3:40 Rob Miller owns CrossFit Delaware Valley. He described how he makes warm-ups fun and addresses different athletes’ needs during a warm-up or skill session. Miller offered some details on scaling and explained how he fosters the right kind of community at his gym. As an example, Miller talked about the system he uses to reward his athletes and encourage them to progress. Finally, he gave information on how his coaching has changed over the years as his knowledge has grown.

33:32 Austin Malleolo won the North East Regional last weekend, and he gave his thoughts on the competition. He described what it was like going into the last event tied with another athlete and how he used strategy to win the competition. The former hockey player detailed the changes he’s made to his training over the past year and how he’ll prepare for the CrossFit Games, as well as how he recovers and eats at a competition.

The CrossFit Kids curriculum is effective because it creates a physical learning environment that builds on the idea that all children have differing abilities and need to be challenged at their individual point of development in order for effective learning to take place. This differentiated instruction allows a child to continually and efficiently progress, minimizing the risk of frustration or stagnation. Every skill, every movement, every workout and every game can be scaled to a child’s ability (made easier or harder) so he or she is challenged by something difficult but not discouraged by something impossible. This not only allows for efficient and effective teaching and learning but also increases students’ desire to participate and challenge themselves.

CrossFit Kids uses the natural process of motor development to increase learning effectiveness and efficiency. Instead of confining a child’s development with rules and movement limitations of sports while running the risk of contributing to the detrimental effects of overspecialization, CrossFit Kids uses a child’s natural propensity for constantly varied movement by using constantly varied movement.

This curriculum provides for the direct teaching and assessment of necessary physical skills, and one is able to monitor progress by providing quantifiable data: movement improves, workout times decrease, number of reps increase, new movements are able to be performed. Where improvement in the traditional physical-education classroom is largely subjective, CrossFit lays the groundwork for success, achieves success and is able to prove success is happening. Children are able to perform more advanced movements more times and faster.

To a child, these successes are more than just a good grade, a pat on the back or a participation trophy; they are tangible evidence of accomplishment. Kids, like adults, want to do things well. CrossFit Kids gives children the best chance to be able to do things well because it equips them with foundational physical tools that can be applied to any future physical endeavor. It provides a pedagogically sound and effective physical-education curriculum that is fun and rigorous and provides lifelong benefits to children.

A few weeks ago, I learned that researchers affiliated with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) had published a study on CrossFit’s efficacy in the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

The study—CrossFit-Based High-Intensity Power Training Improves Maximal Aerobic Fitness and Body Composition—was conducted by Michael Smith, Ph.D., a then-Ph.D. candidate at Ohio State University working under Steven Devor, Ph.D. and Fellow of the ACSM.

Much of the study struck me as odd. Curious, I turned to CrossFit’s chief scientist, Dr. Jeff Glassman, who wrote a formal, comprehensive response to the study. The response, which makes numerous claims about the validity and rigor of Dr. Smith’s paper, focuses heavily on this particular section:

“Out of the original 54 participants, a total of 43 (23 males, 20 females) fully completed the training program and returned for follow up testing. Of the 11 subjects who dropped out of the training program, two cited time concerns with the remaining nine subjects (16% of total recruited subjects) citing overuse or injury for failing to complete the program and finish follow up testing.”

What is “overuse or injury”? The study does not define what it means by the term “overuse.” The study also does not detail what specific cases of “overuse or injury” the subjects cited, what caused them, whether the cases were pre-existing conditions, or how long the subjects experienced “overuse or injury.”

Furthermore, the study was “blind,” meaning the researchers in the lab were only able to identify participants by a single number. If the 11 subjects who failed to show up for the test-out were de-identified in this way (and obviously not present at the Ohio State lab), how could Dr. Smith collect any data on the reason for their absence?

Chelsea Rankin, a member of CrossFit 614, volunteered to be the study coordinator for Dr. Smith. During our conversation, I asked Rankin how Dr. Smith could have gathered data on why the 11 didn’t show up to the lab.

Rankin gave me her own opinion on Dr. Smith’s work: “I did all the data collection for the study, and I know every person who didn’t re-test. It was easy to figure out they weren’t injured. This data is inaccurate. Those individuals were not injured, and that wasn’t the reason they didn't test out. To me this questions the validity of the research.”

Luckily, the corresponding author, Dr. Devor, consented to a recorded phone interview, the full transcript of which is available here. More problems became apparent during our conversation. When I asked him about the collection of data from the 11 participants who did not re-test, Dr. Devor did not seem confident in answering.

At the end of our interview, Dr. Devor suggested that I speak with Dr. Smith, whom he insisted would be able to answer all my questions. He even offered to help put me in touch with him. To my surprise, I received an email from Dr. Devor two days later. It contained the following line: “I have spoken with Dr. Smith at Gonzaga University. We will have no further comment on our Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (JSCR) CrossFit publication.”

In two days, Dr. Devor had gone from conceding that I had a legitimate question and assuring me that he would help answer it to defending his apparently fraudulent data solely on the merit and authority of the journal in which it was published.

Most athletes dive into the Olympic lifts without considering what really allows someone to lift the heaviest loads and move efficiently through high-rep workouts.

I have four keys to lifting the heaviest weights and moving well in the snatch and clean and jerk. They should be used as primary points of evaluation that will need to be built upon.

To start, ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I need mobility work or am I at least somewhat comfortable in all the extreme positions for these movements?
2. Do I “rip” from the floor?
3. Do I hurry to set up or get into positions?
4. Is my mind overwhelmed or my thoughts scrambled from trying to accomplish too many things at once?
5. Do I need to calm down?

29:33 Andrea Ager missed qualifying for the CrossFit Games in 2012 by just one place. She spoke about the changes she has made in her training, why she needed a coach and how she has prepared for the SoCal Regional this year. She also gave her thoughts on the Regional events and discussed her strategies leading into the weekend.

“Going from training 24 hours a week into training not at all didn’t really work out for me,” the 23-year-old two-time CrossFit Games champion says with her quintessential smile.

