Why do a level 1 cert?

It actually does happen that I get online, not to share some crazy rant about things that seem more or less obvious to the rest of the world, or to share some of my medioker traning results, but because I have something I just want to get of my chest! Today is one of those rare instances, so please bare with me.-)

If you are new to CrossFit the reasons to do a level 1 cert are more or less obvious- you want to learn more about the new love of your life, and you want to find out how to speed up the results that are already flowing like a river! You are learning new skills, and improving the ones you already have, at the same time as a sensation is dawning on you- With constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity, you are actually coming closer to your goals, at the same time as you are having fun with your workouts- all you want now is a thumbs up that you are actually doing things the right way! So attending a cert feels like the best way to do so!

The challenge however is to get the ones who have done CrossFit for a longer period of time, and feel like everything is going according to plan, to attend a level 1 cert! I often hear these people say that they dont feel like they need the cert, what could they possibly get out of a level 1 cert? They are already more than proficient at CrossFit and dont need to spend a large amount of money, and time on going over the basics they already master!
I will not pass any kind of judgement on these people, but I will share why I think everybody should do at least one cert!

What is CrossFit?
This could be one of the best lectures at a CrossFit cert! How often have you gotten the question: " Dude, what is CrossFit?" "Why do you do what you do?"
This is where you get the answer to the question! After you have had the pleassure of hearing for example Pat Sherwood dissect what CrossFit really is, this question will be a pleassure to answer!

Technique vs intensity!
How often have you heard that crossfitters dont care about technique, and that all we do is rush through our workouts, with no concern whatsoever to the execution of the movements we perform? It is like banging your head against the wall trying to explain that this is not the case at all, unless you have had a very thorough breakdown of the issue, by someone like Adrian Bosman. After having had the plaassure of listening to a bunch of these lectures I just love that question! I cant wait to get to explain just why it is that we try to press to the very borders of our capacity at all times, in pursuit of optimized athletic capacity

Programming!
Who does not want to know about the programming of CrossFit? At some point of your CrossFit career you will begin to program for yourself or for others. When you do so, it is a great idea to know how to avoid being the one who came up with WoD's that effectively broke down yourself and the athletes you programmed for, instead of taking them one step closer to becomming better athletes! If the above is not enough, then just wait until you have the pleassure of listening to Karl Steadman go through the basics of programming, and you will also be a believer!

The movements!
The more you talk to the superstars of CrossFit and the complete beginners, you find that they all have one thing in comon- the quest to master the basic moves!
No matter where you are at, there is still something to improve on your air squat, your push press, your med ball clean, your deadlift etc. No matter who you are these basic techniques are just never mastered!
Going over these movements at a cert will not just cast light on what you need to work on, but also give you some tools to work with when you begin to work with others!

The community!
If none of the above has gotten you hooked, this should be reason enough to do a least one cert!
When you go do a cert you will meet a bunch of other people from all over the world, and you will have no shortage of topics to discuss! we all share the same passion, and have the same intrest in CrossFit. So when you are done with the cert you will have found new friend from all over the world! I know it sounds corny and lame, but it is just the way it works! You exchange mail adresses, add each other on facebook, and suddenly the world just go a little smaller- so the next time you go to Iceland you wont just look at vulcanos and warm springs, you will go meet up with your new friends and get a couple of WoD's in..

we all have our own reasons for attending certs, or not atending certs, but if you have the chance to do a cert, dont hesitate- you will never regret it!

Why did you d a cert? Why have you not done a cert? Please do share!

Until next time

Much love

Regionals and Power Walks?

So a little more than a week has passed since the European Regional Qualifier in Halmstad, and I feel like it is time to give props to the ones who truly deserve it, and to share some thoughts about the event! I am aware that this may sound like the Oscars but please take a second to read about the reasons why this all went as smoothly as it did, and give props to the people who made i possible!

It is also time to give air to another one of these crazy rants that have become the signature mark for blog.-)

Props first!

