Our Tim ("t-Factor"), model father and friend, is currently visiting family in China. Tim has been part of our program for three years. A CrossFit veteran, Tim not only lives the code but sets examples for us all--daily--on what it means to have a positive outlook on life, love your family and friends, and embellish everyone around you. He recently sent us this breaking news report from Jiuzhai, China.

From: ttapping@....net
To: getfit@crossfiteastside.com
Subject: This just in from the tFactor
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005

Called to the stage to participate in an ancient Qiang village ritual competition at Jiuzhai in order to determine who wins the most beautiful girl for his wife, Tim Tapping beat all comers in a "Push of War." See attached photos. Video available on request.

Having no way to train for this spur-of-the-moment contest, Tim relied on training received at CrossFit Eastside to prevail.

Despite the consumption of many beers prior to the event, the Bundle of Joy, Squat Therapy, Tabata, and D-Ball Slam training methodologies proved their worth.

Many thanks to my trainers, Michael and Carrie, without whom bigamy would not have been possible!

-- tim

Our Team 6 Wednesday evening crew has been the longest group standing. Fun and hardworking, this team formed on the westside and then migrated with us to the eastside once we were in the 'port.

Numbers steadily increased. Those who could not make the morning classes came in the evening. This worked out great for everyone, and it was dog-friendly, so Jaxon was good to go.

As the headcount increased, so did the need for additional tooling. We added bumpers, bars, dumbbells, a climbing rope, a second "bundle of joy" bicycle, and an outdoor pull-up bar to the mix.

Neighbors started to refer to us as the "stick people" because of the 5-14 athletes dispersed throughout the carport and driveway doing the Burgener warm-up (video, description) or other technique work with PVC dowels. It was not rare to see a group of people running around the block with something in their hands; whether a dumbbell (or two), medicine ball, or barbell, it was sure to bring attention to the hard work going on.

Wednesday crew carrying the December momentum into the new year:

Carry your new year's momentum forward with us.

Heather has been a student of
Marcelo Alonso Jiu-Jitsu since 2001.

Friend. Mega Trainer. CrossFit athlete. Success driven. Dedicated.

Strong work Hez. Proud of you.

Nate Beier: step up, jumping to a small box, jumping to a large box.

Sequence for box jumping:
Head forward. Torso upright. Feet just under the shoulders. Dip, drive, contact, extend. Step or jump down from box. Rinse and repeat.

What is wrong with this picture?
Notice the difference in extension. Can you reach full extension if you are looking at the ground?

Is the box jump scalable?

Stepping to a small box:

Jumping to a small box:

Jumping to a large box:

Common Faults:

Not dipping the hip before the drive, not landing on target, not reaching extension.

Build your own boxes: http://www.crossfit.com/discus/messages/26/14917.html

Is one permutation any less functional than the other?

Common rowing mistakes (as explained in the Concept2 technique DVD, shown by James Duggins):


1. Shooting the seat
Issue:
During the drive, pushing the seat back before the upper back and arms have engaged. Often this looks like the athlete is hinged at the waist and has extended the legs but left the arms behind.


Fix:
Create tension across the upper back (pinching scapulas together as if you are folding the back of your t-shirt lengthwise). Shoulders are active, chest open, torso upright. Lean back against the handle, arms locked. Drive with the legs; just before lockout of the legs, follow-through with the arms.


2. Pulling with the arms
Issue:
Bending the arms too early during the drive.

Fix:
Keep the arms locked straight until the legs have almost fully extended. The bending of the arms is the final phase of the drive.


3.Sitting back too far at the finish
Issue:
Reclining too far back, beyond the end of the monorail.

Fix:
Row with the feet out of the straps. If you overextend, you fall off the rower.

4. Not recovering correctly
Issue:
During the recovery phase, the knees bend before the hands pass over them.

Fix:
Recover from the fully extended position at the end of the drive by leading with the hands. Knees should bend only when the arms extend and the hands are just about to pass over the knees.

We have found that with increased exposure to ring dips and muscle-ups (getting on top of the rings), people experience abrasions on the upper part of the arm.

http://www.crossfit.com/discus/messages/26/17249.html
http://www.crossfit.com/discus/messages/26/17273.html

The CrossFit community is full of innovative contributors. In fact, in one way or another we are all contributors. Tyler Hass found a void in the modern fitness toolset and brought gymnastics rings to a mass market (http://www.ringtraining.com/).

It is our opinion that one should not need to “set” the rings before attempting action on them, as is often necessary with the power rings. By setting the rings, we mean turning the buckles on the straps to face inward before attempting to get on top, so that they end up on the outside in the dip phase in the muscle-up rather than pinched between the straps and the upper arms, where they tend to cause nasty abrasions.

Custom webbing remedy for the buckle issue:
1) Purchase climbing webbing in the desired length for hanging the rings.
2) Purchase four D-rings.
3) Remove the red webbing from the power rings by cutting the sewn loops.
4) Cut a single line of webbing into two even lengths and burn the cut ends to keep them from fraying.
5) Run one end of the webbing through both D-rings and tie with a double figure-eight loop around the D-rings.
6) Run the finished webbing and D-ring through the rings and over whatever you are affixing them to (pull-up bar, beam, etc.), so that the webbing is one large circle.
7) Thread the free end of the webbing through both D-rings and back through one D-ring.
8) Tighten, test, and go.

Use caution and brains with this setup. While it is secure, be smart and limit your exposure to compromising positions (inversions and the like).

Remove the red webbing from the power rings by cutting the sewn loops.

Cut a single line of webbing into two even lengths and burn the cut ends to keep them from fraying.

