Rep it out

Matt lifting his own body weight

CrossFit benchmarks are like no other. We have mentioned some of them in a previous post. Let's take the body weight dead lift, as a benchmark. When an athlete first come into the gym we don't expect them to be able to have a body weight dead lift. After an athlete has been around for a while we expect them to have the capacity to 'rep out' body weight dead lifts. The workout "Christine" is a great marker of an athletes ability to 'rep out'. If you watch Patrick's attempt you will notice that the dead lift is not really the hard part of the workout. For a novice athlete the dead lifts are the hard part.

Workout:
3 rounds for time of:
500 meter row
12 deadlifts, body weight
21 box jumps

The AM Crew

The morning crew.

In the past week we have been asked by more than one person to answer the following questions. "Who is your target market, who is the ideal client?" The answer is not at an easy one to come up with. The photo above does a great job of illustrating the diversity of our athletes. Our answer in the past, when asked, has always been "Anyone willing to do the work." Post thought to comments

Workout:
5 Rounds for time of:
400 meter run
 5 rope ascents

Specialized

Cara working the seated press.

"Injury, like illness, is an ineluctable fact of life. In sport, elite performers are more marked by the attitude and manner with which they deal with injury than by their elected course of treatment or by the severity or frequency of their injuries.

Whereas treatment and rehabilitation receive considerable attention and focus in discussing injury, compensatory strategies for maintaining or improving fitness while recovering from injury are generally given short shrift....

...Remember, our concern here is not how to “rehab” the knee specifically but how to keep the athlete training to ensure that he continues to develop while he is injured and unable to use the affected limb." Greg Glassman CFJ 33

Workout: 7 rounds of:
9 Shoulder Press
15 GHD sit ups
21 Pull ups
Increase weight each round on the shoulder press.

Qualify

Connor getting back in shape

Registration for the 2009 CrossFit Games Qualifiers is now open. This year any athlete that wants to compete in the games needs to qualify first. There are 17 regions each with their own qualifiers. The NorCal qualifiers will send 5 men and 5 women to the 2009 Games. Any athletes can enter the qualifiers. Scaling will be provided, but will prevent qualifying for The Games.

Who from CrossFit Santa Cruz should be going?
List your top 3 men and women to comments.
The top man and top women will get a scholarship to the qualifiers.
(Pat Barber, with a fourth place finish in last years games, has earned a spot in this years games and won't need to qualify.)

This year the Affiliate Cup will be decided by team workouts. Each affiliate will send a team to compete at the Games.  Who should be on our team? Post suggestions to comments. Feel free to post your own name if you want to compete in the team competition.

Workout:
15 Full squat snatch left arm, 35  pound dumbbell
6 Push ups
15 Full squat snatch right arm, 35 pound dumbbell
6 Push up
12 Full squat snatch left arm, 35  pound dumbbell
6 Push ups
12 Full squat snatch right arm, 35 pound dumbbell
6 Push up
9 Full squat snatch left arm, 35  pound dumbbell
6 Push ups
9 Full squat snatch right arm, 35 pound dumbbell
6 Push up

Benchmarks

Hannah getting strong

Hannah recently got her muscle up. A great achievement. The catch here at CrossFit is that there is always a new goal to achieve. We all have our own unique challenges to face. Often athletes ask, what a good time for a workout would be, or how much should there max deadlift be. The answer is always personalized. Not every athlete is going to be looking to get the sub 2 minute Fran. That being said, there are certian bench marks that seem to be emerging around here. The top 5 are.
1. Sub 5 minute Fran
2. 1 1/2 times body weight dead lift.
3. body weight overhead squat
4. body weight back squat, 21 reps
5. 20 rounds of Cindy

Post your top 5 to comments
___________________________
We have made three weeks into the Accountability Challenge.
WEEK THREE PROGRESS report now available. Check to see where you stand.
Gym totals listed below.
Did you follow your Nutrition Plan
Yes    79%
No    21%
Did you follow your Maintenance plan   
Yes    81%
No    19%
Did you follow your Fitness plan   
Yes    94%
No    6%

Week Three Progress

Push It

Hannah, Olivia and Jonji

Like the air squat, the push up is one of those beautiful, simple movements that requires no equipment.  Although it appears to target the pectoral and shoulder muscles, the push up does amazing things for strengthening the midline .  Have your abdominal muscles ever felt sore after doing a lot of push ups? 

Push ups are quite handy.  They can be done in your home, in your office, in a motel room, on the sidewalk, at the airport, while waiting in line for concert tickets, and of course, in the gym.  Where is the strangest place you have ever done a push up?

Workout:
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:
15 push ups
20 kettle bell swings
25 box jumps
_____________________________________
DON'T FORGET TO LOG IN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY CHALLENGE. 
WEEKLY RESULTS WILL BE POSTED ON MONDAY!!!

Humility

Matt, Leif, Oliver, Rob and Sonny...Supermen.

"Check your ego at the door"
If you don't check your ego when you come into contact with CrossFit, one of two things will happen. 1. Your ego will go. 2. You will go.  

In order to be successful at crossfit, we need a balance of confidence and humility.  We must approach each workout with the attitude that we can achieve our goals (see dedication, focus and intensity).  Sometimes, however, we fall short of our goal for the day and we are faced with a choice... we can point fingers at some external factor that caused a mediocre performance, we can beat ourselves up for not being good enough... or we can accept our performance for what it is, evaluate it, readjust if necessary and continue on.   If we leave our egos at the door when we walk in the gym, the latter is much easier to do.  Checking one's ego, however, can often be difficult to do.  With an established definition of who you are, your ego is a sneaky, inflexible little rascal that will do anything to cling to your thoughts.  Sometimes it takes some pretty creative strategies to outsmart it.  What strategies do you use to abandon your ego during crossfit workouts?

Exposure

Coach D working her lever.

Do you remember your first exposure to CrossFit? What about your first set of Tabata squats? Today Coach D gave out a workout that was a first for everyone. It involved straight legged dead lifts, overhead walking lunges and front lever practice. Only a few athletes had every tried the straight legged variation on the dead lift and most of them had never tried a lever. It will be interesting to see where and how we get sore.

Workout: 5 rounds for time of:
2 walking lunges, 50 pound dumbbells front rack
2 walking lunges, 50 pound dumbbells left arm overhead
2 walking lunges, 50 pound dumbbells right arm overhead
2 walking lunges, 50 pound dumbbells both arms overhead
135 pound straight legged dead lifts, 5 reps
12 Front lever negatives

No Gradys

Annabelle finishing the jerk.

CrossFit is about measurable repeatable data. Measuring the distance we travel and measuring the distance the weight travels are the first steps. Repeating the same distances is the next. We want each movement to look identical and the path of the object to be remain the same. Here is where we need complete range of motion. In the photo above Annabelle has finished the jerk. The bar is directly over head. Her midline is straight and stable. Arms, legs and hip at full extension. Great Position.

Workout:
21-15-9
Sumo dead lift high pull, 95 pounds
Push Jerk, 95 pounds