Eleiko!
I would like to thank Eleiko for letting us use their facility, and their equipment for the event. It is a blessing to be able to provide the absolute best equipment in the world, to the athletes who compete in an event that will eventually send the top european athletes to what is essentially the Crossfit World Championships. Eleiko were kind enough to let us man-handle their equipment in ways I am not entirely sure they thought possible, at the same time as they made us all feel at home at the Eleiko Sport Center! I hope Eleiko were as pleased to have us there as we were to be there, and I hope that the future will hold a close friendship between CrossFit and Eleiko.

Athletes!
It is not often that I have had the pleassure of meeting as many fantastic athletes as I did during the weekend in Halmstad! There was a possitive air about every single athlete that I met during the weekend, that I dont think I have ever encountered outside the CrossFit community! Everyone gave their absolute best at every single challenge, and once they had finished their challenge, they immidiately began cheering for the other athletes, making sure that everyone felt equally important, and that no effort was ignored, or concieved as less important! Those of you who saw the place go crazy when Erla fought it out on the last challenge, or when Jane struggled with the double unders, or when Sam busted out the clean and jerks, or when Blair stepped on the gas in the 3rd challenge, the list goes on- but those of you who saw that know exactly what I mean! Every single athlete gave their all, and everyone cheered for their nearest competitors and for every effort they saw!
It is a pleassure to witness this kind of sportmanship, and this kind of caring- I would like to thank every single one of you for this- from the bottom of my heart - Thank you!

Judges/officials!
I have had the pleassure of browsing on the internet after the event, and even recieved a couple of emails from participants, and spectators, who all thought the event was fantastic! My name has been mentioned on a couple of occations, and I am thankful for that. The truth however is that the success of the event lies entirely with the judges and the officials who made the event possible. Without these firebreathers who stood out in the rain, who kept the standards high, and spent every second of the entire weekend on making everything go as smoothly as possible, this would not have been possible! They were focused and did a tremendous job! They are the true heroes behind the success of the Qualifier!
It is easy to make all the best plans in the world but to take these plans from paper to reality is the true challenge! Without you, that simply would not have been possible.
I would like to give a special thank you to Martin Altemark who was the man behind making sure the whole thing went according to CrossFit standards at the same time as making sure that the schedule behind every single heat was kept. I would also like to give special thanks to Erik, Rickard and Einar who were the on site judges responsible for the organization in every heat, making sure that the right equipment was in the right spots, and that the judges were where they were supposed to be- thank you!

All in all!
The event was a success and we will see if we will get the chance to do it all over again? I truly hope so, but only time will tell! I honestly think that the athletes who will be going to the Games to represent Europe are the best athletes we had at the qualifier! The athletes who made it to the podium are well rounded athletes capable of performing well no matter what the challenge put in front of them will be. I honestly look forward to seeing how they do at the Games, and promise to keep my fingers crossed for them every step of the way, as I am sure everyone else on this side of the pond will:-)

Now for the promised rant- it is a lighter version of whay you may have read in the past, but I guess I am getting soft!

The sun has come out in Stockholm, and reminded us all that summer is just around the cornor! For some of us, all this means is that we can begin to do our runs outdoors, and that we now have spectators following athletes into the box after they return from the run on "Helen" or "Murph" etc.
To others this means that it is time to go to their favorite sports apparel supplier and stock up on some very expensive running shoes, skins, wristbands, camel backs, etc. and begin to power walk!
I see these people every day walking around looking like they are on their way to the olympics, super focused and a constant eye on the pluse clock (that is a must to the power walker) at speeds that are virtually non existant! I am baffeled at this complete lack of understanding of intensity, and complete waste of time! The energy spend on hours worth of power walking is easily less than what is expended during the warm-up at our box! So what is it these people want to achieve? fat loss? increased cardio vascular capacity? you tell me!
The truth is that all the god stuff comes with intensity (thank you mr Sherwood/Coach) and since intensity is nowhere to be found in a power walk, what is it these people think they are going to get?

