May 12th, 2004

Posted on/for Lynne Pitts’ (old school CrossFitter) birthday.

August 5th, 2004

This workout was very similar to a previous workout. Lynne killed it, even claiming, “At last, the WOD-God has smiled on me…”

The New Girls(November 2004)

Linda is listed as the “L” Girl workout in the “New Girls” journal article. Note, at this point, Lynne (the workout not the person), doesn’t officially exist.

Lynne (April 8th, 2005)

A hybrid of the previous workouts is now called “Lynne”. Long time CrossFitter and affiliate owner, Ahmik Jones, refers a previous WOD (most likely 08/04) as “Lynne”, although this is the first mention of it on Main Site.

That’s why we are going to change how these workouts are compared and scored by on the site. Going forward, they are going to be scored by the total weight lifted. Don’t worry, you won’t need a calculator to post your result, we’ll do the totaling for you. In case you were wondering, it will be found by summing the weight multiplied by the reps in each set.

Here’s a quick example:

100 lbs x 3 + 105 lbs x 3 + 110 lbs x 1 = 725 lbs

On the site this result would be displayed as:

725 lbs | 100 lbs, 105 lbs, and 110 lbs (1)

Since the scoring is by the total weight, those results with heavier weights throughout the sets will be ranked higher even if the max load in a set is lower. Keep that in mind when comparing your results to others on the site.

There are quite a few lifting workouts on the site that have several thousand results each, so it’ll take some time to update all of them. You’ll know when a result has been updated when you see the total weight before the weights of each set, as in the example above.

Who Is Tony Blauer?

He is the pioneer of the SPEAR(Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response) system and has probably been part of CrossFit longer than you have. He’s featured on crossfit.com, go amaze yourself. When you are done watch this clip of his course. Yup, he’s legit.

Why should CrossFitters attend this course?

The SPEAR system is to Personal Defense what CrossFit is to strength and conditioning. The SPEAR system teaches you to embrace your natural responses in self defense situations. It’s functional, simple and effective. Sound familiar? In fact, Coach Glassman, pictured above, stopped by and spoke about how much he supports Tony and his system when I attended Tony’s camp. If you are a CrossFitter, especially if you own a CrossFit Affiliate, you need to attend.

Why Your Wife, Sister and/or Daughter Should Attend

My wife and I attended Tony Blauer’s Combative Camp over the summer. It was held over a hot weekend at Sin City CrossFit, a great gym, in Las Vegas. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. The room was full of CrossFitters, Police Officers, FBI Agents, MMA fighters and my wife. Surprisingly, there was a lot to learn for everyone there. Especially my wife. My wife, who is much smarter than I am, is going through medical school right now. Medical school is basically a cycle of long nights of studying combined with late night trips to the hospital during residency or rotations. Like any husband, I get worried from time to time. During the camp she learned how to be aware and protect herself in a dangerous event. By the end of the weekend she could get out of holds, avoid tackles etc. I was her practice dummy and was beat up by the end of the weekend. She jokingly tells me that I lost a fight to a girl. I remind her that every married man has lost at least one fight to a girl, his wedding.

Upcoming Courses

October 2, 2011 near San Luis Obispo @ CrossFit Five Cities
October 30, 2011 in San Francisco @ San Francisco CrosSFit
November 12, 2011 in Columbus Ohio @ Rogue Fitness
November 19, 2011 in Tuscon, AZ @ CrossFit Full Throttle

1.  Annie Sakamoto

It’s always amazing when you see a true CrossFit OG perform well.  Annie finished in 9th place overall in her very first Games competition.  Of the ten events, she only placed outside the top ten four times.  The magnitude of her accomplishments are amplified by the fact she stands five feet tall and weighs only 116 pounds.  In the “Rope Climb, Clean” and “Dog-sled” workouts, WODs appearing to favor the stronger athletes, she finished 18th and 5th respectively.  Pretty amazing stuff.  As both a CrossFit trainer and a “smaller” athlete, I took extra special pride in watching her near perfect technique.  Given her size, she needed to be flawless in her execution in order to hang with the Annie Thorisdottir’s and Rebecca Voigt’s of the world.  If I recall correctly, she never missed a Clean and Jerk or needed to stop on the sled pushes.  She was an incredible inspiration all weekend long.  For those who began our CrossFit adventure by watching old-school videos of her, it was an awesome thing to see.

