What's so exciting about a 2K row?

The CrossFit Games Northeast Qualifier (NEQ) Day One workouts were announced a week ahead of time, on the Albany CrossFit site. The first included thrusters and burpees - an evil combination that I have programmed myself many times. Maybe not the sexiest of CrossFit exercises, but certainly classics. And, again, brutally effective in their capacity to leave you sweating and panting and broken on the ground. But the second workout of the day stole all the attention, and not in a good way. Just five little letters was all it took for the virtual crowd to start buzzing.

Row 2K.

I'm not going to talk about the NEQ organizers' strategy in programming this workout. I won't even begin to speculate the science-y analysis that went into choosing the movements, the reps, the distance. What I will say is this... what I heard on Saturday morning, was, "BORING." The crowd at Albany thought the idea of rowing 2,000 meters as one of only three qualifying events was, well, kinda boring. I mean, you just row. No heavy weights, no range of motion criteria, there isn't even any counting involved. Athletes strap in and, like, row for a few minutes. Between, maybe, six and nine minutes, which is kind of a long time to watch the same damn movement. So from what I gathered, spectators weren't thrilled about the prospect of watching people row. The general crowd consensus was that Saturday afternoon would bring heat after heat of the CrossFit equivalent of watching paint dry. Boring.

I'm here to tell you, people... it was ANYTHING BUT. The row was, for me (and I think many of my fellow spectators), the most exciting part of the qualifiers, hands-down. The. Most. EXCITING.

We rolled 20 C2 rowers into the competition arena and lined them all up in two rows, facing each other. As an athlete, should you so choose, you could look directly into the face of your competition as you battled for points. To have so many competitors in such a small space, all lined up in order, meant that the crowd could watch the field as a whole. It was kind of like a horse race - one clumped mass all moving fast and hard, straining to come in one meter ahead of the next guy over. The athletes' tension was palpable, and the crowd fed off the perceived intimate competition - athlete squaring off, literally head to head, against athlete.

At the beginning of each heat, the competitors stepped up, strapped in, grabbed the handles... and then waited, tense and twitchy, like shirtless, sweaty thoroughbreds at the starting gate. Their coaches stood behind them, just as anxious, waiting for the signal to begin. And in that moment, the crowd was quiet.

The horn would blow and the athletes would begin to pull. And it was clear, immediately, who could actually row. Because the event was more than six minutes long, it gave the crowd a chance to walk around, checking out each competitor. Technique flaws were readily apparent. Pacing mistakes were easy to spot. (I don't know a lot of people who can maintain a 1:20 pace for a full 2,000 meters.) But for those athletes that got it right... it was poetry in motion. Literally.

There were a few rounds where I was just a spectator, not judging. Dallas, my sister and I scoped out different vantage points during one of the women's heats. I stopped him at one point, and pointed to a ridiculously fit woman wearing a green bandana. (Edit: I have since discovered she is Jessica Dunn, a trainer at Albany CrossFit.) "Um, Dallas... what, exactly, is she doing?" Her technique was so different than anything I'd yet to see that day. She was moving, for lack of a better word... slow. It was the opposite of what EC Synkowski calls the "CrossFit Hustle", that rowing motion that takes you backandforth-backandforth as fast as humanly possible. She was... slow. Her recovery was slow. Her drive, while the perfect display of the legs-body-arms that EC taught us, was also kind of slow. But then, Dallas pointed out one thing. This woman had a MONSTER pull. Her technique wasn't slow. It was efficient as hell, because she was producing so much power with each movement. The longer I watched, the more inspired I became. She was, in a word, gorgeous. She made me want to be stronger. She made me want to be a better rower. She made me want to be HER. And she made me want her to WIN.

Because of the way this event was organized, we had the perfect opportunity to stay put and watch our girl while still monitoring the rest of the pack. Before the event, the organizers gave all the judges four different colored cards, each signifying a different meter mark - one when the athlete was down to 1,000 meters, the next when they reached 500. They instructed us to hold each card up in turn as the athletes got closer and closer to finishing the event. The last card was to signify the final 250 meters, as a signal to the crowd that the athlete was almost done.

