Find your 1 Rep Max Snatch
then,
Find your 1 Rep Max Clean and Jerk
Strength Focus:
1 Rep Max Shoulder Press
Josh Hit a new Snatch PR of 170# tonight! Congrats on an awesome lift Josh!
Beth PR'd her Clean and Jerk at 130#! Congrats to Beth!
It was a GREAT heavy Oly day at the gym! A lot of PR's and improved lifts!
The skill focus for the month of August is Jumping and Agility. Today we tried our hand (or really our feet I suppose) at Kneeling jumps, Clean Jumps, Snatch and Split Jumps.
Make up what you missed so far this week....
Deads and OHS, Skill Testing, or "Susan's Walk"
Welcome Mark, from Brick CF (LA). Great to have you!
Every month CrossFit Flagstaff opens their doors to the public for a Free Saturday "Come and check it out". This Saturday at 10:00, we welcome adults and kids, and adults at 11:00. You'll be introduced to the gym and the staff, taken through a warm-up, taught the skills needed to do the workout, and then walked through the workout-of-the-day (WOD). The workout will be scaled to meet every experience level and will have a more experienced athlete guiding you through. We hope you'll come and try it out!
About 13 months ago, I arrived home for lunch and found that all three elevators were out in my building.
I was living on the 20th floor at the time, so this was not soul crushing news. I grabbed my Hello Kitty lunchbox and plodded up the stairs, thinking that if anything this was an opportunity to burn some calories before gorging myself with mid-day pancakes and jelly beans. What I didn’t count on was months of lethargy and inactivity… I arrived at the front door soaked in sweat and ready to take a nap. I was only 28 years old.
I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point in my mid to late 20s I reached a state of general malaise. It was not a conscious decision, I didn’t wake up one morning and decide it was time to stop moving around quickly or throwing things on a field. It was just the result of months and months of stagnation and apathetic decisions.
And ding dongs. SO MANY DING DONGS.
Without action, my health was only getting worse. I had a vision of my sweaty, overweight, and out of breath self trying to keep up with my future unborn children and it was disquieting. My vision of the future would be an enormous disappointment to my childhood self, who had always planned on wearing jean jackets with Michael Dudikoff and staring handsomely at the horizon.
He could’ve snuck right in if just wore a red uniform.
My brother had joined “the CrossFit” a few months previously and seemed to be in pretty awesome shape, so I figured I’d start taking a look at what this newfangled fitness regimen was all about. I knew it had something to do with doing 100 pull ups and throwing up, which was a fancy stretch from my normal 3 month stints of chest & tricep, back & bicep, and shoulders & legs. In the end, I signed up for an Intro course and jumped right in.
Now, I am by no means a trendsetter. I only just started wearing trucker hats; I have the musical taste of an impressionable 13 year old girl; and I did not join CrossFit before it was cool (I don’t even know what “cool” is anymore… Is “twerking” drugs?). Over the past year however, I’ve seen CrossFit mature into a much more mainstream fitness program. With that popularity, I’m starting to see more and more articles and resources popping up in crazy numbers on blogs, news sites, magazines, and newsfeeds. However, I’m also finding it harder and harder to distinguish between fact, opinion, and trolling when it comes to a lot of these pieces, especially when I consume most of my information in the madness that is the digital wild west.
At times, the opposition seems no better… Both sides can tend to paint a very black and white portrait of the subject. The internet is no place for a grey thought.
My greatest fear is that people who are truly concerned with their fitness would read these articles and let them dictate their outlook on CrossFit without ever being exposed to a milder perspective that might shed some light on its value.
My second, third, and fourth greatest fear.
I’m certainly no authority on the subject, but I’d love to address three of the more common issues and complaints brought up by some of these CrossFit articles and posts from a perspective of relative experience and critical thinking. Feel free to disagree in the stall below.
1. CrossFit Illuminati Serve Kool-Aid via Water Fountains
Let’s get this one out of the way early… Yes, CrossFit can be a bit “culty” at times. Just like owning a Harley Davidson, being a car guy, or having babies can be “culty”. It’s an activity that has its own vocabulary, encourages commitment from its members, and becomes a neighborly gathering place for those with like mind. CrossFit can be a very social activity… And while some members can take it a bit far by revolving everything they do around it, it’s up to you on how far you want to go down the rabbit hole.
TOO FAR.
