An absolutely brilliant essay! This should undoubtedly be a constant refrain in every CF Box and for every CF Coach!!! We need to constantly remind our coaches and athletes to check their egos at the door.

A part of level 1 that almost 10 years ago changed my life…awesome 

CFWUx1
14:01

So happy to have re read this today.  This should be the goal of any coach.  This should be what we all aim for!  Very well said coach.  Every time I read this I feel I get a little closer to this never attainable 10. 

Thanks for bringing this forward.  I believe all physician should read this as a mandatory review of the Framingham study.  This can serve the future generation of trainers, doctors, nutritionist, to always read the studies and question what they find, try to reproduce it and learn from how it applies to the real problem : on humans and society.  
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the war on heart disease isn’t won yet and that the recommandation that are traditionally administrated to patient don’t seem to help to the extend that they should if the study where true. 

Option A 5.09

16:41-5 rds of 10 strict towel pull-ups and 5 kipping HSPU with 1 abmat

4 pullups
5 strict pushups

Option A with a 13.5' rope
10:35

12:06. Sub 15 rope grip L/S pullups using rip:60 handles together (R1/2 5s, R3 4s). HSPU as slow as poss. R1-5, R2-3/2, R3-3/2 but quicker.

Option A: 6:56 HSPU rx’d. Legless rope climbs to 12’ from seated. Had to kip by the end. Way more cardiovascularly intense than expected. 

Optiin A
Rx'd
13:52

지금 까지 이런 맛은 없었다 이것은 갈비인가. 통닭인가?
Option A 1:42 rx

3rft 
3 x 5 Lsit pull up
5 HSPU
5:10

7:30
9 strict pull ups
9 strict Ttb
5 strict 2" deficit hspu

Option B, and subbed 15 pull-ups for climb

9:07

13:58
3 rounds: 15 rope L pull-ups, 5 handstand push-ups 

Option A

11:02

Subbed 5 times pulling full rope through on rope machine while seated for each rope climb

M50/5’5”/155

3RFT-

5 rope pulls, 5 K2E X 3
5 strict HSPU 

9:45

6:50 with a little cheat from about 10' on the legless rope climbs during rounds 2 and 3

Did the towel pull ups instead 36:10 towel pull ups kicked my ass and my towel ripped halfway through lol

3:59 RX 

Did some strict pull-ups after 

Option Z (highest available rope was 12’)

4 rounds:
–4 12’ legless rope climbs from seated with a pull-up at the top of each
–5 strict HSPU

13:49

8:50
Option A

Subbed 6 lying to stand rope climbs for legless set
Else RX

M/59/6’2”/230

No rope in my low ceiling garage so I did a variation of Option B and scaled:
5 rounds for time of:
 - 15 Pull Ups
 - 5 Handstand Push Ups (abmat+25# bump)
14:03

Option A 05:10 cheated a bit on a rope

This concept will always ring true to me! It is nice to have the reminder.  It is why I fell in love with CrossFit in the beginning and as I see new athletes walking into the gym, this is what I want them to understand. 

This is extremely informative. Looking forward to sharing this with my father who had a quad bypass at 45 years old. I am almost positive his doctor (at the time) never had a clue about the dangers of carbohydrates and was only counseling him on eating a low fat diet, probably high in carbohydrates. Thanks for sharing

Option A: Rx 3:56

Option B
12:10

16:33
3 rounds 
4 leg assist rope climb 
5 strict hspu

Switched to ten second hs hold after I couldn't do any more push ups

10:30
Though I did jump from the floor commencing each pull up with the towel 

7:49 scaled

Scaled to 3 rounds for time:
10 L-Sit pull-ups
5 handstand Push-Ups
5:42

Did a Hybrid of Option A & B
5 rounds - 
16 towel pull-ups with squat
5 strict hand stand PU to abmat
Was actually able to go unbroken on HSPU until last set which was 3/2. Happy with that!
12:58

7:39

3 rounds

Lying to standing rope climbs.  3 ascents each time.

5 - Black/black band handstand pushups.

8:34 opt A

Option A. 6:43rx

Thanks Coach

Coach has not written a CrossFit lesson...this is a life lesson, equally applicable in the gym, the Box, relationships, work, you name it.  Well said, 14 years ago, Coach.

7:43 
Scaled to 10 towel pull ups and 5hspu (box)

10:26 legless climbs, the rope tore off the skin from my palm, so I did 15 strict pull-ups for the last round.