I thought this was really dumb. I mean, I'm supposed to remember which card to hold up, and the crowd is going to be able to figure out what each color signified? Dumb. Except IT WASN'T. The crowd went wild each time a judge's hand went up, signifying a new milestone in the row. We watched breathlessly through a sea of pink cards, waiting for the first hand to come up blue. It told us who to watch, how close they were to finishing, who was in contention for winning the heat. The card system allowed the crowd to fully participate no matter where they were standing, and gave us incentive as spectators to fully invest our cheering potential in "our" athletes. It was brilliant, and I'm sorry that I called it dumb, Jason, David and Neal.

Anyway, back to my new girl crush Jessica. We were able to monitor where she was in the field because of the card scoring system, which meant I could stay right where I was and just watch her row. She was, in my mind, flawless. Her technique never deviated, her pacing was rock solid and damn if she didn't make every hard-fought meter look HOT. With the last 250M to go, her pacing sped up a little, but the power of her pulls never diminished. I whooped as her blue card was raised, watched as Caitlin Fabian pulled in first, and then yelled myself hoarse for the green-bandana-clad Jessica to finish strong. In the end, she pulled her 2K in 8:02, and finished sixth out of all the women for that event. She may not have won, but as a spectator, she made that heat. And as both a spectator and a judge, the 2K row was the most exciting part of my weekend.

I did not hear one rumbling of "boring" when that event was done. Not one. The crowd was charged, amped, pumped. Everyone was talking about how exciting it was, how much energy was packed into one small event area, how each heat, start to finish, was non-stop screaming and cheering. And if the crowd felt it, I know the athletes felt it, and I'd like to think that helped to drive some PR-worthy performances. So I don't know if a 2K row was the best choice to test a well-rounded athlete. I don't know if it perfectly balanced the demands of the other workouts, or if it truly measured enough of the ten aspects of fitness in an appropriate manner. But I do know it was as exciting as hell. If you were there with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you weren't... you missed out on some of the best that CrossFit has to offer, from an athletic perspective and a community perspective.

Also, have I mentioned CrossFit New England's Bern fell off his rower mid-event? He swears it's okay if I talk about it in this very public forum. And it's a story worth re-telling, so I'm going to check in with Bern to make sure I've got the details right first... but you'll hear all about it next week.

Addendum: Make sure you read NEQ Organizer David Osorio's comment regarding the thought process behind programming a 2K row as one of the events. I love that he dropped that particular brand of genius on us. Thanks, David.

Unfortunately, I can't find a single picture of Jessica actually rowing. Not that it would have done her justice. Trust me, she was beautiful. (Photo courtesy of Albany CrossFit.)

Our weekend with MaD CrossFit

Quick post today - check the CrossFit 603 site for some of the fun weekend events OUTSIDE of the Qualifiers. (We got to hang with Matt and Donna Dyson of MaD CrossFit all weekend long. It was pretty awesome.)

More NEQ thoughts to come...

Byers Judges the Northeast Qualifiers

Me with the deserving first place finisher James Hobart of CrossFit Boston. James is, in my opinion, the sweetest, cutest man in all of CrossFit, and I was SO proud of him for quietly and cheerfully kicking SO much ass.


First, I am super behind in all things internet... email, blog posts, Facebook, 603 comments. But it was worth it to totally unplug for the weekend and just enjoy the craziness that was the CrossFit Games Northeast Qualifiers. I'm going to write up a few different posts about the NEQ from my perspective - today I want to talk about what it meant to "judge" an event of this nature.

I went to Albany as a volunteer, as I have no interest in ever competing. Ever. At all. (Just to be clear, for all the people who asked, "So maybe next year?") But I wanted to participate and represent the 603, so I volunteered to judge the events. I had no idea what that entailed, or how much work it involved, or how serious that task would turn out to be. I just though it sounded fun, and a way to be right in the middle of the fray without actually competing.

The first element of judging was understanding the workouts, and the movement standards. As a trainer, I'm used to evaluating the way someone moves - range of motion, body mechanics, flexibility, limitations. But for an event such as this, the movement standards mean everything. An inch makes the difference between a rep that counts and a rep that does not - and one rep can mean the difference between first place and second place. The movement standards were serious business, and we (as judges) spent a lot of time reviewing, observing, questioning and practicing our evaluations.

