beyond the whiteboard

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

Many people forget, or don’t know, that the Girl Workouts are named alphabetically, like hurricanes, and are the classic Benchmarks of Crossfit. Pictured above is the screen that was used to make the shirt.

Why Are The Benchmarks Named After Girls?

To quote Coach Glassman, “Anything that leaves you flat on your back and incapacitated only to lure you back for more at a later date.”

Why Are They The ABC’s of Fitness

They embody the idea of CrossFit. To quote Coach Glassman again, “If you are improving at these, you are becoming fitter.”

The Design and Shirt

Simple and to the point. Next to each workout is the amount of posts CrossFittters around the world have posted. Yup, over 20k for fran and 15k for Helen and Cindy. CrossFitters are awesome. We went with American Apparel 50/50 Poly-Cotton blend shirt.

These pieces are comprised of our distinct 50/50 Poly-Cotton blend. Unlike other Poly-Cotton t-shirts on the market, ours is made with combed cotton, giving it an ultra soft, worn in feel and superior drape. Even finer than traditional combed-cotton yarn, this ultra-comfortable fabric features remarkable recovery even after repeated washings. Slightly more opaque than our Sheer Jersey yet still lightweight, these shirts offer a versatile surface perfect for screen printing and embellishment. -American Apparel

Our t-shirt guy actually told us that no one gives these shirts out for free, but we reminded him how great our users are. The back of the shirt has our new logo and date. We put the date on the back because we will never print these shirts in the future, and want you guys to have exclusive gear. Look forward to meeting you guys.

Our Booth (We are official sponsors)

We have decided to go with a different approach to usual convention booths. Instead of focusing around meeting prospective clients, we are hoping to meet as many of our amazing users as possible. We want to make a comfortable area for you guys to stop by and say hi. Once we verify you are a member you’ll get hooked up with our cool giveaway bag. Also, you’ll get a sneak peek into our new site design as well as some features we are working on.

2 Minute Challenge

We are going to have a LIVE Two Minute Challenge. If you can’t make it, you can participate at home.

• Repeat of a classic. Double Unders. The competition will begin Friday morning at 8 am and end Monday at midnight.
• If you can’t make it, participate at home. We will be recording and posting videos of people who compete at the tent.
• There will be prizes. At the minimum the top male and female athletes will get a pair of Again Faster Wooden Rings. Also, we will most likely buy stuff from different vendors during the games and add add to the prize pool.

The Good

Beyond The Whiteboard is now “in the cloud”. What does that mean? Better performance. You should notice the site moving faster. Also, we can scale up the site with a click of a button now.

The Bad

We were down longer then we anticipated and are really sorry. Somewhere along the update process we messed up and had to rebuild the application environment and it took a long time.

The Ugly

If you posted something yesterday(anythign after 1 am), you might have to repost. We’re really sorry. Luckily, we backup the site everyday and were able to restore 99% of all posts. We have already started researching the problem and are confident nothing like this will ever happen again.

Sorry

We have amazing users and felt that being honest and upfront was the best approach. Hopefully the “Good” will be really good in the long run. This was not one of our “game changing” new features. However, those are going to start being released in the next week or so and will be great. Again, we are really sorry.