Garage Gym With Dan Bailey

Winner of the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games Open, Dan Bailey splits his time between CrossFit Legacy and his own garage gym. Get a peek into Bailey’s personal gym at his family’s home in Uniontown, Ohio.

One of the bald patches on Bailey’s lawn is where he has trained long hours with a heavy kettlebell. Bailey admits the kettlebell was a weakness coming out of regionals last year, so he bought the 70-lb. bell and told himself, “Now that’s all you get to use.”

Bailey’s backyard training ground also includes a wooden pull-up bar complete with exposed nails to test “the accuracy component of CrossFit.” Using what he has on hand, Bailey’s outdoor “plyo boxes” are stacked landscaping beams.

Inside the garage, Bailey shows off his equipment, including a Rogue yoke. But it’s his homemade gear that shows how important functionality is to the former sprinter. He constructed a plyo box with his father, hung a plumber’s pipe for pull-ups and rings, and bound together wooden planks lined with scavenged tire rubber to protect the concrete floor during Olympic Lifting. He also created his own bumpers using spare tires filled with sand, and he filled a basketball with sand for his wall-ball.

8min 57sec

Additional reading: Smart Shopping for Your Home Gym by Matthew Hall, published Sept. 9, 2009.

Charisma Carpenter Hilarie Burton Kelly Carlson Sara Foster Natassia Malthe

CrossFit Kids Tips and Tricks: Promotion

Jeff and Mikki Lee Martin explain how to run a CrossFit Kids promotion.

CrossFit Kids has had the good fortune to be invited to present our program in several different major venues as well as the opportunity to support local affiliates with various promotions.

We would like to present some guidelines that have helped us enjoy successful events. What follows are some of the ways you can ensure kids have a great, safe time and parents learn exactly what their children are doing—and where they can go to do more!

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Feldman Update: ESPN plays dumb, Twitter declares victory, everyone goes home confused

For more background on Bruce Feldman's suspension, see here.

Behold, the power of social media: Roughly 20 hours after certain corners of Twitter began to simmer and then explode with outrage over the apparent suspension of ESPN reporter Bruce Feldman for anti-ESPN comments by former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach in a new memoir that Feldman wrote in Leach's voice ? with ESPN's permission ?�ESPN has officially asked the crowd to disperse in a brief, three-sentence statement. Nothing to see here, folks:

"There was never any suspension or any other form of disciplinary action. We took the time to review [Feldman's] upcoming work assignments in light of the book to which he contributed and will manage any conflicts or other issues as needed. Bruce has resumed his assignments."

He has returned to his assignments, from which he ? uh, never left. Move it along.

Friends of Feldman who rallied to his defense on Twitter under the #FreeBruce hashtag are taking a brief afternoon victory lap in honor of the power of social media, which spread the initial story so far, so fast that the bureaucratic machine at ESPN didn't even have time to announce it before it was forced into "spin" mode. ESPN execs would very sincerely like us to take the statement at face value, conclude that the "suspension" was never anything more than an irresponsible rumor run amok and throw the entire episode down the memory hole. Which, in all honesty, we probably will. But don't forget, either, that ESPN also turned down multiple requests for comment from high-profile college football reporters on Thursday night, and put the entire operation ?�including Feldman, an active tweeter ?�on lockdown about the meme for almost 24 hours. It doesn't take that long to clear up an irresponsible rumor.

But the end result is what the hash-tagging masses wanted: A well-liked, well-respected reporter is back on the job. The vigil is over. Now get back to work.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Asia Argento Charisma Carpenter Hilarie Burton Kelly Carlson Sara Foster

Inside R.A.W. Training

Take a tour of CrossFit R.A.W. at R.A.W. Training with co-founder Amy Butteri. The box is located in Wildwood, Penn., and started in an indoor soccer field adjoining their gym space. In addition to the field, the training facility now includes multiple rooms and 42 acres of land outside. In each room there is a pull-up structure—one is from Rogue, and the other was fabricated by one of the coaches.

Butteri shows off the equipment, including a reverse hyper and a harness attachment to learn movements on the rings. CrossFit R.A.W. also has more specialized equipment like chains, bench blocks, atlas stones, a Woodway Speedboard treadmill and even two suspended baseballs for alternative-grip pull-ups.

Inside an adjoining room called “The Chamber,” another open space of 5,000 square feet is available to athletes. In this room, wall-ball targets adorn the walls, and med-balls and slam balls lie in wait. Platforms with attachments for band deadlifts also line the floor.

“The variety and the stimulus never ends here at R.A.W. Training,” Butteri says.

6min 44sec

Additional audio: CrossFit Radio Episode 172 by Justin Judkins, published May 18, 2011.

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World of WODs No. 5: Sacramento, Calif.

