Mad Overhead strength c/o Crossfit San Francisco

[RedSpikeyThing]

Found this on the Crossfit site: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/C...OHStrength.wmv

Highlights: pistols w/weight overhead, walking with 225 overhead, tire dragging with 225 overhead

[Rusty]

Very impressive! Especially the pistols.

[chris mason]

I think that is some cool stuff and a solid accomplishment, but it doesn't impress me tremendously. Those guys have excellent shoulder flexibility and have trained for the lifts. They don't take tremendous overall bodily strength, they are more lifts of skill.

Anyway, not to be a hater, the lifts are cool and impressive.

Chris

[Maki Riddington]

I think that is some cool stuff and a solid accomplishment, but it doesn't impress me tremendously. Those guys have excellent shoulder flexibility and have trained for the lifts. They don't take tremendous overall bodily strength, they are more lifts of skill.

Anyway, not to be a hater, the lifts are cool and impressive.

Chris

Chris,

How could they not take tremendous overall bodily strength?

Superior core strength.
Superior shoulder stability.
Superior lower back and hip flexibility and mobility.
Superior leg strength.

A one legged overhead barbell squat is not feat of strength?

I'd love to see you train this lift and post a clip up after 3-6 months of solid training.

[Detard]

That is amazing. Vids like this are what is pushing me more towards adding crossfit into my training.

[Sensei]

Guys like that piss me off. I'd really like to try those but I don't want the custodian to find my dead body in the weight room the next day with my arms lying beside me...

[Bikkstah]

Chris,

How could they not take tremendous overall bodily strength?

Superior core strength.
Superior shoulder stability.
Superior lower back and hip flexibility and mobility.
Superior leg strength.

A one legged overhead barbell squat is not feat of strength?

I'd love to see you train this lift and post a clip up after 3-6 months of solid training.

Can that guy put on 200lbs of ammo and armor and run for 5 miles down a street in Baghdad?

Strength is a relevant term. Those are very strong lifts but I think Chris' point is that they targeted their lifting specifically to perform these feats.

[KingJustin]

Can that guy put on 200lbs of ammo and armor and run for 5 miles down a street in Baghdad?

For the record, a lot of the CrossFit guys are Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, Special Ops, etc. I'm sure they're some of the best soldiers. I've met a few guys around Wilmington that do CrossFit that are military and in phenomenal shape.


Also, CrossFit really stresses the importance of developing all aspects of fitness, and being able to compete in just about any physical task. The "CrossFit elite" have a much better chance at performing any random physical task than people that train under just about any other program. I wouldn't count on this person only being skilled in this movement. It's probably one of the many, many lifts and physical talents that he has.

This stuff, alone, is less impressive to me than a 1,000 lb squat is, but I know that these guys can do so many other lifts, have great metabolic conditioning, etc, etc, which to me is incredibly impressive.

[HahnB]

Can that guy put on 200lbs of ammo and armor and run for 5 miles down a street in Baghdad?

Strength is a relevant term. Those are very strong lifts but I think Chris' point is that they targeted their lifting specifically to perform these feats.

200lbs? I watch a ton of military shows on tv and I've never heard of any soldier regularly carrying 200lbs of gear. A soldier carrying 200lbs of anything might as well not even have a rifle, he's a sitting duck.

[noahfor123]

Did doing crossfit workouts-of-the-day get these guys to the point they are at?

[Bikkstah]

200lbs? I watch a ton of military shows on tv and I've never heard of any soldier regularly carrying 200lbs of gear. A soldier carrying 200lbs of anything might as well not even have a rifle, he's a sitting duck.

What military shows? They never even show people wearing body armor on shows like mail call and ****. My body armor is 85lbs with armor piercing plates. I've got a kevlar helmet, 6L CamelBak, 1500 rounds of 5.56mm ammo, M-249 machine gun, various tools/trinkets. I carry 3-4x as much ammo as a standard rifleman but that's my load. And yes, we are sitting ducks. They want to give us leg armor and masks too. There are some small guys (<5' tall) who have compressed spines from wearing this ****. As I mentioned in another thread, my knees are all dicked up from it.

