14.09.08
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff at 9:07 pm by Colin McNulty
At the risk of sounding like Bill and Ted, day 2 of the Crossfit Certification at Manchester was another totally awesome day. The day started off with a lecture from Todd on the 3rd set of the 9 core Crossfit movements: Deadlift, Sumo Deadlift High Pull (SDHP) and the Medicine Ball Clean, followed by practice outside.
After was an open floor Q&A session with Coach Glassman. I’ve read a few things online about Coach, but Greg is in reality a most unassuming man. This is me with Coach, he was very gracious to pose for so many pictures.
For someone who heads up an international exercise movement with an estimated 300,000 followers, he’s surprisingly modest about his achievements. I took several key points away from the session, which covered a whole host of topics:
- Glassman is not precious about the Crossfit way / WoD (Workout of the Day) He actually hopes one day someone will show that they have a better, more efficacious approach than the WoD!
- There were various conversations about other approaches and variations of Crossfit, for which Greg was completely happy to entertain the idea and watch the experimentation of people doing it. Of course his reaction was simply this: If some other approach is better, let’s see it do well at the Crossfit Games. Then I’ll take notice.
- He admitted to making mistakes with the WoD’s on occassion. E.g. 400m of 10 lunges + 15 reps of 35kg Push Presses. Sounds tough but doable? It took Greg Edmundson (a Crossfit poster boy) over an hour to finish it! Coach described it as “An Abomination!” lol
(I can laugh cos I didn’t have to do it.)
- There was talk about the future of Crossfit and where it can go and Greg made the point that they have more ideas than they have staff to cope with them.
- I was also surprised to learn that Crossfit Inc has only just turned a profit for the first time this year. Bare in mind that Crossfit, it terms of what Greg Glassman has been doing, is coming up 30 years old now! That’s one hell of a gestation period.
- On a Crossfit note, Glassman really stressed the point that the heavy days, e.g. the 5 x 1 rep Dead lifts etc, are *really* important to the Crossfit methodology, and shouldn’t be considered easy or rest days. They really should be absolute max strength days.
One thing that I really came away with was simply this: Greg Classman has a great manner about him, he’s an unassuming but capable orator, who engenders trust and loyalty in those that listen to him.
After lunch was a lecture by Nicole Carroll on nutrition and recommended Crossfit diet: The Zone Diet. In case you can’t guess, I’m the not the pretty one on the left! 
The Zone diet stuff was nothing new to me, I’ve been on it for 18 months after all, but it was interesting to see some of Nicole’s slight variations on the Zone prescription in terms of things like the frequency of cheat days and the minimum blocks to prescribe for small people.
There followed the main workout activity, which included 5 stations:
- Push Press practice
- Medicine Ball clean practice
- Kipping pull ups and rope climb technique
- Muscles ups
- And the main workout of the day: 30 – 20 – 10 each of Thrusters and Burpees. To coin a phrase from Crossfit Manchester coach Karl Steadman: That sucked a fat mans arse!
Later Todd talked again about general Crossfit methodology, the ways to combine the 3 main types of workout: Weightlifting, Gymnastics and Mono-structured (running, rowing etc). It included topics on the 3:1 work to rest day ratio vs the 5:2. Also an example of how to scale a WoD for different ability levels of Crossfit client.
Ultimately that was it. There were photo sessions and plenty of time for questions of all kinds to all people and I don’t believe anyone went away with anything they wanted to ask unanswered. All together, the weekend was great, and that’s all I can say about it. If you get the chance, you should go on a Crossfit cert. This is the Crossfit Manchester crew with all the Crossfit Coaches: Greg, Nicole, Todd, Jimmy and Andy:
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Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff at 4:04 am by Colin McNulty
WTF am I doing up at 3am on a Sunday morning when I should be tucked up in bed fast asleep? I’ll tell you:
After being woken up by the cat puking up on the landing floor, my head is buzzing with all things Crossfit. Spending a full 9-5 day at a Crossfit Certification being lectured and coached by some of the best Crossfitters in the world, has a tendency to do that to you. It was always going to be good, but there were 2 great surprises.
First was that it wasn’t Annie who came over, but Nicole Carroll who has more excitable energy than any human has a right to:
The second a great surprise was that despite what I had been told last week, Crossfit Founder, Coach Greg Glassman himself flew in at the last minute, just an hour before we started.
Now I’ve seen both Carroll and Greg on the many videos that are on the main crossfit site, but seeing them in the flesh and hearing them give the lectures first hand is a totally awesome experience, one that I won’t forget for a long while. On top of that were Andy, Jimmy and Todd (one is Navy Seal Officer, the other a US Marine Corp Captain I think, but I forget which. Nice guys to know!)
There are 70 people on the certification, from all round Europe: Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and even as far away as South Africa. Plus the trainers from almost every affiliate in the UK. The day started with the obligatory introductions and then we got straight down to a “What is Crossfit and Why do we do what we do?” given by Greg Glassman, and if anyone should know, the guy who invented it should! If you don’t know, the core elements of Crossfit are:
- Functionality
- Intensity
- Variance
2nd up was Nicole Carroll who took us through the first 3 of 9 core Crossfit exercises:
- Squat – Front Squat – Overhead Squat
- Shoulder Press – Push Press – Push Press
- Deadlift – Sumo Dead Lift High Pull – Medicine Ball Clean
Afterwards we went outside and worked through the squats with PVC pipe.
