Useful Links – Page 61 – SNORIDGE CROSSFIT

"Karabel"

10 Rounds for time:
3 Power Snatch (135#/95#)
15 Wall Balls (20#/14#)

Results

“Karabel” is a mash-up benchmark WOD. Taking Karen (150 Wall Balls at 20# men/14# women) and combining it with Isabel (30 Snatches at 135#/95#) creates this little monster that ends up with the same number of reps but with a different approach. There are several ways you can mash benchmark’s together or mix them up and a couple are in the programming in the next month or two. Look for possible rowing, team, or heavy variations and maybe even a backwards version. The possibilities are almost endless.

Notes:

Traveling? If you are gone for business or vacation don’t forget to consider fitting in a WOD. You can download a list of Bodyweight WOD’s here on our site (right hand side) to use or think about looking for another CrossFit Affiliate to drop in on. The experience of visiting another box on the road is a bunch of fun and good exposure to the rest of the community.

Go get a massage! It’s worth it to get outstanding attention paid to removing the stiffness, tension, adhesions and pain points we build up through everyday work and CrossFit. I got one today, and what a difference it makes. Travis told me recently something that his massage therapist told him, (which I’ll paraphrase); “If you are going pretend to be an elite athlete and train like one, then you have to eat, sleep and recover like one; including taking care of yourself with regular sports massages and stretching.

Don’t forget if you bring a SnoRidge CF business card with you to North Bend Therapeutic Massage you can get a discount off a 60 minute massage (which works out to a very affordable $55 for an hour of myofascial release, sports, or deep tissue massage). Get more info from us in the box.

Go watch some cool video of the women’s highlights from the New England Sectional s [wmv] [mov]

"Box Jump Annie"

50/40/30/20/10 of each of the following for time:

Box Jumps (24″/20″)
AbMat Sit-ups

Results

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Jeremy and the GHD:

Weak Sauce: Defined by Urban Dictionary as “an event or object that lacks intensity and/or fails to fully accomplish its purpose”. I would add to this definition to include: “whining, complaining, or generally approaching the CrossFit Warm Up with a lackadaisical attitude; going through the motions or trying to shortcut it.”

The warm up has a purpose. It is movement preparation and injury prevention. It warms the muscles and overall body temperature, which increases muscle elasticity and reduces stiffness. It dilates your blood vessels and allows more oxygen to travel through the blood in your muscles enhancing endurance and performance. It induces the body to cool itself more efficiently. The warm up improves range of motion around your joints and triggers the release of hormones in the body that drives your body to release carbohydrates and fatty acids to be used for energy production. Finally, the warm-up signals the mind to get ready to get work done.

When you come in, leave the weak sauce at the door and approach the warm up as a chance to focus on movement prep as well as a chance to improve technique with a PVC and perfect your range of motion. It will pay dividends in the WOD and in your overall fitness.

If you want the exact opposite of weak sauce, then go watch two of the top CrossFitters in the world in “Speal vs. Khalipa” on the CrossFit Journal [wmv] [mov]

Notes:

Congrats to Zach for getting his 1st Muscle Up today after the WOD! Also congrats to Lucy, Pat and Jeremy for running the Mercer Island 1/2 Marathon this weekend. Warriors all of you!

Lorri’s going away gig is this Friday night! If you didn’t receive the Evite let Lucy know or drop us an email. We don’t want her to move so this is our last chance to change her mind!

Beyond the Whiteboard posted some major changes recently. Go read the link for some in-depth explanations around some of those new features.

Paleo/Zone Challenge Update: The Body Fat Truck will be back April 10th at the conclusion of the challenge to conduct a follow up test. Stick with the diet changes and make them lifestyle changes. For those who have been weighing in weekly we have seen weight dropping, and for many performance and recovery improving. Rachel has lost 13 pounds so far!

Schedule change: Starting this Friday we will have a 5pm class each week with Moe! Whoo hoo!

Birthday 2 for 1

Happy Birthday to Graham and my brother Jim N.!

3 Rounds For Time:

16 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (95#/65#)
19 Knees-to-elbows
400m Run Backwards

Results

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Graham busting out some double-unders:

My brother Jim post WOD:

Graham seems to look better off.

Two really cool dudes had birthdays this week so we did a mash-up and this is what we came up with. Grip killing, ab torching, leg burning fun. Who doesn’t like to run backwards? At least it makes the 400m seem way easier when you run forward. I wanted to give my brother (who lives in Austin) a WOD as part of his birthday gift from afar since he follows our programming on his own in his garage when the Army allows him the time. Hope you both enjoyed your birthday gift. If not, well there’s always next year. We’ll try harder!

