Squatch

Jump, Swing and Wail

4 Rounds for Time:

25 Box Jumps (24″/20″)

25 KB Swings (53#/35#)

Followed by 200m Dumbbell Overhead Waiter’s Walk or as Jim nicknamed it, the “Statue of Liberty”. Carry a dumbbell (25#/15#) overhead while maintaining a locked out and active shoulder for 100m each arm.

This makes for great looks by the neighbors when people are carrying dumbbells around the corner. Travis telling my neighbor that all of you were going to go check our mail for us had me cracking up.

“One of these kids, is doing his own thing…”

BIg welcome to Amanda, Lyndi and Greg who all completed day one of Elements and their first Elements WOD with us today (2 x Rounds of Run 400m or Row 500m, 40 Squats, 30 Sit-ups, 20 Push-ups, 10 Pull-ups) . Great effort by all of you for pushing yourselves! That first WOD is deceptive and a good test of your fitness level. We will do this WOD again down the road and you’ll be amazed at your improvement. Here’s a couple pictures of the three of them in action.

"When Did It Click?"

Happy Sunday everyone! Here is an amazing story of how CrossFit changed a person’s life. More amazing though is this story is abundant in the CrossFit community.

Jason David is the co-owner of Motor City CrossFit. He went from a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle to finding CrossFit and using it to go from 247 lbs. down to 165 lbs. and 12% bodyfat. More importantly he is now doing something he loves everyday and is living healthy and fit.

Read his fitness journey here titled “When Did It Click?” on the Affiliate Blog.

"It's Good Stuff"

Uttered by Travis today during this WOD in a state of exhaustion and breathlessness (See below). This just had us cracking up.

Front Squat

3/3/3

Goal is to get max effort and weight for 3 reps per set of Front Squat. Followed by the WOD.

3 Rounds for time:

400m Run

12 Front Squat (95#/65#)

21 Knees to Elbows

Knees to Elbows proved the toughest aspect of this WOD. The devil of these is how they quickly degenerate into a “gorilla swing” if you don’t find a rhythm or reset yourself. That and the grip failure from hanging for so long.

Measuring Stick

For Time:

21-15-9

Pull-ups

Wallball (20#/14#)

Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95#/65#)

Neil during the WOD after his crash course in wall ball throws:

Why do we make you write down your WOD every time? Why do we keep that drawer of notebooks with your name on it? Simply because it’s your measuring stick. It’s the most basic element to tracking progress. You write it down. Once you write it down you can reference it for comparing past performance and pushing yourself to reach a new PR (personal record). When you need to know what your past load was for a particular lift, or time for a WOD, or weight for a med ball or kettlebell, it’s right there. If it’s a benchmark WOD that came up you can see what time you need to try and beat.

For us as your trainers it’s a record to see how far you have come, and help identify areas of weakness or undertrained skills. All of us have fitness goals, writing down our performance will actually help us see how short or far we have to go to realize them. So remember to write it down. Without it you are simply working out, not training.

On that note here are three different web resources for CrossFitters that allow you to enter and track your WOD’s. All are unique and have pros and cons but any one of them are excellent tools to have for things like entering workouts when on the road or away from the gym, tracking your performance, and for comparing yourself to other CrossFitters. I use LogsitAll.com and it’s great for me to see where I measure up to others. I like the others too and may end up trying them. Some support social networking applications which is a plus. Give them a look and if you sign up for them don’t think it gets you out of writing in your notebook!

Web Based:

LogsItAll

beyond the whiteboard

Noscrolls

iPhone app:

As Rx’d

Notes:

We are going to post a class schedule soon based on the most common times we are training all of you. Please try in advance to schedule class times that you can consistently make with us so that we are able to judge the number of people and prepare. We are going to cap the class WOD’s at 3 to 4 for now. If you can’t make the posted class just shoot us an email, text or call and we will do our best to accommodate you at a different time.

First timers will still be required to attend the first three sessions with us separately to learn the Elements or fundamentals (unless you are Level 1 certified).

