beyond the whiteboard

Overview

12.5 is a repeat from last year’s open workout 11.6, so we have a lot of data to look at it. The median last year was 75 reps, which is getting past the Thrusters in the 15s(round 4). The majority of the results are between 60 to 90 reps. The open workouts are ranked using the Standard Competition Ranking.

In competition ranking, items that compare equal receive the same ranking number, and then a gap is left in the ranking numbers. The number of ranking numbers that are left out in this gap is one less than the number of items that compared equal.

For example, if four people tie for second place the third best score will get six points(1,2,2,2,2,6). It stands to reason that getting above 90 reps could dramatically effect your score. For instance, lets say 1000 people get 70 reps and you could 69 reps. Although they did one more rep than you did, you will have 1000 points added to your score(lower score is better). So if you are shooting for 80…get 91. Also, we are confident everyone will do better this year than last year, because CrossFit is amazing like that.

CrossFit Journal

Pull-up

• Teaching the Pull-up to a Large Group: Part 1
• Teaching the Pull-up to a Large Group: Part 2
• Crash Course: The Butterfly Kip
• The Quest for 100 Pull-ups
• Better Movements: The Jerk and the Kipping Pull-up
• Pullup Challenge
• Assistance for Bodyweight Exercises
• Two Training Aids
• Midline Stabilization Part 3: The Pull-up
• Kipping Pull-up Progression
• Swingers and Kippers
• The Pullup
• Kipping Pullups
• Kipping Pull-Ups with Jeff Tucker
• Kipping Pull-ups for New Clients

Thruster

• The Thruster: Instruction in India
• The Moves

Mobility WOD

Gymnastics WOD

Check out a list of videos from Carl Paoli for last year’s prep.

Butterfly

2008, 2009 and 2011 Games Competitor Jeremy Kinnick has a great video on learning the butter fly kip.

Spread the butter..fly

Efficiency Tips: Pull-ups” with Chris Spealler: wmv, mov, HDmov

Thruster

Via Again Faster

This workout is unique because it’s the famous girl workout, Karen, followed with double unders and muscle ups. The average Karen result on the site is about 9:30 (Around 5 minutes is beast), which leaves the average person 150 seconds to do 90 double unders and 30 muscle ups. I think it’s fair to say that majority of people will not complete a round (Graham got 25 Muscle Ups). The double unders, for a lot of people, are going to be the easiest part. During our 2 Minute Double Under Challenge users were putting up over 150-200 reps, so I think a lot of people will do them in 2 minutes or less.

Strategy?

New CrossFitter: Karen is over 12:00
Just do as many Wall Balls as you can. If you can get to the double unders, you’re awesome. But you should set your goal to get all the wall balls done and, more importantly, have fun. By fun I mean feel really horrible.

Average CrossFitter: Karen is around 9:30
If it’s around the average then try not to rest long after the wall ball because you don’t have that much time. Personally, I think a few reps of double unders will separate a majority of the results, so being able to push yourself for those last 150 seconds might be huge.

Beast
This is where it gets interesting. Let’s break down Graham’s, one of the fittest people in the world, result.

Wall Ball(150) 5:26. He busted out a huge set of 84 to start and completed the Wall Balls in 326 seconds. A set of of 15 reps every 20 seconds with a 14 seconds rest between sets adds up to 326 seconds or 5:26. I’m not sure if a huge set to start is good or bad, I think it depends on the athlete, but that’s just food for thought. Below is a quick breakdown of this strategy with different rests.

Double Unders(90) 1:34 This is interesting because a lot of people can do 100 double unders in a minute fresh, although obviously they won’t be. The question is would taking 30 seconds more on the Wall Balls increase your double unders by 30 seconds?

Muscle Ups(25) 5:00 Graham averaged 1 every 12 seconds. Which means that at this point you are going to pretty tired, and technique is going to be key. Below are some videos to help!