My wife and I both do CrossFit, and we both enjoy it. We talk about WODs during dinner and have been known to be an annoying/overbearing CrossFit couple that posts too many workouts on Facebook (we’re working on it, really). We have tons of friends we’ve made through they gym (far more than I made at the gym during my bench and tricep days) but we’ve still managed to make and keep friends from outside the gym and not drive them off with talk of Heroes and Girls. People get excited about CrossFit just like they get excited about camping, or drinking, or their pets. Anyone can be high handed and overbearing regardless of the interest… Assholes in real life become assholes who like CrossFit, and awesome people in real life become awesome people who like CrossFit. Just be awesome. Always.
The word “cult” should not be used in place of a lack of understanding on why a large group of people are excited to workout together. A “cult” should really refer to a group of authority figures with no accountability, using subservience to force members to cut ties with family members to further their main goal of bringing in new members and money.
Yeah, like that.
And on that note…
2. CrossFit Wants ALL Your Lunch Money
In a world of 99 cent apps and Walmart discounts, CrossFit can seem
outright swanky. Relative to the price of a monthly membership at your
local 24 Hour Fitness, we could be looking at a difference of eight fold
or more. So yes, CrossFit costs more than a membership at your local
gym. My wife and I pay just short of a combined $300 a month for our
current memberships and I find it extremely reasonable for the amount of
value we get. On average I’ll spend anywhere from 8-10 hours in the gym
per week and not only do I get instruction from highly qualified
olympic lifting and strength and conditioning coaches, but I also get to
train alongside former college level athletes, games athletes, and a
wide array of friends and cohorts that are willing to push me during the
workouts far harder than I’d push myself. All for less than $5 per
hour.
You can spend $20 a month on a gym membership and if you’re getting the results you want, awesome (I enjoyed this for years). If you’d prefer to build a garage gym and train by yourself or with a partner and that works for you, fantastic. Personal trainer? Great. I happen to prefer working in a social setting with the oversight and personalized training of my coaches. I don’t mind paying them the equivalent of a couple of fast food tacos per hour for that service either.
Only you can make a decision about what your personal finances can handle and how you’d like to prioritize your expenses.
I’ve made shrewd decisions on where I’ve put my money.
Just remember that your health functions like any other investment, the earlier you start contributing, the more value and benefit you’ll be able to enjoy later. Siphoning your money into weekend binges or daily dinners is awesome and I’m certainly not one to tell you how to live your life. Just don’t convince yourself that your health is a financial priority that falls well below your cable bill and coffee allowance.
Speaking of health…
3. CrossFit Wants to Rip Out Your Knees and Break Your Back With Them
Before CrossFit, aches and pains were usually the result of “sleeping wrong” or turning my head too quickly. It’s easy to avoid injury when “intense activity” means yelling at 12 year olds when they end my killstreak.
I make sure they know Santa Claus is an elaborate lie.
Yes, you can get injured doing CrossFit. You can also get injured jogging, rock climbing, surfing, skiing, walking, or any other activity in the present progressive tense. While I have yet to have a serious injury, there are certainly days where something is aching abnormally, or I have a pain in a place I normally don’t. I consider this a side effect of being active and pushing myself physically. I take those days as indicators to slow down and let my body rest.
One of the major foundations of CrossFit is “intensity”, the idea of doing “more work in less time (without overdoing it)”. The competitive nature of CrossFit is where I can find myself getting into trouble, losing sight of the real goal of “fitness” and replacing it with “winning”. I’m fortunate to have incredible coaches that know how to teach the movements, but they can’t be by my side every second of every lift. I have to take some personal responsibility and understand my own physical boundaries and limits. If something’s too heavy, no one should know that faster than me. Your ego will get you injured quicker than CrossFit will.
On that same note however, each gym operates completely independently with very flexible standards of quality and training. Like any purchase, there needs to be a certain amount of research done on the background and qualifications of the gym you’re interested in joining. Not all CrossFit affiliates are created equal, so make sure to spend at least as long deciding on which gym is right for you as you do deciding on the right shampoo for your hair type.
Where’s “Receding?”
Injury is a pretty broad subject, so my take is: Make sure your coaches know what they’re talking about. From there, make sure you understand what they’re talking about. Then, make sure you follow through and don’t let your ego get in the way of performing what they’re talking about. And if you’re doing it right, you’ll still get aches and pains.
But what does it all mean?
