Friday 7.29.11
Freddy’s Revenge
5 rounds for time of:
185lbs from shoulders to overhead anyhow, 5 reps
10 Burpees
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On Saturday, September 6, 2008, several CrossFit Games celebrities got together for a workout during lunchtime at the CrossFit Level 1 certification seminar at CrossFit One World. Jason Khalipa, winner of the 2008 Games, Pat Barber (4th overall), Kallista Pappas (the youngest competitor in the open division at age 14), Adrian Bozman, and of course, Freddy Camacho competed in a modified Games workout.
It was called Freddy’s revenge because it was designed to favor Freddy’s strengths. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.
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Who are these people?!
Alli in the Orange
Heather with the Kettlebell
Ray Deadlifting
Shayne in the black and blue shorts
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Some Videos from the Strongman Competition, and Abell Cleaning 355!
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The difference between “Working out” and “Training”
-B-
Lets be clear on one thing.
I don’t care if you come in here just to work out, or if you have some serious training to do. Or if you shift back and forth between the two. But I would like you to know the difference between the two.
The main difference between working out, and training, is the amount of effort put forth, into planning, recovery, strategy, and into all of the little details of it. Training, takes much more effort, much more thought. Training, is progressing in a very planned and methodical fashion.
Working out, is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC for beginners, if you come in here and haven’t “worked out” in a while. Then that is where we start, getting you into training too soon can result in frustration of how complicated it can be, and can sometimes take the fun out of it, it could also be too much too soon.
Working out is also for People who were training but want to back off and just maintain their current level. People get busy, shit gets stressful, its nice not to have to worry about any kind of complicated training, just to go in and get your ass handed to you in a wod. I can’t tell you how many times I see Carl and I’s crossfit football wod, and I would much much rather do our own programming here. Just because it just looks like killer fun. But the football Wod’s are in line with my goal, as much as I don’t like some of the things that come up. Its for my own good. Like bad tasting medicine.
Once a plateau is reached as a beginner and a higher stimulus is needed for progress, if you do not make the shift to “training.” Your “working out” becomes maintenance, you stop making progress, or progress comes very slowly. The lovely thing is that our programming lends for beginners to scale down and make excellent progress on their way to RX’d, and for our RX’d crossfitters to throw in extra supplemental work and/or enough time to “train” for something.
Lets take a look at some of the main differences between the two.
Before you look at this list, Lets be clear about one thing. The “working out” section sounds like I am downplaying it. It just seems like that because there is less effort involved. I shift mine back and forth based on the time I have available to train. It takes time to recover properly, plan things, and training typically takes up more time in the gym, which involved a lot of MOTIVATION to come in, even when you do not want to. If you are coming in and enjoying it, and making progress, who the f*ck cares? Just as long as you are happy where you are at, I am happy. If you want to maintain, lets do it. If you want to move toward your goals at a faster pace, lets make the effort, light a fire under your own ass and put in the work.
‘Motivation is a fire from within.
If someone else tries to light that fire under you,
chances are it will burn very briefly.”
Stephen R. Covey, author
| Working Out | Training |
| Does not Track WOD times or Personal Records | Meticulous tracking of Goals and Important Personal Records |
| No Specific goals in mind | Specific goals with a timeline of accomplishment. Constantly reminding yourself of that goal. |
| Competing against others or against self with previous times is no concern, or is very seldom a concern. | Competes to test his (or her) mettle, whether against himself or others. (Better than yesterday attitude) |
| Isn’t concerned as much with movement prep and injury prevention | In tune with your body and its limitations and injuries, Knowing when to go hard and when to back off. Spends serious time on learning and utilizing movement prep |
| Gets in workouts when schedule or social life allows | Treating your training sessions as being just as important and set in stone as a crucial appointment |
| Typically Unguided. Heading to the gym with no plan. | Knowing exactly how this particular session will move you closer to your long term goals, the gym session is typically full and planned out from minute to minute. |
| Having no idea what the purpose of your session is, and what the effects should be in short and long term. | Training with a clear progression in mind from week to week. |
| Taking rest breaks to the slightest increase in fatigue | Mentally rehearsing how you want the training session to go based on knowing exactly what exercises you are doing and for how many sets and reps |
| Doing what is accepted as usual practice at your gym due to fears of standing out | Doing what is needed for performance, whether it be a lifting ritual or something out of the ordinary. |
| Cherry picks workouts and movements | Taking the time and effort to put into learning a skill, even skills you are terrible at, because they are crucial to your goals. |
Tell me, what are some other differences if you can think of any?
-B
Let’s not forget diet- loose/no meal planning vs adhering to strict nutritional guidelines.
July 28, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Love this post.
July 28, 2011 at 9:58 pm
I agree Matt! Excellent post, Brandon!
Now if I can only get the injury/recovery posts to stick in my head
July 28, 2011 at 11:33 pm
B-
THANK YOU for this post…it could not have come at a better time for me. I kid you not when I say I had a little “come to Jesus” with myself just a few days ago about the lofty goals I want to attain next year. I am so glad that I am fortunate enough to have such a great group of coahes, awesome crossfitters/friends and an all around badass gym as a part of my training!
July 29, 2011 at 7:47 am
So anyone else’s productivity gonna be in the crapper today ’cause they’re spending too much time watching the games?
July 29, 2011 at 9:11 am
I can’t get any live coverage to download on my computer. But, I have been checking the site for the scoreboard and videos of the events. Looks like Nick had a little harder time in the water than I had hoped. I will be fun to see how he catches back up! I planned a garage sale tomorrow and have been cleaning out my garage and basement today so luckily it worked out to not mess with anything important.
July 29, 2011 at 2:36 pm
Fantastic post B (as usual). Robb Wolf and Opt harp on this a lot. I think if there is a weakness to Crossfit (especially the current main site workouts) it’s a lack of focusing on training. This past year I basically did the work out thing and I was able to make a tremendous amount of progress. However, I think it’s now time for me to move to training to get better at Olympic lifting, gymnastics, strength, and endurance (not all at the same time of course). But there’s a dilemma. The problem with training is that I’d have to give up the group CFSB Wods for a long time (2 to 3 months) to really get better at any one of these skills (like Molly did when she was doing the Olympic lifts or like Abell does for strength.) For instance if I want to seriously get better at Olympic lifting I can’t just come in and do 3 or 4 CFSB WODs a week. While the the CFSB WODs are great for working out, I don’t think you and Carl intend them to be for training which is perfectly fine because they’re meant to accommodate people with lots of different goals. However, I love coming to the group WODs and hanging out with everyone.
So if I come to the group WODS I can work out but not train, but if I train seriously I’ll have to work out by myself sometime when there’s not a group WOD going on. Can you think of any way out of this dilemma? For instance if I wanted to really focus on getting better at Olympic lifting for two to three months would there be a way to 1) come to the group workouts 2) seriously focus on olympic lifting?
In other news, I’m doing my first WOD in a month tomorrow at Crossfit Werk (the only Crossfit in Berlin). Melanie and I are both going. That Reebok Crossfit video that Tara posted on Facebook contains 8 or 9 shots of Crossfit Werk. It’s the building towards the beginning of the video with red bricks and a ladder in front.
I’ve basically been without Internet for the past week, but it finally came back on in time to follow Nick at the Games.
I miss everyone a bunch and I can’t wait to get back.
July 29, 2011 at 1:36 pm