The Others
For time:
Back Squat 1.5x bodyweight, 20 reps
20 Muscle ups
Run 1K
Don’t forget about Track night with the awesome Frank Agz tonight at 6:30 pm at the Santa Monica College Track.
Tabata Pull ups!
In six days I visited Lake Havasu and Prescott in Arizona, worked out with the infamous CCT Joey in CrossFit Prescott, and my buddies Chris Mello and Z Amirian in CrossFit 818 in Glendale, making them the 20th and 21st boxes I’ve ever visited. This is the first time I’ve been able to visit other boxes in a while and reminded me why we encourage people to do the same. CrossFit’s charter of elite fitness presupposes any infinite number of stimuli and expression.
With over 2000 CrossFit boxes around the world and counting, these variances will certainly manifest in the coaching staff and clientele of each box.
The most enlightening thing I took away was from CCTJoey and his situation at Prescott. Upon opening at the behest of Coach Glassman, Joey was not ready for the demographic of the small retirement town.
Instead of the mid 20s to mid 30s crowd that usually populate CrossFits, he had a crowd of elderly folks with a lifetime of chronic injuries, immobility, and bad habits. Although he seemed like a caged lion, I could see that over time his clientele forced him to run his box according to their needs: unwavering attention to perfect form and biomechanics and s-l-o-w-l-y building up intensity. He likened our box to a boiler, and his to a crockpot. Our warm up had glute-ham raises, and plyo style push ups, our WOD was negative deadlifts, strict presses against immovable racks, heavy fronts squats with hip drives, and prowler runs (heavy Louie Simmons influence). I had never before performed any of these movements, and not only did I love and appreciate them, but I immediately perceived their benefit and impact in other lifts.
It’s a lesson I never would have learned had I never visited, and a lesson he could never teach me were his clientele any different.
What other boxes have you visited, and what were your take aways?
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