2.  Variety

One of CrossFit’s montra’s is “constant variation”.  At some point though you would think it’d be difficult to keep coming up with something fresh and new for an event as big as the Games.  Somehow they managed to “wow” us again.  Big props to the “powers-that-be” for keeping the athletes, as well as the spectators, on their toes.  The beach wod, as well as the skill workouts were nice additions.  We all knew at some point swimming had to be thrown into the mix.  Anyone whose ever swam in their life knows fews things come close to matching its intensity.  The monkey bars…well, those were just bad ass.  I certainly didn’t see that one coming.  Looking down onto the tennis court and gazing upon the monstrosity that was the monkey bar set-up reminded me why I love CrossFit so much.

3. Pat Barber

The “manimal” had a great overall peformance at this year’s Games, finishing in 8th.  However, the moment in particular that get’s Barber onto this list was the incredible finish to the last event that saw him take first after going absolutely berserk on the final sled pull.  He began the pull fairly slowly (and rightly so, did you see the craziness that was the last event???), falling slightly behind Khalipa and Ben Smith.  Re-energized out of no where though, about half way through, he truly lived up to his nick name and pulled the sled the final 50 feet or so without stopping.  Truly amazing.  Just to add a little perspective, absolute monsters like Khalippa, Morrison, and Froning, all guys who out-weigh and out-lift Barber, struggled by comparison.  The feat was so epic in fact that no one in the stadium was left sitting.  If you didn’t get chills watching that, you were probably A) new to CrossFit, or B) in the bathroom. If you get a chance check out his Official Site and follow him on facbeook.

4. Mikko and Orlando

Miko Salo and Rob Orlando, two of CrossFit’s most popular athletes, were forced to leave the competition through injury.  We can sit here and argue all day about whether or not the ocean swim was to blame, but the fact of the matter is every spectator was robbed of seeing two studs (Salo was a favorite to win the competition) perform.  That’s not good for anyone.  Now we’ll have to wait until next year to satisfy our Miko fixes.  For CrossFit junkies like myself, that task may prove rather difficult.  Is there anyone who saw this promo here and didn’t get chills???

5. ESPN

I’ll admit it, some mornings I just couldn’t get up in time to make it to Carson to see the day’s first event. Thankfully though, this year’s events were streamed live on ESPN 3.  It proved a huge lifesaver for us non-morning people and definitely paved the way for an even bigger CrossFit/ESPN partnership. If you haven’t heard, the Games are being televised on ESPN 2 in a 12 part series.


Overall, I thought this year’s Games to be a huge success. 2012′s future is very bright.  Now if only we can do something about that damn summer heat.

First, Watch This

What’s CrossFit? (Short Version)

CrossFit is a workout regimen that gets you good at everything(running, weightlifting, gymnastics etc) with a simple approach. There is a WOD(workout of the day) that you have to perform. Do a WOD 2-6 times a week and you’ll get in the best shape of your life.

What’s CrossFit? (A little longer version)

CrossFit is the greatest strength and conditioning program in the world. It combines weightlifting, gymnastics and monostructural cardio(running, rowing, jumping rope etc) movements into measurable workouts. Measurable simply means that there is always a definite score or result for your workout. For example, a popular CrossFit workout is Helen where an athlete performs 3 rounds of 400 Meter Run, 21 Kettle-bell Swings, and 12 Pull-Ups. Helen is scored by the time it takes you to finish it. Other workouts are scored by the number of rounds(AMRAP), total weight(loads), distance and repetitions of movement(s). There are plenty of different workouts. I know what you are thinking. There is no way I can do that! A great thing about CrossFit is that every workout can be scaled to your current fitness level. For example, you could scale Helen to 2 rounds of 100 M Run, 10 Kettlebell Swings(10 lbs) and band-assited pul-ups(a thick rubberband that helps you do pullups). You would still time and record your workout. The next time you perform Helen you try to set a personal record(PR) by either doing the workout prescribed this time(Rx’d), scaling less or improving on the time with the same scaled workout. The goal is always the same, to do better! CrossFitters do a WOD(workout of the day) once, you guessed it, a day. The WODs will help improve your 10 general physical skills: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, accuracy. CrossFit.com, also known as Main Site, puts up a WODs for the public everyday. It looks hard, because it is. Doing a workout as prescribed (Rx’d) is an accomplishment alone. Don’t worry, you can scale any workout to your fitness level. As you CrossFit more you will have to scale less. Soon you will be the envy of your friends and family.

How Do I Know I’m Getting More Fit?

In CrossFit there are benchmark workouts that are usually repeated at-least once a year. The workouts cover all ten general physical skills; respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. Increasing your performance in these workouts increases your overall fitness level. On beyond the whiteboard we automatically keep track of your benchmarks. For example, check out Jeremy Kinnick’s Benchmarks.

I’m in. How do I start?

