The couch thread
Moderator: Dux
-
- Sgt. Major
- Posts: 3024
- Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:41 am
Re: The couch thread
IIRC, the level 4 crap was supposed to represent high marks for a specialist in the respective area (for comparison purposes). I believe it was stated that most @Fers--or anyone, for that matter--would not be able to hit level 4 marks in very many areas, if any.
Re: The couch thread
Considering Federenko can "only" do 40 reps with the 24s in 3 minutes, I would say 150 is impossible unless they are being sloppy.Resident Quack wrote:How out of range are the KB numbers that Fish mentioned above? I wouldn't know where to look.
But obviously we all know that is not the @fit way.
Re: The couch thread
The problem is that most of those are not specialist numbers for a given event. Squatting 2xBWT or running a 5 minute mile are not amazing feats. The inconsistency is just stupid.Gin Master wrote:IIRC, the level 4 crap was supposed to represent high marks for a specialist in the respective area (for comparison purposes). I believe it was stated that most @Fers--or anyone, for that matter--would not be able to hit level 4 marks in very many areas, if any.
NOTE: Another website has the KB feat listed as only 100 reps, and it is using the 16s. That is very manageable.
-
- Sergeant Commanding
- Posts: 8624
- Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:13 pm
Re: The couch thread
Given their impeccable technique and unorthodox use of the damper, I am not surprised.Fish wrote:The 6k row in 20:00 is retarted too.

-
- Staff Sergeant
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 5:52 pm
Re: The couch thread
What's unorthodox about the damper use?Norman U. Senchbau wrote:Given their impeccable technique and unorthodox use of the damper, I am not surprised.Fish wrote:The 6k row in 20:00 is retarted too.
Re: The couch thread
CrossFitters like to set their damper at 10 on the assumption that it's somehow a better or harder workout. Many, many years of rowers trying to explain how the stupid thing works has not made much of a dent in this. Given that they can't really seem to figure out the form of the stroke either -- one of the simplest fucking movements in sports -- I have to assume that these people just find machinery confusing.
-
- Sgt. Major
- Posts: 3439
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:59 pm
- Location: Somewhere else
Re: The couch thread
This is too true. I remember the main C2 woman at my original cert saying, "if you don't know how to use the damper, just put it at 5". Not a good enough explanation for @Fers, I guess.Brandon Oto wrote:CrossFitters like to set their damper at 10 on the assumption that it's somehow a better or harder workout. Many, many years of rowers trying to explain how the stupid thing works has not made much of a dent in this. Given that they can't really seem to figure out the form of the stroke either -- one of the simplest fucking movements in sports -- I have to assume that these people just find machinery confusing.
About @Fers rowing form...it's about as good as their snatches. Maybe Gilson could write another sweet article about how they're going to change erging now too!

Re: The couch thread
This is seriously fucking beyond me. I can see someone having trouble with a relatively complicated movement like the clean and jerk, but rowing involves SITTING DOWN and performing three joint articulations ONE AT A TIME at any speed you want and then reversing them in the opposite order. It is seriously so simple that there are only a couple of ways to do it wrong and yet somehow everyone manages to do those.
Re: The couch thread
How does it work?Brandon Oto wrote:Many, many years of rowers trying to explain how the stupid thing works has not made much of a dent in this.
Don’t believe everything you think.
-
- Sergeant Commanding
- Posts: 5058
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:13 am
- Location: The Usual Gang of Idiots
Re: The couch thread
The AT ONE TIME is where most @f'ers fuck it up. Legs, lean back, and arms all pulling at the same time and all going back to recovery at the same time. You just can't convince them that those are 3 seperate movements strung together end to end.Brandon Oto wrote:This is seriously fucking beyond me. I can see someone having trouble with a relatively complicated movement like the clean and jerk, but rowing involves SITTING DOWN and performing three joint articulations ONE AT A TIME at any speed you want and then reversing them in the opposite order. It is seriously so simple that there are only a couple of ways to do it wrong and yet somehow everyone manages to do those.
