CrossFit Santa Cruz

Twisted Love

Amy and Hannah dipping during Thursday's WOD.

Working the full range of motion on the ring-dip is always exhausting. No matter how long you have been able to do a ring-dip, there is at least one workout where there is no more push left in your arms, and you have to shake it out before trying again. For those of us who still have difficulty with ring-dips, jumping to support and working the negative can be just as challenging. And that, of course, is one of the twisted reasons we love CrossFit; no matter your level, it always pushes you to the brink of your ability and therefore makes you stronger in the process!

Workout:
60-40-20:
Double Under
Box Jump
Squat

Burpee Challenge: 6 burpees today! Buy-in with 21 burpees.

Undeniable Proof

Olivia's Raw Stats:
Weight Pre-Zone:131 pounds down to 125 pounds
Waist Pre-Zone: 30" down to 28"
Hips Pre-Zone: 38" down to 34"
Mile for Time Pre-Zone: 7:29, down to 7:10
Max Pull-ups: 13 up to 19 (She actually did two sets of 19, she wanted 20)
Max Deadlift: 183 ugly to 183 with room.
She tried 193 twice, and almost had it.

Olivia's stats are very impressive. It seems obvious that
just loosing some weight could make pull-ups or running
easier, but nothing about losing weight makes a deadlift
lighter. What our little Zone challenged shows is that the
combination of CrossFit and the Zone makes humans faster,
lighter, stronger and more agile beings.

No fancy machines, no expensive pills, no contracts to sign,
just eat well (really well) and train hard (CrossFit). The friends,
the pain and laughter, the self confidence; they are
just some of the side effects.

-H

Workout:
5 rounds each for time:

1 Power Snatch
2 Overhead Squats
3 Snatch Balances
10 feet Handstand walking
20 foot rope ascent
Rest as needed

Try to increase the load each round

Burpee Challenge: 5 burpees today! 15 to buy-in.

Closet Zoner: Olin Edmundson

You might have seen my post a few weeks ago that highlighted Olin's pull-ups. It was on that day, when I looked up and saw that Olin had mastered the kipping pull-up that I realized he was a Closet Zoner! I definitely had no idea he was on the Zone, but it was obvious that day as he went from zero to six pull-ups.

When he first started at CrossFit Santa Cruz, Olin was one of the most inflexible and uncoordinated people we had training with us! But, all of a sudden, only a few short month’s later, here he was kipping up a storm. And, he looked toned, was obviously stronger, more flexible, and his cardiovascular capacity had significantly increased. As it turned out, he had started by eating less carbs, smaller meals, and he made sure he ate breakfast every morning. After a few weeks he decided to commit to 16 balanced blocks a day. Since then, he has gotten stronger, his clothes fit him differently, and his energy levels have improved. Now, only weeks after his first kipping pull-up, he has at least 11 and sets new PRs every time he works out!

Workout (I hear you can thank Boz for this one!):

Complete 150 push-ups without stopping for more than 2 seconds of letting your knees touch the ground. If either of these happens, you have to run 400 meters. How many rounds and how long does it take you to complete the 150 push-ups?

Burpee Challenge: 4 burpees today! 10 to buy-in today.

Most Impressive Zone Gains & Losses: Scott Amory

Scott Amory was as dedicated to the Zone Diet and the Competition as his wife Kristy over the six week period. While his times have gotten faster on his benchmark workouts, his most impressive "loss" has been the 17 pounds that he shed during the Competition. When taking into account that muscle weighs more than fat, to loose almost twenty pounds in six weeks while getting significantly stronger is absolutely amazing!

Scott lost seventeen pounds, going from 280 pounds down to 263 pounds. And, his Fran time went from 9:37 down to a PR of 7:25! (He only used a rack for the first Fran.) He also scored about 60 points higher on Tabata Something Else yesterday!

Check out the before and after pictures that Scott was kind enough to let us post.

Scott at the CFSC Beach Workout on May 17th, the weekend before he started the Competition.

Check out how different Scott looks now after just eight weeks of training four times a week and Zoning strictly! While loosing weight through Zoning has been a big accomplishment for Scott, my guess is that he is most proud of his performance gains in the gym! So are we!

Scott, Thanks for setting such an inspiring example of what dedication, determination and motivation can accomplish!

Workout, for time:

1500 Meter row
50 Wall balls
1 Mile run
50 Wall balls
1500 Meter row

Burpee Challenge: 3 Burpees today!

Crazy and Young

What is Patrick doing?!

Workout:

Complete as many rounds as you can in 20 minutes of:
5 Handstand push-ups
2 20 foot rope climbs
200 meter run

Tomorrow's post will highlight another Zoner who inspired us with his incredible gains and "losses!"

Zone Competition Winner: Kristy Amory!

Kristy during the 2008 CrossFit Games.

Choosing our Zone Competition Winner was a very difficult task for us at CrossFit Santa Cruz. There were many people who participated and who had amazing results. Measuring gains in CrossFit can be challenging, and because the commencement of the competition corresponded with the week of July 4th and the CrossFi Games, it was more difficult to test people then we anticipated it was going to be.

