My response to the message thread on robbwolf.com entitled "The Black Box Summit Or How I Got Fired from the CrossFit Nutrition Certification"

CrossFit is currently experiencing it's biggest controversy so far, at least on-line. Fallout from the Black Box summit, and the evident firing of Robb Wolf from teaching the nutrition cert has sparked some lively debate:


Robb Wolf on Being Fired from Nutrition Cert

Greg Everett on what happened

Russel Berger on what happened

A rather balanced analysis of what happened

A very interesting take on what happened/is happening

I meant to write a brief, concise post on Robb's blog about this. Brevity, alas, is not my strong suit, and since writing it I had a few thoughts that I wished to include. Here is my opinion for any who care, for the record.

My response to the message thread on robbwolf.com entitled "The Black Box Summit Or How I Got Fired from the CrossFit Nutrition Certification" (edited for clarity)

I have now read all 425 plus comments that came before this, and all of the source material.

I am an affiliate owner (CrossFit East Bay in Oakland CA) and I know or have met many of the principals here. Greg Glassman changed my life, and while I don't revere him as anything more than a fitness visionary, it is, to me, frankly ridiculous how little credit some people are giving him. I will post below his best response to such misunderstandings. For once, I largely agree with Barry Cooper, above.

I am a bit older (43) and have been into fitness since the 1980s. I used to read every fitness magazine I could get my hands on for, I guess, decades. I NEVER saw anything remotely like CF. I never heard of a double-under, a muscle-up, a kipping pull-up, a dynamax ball (or wall-ball), a thruster, a kettlebell, the zone diet, paleo, IF, tabata, etc etc etc. I was vaguely aware that rings existed and that these weird guys in tights lifted huge funny looking weights in the Olympics, and that a rower existed, but it never occurred to me to use these things. I never saw anything remotely like Fight Gone Bad, and I challenge anyone to point me to something like FGB that pre-dates CrossFit. When I discovered CF in 03 or 04 it sounded interesting, and I dabbled, but not until I trained with Josh and Keith at CFNYC Black Box, the 18th affiliate, was my mind blown.

As I said I am a bit older, and have an administration background as well. I am familiar with internecine disputes, and have mediated many. I am disappointed in what I am seeing here from all sides. There is a whole lot of dick-measuring and airing of grievances, old and new, going on. While there may have been some pent-up feeling that needed to be discharged, it has been done, the issues are out there, and, as an affiliate owner and member of this community I ask that we take a deep breath and dial it back a notch on all sides.

This community has experienced explosive growth, and I think it is silly to pretend there are no issues associated with that growth. As a community we have added, are adding, quality on the individual affiliate and regional level daily. It is questionable as to whether HQ is keeping up with or taking advantage of all of the great stuff that is coming out of our open-source fitness model. Simply put, there are some potential, or actual, quality issues. A med ball clean might not be the best progression to the clean. Teaching someone with zero experience how to snatch with a PVC pipe does not prepare them optimally to teach the snatch. The explanation that it is impractical to use barbells with so many people does not hold water. Inconvenient, yes, expensive, yes. Impractical, no. It is possible that the current programming template of .com could be improved. I'm not suggesting I know how, but this is fitness, not religion, and blind allegiance to the .coms is against the spirit of CrossFit. To quote Greg Glassman speaking to me personally: "the next big innovation in CrossFit will come from outside of my intuition". It is clear that a whole foods diet is healthier than Zoning Pringles, Coors Lite and Skirt steak (personally I think zone/paleo + milk is the way to go). The level 1 Cert is not as valuable a product as it was when Coach taught them himself (I have been to both versions). The .com only to prepare for the games is not optimal unless one already has perfect balance in all 10 areas of fitness. Even then training once a day to prepare for a multi-day multi-event competition would be insanity.

Recently one of my athletes started training the O-lifts with Greg Everett. This forced me to recognize that what I had learned so far in CF regarding the O-lifts was demonstrably inferior (but still an order of magnitude better than what I knew before CF, i.e. zilch). I admitted my sub-optimal teaching to my athletes and we are now working on improving our O-lifts, but not at the expense of GPP or not following a .com-like template.

