The Dynamax 14" diameter medicine ball and CrossFit. It was like a match made in heaven. The perfect medicine ball for doing sport specific training; with a large diameter and soft shell the Dynamax ball allowed for high velocity movements without worrying about bashing in your face. CrossFit couples high intensity, full body, movements designed to move as much weight as possible as far as possible as fast as possible. Merge the two and you have wall ball. The monster exercise that causes strong men to wilt into puddles of sweat and tears. The 20 lb Dynamax ball presented the perfect tool for taxing the whole body physically and mentally, but it was destined to be more like a Hollywood marriage then a long term relationship.
Lets face it whether you spent $150 or $1500 on your Olympic bar it probably represents a significant investment on your part. If you are running a gym, especially a CrossFit or Strength and Conditioning gym, bars are definitely one of the most used and abused pieces of equipment you have. Often though nobody takes the time to properly maintain the bars. Let’s face it, the bar gets used and forgotten about, not to mention that often there are a variety of bar brands that are being used and typically the manufacturers do not send out information regarding the care of the bar. In fact I emailed all of our bar vendors asking them for information on how to maintain and care for their bars and one actually emailed me and said, “Here is our warranty information. Don’t overload the bar, don’t drop the bar.” That was it! Nothing else. I have to tell you I was floored. So, the question remains, “How do we maintain and care for our Olympic bars?”
This is both an easy and tough questions to answer. The easy answer is “Probably an Eleiko or Ivanko bar and it will run you more then a small car.” This, however, typically is not the answer most people are looking for. What we have to really determine is what the person is asking so I have to answer the question with a question. What are you going to do with the bar? We carry a wide range of Olympic bars, each with a specific purpose.
Most of the people who ask that question are looking for a general purpose bar. They want to do mostly static type movements. Static movements are things like the Presses and the Squats and usually the Dead lift falls into this category as well. This trend has been slightly skewed recently with recent surge of sport specific and high intensity styles of training such as CrossFit. This style of training not only does the static lifts but the dynamic lifts also known as the Olympic lifts. These consist of the Clean and Snatch lifts.
If you were stuck on a desert island with one kettlebell...
Written by Noah Alkinburgh
Thursday, 18 February 2010
One of the biggest questions we get asked is what is the difference between the brands of kettlebells that you sell. The questions usually revolve around Cap vs Wright or Dragon Door. Sometimes about Troy and every once in awhile about Body Solid. Now I am going to tell you right up front that I personally have a bias toward the CAP bells, there is no real scientific reason. In fact the best question I was ever asked was, "...if you were stuck on a desert island for the rest of your life and could only bring one kettlebell, which brand would you choose?" My answer, "CAP" I just like them, but you may not like them. As with most equipment, there is some personal preferences that play into the decision and I am hoping that through this article you will get some solid facts that will help you in making your decision.
Friday I decided to try a work out from CrossFit Cleveland. It was a tough one. I also shot some video of me doing it. The video is from the second round. It was shot with a simple P&S camera and edited with Adobe Premier. This was the first time I had played with Premiere so some of the editiing is not as good as it should be.
The workout was
5 Rounds for time of:
10 - pullups
20 - dips
30 - KB swings (I did 44 lb the first round and 35 lb in the vid)
40 - Mountain Climbers
I only managed 2 rounds and a 3rd set up pullups. Might have made more,
but I was ready to puke and running out of time to be home. Looking forward to trying this one again in the future.
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