My friend Shaun Kennedy and I had set out to climb Castle Peak (14,265 feet), just outside Aspen, Colorado. We reached the summit from our starting point of 11,200' in 2 hours, 45 minutes, and were sitting on the top at 8:45 AM. We completed the most difficult portion of our descent and were walking across a flat, snow-covered basin. One instant I was fat, dumb and happy, the next instant it was dark and I was falling.

See also Vince Shimp describing his escape from the crevasse on video.

Tony Budding caught up with Vince at the CrossFit Level 1 cert in Golden, CO on October 24, 2008. In this video, Vince describes the experience in detail, using the white board to draw the various scenarios.

When enough support arrived and they were able to lower two lines down with handholds, all Vince had to do was pull himself up the holds with his arms (there was no traction whatsoever for his feet). At that point, Vince said to himself, “Thank God I CrossFit!”

Note that there is an audio only version of this video. And, see also the companion written article by Paul Eich.

21min 33sec

Mary talks about some of the challenges of working out as she gets older, as well as the amazing impact the training has had on all aspects of her life. You learn to never give up, she says.

This video is the workout portion of Mary’s session. It is comprised of two couplets. The first is walking lunges and push-ups; the second is a modified rope climb and box step ups. She gets a full rest between them.

Also see Part 1 The Warmup.

10min 39sec

"Are you kidding me?" I couldn't believe it. I weighed over 200 pounds again. How is this possible? I had been in the army for over 16 years, doing daily PT, lifting weights…and was over 200 pounds. Diets, starving, taking caffeine pills…over 200 pounds. Thirty-five years old and five-foot ten inches tall…over 200 pounds.

It worked. He lost about 15lbs in 3 months, and was down nearly 30lbs a few months after that. But by the time he took his Level 1 Certification in August, 2008, and CrossFit West Point (now known as Black and Gold CrossFit) was born, CrossFit was not just about losing weight.

CrossFit really began to change for me at this point; no longer just an exercise program, it became a leader-development tool. CrossFit West Point became a vehicle to interact with cadets essentially as peers. The word started to spread on CFWP.

Tanya recently attended the CrossFit Olympic Lifting Seminar with Coach Mike Burgener at CrossFit Montclair.

This video is the second, concluding part of Tanya’s story, put together by the crew at CrossFit Again Faster. She talks about her experiences as a D1 athlete in college and how the mental toughness required to compete at that level relates to both daily CrossFit workouts and the CrossFit Games. Also, Coach B works with her on finishing the extension and speed under the bar in the clean.

Part 1 of this video is here.

6min

0:00 Show intro and CrossFit Journal Challenge
2:00 Bill Henniger of Rogue Fitness
15:00 Nick and Rebecca Ballstaedt on CrossFit marriage counseling
26:30 Some science of the stability ball
28:20 Jimi Letchford of Operation Phoenix
41:00 No news in the news
43:00 Comment of the week from Amie
48:00 Andy Stumpf from CrossFit Coronado

1hr 11min 18sec

I started paying attention to the CrossFit website four years ago. From the very beginning, CrossFit was built on mold-breaking, counter-culture methodology. One of the cornerstones of CrossFit was its analytical and objective approach to fitness. Establishment, theory, and speculation were cast aside and replaced with workouts that produced results. Recently, I’ve noticed more and more complaints about the less-noticeable information posted alongside the Workout of the Day. Right-leaning political commentary, articles, and studies are occasionally popping up on rest-day postings. To some this is a perverse and offensive combination....If an ideological affiliation had to be applied to CrossFit, it would almost certainly be the "Libertarian method" of fitness. Individual responsibility reigns, and everyone is held to the same standards of performance. Can you blame Coach Glassman for extending ideas that work so effectively in the fitness world to a larger model? Is it CrossFit's fault for seeing the parallels between a grass-roots fitness methodology and a free and effective society?

Dan, a former TV news director, doesn’t agree that appreciating the real world benefits of CrossFit necessitates a particular political view.

My beef? Some CrossFitters have a reflexive prejudice. They are in love with simple-minded perversity. They seem to think that if most people favor something, it must be wrong. But it ain’t necessarily so. Here’s the ultimate bit of contrarianism: sometimes the conventional wisdom is right. Sometimes expert opinion is well founded....In the fitness realm, who could argue against hard work or individual responsibility? But does it really follow that lax regulation of financial markets is a good idea? Could isolation exercises have a place in rehab programs? Might it be okay to eat bananas after all? Could raising taxes on the top 1% be sound economic policy?