So she started ballet again, and dance. That, too, didn’t stick for long.

“I loved it and I loved the shows and everything, but you don’t really compete in ballet, do you?” Thorisdottir asks.

Then it was pole vaulting. For the two years she took up the sport, she was the national champion. She had a plan to go to the Olympics, but something was amiss.

“I didn’t feel like I was getting enough,” Thorisdottir says. “I felt like I needed to sweat more.”

“Iceland Annie” started signing up for competitions all over her country; one was a CrossFit competition. The rest is history. She’s competed at the Games since 2009 and finished on the podium every year after that, winning twice.

Today, she’s healing from a late-March back injury that took her out of Open competition.

But Annie is, at heart, a competitor, and she’ll fight to return to form.

Video by Ross Coughlan.

15min 25sec

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Additional reading: CrossFit Radio Episode 237 by Justin Judkins, published Aug. 15, 2012.

This kids version of powerball involves quite a bit less tackling than the TV version featuring muscled men and women named Laser and Siren, but the goals are the same: get a ball into a guarded bucket.

Kids ready?

Trainers ready?

Go!

Her failing organs were a result of Type 1 diabetes, with which she was diagnosed at the age of 5. She reluctantly agreed to the kidney transplant in 2001, a couple of years after her daughter died following a similar procedure. Her son was 18 at the time.

“We both woke up from the OR … with a brand new appreciation of life and health,” O’Reilly says.

Respecting her health has been “huge” ever since, adds the athlete who trains at CrossFit VO2 Max in Grande Prairie, Alta., Canada. O’Reilly has significant scarring from her surgeries and has to push through some resulting mobility issues, but she’s always ready to work.

Janine Walinski of CrossFit VO2 Max says O’Reilly is one of her most dedicated clients and pushes herself during workouts no matter what—even if she’s sick.

“I’m really proud of Kimmie, most of all for her determination,” the trainer says.

O’Reilly still competes in track and field and recently took gold in all the sprint events at the Canadian Transplant Games in Calgary, Alta.

“I just want to be able to enjoy life,” she says. “I love the outdoors and being able to get out there and just do those things. I mean, that’s what I want to do. I have no big dreams about, I don’t know, being filthy rich. I just want to be active.”

Video by Jeremy Podlog and Mike Warkentin.

5min 18sec

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Additional video: A Second Chance at Life by Chris Klug, published April 26, 2011.

3:41 Chris Dozois finished at the top of the Open leaderboard in the South West, placing ahead of Games competitors Chris Spealler and Tommy Hackenbruck. Dozois, 41, also topped the worldwide leaderboard in the Masters 40-44 Division, and his Front Range CrossFit team finished first in the South West. On the strength of a phenomenal performance, Dozois had all competition options available. He chose to decline his individual invite to compete as part of a team, though he still has an invitation to the Games as a master if the Front Range squad falls short of its bid. Dozois discussed his decision to go team and explained why he likes to compete. He also talked about the importance of recovery and broke down how he would approach a few of the Regional events.

28:55 Kurtis Bowler started Rainier CrossFit and was the eighth person to affiliate at the time. He spoke about how he actually took a trip to train at Coach Glassman’s original box in Santa Cruz, Calif., and he shared his thoughts on the growing CrossFit affiliate community. Bowler is also the director of the North West Regional, and he described all the work that goes into making the event a success. He reflected on some of his favorite CrossFit events and performances over the years and gave his opinion on what makes an ideal Regional team. Finally, he talked about the Rainier CrossFit strongman and strongwoman competition and why it’s so important to him.

“(It’s) the most amazing feeling in the world,” she says. “Not too many people can say they’ve won one.”

Now 30, Tunnicliffe began training at CrossFit B&S in Miami about a year and a half ago.

“I was fit, but I was just not getting fitter. I wasn’t getting stronger,” she explains. “I started CrossFit, and just mixing it up the way it did … immediately took my fitness level up.”

Her sailing also improved, she adds, and she became mentally stronger on the water.

Today, Tunnicliffe has a new goal: qualify for the CrossFit Games.

Last year, she qualified for the South East Regional, but the competition was a week before the Olympic trails. This year, she placed 13th in the Open, though she actually doesn’t know that.

“I don’t want to know where I rank because … it gets to you mentally. Like when I’m sailing, I don’t look at my scores. I don’t know where I am because, ultimately, it doesn’t matter until the end. As long as you give your best effort, that’s all you can do.”

She will compete at the South East Regional May 17 to 19.

Video by Michael Dalton.

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“Really the same for the snatch,” he says of his set-up. “I’ve just locked myself in here. I’m looking at the tension in the back, the back-angle maintenance, the shins coming back out of the way.”

With the shins vertical as the bar passes the knees, the clean becomes easier, says Vaughn, part owner of CrossFit CenTex in Belton, Texas. In the receiving position, he meets the bar at about parallel and rides it down to the very bottom of the front-squat position.

“Now I can catch a good bounce out of the bottom,” he notes. “Since I met it a little bit higher and (rode) it down, I can get that better recoil out of my legs.”

He stands up with the barbell and takes a couple of seconds to gather himself, as well as to ensure his grip is comfortable and his feet are in the correct position.

“I’ve pulled my feet back in slightly,” Vaughn says. “First thing I’m going to feel is upward pressure at the end of the elbow.”

He takes a deep breath to fill his lungs as much as he can and maintains his shoulder and hip alignment for a slow, short dip with a vertical torso.

“I’m gonna change directions as aggressively as I can,” Vaughn adds. “What’s gonna help me do that, what my personal preference (is), is really throwing that head back to help me get more power and more extension, and it also creates space for that bar to go straight.”

Video by Heber Cannon.

5min 57sec

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Additional reading: The Split Jerk: Start to Finish by Chad Vaughn, published Dec. 20, 2012.

She’s taught children for many years how to eat well through healthy cooking. Now, with about five years of CrossFit under her belt, she’s teaching these kids about taste testing with carrots, kale and asparagus, among other items.

“Did you know you have to taste things 10 or 100 times to get used to it?” Doran asks the children.