During each heat, after I introduced myself to my athletes, the next words out of my mouth were exactly the same for every single competitor. "When it comes to the movement standards, do not make me guess. You will not like it if I have to guess." We looked at one rep of every movement before each heat, to make sure everyone was on the same page with what "full extension" looks like and what "behind the ears" means. I told my athletes that I would cue them with the standards if they were getting close to a foul, but that there would be no free passes. And then (since I only judged the men), I put on my most charming, most persuasive girl persona and told my boys that I would feel truly awful making them do even one rep over, and please don't do that to me. I got a few very earnest, very cute boys shaking their heads and reassuring me, "Oh no, I won't, really" to that one.

The second element of judging - and equally as important - was counting. Yep, just counting. Not even counting to high numbers - we never got above ten. But damn if that pre-school skill wasn't one of the toughest parts of the job. I am not a good counter. In a met-con, anything higher than the number 6 poses a problem. I lose track all the time in my own workouts, and you know when in doubt about the numbers, you do the extra rep. Except this weekend, losing count was not an option. Clearly. My athletes needed me to keep track of where they were in the workout. How many burpees, how many cleans, how many rounds. So that was my job. I counted, out loud. If they fouled, I called it and told them why, and then re-counted the rep when they did it right. I told them how many they had done, how many they had left and how many rounds they had completed. I counted like it was my full time job, because this weekend, it was.

The third aspect of my job was to treat my athletes as if they were a famous celebrity - like Paris Hilton, who you know damn well expects someone else to do pretty much everything but breathe and pee for her. When athletes showed up at my station, that is how I wanted to take care of them - like they were Paris Hilton, only shirtless, sweaty and picking up heavy shit. So I asked all of them what they needed from me. If they wanted me to, I yelled at them, encouraged them, coached them. I gave them round updates and time updates. I told them what they were doing, how many they had left, and where to go next. I cued them on the movement standards and reminded them to jump or get their ass down or hit the bar. For those 12 - 15 minutes, I literally ran their lives, and I seriously hope that approach helped them to focus on what they needed to do - move the weight.

The judges had more responsibility than just those 12-15 minute heats, but those workouts were the bulk of how I spent my weekend. It was surprisingly physically exhausting - there was little time to sit, and we spent hours rounding up rolling barbells, adjusting plates and swapping out weights. I must have deadlifted 155# more than I would in a month's worth of WODs, making sure competitors' barbells were where they needed them to be for the next round. And I worked most every heat in a squat or a crouch or a lunge, watching for chest to deck or hips below parallel or chest hitting the bar. I spent a very uncomfortable half hour on the foam roller on Saturday night, just to get my shoulders, hips and hamstrings functional again.

But aside from the physical demands, the mental demands were perhaps the most taxing. I had to be "on" for every single second that I spent in that event area. There was no relaxing, no drifting off for a moment, no allowing yourself to be distracted by the crowd or another competitor or the barbell bouncing hard in your direction. And that was hard to do - there was SO much going on all at once, and it's natural to want to take a step back and see what else was happening. But the job demanded that I give my entire focus and all my energy to my athletes, one at a time. And after two full days, I found that was the most exhausting component of the weekend.

My athletes were all amazing competitors. They worked so hard, and dug deep to pull off one more round, one more lift. They were all exceedingly polite, and the epitome of good sportsmanship. A few of them even came around after their heats to thank me for the coaching or counting or general support, which was unnecessary, but made me feel really good. So to all the men I yelled at, cued, counted for and stole reps from... I am impressed with your gentlemanly conduct, your mental toughness and your strong work. Thank you for making my job that much easier.

There is so much more to talk about - the fun blog stalkers (I mean, readers) I finally got to meet, the amazing vibe and flow and energy of the weekend (thanks in no small part to the organizers), our fun weekend OUTSIDE of the events, thanks to our hosts Matt and Donna Dyson of MaD CrossFit, how Bern from CrossFit New England fell off his rower mid WOD #2... so many stories. Stay tuned for more thoughts from the Northeast Qualifiers.

Judging Jason "Rhabdo" Kaplan in WOD #2, which he completed in just over 11 minutes. This boy is a power clean and pull-up machine.


Explaining movement standards to competitor Patrick Byrnes. (Yes, I tricked my judge's t-shirt out. Would you expect any different?)


I also want to thank Samantha Aurelio for these awesome photos. Sam has a really cool blog of her own, with lots of cool pictures and random musings. Nice to finally meet you, Sam!

