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« Christmas Workout 2023 Recap | Main | Athlete of the Fall '23: Chase »

New Graduates: Bubs and Saporito

With Mr. Kuiper doing this round of programming, he started us out with the classic benchmark workout Cindy, which has come up somewhere around 27 times in the Champions Club history (more probably if I check the pre-website days; off the top I know we did it at least twice in Summer 2010). As it turns out, we had two Champions Club all-time records broken today.

At the 4:30 session, Bubs hit 26 + 5 as rx'd, which beat Erika Banet's 25 and change from Summer 2019

Then at the 5:30 session David Saporito hit 32 + 5 + 6 as rx'd; in the Summer he got 30 rounds and change, and in 2015 Fecht was right around that also, but tonight's effort puts him comfortably at the top.

Just a few notes, first on range of motion and movement quality. I have no hesitation calling both efforts "rx'd"; pull-ups were chin over, push-ups were not resting on the ground, and squats were hitting a med ball. But like I have said before, I view the real "rx" for benchmark workouts being intensity. Both of them had this for sure. It is also my opinion that it is nearly impossible to hit 100% of movement standards when operating at top speed; if every rep is good then the intensity and speed was not truly maxed out - especially considering how many reps are in a workout like Cindy. There were surely pull-ups that might have been chin slightly under the bar, or squats not quite standing up all the way, or push-ups that didn't quite get to full extension. Still, Bubs and Sap were right there with every rep.

Secondly, Cindy is one of those workouts that makes compare-to record keeping difficult because the movement standards are a moving target. As we get fitter our pull-ups get higher and push-ups get stricter; as we get more flexible our squats get lower. And if comparing your own scores are tricky, then comparing to someone else is even more so. What's the solution here? I have no idea. That's why it's important to know what your pr is on this day. If you feel like you performed to your abilities on that specific day, then you need to be good with that; the other people around you and your previous scores are there to give you that extra little boost (10-20% ish?) that you wouldn't get on that day if you did it by yourself.

Third(ly?), Cindy almost always comes with her cousin, Mary, when posted on the main site

"Mary"
Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 handstand push-ups
10 pistols
15 pull-ups

I always believed that I needed to earn the right to do Mary instead of Cindy, and I held myself accountable to that. Workouts like Mary, Murph (with a weight vest), and Maggie provided alternatives to that were designed to be more difficult alternatives, but really could be much, much easier minus the intensity.

Do 30 rounds of Cindy and then talk about doing Mary.

Do a sub-30 Murph (straight through) and then wear a vest.

Do Candy unbroken and then consider doing Maggie.

The most simple way of improving is to keep doing the same thing you're already doing, only better. And then better again. And then better again. And then when the margins of improvement are so slim that it depends on factors outside of fitness or sport (equipment, competition, weather, etc.) then go ahead and consider yourself graduated.

So with that being said, I consider Bubs and Sap graduated from Cindy. If it comes up, I'm cool with them either doing it strict or (preferably) doing Mary.

Great work you two, and everyone else who was at the sessions. The effort was great all around!

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Reader Comments (2)

I think the obvious (obvious to me at least) answer is - if you hold a strict movement standard, you can easily compare one effort to another. If the movement is standardized, this translates to the same amount of work completed (ignoring differences in weight (e.g., doing a Cindy at bw 185 vs 180)), and thus the only variable left is intensity - which we measure by the clock.

If we get loose and let the standard on movement "move", then it becomes a second variable and we can't measure intensity as easily. We know the time, or the number of rounds per time - but then we don't have a consistent number for "work completed".

I'll probably never convince Chris of this, but I feel that this is 100% the way to do it. It's the reason that CrossFit has such strict movement standards in the CF Games.

Congrats to Bubs and Sap!

December 12, 2023 | Unregistered CommenterMel

I honestly don't mind this debate with you at all because I agree that it is 100% the way to do it as well. The question then becomes how would we actually implement judging in our gym?

At the Games, there's 1 judge per athlete. They also don't do movements that are difficult to judge, which leaves some good things out of the programming. Also, from the limited Games footage I've seen, speed is a major component that is left out - mainly because it would cost way more time to have to redo a rep than to go a fraction of a second slower and make sure ROM is achieved.

Also, I think I'm right in saying that you'll have the decisions to make soon with your kids regarding ring dips in Elizabeth or bar dips, regular pull-ups in Fran or banded, cut Murph short when the push-ups get sloppy or let them finish.

I certainly am not willing to sacrifice practicing speed - even it if means missing 1 or 2 out of every 10 reps. I'm not willing to leave out movements like L-sits, or push-ups. And I'm always going to have athletes in the transition between Arthur and Aaron, so there's a lot of gray area when the strength isn't developed yet. Which, again, leads to the question about what develops strength (or speed, or flexibility, or whatever is lacking). Do I treat every workout as something that can be retested, or do I give them plenty of "practice" workouts?

December 12, 2023 | Registered CommenterChris Sinagoga

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