This weekend Michelle will be attending the CF Olympic Lifting Cert at Rainier CF (they are hosting) with an incredible coaching staff that includes Josh Everett. She’ll spend plenty of time learning the Olympic Lifts with heavy focus on the snatch, more on the snatch, the hook grip, penalty burpees, snatch, more penalty burpees, more hook grip, and maybe a little time on the clean and jerk! Oh did I mention the snatch? It’s an intensive two days that will be a huge benefit for her and all of us. I am stoked that we will have three of us (Moe, Michelle and I) who have attended this cert or clinics with Coach Burgener to learn these lifts and coaching cues to better teach all of you. I am also stoked that hopefully she will get the chance to really practice the burpee as it’s a pretty good group motivation tool for those who attend the Oly Cert. Yay burpees!

Sumo Deadlift High Pull Coaching Tip:

Assume a wide stance and ensure the pull finishes with elbows “high and outside” (like Adriana and Lorri). Fully open the hips to stand tall and explode the bar up to under the chin while pulling those elbows up towards the ears.

Notes:

Rob Orlando of CrossFit Conan wins the Viking Fest Strongman Competition (under 200 lbs.) [wmv] [mov]

Read “The CrossFit Congressman“

"Cindy"

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

5 Pull-ups

10 Push-ups

15 Squats

Results

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Pull, Push, Squat…Repeat:

34 of you completed “Cindy” today and crushed it! The atmosphere was all business and getting work done class after class. For those who have done this before congrats to every single one of you that PR’d it. The progress was remarkable as so many blasted past the previous number of rounds or moved up in range of motion or used less help to get more rounds. There are a few WOD’s such as this one on the horizon we will be doing that are repeats so that we can measure progress directly. There are also plenty of new ones that will test recently acquired skills and improved fitness levels. Either way be ready.

Laura knocking out push-ups:

Notes:

Welcome to Cathy who started Elements today and also Amanda who is back after a short stint away from the gym!

Fourth week of the Paleo/Zone Challenge is upon us. Keep strict, NO CHEATING! Not yet! Stay with it through the 7 full weeks. Get your weigh-in done this week, keep your frequency in the gym consistent, and watch what you eat. Keep that food log or note what you are eating. Only you know if you have been dialing it in.

Ever wonder what “Tabata” is and who invented it? Read more about it on CrossFit Football here.

"Pat"

Quote of the day: “This illustrates all my weak points.” ~ Graham on the Snatch

As Many Rounds As Possible in 20 Minutes of:

200m Run
3 Burpees
11 Squat Snatch (75#/55#)

Results

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Birthday week continues. Happy Birthday to Pat!

I read this quote yesterday and it summed up my view of Pat.

“Some guys play with their heads. That’s okay. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more important, you’ve got to play with your heart–every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.” – Vince Lombardi

The snatch or squat snatch is the most technical of lifts. It is one of the lifts used in competition of Olympic Lifting (the other being the clean and jerk). It requires the utmost in skill, concentration, speed, coordination and at the heaviest loads a lack of fear. Mastering this movement is a benefit to almost all athletic movement, as it requires total stimulation of the central nervous system due to the use of almost every major muscle group in the body during a repetition. As you pull up off the floor you are accelerating upward with force and speed and then reversing direction to pull under the bar into a full squat while catching the bar overhead. To commit under the bar at a 1 rep max snatch is not easy. There is no lift more difficult on the mind than this. With a deadlift you either pick it up or you don’t. The power clean? You just drop it as you pull for triple extension and don’t get it. Press? It stops and falls back down. Squat clean? Scary but less than a snatch (the second toughest lift to commit to).

Practice the progression (or the Burgener Warm-up) with a PVC religiously. Make it a part of your warm-up. Work on shoulder flexibility, it is vital. It will pay off in all your other lifts. Remember the basics: elbows out, standard stance, hips and shoulders rise off the floor together, tight core and back, accelerate over the knees towards your “pockets” while pushing the hips forward and pull the bar overhead while slipping under it quickly into a FULL overhead squat. Ideal form to strive for at the bottom means full lock out, weight on heels, knees aligned with feet and not tacked in. The end position looks like Maria below.

Watch all three of the following:

“Learning the Snatch” from Coach Burgener [wmv] [mov]

Burgener Warm-up [wmv] [mov]

Mike Burgener on the Snatch, CrossFit Journal Preview [wmv] [mov]

Note: Coach B is a Marine (cause once a Marine always a Marine) who has 32 years of experience in coaching Olympic weightlifting. He is also the SME (Subject Matter Expert) for CrossFit that runs the O Lifting Certs. He has an affinity for burpees (Yay Burpees!). I experienced this first hand at a clinic with him that I flat out loved. It was like having a drill sergeant for a day.

Notes:

Get ready for race day on Saturday! St. Patty’s Day 5k means we will be closed Saturday and running the race here on Snoqualmie Ridge with the majority of you! Gather near the registration/start point for a group photo on Saturday morning around 0845.

