Jake drilling the back flip with Laurie
Learning new skills is a challenging and rewarding part of the CrossFit experience. Laurie is in here every Friday night to teach you how to use your body to do more challenging, rewarding and playful things. Gymnastics night is a treat you aught not miss.
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Workout
"Jackie"
1000 meter row
45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
30 pull-ups
Last
weekend Mark represented CrossFit Santa Cruz at the NorCal Masters
competition in Richmond, finishing 9th overall in the 50-54 year-old
age group. Throughout the events, he racked up two third-place finishes, along with a 93-pound weighted pull-up. He's now focused on the Open, as he has his eyes set on this year's CrossFit Games Masters competition. He'll need to move up 12 spots from his 32nd place finish last year and into the top 20 to qualify. We're all confident that he can do it.
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Rest Day
Ian focused.
Rowing is a fantastic way to work on posture, coordination, stamina, endurance, and power. Having a good understanding of the relationship between the hip and the torso will pay off on the rower, as will timing and patience. Each movement we do in CrossFit has been hand picked based on a few criteria.
1. Does it move a large load a long distance quickly? 2. Is it multi-joint? 3. Does it initiate with an active core and move to the extremities? More simply put, do the movements make you tired, sore, give you a high heart rate, make you better at everything, concern themselves with function over form? It is about doing things rather than working out muscle groups to make you look different.
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Workout
1 rep max Snatch
then,
Front Squat 10-5-3-1-1-1 reps
We are a community of active people and, eventually, something may happen to each of us that will put us out of commission in some way or another for some period of time. It is our reactions to these experiences that matter most. I have seen cancer, tweaked backs, a handful of knee surgeries, sprained ankles, tender shoulders, jaw surgery, heart attack, car accidents, existing wrist problems, torn tendons, strained muscles, tightness, pain, low self-esteem, bulging disks, weight problems, eating disorders, big egos, hip pain, sprained toes, plantar facitis, rhabdo, depression, and more. I have also seen people use CrossFit to re-build and re-shape their lives.
I believe CrossFitters are lucky to be equipped with some terrific tools for recovery. We can use CrossFit to fix almost any human condition and work around the un-fixable. The squat, deadlift and shoulder press are the safest and most effective movements for solving disfunction, and I think it is dangerous not to practice them. Functional movements done at high intensity with variance has proven to be the most effective fitness program out there. Doing CrossFit in a group setting is magical and healing. I know it is easy to get frustrated, overwhelmed, and impatient, especially if you are new or dealing with a limitation of some sort.
My advice is to realize you are going to be doing CrossFit for the rest of your life, so it is perfectly acceptable to slow down a bit, take your time, and continue to learn to move better. Once you think you have mastered the movements, go back to the beginning and learn them all over again, this time paying better attention.
-Coach D
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Workout
Eight rounds, each for time of:
8 Toes to bar
10 Box jump overs, 24"
12 Kettlebell swings, 2 pood
Alternate with a partner so that each person performs four rounds.
Dave competing in Miami, Fla.
"This competition was pretty much like a Regionals weekend... I did six events in two days! On Saturday night I ended up under the lights at 8 p.m. with the likes of Orlando Trejo, Kenneth Leverich, Scott Panchik and other top Regional dudes. I'm a bit smoked, but I had fun while out here. It was my first time in Miami and I had my first experience paddle-boarding at the call of '3-2-1, go' in the first WOD!"
-Dave Leys
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Workout
For time:
30 Muscle-ups
Early in the morning, the gym has been a bit chilly. Grabbing the barbells, getting on the pull-up rig, and pretty much everything else has been a challenge lately. Kudos to those of you who make it in before the sun has a chance to take the nip out of the air. The morning crew is definitely hard core.
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Rest Day
Tyler and the swing.
The rules of a CrossFit competition are designed to make sure athletes complete the same range of motion. There is little room for error. If an athlete just barely misses the range of motion, a judge is required to not count the repitition. In the photo above, is Tyler completing the range of motion or is this a "no rep?"
Discuss in comments.
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Workout
"Grace"
For time:
135 pound Clean and jerk, 30 reps
Cara making it clear.
The butterfly, or cyclical pull-up, is one of those movements where full range of motion is easy to miss. Clearly getting your chin above the bar is our most common standard. If you are playing around with your pull-ups and decide to use the cyclical pull-up, make sure your chin is well above the bar. Close is not good enough. Cara does a great job making it clear.
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Workout
Three rounds, each for time and load of:
Row 500 meters
15 "Eggshell" deadlifts
Rest 3 minutes
Learning to strategize for whatever task is ahead of you is a valuable skill. CrossFit workouts are a great place to build your capacity for strategizing. The best athletes I know, know exactly how long a workout will take within moments of looking at them. They will know where and when to rest, what parts will slow them down and where to push. They go hard and try to win, but they strategize.
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Workout
For time:
30 Handstand push-ups
40 Pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
60 Sit-ups
70 Burpees
Partition however you like. Try to complete it faster than last week.
Coach D going for it.
In case you missed it, our 8 a.m. class was featured today in the scaling demo for CrossFit.com. Thank you to our athletes for letting CrossFit film you and show the CrossFit world a snapshot of what happens in some of our classes.
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Rest Day