“I knew that,” blurts out one precocious girl.

Doran talks to the children about crispiness, crunchiness, sweet and sour. Helping to identify those characteristics without thinking about taste can help with trying new foods, she tells them.

“It will help you get used to flavors,” Doran explains.

Then it’s time for sprouts.

“This is a yummy sprout. Who can try a sprout for me?” she asks.

While stuffing his mouth with the vegetable, the little boy responds, “It tastes like a plant.”

Indeed it does, and many plants fit nicely into the dietary advice found in World Class Fitness in 100 Words: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.”

Video by Mike Koslap.

5min 58sec

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Additional reading: Quick and Crunchy by Shirley Brown and Alyssa Dazet, published Sept. 25, 2012.

2:28 Nadia Shatila and several CrossFit Belltown athletes were fortunate enough to attend a recent lecture by Coach Greg Glassman at the University of Washington, and Shatila talked about what she took away from the presentation from CrossFit’s Founder and CEO. Moving on to her own affiliate, Shatila explained the philosophy behind her facility, which is far less spartan than many boxes. She described some of the programs she offers and how the basics class, bootcamp and other programs differ from regular CrossFit classes. As a road warrior who’s always on the move, Shatila explained how she’s able to balance her gym, her training and her work with CrossFit HQ’s Seminar Staff.

31:25 Miranda Oldroyd came on the show to talk about her preparations for the CrossFit Games Northern California Regional, which starts May 24. A trainer at NorCal CrossFit, Oldroyd explained the importance of building a sense of community and keeping CrossFit classes fun. Oldroyd spent some of the last year recovering from a broken neck, and she talked about her rehab as well as other areas of focus. She also detailed her pre- and post-workout nutrition and how she has to eat 20 Zone blocks a day just to maintain her weight.

“I love CrossFit so much and I saw how it improved my health,” explains Roberts, who trains at CrossFit Adrenaline in Cartersville, Ga. “I wanted our kids to experience that.”

Roberts started Orphan Aid Liberia, as well as the nonprofit affiliate CrossFit Courageous, and now 125 West African children perform basic CrossFit exercises as part of their daily recess.

“Ultimately, our effort is to rebuild these children—physically, mentally, spiritually—and this is a big part of the physical rebuild as we’re able to feed them nutritious foods and … we’re able to show them how to exercise,” Roberts says.

From the Ground Up is a new campaign where Roberts and others will climb Mount Kilimanjaro as part of a fundraising effort in support of the efforts in Liberia.

Going to members of the CrossFit community for assistance made sense, he notes.

“They just have good hearts,” Roberts says.

He adds: “We have opportunity to help others be healthy through a simple effort, and the CrossFit community has just got the heart to do that.”

Video by Mike Koslap.

6min 26sec

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Additional video: CrossFit Being by Jesse O’Brien, published Sept. 9, 2011.

There are two components involved in getting a bar overhead or up to the shoulders from the ground.

The most commonly conceptualized component is to lift the weight up to the required height. The second component is to lower the body under the bar. In the sport of weightlifting, both components are combined simultaneously by proficient practitioners. For many aspiring trainees, however, they understand only the first and can’t seem to quite conceptualize the second—or combine the two. For these lifters the default is always to lift the bar higher.

The task for the coach, therefore, is to coach the second aspect and provide training that will combine the two. Whether the lift is a snatch, a clean or a jerk, lifting the weight and dropping under the weight are combined. In this article, I’ll focus on the snatch and clean as it seems that fewer people have trouble learning the jerk.

“Now when I stop the music, you have to put your butt on top of one of these med-balls and claim it as your own,” he explains to the class.

The first person who cannot get his or her butt to an open ball does 16 burpees, the next does 14 burpees, then 12, and so on.

“The warm-ups can be kind of standard and can kind of be a drag,” Miller says. “And this is a good team-building thing and just kind of fun.”

Another warm-up in his arsenal is doing burpees every time Sting sings the word “Roxanne” in the song by the same name.

“Warming up is definitely community,” Miller adds. “You can check in on your clients. You can have a little touch with them that you’re not otherwise gonna get.”

Video by Mike Donofrio.

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Additional reading: Skill-Based Warm-Ups for Groups by Tony Budding, published Sept. 1, 2006.

Spealler can’t figure out how the ball hovered just off the wall for a no-rep but still seemed to bounce back to him. It’s a physics problem a host of athletes are pondering in the post-Open period.

Castro says Bob Harper actually had the pleasure of no-repping Head Judge Adrian Bozman a few times during the same event, taking a little revenge on the CrossFit’s king of no-reps.

Get a glimpse of other candid reactions and more behind-the-scenes footage from this year’s CrossFit Games Open events as our cameras capture the moments that weren’t broadcast live across the Internet as each event was announced.

Backstage before Castro announces 13.5, two-time Games champion Rich Froning Jr. confesses he’s got “nervous energy.”

“It’s good, though. It’s good nervous energy,” he adds. “It’ll be fun.”

Even Castro, who’s no stranger to making event announcements for the Games, admits to some butterflies.

“I get nervous for all of these,” he says. “I’m nervous now.”

Video by Jordan Gravatt.

14min 48sec

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Additional reading: CrossFit Radio Episode 266 by Justin Judkins, published March 8, 2013.

2:03 Jessa Lemoine is the head trainer at CrossFit Back Bay. The box is only three blocks away from where the bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, and Lemoine gave an update on the situation in the area, including how the city was locked down during the manhunt for the second suspect. After placing 20th at last year’s Games, Lemoine will go team this year. She talked about her choice and described her team’s preparations for Regionals.

28:06 Cherie Chan described what it’s like to meet CrossFit athletes from around the world as a member of HQ’s Level 1 Seminar Staff. Chan, a great athlete who’s married to CrossFit Games second-place finisher Matt Chan, explained how she maintains a training plan with near-constant travel. She described her nutrition and how she answers nutrition questions from others. Chan talked about weighing and measuring food to establish a baseline from which to experiment, and she explained how she knows when and why she needs to make changes to her nutrition. Finally, she gave simple advice to anyone wanting to evaluate his or her own nutrition goals.

