Monday 110919

Mobility: shoulders plus vectors = awesome

And the final installment of the coach's WOD series is…..

Garcia

As many rounds as possible in 30 minutes of:

Sprint 50m

5 weighted pull-ups, 20#/10#

Sprint 50m

10 weighted push-ups, 20#/10#

Sprint 50m

15 weighted squats, 20#/10#

If you have a vest, wear it. If not, consider using weight for these movements: pull-ups-throw a dumbell between your legs. Push-ups – plate on the back. Squat – weight in hand. Sprint – yup, carry something!

Another note: all work must be completed at your pull-up bar.

We often talk about how we train "in here" for what we do "out there". The first time I ever heard about CrossFit was during my rookie year in 2005. We have a policy for working out on-duty, which is actually pretty progressive in the fire service. Gino was hired 6 months before me and we worked on opposite shifts at the same station our rookie year. One morning he asked me if I was going to do that days CrossFit WOD and I responded "what's CrossFit?" That was all it took. I don't remember what the WOD was, but it had an obscene amount of pull-ups. Our station didn't have a pull-up bar, but it had a metal hose rack suspended from the ceiling by ropes, so it was on. That rack was swinging and smashing against the wall, I could only do a couple at a time and after about 10 I couldn't get my chin over the bar anymore. By the end I was on the floor, ready to puke, and it was awesome. I kept doing CrossFit because that's what it felt like to fight a fire. We wanted to train tp be ready for anything, and to be ready to do our job.

We all have different reasons for jumping into CrossFit (though I think we all would agree that no matter why we do it, looking good naked is also a plus, but that's for another post). With that, here's a story that spoke to us. It's a cool story about how what we do "in here" helps us "out there". The names have been changed to protect the innocent!

Why do we Crossfit?

Here is question we have all heard from the coaches in the Box! We all have different answers, but I think there is one common theme. It's because it gives us confidence! Confidencethat we are more fit, stronger, healthier, and more bad-ass than your average Joe. This can help greatly in our professional lives as well, as it has for me.

I was working one sunny afternoon, watching the back of an apartment building. My teamates were about to roll up and attempt to arrest some gangstersfor some serious crimes. My job was to watch the back for runners. Lo and behold here comes one, running out of the back like his pants were on fire! (They weren't really on fire, I know a lot of you are firefighters and started to get excited!) So I drive up the alley at mach 1, jump out, yell "stop, police!", and shockingly he didn't stop but kept right on running! So I take off and I'm chasing him on foot down an alley. A lot of weird things run through your head when in the middle of a high-stress situation and the first thing I think is, "If I let this guy get away from me, I'll never hear the end of it at Evolve." I'm running as fast as I can, he's got about a 40 yard head start. He's digging in his pockets and throwing things out, and jumps a fence. I'm thinking "This ain't nothing compared to a WOD, and I KNOW I'm in way better shape than this dude! I've been training several days a week just for this kind of moment!" So we are jumping fences, running through yards, dodging obstacles, and I'm praying there is no dog over the next fence! I finally catch him - I knew I would - and now its a hand-to-hand fight! Basically, he's gassed, I'm not, he's not trained, and I am! I win.

Maybe you don't get to do this kind of thing at your job, but it doesn't matter. The moral of the story is that I KNEW I was way more prepared for this situation than the dude I was chasing. I had the confidence in my abilities and fitness thanks to Evolve. Every one of you helped me with that. You never know what life may throw at you, but you do know that whatever it is, you can handle it!