"Rob"

For Time:

34 Double Unders
34 Pull-ups
34 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)
34 Kettlebell Swings (53#/35#)
34 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#/14#)
34 Knees-to-Elbows
34 Double Unders

Results

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Happy Birthday Rob:

Don’t blame Rob! Blame me. He simply got one year older, I programmed the WOD. This workout focused on “pulling” from the bar or from the floor. Similar to but shorter than “Dirty 30”, this one packed a good punch. Like all birthday WOD’s, the numbers reflect either the age or day, and the workout includes exercises both easy and difficult for the honoree. In Rob’s case he smokes double-unders and pull-ups, while the 53 lb. kettlebell is a challenge. Hope you enjoyed it Rob!

Notes:

Congrats to Don who started getting butterfly pull-ups today! Great work!

Read “Real Foods vs. Fake Foods” Makes you think about why you would ever willingly choose to eat fake foods.

2010 CrossFit Games Ohio Sectionals at the Arnold Classic with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [wmv] [mov]

By the way, can you guess who wore “Man-Prees” to the box today? These are worse than gloves!

Active Recovery

Hope you enjoyed your rest day! Or used it for some active recovery like a run, ride, or hike! Any sort of lower intensity exercise makes for good active recovery following high intensity workouts or competition.

Next weekend is the St. Patty’s Day Dash 5k and Kids 1k and today was the deadline for registering online. We have a bunch of you who are running. Details are at the link. Plan on meeting up pre-race for a group photo near the registration area (not sure where that is but the start point is listed as the intersection of Center and Kinsey). Wear something green, a CrossFit T Shirt and plan to have some fun! We are still looking for volunteers that aren’t running and are willing to help corral the little squatches for the 30 or so minutes it will take many of us adults to run. Let us know if you are willing!

Race Day Schedule
7:00-8:45a.m.- Bib Number Pick Up & Day of Race Reg
9:00 a.m. – Start of Kids 1k Run
9:15 a.m.- Start of 5k
10:15 a.m.- Awards Ceremony

Notes:

6am Class tomorrow on Monday morning with Moe! The Tuesday 6am class is cancelled this week!

Pics from yesterday (so good I wanted to put them in slideshow format):

Penalty Box

Every minute on the minute complete 10 Box Jumps then perform max reps of overhead squats for the remainder of the minute. Continue with this rep scheme each minute repeating box jumps and max OH Squats until you total 100 reps of overhead squats.

EMOM:

10 Box Jumps (24″/20″)
Max Rep Overhead Squat (75#/55#)

* If you cannot complete any OH Squats in a minute rest and continue with box jumps until you hit the 100 rep total.

Results

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Nan and Pat praying to the CrossFit Gods yesterday for help in today’s WOD:

Quote of the day: Deb mid squat talking about her husband ~ “Oh my God I don’t want to look like Curtis!”

After today you may all want to throw me into a penalty box. This was our re-match from back in November and there were a bunch of PR’s today. Keep working on the form over loading up the weight. Full depth should be the goal first, then load. This movement is a core taxer. It also was the cross-box challenge with several local affiliates (Outer Edge CF, Local’s Gym, King CrossFit, Stoneway CF, CF Advantage, Foundation CF, and Rivertown CF). We picked the WOD this month so you can understand why I chose this! You can check results that will be posted to Facebook under the group “A Bunch of CF’ers” and I’ll post our average gym time here as well.

Bridget post Penalty Box:

Notes:

Hey you rowers! Did you know Concept 2 has a dedicated section on their site for CrossFit and rowing? Click here for some useful info, demos, events and training videos.

Congrats to our friends from King CrossFit who made the CF.com main site today in a video from back in their garage days. They are now thriving in a big box in Renton. Time flies. [wmv] [mov]

"Fight Gone Bad"

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute of max effort. This is a five-minute round. Rest one-minute between rounds.

Perform 3 rounds with one minute of max effort at each of the following stations:

Wall-ball: 20#, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75# (Reps)
Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
Push-press: 75# (Reps)
Row: (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate,” the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Good to see a group tackle this WOD together and push each other on. This one in particular is not one you want to do alone. Congrats to Travis for completing his first fully RX’d WOD! And a benchmark at that!

Notes:

We are piloting beyondthewhiteboard.com for the gym. What is it? Well read here in a previous post for a little more background. Basically this is a web-based resource that will allow you to enter your WOD results (benchmark/hero WOD’s, main site, max loads/efforts or you can even create them). Here is the cool part. You can create your own login, “join” our gym on the site to post your results and see what other members are doing for their WOD’s. It allows you to track frequency, power output, diet, weigh-ins, set goals and targets, and a host of other useful training data.

What’s even cooler is depending on the feedback we get from you all, we can create and add the daily WOD we do here in SnoRidge CF to the beyondthewhiteboard site every day to allow you to enter your results each time your work out. Then later you can see if anyone else did the same and see how they did. Best of all if you don’t wish to share you can “hide” your results from public view. You will still need to keep a notebook here though. Think of the notebook as your back-up feature.

Check it out and post to comments if you are interested in it or if you created an account. The site is currently free so why not? Remember if you aren’t measuring performance then you aren’t training.

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).