And now for something completely different...

.... but still totally functional.

Hey all, sorry for the lack of timeliness with the posts. I was very busy last week/over the weekend preping for and then attending a field training exercise for ROTC (btw if you ever want to really appreciate sleep, try averaging two-three hours per night for a few days).

The most recent group workout focused on exercises and progressions for training one-leg squats (pistols). Then Forney led a Tabata workout in the bag-room in Mem. This experimental workout involved both met-con movements and static-holds...

8 intervals per exercise before moving onto the next one; 4 exercises in the following rotation:

1) rowing

2) hand-stand hold

3) dumbbell thrusters (with light weight e.g. 20#, simulating wall-ball)

4) hanging tuck-hold (hanging from I-beam)

At Bill's urging, I embarked on my Kettlebell odyssey today. I'll be ramping up the intensity with the KB's, and hitting the CFE workouts and ruck marching hard over the next ~8 weeks. I'll try to write some posts about how that all goes.

Keep training hard and posting numbers, insights, and inspiration.

Ring Around the Bacon?

GROUP WORKOUT SUNDAY 4pm Mem Gym

Welcome back from Spring Break. From the looks of the previous comments section, folks have been continuing to train hard. It's great to see everyone posting tough workouts with solid numbers and new PR's.

Our very own Chadron Edwards recently participated in a gymnastics competition, throwing down a gnarly routine on the still rings. Check out this link for a sweet video.

Also, I was inspired by the Zone Chronicles on the CFJ to post a picture of one of my own [not so serious] nutrition-related experiences. So here's a look at a delicious snack I had tonight which I highly recommend. I call it "Bacon Wrapped in Ham." The name pretty much says it all. Zero blocks of carbs, infinite blocks of awesome!

Pigs are delicious

Keep checking the blog and email for updates on a group workout this weekend. If anyone wants to actually film and post a nutrition video that would be sweet (Forney? Zone + IF Chronicles?). Let me know...

Short, Heavy, Hard

Sunday had us at Mem Gym for a potent functional fitness combo - gymnastics + explosive lifting. We warmed up with some progressions for the front lever (on a bar, not the rings), moving from skinning the cat to actual lever attempts with spotters. After that, we did a sweet metcon...

4 rds for time:
10x DB hang split clean (heavy as you can go for an unbroken set)
5x HSPU (scale movement as needed)

This is classic, good ole fashioned CF programming: a couplet consisting of a heavy movement and a gymnastics movement. Thanks to Forney for the lever instruction and workout idea. Keep up the hard work this week. I won't be organizing a group workout this Sunday because of Spring Break, but if anyone is interested in putting something together, send out an email or post a comment to gauge interest.

Kettlebell Krazy

This past Saturday, Charles, Courtney, Ben, Kyle, and I attended an excellent Kettlebell workshop at Cville BJJ. We went through the fundamental movements (swing, TGU, clean, press, snatch, windmill), and also learned some other miscellaneous movements and got some great programming ideas. Check out the pics below...

Great new way to bring the pain: walking swings!

<--Back swing


Half Rack-->

Today, a group of us met at Rocky Top for a great Mountain Athlete workout, "Olive Drab." Lots of heavy walking lunges, jingle jangles, rope climbs, and swings. Great effort from everyone who came out. We also got to watch Forney battle his way through the clean/ring dip/double under WOD from the mainsite, and ended the session with some deadlift troubleshooting.

Recently, I've been interested in different functional fitness gurus' approaches to flexibility/mobility and stretching. Here are some of my favorite findings...

Kelly Starrett on why stretching is dead. CF discussion board thread discussing stretching based on the teachings of the great Dan John. And finally, my two favorites: shoulder and hip mobility drills from Rob Shaul at Mountain Athlete. I think all these great coaches get it right, and consequently I haven't done much static stretching in months. Yet I've seen awesome increases in my flexibility from squat therapy, mobility drills, and the Oly lifts. Got an opinion on the subject? Weigh in under comments.

Sharing the Kool Aid

The beautiful weather took us outside to the track today for a team metcon....

4 rounds:
~50m. walking lunges (the "meter" movement)
Pull-ups
Tire Flips
Push-ups

Each team member starts at a different movement. Everyone rotates when the team member doing lunges completes the 50m. walk. Recover 1 min. between rounds.

We welcomed several new faces to the group, some of whom took their first sips of the CF kool aid with smiles on their faces (or were they grimaces?). Everyone pushed through with some great motivation, and I hope we'll see all of you back for another workout. In the meantime, keep on keepin on...

Cville CF Improvements

So we didn't do a group workout today because of bid weekend craziness and the Super Bowl. We'll pick back up next weekend. Looks like everyone has been working hard; keep at it this week.

Consider Ben's email - how can we make Cville CF better? - and post thoughts/suggestions to comments.