Creative CrossFitters create new workouts every day. Blair Morrison continues the search for signature workouts from around the world.

“I could totally do a pull-up on that branch.”

CrossFit changed the way we view the world. Tree branches became pull-up bars, picnic tables turned into plyo boxes and swing sets seemed like great places to hang a set of rings. And that rock over there? You should probably overhead squat it.

Indeed, all the world is a CrossFit gym with the right pair of eyes and a little creativity. This article is the fifth in a series where we’ll publish some of the best workouts from locales around the world, giving residents and travelers a chance to test their fitness outside the box. In this installment, Blair Morrison gives you a chance to throw down on what used to be Schwarzenegger’s turf.

If you have a set of landmarks, natural features or outdoor “equipment” suited for a great WOD, please view the submission guidelines on the last page of this article—then send us your workout!

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Booted Maryland lineman allegedly punched bar manager in the face

New details are beginning to surface about the "team policies" Maryland offensive lineman Justin Lewis broke that led to his dismissal from the team earlier this week. Lewis turned himself in to authorities Tuesday in response to a second-degree assault charge levied against him by a manager at a bar in College Park.

According to Alain Parcain, the manager at RJ Bentley's, Lewis punched him in the face for "looking at his girl."

In a statement of charges filed with the District Court in Prince George's County, Parcain said he "was assaulted by the defendant, leading to facial trauma, emergency room and dental work. Defendant told witnesses I was 'looking at his girl.'

Parcain said in the statement that he was not working at the time of the incident, which he said occurred at about 2:30 in the morning on June 26.

Parcain stated: "I did not know the defendant. He came up to me inside the bar, made his accusation and struck me in the face with his fist. This led to two teeth being knocked loose and several lacerations inside my mouth. I required a root canal to repair the tooth."

Parcain also wrote: "I was not looking at other females at the time. Football teammates pointed out that the defendant's 'girl' was not even at the bar..."

Lewis, who was a redshirt junior, started 12 of 13 games last season, but missed spring football because of offseason knee surgery. Lewis was supposed to be a key component at right guard for an offensive line that was returning everyone except center Paul Pinegar.

Maryland has seen its share of defections and dismissals since coach Randy Edsall took over the program. The Terps opened the 2010 season with 37 scholarship sophomores and juniors, but just 24 remain as the 2011 season approaches.

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Kansas? latest below-the-radar recruit has an unusual story

Seldom has a recruit taken a less traditional path to Kansas than 6-foot-7 small forward Merv Lindsay.

In April, Lindsay was a lightly recruited senior without a scholarship offer. Now the Moreno Valley, Calif. native is days away from beginning summer classes at one of the nation's most prestigious basketball schools.

Lindsay signed a grant-in-aid offer with Kansas on Wednesday, ending a whirlwind two months that began with him considering going to prep school next year and later included a short-lived commitment to Texas Tech. Once he backed out of that, other schools began to show renewed interest and Lindsay chose the Jayhawks over Marquette.

"Everything just happened so fast," Lindsay told the Kansas City Star on Wednesday. "My freshman year, everybody said they wanted to go to Kansas. But at a certain point, you've got to be more realistic with yourself. If you asked me three years ago would I be at Kansas, I'm like, no. But now that it's happening, I guess it's meant to be."

What helped Lindsay attract attention from schools that initially ignored him was the decision to participate in the spring AAU circuit, something even uncommitted seniors rarely if ever do.

According to the Star, Lindsay played in tournaments in Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Dallas in April. In that time, he showcased the long-range shooting prowess that had been his trademark as a senior at Canyon Springs High when he averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds for a team that won a share of its league title.

Lindsay is the ideal symbol of Kansas' unusual 2011 recruiting class. The Jayhawks missed on high-profile top targets LeBryan Nash, Austin Rivers and DeAndre Daniels, so they're gambling that several below-the-radar late additions can make a difference, from Lindsay, to LMU transfer Kevin Young, to power forwards Jamari Traylor and Braeden Anderson.

In the past two years, Kansas has experienced limited success with one-and-dones, losing both Xavier Henry and Josh Selby after one season apiece -- an underwhelming one in Selby's case. It's too soon to say whether the less heralded players will prove more successful for Kansas, but Lindsay believes it may be a blessing in disguise.

"Unranked guys sometimes work the hardest because they've got something to prove," Lindsay told the Lawrence Journal-World. "The difference between me and maybe some top-ranked recruits ... I don't feel like Kansas should be happy to have me. I'm happy to be there. Like I told Tyshawn (Taylor) and Thomas (Robinson), I will do everything I can to help them, to help us, win a national championship."

Deanna Russo Cheryl Burke Olivia Wilde Paulina Rubio Kirsten Dunst