I’ve found that CrossFit is not for everyone. Just like basketball is not for everyone. Just like skiing is not for everyone. Just like black licorice is the worst candy ever created.
Seriously, how terrible does your childhood have to be to enjoy black licorice?
For me, my CrossFit gym is a social gathering place. It’s a venue to enjoy the company of some seriously hilarious and ridiculous folks that I may have never met through any other means. In a world of work relationships and Facebook acquaintances it’s nice to find that kind of opportunity in a common interest.
It’s also a place I go to play around. “Play” is a thing so many of us have lost touch with that we forget how much fun it was when we were kids. Monkey bars are much more difficult than you remember. So is jumping rope, dodgeball, tag, and all the other physical activities we used to do in gym class. And while they’re much more labored than you recall, they’re equally as awesome.
It’s also a challenging environment. It’s a place I go to push myself mentally and physically, to limits I would never choose to go in any other comfortable setting. You quickly find out if you’ve gotten enough sleep or have been paying attention to your nutrition. I never truly understood the value of a good night’s sleep or a well balanced meal until I started recording my performance and quantifying what a weekend of drinking looks like during a workout.
Or a weekend of whatever the hell that is.
And while CrossFit may not be right for everyone it may very well be right for you. You’ll never find out if you try and experience it through the twisted pages of the Interweb, so be wary of creating an opinion based solely on the belligerent works of Internet trolls and squabble peddlers. Find a qualified affiliate close to home and give it a shot. If in the end, you’re not a fan and dislike the approach, just make sure to write a combative and venomous post about it (I’d suggest a misleading title like the above). I’ll see you in the comments section.
CrossFit WOD
An oldie from the old gym! "Susan's Walk"
Max Rounds in 20 minutes:
Power Cleans x3 (3rd rep keep it racked on shoulders)
Push Press x3 (3rd rep keep it overhead)
Walk or Run 75 ft. w/weight overhead
Men 95 lb., Women 65 lb. through whole workout
Agility Focus: Agility ladder drills, Cone Drills
3 times around 2 cones, resistance 4 cone touches - 2x through
Strength Focus
Deadlift 1RM
Welcome to LeAnn and Shawn, visiting from CF Southwest (Tempe)!
Tanner was stoked about the Agility Warmup today!
Best comment of the day: Andrew's response to "My friend, Susan, created this workout and it was one of Chloe's favorite at the old gym." - "And now they work as a dominatrix in New York City." Ha! Yes, it was a painful one!
WOD
Gymnastic Skill -max reps in one minute:
Weighted Lifts -max consecutive reps of each:
(minimum 5-7)
Cardiovascular Intensity For Time:
Congrats to Adam for getting his first Muscle Ups tonight!
Josh N also got his first Muscle Ups and Robin was channeling the power of Rich during his WOD today!
CrossFit WOD
21-15-9 rep rounds for time:
Deadlift -225 M/155# W
Overhead Squat -135 M/95# W
Compare to Nov 2010
Agility/Jump Work: 1RM Vertical Jump. Measure distance from max reach to jump height.
Strength Focus:
1 Rep Max Bench Press
Welcome to CrossFit Flagstaff Lori! Julia just moved to Flagstaff from CrossFit 785, and Carly was visiting from Wildfire CrossFit in Phoenix.
Bekis is back and he brought his wife Raina with him now that she is home from her deployment!
Travis visited us from CrossFit Chaparral.
Saturday, August 31, CrossFit Flagstaff will support the Hotshots19
fundraising workout at Captain CrossFit in Prescott. We will be
caravaning anyone who is willing to go to Prescott with us and support
this cause. Let's make a strong showing from Flagstaff!
"Hotshots 19 Hero WOD:
A Memorial Fundraising event to benefit the Families of the Fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots
Since our inception, a principal concern of Captain CrossFit has been to provide elite fitness to the first responder communities of the Prescott area. We conveniently found our home across the street from Fire Station 7, which housed the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Immediately, we asked these men and their families to be a part of our gym. As many of the firefighters were already participating in CrossFit workouts, albeit with minimal equipment, the ability to join Captain CrossFit was readily accepted. Captain CrossFit became known in town as “the gym that loved firemen”.Captain CF is located across the street from Fire Station 7, which housed the Granite Mountain Hotshots and many of those firefighters were CrossFit athletes at Captain CF. These men were, in many ways, the life blood of our community at Captain. Most morning and evening classes were filled with not only members of other fire departments, but also this elite group of Hotshots. Quite often these men would do their workout, wait for their spouses to make it in to the gym, and then subsequently do a second workout with them. Workouts were often interrupted by a radio call, causing half of the class to rush out in the service and protection of our community. At Captain CrossFit, we were proud to feel like an extension of these heroes’ stations.
