Sports Fitness

Last year Master SFG Jon Engum and I decided that we should partner up for some 2-day workshops. The material focus would be from his excellent book Flexible Steel and I would bring some of the stuff from my own Way of Iron workshops. We did the first one in MN last fall and had such a blast that we decided to schedule a few more. I contacted Master SFG Fabio Zonin about bringing the show to Vicenza Italy and a few months later, there we were. Arriving a couple days early made it possible for Fabio and myself to take a train to Rome. I decided to make a small tribute to those who fought and died in the Coliseum. And got Fabio to film it for me…. Jon demonstrated his usual amount of Flexiness. And did a great job getting the attendees into deeper stretches than they thought possible. I worked some strength angles, teaching the bent press, breath skill and a short lesson on steel benind 101, sharing some of what i learned form Dennis Rogers’ of Oldetime Strongman University. The next Engum/Tamer workshop will be in my hometown of Nashville TN, at my own little Strength Dojo, Nashville Kettlebell. Wanna join us? HERE is the link.

I cried for my mom to give me the final piece of milk toast at dinner, because I was still so hungry. She smiled and handed me the last piece. I hadn’t known that she had not eaten at all yet. She worked two full time jobs, but because of the layoff at the steel foundry, the jobs were minimum wage, and we barely were meeting the bills. Looking at my two sleeping children today, I understand her sacrifices. Compared with the confusing and narcissistic sensations of childhood hunger, it is not as difficult for an adult to work without food when you get to feed your children because of it. When my wife and I moved in to our first house, a wood burning one room shack in the mountains, she was very frugal and managed to stretch our budget of $700 per month to pay all of our bills, and feed our newborn. Beans and rice in bulk, and anything else we could squeeze from the coins we found in the couch pillows. I had nothing built in my career: no books, videos or gyms; just one on one training. Because of our remote location, I spent much of the money I earned on gas. I don’t know how we managed, and there were some desperate nights, but my wife always managed to awake smiling at the sunshine, flowers and our baby’s face. God loves that woman. We try to volunteer our time for others as much as we can. She’s constantly involved in the community. One of my routine investments involves my best use: writing my articles here to help inspire and motivate others through their hardships and challenges; to which a friend recently remarked, “You spend an hour every morning writing for your audience. Shouldn’t you better use that time in your projects; or at least try and monetize that writing, so you can get a return on it?” Not everything should be transactional. Sometimes, you just need to give without any expectation of receiving. When you recognize how much you actually have, and how many problems others face, like my Mother and my Wife, it is not so difficult to give. It has helped me through my ongoing challenges as well, for when I feel overwhelmed by the sheer mountain of project deadlines, seminar hours and flight plans, I realize I GET to do this. And my tiny, childish complaints at the volume of work, subside. When you are at your job, unapologetically insist on getting paid the true value of your skillful labor, and nothing less. But outside of your living means, if you give, you will have all that you need. Despite all their worries for their children, it’s easier to be like my selfless mom and my joyous wife. Even when you feel discouraged, encourage others; not only will their life get easier, yours will too. Very Respectfully, Scott Sonnon www.facebook.com/ScottSonnon