Greg Glassman and CrossFit have given us all an incredible gift, for which I am truly thankful, but they have started a wildfire which cannot be easily managed or neatly compartmentalized. That does not have to be a bad thing. Another local product, eBay, was also started on a wing and a prayer - basically not even a beta product thrown out there. Subsequently, the owners started reacting to every piece of feedback they received and built a killer app. Their community base is the basis of their success and they jealously build, guard and protect it. CrossFit should do the same. Listen. Grow. Evolve.

I know Greg Glassman and I believe in him as a businessman, fitness visionary and really just a good down-to-earth guy. I have had my issues with HQ and I know this is not the kindest, gentlest organization on earth, but given what we do doesn't that make a certain amount of sense?

Now goddammit! Let's chalk to the elbows and get back to working out!

See you in the garage.

Maximus Bernard Lewin
Owner, Lead Trainer
CrossFit East Bay
info@crossfiteastbay.com
510.910.2919

Post thoughts to comments.

Strengthening the Chain

Back in March, after the first NorCal Throwdown CFEB attended at Diablo CrossFit, I wrote this post: "I Am The Weakest Link".

I identified a lack of conditioning and bad body composition as the culprits.

10 weeks of intense training later, Team CFEB and I are at an order of magnitude higher of conditioning, and it seems, personally, every I time I touch a barbell lately I get a PR. Did I mention I'm pushing 43?

Our conditioning was evident at the CF1W Throwdown yesterday, where we won by a nose. In the first event we screwed up our strategy a bit and were behind on the 800 meter 100# sandbag carry. All three of us (Andy, Alex, Me) passed the slowest guy on their team: personally, while the other teams were wearing out, I had what it took to go faster and faster at the end. On the second event, which involved running with a barbell overhead, only Andy and I were able to overhead 195 pounds which contributed to our victory.

Also lately CFEB records are falling left and right and many of us are setting PRs frequently: this is more impressive as I am not talking about beginners, but long-time athletes. I have deadlifted 400, overhead squatted 195, strict pressed a 71 pound kettlebell, hit new metcon PRs, and as above we won the latest throwdown.

Torquemada has convinced me somewhat reluctantly not to publicize our training but I will say this:

It is not the .coms.
It is most certainly pure CrossFit
It is unconventional
It improves teamwork
It recognizes individual differences
It falls on the outside of the typical CF time domain
It is somewhat high volume
It relys on, rather than strength bias, weakness bias. Figure that one out and you will start making huge progress, I guarantee it.

I am no longer the weakest link.

Mental Fitness

I am continuing to improve in my ability to recognize and interrupt negative-self talk and replace it with, as I have heard it said "a different conversation with myself". Interestingly this started as a purely athletic pursuit but it is starting to bleed over into other areas of my life.

I'm resolving to recognize and interrupt all negative self-talk in all areas of my life and replace them with positive and/or useful messages. There is of course a balance, I don't want to become blind to my shortcomings or Pollyanna-ish. for the moment there is no such danger.

I'm working on being able to create the emotional and physical components of successful performance on short notice. All of my recent workouts have been excellent. I turned a moment of doubt into a new PR yesterday: 185#x2 Overhead Squat at a bodyweight of 188#. I'm calling that a double bodyweight squat.

I figured out the kipping HSPU yesterday as well, and was able to get 4 in a row in the WOD.

Today I rowed 1K and I found myself thinking/saying "I don't know if I can hold this pace" at one point. I instantly recognized it and replaced it with "I CAN I MUST I WILL" for the remainder of the row - 3:37 and I ended strong. Happy with it.

I also worked on my snatch form. I got 125# but anything over 115# is with some fairy awful form. I used the Mid-Atlantic Qualifier form, in the video, above, yes I know there is an error in it.

FitDay

Track everything you eat and all of your activity with easy to use software.

This is the best nutrition tracking software out there, and version 2 just came out.

Anabolic Diet Day 13

Dec 30 weight: 193.5 pounds @ 21% bodyfat lean mass 153.25#
Jan 05 weight: 188.5 pounds @ 19% bodyfat, lean mass 153#
Jan 12 weight: 185.5 pounds @ 18.5%153# lean mass

8500 calorie deficit so this is very close to what it should be, anything lost from this point on will not be water weight.