I train my parents every morning in my garage and today we did option B
Mom and Dad 68 years old 
5RFT
4 rope climbs (laying to standing)
5 hspu from box (knees)

Dad 10:38
Mom 11:51

Scaled variation
5 rounds for time
12 strict chin-ups
5 strict handstand push-ups
Time 12:24

25:31 subbed each rope climb with 100 pound sled pull 

3:52

15 strict towel Pull up, 9 strict hspu, 30 push up and 2,5 milí©simos run!

A) 5:50
-15 supinated ring rows on a box
-5 strict HSPU

Option B as written. 8:32.

a rope 3 meters off the ground
1 rep seated rope climb fail on the 2nd so i switched to laying to standing rope climb 4 reps
3 rounds of 5 strict handstand push-ups
time 7:20 minutes 

Option B
7:34

12:45
Scaled to 3rds
3 leg assisted rope climb 12’
5 HSPU (3 mats)

First time climbing the rope!!! 

Option B 14:09 rx

Option B
16:09 rxd

Option A
Rxd 6:17

Dr. Eades observations about the Framingham flip-flopping (sounds like a dance move) are certainly consistent with my observations. In 1978, for instance, Thomas Dawber,  one of the co-founders of the study, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that “it must still be admitted that the diet-heart relation is an unproved hypothesis that needs much more investigation.” Two years later, in his own book on the study (reference 2 in Dr. Eades’s post) he was saying the study had provided ‘overwhelming evidence” that the hypothesis was correct, while simultaneously noting that “, “many physicians and investigators of considerable renown still doubt the validity of the fat hypothesis…. Some even question the relationship of blood cholesterol level to disease.”
 
I used these flip=flopping quotes in my book as an example of the confusion engendered in this field by cognitive dissonance: on the one hand man of the relevant researchers had convinced themselves that the diet-heart hypothesis had to be right and, on the other, they didn’t have the evidence to support it.
 
What Dr. Eades doesn’t mention (or not yet, if this is not his last post on the subject) is that Framingham did play a valuable role in 1977 in documenting some of the earliest population data supporting the metabolic syndrome/insulin resistance story — the version of the diet heart hypothesis that implicates carbohydrates rather than fat. They may or may not have recognized it at the time. They certainly didn't act on it, which is why it’s taken decades for that transition to happen. It is still very much a work in progress.
 
In 1967, two investigators from NIH (Fredrickson and Levy, who would later become directors of NIH and NHLBI respectively) and one from Rockefeller University (Lees) published a five-part series in the New England Journal of Medicine classifying lipid disorders into five pathological categories. Four of them were characterized by elevated triglycerides in very low density lipoproteins (VLDL). The most common of these, Type IV, constituted the great fraction of the folks with heart disease and had to be treated by a low-carb diet as it was known even then as carbohydrate-induced hyperlipemia.  
 
Fredrickson, Levy and Lees also described in their paper a cheap and easy technique for measuring triglycerides and the different lipid fractions (i.e., LDL, VLDL, HDL), prompting NIH to provide money to five on-going cohort studies, the jewel of which was Framingham, to see how these various fractions predicted heart disease risks. This would  be the first time ever that these lipid fractions would me assessed in large populations. Until then, as Dr. Eades implies, the only concern was total cholesterol, not the lipoprotein fractions that shuttle around that cholesterol in the circulation.
 
The results were published in January 1977 in two papers — one a meta-analysis of all five studies, the other from Framingham alone. Tavia Gordon, whom Dr. Eades mentions as the head biostatistician of the Framingham project, did the analysis for both of them and was the first author. The findings were consistent. Both confirmed that total cholesterol could not predict heart disease risk at all. LDL was described as a “marginal” risk factor, but even then only for men and specifically men under fifty when heart disease is rare. Triglycerides alone were better, but only marginally so.
 
The “striking revelation” was HDL. Both analyses confirmed that high HDL and low triglycerides went hand in hand and the higher the HDL, the predictably lower the risk of CHD. And this was true for every age group, both men and women and every ethnic group from Framingham to Honolulu and Puerto Rico. “Of all the lipoproteins and lipids measured HDL had the largest impact on risk,” Gordon and his colleagues wrote. For those fifty and over, which is when heart disease ceases to be a rare condition, HDL was the only reliable predictor of risk.
 