“Working with and for other people was the key to me doing as much as I did or going as hard as I did,” says the rower who competed in the women’s eights in London.

She adds, “(That) extra something ... was about not letting my teammates down.”

Guloien says working with and against others in CrossFit is what appeals to her, and she describes the sport of fitness as her “next challenge” after 11 years of rowing.

“The reason why CrossFit is a natural fit for me … is in the structure that it provides—in the goals, the goal setting, the benchmarks,” she says.

Even though she’s been to the elite levels of sport, she admits she has much to gain from CrossFit both physically and mentally.

“Anyone can walk through those doors and learn and get better and become stronger,” Guloien says.

Video by Jeremy Podlog.

6min 2sec

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Additional reading: A Biomechanical Analysis of Rowing by Joel R. Martin and Bryan St. Andrews, published Dec. 6, 2012.

First the kale leaves are stripped from the stems before they are rolled into balls to make chopping easy. The chopped kale is then steamed while cashews are put in a blender with some onion powder. The kale is cooked until it’s bright green, and then it’s mixed with the chopped cashews and onion powder before serving.

In this kitchen, two of three kids give the final product an enthusiastic thumbs up, while the third remains unconvinced by kale. But as most parents will tell you, kids can be picky, and two out of three isn’t bad at all.

Try this recipe and post your kids’ feedback to comments.

Video by Mike Koslap

4min 46sec

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Additional reading: God of the Grill by Nick Massie, published June 13, 2012.

Included are tidbits like the old-fashioned barber-shop shave before 13.2 with Castro, Games Head Judge Adrian Bozman and CrossFit Media’s Rory McKernan.

“Dave, my stress levels have gone down about 90 percent since I got here,” Bozman tells Castro as he sits in the barber’s chair.

Before the announcement of the final Open workout in Santa Cruz, Calif., 2008 Games champion Jason Khalipa sits between Castro and McKernan and feels a bit out of his league among the men in suits.

“You guys are kind of intimidating me right now,” Khalipa says with laughter. “I feel like I’m in Blue Brothers or somethin’ right now.”

Video by Jordan Gravatt.

9min 8sec

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Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Episode 266 by Justin Judkins, published March 8, 2013.

CrossFit affiliate owners are free to run their businesses any way they like as they pursue excellence and bring fitness to their clients.

They can make their own decisions as to how they integrate new clients into the gym, whether they’re going to offer specialty programs, how they’ll develop and compensate coaches, how much they’re going to charge, what hours they’ll be open, whether they’ll install showers, and so on.

CrossFit’s “least rents” model of affiliation is the entrepreneur’s dream, where a gym owner pays a relatively low annual fee (US$3,000 for most gyms) for the use of the CrossFit name but is free to run the business as he or she sees fit. In more than 6,000 businesses around the world, affiliate owners are taking advantage of the opportunity to decide for themselves what works best, and the result is a constantly growing community of healthy people and businesses.

This series looks at the business of running a CrossFit box and examines what different CrossFit affiliates are doing to create excellence in their clients, their coaches and ultimately their gyms. The affiliates in this series have been around for some time and have implemented the results of successful experiments and learned from the things that didn’t work. Interestingly, different affiliates are having similar levels of success with opposite approaches.

The first installment in this series looks at three contrasting ways to integrate new clients and keep them around for the long haul.

Will these approaches work for your gym? That’s for you to decide.

Her husband, Marine Staff Sgt. Justin Schmalstieg, was killed Dec. 15, 2010, while serving in Afghanistan. The 28-year-old bomb-disposal technician had previously served three tours of duty in Iraq. On Dec. 15 in Helmand province, he was clearing a path through a minefield so Marines could get back to base and avoid an anticipated ambush. After his death, he was promoted to gunnery sergeant.

Justin and Ann actually did CrossFit Hero WODs together, and Ann says it was only fitting that her husband is now honored with a Hero WOD of his own. Beginning and ending with an 800-meter run, Schmalls also contains two rounds of 50 burpees, 40 pull-ups, 30 one-legged squats, 20 kettlebell swings and 10 handstand push-ups.

Throughout the course of the video, Ann and members of CrossFit Oceanside talk about what it means to suffer through a Hero WOD to honor the fallen.

“I can honor my husband. I honor my husband all the time. But knowing that other people honor him too, that’s beautiful,” Ann says.

Schmalls is the CrossFit.com workout of the day for April 23, 2013.

Video by Gary Roberts.

28min 36sec

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Additional reading: What Would Andy Do? by Emily Beers, published Aug. 17, 2011.

The answer was simple: treat her just like everyone else.

“I don’t expect when I sign up for there to be, like, balloons and all of that,” Jones-Thompson says with a laugh. “I’m an athlete. I wanted to work out.”

Also a former basketball player for the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA, the 37-year-old had been looking for a workout routine that wasn’t boring. A friend told her about CrossFit.

“I was hooked from the first time. It was a challenge. I loved the challenge,” she explains.

What she saw was women who were older and smaller doing “20 more pull-ups than me.”

Jones-Thompson started training at CrossFit Texas just a few days a week. That has since grown to four days a week.

“It’s given me a new community to live life with,” she says. “As you get older and move on in life, things become different in terms of priorities. You kind of figure out that that’s really what life is about: living life with people.”

Video by Lindsay and Elliot Schrock.

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Additional reading: The Marlins Go CrossFit by Paul Fournier, published March 4, 2010.

Young woke up after 19 days in a coma. The shot to his iliac artery had also taken out 40 percent of his bladder and left holes in his intestines. He found himself with a colostomy bag, a catheter and tubes in his stomach, which was split open from surgery.

“When my nightmare began was when I woke up,” Young recalls. “The actual shooting itself, the gun fight … that wasn’t haunting me. What was haunting me was my body won’t work.”

With his mind ready but his body unable, Young asked himself what he had to do to get mobile again. After 51 days in intensive care, he started rehab to learn how to walk again. When he was supposed to go to a live-in rehab facility, he refused. Instead, he told his department he wanted personal training—specifically, CrossFit. When he started, he was on crutches.

