I did the CrossFit Fran routine for the first time last night at the gym. It consists of just two exercises - thrusters at 95 lbs and pull-ups. You do 21-15-9 of each, alternating. In other words, 21 thrusters, then 21 pull-ups, before moving down to 15 thrusters - you get the picture. If you're not familiar with the thruster, its essentially a squat with an over head push press, just like this video shows: You do this for time. Mine wasn't anything to write home about - 11 minutes 10 seconds. There are people who can bang this out in 2 minutes. I was happy enough with the thrusters but the pull-ups really slowed me down. I don't have the kipping technique at all yet. Really great test of strength though. Today is my rest day, but I'm looking forward to focusing on thrusters and pull-ups over the coming months, and getting my time way down.
Niall O'Higgins is an author, event organizer and software consultant. He wrote the book MongoDB and Python, published by O'Reilly. Events he organizes include We Have Tablets, the #1 Bay Area Tablet Computing Meet-up and PyWebSF. He also offers consulting services for Mobile, Tablet and Cloud Computing.