2.00 pounds: bodyfat
0.25 pounds: muscle
1.00 pounds: water

Not much measurement change from my data-point sites (little bit lost from "love handle" area and hips), but as in past, I seem to lose weight elsewhere first (arms, chest legs) before I can make a dent in the mid-section. Satisfactory.

Workout:

For time 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 rep rounds of:
Virtual shoveling [wmv] [mov]
Pull-ups

With an Olympic bar holding only one plate (men use 45 pound plate, women use 25 pound plate), touch the plate on one side of the barrier then the other for one "rep." Barrier is 24."

C2B pull-ups, 36:30, brutal.

OHS 15-5-5-5

115-155-155-155-155


Calories: 2100
Protein 183
Carb 69
Fact 117
Negative caloric deficit 656

Anabolic Induction Day 3

Since I have done Atkins recently with a disastrous rebound effect: 180>171>195, I do have an idea of what I can tolerate carb-wise. 30 grams a day is going to leave me in a weakened condition, 50 will keep me in mild ketosis without the punishing effect of ultra-low carb, especially as I am on a fairly severe hypocaloric regimen.

Workout:

5 miles Biking HUGE hills, fixed gear

WOD

"2009"

1 200m run uphill
1 200m run downhill
20 sit-ups
10 push-ups
9 burpees, collect token

5 rounds in 19:11

5 miles Biking hills, fixed gear

Food:

Protein 158
Carb 49
Fat 106

Calories: EXACTLY 1801!
Negative calorie balance = 1900

It will be interesting to see how the lifting goes tomorrow: If I cannot improve I might start drinking a "Blue Thunder" during/after lifting sessions (35 g carb .5 maltodextrin/.5 sugar; 35 gram protein. Hopefully this will not be neccessary.

Paleokit 2

I contacted the maker of the awesome Paleokit. It turns out it is Steve Liberati the owner of Steve's Club. If you don't know what this is, check it out here. He is setting up an affiliate program and I plan on joining.

Workout:

5 Rounds For Time:

Back Squat 135#, 15 reps
Deadlift 185#, 15 reps

Time: 18:14

I created this one, and it is only OK, very hard on the low back which makes it hard to really get roaring. I'm going to play around with this one, it has potential.

Protein: 170 g
Carb: 65 g

Negative Calorie Balance = 600

Max Effort

I have been watching "the boys" over at Ironworks lift a lot lately. All of them have over 500# Squat and Deadlift, and are working on, or can do better than 600# on both.

I gave a shot at stubborn dont-give-up lifting just like they do today. Reasonably pleased with this, my first heavy day in a while.

Workout:

500 M Row

Back Squat 5-5-5
225-245-255

Deadlift 5
365 (fail 3 reps)

Deadlift rack pull 5
495

Hang Clean 3-3-3-3-3
135-135-135-145-145

Max Effort C2B Pull-Up
14 reps

Max Effort Close Grip Dead-Hang Pull-up
7 Reps

Food:

Protein: 190

Carb: 110

Negative Calorie Balance = 700

Very satisfied with today.

My Homie Pavel

Possibly the greatest video ever, which I found over at River City Physical Culture.

Yesterday was a wash. Neither good nor bad.

Protein: 210

Carbs: 150 (fail)

Negative calorie balance = 50 (fail)

One thing I have forgotten over the years of CF/Zoneing: for heavy weight workouts, the Zone prescription is NOT ENOUGH! After 3 days of high protein eating/ heavy weight training, I am clearly stronger and more muscular, also I have hardly gotten sore! While it to early to say, I feel a bit less fat as well. I'm sure this is psychological. I have also been taking fish oil, 1G per day.

Finally the Naproxin (Alleve) seems to be helping with my elbow: This is day 3 of the quadruple dose Frank Moreno RN recommended for me to help with my climbers elbow. If I could start climbing hard again I would be ecstatic!

I'm pretty excited to hit the weights today, and hopefully get 14+ C2B pull-Ups.

