"Frogger"

For Time:

400m Run 
21 Dumbbell Push Press (40#/25#)
21 Broad Jumps (6’/5′)
400m Run 
15 Dumbbell Push Press 
15 Broad Jumps 
400m Run 
9 Dumbbell Push Press
9 Broad Jumps

Results

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   Quote of the day: 

5 Yr. Old Audrey to Sean and Jenna as we are heading to the airport: “Why is the gym guy in our car?”

Sean and Jeremy get their Mobility WOD on with some tools of torture:

Mobility WOD

Who’s doing a Mobility WOD each day or each time they come into the gym? Flying into Denver today for the CrossFit USAW Open with Sean was a perfect opportunity to try out the plane mobility WOD (Surviving the Airplane Seat). After some reading, computer work and a cat nap I decided to work on my “business” and get the kinks and soreness out from a week of abuse from some tough WOD’s. With my trusty lacrosse ball in hand I proceeded to make the two people in my row really unsure just what the heck I was doing. By the time we landed though I had worked several areas and felt none of the customary tightness I get when flying. If you travel, try it. Buy a lacrosse ball and throw it in your bag. Your body will thank you for it.

Sean catching a cat nap. He is taking this event so seriously he won’t stop wearing his singlet everywhere.

Sean Napping in his singlet

By the way he lifts on Saturday tentatively at 2 pm after a 12pm weigh-in. Watch it LIVE.

"Burpee Hell"

10 Rounds for time:

10 Pull-ups
10 Burpees

Results

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Compare to Dec ’09 and April ’10

Coaches Round

 
Nan_Burpees Couples Burpees 

The third time’s a charm. Today we tackled this brutal couplet for the third time. It was also “Burpee Wednesday”. As Cristin noted recently that we have been doing lots of burpees usually right in the middle of the week. I told her once someone notices a pattern in the programming I try to change it. My change? Throw more burpees back into Wednesday. Remember to keep those jumps high, hands clap overhead and not in front, and hips open at the top. You can’t fail a burpee!

I am off to the CF/USAW Open to root Sean on! This will be an amazing and fun event and I’m personally stoked to see Sean chase a PR in his Oly lifts. Look for updates after his heat is complete on Saturday.

Miranda Prepares for the CrossFit/USAW Open [wmv] [mov]

Yay Thrusters!

Strength WOD:

Thruster

3/3/3/3/3

Check Out WOD Immediately After:

As Many Rounds As Possible in 10 Minutes:
3 Thrusters (95#/65#)
5 AbMat Sit-ups
10 Double-Unders

Results

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Cristin getting strong:

Cristin Thruster 

Quote of the day: “Today is my 1 year anniversary, 162 WOD’s.” ~ Marc

“That is a lot of time to spend with Tom.” ~ Jenna

Congrats to Marc for hitting his 1 year anniversary with us and CrossFit. Some brief highlights: Marc is able to do quite a few new things from when he started; run a 7 minute mile, jump a 24″ box, squat full depth, lift obscene amounts of weight, do push-ups, and almost do a pull-up compared to a year ago. He has completed three nutrition challenges and switched to a Paleo diet. He’s lost 60+ pounds, is no longer on statins, BP and resting heart rate all within normal, bodyfat significantly down, lean muscle mass up, and has a totally new wardrobe!

Before (1 year ago):

Air Squat - 1 Marc Intro WOD

After:

Marc_AbMat Marc_Thruster

Food For Thought:

Celiac Disease Can Develop In Adults – LA Times

Celiac Disease – Wikipedia

Fueling for Performance – Chef By Request

Coverage of the CrossFit/USAW Open:

The CF/USAW Open Will Stream Live For Free

Tour of the Resort [wmv] [mov]

A Month of Awesomeness

Bars

Get ready for a week of burpee-licious training! AND a month of Awesomeness…

Yesterday Michelle, Moe and I all completed the CrossFit Movement and Mobility Cert and learned a ton. We look forward to bringing it back to the box and sharing with you all. Rest assured that we will be emphasizing proper warm-ups, pre-WOD stretching and mobility and after-WOD recovery. Do that Mobility WOD for extra credit, it’s one click away over on the right side of the page.

Bottom line: Take care of yourself so you don’t have to have someone else taking care of you.

October:

1-3 October USAW/CrossFit Open in Colorado Springs will be held at Cheyenne Mountain Resort and Sean will be competing on Saturday!

