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Get Serious Fitness: The Bounce --Mar-2007
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The Bounce
News and Notes from nuBound
March 2007 - Vol 1, Issue 5
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Greetings,

Welcome to the March edition of The Bounce from nuBound! Our interview this month is with Neal Thompson, the owner and Chief Instructor of CrossFit Boston, which is one of the original CrossFit affiliates in the country. CrossFit is a serious physical training program used by many athletes, police and fire departments, tactical operations units and military special operations teams. Dick Beardsley, who was the subject of The Bounce December interview, checks in with an update on his winter racing results. Finally, we've got video of a truly astounding athletic performance from Pyrros Dimas. If you have ideas, thoughts or stories for future issues, please let us know!

Neal Thompson is the owner and Chief Instructor at CrossFit Boston, one of the original CrossFit affiliates in the country. Neal is certified as a USA Weightlifting Club Coach and has CrossFit Level III certification. He began strength and power training by weightlifting as a wrestler in high school. In college, Neal was Captain of the Division I-AA Bucknell University football team. Neal has combined his love for athletics and an entrepreneurial nature to create the most serious gym in the Boston area. Inspired by his example, several other area gyms have adopted the CrossFit training model.

Mark Connell: What is it that makes a gym serious? What makes CrossFit special?

Neal Thompson: CrossFit is all about functional fitness. Fostering the ability in your body to accomplish any task it’s presented. The CrossFit method is to have no routine. Our WOD (Workout of the Day) is a constantly varied set of physical challenges that combine to produce athletes ready to handle any task thrown at them.

Take a look at the WOD on the CrossFit Boston web site (or on any CrossFit affiliate) and you’ll see the variation in what we do.

CrossFit trains two complementary skill areas and adds a third element of high-intensity metabolic conditioning. The skills are Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics. Training the Olympic lifts (snatch, clean & jerk, and also the squat and deadlift) is an unrivaled program to develop explosive power, quickness and strength. The problem is that the Olympic lifts are complicated and require proper teaching, otherwise they can be dangerous. That is why they are neglected at commercial gyms.

Gymnastics is the second skill focus. It broadly includes any body weight exercises, such as pull-ups, dips, squats, jumps, lunges, pushups, and various presses to handstands. The only equipment used is pull-up bars and rings. The key is that these exercises improve the body’s strength-to-weight ratio. Commercial gyms gloss over these exercises because they are hard.

Both Olympic lifting and gymnastics are completely functional skill sets. They require the athlete to stabilize their body in space, which engages the core muscles of the trunk and integrates the core with the muscles of the arms and legs.

Finally, the third element of CrossFit training is high intensity metabolic conditioning. A favorite combination is to combine 20 seconds of all out exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated over 8 sets. It’s only 4 minutes. It sounds easy to those who haven’t done it. But, your readers should just try doing push-ups or squats like that. By the way, your score is the lowest number of repetitions on any interval. We always keep score!
Dick Beardsley checked in with an update on his winter racing. After our December interview, he ran the Dallas White Rock Marathon and won the Men's 50-54 age group with a time of 2:49:41. More recently, he's run a couple of shorter races as he relates below. (The picture to the left shows Dick in 1980 during the Sioux Falls-Harrisburg 10K at Sioux Falls, SD. Dick placed first with a time of 29:56. His 10k time from last month compares pretty favorably despite an interval of 27 years!)

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Hi Mark,
Hope you're doing well!

I have to tell you, nuBound is really working for me!

I've been training hard and ran some races the last couple of weeks. Without tapering at all, for either race, I ran faster than I've run in a long time!

My training has not changed; the only difference is taking nuBound!

This past weekend I was in Tampa to speak and ran in the half marathon there and finished 6th overall and first in the over 40 group and ran 1:17. The week before I was in Boca Raton, Fla. to speak and ran a 10k there and won it outright in 35:17. I did not catch the leader till just before 6 miles and was able to outkick him, even though he was 20 years younger than me!

Also, there have been a lot of colds and flu going around my town in Minnesota, but so far it has not gotten to me! Every year I usually come down with something, but with nuBound nothing yet!

Take care Mark and have a great day! Dick

Pyrros Dimas weighs in at 175 lbs. In this video showing him training, he snatches 330 lbs, cleans & jerks 375 lbs and squats 440 lbs. The amazing thing is how easy he makes it look! He pulls; the bar moves up and bang, he's underneath. An amazing athlete. He won gold medals in three separate Olympics, and while injured, the bronze in a fourth.

In fits and starts, the winter snow and ice is beginning to melt out. It's pure joy to be out running in the growing springtime. By the way--keep your eyes open for the May issue of Runner's World magazine--look for the Editor's Letter at the front from Editor-in-Chief David Willey. And always make sure to catch The Bounce from nuBound!

Sincerely,

 nuBOUND
Mark Connell
nuBound

phone: 888.480.NUCLeotide (or 888.480.6825)

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This email was sent to mgconnell@comcast.net, by mconnell@nubound.net
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