After lunch, an afternoon lecture from Greg again on “What is Fitness” included a great run down on: the history of Crossfit; how Greg started off as a “Bike riding, weight training, gymnast.”; the creation of the Thruster; and the invention of the infamous Crossfit Workout named Fran.
Another lecture on the 2nd set of 3 core exercises followed another stint outside in surprisingly glorious British sunshine with the poly pipes.
Lastly the obligatory workout was done for time, in teams of 3:
- 200m run
- 30 air squats
- 30 kettlebell swings
3 hours down the boozer in the evening topped off a great day. Although my 3 hours sleep tonight is not going to help day 2 that’s for sure.
I suspect I’ll be blogging about Crossfit even more in the future.
EDIT: See here for Manchester Crossfit Certification Day 2
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08.09.08
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff at 8:45 pm by Colin McNulty
Next week I’m attending the first ever Crossfit Instructors’ Certification being held outside of America, and I have to travel exactly 1.1 miles from my front door to get to it at Crossfit Manchester!
Interestingly I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it though. One the one hand, it is in itself an exciting event. The Crossfit certification is bringing together Crossfitters from across Europe and I believe as far afield as South Africa, which in itself will be great. Getting couched by Crossfit HQ trainers like Annie Sakamoto will also be totally awesome. Or course getting my Level 1 cert will be a great achievement (assuming I pass) considering my lard arsed past.
However that is tempered by several things. First there’s the fact that I already enjoy excellent Crossfit coaching from Mark and Karl, the www.CrossfitManchester.co.uk Level 2 Crossfit coaches. So I strongly suspect whereas for many who attend who have only been Crossfitting off the website, I probably have less to learn. That’s not meant to sound condescending, but I simply wouldn’t have stayed at Crossfit Manchester for the last 18 months, if I didn’t think that the quality of the coaching was among the best I could get. If I had just been going off the website myself, I’m reasonably sure that myself taught technique would probably be appalling.
Additionally there’s the slight trepidation of 2 full on days of workouts and the slight fear that I won’t be up to the fitness standard, especially judging by how much I still ache from Barbara on Saturday! Finally there’s the disappointment at the news that Greg Glassman himself won’t be attending, which we’d all be told he would be. Whilst I have no doubts that the coaching will be world class, it would have been great to shake the hand of the man that invented Crossfit and personally thank him for the life altering changes it has had on me.
Still it’s going to be great I’m sure. In preparation, Crossfit HQ has sent me all the Crossfit Journals all 70 of them! I’ve already read the last 2 years worth, but some of them have some great articles. As someone who has suffered 15 years of knee pain, had been told by Doctors to stop doing exercise till it was better and was extremely worried about any form of exercise when I started Crossfit, the following article snippet was particularly apt (my highlights):
By Mark Rippetoe – He has 28 years experience in the fitness industry and 10 years experience as a competitive powerlifter. He has been certified as an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist since 1985 and is a USA Weightlifting Level III Coach and Senior Coach, as well as a USA Track and Field Level I Coach.
Anyone who says that full squats are “bad for the knees” has, with that statement, demonstrated conclusively that they are not entitled to an opinion about the matter.
People who know nothing about a topic, especially a very technical one that requires specific training, knowledge, and experience, are not due an opinion about that topic and are better served by being quiet when it is asked about or discussed. For example, when brain surgery, or string theory, or the NFL draft, or women’s dress sizes, or white wine is being discussed, I remain quiet, odd though that may seem.
But seldom is this the case when orthopaedic surgeons, athletic trainers, physical therapists, or nurses are asked about full squats. Most such people have absolutely no idea what a full squat even is, and they certainly have no concept of how it affects the knees, unless they have had additional training beyond their specialties, which for the professions mentioned does not include full squats. Because if these people knew anything about squatting, and the difference between a full squat and any other kind of squat and what they do to the knees, they would know that “full squats are bad for the knees” is wrong and thus would not be making such a ridiculous statement.
….
Now, this is not to say that doctors, PTs, and nurses haven’t been exposed to knee anatomy. They have, but they have not, as a rule, been exposed to correct squatting, and thus they have no idea how the movement is related to knee anatomy. The fact is that the knee and hip anatomy actually dictate correct squatting technique. Smart as these people are, you’d think that they could figure this out, and thus derive correct technique, the way we ignorant, uneducated lifters have. But I guess you’d be wrong if you thought that.
Hahaha, Rippetoe is famous for his no nonsense blunt approach to life and this article is indicative of the great quality content the Crossfit Journal contains. It used to be delivered as an emailed pdf each month, but they have just changed this to a subscription based website.
On the subject of knee pain though, I never did get a satisfactory answer as to the cause of mine from the several consultants, x-rays, MRI’s and exploratory surgery I had. All I know is that for 15 years I’ve been unable to kick a football, or walk down stairs without fearing my knee would give way and I’d fall over. But within just 3 months of Crossfit, all that went away. I’ve had np knee pain for over a year now and I have no fear of any knee effecting activity or exercise. All hail the mighty Crossfit, and bring on that cert!
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