Closed

I apologize, but we are closed again this Sat morning. I am taking steps to limit this from happening again. Things will be back to normal next week.

See you all Monday.

-John

Closed

Sorry for the inconvenience everyone. We are closed today. We'll see everyone Sat morning.

"Death by Pull-up"

10 rounds:

3 Weighted Pull-ups

5 DeadHang Pull-ups

7 Kipping Pull-ups

Make sure you clean up your calluses.

"Reverse Push/Pull Jackie"

**The 5 PM Class is cancelled. The 6PM class will be held as scheduled.**

"Jackie" is 500m row, 50 Thrusters, 30 Pull-ups

Today we are going to do:

500m row

50 DeadLifts

30 Push-ups

Post times to comments

Closed

We are closed today. Go out and run a 5k.

Post times to comments.

"Rowing Nicole"

***5:00pm Class is CANCELED. 6:00pm Class is still available***
AMRepsAP in 20min:

Row 400m

Max Reps Pull-ups

Your score is the total number of pull-ups. When you come off the bar, you have to move back to the rower.

Post number of pull-ups and rounds to comments.

This Week's Schedule

This week, we have a few cancelations.

Monday-

5PM class cancelled

Tues-

Closed- All classes cancelled

Wed-

5PM Class cancelled

Tuesday's Ramp-up Class moved to Wed at 7PM

Thurs-

Normal Classes

Fri-

Closed- All classes cancelled

Sat- Normal Classes

Sorry for the inconvenience (enjoy the rest days)

Clean & Jerk Practice

Practive the clean & jerk today. Really work on developing perfect technique.

Class Cancelled

Class is cancelled today.

The WOD would have been:

3rnds:

100m Run

150m Row

25 Double Unders

If you can do this on your own (maybe replace the row with a 25m swim) gie it a go and let me know how it turns out for you.

Front Squats Double Unders & PUll-ups

1 set of 5 Front Squats

Then:

50 Double Unders

25 Pull-ups

40 Double Unders

20 Pull-ups

30 Double Unders

15 Pull-ups

20 Double Unders

10 Pull-ups

10 Double Unders

5 Pull-ups

Row& Thrusters

5PM Class is cancelled today. Jason will be teaching the 6PM Class.

3rnds:

Row 500m

21-15-9 Thrusters

Post times to comments

"Linda"

"Linda"

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of:

DeadLift

Bench Press

Clean

Post times to comments.

DeadLift/ Burpees & Run

5PM Class Cancelled today.

Jason will be running the 6PM Class.

3 attempts at a new DeadLift PR.

Then

5rnds:

10 Burpees

10 Shuttle Runs

Post times to comments

"Lynne"

"Lynne"

5rnds:

Bench Press (Rx= Body Weight) Max Reps

Pull-ups for Max Reps

Rest as needed between rounds.

Score= total reps

July 17, 2009

Tonight's Ball and Chain WOD, come in and find out what it is.

"Helen"

image from '09 CrossFit Games

"Helen"

3rnds:

400m run

21 KB Swings

12 Pull-ups

"Shorter Harder Annie"

Chris hit his first muscle-up the other day. Congratulations Chris!

30-20-10

Double-Unders

GHD Sit-ups

Post times to comments.

Run n' Row

For time:

Run- 40 shuttle runs

Row- 1000m

Run- 20 Shuttle runs

Row- 500m

Run- 10 Shuttle runs

Row- 250m

Jerk Practice

image courtesy of Olympic Weightlifting Resource

Today we will be doing drills to improve the jerk. No going heavy, just working on technique.

Analyzing the Thruster

image courtesy of CrossFit.com

The thruster has been called the king of metabolic exercises. The combination of a front squat to a push press can be absolutely brutal. But what makes it so killer, and how do you do it right?

First, let's look at the metabolic demand the thruster places on you. We measure intensity as power which = (FxD)/t or Force times Distance divided by time. The thruster allows us to move a significant amount of weight (Force) over one of the longest distances possible (Distance) with a very fast rate of both movement and cycle rate (time).

As you can see in this graph, the more the power output, the more demand on the various energy systems. Compare the thruster to other exercises and you will see why it is so demanding. The deadlift or squat allow us to move more weight, but it is over a shorter distance limiting the power output. The snatch covers a longer distance coming all the way from the floor to overhead, and it is faster than the thruster, but the cycle time prevents it from being as demanding once you go beyond a few reps.

So, how do we do it right and get the most out of the thruster? So, we start like the setup for the front squat with the bar resting on the shoulders, feet shoulder width apart, weight on the heals, back straight. The difference is that in the front squat you want to have your elbows up high so that your upper arms are parallel to the ground. In the thruster, they do need to be up enough that the bar can rest on your shoulders, but they don't need to be up so high that you have no pushing power.

As you descend into the squat, you really need to keep a tight core because if you are soft at the bottom, not only do you risk injury, but you will come out of the whole slowly and waste a lot of energy trying to finish the thruster. EXPLODE out of the bottom and drive up hard from the hips. It is essential that the bar is resting on the shoulders as you come back up. If you start pushing early, you are wasting the momentum that your legs are trying to contribute to the bar.

Once you reach full hip extension, that is when you start the push. It needs to be as straight up and down as possible. You will have to pull your head back as the bar passes in front of your face. As soon as the bar passes the head though, you need to get your head back under the bar. The cue I normally give is "look through the window". At the top, continue to press the bar to the ceiling to achieve active shoulders and pull back on the bar with scapular retraction.

