CrossFit Athletic Group

There is a workout in CrossFit lore that is universally known as the single most difficult WOD ever posted on any site. In a world with Murph, Eva, Fight Gone Bad, and 30 RM back squats, that is saying a lot. And oddly enough, it was none of those. In fact, the workout was not even posted on CrossFit.com, but instead by former NFL lineman John Welborne on his CrossFit Football site on June 23, 2009:

"Kalsu"

For time:

135-lb. thrusters, 100 reps

*Perform 5 burpees every minute, on the minute

In other words, you do 100 thrusters at near your 1 rep max as fast as you can. Except your are interrupted at the top of each minute with a mandatory 5-burpee buy-in. There is nothing about this that sounds sane, or just, or even marginally survivable. In fact, one could imagine taking a few minutes off from thrusters and just doing the 5 burpees at the top of every minute to "catch your breath". Ha. Haha.

I have never done this workout. So naturally when 14 year-old Jay Junkin came up to 19 year-old me in the summer of 2009 asking to try his first ever CrossFit workout, I had him do this.

Brian was away in Seattle or California at the time, so Jay and I walked Old Faithful (the original 20-lb. medicine ball) up to the Fieldhouse and used the shaded side of the building as our workout station, with wallballs instead of thrusters.

That poor kid.

That poor, poor kid.

Jay (left) - first day at the Champions Club.

...........

Nobody knows what happened after the workout. Some say Jay went into hiding. Others say he just slept for the next two years like Rip Van Winkle and grew a foot taller in the process. Either way, he resurfaced in June 2011, much to my surprise, and joined the Champions Club's Summer in the Fieldhouse - the very place of his death two years before. Over the course of the last six years, Jay has been quietly one of the most improved Champions Club athletes. It's odd saying that now because of how we see him, but when he first came in, his body just didn't seem to connect with him.

*On a side note, click on the video link in the title to see JZ's comment

Summer 2012 saw him garner the invite to the "Advanced Session". In the Summer 2013, Jacob texted me asking whether or not I thought Jay was the best male athlete in the gym - at the same time Josh, Cam, Buzz, Jason, and AJ were all in the gym (Faust... you're a kicker, can't count you, and 2015 was your prime anyway). And from then on, Jay was officially on the radar. In Summer 2014, he was a no-brainer pick as our top male athlete, then made the Grand Valley basketball team a month later. He kept up his fitness through the season, obviously, and by the time he came back spring-2015 Jay was in absolute top form. Then he tore his ACL while we were playing one-on-one at Lamphere. It was either the worst or second-worst feeling I've ever felt as a coach. The combination of me writing about his jumping mechanics previously and begging him to play a tiebreaker game that day lingered for months to follow and put a damper, for me at least, on what was probably the best Summer we have ever witnessed. That is not an easy thing to bounce back from for a coach, and I can't even imagine how that must feel for the athlete in question.

With that being said, fall 2017 Jay is the fittest I have ever seen him. It took all but a month to figure that out. Sometimes things just don't make sense.

Jay came back home from Grand Valley in August and immediately picked up with his usual 4 days-per-week at the gym. I asked him his goals before coming back and getting in pre-knee-injury shape was the only thing he really had in mind. When asked what his time frame was he replied, "Eh...whenever".

The first few days in August took some time to get back into the "CrossFit discomfort" mindset, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing (other than one inexplicable turbo boost from Cory). Some of his highlights include:

• 235 lbs. on the 10 RM Back squat
• "Freaking 50" lbs. on the three 5-minute rounds thing
• 25:34 as rx'd on the task priority Fight Gone Bad
• 8:18 as rx'd pr on Jackie
• 9:38 as rx'd on the hip extension/rope climb couplet
• 21:13 as rx'd on Loredo

In the 6+ years Jay has been with the Champions Club, this is the first time I can remember him training consistently during the school year. He's been a Summer star, winter break warrior, and the occasional drop-in on weekends. Now he's routinely here 4 days every week, and sometimes 5 if the Lions don't have a 1 pm game. When people show up consistently at the Champions Club, they get a lot better. It's just how things work. When athletically gifted people show up consistently at the Champions Club, they go from out of shape to peak physical condition in about 3 months. It's not often you will see an athlete with Jay's height and build move as well as him and be able to express strength in all these different ways. In fact, I think I might bump him up on the board, still neutral in personality and juuuust below me on athleticism. And if he keeps on this trajectory and I think he's getting too close to me, I'll just bring out Kalsu again.

..........

The fall was up and down here. September was slow, but things started to pick up towards the end of the month and definitely into October and November. This is the story every year it seems. Conor was also in contention for the Athlete of the Fall award, highlighted by beating Jay head-to-head on the 800m sprint/toes to bar workout. Look for good things from him this winter.

We had four Fundamentals kids come through our ranks, with Danielle being the standout so far, and two more in the works at the moment. New faces are coming back around like Olivia and Erik, and hopefully more to follow. Our roof is finally getting fixed, so be on the lookout for a reorganization of some things on that side of the gym. I was anticipating better numbers after the Summer, but I think it will be looking up for the winter. Let's make it good! And congratulations to Jay!