• If you signed up for our site it’s simple. Just log in and there will be a “To-do” section that will tell you what the WOD is. We also have a solid collection user submitted movement demo videos that you can watch before doing a WOD. Note, you don’t have to use beyond the whiteboard to CrossFit. You can get the WODs free everyday from Crossfit.com. In fact, you can get them free on beyond the whiteboard also. Our services include tracking and analyzing your CrossFit stats.
• There are 3,000 Licensed Crossfit Affilaites that offer CrossFit classes for people of different fitness levels. From elite athletes to elite couch potatoes. It’s simple really. You show up to the gym. A CrossFit trainer tells you what to do. You do it and get in shape. I highly recommend going to a CrossFit Affiliate(Most Gyms Offer A Free Class). Don’t worry, you can still use beyond the whiteboard to track your stats. In fact, there is a good chance the entire gym uses the site. Even if they don’t, you’re still better off at an CrossFit Affiliate. If you would like to find a gym that uses beyond the whiteboard check out our Gyms page.

But wait…there’s more

• For about a nickle a day($25 a year) you can subscribe to the CrossFit Journal, which happens to be the best fitness, health and lifestyle publication in the world.
• CrossFit also offers amazing courses around the world everyday. The courses range from introductory courses about CrossFit to speciality courses like Running. Do yourself a favor and go to one or ten.

The sixth edition of the Fight Gone Bad fundraiser will be taking place on September 17th, and beyond the whiteboard is taking part in the fundraising effort. We are excited to give what we can, but we need your help. We are going to donate $1.00 for every Fight Gone Bad post, up to 1000 posts. We will also be having an online competition on the day of the event. Check out the prizes below.

Affiliate Prizes

• The affiliate whose members post the most total reps will get 3 months free on beyond the whiteboard.
• The affiliate with second most reps posted will get one month free on beyond the whiteboard.

Individual Prizes

• The top male and female athlete will get a $200 Visa gift card.
• The second and third place male and female athletes will get $100.

Quick Log

We have amazing users who send us amazing feedback, and, as you guys know, we take it every seriously. A common theme has been to log more fitness variables. For example, sleep. Our goal was to build an interface where a user could log various daily attributes in under 60 seconds. We got it to under 30 Seconds. Starting today you can log your Sleep, Body Condition, Mobility Work, Diet, Post WOD, Water Intake, Fish Oil and Shoes right from your whiteboard. Simply click an option from the whiteboard column and it will instantly get logged.

2 week Overview

The 2 Week Overview brings together Gym Programming, Workout Results, Weigh Ins and Journal Entries.

Today

An easy way to organize what you have to get done today. We created a to-do section which will show your WODs and let you know if you need to weigh in. On top of user submitted demos, we organized any movements prescribed today by workout elements. You can click any movement to view your movement history. We are also excited to include a list of related and recently published articles from the Crossfit Journal. We support the CrossFit Journal because it is the greatest fitness library in the world. Do yourself a favor and read an article, or watch a video if you are against reading, everyday.

Helen, with 16,486 posts, has recently passed Cindy, 15,707 posts, to become the second most performed CrossFit workout. Let’s figure out why.

If you’ve been with us for a while now, you might’ve browsed our workout collection a few times and noticed a strict hierarchy of workouts based on popularity. Fran has led the way from the very beginning, and rightfully so. It’s certainly the most iconic CrossFit workout and, often times, is used as an introduction to the ever-growing strength and conditioning program. The rest of the top ten consists of the usual suspects: Filthy Fifty, Fight Gone Bad, The CrossFit Total, Angie. Since BTW’s inception, Cindy has held the distinction of the second most popular workout (which is pretty huge considering it is unlikely Fran will ever be dethroned), that is, until Helen recently surpassed it.

What Makes Them Different

Helen, for most people, is a full on sprint(or attempt at one), while cindy is a hard grind for 20 minutes. In fact, Cindy is deceivingly tough, because most people can’t go hard for 20 minutes with proper form.

Personal Standpoint

I find it a tad shocking.  If I had the choice between doing Cindy or Helen, I’d choose Cindy at least 7 times out of 10.  My reasoning?  It’s simple, period. It can be completed within a 5 ft radius, you can do all of it indoors, and, perhaps most important of all, it doesn’t have an ounce of running.  I’m not the biggest fan of running, and I know for a fact that is a sentiment I share with many people.  So what does it all mean?

CrossFIt HQ (Main Site)

Is it possible CrossFit HQ feels the same way?  When looking at the frequency in which the two WODS have been assigned over the past couple of years, it wouldn’t appear so.  Since January 2008, Helen has showed up on the main site 9 times, while Cindy has made a whopping 14 appearances.  Therefore we can’t attribute the higher number of Helen posts to HQ.  This is 100% a result of the community.