Their full arguments are in the article. And, as always, if you have something to say, Post thoughts to Comments.

The term was placed there by Pat Barber, 22, who thinks that Freddy Camacho is old. The term passed through the editorial process unnoticed.

The conversation is partly serious, but mostly irreverent, as the four throw around technical terms like smoking seniors, sexy seniors, and recycled teenagers.

In this Part 1 The Press, Adrian Bozman explains the basics of performing the press correctly, including the role of midline stability. In this video, the press is taught primarily as a skill transfer exercise for the push press and the push jerk, which are much more athletic movements with significantly higher power generation. They are described in Part 2 The Push Press and Part 3 The Push Jerk (forthcoming).

For more detailed descriptions of the press as a specialized training drill, see these articles by Bill Starr and Mark Rippetoe.

The video was captured at the CrossFit Level 1 Certification Seminar in Golden, CO on October 24, 2008. Chris Spealler is the demogirl.

5min 42sec

As rangers and special agents for the National Park Service, we protect those who visit the park from themselves, others, and the park itself. Of course, we also protect the park from those who visit. Most are just ignorant visitors in need of education, but a few would wantonly despoil our shared national heritage.

On any given day, we can be carrying an injured hiker out from the Vernal Falls trail corridor, wrestling a drunk on the Curry Village pizza deck, raiding a marijuana cultivation site on the steep, brush-choked canyon walls of the Merced river, retrieving a body from the maelstrom at the base of Nevada Falls, heli-rappelling onto the sheer face of El Capitan (pictured), fighting a forest fire in 100-degree weather, hunting poachers on our boundary, extricating victims from the wreckage of a motor-vehicle accident, or searching for a lost hiker in a winter storm.

In many ways, the CrossFit system is tailor-made for National Park Service rangers. The diversity of challenges we face in our environment, the number of hats we wear, and the unpredictability of the call-load all favor the prepared. CrossFit prepares us for these challenges like no other system that I know of. This statement is validated time and again in real-life-out-of-the-gym tests.

The video shows Coach B at work, showing his “simple” system for getting anyone to do the Olympic lifts. While there are plenty of instructional nuggets here, this is not an instructional video. For straight instruction, see Coach B’s multiple articles and videos in the Olympic Lifts section of the Journal.

Instead, this is much more about the man himself. There is extensive footage of Coach talking about his history: Growing up on a farm in southern Illinois, getting interested in weight training, lifting for Notre Dame and York Barbell, coaching his children, including Casey to the 2008 Olympic team.

10min 28sec

0:00 Intro and Jason "Rhabdo" Kaplan - The 1:53 Fran
22:30 CrossFit Journal Challenge
24:00 Success Story: Steve Liberati from Steve's Club
38:20 John Brown of CrossFit Agoge and the Hopper Deck
48:00 Comments of the Week
53:00 Cyndi Rodi from CrossFit Kids

1hr 14min 16sec

Mary tells a little of her history, which is also covered in her 2004 article A CrossFit Grandma. Mary has been training CrossFit for almost nine years, having to deal with a lifetime of bad posture, decades of inactivity, and some more serious ailments such as shingles and melanoma.

In this video, Mary does a thorough warmup, followed by some skill work, including squats, deadlifts, and moving odd objects.

10min 39sec

Bill Starr is the author of the books The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football, Defying Gravity, and thousands of magazine articles. He was the editor of Bob Hoffman's Strength and Health, Joe Weider's Muscle Builder, and a nationally-ranked Olympic weightlifter and powerlifter back in the day. Bill was one of the first professional strength coaches in the country, has forgotten more about training than most coaches will ever have the opportunity to learn, and makes a very convincing crab cake if you can talk him into it.

This article is both an instructional piece on overhead lifting, as well as a history of the unfortunate demise of overhead lifting in most strength and conditioning programs for fear of injury. Ironically, the press, push press and jerks are ideal exercises for building strong, healthy shoulders that are resistant to injury.

In this Part 3, Boz and Todd start with an interview of Steve Tankersly, the owner of CrossFit Flood. Then, it’s on to the group workout. The Friday afternoon class is large and stresses both the available space and equipment. They get creative, taking advantage of work/rest intervals to double up on equipment, and using benches and a tractor tire to supplement their standard boxes. They conclude with a standard sign-off (sort of).