And holy fuck if you try to tell one of them that the optimal rowing pace may be slightly less than 45 SPM.
I don't have a lot of experience with vampires, but I have hunted werewolves. I shot one once, but by the time I got to it, it had turned back into my neighbor's dog.
Re: The couch thread
Decent technique is automatic if you row without straps.
-
- Sgt. Major
- Posts: 3439
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:59 pm
- Location: Somewhere else
Re: The couch thread
http://www.crossfitocmd.com/crossfit_oc ... nyway.html
All @Fers are elite, and Gaymes folks are elite elite. What does that make Glassman?
Note how not a single one of the complaints mentioned about @F are addressed at all...
Is it possible to laugh and barf at the same time?One of the elite, that is obviously wrote:What makes athletes elite? Does an elite athlete have to be a champion to be elite? There are many out there who do not look favorably upon CrossFit training. One of the reasons for this is the claim by CrossFit that we create, or forge, elite athletes. These detractors say that if this claim is true, where are these elite athletes? I think the naysayers have confused champion athletes with elite athletes. That’s okay. They just don’t understand the program, either because they have their own agenda within the fitness industry, or they fear the type of hard and intense training we do. I don’t knock their programs, but they go to great lengths to knock CrossFit. Other complaints about CrossFit include the lack of focus, people could get hurt, the unconventional certification methods, or they just don’t like Coach Glassman, the founder of CrossFit. Rather than give CrossFit a try, or at least make an attempt to understand the science behind the training and the true benefits of it, the detractors continue to bash. Perhaps, as I suspect, they’re concerned that CrossFit is producing exactly what it claims: elite athletes.
DEFINING ELITE CROSSFIT TRAINING OVER CONVENTIONAL METHODS
Elite is defined as being in a class by oneself, the select few, the cream of the crop, the best. If that’s the definition of elite, then the category of elite athletes should encompass all CrossFitters. Why? Because what we do for training cannot be matched by any other training methodology. While others use specialized or periodized training methods to isolate training in one modality over a period of eight to twelve weeks, CrossFit avoids both specialization and periodization. One coach might have his athletes do eight to twelve weeks of strength training with slow lifts just to build mass and isolated strength at the expense of stamina, endurance, and functionality. After that period is over, perhaps the coach moves on to plyometrics and, later, running at various distances to rebuild the lost stamina and endurance. This is done on the false assumption that the body needs these long periods of training in one modality in order to improve performance overall. What tends to happen is that the body quickly adapts to the changing stimulus, improves in that one modality, and the fitness gains made earlier revert to what they were prior to the first period of training. It becomes a vicious cycle, repeated year after year by coaches who just don’t know any other way to train. Periodized training has its place, but only if the coach and athlete have a long term goal of specialization for an event for which the athlete stands a good chance of becoming a champion. This isn’t to say that CrossFitters can’t become champions, or that champions aren’t made through CrossFit training. The point is that CrossFitters are elite because of the way they train for the unknown and unknowable rather than for a specific event.
WHERE ARE THE ELITE ATHLETES PRODUCED BY CROSSFIT?
Those who claim that we do not forge elite athletes should look no further than to those who participated in the CrossFit Games and the regional qualifiers for the games. These athletes are certainly the top performers when measured against CrossFit’s definition of fitness: increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. These athletes can, and do, move large loads, long distances, quickly. I would definitely call these the elite among elite athletes. Unlike champions in other sports, these games competitors did not quite know what they were training for, so they trained for multiple types of events and combinations of events including high rep, low load weightlifting; running; bodyweight/gymnastics movements; plyometrics; low rep, high load weightlifting; with all workouts performed at high intensity. I don’t think anyone training for the Tour de France would train like that, but, again, that’s the difference between elite athleticism and specialized athleticism.
Those new to CrossFit, when they push hard enough on the workouts, experience gains unlike any program they’ve ever encountered. Some come to CrossFit with a background in another sport, believe they’re in awesome shape, and get crushed on their first workout. Others come to CrossFit with zero athletic ability, or they’ve been a couch potato and need to get back into shape again. The appeal of CrossFit is the ability of the random training to capture the imagination, inspire the soul, and produce an athlete where there was none before, or transform a specialized athlete into an elite athlete. Young, old, champion, housewife, former college athlete – they all benefit from CrossFit training and they all become elite athletes when they train using the CrossFit method.