A) Run one end of the webbing through both D-rings and tie with a double figure-eight loop around the D-rings.

B) Run the finished webbing and D-ring through the rings and over whatever you are affixing them to (pull-up bar, beam, etc.), so that the webbing is one large circle.

You can use this setup with any rings—if they have a hoop, you are good to go. We have phased out the power rings from our gym and replaced them with more favorable wood or—even better—Lexan ones. Lexan rings can be purchased through American Athletic, Incorporated (AAI) for about seventy dollars. Lexan rings clean up well, have a good feel, and are super lightweight and less bulky than steel hoops. Add your custom webbing to the Lexan ring setup and you are good to go.

Five large boxes arrived today from Concept2. What a treat--outstanding product. Everything was complete, batteries and allen wrench included! You see why theirs are the world's best indoor rowers: their engineering is top shelf.


Setup of the rowers is but 10 bolts away. Set your country, time, and date and you are rowing, my friend. Each of our new rowers went through strenuous QA with 250m
sprints.

We took a different approach when laying our lifting platforms. We cut 6-foot x 4-f00t MDF blanks to fill in mat space. This keeps our space completely modular. We can add and remove the platforms on the fly and place them in any one of the 69 mat spaces on the floor.

We interrupt this walk down CFES memory lane to document some current events of note. First, Eastside CrossFitter Brian Rees recently graduated from the Washington State Police Academy and is now an officer with the Seattle PD. He was given special recognition during the graduation exercises for his physical achievements and commitment to fitness in two areas: his running mileage log and the extra PT sessions he put in. (Notably, he was not recognized among those who put in additional time on the cardio machines.) We are bustin’ with pride for him, his accomplishments, and the service he will be providing. Congratulations, Officer Rees!

Speaking of busting at the seams, our other big news is that CFES is in the process of moving into our own four-walled, heated, spacious facility in Redmond (making the commute for some of us even shorter than the amount of time it takes Greg Amundson to do Fran). Our community is thrilled to have a new home, and the support and encouragement we’ve received has been truly amazing.

We got the keys to the box and delivery of about 7500 pounds of rubber flooring on Thursday and held the first workout in the new box at 0600 Friday morning, with plenty of room to set up five concurrent deadlift bars and for everyone to do 58-foot indoor lunge and bear crawl (or handwalk) laps. A great (and warm) time was had by all.

An expanded training schedule is under development for January.

Team6 adds two new regular members, both hard workers--and one with an entertaining flair for workout whining.

Space gets a bit tighter as the carport serves its dual purposes as both effective CrossFit gym and the homeowners’ storage space. Fortunately, we have an incredibly generous and accommodating landlord, who states, “We have a bunch of stuff we should get rid of anyway.” Because of the tremendous space-clearing efforts, including the removal of an old washer and dryer, we are able to add three additional stall mats (another 72 square feet), essentially tripling our total floor space to 12 feet x 20 feet.

Classes bring continued focus on the fundamental CrossFit triplet: squat, push-press, deadlift. We take the fundamentals and remove the metabolic component to focus entirely on technique. Striving for absolute perfect execution (or damn near), our athletes help with the coaching. If someone is not performing correctly or is slacking on execution, the crew makes the call. “Head up!” “No slouching!” “Fix that back!” echo from the carport.

With consistency comes efficacy. These words from Coach Glassman resonate through our
facility.

My neighbor of 15 years approached me with questions about off-season training for his daughter. She plays college volleyball down south and was home for the summer.

While away from school, she was assigned a “volleyball training program” to follow in the off months building up to the next year’s season. The program included dietary recommendations (high carbohydrate, minimal fat, some protein), circuit training (involving isolation machinery commonly found in your local commercial facility), stretch bands, and a few scattered Olympic-style lifts (power cleans). Once back at school in the fall, the team would test their off-season training by performing leg extensions and leg presses for maximum weight or repetitions. I kid you not.

I reviewed the training curriculum more times than I care to remember. I was simply stunned that supposedly success-driven sport teams follow the standard pop fitness model (bodybuilding), yet expect to be in the winner's circle.

That kind of programming (of the Muscle and Fitness magazine variety) does not provide fitness, forge elite athleticism, or condition fighters or warriors to dominate in the arena, cage, or battlefield. Varied, functional movements executed at high-intensity do.

The father-and-daughter team were the second and third members of Team6 at the carport.

Truthfully speaking, the title says it all. Our journey with “getting some, anytime, anywhere” began six months ago in a carport at a house near you.
“My friend needs a trainer….” This was the call I received from one of my dear friends.

“I would love to train him, but we don’t have a facility to train in.” “You could train him at his house…in his carport”

“Really?”

“Yeah, totally, he is into the garage gym thing—you guys will hit it off well.”

And so the journey begins.

May 2005 - First session with new client
5:55 AM: Arrive on location. Triple-check the map, see the target site, but it does not have an address on the front. Oh, man, I hope I am in the right spot. Coffee in hand, I pace nervously. I am out of my comfort zone. My toolset is unknown (no real gear to bring with me yet), the layout is foreign, and this is my first time meeting with this client.

6:00 AM: Client arrives, out comes the game face. “Glad you found the place—we haven’t put the numbers up on the front of the house yet.”
“Yes I know, I was worried for a second or two.”
“Cannot believe I made it up this morning.”
“Same here, this is new for me, the whole get up before the birds thing.” “Successful people get up early, that is their nature.”

That last sentence still sticks with me today. When I have issues dragging myself out of bed, I think about the things that can be accomplished before most people even think about getting out of bed. Success-driven people do get up early; we have proof!