WOD Prep and Technique Videos

CrossFit Journal

Wall Ball

• Functionality and Wallball
• The Moves

Double Unders

• Jump Rope Basics Part 2: More Preparation Phase Plus Double-Under Tips
• Jump Rope Basics Part 1: Preperation
• Jump Rope Basics Part 3: Intermediate Phase
• The Position: Part 1—The Double-Under

Muscle Up

• The Muscle-up
• DogTown CrossFit Muscle-Up Drills
• Teaching the Muscle-Up to a Large Group: Part 1
• Teaching the Muscle-up to a Large Group: Part 2
• Multiple Muscle-Up Progressions
• Learning the Muscle-Up
• Training the Muscle-Up
• Assistance for Bodyweight Exercises/a>
• Muscle Up Training Progression
• The Moves
• Muscle-Up Progressions

Workout 12.3

As many rounds as possible in 18 mins of:
15 Box Jump (24 in.)s
12 Push Presses 115 lbs
9 Toes-to-Bars


Official Demo Video

Mobility WOD: Prep and Mechanics for WODs



Gymnastics WOD: CrossFit Games Breakdown 12.3

Box Jump

CrossFit Journal

• Perfecting the Box Jump
• 56 Inches Of Fame
• Plyo Boxes

Gymnastics WOD

Mobility WOD: Recovering

Let’s be honest, you are doing this WOD twice. Might as well know how to recover the best way via Mobility WOD.

Push Press

CrossFit Journal

• The Moves
• Spanish Push Press
• Perfecting the Push Press
• On the Safety and Efficacy of Overhead Lifting
• The Lifting Shoulder
• The Overhead Lifts
• A Postural Error: A Costly Biomechanical Fault: Muted Hip Function (MHF)
• The Jolie Diaries: Correcting the Push Press
• The Level 2 Cert — Fixing the Dip
• Overhead is Rising
• The Overhead Series – Part 2 The Push Press
• Coaches Prep Course: The Overhead Position

Old School Coach Glassman Video

Mobility WOD
Start at about 1:10.

Toes To Bar

Carl Paloi: Gymnastics WOD

Mobility WOD: Prep

Again Faster: Mic’d Instructur

Kipping Knees-to-Elbow & Toe-to-Bars from Again Faster on Vimeo.

The Snatch

Jake and I decided to put together a definitive guide on the Snatch for all the CrossFitters that are going to hit the 12.2. Yet another reason why you need to sign up for the CrossFit Journal. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.

CrossFit Journal

1. Efficiency Tips: The Snatch
2. Split Snatch
3. Fixing The Feet With Mike Burgener
4. Teaching the Snatch to a Large Group: Part 1
5. The Burgener Warm-Up
6. Perfect Position: Deadlift and Snatch
7. Perfect Position: Deadlift and Snatch
8. 12 Tips for Coaching O-Lifts in the CrossFit Box
9. Snatch Strategies for CrossFit Workouts and Competitions
10. The Quick Lifts: Start Here
11. Learning How to Do Full Snatches
12. More Pop at the Top
13. The Burgener Files V—Coaching Points
14. The Burgener Files VI—The Pocket
15. Weightlifting Workshop at Eleiko
16. Why’d You Miss
17. Teaching the Snatch to a Large Group: Part 2
18. Improving the Full Snatch
19. Dissecting Dave and Nadia: Part 2
20. Keeping Your Adductors Strong
21. USAW Movement Standards
22. Dissecting Dave & Nadia: Part 3
23. Preparing for the First Olympic Meet
24. Dissecting Dave & Nadia: Part 4
25. Dissecting Dave and Nadia: Part 1
26. Better Bracing for Midline Stability
27. Reviewing the Snatch
28. Burgener Files IV – Stance, Grip and Position
29. Coaching Points
30. Skill Transfer Exercises
31. The Scoop & The Second Pull
32. The World’s Fastest Lift: World Class Coaching LLC’s Olympic Lifting Videotapes
33. The End of the First Pull
34. Analysis of the Transition
35. Nick Hawkes’ Snatch Training at Mike’s Gym: Part 2
36. Coach Burgener Teaches the Snatch Part 2
37. Coach Burgener Teaches the Snatch Part 1
38. Pulling Positions for the Snatch
39. Skill Transfer Exercises for the Snatch
40. Learning The Olympic Lifts: The Stance
41. Learning The Olympic Lifts: The Grip
42. More About the Snatch
43. The Burgener Files: 1 – The Warmup
44. Lunchtime Snatching Session
45. Pulling Exercises: Hip It Before You Whip It
46. The Power of Dynamic Pulling Exercises
47. Pat’s Oly Workout: Snatch
48. Fixing Loopy Lifts
49. Assistance Sequence for the Snatch
50. Snatch Assistance Exercises
51. The Burgener Warmup
52. The Moves

