Keep on swinging

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Allison Bojarski

Wednesday 110223

BLACK BOX WOD (current skill: kettlebell swing):

150 kettlebell swings for time

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIC S.!


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A few questions for new member Erica (pictured, right):

1) What’s harder, crossfit or yoga? Is that a fair question? It’s a fair question, but kind of tough to answer… For me, crossfit is harder because it’s so much more physically challenging and I’m just so much more used to yoga (8 years of yoga vs. 7 weeks of crossfit!). But I think someone who has a hard time focusing or meditating on being still, the breath, or feeling the deepness of some yoga asanas (the “poses”) might find yoga more challenging.

2) Are you more bendy than strong, and if so, does that make crossfit more challenging for you or are you glad to have the flexibility and mobility that you do? Heck ya – way more bendy than strong! But I love having that mobility. Keeping my Gumby-ness, focusing on proper technique, and just pushing myself a little further each week is my M.O. right now, and I feel like it’s a good place to start. “Strength will come,” [Coach] Jacinto told me last week and I trust that it will.

3) What (if anything) do yoga and crossfit have in common? A lot more than one would think just by looking at them! One of the biggest similarities – and one of the things that I love – is that the emphasis on scaling and modifying makes them both totally accessible to anyone, regardless of previous skill/fitness/flexibility level. Anyone can be physically and mentally challenged in either practice just by taking things up or down a notch.

  • Jeff

    If you can only do 4 exercises for the rest of your life (for overall physical fitness), what would they be and why?

  • Adam R

    From the article about colleges ditching trays to save food:

    “When Virginia Tech’s largest dining hall reopened several years ago, some administrators jokingly dubbed it the “freshman 25″ cafeteria, for the number of pounds some students might gain from the tasty fare.

    Students loaded their trays with Belgian waffles, brick-oven-baked pizza, falafel, Brazilian skewered meat, pad Thai, fruit juice concoctions and elaborate desserts – so much food that even the biggest of guys with the biggest of appetites could not always clean their plates.”

    I suppose that reducing wasted food is a good idea, but it seems to me that the colleges should focus on serving healthier food. Waffles and pizza won’t do you any good whether you carry it on a tray or a plate.

  • http://boomgoestheedynamite.blogspot.com/ Chris G

    1) 2 Handed Kettlebells swings
    2) deadlifts
    3) pullups
    4) ghd situps

  • http://wodalmighty.blogspot.com Reis

    Jeff:

    1> Pushups
    2> Pullups
    3> Squats
    4> Deadlifts

    It seems that these are the foundation of everything we do at Crossfit. I can’t imagine doing these four exercises consistently and lacking fitness in any way over time. I would swap out stretching for deadlifts if it would need to be considered one of the four, because without stretching we would end up in serious pain.

    Just my $.02

  • Lisa

    I loved reading the various coaches’ recommendations for 4 essential exercises.

    Mine are – pushups, squats, sprints, presses.

    You can add weight to all 4 to elicit extra effort. Use whatever object you want for presses so no special equipment is required.

  • Steve S.

    1) Clean
    2) Jerk
    3) Snatch
    4) Squat

    I think these pretty much cover strength, speed, precision, and flexibility. What else could you possibly need?

  • Mike K

    squat
    deadlift
    push press
    rope climb (or climb up and over anything if no rope is available)

    and I’m cheating with sprint back and forth to whereever you will do those 4 exercises ;)

  • Sophie

    LEVEL 2 WOD for 2/25:

    A:
    Weighted Pull-ups, 3/5
    B:
    AMRAP 12 min.
    15 Double KB Sw. 1.5/1 pd
    10 C2B PUs

  • Dan H.

    7:18. 105 swings @ 16kg., 45 swings at @ 25lbs. In retrospect, I should have gone for weight over time.

  • Avery

    I second Steve’s response, but let’s turn the clean and jerk into one exercise and add a pull up/chin ups…

  • Sam G

    1) Clean and Jerk
    2) rope climb, any variation
    3) back squat
    4) sprints

    I get to walk as much as I want soo thats covered, the deadlift is essentialy covered in the clean and jerk, rope climbs can be the best upper body development IMO, the sprint is essential for cardiovascular enhancement, (not saying the clean and jerk doesent do it) but a sprint hits it harder, and what’s better then a good back squat..

  • Thor

    1- Squat
    2-Deadlift
    3-Press
    4-Running

  • Jeff

    While the responses are up for interpretation, I do think that when you count C&J as 1, then you might be headed towards a slippery slope.

    One guy in the article above picked muscle ups. It may be widely recognized as one movement, but it essentially is a combination of three. What stops someone from picking cluster, which you can easily make a case for if you allow C&J as 1?

    What about a manmaker or a burpee pull up? Or what about one of those super combo burpees I made up (candlestick, handstand on DB handles, renegade row from handstand, clean, box jump, jump onto rings, muscle up, skin the cat, ball slam)?

  • Mike Mishik

    No particular order…..

    handstand walks
    burpees
    clean
    overhead squat

    • jim

      no forward rolls?

  • Jai

    5:48, kbs w/ 35#, Russian style, 150 reps. First 75 unbroken, then 25/15/15/10/10.

    • Nikki

      Yeah, I came in at 5:41… I think this means next time we do 1.5 pood.