"Down and Up"

For Time:

800m Run
30 Med Ball Cleans (20#/14#)
20 Pull-ups
10 Clean and Jerks (115#/75#)
400m Run
10 Clean and Jerks (115#/75#)
20 Pull-ups
30 Med Ball Cleans (20#/14#) 
800m Run

Results

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Clean and Jerk Sequence with Tara:

Tara_Clean and Jerk 1 Tara_Clean and Jerk 2 Tara_Clean and Jerk 3
Tara_Clean and Jerk 4 Tara_Clean and Jerk 5 Tara_Clean and Jerk 6

This morning was a little last minute change on the WOD due to logistics and not wanting to see too large a group crash on the pull-up bars. The original WOD (“Backwards” – one most of you who came in expected since it was on BeyondtheWhiteboard.com) will make an appearance soon but will be during the week when smaller classes can make it manageable. This chipper was more than a good substitute though! 

Want a yummy Paleo dinner? I posted this recipe the other night after we had it with Dallas and Melissa of Whole9. Well it was so good we had it again last night and paired it with a salad of mixed greens, strawberries, blueberries and pine nuts with balsamic and EVOO dressing. 

Whole9 Dinner redux

Notes:

How to Power Clean by Coach Burgener

How Not to Power Clean by Globo Gym Guy

"Diane"

For time:

21-15-9 Reps each of:
Deadlift (225#/135#)
Handstand Push-Up (Head to Floor)

Results

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Fran and the Pike Push-up: 

Pike Push-up

Benchmark day today. Combining handstand push-ups with deadlifts is an interesting combo that hits everything the faster you deadlift. Waiting for the shoulder strength to return becomes a frustrating game after the deadlifts tire you and the HSPU’s start to add up.

Watch the below video for a good low bar back squat. We will be learning those and high bar back squats on Wednesday! Get ready to get down in the hole!

Main Site WOD Demo with Chris Spealler [wmv] [mov]

Tonight after the last WOD Zach (pictured below) did us a huge favor by installing everything necessary to hang another set of rings for muscle-ups, skin the cats, etc. He also did two MU’s after he finished. If you see him give him high fives and chest bumps! The rings rock!

Zach hangs the rings

Notes:

CrossFit Belltown is hosting a nutrition seminar with Todd Widman Wednesday night (tonight!) at 6:30pm. Cost is $10 and I know at least a couple of you are attending as well as The Compound crew. Trust me it’s worth it. Put down the Bon Bon’s and Miller Lite and go!

"Tag Team"

In teams of 2 complete for time:

300 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)
Run 400m
* One team member swings while one runs 400m. Tag up after each run.
** Stop once you reach 300 swings, regardless of where the runner is.

Results

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Picture Perfect Swings:

KB Tag Team - 3


KB Tag Team - 2 KB Tag Team - 1

Checkout the Results pic for the quote of the day…

Back to back team WOD’s this weekend. It just seemed right to throw some teams together. “Tag Team” is a WOD we made up awhile back when we stayed overnight at our friends and had limited equipment for putting a WOD together in the morning. Having only a couple kettlebells made this a guys vs. girls match and a great workout for whoever could hit 300 fastest.

A funny thing happened after the WOD today. An impromptu WOD broke out! Nothing like a volunteer 2 a day! Graham wanted a little extra work and Don, Curtis and Jim jumped in. Then pretty much everyone chose to do a little “overkill” after the kettlebell swing tag team with a short 21-15-9 of pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups. I guess “Trevor” wasn’t enough…

Notes:

Welcome to Steve, Leia, and Scott (home from WSU for summer break) who finished Elements this past Friday! See you all in class soon!

What does coffee have to do with dancing goats? Read “15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee

For you distance runners, tri-freaks and just plain endurance folks:

CrossFit Endurance was featured in LA Sports and Fitness Magazine [pdf]

Death By Clean and Jerk

With a continuously running clock perform 1 Clean and Jerk (135#/95#) the first minute, 2 Clean and Jerks the second minute, 3 Clean and Jerks the third minute, and so on, continuing to add 1 each minute until you cannot complete the required number of reps in the given minute.

Score total rounds and partial reps in the last round completed. 