081216

Yesterday (081215)

Protein 195 grams
Carbs 100 grams

Negative Calorie Balance = 900

Workout:

400 meter run

Overhead Squat 15-5-5-5

105 (fail, 9 reps)

135 (fail)

at this point I re-evaluated my set-up with the help of Tom, who had just deadlifted 525 2x, so you gotta figure he knows a thing or two, right? I got properly set up

135 (easy)

135x6, could have done way more.

Bench Press 5-5-5

195-195-195

Jump-Start

Former and, hopefully, future glory

---

My training and diet have been quite mediocre lately. No new PRs since my 309 Fight Gone Bad, which was months ago, although I did well on "The 42" on my birthday. My body comp (and strength to weight ratio) have really backslid. Combined with a nagging elbow injury, this has taken my muscle-up from 7 to 0.

Anyway, I have decided to make my New Year's resolution early and clean up my act.

I'm giving a variation of the Zone Diet that I have been thinking about for a while a shot:

30/25/45 F/C/P

Caloric deficit of 800 calories a day with about 200 grams of protein.

Workout Schedule (six week micro-cycle):

Monday
OHS 15-5-5-5
Bench Press 5-5-5
Climb

Tuesday
CF Metcon (Cherry Pick)

Wednesday
Off

Thursday
Back Squat
5-5-5
Hang Clean
3-3-3
Deadlift
5

Friday
CF Metcon (Cherry Pick)

Saturday
CF Main WOD (rest if rest day)

Sunday
Off

One thing which has retarded my progress of late (besides being injured) is a seeming inability to hit the national WODs with anything less than blistering intensity, even though in my deconditioned state I have gotten overtrained multiple times by doing so, leading to a lack performance gain. This is a bit of an odd paradox and I wonder if other experienced CF'rs experience it: I have been at this long enough that even in a deconditioned state, I seem to have residual "crossfitness" that enables me to hit the WODs harder than I should.

I have experienced the above twice recently "Mr. Joshua" with a weighted vest (bad idea) and the recent

3 Rounds For time

50 Box Jump
21 185# Deadlifts
30 Pull-Up

I'm rather apprehensive about the Games WOD

Five rounds for time of:
275 pound Deadlift, 5 reps
10 Burpees

It seems these Deadlift ones are the real killers for me, not because I am weak in the DL, but rather because I'm strong enough to hurt myself with them, but not fit enough to recover?

Byer's Gets Discipline

I'm cross-posting an interesting blog entry from Melissa Byers' blog "Byers Gets Diesel" which comes out of an online conversation between us.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Confessions of a CrossFit hussy
First, let me just say that after killing myself in yesterday's WOD... things just HURT. It started to hit me last night, which did not bode well for today. Thank Oprah it's a rest day, because I'm pretty sure I'm not good for anything else right now.

Continuing from Tuesday’s post, where I discussed leaving “Noviceland” and all those regularly scheduled PRs behind…

Confession: In the past, I’ve been a bit of a PR slut. I would do anything to be able to tack those two letters on to the end of something. So at the end of my workout, despite being mentally and physically spent, I’d invariably load up the bar with a few extra pounds and try to pull one more rep, just to say I did. Even on days where I was supposed to be working straight sets across, I’d almost always finish off with a new 1RM attempt. It just felt GOOD to be able to say that I pulled a new PR. And it’s oh-so-tempting to toss just one more plate on the bar and give it a go.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way, because I see other people stretching to put those letters on lots of different things. We’ve claimed “PR for reps” or “PR for sets”, for example. But where does it end? Is there a “PR for rest” – I moved the same weight, but I rested less between each set? Can I claim a PR for a brand new workout – I’ve never done it before, so it’s a “PR by default”? I recognized that my PR motivations were starting to get out of hand. And it wasn’t long before these cheap and dirty workout one-night-stands were actually weakening my form, jacking up my programming and steadily pushing me down the path to injury.

I realized that I’m not doing myself any favors by whoring myself out to these two little letters. For one, if I’m supposed to work a 5x5 and instead work a 4x5 and a single, I’m shorting myself four whole reps and a whole lot of weight. Two, I’m also not getting better at these exercises by sacrificing practice with good form in favor of hitting a sloppy 1RM attempt. And three, throwing in these haphazard PR attempts often resulted in failure, which only made me MORE determined when it came time for the next day’s (unscheduled and ill-advised) attempt. Can you say “overtraining” and “injury”?

