CrossFit Santa Cruz

Hard Work Pays Off

The Women's UCSC Water Polo Team training at CrossFit Santa Cruz.

The UCSC Women's Water Polo team got the automatic bid to DIII Nationals after beating Cal State East Bay by one in overtime on Sunday. The girls will be going to Connecticut on April 30th to compete for the National Championship. They have one more home game April 19th at 1pm before they go East. CrossFit Santa Cruz's Danielle Mulford coaches both the Men's and Women's Water Polo Teams at UCSC and both teams do Crossfit. She says, "CrossFit cuts our training time in half. We are the fittest team in DIII and have worked incredibly hard for our success. Go Slugs!"

Workout:
9 Rounds for time of:

5 thrusters
5 pull-ups

Men use 95 pounds, women use 65 pounds.

Arm Pump

Have your arms ever been so tired that you just can't hold onto the rope anymore? This workout that we did yesterday at CrossFit Santa Cruz was about as bad as it gets! Our new ceilings allow us to have 20 foot ropes, but it feels about twice as high as the 15 foot ropes at the old gym.

Andrew and Cory pressing and push pressing

Workout:
5 rounds of:

max press
max push press
max touch-and-go rope climbs
rest three minutes

Press until you fail, then go straight into push presses until you fail, then immediately do as many rope climbs as you can, only touching the ground with your toe between climbs so you can't rest. Count your press and push press reps together and try to match your reps and climbs on the next round. Time your rest to be exactly 3 minutes.

Men use 95 pounds for the press and push press, and ladies use 65 pounds.

After a few rounds, it became difficult to straighten out our arms and reach for a long pull! And, most of us agreed that coming down the rope was worse than going up it, because no one wanted to slide all the way down.

The rest. Three minutes seems like a lot of rest on the first round, but it doesn't take long to not be enough.

The real challenge was using a pen and signing into class after the workout!

Way to push hard everyone!

Muscle Up Practice

Hollis doing muscle ups.

Watch the muscle up when it is broken down and showed in slow motion. wmv

When training to get a muscle up, practice chest to bar pull ups, instead of just getting your chin over. Also practice making the bottom of your ring dips as low as possible.

Working on your bar muscle up will also get you one step closer. YouTube video

Workout:
21-18-15-12-9:

Ring Dips
Pull Ups (chest to bar)
Full Squat Cleans (men use 95 pounds, women use 75 pounds)

Use with Caution!

Hannah doing the GHD Sit-Up.

Rachael doing Back Extensions.

The Glut-Ham Developer (GHD) is one of the few exercise machines of which CrossFit is a strong proponent. The full range of motion that is used in the GHD Sit-Up is important to both strengthening the lower back and abdominals, as well as engaging the posterior chain. For more on the Glut-Ham Developer, read CrossFit Journal Issue 38. As Coach Glassman mentions in this article, it is not uncommon for "elite" athletes with what appears like strong "six-packs" to be ruined by the GHD.

How many of you have been humbled by the effectiveness of the GHD?

Workout:
"Micheal"

3 rounds for time of:
800 meter run
50 Back Extensions
50 GHD Situps

Post times to comments

A Great Day

Thank you to eveyone who came out and supported us yesterday at the opening of our new location. Great job to all of you who worked out, especially those of you who were CrossFitting for the first time!

Here are some more pictures from the workout and BBQ.

Workout:
21-18-15-12-9
Overhead squat (men use 95 pounds, ladies use 65 pounds)
Push Up

Core to Extremity

Hannah does Helen.

The power generated by throwing your hips into any movement is amazing. Your power comes from the center of your body, or from your core, and travels outward to your arms and legs. The more power you can generate out of your hips, the easier it is to swing a Kettle Bell, clean a barbell, or throw a ball. While you can cycle your swing faster by drawing the Bell downwards with your arms, remember that your arms are mostly just straps holding onto the Kettle Bell. Your power comes from popping your hips hard.

Workout: "Helen"

3 rounds of:
400 meter run
21 Kettle Bell Swings (Men use 24kgs, ladies use 16kgs)
12 Pull Ups

Post times to comments.

Team Seven!

Chela mastering her row.

Team 7 pm after a sweaty workout. Way to work hard everyone! Thanks for coming back for more each week!

Workout:
30-25-20-15-10-5 reps of:

Wall Ball
Knees to Elbows

Men use a 20 pound Wall Ball, Women use 14 pounds.

Play Time

Nohora loves our new ropes!

Nicole and Natalie make the weighted hula-hoop look easy!

After the Kids Class Tuesday, these sisters show us how its done!

Workout:
5 rounds of:

Run 400 Meters
Deadlift 15 reps

Men use 225, women use 135. Post time to comments.

Stress Factor

Brent able to maintain his grip during
a deadlift/rope climb workout.

We have mentioned before the value of grip
strength. What do we do when the grip goes?
When it comes to deadlifts, we sometimes split
our grip to help get a few more reps. During a
set of pull ups, we can get off the bar, shake
out our hands, recover and then get back on the
bar. When it comes to rope climbing no simple
answer presents itself.

The willingness to maintain our grip on the rope, and
our actual ability to do so may be very closely linked.
With an easy escape we sometimes quit before we must.
The next time you want to get off the pull up bar, or split
your grip on your deadlift, imagine that you are hanging
20 feet in the air and that letting go is not an option.

Workout:
Complete as many rounds in 10 minutes as possible of:
225 pound Deadlift, 5 reps
1 Rope Climb

New Box

This will be a great opportunity to bring your friends who are interested in CrossFit. We're also looking forward to seeing our old CrossFit friends from around town who we don't get to see very often anymore!

Workout:
4 rounds for time of:

25 pullup
25 pushup
25 situp
25 squat

*How does this compare to your "Angie" Time. Post time and thoughts to comments.

Check out our New Schedule starting April 1st and the new on-line payment system.