Heavy Thrusters

Today we had our largest Saturday group in a while but we still managed to squeeze into the dreary confines of the gym for some heavy weight lifting.

We worked on the CrossFit Warm Up (CFWU) and then got to work refining our technique on thrusters. Thrusters are a combination Front Squat and Overhead Press that is coordinated into one movement. It requires a lot of hip drive out of the bottom to help get the heavier weights over your head so it's not as much a shoulder press as an explosive hip drive that moves the weight.


Kyeong getting after our obligatory pull ups in every warm up. Pull ups are one of the best upper body exercises around but no one likes them because they can be very, very difficult.


Ryan showing good extension at the top while David works to correct his foot placement. The personalized coaching you recieve during every CrossFit workout is invaluable in getting your technique perfected as quickly as possible. Proper technique drastically reduces your risk of injury in the weight room. Throwing around too much weight with crappy technique almost insures some kind of injury.


Doc Baker showing off his "guns" while lifting heavy. Who says you can't get ripped from "just doing CrossFit". This program will make you stronger very quickly.


Ryan working up to some serious weight with the heavy thrusters...


CrazyMonkey always wants to get into the action. You don't meet many kids these days that throw a mega-tantrem when their workout gets cut short...


Chief Johnson working hard to lock out that weight overhead. Gaining strength throughout the entire range of motion around a joint like the shoulder will go a long way toward preventing future injuries.


Newcomer Tierra demonstrating near-perfect form on her squat with an extremely vertical back. That kind of flexibility and body control makes balancing that weight near your shoulders much easier than if you are bent over. Efficient movement patterns are the key to moving large loads, long distances, quickly...


Newcomer Regina concentrating hard on her form in the front squat portion of the thruster. Notice her squat is nice and deep and she has not lost the nice lumbar curve in the small of her back. She is a natural with perfect looking thrusters on day one. Can't wait to see how she throws the weight around in a few weeks...


MadMax and CrazyMonkey sharing some of the good things in life (Lucky Charms)...

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Many CrossFit-haters have likened the attitudes of some CrossFitters to those people who are part of a cult because when someone gets bitten by the CF "bug", they usually can't shut up about fitness, speed, power, explosive hip extension, nutrition, "bad" carbs, etc...

Our latest "convert", has only been to two (2) of our workouts and she has already posted two comments to our website. Her comments motivate me beyond belief and make me want to spread the word even more. Her reaction to even a small dose of the "Kool-Aid" is similar to the stories of all of us who have instantly fallen in love with the punishment (and the RESULTS) that CrossFit regularly dishes out to those who are committed to improving their fitness and health.

A second post in a row for "Anonymous":

17 April 2009 was my first time doing a handstand and believe me I was kind of scared, but with teamwork and motivation I was able to do something I have not tried. If you try the crossfit workout you will know how much intestinal fortitude you have. You have to dig deep to complete the workouts. I am glad I came and plan on continuing.

I highlighted many of the catch-phrases that were in her thoughts. You hear many of these good buzz words when you hear about CrossFit. There are so many good things about it that it's hard to stop extolling the virtues once you get started...

Chief, you motivate me with your enthusiasm which makes me want to tackle my own workouts with more of my own enthusiasm, which will only improve my own workouts and results...

Does anyone see a vicious of motivation and improvements going on here...???

Keep up the good work Chief!!!

Team Workout Brutality

This workout was so bad, it doesn't have a name yet. I'm sure they'll think of one soon.

Max rep push ups
3 x handstand holds
Max rep push ups
3 x pull up hang
Max rep push ups
Bottom-to-bottom tabata squats
Max rep push ups
Reverse Tabata Sprints
Max rep push ups

Team 1 - 164 push ups/4:00 handstands/2:25 pull up holds/14 squats
Robinson
Trigg

Team 2 - 179 push ups/5:20 handstands/2:15 pull up holds/14 squats
Kyeong
Birdsong

Team 3 - 176 push ups/5:12 handstands/2:10 pull up holds/20 squats
Randolph
CW2 Johnson

CF Yongsan Baseline Workout

800 meter run
40 squats
30 sit ups
20 push ups
10 pull ups

James - 7:05
Steve - 7:14
SFC Johnson - 8:56

Great job everyone!!!


Randolph showin off some serious range of motion on his push ups. All the way down to the ground and all the way locked out at the top. Beautiful work!!!


James and newcomer Steve hitting the squats in the CrossFit Yongsan Baseline Workout. 800 meter run, 40 squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups and 10 pull ups to see where our fitness is now and in a few weeks, we'll hit it again to see how much faster and stronger we've all gotten.


The guys get upside down for some handstand holds. Isometric holds are a quick and "easy" to build strength.


The girls got in on the upside down action as well. Here Chief Johnson is looking strong in her very first handstand in a long, long while. She will get more comfortable being upside down as we practice more with it. Having good body awareness is a trademark of all CrossFitters. It allows us to learn and play new sports or activities without too much trouble.