The “fragmentary information on what maneuvers will lead to an increase in HDL cholesterol levels,” Gordon and his collaborators, including Castelli, wrote in Circulation in 1977, “suggest that physical activity, weight loss and a low carbohydrate intake may be beneficial.” The italics are very much mine. The problem was a low carbohydrate diet was one that was high in fat and from 1977 onward we were being told to cut fat and eat carbohydrates instead. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

Scaled to 3 rounds
5 lay to stand rope climb 
5 wall walk with 5 sec hold
7:43

Option A, roughly: 10 strict pull ups (had no rope). 
9:10 (last four hspu kip). 

11:42

No rope...

3 RFT
9 close grip hanging knee C2B
9 kipping T2B
5 strict HSPU. Had to scale to box HSPU after 2 reps into the 2nd round. 

16:30. 
Legless rope climbs started from seated. Climbed down until standing (no leg-wrapping/jumping down). 
HSPU were done strict freestanding on a wrestling mat. 
Upper body is smoked!

Option A
2:57 RX 

Option A 7:40 raw hands

3 RFT of:
6 Legless rope climbs on 7 ft rope
5 strict HSPU
9:37

Started rope climbs on ground in L sit but didn't hold L sit to the top but remained legless

M/42/5'4"/145lbs
15 strict towel pull ups for the rope climbs. HSPU as Rx'd
4:25

I pulled 215# sled 45ft then piked my presses for 3 rounds in 3:50

Today was a life forced rest day. 

9:28 Option A rx’d 

Option A 
9:08 Rx 

Rested 5min

Option B 
10:33 Rx 

17:10 seated 8ft legless ropeclimb

13:11

Subbed
9 strict towel pull-up 
9 T2B
5 strict hspu

Time 6:47

11:38 rx 

Option A 
6:11
Subbed rope for 15 towel grip pull ups

6:45 option A: rope was just under 15’, likely 13’ or 14’. 

Option A, as rx’d, 4:15.

-Rest 3 minutes-

Option B, as rx’d, 10:42.

Thought it would be good to try both of these.  My deck makes it very challenging to do legless rope climbs to height, so I started these seated and climbed to 9 feet (bottom of the deck).  For Option B, I forced myself to do kipping HSPUs, because I am not good at them.  Was able to get them all unbroken except a couple times when I lost my balance and fell away from the wall.  Regular rope climbs felt so much easier after the legless!

45m/5'10"/180

5:28, RXd Option A - came off the wall on my last round of HSPUs after 3 reps.  Should have pushed to stay on.

Option A scaled:
3 rounds for time:
9 towel pull-ups (banded in an L Sit, this was really humbling)
9 ttb
5 handstand pushups with pillows underneath, maybe a 3 in space, getting the motion.  
Time:  16:13.  So excited to be seeing progress in my handstands!!!  This stuff works, y’all!  

Option A 4:46 Rx

M/44yo/5'8/#198
16:12 scaled to 
5 rounds
4 rope pulls (20ft./#135) 
50 ft. walking lunges (hurt pec during ring dips)

Scaled to Steven thunander above, and modified to 9 rope/towel pull-ups, 9 toes to bar, 9 hspu leg assist on TRX rack. 7:15

Did another 1000m row immediately after 4:09

Total time 11:24

Awesome workout share with some friends ! 4’32"

This essay of Coach's might be the single most important piece of CrossFit's core, its very heart, and is worth reading and re-reading. It holds true across time; it holds true across the spectrum of human activity - from gymnastics, to CrossFit, to BJJ, to knitting...it is a pure truth elegantly distilled.

11:22
Had to modify and throw a rope over an 8 foot pull up bar. Climbed from seated position no legs twice to count for one ascent. Had to use legs last round. Bicep killer! 

Option A
5:28 Rx

5 minute warm up assault bag
Option B   13:01
5 minute cool down assault bag

5:29
3 Rds
15 L-sit rope pull-ups 
5 Strict HSPU 

My rope is too short for me to climb, so I tried climbing it in an L-sit position from the ground. That didn’t work out, so did the L sit pull-ups on it. 

M/44/6'2"/185

Sub'd in a wod from @streetparking it's a lung burner...
12 min EMOM
7 KBS 55#
Max reps burpees
Score is total # of burpees I got 101

Anyone and everyone who loves The Games and The Open etc should listen to Tommy and Seans podcast "Talking Elite Fitness". Episode #1 has a lot of info that HQ isn't talking about. 