“Before, he wasn’t even able to walk. Now we have him out here on this track and we’ve got him doing miles for time,” Young’s personal trainer says.

Young says he hopes his story saves someone’s life.

“I’m hoping that a cop that’s in the line and gets in a gun fight, that it helps them to have a stronger will to live and drive,” he says, “so if they do get injured they can fight their way through it—because it is possible.”

Video by Carey Peterson and Jason Smith.

10min 16sec

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Additional reading: Applying CrossFit to Police Recruits by James Keller, published Aug. 20, 2012.

2:54 CrossFit Southie is about a mile away from the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Amy Ferro described what it᾿s been like in the Boston area in the wake of the bombings and explained how her community has reacted to the event. She would like to create a fundraiser to help the family of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy who was killed in the blasts. Ferro also talked about how she builds culture at CrossFit Southie and explained how she runs classes for athletes of various levels.

34:08 CrossFit Back Bay is only about three blocks from where the explosions went off and is in the area considered part of the crime scene. Joshua Plosker said members are bonding during the aftermath and described how the community is especially important right now. Plosker talked about the growth of the entire CrossFit community in the Boston area and how that sense of community translates into a lot of excitement for the upcoming North East Regional on May 17. Finally, Plosker described how members of the CrossFit Back Bay coaching staff make it a priority to give members a first-rate experience in every class.

CrossFit’s growth has produced a number of interesting side effects, most of them positive.

One byproduct of CrossFit’s spread and the continued business success of CrossFit affiliates has been the growth of the Sport of Fitness. This has significant consequences for CrossFit Inc.’s intellectual property, all CrossFit affiliates and the entire CrossFit community.

There is a significant amount of confusion about the use of the CrossFit trademark and the distinction between “CrossFit the strength-and-conditioning program” and “CrossFit the Sport of Fitness.” As a result, Internet geniuses spout off about what the confusion means for the trademark, companies advertise “CrossFit” competitions, and many affiliates and athletes remain unaware that an issue even exists.

It’s important to remember that CrossFit was a company and then a registered trademark before it ever became a sport, and the only CrossFit competitions are those directly organized and authorized by CrossFit HQ, such as the events of the CrossFit Games season and out-of-season events such as the CrossFit Invitational.

There’s a difference between playing baseball in your back yard and playing second base in Major League Baseball, just as there’s a difference between doing Fran in your garage and doing Fran at the Home Depot Center during the CrossFit Games.

Vaughn, a two-time Olympian, can tell being so low is an unfamiliar position for the 22-year-old, who is scheduled to compete at the Northern California Regional this year.

“You’re gonna have to get where you can hold tight in that bottomed-out position,” advises Vaughn, part owner of CrossFit CenTex in Belton, Texas.

The first step, he adds, is to become as comfortable and flexible in the position as possible.

“And flexible means that I can hold tight,” Vaughn explains.

To help in getting her lower, he recommends that Baumgardner widen her feet in her squat stance. He also tells her to narrow her grip a bit to bring the bar into a position near the pubic bone when she’s standing tall, and he recommends Baumgardner learn how to let go of the hook grip on the catch.

“One thing that will open up mobility immediately and allow you to keep the elbow up easier is letting go of the hook grip overhead,” Vaughn says.

Video by Dave Leys.

4min 47sec

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Additional reading: Oly Optimization by Chad Vaughn, published Nov. 18, 2011.

It costs US$1.9 million to turn the lights on every morning and run St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for a day. Some celebrities contribute, but the majority of donations are just from average folks around the world. Incredibly, 70 percent of all donations made to St. Jude are for $30 or less.

Thirty bucks isn’t much, and it certainly doesn’t buy much in a hospital. That’s where the global CrossFit community comes in. There are now more than 6,000 CrossFit affiliates. Imagine if 10 members in each affiliate decided to donate just $30 to CrossFit for Hope. That’s the price of a skipping rope. Do the math, and you’ve suddenly got $1.8 million. If you get 20 members per affiliate, the number doubles to $3.6 million.

CrossFit’s goal last year: to raise enough money through the Hope fundraising campaign to pay St. Jude’s costs for a single day. The community succeeded. This year, the goals are loftier.

CrossFit for Hope is the umbrella for several initiatives all designed to help people in need. In 2012, St. Jude was a major beneficiary. Almost $300,000 has been raised through the Hope for Kenya initiative, which funds health and education improvements near Mombasa. Already in 2013, CrossFit for Kenya raised $60,000 through donations made during athlete registration for the CrossFit Open. That money will fund the building of four new schools in a country where education adds years to life expectancy.

“We have a bunch of fit, intelligent, caring people in this community, and they rally,” said Jimi Letchford of CrossFit HQ.

“‘You changed my life’—they’re words that will never get old,” says the affiliate owner and head coach who also is a member of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar Staff. “As long as I know we can keep having impact relative to that, I’ll always be proud of what it is that we do and what it is that CrossFit does for people.”

Among the people Marshall and CrossFit Calgary have affected is Scott Wilkinson, who had a severe motorcycle accident. Wilkinson spent four months in a wheelchair and then another eight with a walker. In that time he gained 70 lb. as his physiotherapist recommended avoiding much physical activity. But against therapist’s and doctor’s wishes, Wilkinson came in to the box.

In seven months, he increased his back squat from 135 lb. to 295 lb. and his deadlift from 125 lb. to 380 lb.

“It’s encouraging, it’s positive. There’s lots of feedback,” Wilkinson explains. “I’m not restricted or defined by the limitations that other people had put on me.”

Marshall, who finished second at the CrossFit Games in 2007 and invented butterfly pull-ups, finished 43rd in the Canada West region during the Open, and he led CrossFit Calgary to a fourth-place finish in the team standings.

Video by Jeremy Podlog.

9min 8sec

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Additional reading: My Tribe by Jeremy Striffler, published Feb. 16, 2012.

