The couch thread

[Thud]

I don't care if it's aluminum or what. It's a METAL bar. That puts him in an elite class all by itself.

[sigifrith007]

This is only lightly related to the subject at hand, but someone once asked me if I knew of any way to make a PVC pipe stronger so they wouldnt have to buy a metal bar. their ideas included filling it with concrete, or with some type of glue or something, or wrapping it up with "Gorilla tape", or strapping tape. True story.

[WildGorillaMan]

Sig,
You better watch out, you might get recruited by the Kool-Aid brigade...

On another note, so good, yet so bad...

No baby, leave the socks on.

[Mickey O'neil]

Sig,
You better watch out, you might get recruited by the Kool-Aid brigade...

On another note, so good, yet so bad...

No baby, leave the socks on.

Definitely.

[Mountebank]

The latest T-Bag jab at @F:

When Potty Language Doesn't Enhance One's Argument
There was also a series of talks from the CrossFit people. You've read a lot about CrossFit on TMUSCLE (here and here, for starters), so the relative merits have been beaten to death.

I'll summarize these sessions by saying that a number of scientists I spoke to were left wanting some hard references in the form of published research. Motivational anecdotes and arguments are interesting, but evidence-based practice requires peer-reviewed evidence.

I don't disagree with the general premises presented by the CrossFit folks, but I was left with lingering questions about the increased potential for injury and a possible devaluation of sport-specific training. Then there's the question of uniqueness. Several faculty members and doctoral students expressed concern that the CrossFit "phenomenon" is really just an attempt to brand generalized conditioning and already-employed principles like power output (work divided by time).

On top of that, the F-bombs and other expletives dropped by the CrossFitters didn't go over particularly well in a room filled with scientists and academics.

That said, I was impressed by the no-nonsense (and ultimately published) information shared by Mark Rippetoe, the subject of this TMUSCLE interview. I like that he was willing to challenge convention by pointing out that things like periodization may not be universally necessary.

Seriously, dropping F-bombs in the middle of a presentation to the American Society of Exercise Physiologists? Are you fucking kidding me?
Talk about not giving a shit about trying to present well to your audience. Nice work, couch and @F glitterati!

Also, I'm totally in shock that the ASEP members didn't accept the daily comments boards as cult-peer-reviewed evidence. That just chaps my ass.

[WildGorillaMan]

expressed concern that the CrossFit "phenomenon" is really just an attempt to brand generalized conditioning and already-employed principles like power output (work divided by time).

Exactly. It's fucking interval training on a starvation diet. Nothing new to see, move along.

[Gin Master]

I give Couch full credit for showing up on time and not stumbling or slurring whilst onstage. Baby steps.

The end of the article had good points:

Turning a Tortoise Into a Jackrabbit

I got a rare opportunity to see the famous Vern Gambetta talk on the subject of speed. Cool tidbits he offered were:

• Speed is a biomotor ability we all have to some extent. In other words, speed is a learnable motor task, and we can all get pretty fast if we work at it.

• Track speed doesn't equal game speed. That's why speed drills should be task-specific, and track work should be limited.

• Optimal speed drills should approximate game situations and last four to six seconds.

• Don't practice "speed in the air" (e.g. skipping) when your game time is spent on the ground.

• Surprisingly, many athletes today are actually too fast for their game, and multidirectional agility suffers as a result.

The Finish Line

There was a lot more where that came from, but I think I've offered you the best of the best information I picked up during my two weeks of speaking and listening to my fellow speakers.

The most important take-away lessons:

• There's no reason to believe that the amount of protein consumed by a typical TMUSCLE reader — 1 to 1.5 grams per pound of body weight per day — presents any danger to your health. In fact, higher protein intake combined with lifelong lifting produces stronger, healthier bones.

• Perhaps the easiest way to boost your performance on a major lift is to activate muscles that seem to have no relation to the actual lift. So squeeze the bar, clench your jaw, or brace your abdominals. Research shows this stuff really works.

• If you want advice, you're best off seeking out a true expert, rather than someone who's an expert teacher with little experience or accomplishment in his area of instruction.

• Don't short-change your sports performance by convincing yourself that you were born slow and you'll always be slow. You have another gear that's just waiting to be discovered.

• Ignore people who want to slap a brand name on exercise systems that you already know how to do.

• And if you find yourself at a scientific conference in which a well-dressed, articulate, and devilishly handsome bald guy is speaking, by all means pull up a chair and enjoy the presentation.

[Mountebank]

Another tidbit...