The pre-conference workshop was 5:15 on Thursday and I made sure I left about an hour ahead to beat Boston traffic into Northeastern. Art has hosted the BSMPG for years and is having pre conference workshops to stimulate learning and allow great people to network. The main interest I have is seeing the cross-fertilization of ideas from different people. If we have the same cult year after year we inbreed. We need fresh ideas, even if we don't agree with the speaker. I find the best speakers share areas that I don't have experience with and while they may have different conclusions or methods, it makes me think about what areas can be explored. Three speakers spoke last night, they were Dr. Marchese, who has his own clinic up in Woburn. Fergus Connolly, a high performance advisor out of Ireland, and Val Nasedkin from Omegawave. Each session was under a half hour or so and this was not easy to do. Dr. Marchese- The dirty secret is that when an athlete isn't getting better in the Boston area and are desperate, you may go up to Woburn. I have witness several athletes fly in after seeing some very public super therapists and come back with tales of reality. Emotionally it hurts to hear after spending good money that the quality of care is so poor. The reason I think this happens is placebo. Think about it (no pun intended), if you fly to a super therapist and believe you will get better, a shotgun of massage and light exercises and of course time, people get better. Rest does help everyone get better, so we need to appreciate that nature is helping us on the backend. Dr. Marchese was interesting because he was following the WCT model of presenting, meaning bring citations and share what you do. I like the idea of handouts as I am always going to be a paper guy. His presentation ran longer than the allotted time and that is a classic error. Remember that the time we have affects the presenters behind us. Aside from that it was very similar to a typical neurological exam based on classic neuroscience and testing. The challenge here is the huge array of possible interpretations. This is why I suggest checklists and flow charts. The brain is a big area and while it's impressive, we are human and can't juggle everything in one's head. One EPL team bought an algorithm for post concussion testing to ensure athletes are lowering their risk to ACL tears and it's a glorified checklist that calculates risk into a 10% chunks. I liked the presentation but felt that the tests should have been cut in half and shown some sort of transfer to game specific results via motion capture or similar otherwise it is patient feedback and that is very subjective. Fergus Connolly- I have known Fergus for a long time and it's great to see him climb the ladder to high performance advising. If you go to his website it's a bit of a mystery but perhaps that's part of the adoption cycle of a private consultant. His presentation was sort of a inspirational powerpoint full of Ken Burn effects and great visuals. He basically gave wisdom nuggets for 25 minutes and was clearly prepared. He was polished and prepared, but my concern is the people in the audience would copy the style. I think a Garr Reynolds presentation done too much is annoying because the visuals are just pretty stock photos. With any visual it must display a lot of information if we are doing an educational presentation. Inspiration or wisdom is a different beast so you can bust out the keynote software on your mac and be stylish when telling stories or giving tidbits of help, but sharing what people should do to get athletes better should follow the Edward Tufte model. Show the data. I felt that Fergus was appropriate for last night because he was trying to get the point of getting athletes to buy in, and I hope he shares what he does Saturday in detail and not show slides with a few quotes. If one is a top consultant one has to show why, wit

Like a barbell tipped on one end- something is *off* here. Every once in a while, I post about Fragile X here because it affects Casey, our Casey. We put on RCF's Strongest Man and Woman (shameless plug for this years September 21st event right here) as a fundraiser for Fragile X Research.  All the money we raise goes to FRAXA and FRAXA funds research grants for Fragile X. So far we've sent over $45,000. Last week, one of the most promising treatments was pulled from clinical trials. You see, in 10 days I'll have 5000 people (ish) attending an event that I'm orchestrating. It's taking up a big chunk of my time right now. I'm right where I need to be on my 10 page to-do list in order to make sure than I's are dotted and T's are crossed come May 31st. It leaves very little time to jump headfirst into another crisis. But the current crisis has my heart. Regionals may have my brain and my email, but my hearts all worried about STX209.   STX209 is Seaside Therapeutics drug that targets an overactive pathway in the fragile x brain. This drug, true of many drugs in clinical trials, works for some but not for all. But the ones it was working for will lose it. They'll have to taper off of it in the coming weeks because Seaside doesn't have the money to keep making it. It's not FDA approved so no one else can make it, either.  Even if it were made, it would help such a small population that it would probably never make money. Here's the heart breaking part- nevermind. Just go read this. 3 1/2 years... When a drug trial ends...Parker could be Casey. Casey could be Parker. My heart is broken. More tomorrow. Today I can't see the keyboard through my tears. 

Dumbbell Clean and Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 Go heavy. Ground to overhead. Post results to comments