15 close-grip strict pull-ups (3 sets of 5)
5 wall-facing strict HSPUs
6:19
Late-round pull-ups were broken 5 / 3-2 / 2-2-1.

10-10-10-10-10 deadlift
215-225-235-245-215#

6:50 min RX.

Globo Mod:

5 Rounds:

Strict Weighted Pullups - 25lb dumbbell
Strict HSPU to 45lb plate

Didn't time, but continuous movement

options for those without a rope?

Intended Stimulus
.
We have two options today. Both should be short and strenous workouts. The first option will require a great amount of strength and stamina, especially for the rope climbs. Choose this option if you think you can perform all rope climbs under 1:30 each round. If you're not sure or can't do legless rope climbs, choose option B. Scale the number of reps so that you can finish the first three rounds under 2:00 each. For both options choose a number of HSPU you can do unbroken. Keep moving!
OPTION C
3 Rounds
5 Towel Pull Ups
5 Strict Box Handstand Push Ups
OPTION D
5 Rounds
5 Rope Pull Ups
5 Push Ups
15 Seconds L Handstand Hold

Check out @dotcomdcaked on Instagram for videos on modifications.

Option A: 4:55 RX

Option A 
3:43

Basement scale
3 rnds
with 20# vest
5 strict knee to chest pullups on rings
5 strict hspu
8:03
m/48/175
probably should have done 10 of the KTC/pull up, but the hspu were challenging. 2/2/1, 2/1/1/1, 1/1/1/1/1

Big progress in courage today, micro progress in skills. Thanks for the push, HQ! First time ever, I got one good rope assisted foot rewrap and arm pull, and first time ever got into an outward facing handstand against the wall from a standing position instead of an inward facing handstand against the wall from a plank! I tried strict HSPU and descended maybe half an inch.

6 min, scaled to 5 rounds of:
5 rep rope pull-ups (tuck position), 5 rep dumbbell press (44Ibs)

Subbed 
5 campus board ascents
5 strict HSPU
8:03

3 rounds of
- 5 rope lay 2 stand
- 5 wall walks
- 5 sh. press 40 kg

13:40

Took my time, no speeding, strenght excercise. 

Was my scaling good?

Love the new workouts on crossfit.com - i will give a try on todays wod

I will challenge our athletes to find how hard they can make the set of 5 HSPU.

Can they do them free standing, on the parallel bars, or the rings?

Using a wall will be discouraged.

Also rope climbs will be from seated.

And the rest is the art of scaling!

Hope everyone’s finished complaining now that they’re much fitter and the Mainsite is mixing it up a little. (Even options!?) 
#GarageGym w no rope access. My go to is 4 towel pull-ups with a knee tuck on each rep to mimic the lower body rise. Open to other substitutes but I will say, I think these are harder than one rope climb on the grip and if you have solid HSPUs, this is just a rope climbing WOD. 

To Steven, Chris, and Eric, I greatly appreciate the insight ya'll put here each day.  All are good, and I especially like the different perspectives you each bring to the WOD explanation and scaling/subbing options.  

As a physician that has worked with coronary patients and much more. It is know the prosses that the atheromatous plaque forms underneath the intimal layer of the vessels, as it get bigger it starts to die and it becomes unstable so it breaks and causes the myocardial infarction r the coronary artery desease. What is important of this article. It depends on the patient and the leves of cholesterol. not all patients needs  lowering cholesterol levels, just the ones that have coronary artery desease or the ones that have risk factors for it.

When coaching this workout I’m going to target option A and focus primarily on preserving the strict nature of the movements even if this means that intensity is sacrificed. Here are some thoughts on scaling option A:

Legless rope ascents- Though this is a moderate amount of rope climbs for higher level athletes, I know the majority of my clientele will need to scale this movement. I will try to preserve the legless demand of the movement per the capacity of each athlete. For athletes that have experience but the legless ascent is too demanding, an alternative could be to climb with the legs and perform the descent under control in a legless fashion. I will have most athletes perform 2 reps of this variation each round as the eccentric demand can be potent. It’ll be necessary to assess my athletes for competency of this variation prior to starting the workout to ensure safety. 
The rope climb performed from lying to standing will be another alternative for today. I can have my athletes modify their body position to increase or decrease the demand of the movement. Performing this variation with a straight body position and no leg assistance can be very difficult while a performing this variation with bent legs utilizing lower body assistance can decrease the difficulty. 
In special situations, where the above variations cannot be performed, I will modify the movement to some sort of “hand-over-hand” upper body pulling movement. This could be the utilization of a sled pull variation or performing a similar movement with a ring strap attached to a kettlebell to drag for approximately 50 feet. 

