Pics from the afternoon crew

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Graham prepares to “PICK IT UP!”

Mara prepares to clean

the catch

Stand Up!

and Jerk!

Clean-pull

Josh is a jerk… I mean…. Josh jerks … um….

Josh shows off his Russion look

Back Squat

Oh the agony! Oh the manliness!

The worst finisher in the world…

… as many jumping squats as possible in 1 minute

Graham grunts ‘em out…

My solution to not being able to overhead squat the 45 #bar – a makeshift 30# bar!

Rebecca Cummings joined us last Saturday for a modified Cindy. Welcome to CrossFit!

Building

This is what I do for college.

Click Here if you can’t see it

 

But what I really wanted to do for college….I guess through Crossfit I’m beginning to do!

 

Goals Revisited

Today was the first of hopefully many gymnastic tutorial sessions at FAHBG.  There’s more to come about the amazing work of Matt Baker, but today was also a time of reflection on our goals as a gym and as individuals.  As an individual, I’ve decided to publicly announce my personal goals – prompted by the fabulous Mrs Abby Vandegrift.  So, here we go.  (Hopefully, this isn’t an exercise in pure narcissistic pleasure.  Members of FAHBG – UNITE!  Post your goals for the world to see and thereby hold yourself accountable!)

By January 1st:

1 – Deadlift twice my body weight, which is currently hovering around 185 lbs, so 370 lbs.  I’ve already made progress here.  Thanks to Graham Wooden, I set a new PR today of 320 lbs.  Just 50 more to go by January 1. Yikes.

2 – Clean and Jerk my body weight, which is currently hovering around 185 lbs.  I’ve jerked 155, and I set a new clean record today of 165 – also due to Graham Wooden.  So just 30 more pounds to go.  Yikes.

3 – Perform 30 Muscle ups for time.  I just want to do them in one setting.  I don’t care how fast it happens.  Completion here is the goal.  Yikes.

Ok, team.  I need your help.  Get me to the finish line.  All by January 1st.  And post your goals on here.  Let’s hold each other accountable.  That’s what friendship and FAHBG is all about.

-Ps- in a somewhat unusual move for fahbg, I’m going to post something on here potentially ‘political’ – actually economic, but potential controversial.  Oh, dear…

1. Greg Mankiw of Harvard on the potential effects of the Baucus healthcare bill (note: you cannot ignore incentives) http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/10/marginal-tax-rates-from-health-reform.html

2. And Jeff Miron, also of Harvard, on housing policy: http://jeffreymiron.blogspot.com/2009/10/perpetuating-bad-housing-policy.html

My issue with Miron – can’t homeowners who receive a reprieve on their mortgage respond to these incentives in such a way that they acquire the ability to make their mortgage payment due to the extra time they receive to make the adjustment?  Isn’t that something akin to a firm’s short run response?  I know I would, but maybe I’m not everyone.  Any thoughts?

Changing the Language

So besides getting my body hot, I love Crossfit for its equality. It seems as though this extremely masculine workout regiment is very accepting of the female presence, which is a very nice and refreshing change. I love when men not only accept that women are strong but also push them to get stronger. For women of the 20th century, it’s a positive and elating step away from the caveman era. Yet, besides this wonderful progression towards equality, there’s still a lingering problem holding us back, language. For example, lighter bar = woman’s bar. It appears as though anything that is lighter in weight obviously must belong to the ‘women’. Yet, don’t get me wrong, I know it’s purely unintentional. Even I didn’t really notice it till Andrew said something about the woman’s bar and I asked if he was referring to the lighter bar. For centuries women were made to feel as though we are the weaker sex, and it’s only been with the last few decades where we’re beginning to realize that we are a lot stronger than what people have given us credit for. Yet, don’t think I’m man bashing, because women have also been the ones to discredit themselves. I assumed the lighter bar was for the women, that was purely me but now I’m determined to change my mentality. I feel as though as long as I think the lighter bar is for me, I will always limit myself to a lesser weight. I am excited though that Mara and I have such wonderful and supportive guys to workout with. You guys push us forward and I hope we do the same for you.