I love your “I want it all” attitude. And why not?

When most people are questioning themselves, thinking “can I be a great runner, weighlifter, powerlifter & gymnast?” you’re out there putting in the effort and training to find out!

For me I see the whole issue as one of “Continuous and consistent improvement” for life!

Keep posting Ricky, you’re a great role model for me.

Regards

Peter

Love the comments and I agree. I read the greyskull article a few weeks back and also found myself agreeing with a lot of his points, and laughing at his some of his commentary. If you had asked me a few months back what I thought about the article I would have dismissed it as a rant by a strength programming obsessed meathead, however since traveling across the country recently visiting various affiliates and looking for a new gym in the DC area I was very disappointed in the overall quality of gyms. It really came down to the programming for me. Every crossfit gym I encountered loved their lightweight metcon, occasional 5 x 5 strength days, and their gymnastics “skill work” days. I too enjoy a good metcon, but why not ramp up the weight? Why is 95 lbs the norm and 135 “heavy” for men for anything oly or overhead? How can we get stronger if we dont push heavier and outside our comfort zone?

Too many gyms program their WODs to the middle of the road athlete that comes to their box. They pick safe loads that every can do so everyone can “go rx’d” and compete against their friends. After all- everyone likes to feel good about themselves and doing the WOD rx’d, but this doesn’t make strong athletes stronger. When I joined my first affiliate I had a talk with Andy, the guy that programmed our WODs about why he would put 225 lb squat cleans (low rep) as the rx’d weight for one of our WODs. His response was “Because we have athletes that can do that weight, and if I don’t challenge them and push them they will stop coming. Everyone else can scale to a weight that challenges them to the same degree.” Id like to see more affiliates program for their firebreathers like this.

I like your style of often programming in % of 1RM. Crossfit Invictus also does this a lot by doing a strength portion early, then using a % of your strength lift for the rest of the WOD. While some may not like this style because they cant as easily compare their performance against their friends, it ensures everyone is pushing themselves to their individual abilities- which is what its all about.

Sorry for the length. Cheers-

Mike McD

I think i finished in like 12:30. I just remember my back tightened up so bad, I could barely bend over. Not good.

Our response to John Sheaffer: http://evolveyourfitness.blogspot.com/2009/10/response-to-john-sheaffer.html

Thanks,
Matt from Pa

Thanks,
Matt from Pa