And yet CrossFit expects – no, demands – 100% effort and intensity… which should translate to frequent PR attempts, right? I mean, “100%” IS “max effort”, which means in my overachieving, perfectionist little brain, CrossFit WANTS me to shoot for a PR every day. But that just sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Not to mention that pulling single reps day in and day out isn’t the most effective path to strength, skill, and balanced fitness. So given what I believe is a CrossFit paradox, how am I supposed to reconcile the “intensity” that is demanded of us (and is synonymous with setting PRs) with the “perfect practice” required to build strength, improve form and increase skill? I decided to ask Max Lewin of CrossFit East Bay for some advice. Here is an excerpt from our discussion.

_____

BYERS: Okay, so am I really supposed to shoot for a PR EVERY time I hit a workout?

LEWIN: This is not really possible, or many of us would be superhuman by now. How often you can hit PRs depends on where you fall on the continuum of genetic potential versus genetic actualization. If you are a beginner, far, far away from your genetic potential, gains come easy and hitting PRs every time is not out of the question. The closer you get to your genetic potential, the harder it is to hit PRs. As solid intermediates, we should be trying to hit some PRs, perhaps one every few weeks, depending on how long we have been doing it. Of course one good way to hit new PRs is to try something new, and be back at the bottom of the food chain.

BYERS: Okay, so maybe I can’t hit a PR every day, but CrossFit says I’m supposed to go after every workout at 100%. If I’m going for high intensity in every workout, when do I get the chance to just PRACTICE these movements?

LEWIN: First, it is impossible to give 100% effort to every single workout. Second, one excellent scheme that allows practice in the context of CF is two or three weeks at full intensity and the third and/or fourth week at 1/2 volume. Using light weights, reduced volume, intentional reduced speed or all three allows for practice. Also, if you are not practicing the movements with light weight/speed/intensity before the workouts, you ought to be. Pretty much every time.

We should all keep in mind that it is no virtue to pound through a workout as fast as possible at any cost. That way lies injury, a lack of coordinational improvement, poor form, decreased efficiency, and, generally, less than full range of motion. This last point is important. A lack of full ROM automatically equals less work volume and makes no sense, if full ROM is possible. This is so often simply ego, or a desire to move as quickly as possible. If you deadlift 300# but can only stand up to 90% of full extension, you might as well have lifted 270# with perfect form and full extension. The amount of work is exactly the same, it is safer and those who understand will be much more impressed with a beautiful maximal lift than a heavy ugly one. My favorite quote of all time from Coach Glassman on full ROM: "I ran a three-minute mile, but it was only half a mile".

_____

In summary:

* Perfect practice can live in harmony with high intensity
* Max efforts should be included, but in a structured fashion
* Check your ego at the door
* Follow the path of virtuosity

More on my conversation with Max later this week, as he had some more great advice about setting goals and structuring a strength-based program. And you can read his “virtuosity” post in its entirety here. It's worth clicking through.

So as of today, call me a good girl, because my PR promiscuity is a thing of the past. My new program will include a lot more 3x5 and 5x5 weight sessions, and far fewer 1RM attempts. In addition, I will incorporate “perfect practice” into my programming on a daily basis, in my work sets, as part of my warm-up AND in dedicated half or three-quarter intensity weeks without a time or weight component. And finally, my new rule is that a PR attempt is not allowed during perfect practice time. If I’m feeling strong, I’ll just do more reps, but I will not load the bar up past my previous 1RM.

A big thank you to Max for all of his help. Post thoughts to comments, and visit CrossFit East Bay for more great programming and WOD ideas.

Mir Weighted Vest Day Two: Tabata Something Else

Here is some video of Jason Kalipha, winner of the CrossFit Games 2008 training with a Mir Weighted Vest. This is validation that my heavy cycle is a good idea.