If we think of drills as exercises or activities performed to learn and refine technique, then it is appropriate to discuss those exercises, but it’s more important to know how and when to implement them into the technique training of a weightlifter.

It is perfectly natural and normal for many coaches to address their own shortcomings or strengths while designing training, especially during the early days of the coaching career. Coaches who had poor lockout may have their athletes training to improve lockout even when it’s unnecessary to do so. On the other hand, there might be coaches who were excellent pullers and so design training that overemphasizes pulling. Both extremes are incorrect.

Coaches mature when they learn to solve the shortcomings of each athlete they are coaching. In the art of coaching, one of the truly important skills is knowing when not to use an exercise.

I’ve developed a list of favorites that I’ve found to be quite effective. They may not be the same ones other coaches use, but they work for me as I teach technique to new lifters.

3:30 Tanya Wagner is a member of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar Staff, owner of CrossFit Apex and a commentator for CrossFit Media. She’s also a top athlete who earned a spot to compete in the Mid Atlantic Regional. She talked about preparing for the next round of competition, where the workouts are announced ahead of time, and she described how she focuses on recovery. A veteran athlete, Wagner explained how the level of competition has increased since she first started competing. Finally, she gave advice to affiliate owners who are coaching and training a small group of athletes for specific Regional workouts while at the same time training many more for life and general fitness.

31:56 Pat Sherwood is the host of the CrossFit Games Update Show and offered a look back at the excitement of the five-week CrossFit Games Open. Sherwood looked ahead to the Regional round and named a few athletes to watch, and he offered his opinion on whether someone can beat Rich Froning Jr., the reigning Games champ who also won the Open. Sherwood has experimented with different programming over the years, and he detailed his results since a Jan. 1 commitment to CrossFit.com programming. Sherwood, who served in the U.S. Navy, explained why CrossFit has Hero workouts and what’s involved in getting a workout named after a fallen protector.

“A lot of our families are struggling financially, so the focus is on the day-to-day things, on surviving, on how they’re gonna get the food on their table, how they’re going to pay their next bill,” says Kristina Garcia, a child psychologist.

Few children or teenagers have access to extracurricular activities in Stockton. But at CrossFit 209 Sport, owners Vince Carter and Gabe Subry are changing that.

“Vince is just kind of giving these kids like a second home,” Subry explains. “It kinda keeps them off the streets as opposed to being out of school and going out and gettin’ into trouble. They’re comin’ in and they’re tacklin’ their back squat or their bench press.”

Carter says it’s about more than getting people healthy.

“We’re changing lives now. It’s a proven fact,” he says. “We could be so much more than just coaches ... . And CrossFit can do that.”

Jamill Thomas says CrossFit gives him the work ethic to hit the books—and the field—hard.

“Pain is beauty,” he says, “that’s something I have learned.”

Video by Jay Vera.

9min 22sec

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Additional reading: More Than the Street: A Steve’s Club Story by Liz Wolfe with Lee Knight and Steve Liberati, published Aug. 2, 2012.

“I wanted to play in college more than anything,” he says. “That’s what … I dreamt about.”

The plan changed when he rowed 2,000 meters in 7:17.

“To row those kind of times, you’ve gotta be willing to suffer,” explains Markus Riggleman, owner and head trainer at CrossFit Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. “And to see that he—even at 13—was willing to … go there was cool.”

Today, at 17, O’Rourke is the 2013 Crash-B junior men’s heavyweight world champion on the strength of a 6:02.4 2K.The 17-year-old is making preparations to row at Stanford University.

“Before I came to CrossFit, I never heard of rowing,” he says. “And now it’s my passion.”

The teenager advocates CrossFit to fellow rowers.

“For most rowers, it’s just erging, and that’s why I think a lot of rowers have trouble getting their times down, ’cause they’re not strong,” O’Rourke explains.

Right now, he rows about 30,000 meters a week, at least.

“But I incorporate CrossFit, too,” he adds. “You get to throw in different movements and have fun with it, whereas if you just erg, you’re gonna go crazy.”

Video by Mike Donofrio.

7min 18sec

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Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Episode 133 by Justin Judkins, published Aug. 18, 2010.

It’s a Saturday morning at Semiahmoo High School in White Rock, B.C.

It looks like an ordinary day at a weightlifting club. A dozen or so athletes, aged 9 to 25, are cleaning and snatching in a very unspectacular, almost beat-up weight room. The white walls are nearly barren, the weights look worn and abused, and the smell of chalky must fills the air. It looks like your typical underfunded sports club. And it is.

An older man, the head coach, is dressed in casual, almost sloppy attire. He circulates the room and gives cues to every lifter. He looks excited to coach each athlete he approaches.

“Finish the pull,” Dieter Stamm yells to a young athlete in a genuine but firm voice, mimicking the shrugging motion to demonstrate what he means. The 9-year-old boy nods and tries the snatch again. Stamm smiles and tells him, “Good job. That was a good lift.” The boy looks pleased.

Stamm moves on to the next athlete, and the next, treating each one with as much care as the previous. The energy and the rare sincerity in his voice give the impression that it’s his first day on the job, that he has big plans to revive this beaten-down club.

The truth is it’s not even a job at all. Stamm certainly isn’t getting paid to be here. In fact, it’s cost him almost 100 grand.

“I’m not saying I’m lucky if I’ll get to eight minutes, but it has to be a good day—almost a perfect day for me,” says the 2009 Games champion. “I’m nervous about the pain, but not about the workout.”

A challenge containing elements of Fran, 13.5 required athletes to complete three rounds of 15 thrusters and 15 chest-to-bar pull-ups in under four minutes to extend their time to eight minutes. Another 90 reps were required to extend the time to 12 minutes.

Shortly before the workout, Salo says every additional rep past eight minutes will be a bonus.

“That is my goal,” he says. “After (the) eight-minute mark, you can even rest like 20 seconds.”

The 33-year-old finishes three rounds in about 3:16. His first broken set of thrusters comes in the fifth round. Then, he finishes the sixth round in about 7:57, extending the Fran-like workout to 12 minutes. All told, he amasses 227 reps—one more than two-time Games champion Rich Froning.