KStar: Mobility WOD

Mic’d Instructor: Again Faster

Carl Paoli: Gymnastics WOD

2011′s Amazing Programming Went Unnoticed

In my opinion The CrossFit Open is the most difficult CrossFit Competition to program for. Unlike the Regionals and Games, there isn’t an understood expectation of talent. For example, athletes at the Regional level can handle a high load/reps of olympic and gymnastics movements. Games athletes are expected to handle, well, everything and anything. I was really impressed by the 2011 CrossFit Open. In fact, I think many people overlooked how well the workouts were designed.

Scaling

In 2011 all the workouts had time limits that ranged from 5 to 20 minutes. Also, all of the workouts were easy enough for most people to get some type of score, but hard enough for stronger athletes to separate themselves. Thus, I doubt the workouts will be super heavy. However, they will be heavy enough where scoring high will require a solid amount of strength and endurance. This is one of those it sounds easy but is actually really hard to do workouts. Below is a graph of the results from CrossFit Open 11.1. The distribution of results show how most people were able to do a few rounds, but only a few people were able to really well.

Regional Worthy Threshold

This was the most impressive part of the 2011 Open programming. Although making workouts that everyone can attempt is a big priority, the main priority is setting a threshold for Regional worthy athletes. It turns out, HQ thought of a genius solution. The most technical movements over the 6 weeks were Muscle Ups and Overhead Squats. They were put towards the end of a workout, where the people who were fit enough to get to them were probably able to perform them. For example, The Week 4 workout was a 10 minute AMRAP of 60 Bar-facing burpees, 120 pound Overhead squat, 30 reps and 10 Muscle-ups. The burpees took a good chunk of time for most people, however the more fit athletes were able to move through them quick and attempt the overhead squats and muscle-ups. The Regional worthy athletes put up anywhere between a 1 to 1.5 rounds. However, as long as you could do one bar facing burpee you had a valid score for the workout. In short, genius.

Equipment, Video and Judging

Around 50,000 people will be participating in the open which means we aren’t seeing any high-end(comparatively) equipment during the open. Also, all of the workouts have to be easily recorded and can’t be too difficult to judge.

What I Doubt We Will See

• Row
• GHD-Sit Ups
• Back Extension
• Rope Climb
• Swimming
• Run(unless it’s a shuttle run which I’d like to see)
• Basically anything you can’t do out of your garage.
• Push-Ups(mainly because I think everyone can’t help but cheat when they get tired and it’s really hard to judge)
• Air Squat(hard to judge)
• Ring Dips

Good Probability

• Pull-ups
• Ground To Overhead
• Dead-lifts
• Double Unders
• Bar Facing Burpees(not normal ones and I pray not burpee box-jumps)
• Wall Balls
• Toes To Bar
• Power Cleans
• Box Jumps
• Thrusters
• Squat Clean

Regional Threshold Movements

• Muscle Ups
• Overhead Squat
• Handstand Push-ups

My Random, Gut Is Saying, List

I have no real reason other than thinking it would be cool to see these

• Shuttle Runs
• Lunges(Alternating Lunges)
• KettleBell
• Fight to The Death With Random Stranger

While researching CrossFit workouts Corey ran across an interesting turn of events. Jon and I, being the CrossFit junkies we are, went way too far into the matrix.

