.
However, before you rush to include anchors (and the transmission of the load from the abs to the hip flexors), arm flailing into the definition of “prescribed”, take a moment to consider if push ups where your upward path is aided by hip flexors (akin to a “snake” motion) are still RX’d. Because the exact same arguments that are being made for anchors and hand flailing can be made for “snake” push ups.
Just something to consider.

13:19 rx’d.

11:34 with anchored sit ups

8:45 Rx’D with my BK kids this PM

I didn’t realize there was some to-do about this sit up business, so let me respond in detail…
I got this standard from two friends at CF Old Town who are HQ staff coaches. They recommended the standard because it works the abs in isolation, which tends to be a somewhat neglected area in our programming. I TRIED IT. I AGREED. While we in CrossFit lean toward systemic motion as opposed to isolation, this seemed to be a good exception for focused development. I implemented it in MY BOX. I posted what i did in manhattan and challenged people to try it. My athletes are putting out comparable, and sometimes on average better WOD times with this stricter sit up standard than in other locales. What do you think would happen if, after a month, i let them loose on flail-arm, though admittedly higher power-output sit ups?
As a coach and as a regularly COMPETITIVE ATHLETE I work on supplementals to develop my overall performance. I have had success with strict pulls, CFE, Kettlebells, paleo eating, and this sit up standard. I pass these things along because I HAVE DONE THEM and they have worked for me. They have also been working for my athletes.
This is a set of decisions that fall to coaches and athletes. If you think you will benefit from pancake flopping a burpee, then we’ll try it. It’s competition legal. If you think you should instead strict plank that burpee, we’ll try it.
Anchor sit ups. Don’t anchor them. Get on a GHD. Note it on the blog so people can see what you’re doing and have the opportunity to ask why or how well it worked for you. The most noted athlete in CrossFit that I’m privileged enough to know do this all the time.
I moved to this standard because I didn’t want to specialize in the standard swing-arm sit up. I compete. I try to do this regularly. As far as I know, I’m the only on-staff coach in the city other than Dave Lipson and Sara who does so. I don’t want to walk into a competition, representing my affiliate, only able to do this one move because it shaved 30 seconds off of my WOD score, to find out this competition is holding me to a higher standard.
So before further discussion of whether or not i might be a cyborg continues, consider that I constantly vary my workouts, even inside the realm of CrossFit. When I spoke with Coach Glassman last week, he supported this notion. If I think something works, i’m going to share it.
Take it or leave it.

Torch, I agree w/ everything you said.
Alexei – Crossfit is not for the purpose of ab development. Maybe you should consider a membership at Equinox. We focus on core stabilization. Frog sit-ups likely help improve this due to the strict and longer range of motion. I have seen you do several workouts and find it ironic that you continually comment on standards and ROM.

in amendment to above, CF Harlem are probably the most regular competitors I come across, so Syn is definitely in the competitor-coach camp.

15:16, anchored

and my final post
USMC PFT this morning. 296 out of 300
my sit ups for the WOD were unanchored, strict, hands below the plain of the knees.

Torch– …. not 300 out of 300?

Well said Torch,I agree with you.
Did this in BK 9:48 frog-style sit ups.
Thanks for pushing my ass on this one. Now I can’t feel it

Torch, That should be “plane”, not “plain”.
Kirk, those lost 4 points are from the less glamorous and often forgotten Spelling-Grammar Bee portion of the USMC PFT.

Alright. That makes sense.
I thought he might have lost on the evening gown competition.
He’s been training too hard to drop points there.

A 296 Torch? Where’d you miss those 4 points, on the run? I like the PFT route south of 4th St park so much better than when it used to be down the side of the West Side Hwy from the Intrepid with all those traffic lights and other people. That solves it once and for all, you’re only half cyborg.

Torch, congrats on doing so well. I doubt you are losing sleep over those measly 4 pts. The talent segment is SO over-rated.

9:35
(68,54), (55, 42), (61, 48), (15, 9)