AC and I have had a busy few days in California. We did some coaching on Friday evening, did the workshop in El Segundo on Saturday, drove north to Monterey (didn’t take the scenic route), got in at midnight, and then did another workshop in the morning.
I’d like to thank Ruth and Sean (again) for hosting us in Redondo/El Segundo. They are great people, have funny animals, and I’m already looking forward to the next time I get to hang with them. Now that we’re in Monterey we’re hanging with Mike Hom and Jacob Tsypkin. Jacob is a fast talking Jewish Russian (I found this out when he randomly started talking to his parents in Russian without warning). We took the coastal highway down to the beautiful Big Sur area.
We haven’t had a lot of sleep, so that’s all I’m getting into tonight. Here are some pictures from the coastal highway.
I don’t have much of a post for you. We traveled to California today, and we’re tired. AC and I trained last night (got done at midnight), got a couple hours of sleep, then flew to LAX. We’ll be doing the first 70’s Big Workshop of the trip on Saturday at CF Intrepid (on the coast next to Los Angeles, click here to register).
Post your PR’s to the comments. I haven’t had any PR’s this week, but it’s been good to train the Olympic lifts heavy. Here is a video of a 120kg snatch I dedicated to Brent. Shirtless lifting is often done in training halls and Brent and I have joked around about it before, so I felt the need to include him on this session in Georgia.
We had eleven ladies and 66 men take the 3 press-3 pullup challenge. Thirty one of those came from CrossFit affiliates (Monterey, Regina, and Works) and from hawkpeter’s workout group (not sure what kind of scene he’s running).
Ladies first. The top five were AngDesi (32 rounds), Jenny L (26), Maritza (21), Amanda C (20), and Liz C (20). All eleven ladies were CrossFitters, so I have to give props there. Maybe the others will get back on board with this month’s challenge.
Eight men topped the thirty round mark. Shae and Andres A stood out with 33 rounds apiece. Garage Fit and Beau were right behind with 32. rbuell, Gill, Jason G, and Adrian M had 30 apiece. CrossFitters predictably did well in this challenge, although none topped 200 pounds. The math-challenged Garage Fit was the heaviest 30-rounder at 195 pounds. For whatever reason, he scaled up as if he was 215.
Thanks to everyone who participated. Here is the link to the google doc if you want to play with the raw data (Typskin).
I will put the August Challenge up in a sticky. It is going to be a super total: 1RM max in snatch, C&J, squat, bench, and deadlift.
The following pictures are meant to inspire you. While Justin was hopping around in a banana hammock and Brent was wearing his Just-PR’d-Dance Dance Revolution Smile, I was cooking for an engagement party. 80 pounds of meat for 20 people (I like leftovers). I even emailed Jacob and Justin when I cracked my first beer at 7:30 that morning. Behold the secrets of 70sBigness, a story in pictures.
7:30 am. A fine day. Beer is open and charcoal chimney is going. This is my buddy's smoker. He bought it from the church group and wanted me to use it for this cook.
7:59. Chimney is lit. Added the wood (1/2 oak, 1/2 mesquite). Finished the first beer and totasted the BBQ gods, asking them to give me a good cook for the day.
My 6-year old son learning the craft. He's not 70sBig yet, but he's good for hauling 50 pound sand bags and tossing the 8 and 9 year olds at judo class.
52 pound curls. As functional as it gets. (Pictured: 6 pork shoulders)
Stopped by my friend's house to get a vacuum sealer. This is the handgun rack in his gun room (not pictured: 40 rifles). What does this have to do with this post? Because it's Texas, and I've already discussed beer and BBQ.
Pork shoulder, pork ribs, back ribs, pork sausage, and chicken.
Thursday AC and I leave for California so that we can drop kick people at three different 70’s Big Workshops. Here is where we will be, starting this saturday:
10:00 AM, Saturday August 7th, 2010 in El Segundo, CA (near Los Angeles) Click To Register CrossFit Intrepid
616 E. Franklin Ave.
El Segundo, CA 90245
ruth@crossfitintrepid.com | 310.465.6565
9:00 AM, Sunday August 8th, 2010 in Sand City, CA (near Monterey, CA) To register, send an e-mail to Jacob. CrossFit Monterey
337 Olympia Avenue, Unit B
Sand City, CA 93955
CrossFitMonterey@gmail.com | 831-920-3522
10:00 AM, Saturday August 14th, 2010 in Sacramento, CA
To register, send Ian an e-mail. CrossFit Centurion
11300 Sanders Drive #25
Rancho Cordova, Ca.
staff@crossfitcenturion.com | (916) 207-7600
Cliff notes: We’ll be around Los Angeles Saturday, around Monterey on Sunday, and then around Sacramento the following Saturday. We’ll also be doing some coaching throughout, so if you’re anywhere in between or around these areas and want/need some help, just shoot me an e-mail.
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Werner Günthör
Meet Werner Günthör, a powerful athlete from Switzerland. Günthör was an athletic shot putter who stood 6’6″ and weighed close to 300 pounds of pure 70’s Bigness (this website lists him at 130kg). His best put was 22.75 meters in 1988 in Bern — that’s about 74.5 feet. Günthör won a bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics as well as three world championships in the late 80s and early 90s. He also won an indoor world championship and European championship. You can find videos of Günthör training on YouTube. His training is pretty sweet, and here is my favorite video (the last sequence is the best):
How awesome was that? When I do conditioning work, it is going to be modeled after Günthör’s plyometric training, particularly sequences of jumping high and bounding. A quick note: if you play around with stuff like that, ease your way into it. Hardcore plyometrics are for more advanced trainees.
Here is another video of Günthör and who I assume is his training partner. The whole video is an impressive showing of athleticism and displays the old school mindset of including related physical conditioning to training.
Ladies will want to fast forward to 1:43.
More intense plyo training at 2:38.
3:33 is the start of a hilarious montage of Günthör doing all kinds of awesome things, including playing tennis. You can’t really get an idea of how massive this guy is until he wedges a racket in his fist. There’s another really funny part that I’ll let you see for yourself, so this would be the best part of the video if you were strapped for time.
Günthör is one of my favorite athletes because of his explosive training and awesome style.