ELITE TRAINING, NOT SPECIALIZED TRAINING
The randomness of CrossFit training and the intensity put out by CrossFitters in the workouts scares most outside the CrossFit community. Sure, if you want to be the top 5% in any given specialized sport, you must focus solely upon that modality. You’re expected to. CrossFit can help, but if you want a 900 pound back squat, you aren’t going to get it doing CrossFit. Likewise, you aren’t going to be the top Olympic champion in the snatch and clean and jerk by doing CrossFit over working the Oly lifts almost to the exclusion of CrossFit. The top Olympic champion and the top powerlifters, as well as the top runners, bikers, rowers, etc. must focus on their sport in their goal to become the champion. Again, CrossFit training can help these athletes, but it cannot replace the specialized training required to be number one.
What CrossFit’s detractors don’t understand is that CrossFit isn’t about specialization. It isn’t about running 120 miles per week. It isn’t about getting massive, bulky bodybuilding muscles. It’s about training for whatever life may throw at you. This is where elite athleticism comes into play. Given enough tasks, the elite athlete will always outperform the specialist, or the champion - and that’s what makes an athlete elite.
All @Fers are elite, and Gaymes folks are elite elite. What does that make Glassman?
Note how not a single one of the complaints mentioned about @F are addressed at all...
Re: The couch thread
LMFAOWhat CrossFit’s detractors don’t understand is that CrossFit isn’t about specialization....It’s about training for whatever life may throw at you. This is where elite athleticism comes into play. Given enough tasks, the elite athlete will always outperform the specialist, or the champion - and that’s what makes an athlete elite.
I've got an idea. Let's set up a test for things "life may throw at you" and see who survives:
1) push a grocery cart through store
2) Side impact car crash
3) leap from burning building
4) drive through Hong Kong rush hour
5) locate and identify the Big Dipper
6) change a diaper
7) drag a 175 lb person wearing 100 lbs of gear 200 yards to safety
8) carry shopping bags around mall
9) play pick up basketball game, and
10) ME squat with your powerlifting friends.
WTF are these cultfitters talking about with this "what life may throw at you" bullshit?
"Know that! & Know it deep you fucking loser!"


-
- Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 19098
- Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:39 pm
Re: The couch thread
nice proto,protobuilder wrote:LMFAOWhat CrossFit’s detractors don’t understand is that CrossFit isn’t about specialization....It’s about training for whatever life may throw at you. This is where elite athleticism comes into play. Given enough tasks, the elite athlete will always outperform the specialist, or the champion - and that’s what makes an athlete elite.
I've got an idea. Let's set up a test for things "life may throw at you" and see who survives:
1) push a grocery cart through store
2) Side impact car crash
3) leap from burning building
4) drive through Hong Kong rush hour
5) locate and identify the Big Dipper
6) change a diaper
7) drag a 175 lb person wearing 100 lbs of gear 200 yards to safety
8) carry shopping bags around mall
9) play pick up basketball game, and
10) ME squat with your powerlifting friends.
WTF are these cultfitters talking about with this "what life may throw at you" bullshit?
that's pretty dead on. Sig worthy but too too long.
"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." JS Mill
Re: The couch thread
The damper on a C2 is essentially its inertia; by analogy to a boat, which is the whole point, a higher damper is a heavier boat. So sure -- heavier means a harder workout, right?nafod wrote:How does it work?Brandon Oto wrote:Many, many years of rowers trying to explain how the stupid thing works has not made much of a dent in this.