CrossFit Attitude?

Perhaps it’s an indicator of CrossFitters’ willingness to work on their weaknesses (ie. running). Makes sense.  It aligns perfectly with the CrossFit mentality.  As people become more and more aware of the CrossFit way, Helen has been thrown into the mix more and more.  Maybe it’s a result of popular coverage.  We’ve all seen the famed OPT Sub 7 Min Helen video.  That’s not to say Cindy doesn’t have a lot of videos out there.  Quite the contrary actually.  But how many 30 round Cindy’s have you seen?  Probably a lot.  Sub 7 Helens are few and far between, which gives it that little something special.  Also, so many Cindy videos seem filled with shoddy push-up and air squat standards that the workout seems to have lost its luster over the years.

Bottom line, it’s great to see the community evolving along with the site.  We realize the existence of popular CrossFit workouts, but lets not forget one of the most important CrossFit elements…constant variation!

Feel free to hit me up on twitter @jake_mannion. Ask us questions about anything via twitter(@btwb) and our Facebook Fan Page.

Many people forget, or don’t know, that the Girl Workouts are named alphabetically, like hurricanes, and are the classic Benchmarks of Crossfit. Pictured above is the screen that was used to make the shirt.

Why Are The Benchmarks Named After Girls?

To quote Coach Glassman, “Anything that leaves you flat on your back and incapacitated only to lure you back for more at a later date.”

Why Are They The ABC’s of Fitness

They embody the idea of CrossFit. To quote Coach Glassman again, “If you are improving at these, you are becoming fitter.”

The Design and Shirt

Simple and to the point. Next to each workout is the amount of posts CrossFittters around the world have posted. Yup, over 20k for fran and 15k for Helen and Cindy. CrossFitters are awesome. We went with American Apparel 50/50 Poly-Cotton blend shirt.

These pieces are comprised of our distinct 50/50 Poly-Cotton blend. Unlike other Poly-Cotton t-shirts on the market, ours is made with combed cotton, giving it an ultra soft, worn in feel and superior drape. Even finer than traditional combed-cotton yarn, this ultra-comfortable fabric features remarkable recovery even after repeated washings. Slightly more opaque than our Sheer Jersey yet still lightweight, these shirts offer a versatile surface perfect for screen printing and embellishment. -American Apparel

Our t-shirt guy actually told us that no one gives these shirts out for free, but we reminded him how great our users are. The back of the shirt has our new logo and date. We put the date on the back because we will never print these shirts in the future, and want you guys to have exclusive gear. Look forward to meeting you guys.

He Already Won

As if there wasn’t enough drama, Jeremy Kinnick’s wife gave birth to their second baby boy today, days before Jeremy competes in the CrossFit Games this Friday. It was an eventful day to say the least. Jonathan and I roll down to Hollywood to grab the btwb giveway shirts. The shirts come out great and we decide to grab food down on Olivera Street. Right before our food is ready Jon says, “Oh crap the baby is on it’s way.” I get up and tell our waitress, “We are going to have to get the food to go. My friend’s wife is about to have a baby.” The waitress thought I was talking about Jon. I was going to correct her, but didn’t want to derail her efficiency. Honestly, she was amazing and might effect my tipping for future servers. We fast and furious our way to the hospital, just in time to see Jeremy teary eyed. The picture above is him hugging his mother moments after his son was born. This moment helped put things into perspective. The Games are a HUGE deal. On a scale of 1 to 10, they are 42. In fact, they are plural. However, it doesn’t hold a candle to seeing the look on Jeremy’s face. I have no idea who will do well this weekend, but, in my opinion, Jeremy already won.

Series

About a month or two ago we decided to release a series on Jeremy for two main reasons. First, over the last three years he has recorded over 1200 results on the site, and is a perfect candidate for analysis. In fact, he is one of the few elite competitors who have their workout results detailed for 3 years. Second, he is unique for not being unique. He CrossFits and eats right. Jeremy feels like anyone can do it. In fact, that belief combined with his competitive fire is what keeps him working hard every day. Over the course of this series we’ll ask and answer tough questions. How did he make the games in 2009? Why didn’t he make the games in 2010? How did he rebound and make the games again in 2011? What can others learn from his experience? We think the series will be pretty amazing. For example, he has taken his Fran result from over 17 to mid 2 minutes.

Keep Up With The Series

If you want to keep up with the series, please follow the fan page on facebook or twitter account we made for him(It wasn’t easy but we convinced him to do it).

Feel free to contact me via twitter/@moe_naqvi or on our facebook fan page.