This article is guest blogged by University lecturer Dr. Vassilios McInnes Spathopoulos, author of An Introduction to the Physics of Sports.   You can read my review in Introduction to the Physics of Sports. He also wrote Windy Records in Track & Field and I wrote Curve Running – The Ultimate Guide so this is a great article on WIND and CURVE. The Effect of Wind on Curve Running The effect of wind on the performance in the 100m dash has been discussed in a previous article of mine. From a physics point of view the analysis is quite straightforward, assuming that the athlete experiences an almost constant component of wind when running in a straight line. A tailwind component will have the effect of reducing the air resistance (drag) and therefore making the run slightly easier for the athlete. So at zero altitude a maximum legal wind will approximately shave off 0.1s from the overall time. When running in a curve, as in the 200m event, things become a little more complicated. Let us see what actually happens. The IAAF rules state that it is only the component of wind along the final straight that is measured (from the moment that the first athlete enters it, for 10s) and this must not exceed a maximum tailwind of 2m/s. Nothing is stated or known about the wind experienced by athletes during the first half of the race. As the angle of their run relative to the wind direction is constantly changing, so will the value of air resistance that they experience during the first 100m. Furthermore, different wind conditions will register as being the same when measured by the wind gauge positioned on the final straight. So for example, a straight 2m/s tailwind, will register the same as a 4m/s crosswind coming at an angle of 60 degrees. It is pretty obvious, that the resistance experienced by the athlete during the first half of the race will be different for both cases. Finally, due to the curvature, the effect of the wind will also depend on the lane at which one is running, something not seen for the 100m dash case. It turns out that runners in the outside lane actually have an advantage, as the overall wind resistance is reduced. Has anyone been able to put numbers to all of this? It turns out that compared to the 100m case, there have been fewer studies performed for the 200m. In one such research effort [1], it has been estimated that for a wind blowing down the straight at the maximum legal limit of 2m/s, the actual overall average tailwind experienced over the 200m is approximately 0.95m/s. Also, as different wind conditions can produce the same readings from the wind gauge in the final straight, athletes running in theory under the same conditions can experience time differences due to wind of up to 0.5s. A good combination would be for a 4m/s wind coming from behind at an angle of 60 degrees. This would give a time advantage of about 0.3s, certainly not at all negligible! Finally, both this study and one described in [2] predict an advantage for those running in the outside lane. In terms of exact time, this will depend on the prevailing conditions, but in any case can be quite considerable. Overall then, it seems as if a strict rule has been imposed on the conditions of a race, conditions for which in the best case, we only have knowledge of for half the race duration. With all the technology nowadays available, it might be time to reconsider offering athletes a more objective deal. About the Author Dr. Vassilios McInnes Spathopoulos graduated from the University of Glasgow (UK), with a joint honours degree in Aerospace and Electronic Engineering, in 1995. The following year he completed a MSc course in Flight Dynamics at Cranfield University (UK). In 2001 he obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow, conducting research on the validation of a rotorcraft mathematical model by means of flight testing a gyroplane. He teaches undergraduate subjects at the Department of Aircraft Technology, at the Technologica

Fresh Meat Champs! Monica getting after some pullups! WOD:  4RFT 20 Wall Balls 20 Burpees

"Cindy"AMRAP 20 minutes:5 Pullups 10 Pushups15 Squats Post total rounds to comments. Log results online (Beyond the Whiteboard)  

Do you have a race or major event on your summer schedule? If you are starting your training program in hopes of being in top  condition when you hit the starting line, you may want to take advantage of a few of the best training and pre-event tips that cover the whole range of race-prep....Read Full Post

How were you introduced to Crossfit? A couple years ago I was helping my brother-in-law work on my garage. The next morning after a particular strenuous day of work I was extremely sore. I figured there were a couple reasons for this. One was most likely due to my inactivity and the other was due to the fact I’m not getting any younger. I couldn’t do anything about not getting any younger, but I knew I could do something about the inactivity – but what? Shortly after that my daughter Hannah started doing CrossFit. She described the program in terms of it being a full body experience. She seemed to enjoy the exercises and the acquaintances she was making. So after many months of her doing it and talking about it at home, when she headed off to college, there was a CrossFit lull in our house. I thought I needed to do something, why couldn’t I just jump in and try CrossFit?! I thought that I could quit if I didn’t like it, or if it was too hard. I found that I do like it, and it is too hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. How has CrossFit changed your life? I think that I am happier, perhaps, than I was in some ways. I’m being proactive in regard to my fitness and not just sitting back, like I think many folks in my age bracket do. I’m stronger and am stalling the toll that aging takes on a body. I have always wanted to: Play the piano – CrossFit isn’t helping with that. One word people use to describe me: “geezer” – as in “who’s that geezer picking up that weight?” or “suppose that geezer will survive the WOD?” What do you do for work and fun outside of Crossfit?: I have retired from work after 32 years of government service with the US Navy and the Forest Service. Fun for me is being a husband and father. I like tinkering on our Westfalia, our yard and my computer. I enjoy photography, taking and digitally processing images. Something nobody knows about me or would be surprised to know about me I’m not a very mysterious person. I generally wear my heart on my sleeve. Song that gets me pumped for a workout: Quicksilver Messenger Service’s “Who Do You Love Suite” and “Mona” from the Happy Trails album Proudest Accomplishment: Each time I continue after everyone else is done and finish the WOD, that’s when I’m proudest — doing those last burpees, running that last 400 meters, or fighting those urges to stop and call it good. And whereas it’s not necessarily MY accomplishment, I’m especially proud of my sweet, sweet daughter.