Now you have completed 1 repetition, but your return is just as important as how you got the bar up. You can not just drop into the next rep. First, lower the bar to the shoulders keeping your elbows forward of the bar. Once the bar is resting on the shoulders again, you are ready to bend the hips and start your next repetition.

The smoother and straighter you make the movement of the bar, the more efficient your thrusters will be. Now you are ready to thrash yourself. Here are some final points about training the thruster. Remember that while we can do the thruster as a max strength exercise, is best suited for metabolic conditioning. So, you want to choose a weight that allows you to achieve the greatest metabolic demand. There was a great article in the CrossFit Journal titled "Fooling Around with Fran" where Greg Amundson tested his "Fran" with various weights and rep schemes. The time he was able to complete the workout changed. By analyzing this, he was able to find the best weight for him to train with in order to challenge his metabolic system. The weight that allows you the highest power output is where you want to train this exercise most often. This will change over time as you get stronger and as your endurance and stamina improve, but essentially you can take the 3 Bears approach. You don't want it to be too heavy, but you don't want it to be too light. Somewhere in between is going to be just right.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out and start practicing yourself on the fast track to "Pukie".

Farmer's Walk & Muscle-ups

image courtesy of CrossFit Affliction

3rnds:

1min KettleBell Farmer's Walk for reps

1min Muscle-ups for reps

1min rest

DeadLift & Run

4rnds:

DeadLift x12

Shuttle Run x20

Flip Grip & Rip

30 reps for time:

KettleBell Swing

Juggle

SDHP

Release

Thruster

Repeat

Cleans Row& Burpee

image from the MidAtlantic Qualifiers courtesy of Havoc Fitness

Clean 4 of 2.

Then:

AMRAP in 7min:

150m row

15x Burpees

Muscle-ups

image courtesy of CrossFit Threshold

Muscle-up PRactice today. We'll go through the progressions and help you work towards your first muscle-up. Or if you have a muscle-up, we'll work on stringing multiples together.

"Heavy Fran"

Greg Amundson rocking out "Heavy Fran"

Photo and video courtesy of CrossFit.com

15-12-9

Heavy Thrusters

Weighted Pull-ups

Earn Your Leisure

Yesterday, I had a conversation with Lorenzo who relayed his frustrations with getting his family to understand CrossFit. They call it "progressive suicide". They think it's too hard and thus dangerous, and like many people, they think "fit" is looking emaciated rather than being able to actually do things. Why do we bother squatting and deadlifting if all girls care about is six pack abs and bulging biceps? Why do we lay it all out in a WOD, when the rest of the fitness world tells us that we can achieve fitness with just 20 minutes of walking 3 days a week? There seems to be this idea that as humans continue to evolve, we don't need high intensity exercise and that we will adapt to modern activity demands, or lack thereof.

I argue that following this line of thinking is the real "progressive suicide". There was a great article by Paul M. Ribisl, Ph.D. in the ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal from March/ April 2004. In this article he points out some important things to consider. First, the vast majority of our current genome was established during the Paleolithic Era (50,000-10,000 B.C.) This was a time when man had to hunt and forage for food and lived an active lifestyle of "feast and famine". This lead to the survival of our ancestors with the "Thrifty Gene", which allowed for the caveman to efficiently use energy both when it was available and when it wasn't. This same gene has been passed on to us today except we are in a period of "feast and rest" which our "thrifty gene" seems to be punishing us for. We have not adapted well to the diet of the Neolithic Era. In the days of the hunter/ gatherer, man used 1,000Calories/ day in physical activity and ate an average of 3,000Calories/ day for a 3:1 intake to expenditure rate. Today we eat 2,100Calories/ day and only expend 300Calories/ day in physical activity. This gives a 7:1 ratio and explains why obesity is on the rise.

The advancements of the Neolithic Era were an amazing achievement in their time and allowed for a greater abundance of food in less competitive environment. This created the conditions for society to grow and develop and as our farming practices got better, the human population increased. But, the development of agriculture was still physically demanding, and the roles of society still demanded physical labor for the vast majority of people.

The downside of this increased abundance is that in these quantities, we weren't meant to be eating grains, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners. Our genetic code isn't evolutionarily programmed for that. Combine that with the wonders of modern medicine in cholesterol medication, insulin, blood pressure meds, triple bypass surgery, etc. and we have gone against Darwin's law of Survival of the Fittest and allowed weaker genes to get passed along. So, rather than evolving with our technological advances, we are sealing our fate and dependency on medicine.

The only way to fight this is to choose better food, and increase our activity levels. As our lives become physically easier with service industry jobs rather than physical labor, driving rather than walking and biking, and online shopping rather than even walking through the mall; we need to supplement that physical activity just like we would supplement a malnourished diet. The easier and more leisurely our lives, the more intensity we need to bring into it to maintain a healthful high quality of life.

Happy Independence Day!

21-15-9

Clapping Push-ups

Jump Squats

Run/ KettleBell Swings/ Pull-ups

Men's Health had the KettleBell Swing listed as "the best new exercise" Someone should tell them that KBs have been around for a long ass time.

AMRAP in 15minutes:

200m run

12 KB Swings (heavy)

7 Chest 2 Bar Pull-ups

Post time to comments.

Big Box Jump

image courtesy of CF West Santa Cruz

Attemp a box jump for max height

Dead Hang Pull-ups 3 sets of Max Reps

Clean Practice

Image courtesy of TheSpec.com

Add your caption to comments

Frankenstein Squats

ScareCrows

Tall Muscle Clean

ScareCrow Cean

Tall Clean

Hang Clean