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"If you love your freedom, thank a vet". As we celebrate our country's independence it is important to remember those who have brought us that freedom and keep it for us. Today we're highlighting one of Primal Fitness / American Parkour's newest members "Smitty". Smitty is in the Army stationed in Bagdad, Iraq. To be more specific:
1LT Nicholas Smith, FOB LOYALTY, Baghdad, Iraq. Unit: Apache Troop 3rd
Squadron 89th Cavalry. Smitty came to us recently wanting to learn more
about Parkour as he knew that it would be directly applicable when he
goes into law enforcement after his deployment. He's been working hard
at the American Parkour
WOD's to build up conditioning and will begin Parkour training next
week. Smitty has been following along with CrossFit for a while now and
also has some martial arts experience. He can be seen here this week
after a sandstorm doing dive-bombers at the base. Read more for a few
quotes from Smitty about his progress and click on the images for
slightly larger versions. Primal Fitness - Proudly Serving Those Who
Serve.
 
A few excerpts from Smitty's emails
June 27, "Im going to be going into law enforcement after this deployment and I
can see the practical applications of parkour as a definite obviously
must have. My short term goals are to be over the ape vault by the end
of this deployment and long term goals would be the ability to wall
run. I practice quadruped movements (bear crawl, gallops, gorrilla
crawls) in the gym where we have open space and I also warm-up on the
pull up bars (swings/kips, etc..) Again I appreciate your help man."
June 27 (12 hours later) "I understand what you are talking about the internal benefits, I study
American Kenpo right now, and the rewards have been far more than just
physical. Its been philosophical, spiritual, and educational..and I
could probably go on forever." -- "I have been following the main crossfit website for about a year and
some change now. I can hardly do a L-Sit let alone an L-Pull up and I
normally trade those for regular pull-ups (of the kipping variety). My
handstand Pushups, I trade-off for incline pushups most of the time. Im
workign on my handstands and I've managed to get one GOOD Handstand
pushup. But, Im definitely no quitter."
"I drink about 5-6 liter bottles of water (it gets up to 115 degrees over here) daily."
June 28 "Finished Greasing the Groove with my L-Sits and HSPU.
Throughout the
day my L-Sits got better I actually had them out straight at a 90
degree angle for about 1:30 I did a total of 8 minutes." -- "Im gonna
go ahead and knock out the Fran Helen mix workout from the Crossfit
main site"
June 29
APK Warmup 10:10
"I pulled this one out of the archives on the APK Website and figured I
would stick with these workouts for awhile. The run started out SAWEEET
I actually got lost in it and ran an extra 100M before I realized that
I was only supposed to do 400M so. When I got back to the box, my lungs
were already feeling like I was inhaling from a blow dryer. My box jump
has improved drastically, I've added about an inch and can string 7
consecutive jumps before my legs start feeling the FUNK. The pushups
were a little bit more difficult coming off of the HSPU's yesterday but
I managed to slice them up into 10 - 15 increments up to 25. And the
pull-ups were no sweat until the 4th round when I started really suckin
air. I could feel my forearms and wrists throbbing as i was diggin in
with the fingers to hold on. But working on my butterfly KIP has really
helped out and chopped time off of my pull-ups." -- "I dunno if it was the L-Sits or what but I woke up this morning like i
got a Chuck Norris Roundhouse to the stomach, felt great after
stretching but DAMN!!! My legs felt more fresh though which helped out
in my sprints and box jumps."
July 2 "
APK Warmup 9:05
The cool thing about the warmup today was I did it relatively quickly
and worked up a good pre-sweat, but I was able to recover faster than
usual. Only took me about 3 minutes to get my breath back and then I
waited the extra 2 minutes like you told me to, for 5 minutes of total
rest." -- "
So yeah this was one of those where I forgot a cardinal rule of crossfit (whatever looks relatively easy is relatively not)
The Twisting Lunges were awesome. I have done normal walking lunges but
the extra twist for balance was MURDER!!! I felt the stabilizing
muscles in my legs going CRAZY. Pushups are getting easier I was
crankin em out like nothing. The Burpee Broad Jump was tough at first
and I had to go to my happy place to keep goin. After the first 10 I
was suckin air pretty good so I would do the Burpee and then pick a
point that I would "shoot for" so in case I missed it I still put MAX
effort into my broad jump. I was pretty impressed though I was able to
jump to every point that I had picked out. Pull-Ups were still no issue
I love the Butterfly Kip that method is the straight up POOP!!! I had
fumes left when it came to the sprints it was more like a trot with a
little extra effort. I haven't done Dive-Bomber Pushups since college
and it was definitely a re-education. I'll need to work more on those
today.
I attached some pictures from the workout today. Yesterday we had a
huge sandstorm so If your wondering why I'm covered in mud and sand
it's cause my Dive bomber PUs had me goin lower than snake shit and the
sand was still a little bit fresh."
July 3
APK Warmup: 8:08
"Blew through the warm-up with relative ease and recoverd just as
quickly. I broke up Annie into 4 rounds of 25. Before when I was doing
the WOD's I never really timed them I just did them as fast as I could
but now that Im actually Timing them I'm starting to push myself a
little harder now, and it feels a lot more satisfying trying to beat
yourself and beat my old times. Nothing really significant about each
exercise performed. On squats I tried to do them as fast as could with
the same form and again felt was pretty good amount of work done evenly
throughout my legs (Hamstrings/Quads/Abductors/Adductors)."
July 4 APK Warmup 8:08
"That Bubblemaker's Revenge was a SMOKER thats for sure." -- "I
didn't want to cheapen the workout by jumping on the treadmill so a
little bit of time was wasted in transition time from the dips to the
run. It was a small parking lot and I like I said I did a bit of
shuttle run work which added to the suck definitely. My pistols are
improving and I think I have to thank the L-Sits for that. My
non-squatting leg was out and up the entire time (give or take a few
reps where I was gasping for air) but my butt was dusting the ground on
each rep though and I was able to cocncsciously keep my leg straight
and up throughout the exercise."
"
Hope you guys have a Happy 4th of July as well. - Smitty"
Thanks Smitty, you're an inspiration for damn sure!!
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