Adrian Bozman and Todd Widman are two of CrossFit’s top trainers. They spend a significant portion of their time traveling around the country working the CrossFit Level 1 and Level 2 certification seminars.

8min 24sec

Tanya recently attended the CrossFit Olympic Lifting Seminar with Coach Mike Burgener at CrossFit Montclair.

This video is the first part of Tanya’s story, put together by the crew at Again Faster. She talks about her background, and what it's like being a strong female athlete. Also, Coach B works with her on the setup for the snatch, and finishing the extension.

7min 11sec

The article explains that you need the pain, swelling, and shakiness of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) because it indicates that your muscles are adapting to your last workout by getting stronger. It discusses why some workouts hurt more than others (and massage and stretches don’t do much to minimize it), and strategies to manage DOMS over the long term.

The video ended with “Anyone else care to try?” Rob responded with a resounding Yes! He ended up doing six rounds of the workout about 20sec faster than Matt had done the original three. Here is his story.

See the video of Rob’s efforts here.

See the original King Kong video with Matt Okonsky [wmv] [mov].

See Josh Everett’s 2:31 King Kong [wmv] [mov]

See Tamara Holmes perform Queen Kong.

See Rob Orlando's KingKinggg KongKonggg story here.

See the original King Kong video from CrossFit Alexandria [wmv] [mov].

See Josh Everett's 2:31 King Kong [wmv] [mov]

0:00 Show intro
6:50 Joe Marsh of CrossFit Las Vegas
15:00 The CrossFit “Celebrity”
18:30 Jolie Gentry
38:20 Main site comments
40:30 Jimi Letchford on Operation Phoenix

57min 28sec

The video and audio articles are not contained in the PDF.

There were 21 total articles published in October, 15% more than last month: 5 audio podcasts, 10 video articles, and 6 prose articles.

Greg Amundson is arguably the most famous early CrossFit monster. In this article, he shares his strategies for setting up and executing a workout for maximum efficiency. He describes ideal equipment placing, counting down instead of up, and incorporating active rest.

Every second counts, and a good workout strategy can mean the difference between setting a record time and falling just shy.

Yet, there are a lot of concerns about the safety of drinking milk, especially for adults. Most of these concerns, Lon asserts, are based on myth and not fact. Every semester, every coaching seminar, and, seemingly every day, Lon writes that he gets at least one question about milk for exercising populations. Milk, he asserts, is safe for the great majority of the population, especially at the levels recommended by the American Dietetic Association.

The bottom line for those without diagnosed pathology, Lon concludes, is that not drinking milk is either a personal preference or a blind acceptance of unsubstantiated convention.

Adrian Bozman and Todd Widman are two of CrossFit’s top trainers. They spend a significant portion of their time traveling around the country working the CrossFit Level 1 and Level 2 certification seminars.

In this episode, we catch them in a visit to CrossFit Flood, where they do two private training sessions and one group class. This Part 2 1/2 is the group warm-up they do before the main workout. They address all the essential components of Coach Glassman's article while building community and camaraderie.

7min 4sec

The kettblebell drills also provide various balance and coordination challenges that tax the body in different ways than similar barbell/dumbbell movements.

And that's not all, as Larry Gallagher found out. You will also learn to speak a little "Martone," a unique and infectious East Coast Sicilian-American dialect that will creep into daily conversations both in and out of the gym.

0:00 Show Intro
2:25 Jeannie Bassie of Beach CrossFit in Virginia Beach
16:30 How to know you've been sipping too much of the Kool-Aid
22:40 "No News" from the Journal of Clinical Pathology
24:00 Mikki Martin of CrossFit Brand X and CrossFit Kids
43:40 Justin's sons' broken arms
47:30 Comments of the week
49:10 Lauren Glassman

1hr 10min 58sec

Coach Glassman describes the role and importance of squatting in life and fitness, along with the salient features of a good squat. Lani Lau is the Demogirl (an official seminar term that applies to men also). Those familiar with the current format of the Level 1 seminars will see the origins of the current three movement lectures and small group training.

10min 23sec

The video starts off with Gillian saying she intended to power clean the weight and then do a thruster. This was legitimate by the rules established, but was very inefficient. She explains that she had only done squat cleans on two occasions before and wasn't confident she could do it. Coach B insists she could and gives her an impromptu lesson in the squat clean. He also gives her some CrossFit-style tips for cycling reps faster.

