What do you think?

I have been taking it easy the last 3 days, missing every single WOD! I have felt a cold coming on, and the departure for Santa Cruz is just around the cornor, so I decided to take it easy.. Not an entirely depressing decission, since it gave me extra time with my family..

I do however have a question I would like to share with you! Before I move on I would like to stress that I do not have a stone carved answer to the question, but I would like to hear what you have to say? So here we go:

Lately there have been some fantastic achievements on the .com site. I'm thinking about Rhabdo's and Speal's "fran times, but there have been others as well! These are fantastic achievements and I am genuinly impressed with these efforts, full ROM or not, these are kick ass achievements!

My question however is aimed more at those striving towards someday achieving such feats!

When you have an athlete who is doing a WOD, and the athlete has to rest to gain composure, breath, focus etc. before continuing the WOD, do you recommend that the athlete takes ie. 3 deep breaths and then continue, or do you recommend a slightly longer rest so that more reps can be done before the athlete has to rest again, or finnish the WOD?

Do you see where I am going? Would you rather that the athlete takes a slightly longer rest and as a consequense of this is able to do more reps, or do you push the athlete to rest less and risk that the athlete has to rest sooner?

Lately I have been experimenting with both, and found that the results vary from individual to individual, and from day to day, from WOD to WOD and is also depending on what time of day it is!

What are your own personal experiences? What are you experiences from client to client etc- please share..

For now that is all folks, until next time

Much love

Mads

Ps.. the picture... early days, how many people can you name?

To sub or not to sub- that is the question!

I have been called a "square" on many occations, and not always wrongly so. This means that I have been reluctant to substitute exercises and do WOD's that were not posted on the .com site. The exception being when I have been doing the programming myself, or following the expert programming of someone else, but then I have always strived towards actually doing the WOD's as perscribed!

These days however I find myself caught between a rock and a hard place! On the one side I want to follow the WOD's posted on the .com site. On the other hand I have to listen to my body in order to recover from the afore mentioned injuries. The last 3 days have been taxing that way! If nothing else I hope I will eventually become a better man for having to use the inside of my head and not just charge into the WOD's and tear something again??

Monday:
I had to come up with a combo of my own:
Overhead squat 50kg
HSPU
9/1- 8/2- 7/3- 6/4- 5/5- 4/6- 3/7- 2/8- 9/1
Time 11:48
Once again not a breath taking accomplishment, but nothing hurt afterwards

Tuesday:
The guilt of not having done Cindy on monday nagged me all monday and all tuesday, so I decided to go for it:
5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats
AMRAP in 20 minutes
Score 17 rounds- every rep legit!
A far cry from my best performance, and I felt the need for improved cardio all the way through the WOD. My wrists and knee hurt like hell afterwards. For some odd reason though I felt like I had made up for the previous days "Cheat".. Wise or not? That remains to be seen!

Wednesday:
I saw the WOD on the .com site and immidiately felt an urge to do the WOD. It is a fantastic WOD and I have a strange love for squat cleans and ring dips, at the same time as I have improved my double unders dramatically, so I really wanted to hit this one hard.
However- my knees were killing me from Cindy the day before, so there was no way I dared do this one, and doing it half way was just not an option, so I decided on:

Deadlifts:
1- 1- 1- 1- 1-
100kg- 120kg- 140kg- 150kg- 160kg
I guess I should just be happy that my hip felt ok, but I still feel guilty for not doing todays WOD.

The need to be wise!
I am not sure if my current situation of having to nurse injuries have propelled me into the discussions I have been getting into lately, however I feel that I need to make a point!

I often meet people how are fantastic athletes and avid crossfitters, who seem to think that every single WOD is a competition, and the need to better past performances is the only objective. They will substitube exercises they do not completely master in a WOD just to make sure they are not slowed down during the execution of the WOD.
They will sacrifice technique in squats, deadlifts, shoulder presses, push presses, push jerks etc. just to make sure that the score/weight is better than the one they recorded the last time they did the WOD.
Needless to say the objective should always be to improve from one WOD to the next, and to evolve as an athlete, and I will be the first to cheer for a faster "Fran" time, and celebrate a new PR squat- I just dont think it should be achieved through a thick skull and some borderline lethal effort, but through a combination of improved technique and the increased strength that comes along with said techniqual improvement!

First of all the borderline effort, based on poor technique and a skull thick enough to stop a magnum (not to mention the instances where the reps are just not good enough to be counted!). will lead to a sudden stop in the athletes development, when no amount of stubbornness will get the athlete any further. The alternative being that the athletes seriously injures him/herself, which will make all progression impossible!
But there is an altogether more serious aspect that is not to be forgotten! CrossFit is about becoming a better athlete, and developing new skills, so sometimes you just have to take a step back, and use the WOD's to improve your skills!
If your squat is not flawless and the WOD of the day is to do squat sets of 3-often the way to a new PR is to use that WOD to improve your technique. and you may very well find yourself blasting your old PR the next time you give it a shot!

I am not trying to lash out at anyone, it just makes me geniunly sad when athletes with true potential loose themselves in the competition, and forget that in order to improve in the long run, you have to master the technique..

For now that is all, but I will be back shortly

Much love

Ps... keep an eye on www.crossfitsvea.com things are about to happen on that site... Call it a gut feeling:-)

Now add intensity!

I said I'd aim to keep the blogg alive and kicking and be back with updates as frequently as possible. The problem however is that sometimes there is just nothing to tell, and things are moving along at a steady pace- so instead of the breaking news of "fantastic feats" that you are used to- this is more of an update, so here we go!