However, Kristy's dedication to the Zone and to training for the Games was something that none of us needed testing to tell us was absolutely phenomenal. Her husband Scott and her strictly followed the Zone while most of us eventually gave in to the cravings of our favorite non-zone foods, they only splurged and ate ONE meal that was not in the Zone during the whole six weeks! Now, she is blowing through workouts without modifications, her times are improved, her form is great, her clothes fit differently and her body is looking stronger and more toned. Kristy was also a huge motivator to us all both at the gym and in her daily comments on this site. Kristy's weight dropped from 139 pounds to 132. Her wasit went from 29 inches, to 26.5 inches, and her hips were 39 inches and dropped to 37.5 inches. But, most impressively, her Fran time dropped in just seven weeks from 13:47 to 10:25. She used a rack on the first Fran, but not on the second one. As you can see, she improved her Fran time by 3:22! That is amazing! I wish we had more improved times for you, but we wanted her to rest the week before the Games, and her hands were torn up the week following, so we will have to post more times as she continues to get them. However, anyone who works out with her can see that she has made huge gains and we all know that it's because of her commitment to the Zone. Great job Kristy, you are an inspiration to us all!

Stay tuned this week as we highlight other people who made amazing gains during the last six weeks on the Zone! Thanks everyone for participating.

And now for our new challenge....

THE BURPEE CHALLENGE!
Beginning today, Monday, July 14th, we are going to start doing one burpee a day until we get to 100 burpees on the 100th day!

The Rules:
1. Use Burgener's burpee standards for form (see examples below)
2. You can complete each day's burpees all at once, or broken up and done at different times throughout the day
3. If for some reason you miss a day, you have to make up all the missed burpees the following day
4. If you don't start the challenge with us today, you can "buy-in" at any time by doing ALL the missed day's burpees on your first day
5. Any burpees you complete during your regular workout can count towards that day’s Challenge burpees, if you want them to
5. Have fun doing burpees and getting stronger doing it!

Burpee Challenge Form Standards:
One

Start with hands on the ground in front of your feet. Keep your back straight.

Two

Kick feet out behind you into the top of the push-up portion of the burpee. Your body should be straight and tight in a flat plank.

Three

Lower your body into the lowest part of a push-up. Your chest and thighs should ultimately touch the ground at the same time. Remember to keep your whole body, especially your midline, tight. While throwing your body on the ground and therefore touching both chest and thighs to the ground is acceptable by some standards, we feel that more is to be gained from doing a strict push-up in this Challenge.

Four

Push up into the top of the push-up position again.

Five

Jump your feet up to your hands into your starting position.

Six

Jump into the air and clap your hands overhead so that your ear is exposed in front of your arms. Your feet should leave the ground.

I first heard of this Challenge from The Serrano Family of CrossFit Marina. They recently completed the Challenge and all swear that they are so much stronger and have better wind because of it. They loved the burpee part of the CrossFit Games! Denise Serrano originally got the idea from CrossFit Long Beach and loved the idea so much that she started the Challenge before they did. Crossfit Long Beach is on day 96 today! I don't know where they got the idea, but maybe someone out there knows and can fill us in.

My goal with The Burpee Challenge is to do what I dislike the most! We all know that there is no better way to work your weaknesses then to just do it. Please post if you are interested in joining us in this Challenge. As far as I know, Greg A, Hannah and I are starting today. Anyone else? Greg and I both did 100 burpees yesterday so we would have something to compare to the time we get on 100 burpees completed after the Challenge is over. I'm guessing we will get a lot faster.

Workouts For Angel

Angel and Heather couldn't resist the opportunity to play in this jumpy house the other day!

Angel's comments the other day regarding trying to CrossFit with limited equipment, made me think that maybe we should help her out by posting a few workouts that require little or no equipment. Here are a few of my staples when I am on the road with a Marriott Hotel room full of ellipticals, resistance machines and dumb bells, if I'm lucky.

#1
5 Rounds of:
Run 1/2 mile
30 Squats


#2
Max squats in 2 minutes
30 sec rest
Max pushups in 2 minutes
30 sec rest
ax squats in 1.5 minutes
30 sec rest
Max pushups in 1.5 minutes
30 sec rest
Max squats in 1 minutes
30 sec rest
Max pushups in 1 minutes
30 sec rest
Max squats in .5 minutes
30 sec rest
Max squats in .5 minutes

#3
21 Box jumps (or steps or you don't have something solid to jump on)
21 Push press (use your dumb bells)
50 Double unders
15 Box jumps
15 Push press
50 Double unders
9 Box jumps
9 Push press
50 Double unders

#4
150 Burpees for time

And, don't forget Cindy, Angie and Barbara!

Please feel free to post to the comments your favorite, "no or little equipment" workouts for Angel. Have fun Angel and Andrew!

One Rep Max

Lucas finds what is probably his one rep max back squat.

If the weight goes up easily, without making a face like this, it probably wasn't a one rep max! It often takes failing at a certain weight to figure out what your limit is. Sometimes, however, you are able fight through and complete the lift. In which case, this face is usually followed by one of complete surprise! Good job Lucas!

Workout:
Back Squat 1-1-1-1-1-1-1