For optimal bone growth, you want to include back squats, leg presses (depending on the machine type), deadlifts, and freestanding upper-body exercises. Plyometric movements and Olympic lifts are also recommended, since those offer the highest rate of force development. You want to use a minimum of 65% of your one-rep max, and limit total rep counts to 50 per exercise per workout.

FAIL yet again, @F. You were *this* close. <<<<q

Add more weight, do less reps. In how many ways must this be hammered into your metcon-addicted heads?

[T200]

More hand ripping fun:

Calluses have completely ripped open...

today while I was doing some kipping pull ups w/some new and very coarse athletic tape wrapped around the bar, three of the four calluses on the top of my palms opposite the knuckles ripped open.

I cut the skin off w/some nail clippers, washed my hands and then let them air dry. It hurts to touch anything right now and I'm worried about how I'll be able to do my WODs until the skin grows back.

Did I let my calluses grow too thick? Should I shave them down more often? I don't wan to put work out w/bandaids or tape on them because any newly grown skin will rip off when I remove the band aid or tape.

What if I wear some rubber gloves and then use straps just until my hands heal?

I can't be the only one that has had this problem... how do you work your way around this?

[Holy Cow]

More hand ripping fun:

Calluses have completely ripped open...

today while I was doing some kipping pull ups w/some new and very coarse athletic tape wrapped around the bar, three of the four calluses on the top of my palms opposite the knuckles ripped open.

I cut the skin off w/some nail clippers, washed my hands and then let them air dry. It hurts to touch anything right now and I'm worried about how I'll be able to do my WODs until the skin grows back.

Did I let my calluses grow too thick? Should I shave them down more often? I don't wan to put work out w/bandaids or tape on them because any newly grown skin will rip off when I remove the band aid or tape.

What if I wear some rubber gloves and then use straps just until my hands heal?

I can't be the only one that has had this problem... how do you work your way around this?

Any time I ever ripped a callus I would rub some salt in there, and that honestly seems to speed up the healing process. Maybe I'm just killing nerve endings, but either way a thin new layer of callus develops the very next day.

But the best solution is to not work out like a dick head.

[Sassenach]

Callous ripping is a rookie move, you have to pumice your hands on the regular. Fucking idiots.

[nafod]

Very, very common rock climbing issue. When I did reams of pullups, I'd make sure I hung mainly by my fingers and not the palms, so you wouldn't get that rubbing action every rep. Same with high rep barbell exercises. But it takes open grip strength that most folks don't have.

[Mountebank]

The CrossFit RRG has been funded! CrossFit affiliates and trainers are now self insured.

Yay, and there was a great drinking of liquor and sharing of STDs afterwards. Several @Fers in their excitement lifted aluminum bars off the ground for the very first time to celebrate. And it almost built some strength.

The target has been set. Those to be rhabdo'd, overused, and/or given blood-borne pathogens, start your engines.

Now the suppressed-to-this-point issue of yearly premiums will come up, to the absolute surprise of many @fers who didn't realize that their "investment" didn't cover their first year...

Re: the calluses, that douche doesn't realize there is tons of info out there on taking care of calluses pre/post, as well as Rip doing a whole video article trying to tell @Fers exactly what Nafod just said. Oh well.

[TerryB]

Callous ripping is a rookie move, you have to pumice your hands on the regular.

Well that doesnt sound very hardcore. Maybe we could have hardcore jagged pumicing for time using hot stones plucked straight from the molten volcanic ring while doing handstand pullups! Buddy to hold the camera required of course b/c otherwise, whats the point?

[WildGorillaMan]

using hot stones plucked straight from the molten volcanic ring

That reminds me, what's new on Shari Keener's blog?

[Blaidd Drwg]

Shari has other things on her mind...


AIDS Scare Shuts Down Porn Films
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/ ... 2917.shtml

Many major pornographic movie producers, including the industry's largest, have agreed to shut down sets for 60 days because two stars tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS.

At least 45 men and women were under voluntary quarantine because they had sex with the HIV-positive performers or their sex partners, said Sharon Mitchell of the nonprofit Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation.



Will this delay the gaymes???

[POD]

AIDS Scare Shuts Down Porn Films
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/ ... 2917.shtml

Will this delay the gaymes???

Obviously not. No one has to worry about getting AIDS a second time.

[WildGorillaMan]

The building they're @fitting in front of looks like a public school. The athletes themselves look like special ed students. Wouldn't some districts classify this as abuse? Where are their minders?



What's the next certification going to be, @fit Retard Strength?

[T200]

MOAR!!!1

Pull-up bars and calluses?

Pretty much everytime I do pull-ups I either get a blister or a callus from a previous blister tears off. I know, I know. The typical advice is just tape it, glue it, suck it up and eventually your hands will toughen up. But I've been doing CF for about 4 months now, and it seems like I'm having more issues with this than the average person.