The Elevator Pitch

This past Sunday, my BFF Jenn (J. Spice, to all you 603'ers) and I had a deliciously girly day. We had a fantastic breakfast at this cute little cafe in Nashua, then drove down to Burlington to do some shopping. (There's a Nordstrom, and a Lululemon, and a Sephora at the Burlington Mall. It's pretty much Girly-Girl Heaven.) We hit Lulu last, figuring we might be there a while.

So I'm in the dressing room, and I hear Jenn outside, talking to the Lulu-lady. The lady asks Jenn, "Do you do yoga, or..." and Jenn replies, "No, we CrossFit. Melissa owns a CrossFit gym in NH." And the woman says, "I've never heard of that. What's CrossFit?"

Long pause.

And then I hear Jenn doing her very best to try to describe CrossFit to the Lulu-lady. Now, Jenn's been CrossFitting with me since before we even opened the affiliate. She knows CrossFit - hell, like the rest of us, she lives CrossFit. But the Lulu-lady had about six other customers... and perhaps she was only being polite in asking, but she was still patiently waiting for a quick response. And damned if Jenn wasn't slightly stumped at having to come up with an on-the-spot CrossFit Elevator Pitch.

The concept of an Elevator Pitch comes from the business world. Wiki defines it as, "An overview of an idea for a product, service, or project." The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (maybe thirty seconds, and no more than 100-150 words). Say you find yourself riding in the elevator with the big boss at your office. You've had this great marketing idea for a while now, and here's your shot to finally pitch it! You'd better be able to impress him - and get the outline of your plan across - before those doors open, right?

As a new affiliate owner, I find myself having to give the CrossFit Elevator Pitch all the time. Friends, family, co-workers and potential clients all want to know what this CrossFit thing is all about. And in those three tiny words, "What is CrossFit?", lies my challenge. I need to be able to get the key elements of CrossFit and my affiliate across in just a few concise sentences. I mean, no one is going to stand there while I read from the CrossFit Journal's "What is Fitness" article, right? But I can't be so brief and vague in my description that I make CrossFit sound like every other fitness program out there. The last thing you want to hear after your Elevator Pitch is, "Oh, so it's kind of like my Zumba class?"

Plus, I'm trying to keep it brief, which means I need to choose my words carefully. Start tossing out things like "handstands" and "clean and jerks" and most women (and lots of guys) will immediately write it off as too advanced. And there are so many overused buzzwords in the fitness industry these days - make the mistake of using one of them carelessly and I guarantee you'll lose your audience. Take "functional fitness", for example. Functional movements are clearly a big part of CrossFit, but people's eyes glaze over when you mention the words, because they've heard them used to describe everything from Swiss ball crunches to bicep curls on a stability board. Now you're starting to see the dilemma. Be brief, but not too brief. Be descriptive, but not so technical that it's scary. Tell the story, but avoid cliches and jargon. Whew. Tall order, huh?

You don't have to be an affiliate owner or a trainer to face this issue. Everyone who CrossFits is asked, at one time or another, "What's that crazy workout stuff you do?" And most of us are so passionate about the program and the results that we want to share it with everyone. So it's important for all of us to be able to get the concept across, without fumbling for words, speaking in riddles or scaring the daylights out of a potential gym buddy.

I've given this a lot of thought, and I've had a lot of practice so far, but my own Elevator Pitch still isn't perfect. Still, the more I say it, the better it gets, and I'd be a terrible blog hostess if I didn't at least share with you what I've come up with so far. So here it is, as best as I can document it:

CrossFit is a fitness program designed around the things you do in the real world. Every day, you bend down and pick things up, you put things over your head, you squat down, you stand up, you run after your kids or jump over a puddle. CrossFit prepares you for all that and then some by performing those exact movements in our workouts. We borrow exercises from things like weightlifting, gymnastics, and track and field, and we mix it up a lot, so your body is always adapting, getting stronger, faster, better conditioned. And the key to the whole program is that you work really, really hard... so you get fit really, really fast.

Now, that's pretty watered down, and certainly doesn't encompass all the principles of CrossFit. But I've covered "functional exercises", "constantly varied" AND "high intensity", given a few examples of some of the things we do, and closed with a sweet little carrot... Come train with me. Get really fit.

Things I haven't addressed include the group classes and the sense of community, the infinitely scale-able aspect of the programming, the ten components of fitness and our focus on safety, technique and intensity. But those are all things I can hit on pretty quickly if the person shows some interest. If I get a bite on my Elevator Pitch, then I can start really selling, based on exactly who I'm talking to. As just an opener, however, I've found this standard Pitch works pretty well.

