Magic Pill?

Rest Day or if you are so inclined here’s a WOD:

4 Rounds for time:

400m Run

50 Squats

Read “Dangerous” by Patrick Cummings of Again Faster.  This quote comes to mind: “There is no substitute for hard work and high intensity.”

Curtis recently shared with us this email:

“This afternoon I forgot to tell you that my general fitness was tested this weekend while I spent close to 14 hours doing heavy yard work – lifting, digging, pulling, punching, stabbing, cursing, etc.  I noticed that my body awareness (form), strength and endurance were all at higher levels than I can remember.  I am very excited about my early results with your leadership through CrossFit.”

There is no magic pill to losing weight or to becoming functionally fit.  You cannot put half the work in and expect more than half the results. It takes discipline, consistency, and hard work.

For those of you who have started with us recently, what observations or results have you seen?  Or have you seen none?  Please post your thoughts to comments.

CFC Visit Ian, Allison and Toby

CFC Visit Post WOD 

We are wrapping up our vacation and heading home.  We look forward to seeing all of you back in the gym.  Once again we were reminded of the incredible community of CrossFit.  We were fortunate enough to visit Ian and Allison of CF Centurion twice this weekend in their very spacious, new box.  They have a first class gym with first class people.  Everyone went out of their way to welcome us and we made some new friends.  Toby, who we had met before at CF Sacramento also dropped in for the WOD today. The community and brotherhood/sisterhood aspect of CrossFit is something you just don’t find too often.  Once you do you’re hooked.

5k Run

For Time:

5k Run

Enjoy the sunshine and go for a run with a great view of Mt. Si and the Cascades! We’ll do the same in Granite Bay, CA.  Post your time to comments.

Curtis Running 
Group Run

Walking Lunges

400m walking lunges for time.  

Keep the knee behind the toe box, let it gently kiss the ground.  Hands off the knees while lunging and keep the chest up. This WOD is tougher than you think.

Jim practicing.

Jim Lunge

Yay for Burpees!

“Burpee Time”

3 Rounds for Time:
20 Burpees 
30 Sit-Ups 
40 Squats 
 
While we are closed for vacation here is a WOD for today that won’t require anything except for you.  Burpees must be chest to floor and terminate with jump and arms exended with a clap over head.  Enjoy!
 
Here’s a video from the CrossFit main site of the Burpee: Burpee Demo
 
2008 CF Games Burpees
Burpee Progression
 

"Helen"

3 Rounds for Time:

400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings (54# M / 35# W)
12 Pull-ups

Travis meets Helen

This benchmark WOD is tough.  Travis summed it up with “that was deceiving”. Everyone improved today by either scaling up a kettlebell or band for pull-ups. Or both!  

Helen is a WOD that always seems to start great and by the end you are telling yourself to not let go of the kettlebell or pull-up bar as the time just speeds up.  This is one that the best of times simply are achieved by going fast and “unbroken” through all three rounds.  

Here’s a “Helen” video from CrossFit.com of two incredible athletes showing a mind-numbing pace for Helen.  This video shows a race between one man and one woman with different strengths at play. Dutch Lowy is a well known CrossFit athlete that placed 7th in last year’s CrossFit Games and Jessica Langford is an accomplished marathon runner.  Watch how strength in kettlebell swings and pull-ups takes on a fast runner and see who wins.   

Fight Gone Bad

More like “Day Off Gone Bad”.

Great job this afternoon for Deb, Curtis and Jim.  You inspired us with your effort and output!

3 Rounds of Max Effort for 1 Minute each of the following exercises:

WallBall (20#/14#)
Sumo Deadlift High Pull (75#/55#)
Box Jump (24″/20″)
Push Press (75#/55#)
Row (for Cal)

Continuous clock with 1 minute rest between rounds.  Score total reps.

Fight Gone Bad 2
Fight Gone BadMemorial Day Gone Bad

Memorial Day

Remember the reason for today. The following is a video with the faces of the Heroes for whom several of the WOD’s we do are named after (posted on the CrossFit main site).  Rest in peace.

Happy Memorial Day!

Capitol Handstand

We are having a group WOD today at 3:30pm.  Come join us or call for details!

Man-makers

For Time:

10, 9, 8, 7, 6… down to 1 alternating the following exercises:
Dumbbell Hang Clean
Man-maker Push-up

The man-maker push-up:

Man Maker Push-upMan Maker Push-up 2 Man Maker Push-up 3

Using dumbbells perform a push-up.  As you complete the push-up pull the dumbbell upwards into a one arm row.  Alternate the row with each arm after you complete the push-up. These will make the man (or woman).

Travis, Deb and Curtis were fortunate enough to try these with a WOD that used the man-maker and the dumbbell hang clean.

Made Man

"Nancy"

5 Rounds for Time
400m Run
15 OH Squats (Prescribed Weight: 95# M/65# W)

The Overhead Squat is a weightlifting movement that requires strength, coordination, flexibility, power and a stable midline. Its ability to test the strength of your core, shoulders, and legs is unsurpassed.  It’s a technical lift that requires practice, practice, more practice and then patience, but once you get it you quickly see a change in your speed and power.  We have been focusing on these quite a bit with PVC pipe both in Elements and then in warm-ups.  The weather made for a perfect time for several of you to try it with a barbell or load to feel the difference so we ran everyone through a scaled version of “Nancy”. 

Adriana OH Squat
Quote of the Day:
“I felt like a Nancy while trying overhead squats.” ~ Curtis

Here is a great video taken from the CrossFit Main site “Exercises and Demos” section.  It shows good OH Squat form as well as keys to safely lifting, lowering and dumping the barbell. 

Learning the Clean and Jerk

The power clean is a very important movement that teaches power and explosiveness.  It leads to being able to rapidly getting weight up to your rack position for going overhead.  The push jerk is essential to pushing heavy weight overhead.  This combination of two movements are a huge benefit to the athelete in strength and conditioning. 

This can be a tough movement for those new to Olympic Lifts but that is why we use the PVC pipe so much. After a month of working through many of the fundamental movements Deb, Adriana and Curtis moved on to the more complex barbell exercise.  They all learned the Power Clean and Jerk and steadily improved on form, coordination and technique throughout the WOD.  Great job all of you!

Deb and Adriana