SouthBaltimore CrossFit

Check out the recently announced workouts for the CrossFit Games (taking place this weekend).  You might be thinking: “Wait, what?  That’s nothing like the workouts we’ve been doing all year!  Where are the pull-ups?!”  And you’d be right, the events are nothing like any workout you’ve ever done.  However, isn’t that the point?  To prepare us for the unknown and unknowable physical test?  This year’s CF Games events are a great physical preparedness test, and even though they don’t include many of the movements you’ve come to know and love (hate?), this will really show how effectively we’ve been training for the unknown.

I’d also like to say that these events are totally sweet from the primal/evolutionary/paleo perspective.  Indulge me for a second…

Event 1: Moderate endurance run over varied terrain.  Chasing down the woolly mammoth?

Event 2: Progressively increasing intensity, culminating in a max effort.  Spearing the beast?

Event 3:  Short distance loaded sprint.  Get that meat away from the kill before the hyenas get you?

Event 4: Hammer in a stake sandwiched between rows.  Rapidly worsenening weather forces  immediate dwelling repair?

Events 5-8: ???.  Oh, the life of the caveman is full of surprises!  But hey, at least the Games competitors get to wake up tomorrow if they fail…

Feel free to replace these with millitary analogs, but either way the point is the same.  General Physical Preparedness (GPP) is the goal, and this year’s games are a true test.

My prediction for the final workout:

5 rounds for time of:

6 Snatch 155#/105#

30 wallballs 16#12# (10 ft target for both)

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Wonder what it’s like to compete at the Games?  Wonder no longer, they made a movie about it!  It’s called Every Second Counts, and it chronicles the 2008 CF Games.  Want to see it?  Well you’re in luck, sonny, ’cause SBCF will be screening it after our Grand Opening on July 25th at 10am!  We’ll see you there!

Our grand opening will be held Saturday, July 25th at 10am at our new location: 1800 S. Hanover St. Baltimore, MD 21230!  Check out the invite page!  Or read below:

Dear Friends of South Baltimore CrossFit,

Your friends in fitness,
Troy, Karen, and Phil: The South Baltimore CF team

Today we say goodbye to Riverside Park.  The lease is signed, and our space will be available to us July 1, so we will spend our Thursdays (along with most other days) getting it ready.  Come work out outdoors one final time.  Thanks to everyone for coming out with us in the park this past year, we hope to see you in the gym!

Stay tuned for info on our Grand Opening!

Also, congratulations to USA Soccer for beating Spain(!) 2-0.

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3 rounds for time of:

21 DB Deadlifts

15 DB Hang Power Cleans

9 DB Front Squats

6 DB Push Presses

400 m run

Thanks to everyone who came out one last time!

Nick Hawkes, formerly of CF Invictus, future Utah Wildland Firefighter, writes about bursting the comfort bubble.

This article, posted on CF Endurance, really speaks to us here at South Baltimore CrossFit.  As some of you know, we’ve been looking for a space for the past few months, and are very close to signing a lease for an 1800 sq ft space in the Federal Hill area.  Great news, indeed, but this certainly bursts our comfort bubble.  Up to now, even though we’ve had to deal with some challenges by not having a space (seriously how many rainy Thursdays have we had in a row?!), the free weekly workouts have been fairly easy to maintain.  Lug some stuff out to the park once a week and go to town.  No overhead, no worries.  However, we were always doing this with the intent on moving into a space and running a full-blown facility.  That day is quickly approaching!

The switch from once a week to multiple daily workouts will be a challenge.  If you know any of us, you know that we love to stay busy with activities and sports, and it’ll be a shock to have to scale those back to devote time to SBCF.  Like Nick, we’ve also gotten the confused questions.  “Why would you do that?  You make plenty of money at a day job you enjoy.  Why risk so much so much money and time to start a whole new venture?”  The answer is, quite simply, because it is our dream to run a successful CrossFit facility in Baltimore.  To us, success (in addition to being financially solvent!) is bringing CrossFit to a new area, and showing people that they had an athlete in them all along.  Like Nick, we’re going to step outside our comfort bubble, and face the challenges that await to go after our goals.  I hope you’ll come along with us, because our dream is nothing without you, our athletes.

Watch this space for updates on our Grand Opening.  After we sign the lease and have access to the space, we’ll likely stop the free weekly workouts to devote our efforts to preparing for the opening.  Feel free to email us if you’d like to lend a hand!

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3 rounds each for time of:

Row 1 min for calories

KB Swings

Each round you must accumulate 50 reps between calories and swings.  Rest 2 min between rounds.

Come out rain or shine or thunder or lightning. Once again we’ll be under the gazebo if it’s coming down hard. Check out this link http://www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/003018.html for a serious buddy workout

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Handstand practice

Buddy Workout – AMRAP 15 minutes

Wheelbarrow with buddy 30 steps

Buddy does 5 elevated push-ups

10 squats (both people)

15 sit-ups (both people)

Switch wheelbarrow duties and repeat!

Today, like much of the past month, rain is forecasted.  See below for survival instructions:

1. Locate a standard water faucet, which can be found in most modern bathrooms or kitchens.

2. Turn on water.

3. In an inconspicuous area, rub a small amount of water into skin.

4. If no detrimental effects are experienced, feel free to work out in the rain.

If it’s really coming down we’ll be under the gazebo.

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“Annie’s Thrusting”

50-40-30-20-10 Double unders, alternating with…

10-8-6-4-2 Thrusters

I’ll have to do some searching, but I’m fairly sure this is a SBCF invention.  Everyone’s always having trouble counting their rounds in the AMRAP style workouts.  Putting chalk lines in the floor and all sorts of nonsense…  Well we finally have a solution.  At the end of the workout, count your burpee tokens.

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AMRAP in 10 min of…

10 KB Swings

Run up hill

1 Burpee

Run down hill

Every round, add a burpee.

Just wanted to take a minute to thank the soldiers, past and present, who make major, minor, and ultimate sacrifices for the freedoms we enjoy.  I hope you did something to remember them today.  Maybe for you it was a Band of Brothers marathon, or maybe it was…

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“Murph”

Run 1 mile

100 Pull-ups

200 Push-ups

300 Squats

Run 1 mile

For time.
Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you’ve got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

Troy: 55:31 (wore it, first mile was 7:30, 20 hr fast, in rain, fat jungle-gym bar pull-ups)

What’s the purpose of the deadlift?  You could take it from me, but Mark Rippetoe, master of all things strength, has something to say about it.  The deadlift is very simply the anatomically correct way to pick something up off the ground.  If you plan on picking up something, training the deadlift is absolutely essential!  No, you don’t ever have to try and pick up as much as this guy (that’s over 1000 lbs he’s standing over), but maybe your life requires you to pick up a bag of mulch, or a handcuffed suspect, or an incapacitated patient.  Train the deadlift, and reap the benefits (just make sure you do it correctly<- scroll down and watch the vids under “Power Lifts”).

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5 (or 3) Rounds for time of the couplet:

5 DL (use heavy challenging weight)

10 burpees

We’ll be out there rain or shine.  If it’s raining fairly hard, we’ll be  under the gazebo.

Thanks to all the new people we’ve been getting out.  Keep watching the site, we should have a space soon!

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“Football Gone Bad”

Perform 1 minute of each exercise; when all 5 have been completed, rest 1 min.  3 rounds.  Score is total reps.

Thrusters (scaled 65/45)

Box Jumps (subbed agility jumps over parallete, over and back is 1)

Double unders

Pushups

Row (Cal is score)

Post total score to comments.