Gillian finished the workout in 5:11 (5th best of the day), which was good enough to earn her third overall in the Games. Caity Matter had the best time of the day at 3:30, which was enough to win her the Games. Tanya Wagner took second overall with a final workout time of 4:40.

8min 10sec

The Beginner’s Ladder focuses on three bodyweight exercises: the squat, push-up and pull-up. As a group, these exercises are hard to beat for a number of reasons, and are appropriate for CrossFit rookies and veterans alike. As equipment-free (save a pull-up bar) bodyweight exercises, the squat, push-up and pull-up are important because they each teach beginners how to coordinate their body parts in motion before attempting to control themselves with additional resistance.

In this article, Judd Xavier and Tom Rankin explain the ladder in detail, and how to use it with various levels of beginning CrossFitters.

0:00 Show Intro
3:13 Josh Bunch - Competitive bodybuilder using CrossFit
23:24 How to know you've been sipping too much of the Kool-Aid
26:15 "News" from ACSM and AHA
30:55 Nicole Carroll - CrossFit HQ Director of Training
49:10 Comments of the week
52:15 Brian Mackenzie - CrossFit Endurance

1hr 18min 23sec

They conclude with a high intensity workout, which was max reps in 1 minute of wallball, jump rope, and ball slams each, with plenty of rest in between. Then, after a complete rest, perform the same number of reps of all three in as little time as possible.

Jim Baker is 61, and has been training CrossFit for over a decade. He is a co-owner of CrossFit Santa Cruz Central. His youngest client is in her mid-fifties, and his oldest is in her mid-eighties.

9min 22sec (Note: some explicit lyrics during the workout music)

Kyle Maynard says that he has been doing things that people didn't expect him to do for a long time. Though he was born with a rare condition called congenital amputation, Kyle lives a normal life. He played football in 6th grade, and wrestled in high school. He found CrossFit several months ago and trained in his basement. He's also written a bestselling book No Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in Wrestling and in Life, and regularly gives motivational talks around the country.

Josh Bunch was frustrated. He loved CrossFit for his clients, and had even affiliated his gym. “I loved watching my clients do their workouts and was jealous I couldn’t get in on the fun. Inevitably, I began to theorize. Why not modify CrossFit to fit a bodybuilder?”

It’s common practice for competitive athletes to use CrossFit for GPP (General Physical Preparation), and add specialized drills for their sport. Josh writes about his successful application of hypertrophy-inducing and muscle-shaping isolation exercises on top of core CrossFit programming. All the while, acknowledging, and in spite of, CrossFitters’ public disdain for “show” muscles.

In this lecture from Tuesday morning, Coach Glassman talks about the differences between anaerobic and aerobic training. Those familiar with the current seminar lectures will see the origins of the What is CrossFit lecture. Note the absence of year when referencing Journal issues, and the emphasis on how “seriously web-enabled” the PDFs are.

This lecture took place at 2851 Research Park Drive, Unit B, Soquel, CA. This is the original CrossFit box. The wall holding the white board was torn down in 2003 to make the two-unit space famous in the many pictures and videos from 2004 to early 2008.

15min 46sec

0:00 Show Intro
4:20 JJ on the wrestlers he coaches
17:20 Letter from Sean P (US Army Cavalry Scout) on the efficacy of CrossFit for soldiers in Iraq
21:30 Caity Matter (winner of the 2008 CrossFit Games) interview
38:20 Comments of the Week
43:30 Dave Castro clip on Outside Magazine's "Fittest Real Men in America"
46:50 Robb Wolf Interview

1hr 15min 6sec

Jim explains that training the elderly is not simply a matter of scaling workouts. There are many considerations such as long term injuries, medications, balance, and vision that affect their ability to train. They still need to work hard at a variety of functional movements, of course, just not always with the same approach as the young.

In this first episode, Jimmy gives a general introduction to these considerations, and his approach to coaching the elderly.

7min 39sec

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Henk Verschuur; I am the president of the Dutch Martial Arts Federation (a member of the National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands). We are always looking for ways to improve our athletes, and although we produce a large number of world and continental champions, events are getting less easy to win.

