Strength: sumo deadlift 1RM

Assistance: overhead squats 3 x 8, lunges x 75

Metcon: 21-15-9 of front squat and pull ups

With the real Colin Menniss away on official business, I once again got to step into the role of Fake Colin for the day.

I was joined this morning by the always affable El Hefe (Efe), who did a sterling job of running the 0900 Beginners and 1130 classes despite my best efforts to distract him with inane mutterings and misinformation. Top show, big fellah!

We kicked off with a little game of “plank racing”, using the conveniently sited carpet tiles as makeshift slides. All went pretty smoothly with only minor debates about “faulty” carpet tiles, and “difficult” terrain.

Today also marked the official start day of the CrossFit London 100 Burpees challenge. Andrew had already jumped the gun the previous evening with a masterclass on removing all the fun from the burpee movement (because they really are fun). In my role as Fake Colin I felt obliged to remind the group of the military origins of the exercise…

The History of the Burpee, by Fake Colin Mennis

The burpee was performed as a training exercise for special forces operatives working on the top of a moving train carriage. As obsticles moved toward them quickly, they needed to be able to jump over, or duck under these quickly, and swiftly return to a fighting stance.

See Chuck Norris perform this movement at 1:18 of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwWhNmT4qz8

True or not, it certainly beats Wikipedia’s description of the original. Lieutenant Thomas Burpee, indeed…

Ahem.

So today we temporarily put aside technical perfection, and focused on speed: one burpee every three seconds, kind of speed. Or 100 burpees in five minutes, if you want to think of it that way.

Everyone had a go at the following drills

• 4x 15 seconds of burpees, with 15 seconds rest between sets
• 3x 30 seconds of burpees, with 30 seconds rest between sets

Done at one per three seconds pace, this equated to 50 burpees in exactly 5 mins. Which was nice.

Burpee fun behind us, we got on to the business of the WOD. This week it was one from the history books as I dusted off “Hail to the King” for a new audience:

Hail to the King

• 5x Press, 10x push-press, 15x push jerk (x2)
• 33x Back squats
• 5x Press, 10x push-press, 15x push jerk (x2)
• 33x Front squats
• 5x Press, 10x push-press, 15x push jerk (x2)
• 33x Overhead squats

This one quickly beats up on shoulders, to the point that the 99 squats almost feel like a rest!

The combination and volume of presses reward efficient technique; properly racking the bar on the shoulders, breaking at the hip to drive the bar up, using the big muscles in the lower body to help the shoulders, catching the jerk in a squat, and so on.

Those that worked this out posted some excellent times with pretty demanding weights. Those that didn’t…soon learned!

Fake Colin, out.

By Colin Menniss

Today we started with a warm up ladder followed by some skills and drills focusing on working the core. We practiced knees to elbows and toes to bar. Learned some great scaling moves and looked at how we can improve our current levels. We all had a go at spotting for each other so we can make best use of the scaled moves.

After this we did some ring work. Skin-the-cats are a fantastic way to improve core strength and get confident in being upside down. They build strength and vastly improve flexibility in the shoulders. This has benefits for overhead
squats and kipping. They are also a great stepping stone towards levers.

After all this we did the days WOD: a triplet of three rounds for time of:

10x Front Squats (60kg)

15x burpees

1x Alley run.

The intention was to create a massive load on the legs so that they would just not
work on the run. Anyone with a time under 10 minutes was hitting it hard. I saw
some fantastic efforts today a big well done to you all.

The night was thick with “whoots” and  ”whoops” as Deadlift PB after Deadlift PB’s was smashed at Crossfit London UK tonight.

All the more satisfying as these inspirational performance were after the participants had knocked out a cheeky 5 rounds of

• 10 front squats (cleaned)
• block run

I have posted some  videos  below, but they seem to be a bit erratic  showing up .

