SUPERHUMAN????

LOOK.... UP IN THE SKY!!! IT'S A CROSSFITTER!

At the time of this writing, there are six people (3 men/3 women) claiming 600+ reps for Workout #2 of the CrossFit Games Open. The workout is as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of 9 deadlifts (M:155#/W:100#)/12 push-ups with a hand raise at bottom/15 box jumps (M:24"/W:20"). Yes, you read that right.... 600 or more reps! For the purpose of this post, I will use an even 600 reps. To achieve 600 reps, a person would have to perform 16 rounds + 9 deadlifts + 12 push-ups + 3 box jumps...in 15 minutes!!! WOW!

Time for some math (YAY)!!! There are 900 seconds in 15 minutes. 900 seconds divided by 600 reps is 1.5 seconds per rep. At 1.5 seconds per rep, in order to complete 600 reps you would have to finish a round every 54 seconds without any rest or transition time. WOW! 

I figure that even if you drop the bar on your last deadlift and flop right down to a push-up AND you jumped out of the push-up burpee style for the box jumps, you still have a total of 2-3 seconds of transition time between movements per round. That means in 16+ rounds, You would lose anywhere from 34-51 seconds of transition time total over the course of 15 minutes. 

Let's say the transition time is on the low side at 34 seconds. That means the total seconds that you are actually completing 600 reps shrinks down to 1.4 seconds per rep. You are now completing a round every 50.4 seconds without any rest. WOW!

I did an "air round": A simulated straight leg deadlift with no bar or stick, push-ups without raising my hands, and standing jumps with no box or tuck (about an 8"-10" jump). I made sure I hit full range of motion on the "air deadlift" and the push-up. It took me 40 seconds to complete the round. That means to achieve 600 reps, I would only have 10.4 seconds of rest time, or what I call "wiggle room", per round to maintain pace. And remember, that is with no weight, no hand raise, and no box. WOW!

Please don't get me wrong. I am not outright calling anyone a bullshitter, but is 600+ reps AT FULL RANGE OF MOTION PER THE MOVEMENT STANDARDS really possible? I truly believe that a person can have a big cardiovascular engine, but you gotta admit, these numbers are nuts!! I wish just one of those 600+ rep performances was on video because that would be something worth watching. 600 reps at full range of motion is a serious work output. I'd love to see someone do the real math and figure out what the work output was in horsepower or something like that.

CrossFit has gone crazy. I remember when Jason Khalipa won the 2008 CrossFit Games and everyone thought he was a juggernaut who would never be beat. Last year he took 16th place at the CrossFit Games! I remember when a person with a sub 3 minute "Fran" was a freak of nature, and now I have people telling me that they routinely see attendees hitting sub-3 minute Fran times at the Level I Trainer Certifications. 

Pretty soon, I am expecting a CrossFitter to have the ability to fly. We shall see.....  

Post thoughts to comments.

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WORKOUT   4/4/2011

Start a seven minute running clock. Perform one thruster (M:135#/W:95#), then one pull-up. Then do two thrusters/two pull-ups, three thrusters/three pull-ups, etc. Continue until the seven minutes expires.

How far up the ladder can you get??

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Comments

[Eric]

I love this post!!!

[Will Blaker CSA CrossFit]

I'm outright calling bullshit.

So there you go.

[Mary]

Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting with the numbers crunching. I had a bet going that 16 wasn't possible given the standards and ROM. Needless to say, I lost the bet. I still don't know how anyone could have possibly done it and your number crunching makes me wonder even more. I think perhaps you're right. Next CrossFitters will be taking to the skies without the aid of planes.

[Jor]

Freddy, I did the math as well. I am with you. I want to see the videos. If legit, that is worth seeing just for the awe-factor.

[House]

I have seen comments just like all these from some of the top Crossfitters but this is the first with the numbers to back it...I really hope the legit athletes survive this because that is who I wanna see in Cali! Thanks Freddy!!! Keep doing what your doing!!!

Ash

[AMS]

I think they did a deadlift/pushup/box jump combo.... Kinda like a burpee pull-up etc. You know with 5 finger shoes, skins, and a sponsor shirt ANYONE can be a superstar!!!! 2012 WOD? Walking on water for time!

[Michael]

But Freddy, What if they were deadlifting on top of the box and did handstand pushups? That would save them the transition time and make this totally feasible.

[Mike Parsons]

Freddy, what is the hand raise at the bottom of the pushup you mention?

[James]

Mike, last year during the games, the athletes were required to pull their hands off the ground at the bottom of the pushup for each rep.