[Bikkstah]

For the record, a lot of the CrossFit guys are Rangers, Green Berets, Navy Seals, Special Ops, etc. I'm sure they're some of the best soldiers. I've met a few guys around Wilmington that do CrossFit that are military and in phenomenal shape.

Well if they're SEALS then they can't be the best Soldiers because only the Army employs Soldiers. The Navy hires Sailors. I would never accuse Rangers, Army SF or SEALs of being out of shape but some of them were trained and served before the era of armor neck to toe and tons and tons of water and ammo. My old man went out into the bush in Vietnam with one canteen (1 Quart) of water and 5 mags of ammo (100 rounds) for a typical patrol.

[Bikkstah]

This is the basic armor set-up now minus helmet and camelbak/backpack/asspack. ammo pouches clip onto the armor itself. A few more pieces and a mask and I'll finally become the cyborg warrior I've always dreamed of becoming.



The cock plate is the only piece without a plate in it. I got shot in the cock

[Tofer]

Just go ahead and say it, Bikkstah. You're in better shape than these elite Crossfitters. They wouldn't stand a chance doing what you're doing, right?

I mean, how the hell do you even know what they're capable of? You can make that judgment from one video? A guy who can push press 225 lbs, let alone walk around with it overhead is pretty strong in my book. And having seen other videos from Crossfit SF, I can vouch for the guy in red having great muscular endurance too. So if this guy is both strong, with great muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness, what the hell makes you think he can't do what you do? What makes you better than him?

Hell, being able to squat 800 lbs doesn't mean you stand a chance of running 5 miles down a street carrying 200 lbs so I don't know what you're talking about when you say they target their lifting for these feats. For one thing, Crossfitters don't target their training towards any one thing or goal; they train for anything you could possibly throw at them, and another thing: what the hell kind of training are you talking about that would better prepare you for the aforementioned weighted run? Powerlifting where you're squatting down about three inches in a suit? Bodybuilding where you're isolating a muscle group to make it appear bigger? I can't think of any better way of training to accomplish such a feat, even though I'm 90% you're exaggerating quite a bit.

[Bikkstah]

I didn't make any claim to my fitness. I said that strength is based on what you use and require strength for. I never said I was better than anyone. I'm neither a powerlifter nor a bodybuilder. Nowhere did I say that these men were weak or bad shape. Let me get you a stool so you can hop off that high horse. They don't lift to improve their ability to perform these lifts? So they can just walk up to 250lbs and C&P and walk around with the weight above their head without breaking their wrists, having never done it before? Or they C&P regularly as part of their training routine? Which one is it? They are naturally this strong or they strength train in order to perform these movements?

[RedSpikeyThing]

Guys like that piss me off. I'd really like to try those but I don't want the custodian to find my dead body in the weight room the next day with my arms lying beside me...

haha that made me lol

That is amazing. Vids like this are what is pushing me more towards adding crossfit into my training.

me too. I almost did the WOD today. Too bad I'm so unmotivated....

I may add it in on my mid-week off day, though.

[Tofer]

So you're not making any claim to your fitness, and yet you claimed that they would be unable to "put on 200lbs of ammo and armor and run for 5 miles down a street in Baghdad" like you. Hmm, to me that sure sounds like you're indirectly making a claim to your level of fitness by comparison.

You also said "they targeted their lifting specifically to perform these feats" which to me sounds like you're saying that they specialized in doing this sort of thing. They train for every possible type of lifting/endurance combination you think of. There is no specialization in Crossfit. And you don't have to perform a specific movement to improve on it. You'll rarely ever find Bench press in the WOD, and yet when it does come around, people who follow the WOD's find that they've made huge improvements in it, thanks to training other movements. And actually I would not be at all surprised if this was the first time they had directly attempted this heavy OH walking around stuff. They probably developed the ability to do it through heavy OH squatting, cleans and pressing.

All in all, I'm still not sure what you were getting at in your first post. It makes no sense why you would bring up the whole "running 5 miles with 200 lbs" thing, if not to insinuate that you're better than them. (i.e. "Psh, that's nothing. I can do THIS.") So really, am I the one who needs to hop off that high horse?