Here are the direct links if they do not show ( the “You Tube” Boxes seem to become visible in 20 seconds or so)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgArUzPgObA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA8xZ7G0mWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSNFLy70Z1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgArUzPgObA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA8xZ7G0mWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSNFLy70Z1Q

The Boomtown Rats had it right…

Little bit of push-up work, with some variations to warm up the shoulders and arms, before working up to a three set max for:

Weighted Dips

5-5-5-3-3-3

Like all exercises at CrossFit London we actively scaled this workout to meet the capacity of our clients. Where folks were able to do full body weight dips, we added weight to then in the form of kettlebells to challenge them further. Where clients are working with bands to support them, we slowly reduced the support to get them working harder.

All of which was merely the preamble to the deceptively brutal workout that followed:

I don’t like Mondays

Every minute, on the minute, for 12 minutes complete each of these exercises in sequence:

• 4x Hanging power cleans
• 4x Front squats
• 4x Push presses

The prescribed loading is 50% of bodyweight (scale where necessary).

Ouch.

[Note: I'll post photos later]

Too much posting, too few hours means, I’m behind in my updating of the website.

So Monday’s fun  with a pinch and a punch) was a 3 x 5 front squat, followed by a 15 minute Cindy, followed by some “core” stuff.

Tuesday was a fun packed snatch session that Twyla loathed, but the muscle-up practise cheered her up a bit.

Well, the i-Course was going well; we were a good way through the cleans, when disaster struck…the building was plunged into darkness (semi-gloom really, but that doesn’t sound so windswept and exciting!), and nothing we could do would get the lights back on again…not swearing,  not moaning, not blaming shody workmanship, so…leaving the calm, and very cool Sally Dixey teaching the kettlebell swing and snatch in the bracing outdoors of Gales Gardens in Bethnal Green (but at least the all day rain held off for a few minutes), the intrepid Andrew Stemler dashed off in his (yet to be washed) car and got hold of a jolly bright light, and saved the day…hoorah!

A fantastic well done to Steven, Kate and Twyla for entertaining the troops during the lunch time, with rousing songs and face painting, while nervously waiting for the emergency lighting to appear…phew!

The afternoon was fantastic with a few of the attendees getting muscle -ups…wooo hoooo. Lots of shadows too!

Brian's first muscle-up

It was a bit cold , so thanks to all the attendees who tolerated cold butts for most of the day…

i-Course attendees, February 2010

This course is such fun you you still learn in the pitch black (this really is a fearful fib). But this is typical British spirit…( not the  invading other peoples countries and nicking their natural resources, thing) but jolly well getting on with stuff.

Chin Chin, pip pip!

Book your space on the next “guaranteed to be  a bit lighter” i-Course, by hitting the “Getting Started” button

http://crossfitlondonuk.com/getting-started/

Notice that the Crossfit London neck scarfs are back…. big time!

Well, we kicked off with a beginners class…

Tonight's beginner class (Vincent, Naim, Alina & Brendon)

…followed by a great team work out of:

Three rounds for times:

• 15x Assisted pull-ups
• 15x Leg raises
• 15x Back raises

Team pull ups (Amelia, Helen, Ruairi & Julian)

It’s all go at the Crossfit London UK Blackboard Gym!

More photo’s on the CrossFit London Flickr page, here.

The Crossfit London  i-Course is a one-day workshop that covers the core CrossFit moves and much more.

To book your place on the i-Course click on the ‘Getting Started’ button.

About the i-Course

In one action-packed day you will be taught:

How to squat

How to perform the nine fundamental CrossFit moves, including the Olympic lifts: squat, front squat, overhead squat, press, push-press, push-jerk, clean, Sumo deadlift high-pull and deadlift. Plus the snatch

How to swing and snatch a kettlebell

After that, it’s how to practice handstands and the handstand push-up with all the assistance exercises currently recommended

Amazing core stability: the dish hold, hollow rock and the L-sit

We will also play with the pull-up: strict  & Crossfit kipping. We use bands if you need pull-up assistance (we were all there once!)