Results 


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Canada Day WOD Results


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Intensity takes on many faces:

“Amanda concentrating on the clock”



Amanda_Intensity


“Justin concentrating on his Blue Steel look”



Justin_Intensity

This WOD lives up to its name. After starting slow you suddenly find yourself racing the clock and as it adds up literally feels like death. Most underestimate this workout and overestimate the rounds they think they will get. To get to the later rounds you must overcome the voice screaming in your head to stop and just go after it with as high an intensity level as you can bring. I love these types of WOD’s because getting further along really demands an ability to move large loads fast and efficiently while also shutting out the pain. Getting that extra round means destruction, or at least having to really “go there”. 

Death by Clean and Jerk” with Mikko Salo, CrossFit Journal preview video [wmv] [mov]

Death by C and J 

Notes:

Saturday schedule is normal. Post sign-ups for 10am or just come to the 11am class! Monday will be a 10am class for all. 

Read “High” by Lisbeth Darsh of CrossFit Watertown:

It should look like this. Wreckage. Destruction. Annihilation. After “Power Cindy” you should look like somebody just pistol-whipped you or shoved a needle in your vein. 

You should be wrecked. And if you’re not? 

Then your pacing was off, your intensity level was too low, your plan was too measured.

CrossFit, done right, is like taking drugs…

 (continue reading High“)

I can totally identify with this. Post your thoughts to comments.

The Hierarchy of Elite Fitness…

Rest day today!

Fitness Pyramid

Each element is dependent on the foundation beneath it. If the foundation is not solid then all of the levels above it suffer.

Sport/Specialty:

Gladiators

Olympic Weightlifting:

Mike_Power Snatch Sequence - 3

Gymnastics:

Graham MU

Strength and Conditioning:

McGhee_Pat and Jim C

Nutrition:

Paleo Meal

Of course don’t forget to stretch and rest!

Solly

Speaking of foundations, remember that the foundation of most functional movements is the air squat (press and deadlift being the others). Build a better air squat and your foundation will get stronger for lifts (like the front and back squat, thruster, clean, overhead squat, snatch) and exercises (such as wall balls, lunges, med ball cleans, box jumps, kettlebell swings, pistols).

CrossFit Park City Air Squat Instruction video

Pulled Apart

AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 20 Minutes of: 
200m Run
12 Pull-ups
15 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95#/65#)

Results

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M Pulls:

M Sumos 

The sumo-deadlift high pull ideally develops powerful hip extension and strong shoulders and arms while training a proper deadlift body position (with wider stance) and balance and coordination. Focus on those cues to ensure proper execution and remember to extend those hips, immediately pull to under your chin, and finish with high elbows.

Good elbows Fran!

Fran SDHP

Notes:

“You can’t fish oil your way out of a bad diet.” ~ Melissa Urban, Whole9

That said, here’s the Whole9 and Robb Wolf Fish Oil Calculator to determine how many you need to augment your nutrition and your health.

Here’s a link to the Whole9 blog post covering our workshop last week.

The Compound Crew and SRCF Trainer’s WOD today:

Trainer's WOD

Hanging a Round

For Time: 

21 Hang Power Snatch (95#/65#)
800m Run
15 Hang Power Snatch 
800m Run
9 Hang Power Snatch 

Results

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Hang A Round

Hang Power Snatches are difficult. They take practice and require speed. To learn them and get better at them you should use a load that isn’t so heavy that it goes from power snatch to muscle snatch to ugly anyway anyhow overhead. After some instruction and practice today, everyone was able to practice with the PVC, then a bar, then add weight to determine the load at which technique broke down and the power snatch went out the window. From there everyone did a great job at dialing it back to maintaining a load that meant “power”.

Speaking of power, a friend sent this short article below along that gives a great perspective on scaling and why it’s fundamentally important to all of us as CrossFitters. 

Read: “Zatsiorsky, Scaling, and Power” by Jon Gilson from Again Faster

Also for those who want to know about simply the coolest game that everyone is playing, read more about how to: Play the Fish Game!

Sherry gets some “run support” while Deb gets extension: 

Run Support Deb_Power

Some of the crew representing at the Fall City Race this past Saturday:

Fall City Racers

Start Your Whole 30 Challenge!