The obligatory Randolph straining sighting. You can always tell how hard he's working. Awesome isn't it?!?!!???


Static pull up holds are another isometric "movement" to rapidly build upper body strength.


Teamwork and helping each other is all part of the genius that is CrossFit. Come check us out.

"We are a family here..."

15 April 2009 was my first day doing crossfit and it is awesome. I thought I was in shape. I do distance running, spinning and aerobics. The workout out I did yesterday broke me off something bad. I am sore all over and it feels great. I will be a regular on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. If you really want to be in shape and push yourself to the limit you should come out. CrazyWife and CrazyHusband you are the BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!! --Anonymous

We got our first "official" comments about CrossFit Yongsan and they were glowing!!! They were posted to our old "off-Pen" website CrazyWife CrossFit which is who we were before our new military affiliate was approved here in Korea. All that means is that this new CrossFitter was excited enough about our program that after just one workout, that they ended up surfing around our site and trying to figure out what all we had to offer. Pretty cool I'd say...!!!

And what we have to offer is one of the best things about CrossFit. The Community. You.

The comments you could post at the bottom of every post (workout) is one of the ways that we can interact with each other. We can trash talk, congratulate someone's achievements, add anything we want to the experience of working out with other great people. CrossFit attracts the best people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Typically they are driven, focused, professional, and FUN!!! You can find out alot about a person by suffering through a workout with them. Everyone's strengths and weaknesses bubble up to the surface during that shared adversity and it makes you closer to those people around you. This makes us a tight knit community. This makes CrossFit great!!!

How often do you go to your local Globo Gym and plug into your iPod, jump on your "machine" and zone out for the entire workout? I can easily shuffle through an entire workout, shower, smoothie bar visit and back out to the parking lot without saying two words to anyone. Who wants to hang out in that environment?

Randolph said it best last week...

"I love this... we are a family here..."

Amen, brother.

Burpee Races

Burpee Races

400 Burpees for time

Team 1
Dressen
Doc Baker
Birdsong
CW2 Johnson

20:45

Team 2
Ryan
Trigg
LT Forsyth
SFC Johnson

21:50

Great job guys!!!

More "brutal" workouts coming right up...


Ryan and Dressen neck and neck down the stretch...


Trigg trying to sneak over the bar. I gotta keep my eye on him...

Is that FloJo in the background???


Newcomers "Johnson & Johnson" getting in a real workout before they go off to Aerobic Class. I think they might give up the "aerobics" once they get hooked on the potency of CrossFit...


CrazyMonkey showing off his "ups"...



Birdsong catching some good air...


Ryan and Trigg working up a sweat...


LT Forsyth wondering "How did I get myself into this..."

HALF CHELSEA

MONDAY 090413

We hit 15 rounds of Chelsea today:

Chelsea

Every minute on the minute for 30 minutes perform:

5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

Doc Baker - 15 rounds (Rx'd)
Trigg - 15 (Rx'd)
Jae - 15
Henry - 15
Ryan - 11 rounds (Rx'd) + 3 more rounds
Randolph - 10/3
Robinson - 3/10

Julia - CFY Baseline workout - 6:38

Great job everyone!!!


Randolph finally ready to warm up now that the camera is out.


Henry doing a good job monitoring everyone's warm up before his big vacation. See you next month Henry!!!


Look Ma, No Bands!!! Doc Baker and Trigg hitting their pull ups "au natural", without any bands.


Ryan working hard to get that chin over the bar on every rep. Randolph demonstrating some new "Rated PG-13" pull up technique. Robinson trying to catch up...


Seeing Ryan work on the timing of his kipping pull ups obviously makes me smile. Kipping is not "cheating". It allows you to turn a difficult strength exercise (the Pull up) into a full body exercise that incorporates the explosiveness of your hips and transfers your lateral swing on the bar into vertical movement. This makes the pull ups "easier" which allows you to do more pull ups which translates into more Work which is equal to Power which is equal to INTENSITY and that is what we are looking for in all of our workouts. More INTENSITY please!!!


Julia fighting through the CF Yongsan "Baseline" workout on her own. It really wasn't punishment for showing up late I promise...


Randolph is showing off his vast improvement in his squat form. Now that is doesn't have to think about keeping his knees "out" when he gets into the bottom of the squat, is body is adapting (getting more flexible) quite well. Perfect form!!!


Jae showing off perfect for on the squat. Technique, Consitency, then Intensity. Jae is ready for more INTENSITY!!!


I wouldn't be a CrossFit Yongsan without an obligatory shot of Randolph grimacing in pain...


CrazyMonkey demonstrating the perfect squat. This is a great example of functional movement. It demonstrates how our bodies are naturally designed to move, without having to be "taught".


CrazyMonkey out squatting the shutter on CrazyWife's mondo-expensive camera...


Here is our CrossFit Yongsan Family!!! They don't look too bad after that workout, I guess I'll have to start making them harder...