Then it’s a mixture of  floor and rings to look at push-ups, front supports, ring dips and rows

We will also have  a quick peek at stretching

FAQ

Why is this called the i-Course?
Because the “i” could stand for “introduction”, “introspection”, “information” or “intermediate”. Beginners or intermediate trainees can come to this course and get massive benefits. Others may be interested in checking out Crossfit, or just getting a few extra moves to add to their own training. Everyone is welcome.

How was it developed?
The course grew out of a series of masterclasses run by Crossfit London during 2005. The content was refined with support from Miles Key (Crossfit Hove) and Chet Morjaria (FK-UK) over 3 years before appearing in a consolidated form in late 2008

I have no arm strength. Won’t this be  waste of time as I can’t push-up, let alone pull up?
This day is about progressions and scaling. Once you understand the principles of working across gravity, rather than against it, you will be able to adapt all the Crossfit exercises and then learn the next progression to help you improve your strength. We make the coaching process very explicit so you can continue to teach yourself.

So I do this course and I’m sorted?
This is six hours of skill teaching, not training. We hope to get you to a level where you can train on your own. At the end of the six hours some will have picked it all up, others will struggle and want to reattend. These are skills which need practice. It’s not about sitting in a machine and  working one joint; you need to learn to coordinate and balance yourself. If you pay attention to the progressions and the drills, you will have a lot of  “sign posts” in your training.

I’m a fitness instructor/personal trainer. Will this session be any good for me?
As we find a lot of personal trainers to be weak and uncoordinated, this is an ideal session to come to. However, the aim of this session is not to certify individuals to teach Crossfit, Olympic weightlifting or gymnastics. If you genuinely aspire to teach, this course will give you a massive advantage over others embarking on their first certification. Crossfit certification seminars are frequently available in the USA.

During the session you will be able to talk to those who have done their certifications, and those in the process of preparing to go.

I’m not serious about Crossfit, I just want to add a few extra skills to my training
That’s fine. Loyalty to Crossfit is not demanded. We are  just delighted to share our skill set.

Do we get a book and a t shirt?
There will be a course manual and t-shirts to buy on the day.

What about discounts?
We offer a 15% to members of the Armed Services and Emergency Services. We also offer a discount to students in full time education. Please contact us for more details.

Timing of the course
The course runs from 9.30am to 4.30pm with an hour for lunch at approx 12.30pm

The crossfit London i-course is  probably the best  preparation you can have before you attend a full  Crossfit certification.

What do others think?

“Thank you very much Andrew. I found the course to be very good indeed.  In fact I am going to abandon my usual weight training and CV routine and give crossfit a go”. Brian

“Thanks to Andrew for running an excellent, information packed course”. Brian. (Strength and power)

“Today was unbelievable! thank you so much!” Sam

“Hi Andrew —we all (Gaz, Maggie, Martin and Debbs) had a brilliant time on Sunday. It was better than I even expected so let us know when you have other courses available because we will definitely attend.Your helpers were also great especially Steve, Wendy and Miles.The day was fun, tiring and very informative. Thanks again – we are totally addicted now”

‘Thank you. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, although I’m still
aching in places. You’re in excellent shape for a 48-year-old.
All the best’ Rob

You can read an online review of the i-course (2nd Nov 2008) by internet journalist Sally Moss

I was at the iCourse yesterday. I’m led to believe I need to be your friend to see the hideous photos that were taken of me yesterday…! (and of course, I want to be your friend anyway as you seem like such a nice chap (Scott, June 2009)

Thanks for the course today! it was SO good… It clarified so many things for me especially the lifts! I really appreciated your enthusiasm and passion for health and fitness, it’s great meeting like minded people. Thanks again, Tom (June 2009)

Thank you for a brilliant day today. I don’t think I will be able to walk tomorrow, let alone pick up any of my children… but thoroughly enjoyed the beasting. (Michelle, June 2009)