Déjà Vu

Not the club. The WOD. Today’s WOD was “Cindy” rehashed; since all of you who came today missed the benchmark yesterday we felt it was only fair for you to experience it. First of all big props to Curtis for doing it prescribed and getting 11 rounds with full on kipping pull-ups today! Say goodbye to the band.

Deb, Adriana, and Deb also all had great efforts and are ready to say hello to the bands and move off from the jumping pull-ups. Deb and Adriana also doubled their previous output from when they did a “mini-Cindy” with 10 minutes. This shows progress as it means they were able to maintain their work capacity and intensity for twice the time while improving form and technique.

For some of you we will begin working on kipping technique for pull-ups. Whether you have a pull-up yet or not this is good for you to study, learn and practice both with jumping, using a box, or a band. As your strength increases and your coordination improves the “kip” will become second nature and you will learn to harness the power of your hips and core to getting that body over the bar. These are not “cheating”. Those who say kipping is cheating likely have never done them or done pull-ups at high intensity. Just ask Curtis if he thinks they are cheating.

Here is a great instructional video on kipping from Again Faster:

The Kipping Pullup – Part One from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

"Cindy"

As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) in 20 Minutes:

5 Pull-ups

10 Push-ups

15 Squats

“Cindy” is a benchmark named WOD that will make an appearance now and then. Deceivingly tough (aren’t they all) this bodyweight WOD is a killer. Jim rated this a “6 out of 10” on his new personal WOD ranking system. Ask him about his criteria. It’s a blend of how he thinks he performed as well as how tough or memorable the workout was. The higher the score the better. I think I want to pick the exercises from the lower scoring WOD’s as then I know they will be focusing on his weaknesses!

Congrats to Bridget, Neil and Sherry who finished their Elements today. While the learning never stops they now have the knowledge and experience with the basic foundational movements to build from.

Notes:

The Snoqualmie Railroad Days 10k and 5k Race is August 22nd. We are planning to get a team of us to go run, race, and represent. There is even a 1k kids race for the little future CrossFitters in our families. Afterwards we plan to have a Beer-B-Q at our place and have the gym open, stuff for the kids to do, and the CrossFit movie “Every Second Counts” for all to watch. Let us know if you are interested and come one come all. Mark it on the calendar now!

Yard Work

For Time:

400m Run

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5…1 Thrusters (95#/65#)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…10 Dumbbell Lawnmowers each arm (25#/15#)

400m Run

Alternate each exercise per round in an ascending/descending ladder format.

10 and 1, then 9 and 2, then 8 and 3, etc. For lawnmowers perform number of reps per arm.

Judging by your Lawnmowers most of you must hire someone to do your yard work! Seriously this movement is awkward and takes some practice. This tests your balance, agility and coordination along with your strength. How was that second 400m run? Anyone have jello legs?

Butterflies

7 Rds for time:

10 Burpees

10 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)

Today was progress for all of you. Bridget and Sherry both completed their second Elements session. Everyone drastically learned and improved their form with the medicine ball clean. After instruction and practice, the reps mounted as the WOD wore on and helped cement the technique. Michelle was also happy to get a boost from working out with the late crew.

Curtis, Jim and Travis all mentioned something similar today. They each commented that coming to CrossFit brings butterflies. The nervous energy, the anxious feeling, the partial dread and the feeling that they each had before a game or meet back when they played competitive sports. It’s a common feeling. The “gnawing in the pit of your stomach” feeling is almost universal to those who go to a CrossFit gym to do the workout of the day. I get it every time I am about to do a WOD, either here or at another box. Michelle does too. Wondering just what is going to be on the whiteboard becomes a recurring theme for many.

That anticipation is one of the draws for many about CrossFit. You get that butterfly feeling because you know it will be hard. You know it will require you to push, to work, to feel discomfort and pain, and that it is the key to results. Nothing comes easy. When you are finished however, you know that you earned it. No matter how you finish, you finished. You competed only against yourself. Sure you can try to beat others, but really you competed against your own body, against your own mind. You will stand taller the next day or feel good about yourself going home. You know that you are one day fitter.