Training has been really good lately. I have had to amove along at a very slow pace just to make sure that all the injuries I have had, would not bust open again. So I decided to sacrifice intensity and do the WOD's as rxd and see how everything responded.

Needless to say my cardio was piss poor, but that hardly came as a surprise, and the way to improve it is really basic- 3- 2- 1- GO! So in that department I have my work cut out for me!

3- 2- 1- SLOW!

Strength wise however I managed to work my way to a 5 across squat of 117,5kg without experiencing any pain during the squats or afterwards- you have no idea how good that felt!

Push press is still virtually impossible for me to do, my wrist immidiately gets swollen, och hurts.

The good news however is that I absolutely nailed the jerk! I have been feeling that it was in the making for a while but the timing has been off just a little. But I got it, owned it, tore it apart- now it is time to do it heavier and during a cardio WOD, and see if I still feel as gutsy as I do now?

In other news:-)

In 22 days I'll be going to Santa Cruz with my dear friend Micke Syd- We will be there for a week, working out at NSC, Santa Cruz and Central- gather inspiration, hang out with some of the most wondeful people in the world, learn, laugh, and just basically enjoy- I just wish more people could come along! If you have not had the chance to go to Santa Cruz yet- please start making plans, it is worth it all the way!

Rumor has it!

That in Virginia Beach a very cool cat is in the process of opening a box which will be called CrossFit Obsession!m I wish you all the luck in the world bro' and look forward to visiting with you, and seeing you in Stockholm:-)

Well folks that is all for now! It is time to add intensity to the WOD's and keep my fingers crossed that everything will hold up!

Much love

Just married....

First on a private note!

... Just got back from a couple of weeks in Thailand, during which Jenny and I got married. It was a fantastic ceremony, and we had the good fortune of having everything go exactly the way it was planned. We were kind of expecting that something would go wrong, or at least not as we planned, since this is Thailand, and past experiences have shown that just about everything can turn into a complete disaster:-) It did not! We had a fantastic day and some lifelong memories to show for it.. I feel blessed!

Onto the inevidable CrossFit part of the blogg!

Like most of you know I have been haunted by injuries lately. Just when one thing got better, another would come out of nowhere and send me back to square one. Just before we went to Thailand the status was:

1 torn knee ligament

1dislocated hip

1 broken wrist

Needless to say this forced me to modify virtually every single WOD I did, with some pretty sad results to show for my efforts. So I decided to take it easy in Thailand and just let it all rest. This does not mean that I did'nt train- it just meant that I took it easy, and did some bw WOD's instead of following the HQ WOD's.

The result came immediately when the diferent pains eased, and I felt my mobility increase almost on a daily basis. So I was pretty excited to see how it would all feel when I got back home and got back into following the HQ WOD's, and so far it has felt really good.

Yesterday I did:

Thrusters 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- 1

I got to 80kg without feeling any pain! Not a mind blowing result, but the point is that nothing hurt!

Today I did "Elizabeth"

I did the workout in something like 15min with 135 lbs. Once again not something that would put me in contention for the fittest man alive, but no pain!

I am super happy that nothing was hurting after the WOD's and it feels like the future could be bright:-) I have decided to take it super easy the next week or so before I begin adding more intensity to the WOD's, hoping that this will be the way to get better without tearing up any of the old injuries, or acquiring new ones...

For now that is all, but I a planning on keeping the blog alove again, and letting you all know how it goes. I'll be going to Santa Cruz the first week in march to train with some of the most inspirational and fantastic people in the CrossFit community, so I would really like to stay in one piece until then- who knows maybe even be in shape? We will just have to see what the future brings:-)

Much love

Mads

days 12-13-14...

As follows:-)

Day 12
"Olympic Total"
1 rep max snatch
1 rep max clean and jerk
Then 30 seconds on, 30 seconds rest, 6 rounds for total metres.

--------

Day 13
Push Press 3-3-3-3-3
Then in 5 mins;Run 200m and in the remaining time do as many 95lb thrusters as you can.
Rest 2 mins
Then in 5 mins;Run 200m and in the remaining time do as many pull ups as you can.

--------

Day 14
Front squat 10x3 reps
Do across at 90% of 3RM.

Much joy

days 8-9-10.. Karl says hi:-)

Day 8

500m row
25 ring dips
500m row
20 ring dips
500m row
15 ring dips
500m row
10 ring dips
500m row
5 ring dips

Day 9

Build up to the heaviest unbroken lift through the complex;
3 deadlift
3 hang squat clean
3 push press
3 front squat

Day 10

3 rounds of;
Run 400m
21 pull ups
12 kbell swings


Once again this just goes to show that if you are in the market for some fantastic training, but don't feel like spendign half your future heritage on airfare, all you have to do is rally on over to CrossFit Manchester....
While you are there make a point of staying at the most glamorous hotel in town.... Which one could that be?

Much love

Days 5-6-7... sorry I'm late!

I was supposed to post these days two days ago, which means that I have robbed you of the opportuninty to do the WOD's percribed by Karl for days 5 and 6. The mistake is all mine and I am so sorry about that- My suggestion is that you have these days in the back of your mind, and tey to make them up sometime in the future..

Here are the WOD's as described by the man himself:

Day 5
"The Chief"
As many rounds in 3 mins of;
3 power clean, 60kg / 40kg
6 press ups
9 squats
Rest 1 min
5 rounds.

Day 6
Run 400m
Rest 2 mins
4 rounds for time.

Day 7
For time;
Row 1000m
5 rounds of;
6 push jerk, 60kg / 40kg
25 pull ups

That is all for now, but I promise that I will not be late with posting the WOD's again..

Much love