Hard Workouts

Workout notes 10 miles (2:20 worth) outdoors, which included Glen Oak Park, Springdale Cemetery, the gooseloop and the Bob Michael Bridge. Prior to that I had a nice yoga class with Ms. Vickie.

No, my workout wasn’t as hard as the ones that these folks do: (hat tip to the excellent blog: 3 Quarks Daily)

CrossFit has 450 chapters in 43 states (and several other countries). The network has a message for the merely healthy: “Your workout is our warm-up.”

Hmmm, I kind of doubt that as some of my training sessions last 4-12 hours. But yeah, the intensity is a bit low as I am training for long, low intensity events. But…

Every day, its members consult CrossFit.com like a Book of Common Prayer, receiving instructions for their workout rites and periods of rest. Performing caveman feats like hauling, clambering, trudging, snatching, hurling and deadlifting, CrossFitters deliberately overwhelm and distress their bodies, executing near-impossible stunts with as much weight as they can bear. A Workout of the Day, or W.O.D., might include 50 kettlebell swings, 3 800-yard dashes in rapid succession and 10 pull-ups. Then repeat. No breaks. No weight machines. All you need is a body built for discipline and a mind that can justify so much apparent self-abuse.

Cool! Ok, I can see the need for an ex athlete (say, an NCAA caliber athlete) having the need for extra tough workouts, and I can see reaching for a level of fitness that is beyond “fit enough to lower health risks by x amount”.

The enemies in the eyes of the CrossFit crowd are “Stairmaster chumps” (who log long, drowsy hours on the machines but huff and puff on actual stairs) and myopic “specialists” — athletes or exercisers who neglect versatility in order to refine one or two skills. The CrossFitters’ critique has chastened at least one specialist. An essay by a triathlete named Tom Demerly titled “How Fit Are We?” appeared on a biking blog, conceding that if triathletes “found ourselves in a jam that required overall physical fitness to survive, we’d probably be in trouble.” Further admitting that he could barely do a single pull-up, Demerly went on to praise the fitness of a CrossFit type he had met named Joe Sparks, who “gave a demonstration using a 50-pound kettlebell making it look like he was maneuvering a tennis ball.”

I find the blocked part a bit curious. I have no trouble doing 8-10 pull ups, and this goes to 15-20 when I start weight lifting. But this may come from the fact that I am a poor swimmer! If that sounds paradoxical: remember that good swimmers go fast by being efficient; when they get efficient and strong they become very, very good. I, on the other hand, am very inefficient; hence I end up building muscle when I swim. That makes for poor swim times but ok upper body strength.

Politics:

I just don’t understand this

Why does she need to embellish all of these things; why can’t she merely say “I took this trip and did that”? Sad to say, this really reinforces some of the points that Dick Morris made in his Hillary Clinton book; there he pointed out that she embellishes many things, even the reasons for picking out a hairstyle! (hat tip to Jed Report)

I guess that some people never change.

Straight talk?