Don't Drop Them

Dumbbell-hex-weights

We recently got some new equipment. A few barbells, some bumper plates, rings, and some heavy dumbells. You may not drop the heavy dumbells. You need to baby sit them to the floor with one or both hands. If you drop them they will break. They are expensive and we want them to last a long time, please take good care of them, have fun getting strong, and do not drop them at all.

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Workout:

Four rounds for time of:
10 One-arm dumbbell snatches (100 / 70 lbs)
Sprint

Super Tight

IMG_4666 Kelsy understanding mid-line tension

Holding your back straight when you move is a hard skill to master. But it is the skill that will make you the most efficient, and safest of them all. Getting yourself organized and ready to move and then holding position as you hinge over, squat down, jump, or go overhead is what it is all about. Keep holding tight people, it is the most important part.

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Workout:

Complete six rounds for time of:
5 muscle ups
155 pound hang squat clean, 5 reps
run 200 meters

Consistency is Queen

IMG_4657Shuoa looking good after winning the Consistency Is King Competition.

Today CrossFit announces the 2012 regional workouts. In little less than five weeks, May 18-20, our affiliate team of Matt Bishel, Baily O'regan, Lucas Zepeda, Olivia Cheriton, Hollis Molloy, Allison Costello Tyler Hinz and Karla Ferguson along with individual competetors Jesse Baz, Laurie Galassi and Danielle Edmundson will compete against the rest of the Northern California region for a spot at the CrossFit Games. The competition will be held at the Santa Clara fairgrounds and is guaranteed be an epic event.

The CrossFit games has grown a tremendous amount over the past few years and qualifying to the regional level is a huge accomplishment. We wish all of the competitors a wonderful final push over the next few weeks as they prepare and we hope all of our members come out to support them at regionals.

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Workout:

Rest day

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SCHEDULE NOTICE:  There will be NO 10am, Noon or 3pm today

6am,7am,8am and the 5:30pm, 6:30pm will run as normal.

New Skills

CFSC_BuddyFlipSequenceCara and Laurie doing what they love to do: play

It is so easy to forget to have fun in life and in the gym. As much as we are in search of super human fitness we are also in the pursuit of joy. The time we all spend together getting stronger, more agile, faster, better endured can always carry the element of fun. Lighthearted, relaxed, good old fashion fun. And if what you had to do in the gym on a given day was not fun because it was hard or scary then rest assured that the hard work will make it so that maybe one day you too can do a flip.

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Workout:

21-18-15-12-9-6-3
Pull up
95 pound back squat
95 pound push press
GHD sit up

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SCHEDULE NOTICE:  Wednesday the 18th there will be NO 10am, Noon or 3pm.

6am,7am,8am and the 5:30pm, 6:30pm will run as normal.

Awe

IMG_4643Ice on the quads.Using ice after intense activity is a perfect combination.  It helps the body repair itself.

Yesterday some of us went to the NorCal Open Recovery workout at NorCal CrossFit. Teams from all over northern California gathered to participate in a fun, competive event.  With four teams competing and a bunch of supporters we represented CrossFit Santa Cruz well.  Congratulations to Sean F, Scott A, Hanna O, and Kelsey J for winning the intermediate division.  You guys killed it!

Hats off to Extreme Norcal(Neil, Miranda, Brooke and Garrett) on winning the RX'd division 

Thanks to Pat and Taz and the whole Khalipa Inc Crew.  You guys know how to do it.

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Workout:

Clean & Jerk

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

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SCHEDULE NOTICE:  Wednesday the 18th there will be NO 10am, Noon or 3pm.

6am,7am,8am and the 5:30pm, 6:30pm will run as normal.

Rock Star

IMG_4557Sean during Friday's noon.

"All I want for Christmas ..."
I still remember the very first Basic Training course Jess and I took with Hollis back in October of 2010. I was eager to learn new techniques, get stronger, lose my marriage belly, and just feel better. Running alone wasn't giving me the results I desired, so I was definitely open to something completely new. We learned the standard vocabulary, techniques, and way of thinking. Squatting and dead lifting are kindergarten level and the full squat snatch is CrossFit PhD. I could go on and on but if you're reading this, you likely went through the same training and I am preaching to the choir. Of all the things I learned during the training, there was one thing that Hollis mentioned that just scared the hell out of me (no, it was not burpees for being rude). He told us that CrossFit is intense. Yes. Thanks, I can see that, and feel it after doing just 5 rounds of Cindy. Intense. So intense, that on rare occasion the muscles in your body could break down so much that muscles fibers contents are released into the bloodstream at an alarming rate, a condition called rhabdomyolysis that can result in kidney damage/failure. He explained that symptoms include extremely swollen muscles with reduced mobility, as well as tea colored urine (sorry, but this is important). While I found this possibility scary, I never thought it could happen to me. I had ran several half-marathons, ridden 100+ miles in the Swiss and French mountains, and had done Olympic style weightlifting in high school - if it hadn't happened to me then, it couldn't happen to me now. (continued reading)
-Peter Manning 

