Tuesday, July 8th, 2008...8:24 am
Almost Famous
Here’s some fun:
Lift o’ the Day: Heavy Squat of some variety (85-90% of max) immediately followed by DE Deadlifts (3 reps). 5-6 sets.
Combo Catch of the Day: Brick Don’t Hit Back. Trainer Allyson has been putting smiles on client’s faces with this wonderful combo. Short, sweet and replaces and entire room full of leg machines with no equipment at all.
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Me and the Bee
Sam McManis has done our Tribe well, plus a great book plug! Thanks Sam, we owe ya one.
On YouTube today…
I’ve been posting mini-videos of exercise technique for clients and e-clients on YouTube, and the video below received this comment:
“this a bite off of crossfit… It’s called a thruster by the way”
Suppressing the urge to reach through my computer and slap someone, I replied:
“Ya got it backwards. CF calls it thruster, but it’s been around for over a century. And it’s called a squat press. Thruster sounds like the first name of a male porn star.” But I wasn’t happy. My point hadn’t been made. So I posted again:
“Wait, I’m not done yet…
There’s a great deal of history to the physical culture, but it seems like for many folks there isn’t much BFC (Before Crossfit). CF has no stranglehold on exercise creation or naming, it only has a stranglehold on a great many of its vehement followers.
Research a little. You’ll be glad you did.”
Like I said in a previous post, being ‘faithful’ so often appears to mean putting gobs of volume and effort into being ‘right,’ without the education and dialectic skills to back it up.
So Deecee77, if that is your real name, we invite you to learn. Here’s your opportunity for just that:
9 Comments
July 8th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Yeah Chip. It’s called a Thruster. Geez.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Didn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger invent the deadlift? I heard Ronnie Coleman invented the dumbell, too.
That’s right, I can blog comment while on vacation.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Get back here and lift shit.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Speckinowicz, I picked a book by John Jesse, Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia from Bill Hinbern last week. While the price tag might make many grumble, it’s a pretty great read. Part of what’s great about it is the sheer number of cool ideas that seem so ‘new millennium’…like the squat and press…for 1974. The stuff on interval training, and circuit training (which is much more like a CF chipper than a bodybuilding circuit) is just great as well.
I think the articles you link to are excellent. What attracted me to your site is that you are clearly working againt three models that majorly influence or culture.
The first is a media issue- that of appearances. This is what leads one to believe that the surface is the whole. We exist in a culture where the book is the cover. The outer persona is all. This is not good.
The second is disconnection- that reductionist dream where in the parts are actually, well, just parts. So the ‘gym’ is just a place where you ‘work out’ and it’s separate from the rest of your life. That’s just stupid. That your ‘gym’ is also your gallery is also your living room…now that’s actually life lived as a whole. I’d much rather come work out in your living room than any gym I’ve ever been to!
The third part is the NEW!!! part. The NEW!!! and IMPROVED!!! part, which is tied into the others, because face it folks, parts is never just parts! They actually, always and forever, work together to make something. So much of what goes on in the ‘training’ and ‘working out’ world is NEWer!!! Better parts!!! because without that you don’t have so much to sell. Which is really OK. The best thing of your Physical Subculture is that is an integration of your interests, er, I mean life, and it’s built on a whole ton of good stuff from all over everywhere and when.
It’s funny in that it’s like the joint mobility stuff we have talked about…you see the same things in Sonnon, Maxwell, Systema, Sambo, ju jistsu, Iyengar Yoga…oh wait! There’s nothing new here! By the same token CrossFit is great, it really is! I hold a number of certifications there, and it’s all good. But it isn’t ALL. And there isn’t anything actually NEW!!! there. It’s a great recension of it’s roots. It does what it is intended to do. Nothing to get all huffy about.
My main point in this extensive rant is this: Crossfit and Gym Jones, the RKC and the AKC and the SLA all have reasons to subdivide and be irritating to each other, but in the end it’s great for anyone who is just looking to integrate their strength, fitness, health, and welfare with the rest of their life. They need to differentiate to sell their product. The users of the methods only need to differentiate which parts suit their inclinations, needs, and tastes and get on with the life and the lifting. You pick it up. You put it down. You pick it up faster, higher, more. Throw it around. Have fun doing it.
Craig
July 8th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Love how the article turned out! Sam McManis did a great job portraying the Chip I know…in spite of misspelling Chewy’s name!
July 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I’ll pick the tribe over CF any day ! I’ll even sport body paint during the rituals. Just gimme the green light……ahhh coach (smiles).
July 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Awesome write-up.
Love the e-training videos. For some reason, however, most of them are freezing for me at a few seconds in - if I click a little further along, they start up again. It’s not happening with any of your other videos (or any other Youtube videos, for that matter) only the e-training ones. Weird…
July 8th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Zac… where the hell have you been?
Chris… paint away.. and take pictures!!
Craig… you’re welcome in my living room anytime (that almost sounds naughty)
July 8th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
School’s out for summer, so I no longer have to drive into Sac for work, so… I’ve been saving gas & training out in suburbia. It hurt, initially, but I’ve managed to drop weight & post higher numbers in the squat & bench despite the less-hospitable environment. Don’t worry, I’ll be back in early August. Might also drop by this Saturday for Second Saturday, pending a consultation with the missus…
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