[Evil Twin]

The entire format this year was just screaming for cheaters. Who is the idiot(s) at HQ that dreamed up this format???!!

The legit competitors will not bump up their numbers or count non-standard reps just to get into the next round, nor would their box allow this to happen.

So, the lesson here is to count non-standard reps, bump up your numbers and post it as if you were Superman or Wonder Woman. Great going, HQ.

[Paddy]

I mean I am not going to say it is impossible to hit 600+ Reps, but it's not far off it. And after seeing all these numbers it is very unlikely that those claiming 600+ hit these scores with the full ROM outlined in the CrossFit games videos. If you are going to claim scores like that you really need to have an accompanied video!! Thanks for the post Freddy!

[Chris]

I did 600 reps... Marty counted for me. It's totally legit!!

[Ben Brown]

If those people are phonies (and I'm sure they are to some extent) their true colors will show when they have to perform in front of a judge.

[Mike Parsons]

What about those who didn't see the pushup requirements at last year games and went by the pushup STANDARDS video on HQ. Should not the standards been spelled out?

[Vadim]

Freddy, you are da man!

[Maria]

I was rather irked with the extremely high numbers. No way to accomplish it within the full range of motion as required by dot com.

@Ben -the issue my friend is that those phonies will make it to the regionals (for the 44 and under crowd), and the masters (straight to the games). The legit CFs will have very little chance against cheaters. That irks me beyond words.

Great post, Freddy! I've had steam coming out of my ears since the first WOD!!!

[joe]

Im also calling bullshit. After seeing some of florida's best athletes do Wod 2 and struggle to get 15 with almost no rest I can't believe any score past 516. I also love the "featured" athlete twin brothe video with incomplete and BS reps.

[Anna]

Chris...can Marty count?

[Jor]

Totally different subject, but....
So, I just happened to watch the beginning of this show Secret Millionaire. The married couple were the co-founder of Curves (the wife) and CEO (the husband). They said there is 1 Curves for every McDonalds...and they made over 2 billion dollars of revenue last year. WTF?!?

[Jor]

Sorry, 1 Curves for every 2 McDonalds.

[alex]

An athlete was once validated by a judge who was validated by a head judge who immediately entered the score they claimed into a system as soon as the work was performed leaving little room for error. Now a friend is upholding and validating a performance that might and should have been judged a little tighter. Ive heard of people performing a work out 4 or 5 times and each time getting a better score as if I were to perform fran in 4 days my time would increase each time. (Its just not possible, the CNS has limits) It brings frustration at a high level but in the end... it is what it is. All we can do, is hope that 135 pound thrusters are programmed in this competition. =)

[Josh D]

Freddy - is is human nature to bullshit. They will get into the big show (others more deserving will not) and they will flake before the test or show up and be utterly terrible. And CrossFit will have hundreds of athletes fitting into the Ryan Leaf category. The will be the laughing stock of the Sport of Fitness...whatever that means.

CF has become a sham. HQ knows it. But what they do they care? People are paying 10 bucks to enter. $150 for entrance to watch the games. Are buying 50 dollar CFHQ shirts and Reebok crap out the ass. All the while paying 1000 bucks are useless certs taught with PVC.

If you haven't figure it out, is one massive pyramid scheme. It doesn't matter who shows up, or lies, who trains or who wins. As long as you show up and pay your money to support, Glassman can live in a mansion in San Diego with an office in the gas lamp and live like a god.

You are sheep. Stop supporting a crazy man's pocket book.

[mankind]

HQ is bush league. They're embarrassing themselves with this BS. They should stick to the bench mark workouts and that would go a long way towards avoiding this ridiculous cheating. Someone isn't going to post a 90 second fran or diane. 4 bench mark workouts and crossfit total. keep it simple stupid (KISS)

[Maximus Lewin]

Just look at the top ranking videos. Garbage. Score of zero in many cases.

This is a big bummer for people who do legit reps, each and every time.

I'm praying for 155/105 thrusters and Muscle-Ups to knock the bullshitters out of the game.

[Rafael]

It's really simple boys and girls:

You can't have a professional sport without professional refs.

I too call bullshit.

[scott]

Freddy,
Vicious thumbs up and high fives. Way to bring it to the table.