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Workout:

Rest Day

 

My rhabdomyolysis story

 

continued from post...
Fast forward to Christmas eve of 2011. My arms, lats, upper back, shoulders, and abs are swollen. I can hardly get a dish out of the cabinet, tie my shoes, or use my arms in general. I'm starting to get anxious, nervous, and I'm starting to have cold sweats. I can't have done this much damage to my body, could I? I tell myself that I'm fine, that I will be OK. Then I see it - brownish urine. Jess convinced me that I needed to go to the hospital and I begrudgingly agree. We thought I might have to stay the night, which would be fine. But, I had hope that I could just be on an IV for a few hours and then go home so I could wake up in my own bed on Christmas. The nurse comes over and tells us (Jess and her brothers and I), there's blood in your urine. Jesus. Alright, looks like I will be staying the night. While I'm sure you're enjoying this storytelling, I'm going to cut to the point. When muscles release muscle contents, specifically myoglobin, into the blood stream, the level of CPK (creatine phosphokinase) in your blood increases and is an indicator of how much myoglobin is present. The normal value is between 80 and 300 IUnits/L. My values were at 174,000 IU/L, ~1000 times higher than normal. The only treatment is to be on an IV of fluids to constantly flush the kidneys until the levels dropped to a non-dangerous limit.  It took 9 days for it to drop below 5000, which is considered a maximum amount before kidney damage could occur. It likely took another 4 days for it to drop back to nominal. 
How on earth did this happen? I did Angie Rx'd in 24:48 while somewhat dehydrated and not in peak condition (I had a few drinks the day before, and had food poisoning the day before that). I didn't hydrate properly after Angie. I was wrecked, tired, and good god did a beer sound good after that mess of a workout, so I had that instead of protein and electrolytes. The damage was done - if I had hydrated properly after my post-workout brew with electrolytes, moderately good nutrition, and got a good night sleep, I think I would have been alright. Honestly I don't remember if I did, but I'm sure I drank a ton of water. The next day I had very limited mobility in my arms - I couldn't straighten them. I wasn't the only person Angie has done this to, and the CrossFit mantra is to never not go in because you're sore - come in and work it out (with the caveat that you are the steward of your own body and should just be safe). So I went in thinking a workout would help and did the "Surprise" workout on the 23rd of December, which included snatches, wallballs and lunges. The snatches and wallballs exacerbated my already wrecked arms and lats. The next day my lats felt like they were detached from my skeleton and my arms were permanently popeyed (and were so for 6 days after) and of course my CPK levels were 1000 times higher than usual. This was not what I wanted for Christmas. 
While my body is back to normal now, I have an unfortunate side effect of this event - anxiety surrounding muscle soreness. CrossFit and being sore 6 days a week are one in the same, so it's been a rough journey getting back on board. The past couple days have actually been the worst, following the 12.3 games workout, which left my middle to upper back, beck, forearms and parts of my legs extremely sore. The day of the workout I hydrated properly (electrolyte water, gatorade protein recovery) before and after and ate relatively healthy. This didn't stop my body from being more sore than I have been since Christmas Eve. But, it's the next day, and my body is recovering, the soreness has lessened, and my anxiety is gone. 
The moral of this story is threefold. One, hydration before a workout is just as important as hydration after one. So, if you were throwing up all night a day before and / or drank to much the previous day, either take it really easy or just wait a day to re-hydrate (water and electrolytes). Two, your body is thirsty and hungry for depleted nutrients immediately post-workout - protein, good carbs, and plenty of electrolytes. While there is evidence that the non-alcoholic carbs in beer actually aid in muscle recovery, after a super intense workout, take an hour or so to replenish your nutrients before throwing back a cold one. Three, if you can't straighten a limb, don't exacerbate it. There is no added benefit to destroying already damaged muscle. Instead, mobilize, ice it, heat it, and nurture it.  If you're unsure, ask  yourself, what's the worst that could happen? If you're 1 workout away from rhabdo and you mobilize instead of exercise, the worst that could happen is nothing, and nothing is always better than spending 8 days in the hospital. 

 

Repetition and Varience

IMG_4540Sean chalking it up.

Variance is a key concept in CrossFit. Repetition is also valuable to improvement and mastery. So how do we keep up with both of these ideas that may seem at odds. This week is a good example day one of the cycle we did overhead squats relatively heavy for ten sets of 2 we followed that up with a triplet including sets of 8 overhead squats done without a rack at much lighter weight and today we will power snatch sets of three to finish out the cycle. The movement is repetitive and yet very different each time. We are getting the adaptation by repetition while keeping our tenant of variance.

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Workout:

For time:
500 Double-unders
At the top of each minute stop and perform 3 power snatches at 115 pounds

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This Sunday a handful of our athletes are competing in the NorCal CrossFit post Open recovery Competition. If you are available come watch and support your fellow athletes in San Jose all day Sunday. Sixteen CFSC members will be throwing down and it will be a unique opportunity to watch.