Well, no, heavier just means you have to pull harder, which means you have to pull slower, which means you pull fewer times over a given period. It's exactly like shifting the gear on a bike. Would you rather peddle faster, with less resistance, and have to spin more times? Or would you rather have to push harder but go faster and farther for each push? I don't care, it's up to you -- but you'll cover the same distance with the same overall quantity of work either way. With the damper on 1 you can row at a million strokes a minute, but you'll also NEED to in order to reach a fast pace, and you probably can't shuttle your little assplatform quickly enough for a good split even though there's minimal resistance. With the damper on 10 each pull is like a deadlift and you'll need to make each one monstrously powerful, because you're not going to get very many of them. Either way the machine doesn't give a shit because the monitor is calibrated to take all this into account.
So pretty much everyone rows their fastest within a moderate damper range. I usually shoot for a drag of 135 or so (you can pull up the actual drag setting on the monitor, which is more accurate than just using the damper number since that can vary). A lot of people also prefer somewhat lower drags for longer distances.
-
- Staff Sergeant
- Posts: 378
- Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:49 pm
Re: The couch thread
http://crossfitocmd.typepad.com/steve_rakow/
That dude is a lawyer and a level 3 so he can beat you across modal domains and sue you at the same time. Doesn't he work for RRG?
That dude is a lawyer and a level 3 so he can beat you across modal domains and sue you at the same time. Doesn't he work for RRG?
Re: The couch thread
This guy gets more chicks. Follow his conditioning methods.


"There is only one God, and he doesn't dress like that". - - Captain America
Re: The couch thread
She's so much more flatchested than Rakow.
The flesh is weak, and the smell of pussy is strong like a muthafucka.
-
- Staff Sergeant
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 5:52 pm
Re: The couch thread
Okay, that's what I thought. Didn't realize the @Fers were unaware of that!Brandon Oto wrote:The damper on a C2 is essentially its inertia; by analogy to a boat, which is the whole point, a higher damper is a heavier boat. So sure -- heavier means a harder workout, right?nafod wrote:How does it work?Brandon Oto wrote:Many, many years of rowers trying to explain how the stupid thing works has not made much of a dent in this.
Well, no, heavier just means you have to pull harder, which means you have to pull slower, which means you pull fewer times over a given period. It's exactly like shifting the gear on a bike. Would you rather peddle faster, with less resistance, and have to spin more times? Or would you rather have to push harder but go faster and farther for each push? I don't care, it's up to you -- but you'll cover the same distance with the same overall quantity of work either way. With the damper on 1 you can row at a million strokes a minute, but you'll also NEED to in order to reach a fast pace, and you probably can't shuttle your little assplatform quickly enough for a good split even though there's minimal resistance. With the damper on 10 each pull is like a deadlift and you'll need to make each one monstrously powerful, because you're not going to get very many of them. Either way the machine doesn't give a shit because the monitor is calibrated to take all this into account.
So pretty much everyone rows their fastest within a moderate damper range. I usually shoot for a drag of 135 or so (you can pull up the actual drag setting on the monitor, which is more accurate than just using the damper number since that can vary). A lot of people also prefer somewhat lower drags for longer distances.
-
- Staff Sergeant
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 5:52 pm
Re: The couch thread
This post was obviously written by someone who knows absolutely dick about the training methods of real sports. Not to mention that those lowly "champion athletes" (you know, the ones that get paid) actually win on a real field of competition with real events that don't leave winning up to chance and luck like the Gaymes do.Resident Quack wrote:Is it possible to laugh and barf at the same time?Garbage about Elite Athletes
All @Fers are elite, and Gaymes folks are elite elite. What does that make Glassman?
Note how not a single one of the complaints mentioned about @F are addressed at all...
It must be awesome to get to make up your own definitions that suit exactly what you do. Oh, to be elite.
-
- Lord of the thighs
- Posts: 18936
- Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:14 pm
- Location: Eating a cookie in Bikini Bottom.
