A quick tactic to help you achieve the best time possible on this WOD is at the end of this post.

A few weekends back a buddy mentioned he was going to give “100 Burpees For Time” a shot. Huh.  Never tried it.  I don’t fear burpees.  Sure, I’ll give it a go…

Ugh.  Here’s how it goes:

First 20: I’m flying!  What’s the world record for this workout?
Rep count 30: Uh, I’m not even half way…
Rep count 40: I can’t remember what the range of motion is for a burpee. Does it involve sitting?
Rep count 50-100: (I’m not going to bother describing the rest.  It wasn’t pretty.)

In the end I managed to complete the 100 burpees in 7:05.  The next day I realized I had a bruise on my chin from the repeated impacts.  Ouch.

Bottom line: This workout is predominantly mental.  You will become extremely uncomfortable.  The difference between individuals’ scores will primarily be dictated by how long each individual rested during the one hundred burpees.

Tactic:  Here’s the bad news: resting at various points in the workout is not going make things any easier (despite what your brain is screaming).  Here’s the good news: since resting isn’t going to help, skip it and power through (again, despite what your brain is screaming).  While your friends are gasping with their hands on their knees, you keep moving.  Steady work will win this race.  The crux of the problem is that once your heart rate becomes significantly elevated, a short rest between reps will not provide any significant recovery.  Realize that resting for five seconds, ten seconds, or even thirty seconds will not provide any relief from the discomfort.  Focus on the fact that you will be able to rest for an extended period once the workout is complete.

Got another tip for this workout?  Did this one work for you? Did you beat my 7:05 time?  Leave a note in the comments!

Pic courtesy of Steve Caddy via Flickr

Alright, so you’ve bought into this whole CrossFit mobility wod thing after reading our post on some basic/beginner vids from mobilitywod.com. The next question is which foam roller is the best for a handsome CrossFitter such as yourself?  I’ve tried a few different ones and although I’m not nearly as handsome as you, for my money I’d go with the 18 inch “j/fit roller”.  It’s available on Amazon for around $25.  It’s much firmer than the junk ones you can find at Target or Walmart, but with enough give that it won’t leave your spine bruised.  Mine has stood up to the abuse unleashed by four children without a problem. (Turns out the kids often confuse it for a soccer ball/football/balance beam/sibling adjustment device).  Also, the 18 inch size is compact enough to fit easily in the closet.  Don’t believe this is the best foam roller for the CrossFit athlete?  Well then check these reviews which average four stars or higher. Trust me, this is the best $25 investment an athlete can make.

Amazon: j/fit 18″ High Density EVA Roller

And of course a shout out to Gateway CrossFit for the sweet pic for this article!

Need a CrossFit screensaver?  There is only one.  Check out this awesome little work of art:

Me thinks this will be the new screen saver on my phone.  Thanks to the Thick Curly Love blog for this gem!

Being the super-fly weight that I am (ha! super fly!), I’m always interested in ways to put on a few pounds.  Olympic lifting coach Greg Everett takes a very pragmatic look at the practice of waking up in the middle of the night to guzzle a protein shake.  At the core the question is: does the benefit of the extra calories outweigh the interrupted sleep?  Everett’s simple solution?

…make a shake before bed and leave it in the fridge. If you wake up naturally, go drink it. If you sleep through the night, you can drink it the next morning and be thankful for your rest.

You can take a look at the full article, as well as many other solid posts at Midnight Shakes For Weight Gain by Greg Everett – Catalyst Athletics Blog.

In my mind, the only real question that remains is whether or not to brush my teeth post shake…

Just slipped on some mud in the parking lot and almost went ass over teakettle. Luckily, my cat like CrossFit reflexes saved the day. Front leg shot out pistol style and I came out of the bottom like a champ! I’m thinking of going back for a few more reps…

So everyone around you is talking about “mobility”.

And you say something intelligent like: “uh, what are you talking about? What’s mobility?”

Then they say “U r lame. Check mobilitywod.com“.

This is problematic in two ways:

1.  It reveals you only talk to people on twitter. You should get some friends in real life. (But if you’re only going to talk to people on twitter you might as well talk to me too and follow @FuncThat).

2.  When you get to mobilitywod.com you’ll discover hundreds of different mobility stretches, all guaranteed to make you feel and perform better.  Where do you begin?

The boy’s at 70′s big have come to your rescue.  They put together a quick list of the top eight mobility exercises to start with:

Hip Flexor
Hip External Rotators
More external hip rotators
Psoas and Scalene interaction
Stretching muscles around the scapula
More shoulder goodness
Soft Tissue of the Shoulder
A good review on all shoulder mobs to improve internal rotation

The vids tend to be under five mins and fans of the mobility wod claim wide ranging benefits from injury prevention, new PRs, and recovery from nagging injuries.  This leaves only one area uncovered: your addiction to twitter…

You can see the full 70′s Big article at: 70′s Big – Mobility Basics

The ever quotable Jim Wendler left the following tidbit in the comments on a Facebook post:

All people say is “I can’t”. Or why it wont work. Failure follows people around like a bad fart.

Succinct and to the point.  Get your head right and start doing something instead of saying why you can’t, or even worse, why someone else can’t.  Actually, go ahead and tell me I can’t.  I can always use a little extra fuel…

The Facebook thread can be found here.

It’s really tough to find a 2011 CrossFit Games logo/image/picture to use as a link from your site back to the CrossFit Games site.  Here are a few images I found using my serious google fu.  Instructions on how to add one of these to your site are below.

(and hey, while you’re at it why don’t you go ahead and add a FuncThat.com link to your site as well?)

Instructions on adding one of these images to your site:

1. Right click on the image you would like.
2. Select “Save Image As” and choose a location you’ll remember on your computer.
3. Upload the image on to your website in the desired location.
4. For the CrossFit Games site set the link for the image to http://games.crossfit.com
5. More importantly, for the FuncThat images set the link to http://www.functhat.com
6. That’s it!  You’re now a full fledged web developer!

Here’s the first AMWAP post.  I was looking up a little info in my Wendler 5/3/1 book and came across these few lines which really rang true:

You must keep training economy in mind. Training economy means getting the best bang for your buck from each exercise. That’s why squats are always better than leg extensions.

Check out Wendler’s book for some more bits of wisdom and a solid training program: Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 (on Amazon)

Dude! Where did you go? Did you fall off the face of the earth? (And since when is it acceptable to start a paragraph with “Dude”?)

The gist is I started a new job about a month ago and it’s been consuming more than it’s fair share of energy. So here’s the new plan: post on my lunch break via iPhone. This should be interesting.

Bring on the AMWAP!
(As Many Words As Possible)