So here's my question. Have you thought about your Elevator Pitch? What do you say, what key elements do you address, what do you purposefully leave out so as not to overwhelm or scare the person off? Do you vary it based on who you're talking to, or do you open with the same lines, regardless of who's asking? Is your pitch too short, too long? Do people stay interested, ask follow-up questions, seem to "get it"? And finally, what do you think MY pitch is missing?

Consider this homework, people, and post thoughts to comments. You'll thank me for it, the next time someone asks you, "How'd you get so fit, anyway?" In the meantime, I may have to go back to Lululemon to ask the Lulu-lady how Jenn did with her CrossFit Elevator Pitch. In the interest of research, of course. It has nothing to do with buying that gray pair of Boogie shorts that I reluctantly put back on the shelf.

Roll with the 603

First thing's first - the PR Party thread is still going strong, with more than 70 comments so far. Keep them coming - if you're a lurker here but have yet to drop some props, now is the time to make yourself heard.

Now, on to the topic of the day. A few of you who posted songs to the PR Party thread added as a bit of a disclaimer, "I'm not a 603'er, but here's my favorite track." Interesting. The first thing I'll say it does not matter if you're not a 603'er. Good music is good music, and I'd like to get 70 more people to contribute to this gold mine of lyrical magic.

But the next thing I'll say is, why aren't you a 603'er? I mean, I know you most likely do not live within practical driving distance of Tilton, NH, and therefore cannot physically come and train with us. Too bad - we'd love to have you. But that doesn't mean you can't still check out our stuff and play along from time to time.

See, at the 603, we do all our own programming. And I may be biased, but I'd like to think our stuff is pretty good, thanks in no small part to Dallas (the evil genius behind 90% of our WoDs). Our workouts are heavy on the Oly, kettlebells and gymnastics, and have a serious strength bias. We like to mix things up in ways you may not have seen before. And we make you think about your training - your strengths and weaknesses, your skill level, and your degree of mental toughness. All of which means our workouts are an awful lot of FUN. Well, fun-ish. I mean, you've seen our tag line. (Also, even we'll admit that the math is not fun. Nobody likes math.)

The thing is, we've got CrossFitters from all over regularly doing our workouts and posting to comments. Jonathan in the UK, Kristin and Jay in North Carolina, Andy at Dartmouth, Addi in Nebraska, Nik in Maine, Tony from... um, Tony, where are you from, anyway? And Matt, originally from NH but currently deployed in Afghanistan. So not all 603'ers actually train WITH us (although, again, we wish they could).

So if you're ever stuck for a workout, or bored with what you've been doing, or just feeling like kicking your own ass in a totally new and uncomfortable manner... check us out. Scroll through our WoDs, and if you see something you like, give it a go. That goes for you affiliate owners and trainers out there too - feel free to borrow, sample or straight-up snatch any one of the 603 WoDs. We only ask one thing of you... if you give our stuff a whirl, sound off in our comments! We appreciate hearing feedback on our programming, and we love seeing what other people are able to do with our stuff.

Come roll with the 603, even if it's just for a day. You can start here, if you like... the met-con I am now calling The Workout of Which We Do Not Speak. Or, my personal favorite - our version of a CrossFit classic called Stand Up, Linda. See, Constantly Varied drops in on us all the time, so no matter what day you choose, you're bound to try something new, and have a little fun while you're at it. (Well, fun-ish. Right.)

Our long-distance trainee, Kristin Schulz, passing our version of the Sissy Test with flying colors.

It's a PR party, and everyone's invited

First of all, thanks to all of you who contributed to the "Superstitious" thread. On that note, y'all are certifiably bananas. Kyle with the sunglasses, Melicious with the backwards reps and Sherrill with the perfect alignment of bar to ceiling rafters? But hey, I am not in any place to judge. If there's one thing I believe, it's this... WHATEVER WORKS. Seriously - if sunglasses, counting backwards, and good feng shui lead to faster met-cons, bigger lifts and significant PRs, then I'll throw on the shades, line my shit up and 3,2,1 my way through every workout.

A really interesting thing that came from that thread, though, are the specific connections you made to your gym music. I've written about this once before, how music is as much a part of my training as chalk, iron and rubber. But I didn't realize how many of you are just as particular about what you listen to, and when. I GET that. I appreciate that. And reading some of your playlists (and your anti-playlists, Michael with the Nine Inch Nails) gave me another idea.

