CrossFit Santa Cruz

It's almost Friday

It's time.

Mary has written another article for Conover's Corner.  Iron overload disease weighs heavy with the need for as many as possible to know.  This is important enough, common enough, and devastating enough for you to understand it now for yourself and your loved ones.

Dedicated to John, my brother, who was misdiagnosed for decades and then diagnosed too late to recover from multiple organ damage. He lives with the ravages of this easily controlled disease.  Listen up, and take charge of your health.

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Workout: CrossFit Football WoD

Complete 7 rounds of the following:

Deadlifts  225 lbs
Box Jumps 24" box
*Perform as many reps as possible in 15 seconds and rest for 45 seconds. 1 full round is equal to 15 seconds of deadlifts with 45 seconds rest and 15 seconds of box jumps with 45 seconds rest.

Post total number of reps to comments.

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Join us for a Potluck BBQ on Friday before the 'Every Second Counts' screening.  We will start the grill at 3:00pm.
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We will be closed this weekend for the NorCal Qualifiers. There will be no Saturday or Sunday Classes. Our last class will be Friday at Noon. We will resume classes Monday Morning. See you all in Aromas.

Cool and Collected

Phillip working his deadlift.

Phillip Wang is one of our younger athletes and possibly our most inspiring. Phillip came to us with a desire to get strong and fit. His background in High School football gave him a strong work ethic and a gift for pushing himself. He has decreased his mass by a substantial amount and has been very diligent in his nutrition, although he lives on campus and the food there is somewhat suspect. Phillip is headed to the Qualifier with Alex, Olivia and Dave. We wish him the best of luck and know he will represent us well.

Workout: My Girls

Run 400 meters
15 Deadlifts; 225 pounds
15 Handstand Push Ups
Run 400 meters
15 Clean; 135 pounds
15 Ring Dips
Run 400
15 Thruster; 95 pounds
15 Pull Ups

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Join us for a Potluck BBQ on Friday before the 'Every Second Counts' screening.  We will start the grill at 3:00pm.
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We will be closed this weekend for the NorCal Qualifiers. Our last class will be Friday at Noon. We will resume classes Monday Morning. See you all in Aromas.

Brawn

Alex getting ready.

Alex Blunt is going to the Qualifiers this week. Exactly one week after his 21st birthday. A student at UCSC, Alex is one of our stand out college athletes. He attended our event with Coach Burgener and proved that he has natural talent and learns new skills well. Over his winter break from school he endeavored to take on Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program. We have chronicled his marked strength gains before and his improvements are noteworthy. He came to us with a Fran time near 10 minutes.  Now that Fran is his home girl, his time has been cut to sub 5 minutes.

Good Luck at the Qualifiers Alex! We look forward to your performances this weekend and your performances in the years to come.

Workout:
Rest Day

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Its not to late to sign up for the Human Race to support Every Child Outdoors!  Rebecca and Kai have been neck and neck for the Top Fundraiser spot.  It's still anyones game!

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Join us for a Potluck BBQ on Friday before the 'Every Second Counts' screening.  We will start the grill at 2:30pm.

Mind over Matter

Olivia during Coach B's visit.

It is always fun to see athletes competing at their sport. Professional, collegiate, and Olympic athletes wow us with there athleticism.  One of my favorite things about CrossFit is that people who do other things in life are often doing things that would put a professional athlete to shame.

Olivia is a physical oceanographer who studies coupled physical-biological systems in the coastal environment.  She earned her PhD in 2008 in Ocean Sciences. She is married to Kyle Robertson lives in Felton and loves dogs.  She has been with us for one year and has decided to represent CrossFit Santa Cruz at Northern California regional qualifier this weekend in Aromas. She is a remarkable Olympic style weightlifter. Her technique and diligence are admirable. She is composed, hard working and tough. She is funny, smart and a joy to have in the gym. Olivia is consistently the top performing female at the gym and continues to improve. We are lucky to have her as a friend. Good luck this weekend!

Olivia will be joined this weekend by Alex Blunt, Dave Leys, and Phillip Wang.  Look for their stories later this week. And please come root them on in Aromas

- Coach D

Workout: ?

BBQ?

Buffalo on the grill.

If the weather permits there will be an impromptu BBQ and the gym after class today. If the sky is clear and the temperatures are soaring, expect to see the grill light up and the gluten free beer open wide. However, if the fog sets in it might be time for a matinee.

Interested? Post to comments.
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Workout: Games Qualifier WOD
Row 500m
30 Burpees
10 Shoulder-to-Overhead

Achieve

Kai at the top

Setting and acheiving goals are common practice among elite athletes. Goals focus our attention. With CrossFit there are some many skill to develop setting a goal can be the difference between success and not. Remember Cara had t-shirt made with her goal of getting a muscle up. Her goal has been reached.

What are your CrossFit goals?

Post thoughts to comments.
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Workout:
Deadlift
5-5-5-5-5

Power Jump

Stephen and the double under

The "Power Jump" as Buddy Lee refers to it, it a CrossFit staple. It seems to be a chink that quite of few athletes have. What is it that makes the "double under" so hard. The cardio-respiratory demands, the coordination? Buddy Lee has a great way to teach rope jumping, having trouble, check out these videos:

(The) Buddy Lee System...[wmv][mov]
Basic Bounce, Buddy Lee...[wmv][mov]
Jump Rope Variations, Buddy Lee...[wmv][mov]
Rope Simulation, Buddy Lee...[wmv][mov]

Post thought to comments.
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REMINDER

"Every Second Counts" is in one week!!!

Every Second Counts Trailer   <mov>

Coming Soon: Every Second Counts ...[wmv][mov]
Coming Soon: Every Second Counts 2 ...[wmv][mov]
Coming Soon: Every Second Counts 3...[wmv][mov]

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Workout:
Rest Day

Re-test

Amelia and Gilly enjoying the weather

Running in only a small part of our programming. We more often run short and fast, leaving the long and slow for the rare occasion. Last month we ran a 5k through natural bridges. Coming up on May 9th we are going to run a 7k along west cliff. The plan to to not run anything longer that usually until race day.

A while back we did the workout below and posted our scores on the leaderboard.com. Time has come to try again and see if we can improve upon our last performance.

 Post results and thoughts to comments.
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Workout: Perform 3 rounds:

Jump rope 2 minutes, max “double-unders”
Pull-ups 25 reps for time

Score is total "Double Unders" minus the time for pull ups (in seconds)

Pulling from the floor

Matt and Hannah nice off the floor.

When taking heavy weight off the floor it is essential to keep your mechanics sound. In the photos above you can see that both athletes have maintained the three primary concerns for a deadlift. The shoulders are in front of the bar, the weight is on the heels and the back is straight. Seemingly basic, a beautiful deadlift is a hard earned achievement.

Workout "Karen"

150 Wall ball shots for time.

Summer Heat

Terminate The Governor

If you remember the blog I posted a few weeks ago about The Central Governor Theory, I explained the reason for why we experience fatigue and that there was a governing system in us that makes us want to stop. So I think what we really all care about is the different ways we can work against this natural regulating system. So we can kick more ass baby!

Well, one was basically already addressed by one of Hanna's post about a week ago on caffeine. We learned that caffeine benefits in a physical and psychological way. That governing system that tells us to stop by inducing pain or discomfort is what seems to be blunted by the ergogenic effects of caffeine. This one is the least painful way, but not the most natural. When I attended the seminar at CFLA entitled Brain Training the speaker outlined at least three other ways that we can push against our regulators... (continued reading)

-Dave

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Workout: 6 rounds for time of:

30 Kettle Bell Swings
15 Ring Dips
2 Rope ascents

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