A point could be made that is is better that they power walk than do nothing at all, and I agree with that to some degree. I mean if you have decided to care for your health and take active meassures towards increassing your quality of life and health, is this really the best you could come up with? Why not immidiately go for an activity that will actually work and pay dividends within a foreseeable future?
What would you say to a doctor who decided to give you a medication that was going to stop the illness, when you knew that the cure was lying in his other pocket and all you had to to was reach for it?

I dont know, I may be wrong, it has happened before- but please do share your thoughts!

Until next time

Much love

Northern European Sectional in Stockholm!

So a couple of days have past since the Northern European Sectional in Stockholm, and it is time to gather thoughts and impressions from the event! So here we go!

Programming:
This had me wondering at first! Where were the chest to bar pull ups for women? They were right there for the taking from the mens WoDs? Why were there less HSPU for the women than for the men? There were a couple of questions like that, but they were put shame once the event got on the way!
The programming was briliant, and everyone had to fight to get through the WoDs! Noone got an easy day at the office in any WoD, or were presented a task virtually impossible to overcome! In the cases where where athletes fell at the hands of the time limit- I feel sure the reasons have to be found somewhere else than in the programming!
Double unders combined with Kettlebell thrusters and HSPU- I bet that one just creeped up under the skin of the athletes! Target burpees after box jumps and lunges- I bet that one just bit you in the proverbial ass:-)
All together very happy with the programming!

The event:
You just have to love the spectators at these events! They gave their all cheering on every single athlet outthere! Whether he/she was from their box or not. Whether he/she was goiong to make it or not? Whether they were winning or not? Nothing like that seemed to matter to the spectators who show up at these events! Everyone was cheered on from the begining to the very end with the same enthusiasm and deep felt respect! It warms my heart to see this and I just hope that it will always be like this at CrossFit events!
The event itself was as always very well organized, and went down like I would imagine CrossFit Sthlm wanted it to. It is often forgotten how hard it is to make these things work-and when you dont think about it, then that is because everything went the way it was supposed to!
Fighter Centre and CrossFit Sthlm have hosted certs, workshops, tournaments etc for years, and the experience gained from these events was displayed in all its might this weekend- everything went like clockwork.......swiss clockwork!

The athletes:
You have to love an event that is won by a swedish judoka- chased by some seriously dangerous danes, followed by a finish athlete who used to compete in aerobics, and competes in Superman briefs!
I wish I could tell you that the crowd that competed at the sectional were all hard core crossfitters, but the truth is that they came from all walks of life, and the only thing they shared was their love for CrossFit, and their desire to compete! They did a fantastic job displaying their athleticism and what CrossFit truly is- fighting hard, and cheering on their closest competitors! I have a feeling that even the ones that bet the dust felt like they had succeded!

Impressions:
Where did they ever find the Danish crowd? Fantastic Athletes and some of the most devoted crossfitters I have ever met! They cheered one everyone and made everyone feel equally wellcome- thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Where does "Sasha" get his stubbornes and power from! Any and every regular spine should have broken from the reps he performed this weekend- still he tossed the weight around like it was paper wheights! He got a "no go" on probably a million reps, but still just kept going until victory was his... It is like looking at robocop! WOW!

What is the substance in the water in Finland? Somewhere outhere in the woods there is a source of -never say die attitude- and athletic ability, that I would just love to find! Every athlete from Finland had it in abundance this weekend!

I know I am not the neutral observer I pretend to be- but where does Jenny Jacobsen get it from? She was truly impressive during the entire event! Not only did she win in a very convincing fashion in every event- she is graceful in doing so! Immidiately after finishing her WoD she is cheering on her competitors. Not once did I hear her complain about a decision made by a judge, or a score calculation.. She embodies what this is all about, and I hope she makes it to the Games- CrossFit needs more people like her!
Be sure to buy her T-shirt coming out in April, and support her way to the Games:-)





All in all it was a great event with some very impressive feats from the athletes... I look forward to seeing as lot of these faces in Halmstad at the regionals:-)

Much love

Mads

A new box and some OPT!