I've been looking for some new gym music. I have about 250 tracks on my CrossFit playlist, and another 150 on my Oly playlist, and I'm bored with all of them. And I could spend a few hours poking around iTunes for some new stuff... But maybe I don't need to do that. See, you all seem pretty convinced that YOUR music is the BEST music for big lifts, fast met-cons and PR parties. So here's what I propose.

• Post your best/favorite/most guaranteed to work musical track (artist and song title) to comments.
• You only get to post ONE SONG, so choose carefully. No changing your mind, one post per person.
• I'll download every single one of your tracks and put them in a new PR Party playlist.
• I'll make sure to hit each track at some point over the coming weeks, whether it's in my own workout or during one of the 603's group W0Ds.
• In the meantime, you guys can see what other people are listening too, get some ideas and maybe make your own new playlists too.
• We'll regroup back here on June 1st to discuss which tracks worked for us during which workouts, and (hopefully) share some cool "I PR'd to this song" stories.

Here's the deal - I promise to download, play, and keep an open mind about EVERY song you post. So Bee, if you get all fired up to "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy", throw it out there and I'll find just the right time to crank it up. Also, I am not opposed to profanity in my music, either. Clearly.

I'll kick this PR Party off with MY song (something I haven't referenced yet)... J Squad's "ttbz Anthem". It's perfect for a weighted met-con... there's something about the beat that just makes me want to, as Jenn puts it, hit my swagger.

So, you in? Post your song to comments - let's make some magic, people.

Very superstitious

This past Saturday morning, I'm running Chad through his third Elements class, which focuses on the posterior chain and exercises like the deadlift, kettlebell swing and box jump. I'm loading up the bar for some progressively heavier deadlifts while Chad is taking notes.

Chad: How much weight was that last one?

Me: That was 205#.

Chad: Cool, got it. And (pen poised above paper) how much weight are you putting on now?

Me: NOOOO! You never, EVER write the weights down before you pull them!

Chad: Um, really?

Me: NO. That's bad juju. Write AFTER, Chad. Always AFTER.

At this point, Chad is looking at me kind of funny. Then he says, "You sure do have a lot of rules about gym stuff."

Uh, really? Chad THEN reminds me of the previous week, as we were loading up the bar for his back squats. He went to put a plate on with the numbers facing OUT, and I just about had a seizure. "NOOO! You never, EVER put the numbers facing out, Chad. IN. Always IN."

Huh. I mean, the plate thing is pretty common knowledge, I thought. Everyone knows that bad things happen when the plates face out. My hairdresser's cousin knew a girl who got pregnant because her boyfriend lifted with the plates facing out. True story. So I don't consider that one especially weird, but it got me thinking... what else do I do in the gym that might be considered superstitious?

The recording of the numbers is a big one. Writing down the weights or reps before you've actually pulled them is just asking fate to kick you in the crotch. I may have an IDEA of what weights I'm going to use for the whole workout, but until they actually leave the ground, they DON'T go in the book.

I also know I am VERY particular about my music, especially on PR attempts. For example, there is one song which has been banned from all playlists, anywhere I train. It's Saliva's "Click, Click, Boom", which is a shame, because it is a very good song. I gave that song a chance - I really did. But I have NEVER had a good pull to that song, ever. Deadlift attempt - tragic. Clean and jerk attempt - fail. Press PR attempt - close, but no go. So I've done the only logical thing there is to do - I've banned that song from the gym. (On the opposite hand, Flyleaf's "I'm So Sick" and Seether's "Remedy" have always given me big, strong lifts, so I pull those out when I need them the most.)

I also have special gym clothes for certain occasions, which might just be a girl thing. I save my pink short-shorts for the toughest met-cons, because pink is traditionally a "princess" color, and looking at the shorts while I'm sweaty and panting and covered in chalk reminds me there is no room for princesses here. I also purposefully don't match my clothes when I have a really hard workout. Matching makes me feel far too coordinated and pretty to get down to serious business. Not matching makes me feel tougher. And that sounds SO dumb on paper, but I'm going to keep it out there because it's true. I also have several various articles of clothing printed with skulls and crossbones. If I show up for an Oly session wearing my skulls and crossbones, you can be damn well sure it is ON. (I credit my latest jerk PR 86% to Dallas' coaching and the rest to my grey and black striped skull and crossbone socks.)