May 12th, 2004

Posted on/for Lynne Pitts’ (old school CrossFitter) birthday.

August 5th, 2004

This workout was very similar to a previous workout. Lynne killed it, even claiming, “At last, the WOD-God has smiled on me…”

The New Girls(November 2004)

Linda is listed as the “L” Girl workout in the “New Girls” journal article. Note, at this point, Lynne (the workout not the person), doesn’t officially exist.

Lynne (April 8th, 2005)

A hybrid of the previous workouts is now called “Lynne”. Long time CrossFitter and affiliate owner, Ahmik Jones, refers a previous WOD (most likely 08/04) as “Lynne”, although this is the first mention of it on Main Site.

When we were first developing the site, it was decided that lifting workouts like Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3 and Back Squat 5-5-5-5-5 should be compared by finding the max load at the prescribed reps.  For the most part that seemed to be a pretty good comparison, especially within your own results. However, using just the max load didn’t seem to fully capture everything that happened when you performed the workout. Nor does it reflect the CrossFit idea that these are Max Effort strength workouts.

That’s why we are going to change how these workouts are compared and scored by on the site. Going forward, they are going to be scored by the total weight lifted. Don’t worry, you won’t need a calculator to post your result, we’ll do the totaling for you. In case you were wondering, it will be found by summing the weight multiplied by the reps in each set.

Here’s a quick example:

100 lbs x 3 + 105 lbs x 3 + 110 lbs x 1 = 725 lbs

On the site this result would be displayed as:

725 lbs | 100 lbs, 105 lbs, and 110 lbs (1)

Since the scoring is by the total weight, those results with heavier weights throughout the sets will be ranked higher even if the max load in a set is lower. Keep that in mind when comparing your results to others on the site.

There are quite a few lifting workouts on the site that have several thousand results each, so it’ll take some time to update all of them. You’ll know when a result has been updated when you see the total weight before the weights of each set, as in the example above.

Tony Blauer’s BYOB course is a 1-day workshop suitable for anyone looking to develop or enhance their personal defense skills. The course combines Coach Tony Blauer’s most effective material and it’s packaged into a 1-day dynamic seminar that takes you through mind-set, psychology, fear management, how to strike using your natural weapons (like elbows, knees, forearms, etc).

Who Is Tony Blauer?

He is the pioneer of the SPEAR(Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response) system and has probably been part of CrossFit longer than you have. He’s featured on crossfit.com, go amaze yourself. When you are done watch this clip of his course. Yup, he’s legit.

Why should CrossFitters attend this course?

The SPEAR system is to Personal Defense what CrossFit is to strength and conditioning. The SPEAR system teaches you to embrace your natural responses in self defense situations. It’s functional, simple and effective. Sound familiar? In fact, Coach Glassman, pictured above, stopped by and spoke about how much he supports Tony and his system when I attended Tony’s camp. If you are a CrossFitter, especially if you own a CrossFit Affiliate, you need to attend.

Why Your Wife, Sister and/or Daughter Should Attend

My wife and I attended Tony Blauer’s Combative Camp over the summer. It was held over a hot weekend at Sin City CrossFit, a great gym, in Las Vegas. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. The room was full of CrossFitters, Police Officers, FBI Agents, MMA fighters and my wife. Surprisingly, there was a lot to learn for everyone there. Especially my wife. My wife, who is much smarter than I am, is going through medical school right now. Medical school is basically a cycle of long nights of studying combined with late night trips to the hospital during residency or rotations. Like any husband, I get worried from time to time. During the camp she learned how to be aware and protect herself in a dangerous event. By the end of the weekend she could get out of holds, avoid tackles etc. I was her practice dummy and was beat up by the end of the weekend. She jokingly tells me that I lost a fight to a girl. I remind her that every married man has lost at least one fight to a girl, his wedding.