Poi Dog

[Lancaster]

OOOOoooOOO Math my favorite subject. I ran the same calculations and not that I'm some expert but it seems to pass the sniff test. I'm willing to bet that some athletes whether intentional or not have some fluff numbers perhaps due to the biases of the person judging or simple basic human error. I would be a nervous wreck if I were to judge someone well known in the Crossfit community. What would happen if say I miscounted and my fear of not wanting to look like an idiot I gave a rep number that In my mind he or she would have gotten but may not be necessarily true. It happens. Human error in judging is always a big factor in these things. As I type this I did one million billion reps. Video to be uploaded soon....

[Neil]

I did 601 reps...I have it on video too. Hopefully Im not sore for next weeks WOD.

[James]

.....and that's after we kept adding weight to Neil's deadlift between rounds!

[Leon- CrossFit Elysium]

Ben- most of these outlandish scores are being done at an affiliate, and thus in theory in front of a level I certified judge. Which makes it all the more ridiculous.

I have judged several events myself, and seen other judges in action. Judging fairly is not easy and most people screw it up. I can honestly say most judges I've seen at the sectional type level which this is screw it up by the numbers.

This cheating has ramifications beyond the individual rankings. There is money on the line in each event, team rankings are decided by individuals' performances, etc etc. And the argument that a cheater will prevent an person who would barely have made it to the next level from going, but not prevent a top competitor is BS. Graham Holmberg barely made it out of his regionals last year, and yet he won the games outright. Is it so difficult to imagine that someone may barely qualify through the sectionals, but be able to get through regionals and do well in the games? Not to me.

I think ANYONE who posts a top score should have video on them. For one, it's just awesome to see a huge performance. Secondly, when you are at the limits of human performance and speed it is INEVITABLE that form will suffer in exchange for reps. I don't care if you're Spealler, Khalipa etc. People are saying that "oh, you wouldn't question 16 rds if it were Speal" but the fact of the matter is I would.

Lastly, even the video doesn't matter as many have said. There are plenty of videos submitted with great scores, as well as HQ-sanctioned demos and videos that clearly show non-legit reps being counted. So ultimately, even that mechanism of quality control is invalid. This whole competition is on some level a huge joke. Whatever. If my team even makes it to regionals I'll be ecstatic for my members. Always been a fan of you guys- keep it up.

[Eric]

Lacee Kovacs video was some proof. His box jumps were not much good.

This whole thing is wild.

[Joey Maggio]

At least one of the OG's isnt afraid to call bullshit. Way to go Freddy

[Joey Maggio]

Its not the peoples fault though. Its the Demo WOD. If those push ups are the standard it throws everything off.

[Helzy]

Totally agree Freddy. Just because you attend a L1 cert it doesn't make you a judge. I've stood in front of a screaming crowd who were counting out a guys reps and I made him stand there and repeat them over and over because he didn't meet the standard. No.1 the crowd then shut their mouths and the athlete's ego took a hammering. If you don't adhere to standards then what's the freakin' point? As a judge I'm not there to be your friend. But I'll be your friend afterwards..:)

[Gerard McAuliffe]

When someone is scoring almost 100 reps more than Mikko Salo i smell B.S
Video evidence please!

[Trose]

And who says you'll never need math??? Killer post Freddy.

[Dane Thomas]

Freddie, thanks for doing such a good job of explaining the doubt that some of us feel without calling specific individuals into question. Quite diplomatic.

I understand the pressure to approve reps that might not be quite live up to the form requirements intended, but maybe at some point there should be a mandatory video requirement for those in contention for a spot at regionals. Get it in and approved early in the week to eliminate the questioning.

For the other 95% of us, we should try to remember that CF is about increasing fitness - our fitness and that of those around us. This games stuff is just meant to be a pleasant distraction. Enjoy it if you can, but don't let it take up too much bandwidth if you can't.

[Wayne]

Great post Freddy! Keep up the great work.

[Nik]

Seems like bullshit to me (even before I read this post). Great post!

[Tim Carroll]

Freddy, a fellow CF affiliate owner's opinion out here in NJ.

Someone posted that they did the workout with "strict" hand release push ups and got about 9 rounds, then performed the workout again with those ridiculous "rocking" push ups and got 15 rounds. I think we found the culprit. I, too, am pretty good at push ups with my knees resting on the ground.

I don't doubt that there are beasts out there who did 80-90% clean reps and got 15+ rounds, but I think there are too many "beasts" right now.