Re: The couch thread
What a delusional little fuckwit. These "guys and "gals" are so severely fucked in the brain no wonder Coochie Assman takes money from these ass hats. He really is a heartless bastard that enjoys the Gin and tonics but still doesn't mind taking advantage of all those that took the short bus to school.One of the elite, that is obviously wrote:What makes athletes elite? Does an elite athlete have to be a champion to be elite? There are many out there who do not look favorably upon CrossFit training. One of the reasons for this is the claim by CrossFit that we create, or forge, elite athletes. These detractors say that if this claim is true, where are these elite athletes? I think the naysayers have confused champion athletes with elite athletes. That’s okay. They just don’t understand the program, either because they have their own agenda within the fitness industry, or they fear the type of hard and intense training we do. I don’t knock their programs, but they go to great lengths to knock CrossFit. Other complaints about CrossFit include the lack of focus, people could get hurt, the unconventional certification methods, or they just don’t like Coach Glassman, the founder of CrossFit. Rather than give CrossFit a try, or at least make an attempt to understand the science behind the training and the true benefits of it, the detractors continue to bash. Perhaps, as I suspect, they’re concerned that CrossFit is producing exactly what it claims: elite athletes.
DEFINING ELITE CROSSFIT TRAINING OVER CONVENTIONAL METHODS
Elite is defined as being in a class by oneself, the select few, the cream of the crop, the best. If that’s the definition of elite, then the category of elite athletes should encompass all CrossFitters. Why? Because what we do for training cannot be matched by any other training methodology. While others use specialized or periodized training methods to isolate training in one modality over a period of eight to twelve weeks, CrossFit avoids both specialization and periodization. One coach might have his athletes do eight to twelve weeks of strength training with slow lifts just to build mass and isolated strength at the expense of stamina, endurance, and functionality. After that period is over, perhaps the coach moves on to plyometrics and, later, running at various distances to rebuild the lost stamina and endurance. This is done on the false assumption that the body needs these long periods of training in one modality in order to improve performance overall. What tends to happen is that the body quickly adapts to the changing stimulus, improves in that one modality, and the fitness gains made earlier revert to what they were prior to the first period of training. It becomes a vicious cycle, repeated year after year by coaches who just don’t know any other way to train. Periodized training has its place, but only if the coach and athlete have a long term goal of specialization for an event for which the athlete stands a good chance of becoming a champion. This isn’t to say that CrossFitters can’t become champions, or that champions aren’t made through CrossFit training. The point is that CrossFitters are elite because of the way they train for the unknown and unknowable rather than for a specific event.
WHERE ARE THE ELITE ATHLETES PRODUCED BY CROSSFIT?
Those who claim that we do not forge elite athletes should look no further than to those who participated in the CrossFit Games and the regional qualifiers for the games. These athletes are certainly the top performers when measured against CrossFit’s definition of fitness: increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains. These athletes can, and do, move large loads, long distances, quickly. I would definitely call these the elite among elite athletes. Unlike champions in other sports, these games competitors did not quite know what they were training for, so they trained for multiple types of events and combinations of events including high rep, low load weightlifting; running; bodyweight/gymnastics movements; plyometrics; low rep, high load weightlifting; with all workouts performed at high intensity. I don’t think anyone training for the Tour de France would train like that, but, again, that’s the difference between elite athleticism and specialized athleticism.
Those new to CrossFit, when they push hard enough on the workouts, experience gains unlike any program they’ve ever encountered. Some come to CrossFit with a background in another sport, believe they’re in awesome shape, and get crushed on their first workout. Others come to CrossFit with zero athletic ability, or they’ve been a couch potato and need to get back into shape again. The appeal of CrossFit is the ability of the random training to capture the imagination, inspire the soul, and produce an athlete where there was none before, or transform a specialized athlete into an elite athlete. Young, old, champion, housewife, former college athlete – they all benefit from CrossFit training and they all become elite athletes when they train using the CrossFit method.
ELITE TRAINING, NOT SPECIALIZED TRAINING
The randomness of CrossFit training and the intensity put out by CrossFitters in the workouts scares most outside the CrossFit community. Sure, if you want to be the top 5% in any given specialized sport, you must focus solely upon that modality. You’re expected to. CrossFit can help, but if you want a 900 pound back squat, you aren’t going to get it doing CrossFit. Likewise, you aren’t going to be the top Olympic champion in the snatch and clean and jerk by doing CrossFit over working the Oly lifts almost to the exclusion of CrossFit. The top Olympic champion and the top powerlifters, as well as the top runners, bikers, rowers, etc. must focus on their sport in their goal to become the champion. Again, CrossFit training can help these athletes, but it cannot replace the specialized training required to be number one.