Notes:

We regretfully will need to charge sales tax. Please help us remember when you pay your dues!

Shirts are ordered and will be in soon. We also have another design that rocks and will be adding a slogan on the back (“Brutal Fun” is the leading contender). For women we will also get tank tops. Design posted below. Post your comments and let us know what you think of it.

CrossFit in the Local News

The Seattle Times featured CrossFit today in their Pacific Northwest Sunday Magazine. The article is titled: CrossFit becomes an international phenom with its brutal online workouts.

I have to admit it was surprising to be standing in line at the Ridge IGA Market to see a picture of a guy holding a barbell with bumper plates on the upper corner of the newspaper. One look and I thought, “that’s gotta be about CrossFit”. Sure enough it was. Give it a read, it’s a good article with great examples of its growing appeal. Also nice to see was a video on the Seattle Times web page that covered the NW Regional Qualifiers last month.

“CrossFit is Brutal Fun”:

Quote of the Day by Fran Mason, CF Seattle Trainer:

“Working out day after day is like putting money in your 401k, literally we’re investing in our old age by doing this.”

The Proof Is In The Pudding

“Every time I suffer I am a better man because of it.” ~ Lance Armstrong

I have a new found respect for trail running. Particularly trail races. Today I ran the North Face Endurance Challenge 10k in Bellingham with a good friend. It was no joke. Basically for me it was an hour long WOD. Kind of like “Murph” without pull-ups and push-ups but the trail pounded my body anyway. It was a beautiful course, highly challenging, fast and constantly winds it way up and down. I think I prefer this type of running to pavement.

The course description was “Elevations bounce between 200 and 2,500 feet, but do not include any huge, sustained climbs. Rather, the course is always heading up or down. Traverses of broken ridgeline require nimble feet while highly technical sections demand mountain goat skills. Overall, an impressive trail-running test that delivers a balance of fire roads, single track, and double track”.

I would agree with all of that description except the part about not including any huge, sustained climbs. If you say a section of a mile and half of steep, sustained, hill climbing midway into the race that induces the effect of having just completed 100 squat cleans doesn’t count as huge and sustained then you must be one of the people who ran the marathon and ultra marathon distance!

That said I wanted to write this post really to share some observations I received and my reflection on how CrossFit benefited me. Previously being a more disciplined runner that tried to keep my running schedule and weekly mileage consistent I have recently found less time to run daily or to run far. I have relied more on CrossFit for the cardiorespiratory endurance benefit it provides knowing that it would serve me well when needed.

I finished well with a time that for myself was pretty satisfying (40th place out of 179 runners at 1:01). I was smoked at the end of the race with pretty tired legs from the pace coupled with the pounding of flying down sections of trail to try and either catch my running partner or briefly keep him behind me. He easily beat me by a minute and was a very respectable 33rd. The difference between us is he doesn’t CrossFit but is a long distance runner. He most recently was training for a marathon and had up until a couple weeks ago been logging very heavy mileage preparing for a race. I was not. This is not to take anything at all away from him as a runner. Actually it’s the opposite. He really dominated the race well. He is runner that excels in longer distances. The fact that I could keep up with him is a testament to CrossFit knowing I have been relying on running from WOD’s sprinkled with the occasion 2-4 miler here and there.

Which is what leads me to the point of this post, CrossFit works. It specializes in not specializing. It prepares you for a wide range of physical challenges. It’s ability to increase your functional fitness and work capacity such that you can tackle a race, a sport, or physical challenge is amazing. The effect the daily WOD has on your mental toughness is powerful. CrossFit prepared me well enough as an athlete that I was able to accomplish this race today with minimal running preparation and to do it competitively. When I needed it today it was there.

Notes:

That said, we have Curtis and Deb in for the Snoqualmie Railroad Days Run with us on August 22nd. Who else is with us? Race info is here.