Tim Carroll
CF 908

[Ross]

Hey guys, I go as far as saying that regardless of how bad the reps are as long as they were complete it is still impossible to maintain reps at that speed and that much energy expended in dead lifts and box jumps for 15 minutes. As far as the top guys and girls go people say they will be sorted out at regionals, however athletes that actually train hard and do the right thing but may not be in the top 60 in Australia will miss out on the experience that they have worked for and deserve even though they will not qualify for the games. Also for the masters which I am 1 there are 20 places world wide no regionals so some athletes will miss out on that experience to go to the games, I recall the first wod a masters womans score was higher then the leading open womens which makes me wonder why if you are that good would you compete in the open and being that good your a chance to win $250,000 incentive enough. I have also judged in our box which I take seriously and we are very strict on range of motion (and we also have a camera running the whole time) the dilemma I had was watching the wod 2 demo an absolute discrace, can't believe it was posted. Thats my bit off the chest, I can sleep well now. By the way still love CF

[Ron]

Love your posts Freddy....

[Maximus Lewin]

Here is the approximate power output for a 5' 2" 100 pound athlete doing 600 reps:

Work Performed
132766.63 joules
13538.21 kg-m
97928.67 ft-lbs

Power Output
147.52 watts
0.2 horsepower
108.81 ft-lbs/sec

I see Annie Thorisdottir posted 585 reps and is currently in first place. I actually would tend to believe this.

I am more concerned about the high middle performers (14 rounds) who are doing absolute crap and taking places from legitimate athletes who are posting lesser scores with actual reps.

[Dan Uyemura]

To those saying the cheaters will falter under the scrutiny of judges... Maybe not really... Like others are saying here everyone is quickly realizing to even have a shot at top 10 you have to submit an astronomical number. By week 4 top 50 will be astronomical as people try to qualify for regionals.
If enough cheaters Place enough astronomical scores they will effectively beat all the horses to regionals (ex games winners etc) who are using this to prep. At regionals compared to other pretty damn good cheaters they'll all look legit, since they are all likely about the same level (I'd guess they are all right on the cusp of being legit, if not outright legit)

So the theory of "exposing" cheaters at judged events only really works if there's one or two that slip in. Unless hq dials up all these wods again live at regionals and we see all the 16 rounders start posting 13s

[Boyd]

Video. Video. Video. That would end all of this. Video proof is what made CrossFit popular. You would try a WOD and get smoked and then someone else would post a video of a crazy time you never thought possible.

[Leon- CrossFit Elysium]

@Dan U- that's a really good point. Also, check out this hypothetical situation- 40 to 50 non legit people make it to a regional via the scenario you describe. Now it's obvious to all that these guys don't belong. However, what's HQ gonna do? Cancel the regionals and reject 40-50 people, then invite the NEXT 40-50 people whow were cheated out of a spot back? Reschedule regionals? Deaffiliate all the affiliates that let those douchebags through? No way- it would be such huge negative image hit. They'll just sweep it under the rug and those guys will make it to the games. The rest of us will be annoyed but that doesn't matter.

[Dan Uyemura]

I bet somewhere along the line here, HQ is going to require a video for AT LEAST the top Men's and Women's submission in order to win $2011 for the week. That would essentially make all semi-serious competitors submit a video, just for the shot of being the top score with a video. that's an easy, no-egg-in-the-face fix HQ can make...

ARE YOU READING THIS HQ? =)

I also just went and looked at the scores, and noticed Men's only have TWO 600+ rep scores now. Maybe someone realized the fallacy in the math and did the honorable thing?

[CraigH]

Good post, Freddy. We put it on our FB page today, thank you. Tough business it is to judge and simultaneously score these wods, especially if its a friend in a crowded gym with screaming fans and loud music.

To the "cheater conspiracy theorists": CrossFit will learn from this and as always, it will adapt and improve.

To the "CrossFit-is-evil-and-just-trying-to-make-a-buck-theorists": CrossFit.com and all of its amazing content has improved countless people's lives, spawned thousands of small businesses, created an unbelievable number of jobs and honored public servants who sacrificed their lives. It is still FREE and without ads! So take your "I hate people who make money" argument with you and go live in another country - it smacks of envy and petty resentment.

As for me, I can't frikkin' wait for wod #3!

[Alvin Blaker]

I SECOND THAT... BIG PILE OF STEAMING BULLSHIT!!!!

[Keith]

The video concept idea doesn't work either.

A. Do you really think HQ is looking at EVERY rep in EVERY video? How much man power and time do they have??

B. If I send in a video where I do 15 rounds, but my ROM isn't perfect on a few movements - is my score voided bc of a few bads reps or do they subtract the "bad" movements? If so, then that's the way to go! My trainers wouldn't let me move on till I did it correctly!