50+ years of Olympic Lifting!
Last week American River CrossFit was fortunate to have a man, by the name of Bill Pearce, come in and work on some Olympic Lifting. Bill is from Arizona and was on a business trip for a week. He found ARCFit through CrossFit Tempe in Arizona and decided to stop by and see if it was alright to get some O-Lifting on for 20 or 30 minutes. Now the amazing thing about Bill is that he is 71 years old and has been Olympic Lifting for over 50 YEARS! Yes, you read that right. You can tell from the video that he is very strong, limber, and flexible for his age. I was also fortunate to chat with him about the old days of lifting, competition and what it was like training with Legend Tommy Kono and other popular name competitors. Now the best part of all this, Bill is still competing in tournaments! He also talked about how lifting for over 50 years has changed his life. He is able to be active but more importantly be active for his grand children in which he spends his free time with. Thanks for stopping by ARCFit Bill. You’re more than welcome to train anytime!
Use Homemade Equipment to Supplement Your ARCFit Workouts
The Washington Post published a nice article on a gym that subsists almost entirely on homemade equipment.
One of the most obvious elements of CrossFit gyms that sets us apart from globogyms is the equipment. Rarely a day goes by where we don’t use parallettes made out of pvc or pull up bars made from standard metal pipe and connectors we picked up at Home Depot. Plus, our gym floor is literally covered with mats designed for use in horse stalls. The idea that everyday stuff can be used for great exercise equipment really helps to further the idea that CrossFit is highly functional fitness, not just in the exercises we perform but in the equipment we use to perform it.
And what’s great about all this is that it allows you to make equipment for yourself and supplement your gym exercises at home. One of the best pieces of equipment I keep on hand at the house is a medicine ball fashioned from an old basketball filled with sand and duct taped. You can do medicine ball cleans, overhead situps, if you got really fancy and are good with rope you could make a pretty serviceable kettle bell from the same ball.
For more info on homemade equipment, check out this article from straight to the bar, there are tons of ideas for creating everything from barbells to climbing walls.
None of this will replace the full gym experience of working out with qualified instructors, quality programming, and an encouraging group of fellow CrossFitters but it’s really great for those days where you just can’t make it to the gym.
Kid Watching Swap
Hopefully some others of you are in the same boat so maybe we can get this going. I’ve got a couple kids and it’s sometimes hard to keep them coralled in the playroom when there are so many bars to climb, things to jump on, rings to swing on, etc… Anyway, I love bringing them to the gym but it’s definitely a challenge to get a good workout on days they are there and I don’t have anyone to watch them.
So, just wanted to put some feelers out and see if maybe a couple nights a week, people might want to bring their kids, half the adults babysit and warmup the first half hour and then workout the second half hour with the other half of the adults doing the workout in the first half hour and watching kids the second.
If interested, just leave a note in the comments with times and days that might be good for you. If it seems like enough people are interested, we’ll get an email list going.
Note: This would be totally member run and isn’t anything suggested or being offered by the owners. Just thought I’d try to put our community to work.
Bad Workouts Happen
Coming off a rest day I really look forward to killing a workout. With all good intentions, I loaded up my bar for my deadlift/wall ball workout ambitiously attempting a little more than I was comfortable with for the amount of reps prescribed. 10 reps in, I was smoked, and had a good 80 deadlifts to go, not to mention the wall balls, which happen to be one of my least favorite CrossFit movements. Had it been 5 months ago, this was a DNF (did not finish) without doubt.
So I’m not going to make this a feel good story of perseverance and overcoming adversity. It was straight miserable. I had to drop weight on both the deadlifts and the wall balls. I was going at a snail’s pace and taking copious rest. The workout had already won, but I knew I would limp to the finish and get it done. And when I got it done, there was no overwhelming sense of accomplishment, just an ugly sense of having been pummeled by a workout that exposed my weaknesses.
Regardless of the abject misery that workout inflicted, I take solace in the fact that I have progressed as a CrossFitter, that I have fully embraced the spirit of the motto “Death Before DNF.” If shame can be a healthy motivator, I think this is the best manifestation of it, because shame, in this case, helps you to improve. Seriously, that workout sucked, but I know I’m better for having finished it, because if I didn’t finish, that would be less deadlifts and wall balls notched in my log and I would be that much further away from being the fittest person I can be. At the end of the day, that’s the goal. Good scores are nice, but fitness and basic health are the key motivators and even a bad workout gets you closer to that goal. So absorb it, get it done, and use the frustration as motivation to improve tomorrow.
Marines Program Historical Hero Workouts
A group of Marines in Tennessee developed a new set of workouts based on the actions of Marine Heroes. What sets these apart from the main site Hero workouts is that the movements are based on the actual events that made the heroes heroic. Really cool stuff here and, as always, it’s great to see CrossFit serving those whe serve.
Here’s the first designed workout created for the program:
The workout is named for Cpl. Tony Stein, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II.
Needed
• 9 Marines.
• A 35-pound kettle bell.
• 16 30-pound ammo cans.
• 100 feet of space.
The moves
This timed workout requires eight reps of:
1. Line up eight sets of ammo cans on one side of the 100-foot area opposite eight Marines and one kettle bell. Grab two ammo cans and sprint to the other side. Drop the cans, pick up a kettle bell and complete 10 swings.
2. Drop the kettle bell, pick up a Marine and sling him over your shoulder, and carry him back across the field.
History
1. Before landing on Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, Stein took a .30-caliber machine gun from a downed Navy aircraft and modified it into a hip-fired weapon, which he used to hold off Japanese forces while the remainder of his platoon moved into place. Stein’s modified weapon was effective but used up ammo quickly. The kettle bell swings represent Stein’s swinging motion as he fired his weapon.
2. Stein made eight trips back to the beach to replenish his ammunition, and each time he carried or assisted a wounded comrade.
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