(Saturday WOD)

5 Rounds For Time: 
400m Run
25 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)

Results

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Fall City 5k/10k Results

Med Ball Sequence with Sean:

Sean_Med Ball Clean - 1 Sean_Med Ball Clean - 2 Sean_Med Ball Clean - 3 Sean_Med Ball Clean - 4   

Yesterday was tons of people doing epic sh*t! There were 11 of you that ran the Fall City 5k/10k race, 8 of you that cleaned their way through the morning WOD, 2 who strung multiple muscle-ups, 33 who attended the Whole 9 Nutrition workshop, and over 50 plus that came to the BBQ afterwards. It was most definitely a success.  

For those who attended the workshop we think it was a great education and discussion from Dallas and Melissa around proper nutrition and its effects on the body. Understanding insulin sensitivity and inflammation and the foods that promote more or less of it is vital to truly eating for long term health and success. Just some of what we learned: balancing macronutrients and the best sources of them, what foods are net acidic or alkaline in the body, fueling both pre and post workout, the roles of food on healing, recovery, and performance, and how the impacts of a prolonged unhealthy diet can lead to a life of metabolic derangement. 

Take the Whole 30 Challenge and make the changes that will help you take charge and accountability to improving your overall fitness and health. Remember to make choices for quality in food and that just because it’s healthy doesn’t mean you are sacrificing deliciousness! We hope you enjoyed it, post your thoughts if you want!

Melissa and Dallas from Whole 9:

Whole 9 Workshop

Us and the Whole 9 Team

Thanks to everyone who came out and brought food and drink and hung out to witness our new ROWKILLA’s! That’s right we are crowning three people as Rowkilla, Jeremy D. who topped the fish game with a score of 2185 and young Ryan (Marc and Laura’s son below) who decided to row a 10k for an hour and 9 minutes and James (Pat and Steph’s son) who rowed a 5k while the rest of us ate BBQ. Nuts!

Ryan “Rowkilla”:

Ryan rows a 10k

Pop and Drop

Strength WOD:

Squat Clean
1/1/1/1/1/1/1

Checkout WOD:

For Time: 
Alternate 15/12/9/6/3 reps each of 
Burpees
Squat Cleans (95#/65#)

Results

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Heavy Metal:

Heavy Metal

“Cleans are truly an ideal exercise for every athlete in every sport.” – Bill Starr: Championship Olympic Weightlifting US Coach

Who loves the squat clean? This guy does! The full clean (or squat clean) is a great lift that hits the whole body. It’s highly technical, has a lot of moving parts, and quite possibly will never be “perfect”. This lift requires high skill and high levels of concentration. The demand on both the muscular system and nervous system are high, much higher than a “simple” lift like a deadlift. It wipes you quickly, and if the technique is not sound and the commitment to pull under the bar is not there, it will certainly limit reaching anywhere near your max poundage. Learning this movement is possible for all athletes; the key being practice, flexibility, speed and consistent effort. 

Burpees and PR’s:

Burpee_Kristen PR Yell

Notes:

Squatch has been traveling! North Carolina man claims he had a close encounter with “Bigfoot”

Two more reasons why CrossFit as a sport is truly entertaining to watch and cheer: Men’s Epic Match-up 2: Speal and Orlando 

"Pushing Helen"

3 Rounds For Time:

400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)
12 Handstand Push-ups

Results

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All warmed up and ready to go…

Ready Line

Synchronized Swings:

HSPU Helen

Handstand Push-ups and their variations:

  • Maintain a “hollow” position, think feet over hips over chest over hands, core tight with hips pulling into abs slightly.
  • Hands are flat and shoulder width to just slightly wider, fingers are splayed apart.
  • Point toes to the sky.
  • Hold the breath tight, lower yourself with top of head to floor (not forehead) and push up similar to a press, exhaling at the lockout position.

Scale using:

  • Pike floor push-up, keeping your legs as straight as possible, touching head to floor.
  • Pike push-up off of a box, keeping legs straight, top of head to floor. Adjust the height higher and walk your hands in closer to the box to increasingly place a larger load on the hands and shoulders to press or push-up.
  • Work your way to pike push-ups with feet on a wall then gradually being inverted with a full range of motion.

John and Jenna demonstrate:

John_HSPU  Jenna_HSPU off Box

Notes:

It’s not everyday you open the local paper and read about one of your clients. Autumn is a local web-lebrity! Read about her and her business partners endeavor with Macaroni Kid in the online version here.

If this video clip doesn’t get you motivated to hit the wod then what will?

The 2010 CrossFit Games, “Are You Ready?” [wmv] [mov]