Upcoming Courses

October 2, 2011 near San Luis Obispo @ CrossFit Five Cities
October 30, 2011 in San Francisco @ San Francisco CrosSFit
November 12, 2011 in Columbus Ohio @ Rogue Fitness
November 19, 2011 in Tuscon, AZ @ CrossFit Full Throttle

So far we’ve seen: Khalipa swipe the 2008 games out from under Josh Everett’s nose in the dying seconds, a humble, soft-spoken, newcomer named Mikko Salo steal the hearts of CrossFitters everywhere in 2009, and a rope climb mean the difference between 1st and 2nd in 2010. Here are my top 5 surprises, in no particular order, of the 2011 CrossFit Games.

1.  Annie Sakamoto

It’s always amazing when you see a true CrossFit OG perform well.  Annie finished in 9th place overall in her very first Games competition.  Of the ten events, she only placed outside the top ten four times.  The magnitude of her accomplishments are amplified by the fact she stands five feet tall and weighs only 116 pounds.  In the “Rope Climb, Clean” and “Dog-sled” workouts, WODs appearing to favor the stronger athletes, she finished 18th and 5th respectively.  Pretty amazing stuff.  As both a CrossFit trainer and a “smaller” athlete, I took extra special pride in watching her near perfect technique.  Given her size, she needed to be flawless in her execution in order to hang with the Annie Thorisdottir’s and Rebecca Voigt’s of the world.  If I recall correctly, she never missed a Clean and Jerk or needed to stop on the sled pushes.  She was an incredible inspiration all weekend long.  For those who began our CrossFit adventure by watching old-school videos of her, it was an awesome thing to see.

2.  Variety

One of CrossFit’s montra’s is “constant variation”.  At some point though you would think it’d be difficult to keep coming up with something fresh and new for an event as big as the Games.  Somehow they managed to “wow” us again.  Big props to the “powers-that-be” for keeping the athletes, as well as the spectators, on their toes.  The beach wod, as well as the skill workouts were nice additions.  We all knew at some point swimming had to be thrown into the mix.  Anyone whose ever swam in their life knows fews things come close to matching its intensity.  The monkey bars…well, those were just bad ass.  I certainly didn’t see that one coming.  Looking down onto the tennis court and gazing upon the monstrosity that was the monkey bar set-up reminded me why I love CrossFit so much.

3. Pat Barber

The “manimal” had a great overall peformance at this year’s Games, finishing in 8th.  However, the moment in particular that get’s Barber onto this list was the incredible finish to the last event that saw him take first after going absolutely berserk on the final sled pull.  He began the pull fairly slowly (and rightly so, did you see the craziness that was the last event???), falling slightly behind Khalipa and Ben Smith.  Re-energized out of no where though, about half way through, he truly lived up to his nick name and pulled the sled the final 50 feet or so without stopping.  Truly amazing.  Just to add a little perspective, absolute monsters like Khalippa, Morrison, and Froning, all guys who out-weigh and out-lift Barber, struggled by comparison.  The feat was so epic in fact that no one in the stadium was left sitting.  If you didn’t get chills watching that, you were probably A) new to CrossFit, or B) in the bathroom. If you get a chance check out his Official Site and follow him on facbeook.

4. Mikko and Orlando

Miko Salo and Rob Orlando, two of CrossFit’s most popular athletes, were forced to leave the competition through injury.  We can sit here and argue all day about whether or not the ocean swim was to blame, but the fact of the matter is every spectator was robbed of seeing two studs (Salo was a favorite to win the competition) perform.  That’s not good for anyone.  Now we’ll have to wait until next year to satisfy our Miko fixes.  For CrossFit junkies like myself, that task may prove rather difficult.  Is there anyone who saw this promo here and didn’t get chills???

5. ESPN

I’ll admit it, some mornings I just couldn’t get up in time to make it to Carson to see the day’s first event. Thankfully though, this year’s events were streamed live on ESPN 3.  It proved a huge lifesaver for us non-morning people and definitely paved the way for an even bigger CrossFit/ESPN partnership. If you haven’t heard, the Games are being televised on ESPN 2 in a 12 part series.