Finally, if I'm doing unilateral exercises, I ALWAYS start with my left. Even if the rest of the class starts with their right... I'm on the left. That is non-negotiable.

So maybe I do have a few superstitions, but they're rooted in my own delusions of cause and effect. And as long as they keep working in my favor, I'm happy to throw on my pink shorts with an orange tank top and crank up the Seether before my Fight Gone Bad. If you have any weird gym-related things, feel free to drop them to comments. I can't be the ONLY superstitious one... and maybe you'll have something I can adopt. Because nothing's too crazy to try, when it comes to a PR attempt.

CrossFit 603 apparel

In the interest of getting our designs out there without having to worry about taking and filling orders ourselves, we've decided to start off with our very own CrossFit 603 Spreadshirt shop. We're pretty sure these shirts will add 10# to your deadlift! (And if they don't, at least you'll look good tryin'.)



All our products (save a few special women's designs) are printed on American Apparel goods. We like American Apparel's Made-in-the-USA promise, and their products are a superior quality, with a slim and flattering fit. (No Hanes Beefy Tees for the ladies of the 603!)

Our designs are a combination of our kick-ass 603 logo, the mischievous kettlebell and the oh-so-true "our fun is not fun" tag line. Tees are printed in full color, and most have graphics on the front and back. We have a good selection of designs, styles and colors, but if you want something in particular, send me an email and I'll probably be able to make it for you.

Special 603 bonus! If you send me a picture of you doing something cool in your 603 tee, I'll make you famous-ish here on the blog. Get creative... but we do have one hard and fast rule around here. No public handstands. I know CrossFitters loooove them some public handstands, but that is just not how we roll. On the other hand, special priority goes to photos that also feature tall socks, pit bulls, and/or people picking up heavy stuff and putting it overhead. Because that IS how we roll.

The 603 tees in action, sort of. (We were doing stuff in 'em earlier, we promise.) EC, we'll get you one soon.

Hot Chicks Doing Pull-Ups: KrisFit

After I posted the first "Hot Chicks" video, I received a note from Kristopher Germain, CrossFit Certified Level I Trainer, owner of KrisFit and a recently approved CrossFit affiliate. Kris wrote, in part:

"I really love training women - the soccer mom and the weekend warrior, the ex-athlete who's thirty but thinks she is too "old" to be exceptionally fit. Women are strong, so much stronger than anyone tells them. Where the crap did the partial push-up come from? Who thought women were so weak they couldn't learn to do a strict push-up? Women training with me reach "bad-ass benchmarks" by getting real push-ups and real pull-ups. They're at the on-ramp to bad-ass with one push up and one pull up; and reach authentic bad-ass status if they can do 20 strict push-ups and 5 dead hang pull-ups.

I literally point all my women to your site so that they understand you can be an authentic bad-ass in the gym, with iron and bumper plates, and clouds of chalk hanging in the air, but still be hot and feminine. Which leads me into my next point... I've got bad-ass hot chicks doing pull-ups!! I've got one post with my client Randi getting 5 pulls for the first time, and today I filmed two other clients, Maria (first time getting 4) and Roxy (first time getting 5). Let me know if you would be interested in showcasing my girls in your celebration of chicks and pull-ups."

Hells, yes, I am interested in featuring your ladies! For one, these are some strong women, going for some lofty strength goals. But more importantly, I love meeting trainers and affiliate owners who are so dedicated to getting their women strong, fit and confident in their abilities. So it would be my pleasure to introduce you to the Women of KrisFit in this week's edition of "Hot Chicks". From the KrisFit blog:

Grinding out a Goal

We’re back!!! And this video is long overdue. Early in December, Randi Barnes announced that she was tired of sitting on a pull up personal best of 4. She set a goal of getting that 5th rep before the new year. Cut to two weeks later…



Girls Are Strong.

This post is going to be part of an ever expanding page that I am creating for this site. It will be dedicated to functional movements performed with a prejudice for strength and control, throughout a full range of motion. You will not see a partial push up. We will award strength, power, intensity and grace.

Girls are strong. Most of them just don’t know it.

We’re going to show you some who do.



And finally, though she's not doing pull-ups, check out KrisFit's Jenny Atkinson, cranking out 20 strict push-ups and pulling a 185# deadlift PR... on her birthday, no less. Rock on, sister.