There has been a buzz about it for a while, and a few initiated individuals have been in the loop about it- still noone has been really sure, or known 100%.... So let me be the one to bust the bubble, or at least let a little air out of it!

We will be opening a box virtually on Odenplan in Stockholm!

Within a very near future the doors will open to Stockholms first pure bred CrossFit box. The final details are being put in place and I promise to return as soon as I know more- But for now let us just conclude that we will be able to work out at our box very soon! We are talking weeks!

The second part of todays entry does'nt really feel as important after the above, but it still needs to be reported! After getting back from the cert in Basel, it was time to get back to working out! Everyone else had had a monstreous weekend, with near death experiences perscribed by OPT! So I was happy to see that OPT had decided to take it resonably easy, for the workout that turned out the be my first post cert experience!


A. Back Squat @ 30X0; 1,1,1,1; rest 240 sec
B. Tabata Push Ups - low score - 4 sets only
C. AMRAP Double Unders in 2 min
D. GHD Sit Ups - 20 x 2

post loads and notes to comments
back squat is not for 1RM, just challenging but confident 1's
make push ups reps extra perfect

A- 140kg. performed in sneakers but still felt solid. Could I be getting stronger?
B- 13- I was aiming for 20, but had to fight to get 13 on the last set!
C- 20.. Ugly as hell! I will never be teh double under master, but this needs to get better:-)
D- check! Jocke from CrossFit Uppsala helped me MacGyver a great GHD contraption!

It was not the hardest WoD in the world but it felt good to get back in this fashion, and I know that is is only a matter of time before the MAN begins to bully my poor body again:-)

Until next time

Much love

Level 1 in Basel and a workout!

It has been a jumbled weekend, and I am not sure where to begin?

The cert in basel was an asolute blast! Even though we had the bad fortune of loosing the miracle men from Denmark on the finish line. Klaus got injured and Oliver got ill just before the cert, and had to stay at home- I hope they both get well in a hurry, since the certs are always a lot more fun when these two gentlemen are there! They are fantastic trainers, and truly inspirational to be around. They really are some of the best CrossFit have to offer! Guys get well!

The crew consisted of Courtney, Karl, EC, Chuck, Sebastian, Big E and yours truly! It is always a pleassure to get to hang out with Karl and Courtney, and this cert was no exception to the rule! Chuck and EC came over the pond, to make sure it all went down right! Chuck is pretty much the mayor of CrossFit (according to EC) and working with him gives everyone a sense of calm that is hard to explain! Everything just comes together, at the same time as we have a lot of fun. I have not had the pleassure of working with EC before, but I hope we will see a lot more of her in Europe- She is an absolute blast to be around, and needless to say a fantastic trainer! Xena rules!
Sebastian and Big E, were interns for the first time, and I just hope they had a great time, and felt welcome- they truly are!

The crew at CrossFit Basel had really gone to great lengths to make sure that this cert would be the best it could be for the participants and trainers! They had gotten a great building that we used for the lectures! The place was very large and gave everyone the best possible chans to get the most out of the lectures!
For the practical part of the cert they had gotten a hold of a huge gymnasium/gym that looked like it could host a premier league soccer match, along with all the equipment you could ever ask for! As if this was not enough they had gotten a bunch of people to help out at the cert- and these people were magical- they made virtually anything happen!
Our hosts had also gotten a hold of Paleo kits, which coiuld be bought at very favorable prices! Heaven here we come! Could it get any better than that!
CrossFit Basel, my hat is of to you for making this cert very memorable! "Like clockwork.... swiss clockwork!" "These people dont mess around.. they get the job done:-)".. Just some of the quotes I heard this weekend!

Of course we also had to work out while we were there, and we always try to use the equipment that we do not have access to in our boxes at home! This time it was ropes! I dont have access to ropes at the box at home, and since they had some very long ropes, we just had to use them!
So someone came up with the following workout:

5 rounds of
10 40kg OHS
2 rope climbs

I have no clue what time I got, but it was a grueling WoD! My grip absolutely left me after the first couple of rounds! The rope was a lot longer than I am used to so I had to spend more time on the rope than I usually do.. Good times! At least I ended up without burns on hands and feet! I cant help wondering how Karl is doing today?