After the suck-fest that was "Mr Joshua" with a 20-Pound Mir Vest, I did a Thanksgiving 10K trail run at Redwood Regional Park with my CrossFit Athletes. The following day I rowed 2K and did 19 C2B pull-ups. Yesterday I did the CF national WOD Deadlift 5x3:

185-225-315-3335-355

I felt like I had been beaten afterward and needed to nap for hours. Mostly the back-to-back 75X250# Deadlifts with a 20-Pound Weighted vest AND 10K STEEP trail run were to blame. By the time I got to the Heavy DL I was already cooked. The national WOD on Thanksgiving was "Nate" a more upper-body centered Metcon, so my sub was a bit crazy in a week where I was trying to go full-bore.

Today I will give the national WOD a shot wearing the 20-Pound Mir Vest.

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Post total reps from all 32 intervals to comments.

Mir 40-Pound Workout Plate Vest, First WOD

Rehab row all done but 2K (98K rowed).

For some time now I have been wanting to do a three-week CrossFit Heavy Cycle, doing all the WODs with a 20# Vest. It was my hope that I would be able to do everything RX, albeit slow. Due to my elbow injury and tertiary weight gain, I doubt my ability to do muscle-ups at my "vest weight" of 205#, but I will do the 4x dip/C2B pull-up sub for M-U.

MIR Fitness vests.


Today was an interesting first WOD:

Wednesday 081126

"Mr. Joshua" (on a boat)

Five rounds for time of:
Row 500 Meters
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps

Time: 30:05. Gave me an exertional headache and migraine artifacts throughout the night.

---

Initial impressions of vest:

I got 3 MIR Workout Plate Vests for CFEB (cheap) and this will be an opportunity to battle-test them.

MiR Workout Plate Vest

This vest is well-designed and seems very well-made. I have used the X-Vest and V-Max which cost 2-3x as much, and while this is not quite as good, the cost to benefit ratio is quite high. Five pound weight plates (up to 8) fit securely in the front and back pouches. For the initial workout, I did rowing, deadlifts and GHD sit-ups, there was no interference with the first two movements, but sit-ups were tough, as I suppose they would be with any vest. As advertised, due to the short nature of the vest, breathing was somewhat less restricted than with other models I have used. Overall A-.






* Includes one Velcro belt.

* 1200 D-Nylon flap to cover the weight plates in full.

* Cross straps to hold the any weight plates in place.

* 13 inches in length, 14 inches in width, 1 inch in thick.

* Hold up to 40lbs, Plate not included.

Price: $60.00

+40# of 5# plates from Sport Mart on sale for $.80 a pound = about $36.00, total cost $96.00.

You could save money by finding the plastic-type cheap plates, buying them used from Craigslist, or of course if you already have them, this vest is a no-brainer.

7-13-08: Calorie Balance

I got my calories way up the last two days: perhaps 20 blocks, and the WOD was much more acceptable:

For time:
15 Handstand push-ups
1 L Pull-up
13 Handstand push-ups
3 L Pull-ups
11 Handstand push-ups
5 L Pull-ups
9 Handstand push-ups
7 L Pull-ups
7 Handstand push-ups
9 L Pull-ups
5 Handstand push-ups
11 L Pull-ups
3 Handstand push-ups
13 L Pull-ups
1 Handstand push-up
15 L Pull-ups

Time 38:30, all good form full-ROM. Happy with this.

07-12-08: Retrograde!!

Today's WOD was a total disaster:

Complete as many rounds in 30 minutes as you can of:
Walking Lunge, 12 steps
15 Glute-Ham Sit-ups
15 Hip Extensions
5 Muscle-ups

3 rounds + 1 muscle-up

I should reasonably have been able to do six or more rounds, quite easily.

I also did an hour of Shira's Capoeria class and felt totally wasted thereafter.I seem to be overtrained, or more accurately, underrecoverd, due to a greatly reduced caloric intake.

I'm going to eat around 20 blocks and see if tomorrow yields a more satisfactory result.

7-11-08: TRS Comp

I climbed for the second time in the roped climbing series. My score this time was 2848 up from 2150 last time! The climbing felt good. I have a bit of an elbow injury, which stopped me on the 5.11A, but I got a technical 5.10D solidly, which is the highest grade I have climbed so far (got 5.10C/D at the last comp).

Ate perfectly today, all favorable foods 14 blocks, starting to feel hungry, but so long as my performance is improving, I won't sweat it. It would be great to get to my goal weight of 165 and be able to eat for muscle gain instead of fat loss. clea