Afterward, Salo is breathing heavily and sweating profusely.

“It was bad. I got lots of work to do still,” he says. “I’m happy with my result, but still, a lot of work to do.”

He says he was disappointed in his engine, then schedules another workout for himself: “Today, something longer in the evening.”

Video by Gary Roberts.

28min 37sec

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Additional reading: Tour de Force by Mike Warkentin, published June 15, 2012.

A CrossFit.com Hero workout honoring his memory was first posted Oct. 12, 2012, and it was a suitably challenging tribute involving 30 135-lb. clean and jerks, a 1-mile run, 10 15-foot rope climbs, a 1-mile run, and 100 burpees.

“He was just the most amazing spirit. He was friendly with everyone. Even though he was the new guy to class, you wouldn’t know it because he would come in and he would immediately start talking to everyone and he would help everyone,” says longtime friend Lynn Dixon, a member of CrossFit 801 in Midvale, Utah.

She added: “Even though it was 6 a.m., he never complained. He just came in smiling every single time. He just accepted that life was supposed to be really hard, and you work hard and you have fun at it.”

“Glen was CrossFit. He really embodied everything that CrossFit should be and is,” says Matt Clark, a coach at the affiliate. “Glen would come in and complete workouts with … a positive attitude. ... He was happy. He was there to work and to enjoy the time there.”

Video by Jay Vera.

4min 45sec

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Additional reading: Fallen but Never Forgotten by Russell Berger, published May 30, 2010.

As he settles into his start position for his heaviest snatch of the day, he’s thinking three things: build tension in the back, feel the shoulders in front of the bar, and be aggressive on the extension. As he takes a deep breath and locks in his back, he feels the tension he’s created, he says.

“My awareness is with the bar,” says Vaughn, part owner of CrossFit CenTex in Belton, Texas. “Now I’m really trying to feel my shoulders staying in front of the bar—that’s gonna help me create that vertical shin position the best that I can up above the knee.”

Once he’s above the power position, it’s go time.

“Now I’m focused on giving everything I’ve got,” he says. “I’m just gonna let myself be wild right here on the extension.”

Then, Vaughn pulls himself under the bar and locks out his arms at the bottom of the overhead-squat position. Preferably, he notes, he would have met the bar slightly higher.

“The timing of the catch that we’re really looking for, ideally, is locking out at about parallel and then riding it down. And what it is is using your legs as shocks rather than brakes,” he explains. “Because I have the experience in the lifts that I do and because I’m so comfortable and strong in that rock-bottom position, I’m able to get away with this … where most people are probably gonna miss it right there.”

Video by Heber Cannon.

5min 23sec

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Additional reading: Oly Optimization by Chad Vaughn, published Nov. 18, 2011.

3:12 Meghan Russell owns CrossFit Jax, “The Hotbox,” and her team is six spots away from qualifying for Regionals. She explained how they plan on making it to the next level of competition, as well as how they’ve been training and running the Open workouts. Russell discussed how the gym’s programming is somewhat specialized but general physical preparedness is not sacrificed. Looking forward, Russell explained how the team members will prepare for the Regional competition if they earn a spot. Finally, she detailed some of the things that make her box unique, including Endless Summer Beach Workouts and Show the Love Month.

32.15 CrossFit Vitality, Steve Pinkerton’s affiliate, had the honor of hosting the live announcement of Event 13.1 of the CrossFit Games Open, and he described what it was like to be a part of the production. Pinkerton explained how he keeps things fresh for himself and his athletes, and he defined what it means to him to chase excellence at his gym. Pinkerton strives to build the right kind of community and culture at his affiliate, and he shared a few things that have helped CrossFit Vitality succeed.

If they build it, they will run.

“So as long as I’ve known Gary, he’s always been fat,” Ryden says. “And in those nine years (he) only got fatter.”

In this episode of Killing the Fat Man—called “Always the Fat Friend”—Roberts invites his friend to do a workout at Oceanside CrossFit.

“I will have beaten a demon that I have inside because when I’ve always looked at Harold, he’s always been the big guy. He’s always been better at everything than me,” Roberts says. “I never thought I could out-accomplish him at anything.”

The workout is a 10-minute AMRAP involving running, thrusters, sit-ups, burpees and knees-to-elbows. Ryden finishes several reps shy of two rounds. Roberts later completes four rounds plus six reps, beating even Coach Chris Sheets.

“This really shows how much Gary has improved,” Sheets says. “Gary’s never beat me in a workout—until today.”

Video by Gary Roberts.

19min 34sec

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Additional reading: Coaching Fitness From Scratch by Stephanie Vincent, published Oct. 7, 2011.

First, Lu Quast talks about about the cancer and the knee surgeries. Then she talks about about the back injury, which happened first but so long ago the accident can be told with a smile slipping into her voice.

She fell from a ladder when painting a ceiling. She picked herself up and carried on but was left with chronic back pain for years afterwards.

She can’t remember exactly when she fell because it was more than 40 years ago, and since she began focusing on her deadlift, squat and kettlebell swing, the pain is a memory, too. Quast, who turns 78 on Feb. 19, is almost certain she’s the oldest athlete at Bayou City Crossfit in Houston, Texas.

“Being physical is just part of being well,” she says. “I do CrossFit because it makes me feel better. Not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well.”

Quast is just one of many seniors who are discovering something perhaps best summarized by Aaron Carr in the CrossFit Journal article A Brief Letter From a Representative of the Silent Masses:

“CrossFit will likely add years to my life from the health and fitness perspective, but in the here and now, CrossFit is adding life to my years as I have the physical capacity to perform and compete to my heart’s desire.”

2:12 Aimee Lyons started CrossFit King of Prussia in 2008 and changed locations four times in the first year. The affiliate has continued to grow and is now adding an additional 1,200 square feet to the 8,000 it already has, allowing Lyons to run specialty classes alongside normal CrossFit classes. Lyons talked about how her pricing has evolved over time before moving on to her gym’s participation in the 2013 CrossFit Games Open.