  • Event will be 3 attempts each at 1RM of Snatch and Clean and Jerk (Standard Oly Lifting Event) followed by a CrossFit Triplet: 10 Min. AMRAP of 6 Cleans, 12 Pull-ups, 24 Double-Unders
  • The event will be beamed over the internets! Grab some friends and watch the LIVE Webcast
  • Matt and Cherie Chan demo the CF Triplet [wmv] [mov
  • Friday night will also be head to head competition of “Isabel” (30 Power Snatches for time) between Josh Everett and Dave Lipson; both of whom have sub 1 minute times on record

16 October (Sat.) – “Barbells for Boobs” at King CrossFit from 8:30am to 11:30am 

  • Part of breast cancer awareness month, “Amazing Grace” is a fundraiser sponsored by the CrossFit Journal to benefit Mammograms in Action
  • We are teaming up with King CrossFit in Renton and we are going to their box for this workout for the Saturday WOD. Come represent SRCF!
  • WOD is “Grace“: 30 Clean and Jerks for time (135#/95#) as RX’d
  • Please RSVP
  • There will be NO Saturday class at SnoRidge on 10/16 as we will all go to King

30 October (Sat.) – “Frankenchipper” Halloween WOD at the box from 10am until 12pm

  • Same WOD as last year
  • Costume required (you will do the WOD in it too)!

Swingers

4 Rounds for Time:

400m Run
25 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)

Results

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Swing away people!

Swing and run

Pistol at Andrews AFB Tactical Fitness Center, MD (i.e. CrossFit gym) after a drop-in for a WOD:

Andrews Pistol

Sitting on the plane the other day as my daughter was crashed out on my lap and keeping me pinned in a semi-torturous position that almost sent me into the “pain cave” I had two options: 1) Wake her up and move her or 2) use the time to myself to self reflect and jot down some blog topics on my iPhone. I picked #2. Having just finished my Outside magazine earlier I had read an article in which the author laid out his “plan or formula for life”. It was simple yet striking at the same time. I thought it was a good read and I dog eared the page to come back to it at some point. Little did I know that the pretzel like position my frame was forced into on the airplane by my seat-hog 5 year old would be a good time to come back to it. I started pecking away on my notepad app and thinking about what it is that I think is a solid formula and one I want to both practice and pass onto my daughter.

My Formula for life:

  1. Engage in intense and hard-ass daily exercise. Intense and hard are relative terms. Your intense and hard may be different than mine, but you alone know when it isn’t either. I do it 6 days a week. Sometimes 5 or even 7 days. It’s important to me because when I have a good workout I usually have a good day.
  2. Fuel and feed yourself with real, quality food.Avoid the crap; the junk food. The stuff that a cartoon character says is healthy or a diet program tells you is worth “points”. I don’t eat for “points”. Simply put, when I eat right I feel right and I have enough energy to stay alert and ready for whatever may come. When I fuel my body this way I can also allow the occasional cheat which makes it all the more an epic experience or memory. I also can take comfort knowing I will live longer and healthier for my loved ones. That alone is worth it.
  3. Choose a good partner and surround yourself with good people and friends. This keeps your heart big, your attitude right and your course correct. (I’m beyond blessed here)
  4. Have goals and dreams. Set goals regularly and don’t be afraid to dream big. Then chase after them. Big goals or small goals do not matter. What matters is the habit you create that will breed success more often than failure. At a minimum it will make you focus on your successes.Whether they are here in the gym, at work, or at home try to achieve them one at a time. Me? I have more goals than I have time to tackle them all. I make lists. I have gym goals and life goals. In fact I need to complete my goal of documenting the 100 things I want to do before I die (I have 67 written down so far).
  5. Work hard and Seize the day.Carpe Diem! Give 100% but don’t forget to have fun. Work hard, give it your best effort but don’t forget to enjoy it and make memories. Balance is key. I struggle here. 😉

Notes: 

Gym is closed on Monday for Labor Day! If you need a WOD to do check out the “Travel WOD” list over on the left side of the site under “Resources”.

Want to learn to climb a rope? Practice. Learn technique. Don’t ignore it. Even the best showed that neglecting those hard skill movements can bite you down the road. Plus rope climbing is just fun! Learn a style and practice in the box.

Mikko Salo Rope Climbs 

Video [wmv] [mov]

Row, Run, Jump

For Time:

1000m Row
1 Mile Run

50 Double-Unders

Results

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Jana, Lucy and Pat row, run and jump:

Row Run Jump

First off I want to point out that yesterday Tara got her first callous tear on her hand after completing 35 RX pull-ups during the WOD! Great accomplishment on the pull-ups and keep working towards ditching the band!

Keep the inputs on the schedule options coming! See yesterday’s post and please post to comments. We are gonna tally these and look at what to implement ASAP. Early consensus is to leave the 6am as is for now and add a 7:30am and 6pm class 1-2 times a week. The move to a 9am class will be for sure once our daughter starts school in a month.