HOW sturdy are those parallettes?

I've written a few times about my experiences at the CrossFit Gymnastics Certifications - everything from an analysis of the skills taught to my own experience conquering my handstand fears. Last weekend, my friend and Brooklyn Boy Justin Algera (otherwise known as Thor) attended his first gymnastics cert, a little bit at my behest. (Translation: I might have bullied him into it, at first.) Here's a fresh new review of the cert, from Justin's unique perspective as a big guy, an Oly guy and a CrossFit Brooklyn coach.

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Ever since I started CrossFitting in 2005, the gymnastics stuff has always been a big ol' goat of mine. It's not that I didn't like the sport - fact is, I’ve always been a fan of gymnastics. My wife and I used to go to the University of Florida women's gymnastics meets, since it was cheap (and fun) entertainment. But watching and doing are two different things, and doing has always been a struggle for a big guy like me.

I will admit, though, for some of the movements, I just didn’t see the value in doing. Let’s take handstands, for example. Sure they are hard. But just because something is difficult doesn’t mean we have to do it as exercise. Hell, marathons are hard too, but I’m not doing that shit either. I mean come on, I'm trying to be fit here, not join the Cirque Du Soleil. I'm not so much scared to be upside down, but being 240 lbs. inverted on parallettes just reeks of "bad idea". To me these moves were for (a) people who have trained for them since before they could walk, (b) Romanians, or (c) petite men and women, NOT guys who weigh 240 lbs.

But when the gymnastics cert showed up on South Brooklyn’s website, I thought what the hell, why not? For one, if I’m going to be a good coach, I need to have a wide variety of tools in my tool box, and two, it should provide plenty of entertainment for the rest of the participants. So I signed up. Now I’ll be honest, even up to the day before, I thought, “Why not just postpone and get out of this cert and you can save it for some other time”. But I could hear Byers in my head, calling me out… so I sucked it up and went.

All I can say now is I am SO glad that I went. I learned a great deal in those two days, and feel that I would have lost out as a coach, had I skipped out. First and foremost, I would have missed out on the chance to work with Jeff Tucker and Jason Malutich. That alone was worth the money for the cert. These guys more than know what they are doing, and whether you are a strong CrossFit bad-ass, or someone who has little in the way of a strength-to-weight ratio, they will have you doing stuff you never thought possible. Not only did they have me inverted on rings (and yes, doing handstands on parallettes), but I was even doing a back lever with spotters. At this point in my CrossFit career, I don't get excited too often about "fitness" accomplishments, but this one definitely put a big smile on my face.

Beyond that, I now have a better appreciation of why these moves are important to us, not only as CrossFitters, but as people who were meant to move. I truly believe now that just working on the basics of these moves will benefit anyone who wants to get serious about their fitness. Just look at all the shoulder flexibility and range of motion limitations that seem to be so common in CrossFit. Learning how to properly warm-up, stretch, and open/close the shoulder girdle (skin-the-cat anyone?) would really help anyone looking to improve their Olympic snatch or jerk.

And learning how to properly introduce and scale the movements was invaluable to me as a coach. I would feel comfortable taking my mother-in-law (who is just starting off in her quest to get fit and lose weight) through many of the basics we did this past weekend. Does that mean I have to keep working on everything that we went over? No, of course not. But at least now I can see the benefit of the movements, and if someone wanted to be trained in these movements, I feel pretty confident that I could help them learn.

I feel like I’m a much better coach now, in general, for having gone through the cert. Tucker has a unique perspective on the CF community and the way he feels these moves should be performed and learned. It is a perspective that I share completely, and to hear it, learn it, and put it into practice with my own abilities and ideas as a coach only serves to make me that much better to my clients and those who come to me for help. And finally, I am now excited to work on these movements a lot more now in my own training. I’m still probably not going to do shit on parallettes (because I just know at some point, they will snap), but I’ll be damned if I am going to stop trying to get that unassisted back lever.

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Justin Algera (Thor) is a CrossFit Certified Level I Trainer, and has completed his CrossFit Olympic Lifting and Gymnastics Certifications. He has been training CrossFit since 2005, and began training with CrossFit NYC in 2006. In his own words, "I truly believe that CrossFit and its ideology are the best way to get into the greatest shape of your life, and there is no better place to learn these principles than here at the Black Box."

Thor, stretching at the Gymnastics Cert, and in perfect extension in his natural habitat.