[nhlfan]

that guy in the red is a freak

[MPB]

wow they're insane, they make me feel like a little girl
I'm very impressed how they're able to clean the weight so easily

[Bikkstah]

So you're not making any claim to your fitness, and yet you claimed that they would be unable to "put on 200lbs of ammo and armor and run for 5 miles down a street in Baghdad" like you. Hmm, to me that sure sounds like you're indirectly making a claim to your level of fitness by comparison.

You also said "they targeted their lifting specifically to perform these feats" which to me sounds like you're saying that they specialized in doing this sort of thing. They train for every possible type of lifting/endurance combination you think of. There is no specialization in Crossfit. And you don't have to perform a specific movement to improve on it. You'll rarely ever find Bench press in the WOD, and yet when it does come around, people who follow the WOD's find that they've made huge improvements in it, thanks to training other movements. And actually I would not be at all surprised if this was the first time they had directly attempted this heavy OH walking around stuff. They probably developed the ability to do it through heavy OH squatting, cleans and pressing.

All in all, I'm still not sure what you were getting at in your first post. It makes no sense why you would bring up the whole "running 5 miles with 200 lbs" thing, if not to insinuate that you're better than them. (i.e. "Psh, that's nothing. I can do THIS.") So really, am I the one who needs to hop off that high horse?

Yes.

[HahnB]

What military shows? They never even show people wearing body armor on shows like mail call and ****. My body armor is 85lbs with armor piercing plates. I've got a kevlar helmet, 6L CamelBak, 1500 rounds of 5.56mm ammo, M-249 machine gun, various tools/trinkets. I carry 3-4x as much ammo as a standard rifleman but that's my load. And yes, we are sitting ducks. They want to give us leg armor and masks too. There are some small guys (<5' tall) who have compressed spines from wearing this ****. As I mentioned in another thread, my knees are all dicked up from it.

Anything on the military channel or history channel. I would think that mobility would be valued over extra gear in some situations.

[Bikkstah]

It is. Special Forces, specifically Delta Force, keep their weight very light for what they do. We sit in the street and kill anybody that shoots at us so we don't really need mobility.

[bjohnso]

Those one legged overhead squats are insane. I would be full of myself if I could do just 1 bodyweight ATF one legged squat, let alone multiple reps with weight.

[chris mason]

Chris,

How could they not take tremendous overall bodily strength?

Superior core strength.
Superior shoulder stability.
Superior lower back and hip flexibility and mobility.
Superior leg strength.

A one legged overhead barbell squat is not feat of strength?

I'd love to see you train this lift and post a clip up after 3-6 months of solid training.

Which lift would you like to see?

Did you read what I said?

Now, let's put a 500 lbs barbell on ANY of their backs and see what happens when they try to squat it. I wonder if any of them can pull over 500 lbs from the floor. What about 600 lbs?

That was my point. It takes some strength, yes, but it is more skill than brute strength.

[Maki Riddington]

Which lift would you like to see?

Did you read what I said?

Now, let's put a 500 lbs barbell on ANY of their backs and see what happens when they try to squat it. I wonder if any of them can pull over 500 lbs from the floor. What about 600 lbs?

That was my point. It takes some strength, yes, but it is more skill than brute strength.

I read what you said Chris.

If someone weighs 170 pounds then 500 pounds is the number to lift? Take into account it's relative to bodyweight. As to what they can pull and squat, I'm sure it's respectable in relation to their bodyweight and what other areas of fitness they excel at. Meaning that it is very difficult to build up a high quality of strength as well as be in advanced cardiovascular condition in a large range of areas.

Not everyone just trains for the big three. Some train to sprint, run, pull, push, and jump using a broad range of distances, heights and loads. That is what encompasses fitness. Not just being able to squat 500 pounds.

I can understand that it may not be impressive to you because it is not what you like to do. Just as brute strength is not a priority to me.

I'd like to see you do all of them at a weight that is suited towards your maximal strength levels.