I had the brilliant idea of testing CrossFit as the physical basic training for our man in the heavyweight division. To make a long story short, the new heavyweight champion Sanda lives in, and originated from, the Netherlands, Europe. We needed to know more about CrossFit!

Free Henk Video 1 [wmv] [mov]
Free Henk Video 2 [wmv] [mov]

Here are a few of the topics discussed:

• Why bother?
• Uncle Rhabdo and the so-called “cavalier attitude” of CrossFit toward injury
• The “cult-like” allegiance to Coach Glassman
• The accusation that CrossFit is simply a “bastardized version” of Alwyn Cosgrove's approach
• Injuries in the military that are supposedly results of CrossFitting
• The assertion that adults cannot learn Oly-lifts
• Kipping pull-ups are cheating and harmful

Neil plays clips from the Boyle podcast and the five respond.

Kids are not just little adults. They don’t think about their bodies the way adults do, so they don’t respond to the same cues. Uniformity, repetition, visual, kinesthetic, and audio cuing are all necessary for teaching kids. Compound that with the group dynamics of a roomful of five to eight year olds, and a special strategy is required. This video is for anyone who has ever used the phrase “lumbar curve” with a child under ten. 8min 44sec

03:47 Kyle Maynard interview - Introduction and conclusion only. Unfortunately, there was a temporary failing with both the studio recording equipment and the back up recording, and most of this interview was lost.
07:35 Marine Corps Scout-sniper instructor "Matt" discusses the efficacy of CrossFit
17:30 Wii Fit "Review"
21:58 Special surprise guest appearance by Greg Glassman
30:55 New segment - No News in the News
32:33 Affiliate co-director Lisa Lugo interview
46:03 Comments of the Week
47:55 CrossFit Games 2008 winner Jason Khalipa interview

1hr 13min 24sec

This video, produced by the Again Faster crew, tracks Steve's experience before, during, and after the CrossFit Level 1 certification seminar in Virginia Beach, VA on August 23-24, 2008.

13min 49sec

The video and audio articles are not contained in the PDF.

There were 18 total articles published in September, 20% more than in any monthly issue: 2 audio podcasts, 10 video articles, and 6 prose articles.

In this episode, we catch them in a visit to CrossFit Flood, where they do two private training sessions and one group class. This Part 2 focuses on Boz’s training of Tatum Lehman. Tatum was struggling with her Oly-lifts. Boz takes her through an extensive review of the clean and jerk, after which she does a Running-Broken-Grace. Throughout the workout, Boz guides Tatum around the edges of technique, efficiency, and intensity. 10min 18sec

0min - Show intro
6min - AllisonNYC on CrossFit “haters”
15min - Mike Boyle defending his podcast comments
43min - Sean Waxman responding to Mike Boyle's podcast
54min - Best comments of the week (Cameron and nathan_t)
57min - Tony Blauer on MMA vs street defense

1hr 19min

Operation Phoenix: The transformation of the original CFHQ, which had already spun off three affiliates in Santa Cruz, into a training ground for Marines at Camp Pendleton. StrikeFO (Paul Szoldra) created this third and final installment of the project. 16min 1sec

The first two parts were edited by Lauren Glassman and previously shown on CrossFit.com:
Part 1 [wmv] [mov]
Part 2 [wmv] [mov]

After Snatch Balancing 90kg (about 10% more than his Snatch PR), Dutch goes for a 1RM Snatch. He breaks his PR twice, topping out at 86kg. Not too shabby for weighing 70kg (155lbs). 5min 58sec

0min - Show intro
9min - Johnny DiGregorio, a CrossFitter who has lost 180lbs in 3 years
18min - Teaser clip of Mike Boyle's trashing of CrossFit in his podcast
29min - Tony Budding on the CrossFit Journal
46min - Best comments of the week
48min - Tony Blauer on scenario-based self defense

Unfortunately, the recording protocol automatically stopped after an hour, so a good portion of Tony Blauer's interview was lost. It was clear that Neil had just scratched the surface with him, so they agreed he'd come back soon. This gives them even more incentive for a quick round 2.
60min 47sec

In this episode, we catch them in a visit to CrossFit Flood, where they do two private training sessions and one group class. This Part 1 focuses on Todd’s training of Don Brick. Don was struggling with the kipping pull-up. Todd takes him through a progression that gets Don doing a standard kip. Then, they put the new pull-up to the test in Fran, where Don sets a new PR. 10min 33sec