Now I am back in town, back to the OPT programming, and working on the thing that will rock Stockholm within a very near future......? What could it possibly be:-)

Much love

another two days!

I am sorry that I have been really bad at keeping everyone posted on my poor results, it is not because I have not been training, I have just been VERY busy with a bunch of other things that have taken virtually all my time.. I will be able to tell you more about it later!
So this will be another one of these short recaps;

Jan 10th 2010
Training:
A. Clean Grip Power Snatch @ 12X1; 2-3 x 5; rest 180 sec
B1. Snatch Grip Dead Lift @ 30X0; 4-6 x 3; rest 10 sec
B2. KBS @ 1010; 10-15 x 3; rest 10 sec
B3. GHD Back Extensions @ 2010; 12-20 x 3; rest 180 sec
C. Tabata Push Ups - low score


A- 40kg- 50kg- 50kg- 50g- 50kg
B1- used 80kg, a bit on the light side, but I had no time to change the weight in the 10 sec rest! poor exuse but true!
B2- KBS 32kg 12 straight through, broke the last set, since my grip was killing me:-)
B3- What do you say- these sucked:-)
C- 7...... I was aiming for 11, and just died on the last two sets!

I just love OPT, even if I am fully aware that this is just the strength part before he unleashes the metcon hounds of hell on us!

I just thought I'd share a picture I got from my friends at Cross Gym in Milan Italy! It is taken at the lunch time workout I did at the cert there! CrossGym Milan is a fantastic gym , and the guys who run it are the nicest people ever- so if you are ever in Milan make sure to drop by and get a workout out with them!
Just make sure to bring the big wallet! Once you see the gear they have you are going to go crazy on a shoping spree-)

Just to answer eventual questions right of the bat-- Th epicture is not taken in the bottom of the squat, I am on my way up:-)

Much love!

Torn up hands!! and some numbers!

Yesterday was a very special day, because it was the first time I'd ever get to do two OPT workouts in one day! I have heard horrible stories about how this man messes you up on these two workout days- so I was looking forward to seeing what the workouts would be, and how it would feel!
I was going into this little adventure with a small handicap though- a couple of days when we did the pull up ladder, I tore up my hands a bit. I have been nursing them in every way imaginable sine then, but they are not really ok yet.. hmmm!

The first workout of he dday was:

Training:
part 1:
A. as many 1-5 ladders in 10 min - 225#/155# back squat; rest 5 min
B. BB jump squats - 30% of 1RM back squat; 6 sets of 6 reps; rest 60 sec b/t sets
C. GHD Sit ups - 5 sets of 20 reps; rest 45 sec b/t sets
rest 8+ hours

Results:

A- 3 ladders + 1
B- 42,5 kg
C- first two set un broken, after that I broke the sets into 10+10!

I was actually pretty happy with this! I have not done back squats in a while, so I had no clue what to expect! But this is where the fun stopped for the day! I was supposed to rest 8+ hours, but there was no way I could get back to the gym later, or get that kind of intervall! So I rested 20 min and got back to work!
The second workout was a double under/ pull up combo! So during the rest I began warming up! The problem was that after a couple of pull ups my hands tore again, and I fould myself slipping in blood on the bar.. Hmm what do I do now! I then decided that I should row as far as I could in the 45 sec intervalls, and then do double unders! The same thing happened there though. My hands bled and I had a hard time getting a decent grip- now what do I do?
Since I am hopeless at double unders I decided that I should do 5 sets of 10 unbroken double unders for time. This is a horrible task for someone as inproficient at double unders as I am, here is how that went:

First 10 done at 2:45
second done at 3:48
third done at 5:49
fourth done at 11:52- imagine the frustration!
fifth done at 15:00

It was a workout of mixed emotions! I was a good workout altoghther, and the first part felt great, the second however was nothing like what I would have liked it to be, but I sure got to work on my weak sides!

Just really looking forward to getting back to the gym today!

Much love