Tomorrow’s “go time” is 10am. It will be a team WOD so prepare to pair up and get work done! After the WOD for those interested I will give some POSE running instruction, run some drills and then have you all practice. 

Notes:

The Inaugural CrossFit/USAW Open is this October 1st-3rd in Colorado Springs. This is the first competition event between CrossFit and USA Weightlifting and will feature a sanctioned weightlifting meet of 1RM Snatch, 1RM Clean and Jerk and a CF Triplet that is an AMRAP of squat cleans, pull-ups and double-unders. Competitors will be scored on total load (kg’s) plus reps in the triplet. Many CF’ers are signing up and a few of the top CF’ers from the Games are expected to compete. 

SnoRidge will be represented very well by our very own Sean! I’ll be helping him train and accompanying him to the Cheyenne Mountain Resort to help cheer and watch him display awesomeness on a regular basis. Wish him luck and be sure to remind him to practice his jerks and snatches daily.

Ever done the benchmark WOD “Isabel”? 30 reps for time of power or full (squat) snatch. Most choose power. Load is 135 lbs. for men and 95 lbs. for women. How long would that take you? For most it’s easily a few minutes if not upwards of ten or more. How about 56 seconds?

Dave Lipson “Isabel” [wmv] [mov]

"Kettle Corn"

With a continuously running clock perform 2 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#) every minute on the minute, adding two rep to the previous total each minute. Continue until you can no longer complete the required number of reps in that given minute. 

For example, complete 2 kettlebell swings the first minute, 4 the second, 6 the third, 8 the fourth and so on. 

Score completed rounds and partial reps. 

Results

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Fran and her kettlebell sneak attack:

Kettlebell Fran

This type of WOD almost always has you saying as you read the whiteboard: “Really, that’s it?” Every minute on the minute WOD’s (or EMOM) always start nice and easy. Plenty of time, no worries, you standing there wondering if you will really get a good workout. Then it’s like opening a fire hydrant or sticking your head out of the window of a moving car. It just blasts you. You go from easy, to pacing it, to high intensity just like that. You want to tap out, call it good and not squeeze out those last couple of reps that gets you into another round. 

Listening to the late afternoon crowd talk before the WOD about how many rounds each would get was entertaining. What was more entertaining was that Fran snuck up on everyone and kept going round after round. Everyone cheered her on as the reps and seconds passed. Not really different than any workout on any given day, but it was still fun to watch.

Notes:

Ever wonder what’s the fuss about Omega-3 Fatty Acids? Came across this article from Rainier CrossFit. Give it a read and it will hopefully be another piece into the common sense explanation for why western society suffers obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and a host of other auto-immune diseases. Consider incorporating this important fat into your diet and cut back on the sources of Omega-6’s. Don’t fall for clever marketing and believe everything you read in the grocery store. 

Omega-3 Deficiency May Be Hurting Our Hearts

Going on vacation? Or a business trip? Need a WOD?  Look on the right hand side of the page and click on the “Bodyweight WOD LIst” link under Travel WOD’s.

"Grace"

Day 2 of our Benchmark Week.

For Time:
30 Clean and Jerk (135#/95#)

Results

Deb

This one is fast. Sub 10 minutes for most people scaled or prescribed. This Olympic lift is designed to produce a lot of power and thiry reps for time will ensure you get a very good workout. The key is working to a heavy enough weight that you are able to feel the “jerk”. Too light and you will either press or push press it up and the clean will be too easy. Some of you found that out today. 

We will make today a baseline and issue a Grace Challenge. Everyone who wants to participate can throw in $5 to the pot, do this WOD (if you didn’t today) and set their baseline. One month from now we will do it again and most improved wins the pot (either by time or by advancing the farthest from scaled to RX’d, coaches excluded).

We also had a traveling CrossFitter named Russ from Alamo CrossFit drop in for a WOD today. Russ has been doing it for a year now and is in law enforcement and resides in San Antonio, TX. While on vacation here he decided to drop in and crush Grace and get on our leaderboard! A very cool and humble guy who breathed fire on the bar on his way to a 4:14 minute Grace time (RX’d). It was another reminder of the CrossFit community that you can almost always travel somewhere and still find a box that will gladly let you come in and get a workout.

Russ and “Grace”:
Russ C&J
Russ with Us

For those who travel, think about checking for a CF affiliate and contacting them ahead of when you go to see their policy on dropping in. It’s a great way to stay on your workout schedule, get exposure to different gyms and coaches, and above all meet great people!