Overall, I thought this year’s Games to be a huge success. 2012′s future is very bright.  Now if only we can do something about that damn summer heat.

We have recently noticed an increase of CrossFit Beginners registering for our site. This is different from 2007-2008 where most of our users were veteran CrossFitters. I thought it would be a good idea to put together a quick guide for Beginning CrossFit.

First, Watch This

What’s CrossFit? (Short Version)

CrossFit is a workout regimen that gets you good at everything(running, weightlifting, gymnastics etc) with a simple approach. There is a WOD(workout of the day) that you have to perform. Do a WOD 2-6 times a week and you’ll get in the best shape of your life.

What’s CrossFit? (A little longer version)

CrossFit is the greatest strength and conditioning program in the world. It combines weightlifting, gymnastics and monostructural cardio(running, rowing, jumping rope etc) movements into measurable workouts. Measurable simply means that there is always a definite score or result for your workout. For example, a popular CrossFit workout is Helen where an athlete performs 3 rounds of 400 Meter Run, 21 Kettle-bell Swings, and 12 Pull-Ups. Helen is scored by the time it takes you to finish it. Other workouts are scored by the number of rounds(AMRAP), total weight(loads), distance and repetitions of movement(s). There are plenty of different workouts. I know what you are thinking. There is no way I can do that! A great thing about CrossFit is that every workout can be scaled to your current fitness level. For example, you could scale Helen to 2 rounds of 100 M Run, 10 Kettlebell Swings(10 lbs) and band-assited pul-ups(a thick rubberband that helps you do pullups). You would still time and record your workout. The next time you perform Helen you try to set a personal record(PR) by either doing the workout prescribed this time(Rx’d), scaling less or improving on the time with the same scaled workout. The goal is always the same, to do better! CrossFitters do a WOD(workout of the day) once, you guessed it, a day. The WODs will help improve your 10 general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, accuracy. CrossFit.com, also known as Main Site, puts up a WODs for the public everyday. It looks hard, because it is. Doing a workout as prescribed (Rx’d) is an accomplishment alone. Don’t worry, you can scale any workout to your fitness level. As you CrossFit more you will have to scale less. Soon you will be the envy of your friends and family.

How Do I Know I’m Getting More Fit?

In CrossFit there are benchmark workouts that are usually repeated at-least once a year. The workouts cover all ten general physical skills; respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Increasing your performance in these workouts increases your overall fitness level. On beyond the whiteboard we automatically keep track of your benchmarks. For example, check out Jeremy Kinnick’s Benchmarks.

I’m in. How do I start?

• If you signed up for our site it’s simple. Just log in and there will be a “To-do” section that will tell you what the WOD is. We also have a solid collection user submitted movement demo videos that you can watch before doing a WOD. Note, you don’t have to use beyond the whiteboard to CrossFit. You can get the WODs free everyday from Crossfit.com. In fact, you can get them free on beyond the whiteboard also. Our services include tracking and analyzing your CrossFit stats.
• There are 3,000 Licensed Crossfit Affilaites that offer CrossFit classes for people of different fitness levels. From elite athletes to elite couch potatoes. It’s simple really. You show up to the gym. A CrossFit trainer tells you what to do. You do it and get in shape. I highly recommend going to a CrossFit Affiliate(Most Gyms Offer A Free Class). Don’t worry, you can still use beyond the whiteboard to track your stats. In fact, there is a good chance the entire gym uses the site. Even if they don’t, you’re still better off at an CrossFit Affiliate. If you would like to find a gym that uses beyond the whiteboard check out our Gyms page.

But wait…there’s more

• For about a nickle a day($25 a year) you can subscribe to the CrossFit Journal, which happens to be the best fitness, health and lifestyle publication in the world.
• CrossFit also offers amazing courses around the world everyday. The courses range from introductory courses about CrossFit to speciality courses like Running. Do yourself a favor and go to one or ten.