This leads me to wonder if the issue isn't my pull-up bar itself. The bar diameter is 3/4" and it is wrapped with some gaffing tape. Up until recently I was using chalk for pull-ups, which I heard was a no-no, so I stopped. I'm just wondering if there's something about the bar itself that might hurting my hands. Or should I just give it more time? Thanks, in advance.

[TerryB]

Pull-up bars and calluses?

Pretty much everytime I do pull-ups I either get a blister or a callus from a previous blister tears off. I know, I know. The typical advice is just tape it, glue it, suck it up and eventually your hands will toughen up. But I've been doing CF for about 4 months now, and it seems like I'm having more issues with this than the average person.

This leads me to wonder if the issue isn't my pull-up bar itself.

Christ. Someone save these morons from themselves.

[POD]

The building they're @fitting in front of looks like a public school. The athletes themselves look like special ed students. Wouldn't some districts classify this as abuse? Where are their minders?



What's the next certification going to be, @fit Retard Strength?

Despite the shit Dynamax gives CrossFitters for exercising like retards, they must love all the business they get. Seriously. Two balls for wall ball? That's not the first time I've seen that either. Don't those things cost about $100 each? Get a class of 15 CrossFitters doing wallball, that's 30 balls if you're dumb enough to have everyone use two, so $3000. Not to mention that you'll have to have a few lighter balls on hand just in case 20lbs is too heavy for some of them.


I'll take a single Werksan 190kg competition set instead, thank you very much.

[POD]

This just came to mind, while checking the CrossFit RRG site to see if one particular affiliate had registered yet... This banner code is up on the RRG website for people to help promote the thing.

<a href="http://www.crossfitrrg.com"><img border="0" alt="CrossFit RRG: We support our community's first line of defense." src="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0029/6 ... 1244910146" /></a>

Did they ever realize how absurdly easy it would be to change the link URL to one of those online scare-image websites? (Goatse, Lemon Party, etc.) I haven't heard of anyone doing it, but they're making it too easy there.

[CultBuster]

Now that it is funded the real shit will make itself clear. The same guys that are barking at everyone to get in and protect @Fit will be the ones who:

1) Can't get insurance whil others still can
2) @Fit lawyers themselves who will be litigating cases

I was talking to a guy who is a lawyer and an affiliate and asked him how it thought this would go any better than another insurance company. He stated that with @Fit being in charge they can "prove" that @Fit is not to blame and "show" these "dumbasses" what @Fit really is. It again boils down to NOBODY getting @Fit. So in court you will have some meth calves lawyer yealling at medical doctors, phds and respected members of the health and fitness community all saying the same thing (cf=injury=cocksuckin) and who will you bring up? a guy that was a teacher for 20 years after 4 years in the service (so he can wear infidel shirts) testifying that he has 4 years as a @fit couch and....excuse me?" no no NSCA, ACSM, NSMA,NESTA,AAA, no college, reserach, "no i was never an athlete". "No i didn;t think that 150 burpess for time was a bad idea for my sons 3rd grade teacer." It is about modal domains and the 9 core movements..someonme needs a video of exactly how badly that will go

[Fish]

a guy that was a teacher for 20 years after 4 years in the service (so he can wear infidel shirts) testifying that he has 4 years as a @fit couch and....excuse me?" no no NSCA, ACSM, NSMA,NESTA,AAA, no college, reserach, "no i was never an athlete". "No i didn;t think that 150 burpess for time was a bad idea for my sons 3rd grade teacer." It is about modal domains and the 9 core movements..someonme needs a video of exactly how badly that will go

Why the fuck would something want a legitimate certification like one of those anyway? We all know those organizations are idiots and don't understand REAL fitness. Making yourself puke and getting really sore are essentials in proper training.




That would be a great video if something like that got put together.

[T200]

These dudes just keep bringing the LULZ with such ferocious intensity:

Butt blister

Sounds funny, but I did 090522 Michael (run 800M + 50 Back Ext + 50 sit ups X 4 rounds) and I got a huge blister at the top of my butt from the sit ups... it's killing me!

I get those from sit-ups every time... skinny guy + prominent coccyx = instant blisters. typical ab mats aren't enough padding to solve the problem, and I don't even own one of them anyway. I started putting a pillow under my butt; problem solved!

That happens to me when I do unanchored sit-ups on bare floor or hard mat. It's usually because my shorts/ pants aren't secured enough. They tend to ride up and down causing a lot of friction/ chaffing. It's literally a pain in the ##$.