What CrossFit’s detractors don’t understand is that CrossFit isn’t about specialization. It isn’t about running 120 miles per week. It isn’t about getting massive, bulky bodybuilding muscles. It’s about training for whatever life may throw at you. This is where elite athleticism comes into play. Given enough tasks, the elite athlete will always outperform the specialist, or the champion - and that’s what makes an athlete elite.

You're an ASS!syaigh wrote: The thought of eating that giant veiny monstrosity makes me want to barf.


-
- Lifetime IGer
- Posts: 21281
- Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2005 11:26 pm
Re: The couch thread
Bunch of fucking stupid rationalizations.
-
- Sgt. Major
- Posts: 3439
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:59 pm
- Location: Somewhere else
Re: The couch thread
If everyone's an elite athlete who does @F, no matter what, then I think everybody at the @F Games should get a medal, no first place.
We don't want anybody to feel un-elite now, do we? JFC.
We don't want anybody to feel un-elite now, do we? JFC.

Re: The couch thread
???There are many out there who do not look favorably upon CrossFit training. One of the reasons for this is the claim by CrossFit that we create, or forge, elite athletes. These detractors say that if this claim is true, where are these elite athletes? I think the naysayers have confused champion athletes with elite athletes.
What the fuck does that even mean?
Elite would mean you have the potential to be a champion at something.
YAY! Let us dumb down the meaning of a word to allow us to "encompass all CrossFitters". Everybody gets a medal!Elite is defined as being in a class by oneself, the select few, the cream of the crop, the best. If that’s the definition of elite, then the category of elite athletes should encompass all CrossFitters. Why? Because what we do for training cannot be matched by any other training methodology.
It's like the fucking special olympics, except no one cares.
There they go again, making up definitions. Unless they could hang with somebody in a legitimate sport they are not elite, they are just good at working out.WHERE ARE THE ELITE ATHLETES PRODUCED BY CROSSFIT?
Those who claim that we do not forge elite athletes should look no further than to those who participated in the CrossFit Games and the regional qualifiers for the games.
Obviously they wouldn't train like that. They are elite athletes. Not sheep.I don’t think anyone training for the Tour de France would train like that, but, again, that’s the difference between elite athleticism and specialized athleticism.
Cancer scares me, @fit doesn't. These dumbasses act like they have to perform these workouts like it is a prison sentence or something.The randomness of CrossFit training and the intensity put out by CrossFitters in the workouts scares most outside the CrossFit community.
The specialist is still the one who has actually accomplished something. Who gives a fuck if some random @fitter that could give 20 hand jobs before their hands cramp up over some pro basketball player that could only give 10?Given enough tasks, the elite athlete will always outperform the specialist, or the champion - and that’s what makes an athlete elite.
Re: The couch thread
I have always wondered the same thing. I would say a lot of the people I know could do anything life may throw at them if their lives or the lives of their friends or loved ones were at stake.protobuilder wrote:LMFAOWhat CrossFit’s detractors don’t understand is that CrossFit isn’t about specialization....It’s about training for whatever life may throw at you. This is where elite athleticism comes into play. Given enough tasks, the elite athlete will always outperform the specialist, or the champion - and that’s what makes an athlete elite.
I've got an idea. Let's set up a test for things "life may throw at you" and see who survives:
1) push a grocery cart through store
2) Side impact car crash
3) leap from burning building
4) drive through Hong Kong rush hour
5) locate and identify the Big Dipper
6) change a diaper
7) drag a 175 lb person wearing 100 lbs of gear 200 yards to safety
8) carry shopping bags around mall
9) play pick up basketball game, and
10) ME squat with your powerlifting friends.
WTF are these cultfitters talking about with this "what life may throw at you" bullshit?