29:56 Joe Alexander is a flowmaster for the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Course. He described his background and told how he started CrossFit with Pat Sherwood and then transitioned into a job with CrossFit HQ. He’s been around long enough to see some changes in the Level 1 and says the current seminar has always stayed true to Coach Glassman’s original teachings. Alexander programs for and coaches top Games athlete Matt Chan, and he explained why he thinks Matt chose him. Matt and his wife, Cherie, are living in a trailer and traveling around the country, which makes for some interesting challenges for Alexander, but the coach described how elite fitness can be obtained while keeping things relatively simple.

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

The articles included here are:

Never Too Young to Survive - Randolph
CrossFit: A Sisyphean Endeavor? - Drexler
Fuck Compression Tights - Warkentin
Breakfast Cupcakes - Brown and Dazet
The King of Lifts - Shankle
Pot of Gold Soup - Brown and Dazet
Deconstructing Pukie - Achauer
The Forgotten Lift - Starr
Chaos League: The Chaos 5000 - Ord
Distance Learning - Achauer
From Crunches to Climax - Beers

It was 1995, a time when crunches were the in-vogue ab exercise.

Wendy, desperate for a flat stomach to flaunt during the upcoming summer, started an abdominal routine in her living room. She told herself the monotony of the crunches would be well worth it.

“From pain will come pleasure,” Wendy remembers thinking.

Twenty, 25, 30 crunches into her routine, and suddenly her body started to feel hot in an interesting new way. The friction from the constant crunching started to stimulate her pelvic region. Thirty-five, 40, 45 crunches into the workout, Wendy kept getting closer to climax with each crunch.

At 52 crunches, her abdominal session ended abruptly—and involuntarily. She was flat on her back, breathing hard, her body half numb.

Wendy had just experienced her first crunch-induced orgasm.

In fact, it was her first orgasm ever.

When he found CrossFit and later became co-owner of CrossFit Ramsay, it was a natural fit to offer grass-fed beef to affiliate members at a cost that was cheaper than the local butcher.

“It really just sort of formed that whole notion of community, bringing your outside interests to the inside of the box, making it available for everyone to take advantage of for the betterment of the community,” explains Ken Andrukow, also a co-owner of CrossFit Ramsay.

And although some people think a livestock-marketing firm is a world apart from CrossFit, Danard disagrees.

“The cattle business and the CrossFit business are both real-life businesses that have lots of carryover back and forth,” he says, referencing nutrition and functional movement. “(The cattle business is) a very old-school, traditional industry where they’re up early, they work hard, they’re throwing the hay bales, they’re feeding the cattle, they’re shoveling grain, they’re shoveling manure, whatever it happens to be, and that work ethnic really translates into CrossFit.”

Video by Jeremy Podlog.

5min 44sec

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Additional reading: Food for Thought by Chip Johnston, published Jan. 17, 2013.

Traditionally, coaching involves a great deal of immediate interaction between trainer and athlete.

An athlete bangs out five thrusters before stumbling forward on the sixth. Frustrated, she drops the bar, and her coach is talking to her before it stops bouncing. The trainer tells the athlete to get the weight back on the heels and pull the chest up tall to keep the bar over the base of support. The athlete nods, refocuses and works to make the corrections that will result in better movement and more powerful reps.

It’s a feedback loop designed to maximize training time by eliminating errors immediately so the athlete can move forward on every attempt, and it’s no doubt been the norm since the first coach paired up with the first athlete.

The Internet has changed the way some coaches operate, and some have success by fostering online relationships based on video and email. But other athletes and coaches prefer the traditional method, where the athlete moves and the trainer makes immediate corrections.

Overall, the web might offer new opportunities for coaches and athletes, but it remains to be seen whether it can ever replace a coach who can spot and correct a muted hip from across the gym.

“I don’t drive a minivan. I drive a jacked-up Jeep with a lift and a winch. And I have tattoos, and I’m getting my hair colored all purple next week,” she says. “I don’t do that to be crazy or rebellious or someone I’m not. I’ve just always been a little different.”

The 35-year-old started CrossFit just because she wanted to be in shape.

“I never, ever had the intention to teach or train people. At all,” Wilkinson explains.

Today, she’s a coach at CrossFit Takeover in Virginia Beach, Va., and a member of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar Staff.

“Being on staff is my absolute dream job besides being a mom,” Wilkinson says. “I have my dream job. I love it. I love it.”

Video by Marston Sawyers and Pat Sherwood.

8min 24sec

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Additional reading: Defenders of the Realm by Hilary Achauer, published Oct. 29, 2012.

You live in an orderly society for the most part. You are brought up learning rules and regulations for almost every situation. Obeying those rules, even mastering them, determines to a large degree how well you will navigate within the structures of society.

Order is good. Order is predictable. Order builds homes, neighborhoods and cities. Order allows you to climb the corporate ladder. Order gives you the sense that you are in control: play the game and everything will be OK. You can plan your future, and if you work hard, you can enjoy it in peace and quiet. Order is the eggshell that contains the hopes and dreams of your future.

Fire. Earthquake. Car crash. Mugger. Home invasion. Flood.

Crack!

“Chaos is the law of nature; Order is the dream of man.” —Henry Adams

3:12 Australian Lily Cosgrove is a former lawyer who is now a member of CrossFit’s Level 1 Seminar Staff and co-owner, with her husband, of CrossFit Mitchelton. She talked about how the CrossFit Games Open is going Down Under and described how her affiliate has joined two others to host the weekly workout in an event they call Friday Night Lights. Cosgrove had a baby about six months ago and explained how she did CrossFit right through her pregnancy.

28:26 Josh Everett has stood on the CrossFit Games podium in 2007 and 2008 and explained what his goals are in the 2012 Open. Everett talked about how the level of competition has increased dramatically since the early days of the Games, and he broke down Event 13.3, which gave athletes a chance to beat their results from last year. The veteran offered advice to anyone thinking about redoing Open workouts before talking about how his training has changed as he’s gotten older and accepted increased family and career responsibilities.