Strict handstand push-ups- I consider the volume of reps to be very low today, especially when compared to the legless rope climbs. 
That being said, a large portion of my athletes will scale to a controlled kipping handstand push-up and focus on an eccentric phase of 3-5 seconds to still preserve an element of the strict nature of the movement. 
Pike handstand push-up variations on the box can be a great option as athletes can modify their body position to increase or decrease the level of difficulty. For example, performing this variation with the legs straight and hips stacked over the hands can be very difficult, while performing this variation with the knees on the box would be less challenging. If necessary, I can also remove the box and have athletes modify to a pike push-up with feet on the floor. If an athlete absolutely cannot get inverted in any fashion, a strict dumbbell shoulder press will be my go to for the day. 

Champions Club Scaling Notes

STIMULUS: This is an interesting one. Option A looks lopsided at first glance because 3 legless rope climbs in a row are much more difficult that 5 strict handstand push-ups for just about anyone. But continuing with our “strict” theme, you can make the handstand push-ups as slow and controlled as you want. Wall-facing might be the best bet here because it helps 1) keep loading order — shoulders befor elbows, and 2) keep a hollow body position. Option B still looks a bit lopsided for the same reason. This is not an accident, though, so this is where I always give the benefit of the doubt to the HQ people who program this. Maybe we need to be spending more time pulling odd objects (or “Macroclimbing” as the classic article says). Maybe we need to not fry our overhead pushing out for something in the future. Maybe we just came off Fight Gone Bad and Elizabeth(ish) and it’s not bad to do something that doesn’t have super high intensity. Either way, this is one I’d do as close to rx’d as possible then adjust as I go. If you don’t have these movements down well, then practice both for quality.

GROUP: Since it’s not a benchmark and time doesn’t seem to be a big priority, I’d like to see a handstand hold/rope hold as subs instead of lay-down rope climbs of box hspu. Getting completely upside down and hanging on for dear life are two things that are difficult to simulate during a workout. For safety on legless rope climbs I like 1) not reaching to touch the top and 2) using the legs on the way down. Another option could be legless for as high as you can then finish with a leg-assisted climb. Workouts like this are difficult for me to do in a group because of the set numbers and rounds. So I like to change them to time priority. If I were to do this individually, here’s how we’ll do this for probably everyone except one of our athletes (Jay): AMRAP in 15 minutes: 30-sec. rope variation (hang/leg-assisted/legless), :30 handstand variation (hold/kipping/strict). The other option would be team workout. AMRAP in 15 minutes of 100-m run. One partner runs while the other works on one of the two movements for quality. If there is not enough ropes available, then try the strict pull-up variations you’ve been working on, only using an alternating grip.
Lastly, depending on how behind you are in the main site programming, this might not be a bad one to just have in your warmup for the entire week. We’ll be about 2 days behind when we get to this one, so we’ll see how it goes.

INJURY: This is a rough one if you have an arm injury. I’d save this for when you’re healed and do something with pistols and l-sits/hangs/hollow holds for about 15 minutes.

I’M SCALING THIS WELL IF: I don’t worry so much about going exactly 15 legless feet on the rope climb.

I’M SCALING THIS POORLY IF: I skip these movements altogether

GENERAL FEAR LEVEL (1=REST DAY, 10=PR-DRIVEN FGB): 3. Welcome break from the last two workouts, good opportunity to practice much needed things.

GENERAL EMASCULATING LEVEL (1=WHO DOES RING HSPU ANYWAY?, 10=THIS TEENAGE GIRL IS DEADLIFTING MORE THAN ME): 5. This is for two reasons: 1) things in CrossFit never look as easy as they appear on paper (I’m looking at YOU handstand push-ups) and 2) consecutive rope climbs are always rough.

Globo scale: 3 rft 9 strict towel pullups, 9 strict toes to bar, 9 strict hspu. If the towel pullups are not possible, use a tricep rope attached to a lat pulldown, rope full length, with a heavy weight. (15 reps or so)  Finally, if that is not possible, do 9 strict close grip pullups per rplound.  Do strict on this one if possible on the HSPU, use abmats or reduce reps.  If HSPU are not possible due to globo rules or no wall space, do heavy strict dumbbell presses.

Love it