Heavy Deads

The boys and I hit some Tabata Sprints before the gym opened as a last minute prep for next week's APFT. We'll see it will be enough to go faster than last time.


The little blob in the middle is CrazyMonkey trying to keep up with us on our Tabata Sprints. He was back and forth several times. Oh to have the endless energy of a child again...


We caught Dressen walking back home after a 12-hour night shift in the OR and we talked him into a quick workout in his blue jeans no less. He got right after it. Way to go man!!! Hope this helped you sleep a little better...


Kyeong pulling big weight off the floor today. She is strong!!! I can tell she is getting tired here though, her hips have dropped a little at the start and her low back is a little soft. Very strong work though, we can go even heavier next time... muuhahaaahaaha...


Randolph starting to lift some heavier weight too. I believe he topped out around 325 today. I'm going to have to get to work to stay ahead of him on these...

I would like to see a little bit more arch in his low back though. That will make it virtually impossible to get injured doing this lift.

Ryan pulling big weight today as well. Same story with his low back. Any more rounding than this and it's time to call it a day. You always have to maintain a delicate balance between perfect form and going hard enough (intensity) that your form starts to break down. That's how you get the most improvements in strength, or fitness or whatever. Way to push that envelope Ryan...


David looking as strong as ever. I think he worked his way up to 365 pounds today. I hope we weren't holding him back, I think he can pull more than that...


Our Mother/Daughter team of Renee and Lauren getting after their push ups during the standard CrossFit Warm Up. They chose to workout outside today (thank goodness). It was some beautiful weather for some Reverse Tabata Sprints. They sprints for 10 seconds and rested for 20 seconds for a total of 10 rounds. It isn't as easy as it sounds when you are sprinting "for your life". Great work ladies!!!

Tabata Death

Our CrossFit veterans hit a tough one today: Tabata Death

Tabata Push ups
Rest 1 minute
Run 800 meters
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Sit ups
Rest 1 minute
Run 800 meters
Rest 1 minute
Tabata Jumping Pull ups
Rest 1 minute
Run 800 meters

Doc Baker - 11/3:14/9/3:3:27/7/3:15
Julia - 6/3:28/12/3:38/3/3:30
Ryan - 12/knee/10/knee/knee/knee
Tomsik - 10/3:56/8/3:48/3/3:50
Randolph - 7/3:28/8/3:58/3/4:10

Several newcomers hit our baseline workout:

Run 800m
40 squats
30 sit ups
20 push ups
10 pull ups

Murphy - 7:17
Williams - 7:27
Renee - 8:38
Jonesy - 10:27 (400m run)
Mr. Jones - 7:50 (400m run)

Great job everyone!!!

CrossFit potluck

Everyone got to choose their workout today. Most of us chose an easier/shorter one today so we can hit it hard on Friday. Doc Baker and newcomer John chose to do a hard one today.

CF Yongsan Baseline

800m run
40 squats
30 sit ups
20 push ups
10 pull ups

C.H. - 6:14
Jae - 6:47
Randolph - 6:59
Tomsik - 7:20:99
Birdsong - 7:21

Doc Baker and John picked 100 perfect push ups...

100 perfect push ups

Do as many push ups as you can in a single set without resting. When you have to rest for more than a second, get up and run 400 meters. Come back and do another set of push ups. Run 400 meters everytime you can't do any more perfect push ups. Repeat until you get to 100 push ups.

Doc Baker - 6:24 (400m runs)
John - 9:42 (50 squats subbed for each 400m run)

Great job everyone!!!



We'll show you how hard 10 minutes could be... or 4 minutes...


John pullin some nice pull ups for our regular warm up. You can click the links to the right to see all six exercises we use for our dynamic warm up before every workout...


Once 3 sets of 10 push ups gets too easy, Jae will be there to add some resistance so you get stronger with every warm up.


Jae rock solid with his "L sit" on the parallettes. This is all "abs" baby...


Randolph playing with a handstand on the parallettes... Coordination, Accuracy, Balance and Agility are part of CrossFit's definition of fitness. Can your workout say that...???


Randolph with his patented "break-dancing" dismount...


Doc Baker and John workin through their 100 Perfect Push ups workout...


The boys finishing up our Baseline Workout...


A good CrossFit workout always leaves you a little devistated by the potent intensity of each workout. Intensity is the key to health and fitness success. "Embrace the suck..."


Jae showin off more "ab" work with some strong handstand push ups on the parallettes...

Who knew so many of our functional exercizes used so many different muscles at once...


Birdsong is worried you can't get "big" by "just" doing CrossFit. I don't think he has anything to worry about...


CrazyHusband with some tall guy handstand push ups using the glorious bands for an assist. It still allows you to work the movement through the full range of motion even when your not yet strong enough for some of the movements. Bonus...


John playing with Plance Push ups and handstands in the parallettes. Good work John!!!