Prescott, being a tight knit community, had forged many relationships at Captain CrossFit with these men. Many of our clients and trainers have known these heroes and their families for their entire lives. Not a day will pass without these brave and honorable men being missed and mourned by our family at Captain CrossFit.
It is in light of our dedication to them, that we gladly accept the honor to host a Memorial Fundraising event at Captain CrossFit on August 31st from 10am to 5pm. All funds raised will be managed by the CrossFit Kids Foundation and specifically dedicated to the children who have lost their fathers in this tragedy. The families in need will receive 100% of proceeds collected. More information on the national fundraiser is available at http://hotshots19.crossfit.com/.
Please plan to come and join us on August 31st to honor the 19 men from
Prescott Fire Station 7 who paid the ultimate sacrifice. We will be
honoring them with a workout and BBQ.
It is our goal to harness not
only the Captain CrossFit community, but the CrossFit community as a
whole, to ease the burden of the surviving families. All participation
will be accepted with gratitude.
— The Team at Captain CrossFit"
Please comment below if you can go with us.
Thanks for visiting from CrossFit 480 Lauren!
Welcome Back Bruce! We are so glad your family is back HOME!
WOD
Complete 7 rounds:
1 minute to complete the following:
5 KB Swings - 2 pood M/1.5 pd W
1 40 yard Suicide Run
*Rest 1 minute between rounds
*Penalty if a round takes longer than a minute = 1 burpee per second over.
(To complete a 40 yard Suicide Run:
Start on the line.
Sprint out to the 10 yard line, touch the 10 yard line and sprint back to the starting line.
Turn and sprint to the 20 yard line, touch the 20 yard line and sprint back to the starting line.
Turn and sprint to the 30 yard line, touch the 30 yard line and sprint back to the starting line.
Turn and sprint to the 40 yard line, touch the 40 yard line and sprint through the starting line.)
Great to have Nik visit! He is the creator of our yummy Paleo Treats!
STRONG showing by Amanda today at the Scorcher competition in Phoenix! She Hang Cleaned 175# for 3 consecutive reps, which was a 5# PR over her Clean, and then proceeded to PR again and Hang Cleaned 185# for a rep, for a 15# PR!
CrossFit WOD
Take 20 minutes to find:
1RM Clean
and
Max Height Box Jump
Compare to January 2012
Strength Focus
Find 1RM Back Squat
Happy smiles! People cleaned HOUSE on the PR's today! Congratulations!
We bid a temporary farewell to Cole, as he goes back to school and football season, but we will see him in his NAU football games and back here in December! Good luck, Cole!
Oh yeah! That's right! 53 inches!
Welcome to CrossFit Flagstaff, Kari
CrossFit WOD
Complete 5 Rounds For Time:
Post loads used and times.
Core Strength: Max Plank Hold (time to beat from before: Heather 5:37)
Strength Focus
Wendler Deload Phase - Deadlift and Shoulder Press
The idea of any deload is to give the body a rest so it can recover and then move forward. You can't step on the gas all the time.
90% of 1RM is baseline to calculate other percentages off of. Don't go up in weight any further than that! Be very proficient to form and perfect bar path.
40% x5 Reps
50% x5 Reps
60% x5 Reps
NO max reps on last set, only 5.
Welcome to your first class, Kristina!!
And look who CRUSHED the plank hold record! Holy Moly, Kristin!
WOD
"MDV" (insert your own meaning)
As Many Reps As Possible in 12 min:
15 Bar Muscle Ups
100 Double Unders
15 Hang Squat Cleans -135# M/95# W
100 Toes-to-Bar
Bar Muscle Up Progression Pt.1
Bar Muscle Up Progression Pt.2
Bar Muscle Up Progression Pt.3
Welcome to CrossFit, Brian!
Saw some AWESOME breakthroughs today on learning this new skill, overcoming fear of turning over the bar, and some people (Brittany!) getting their first muscle up! Congratulations!
from Breaking Muscle
The 2013 CrossFit Games came to a close this past Sunday evening, and we just watched the third straight victory for Rich Froning, among countless other victories that occurred over the course of the events. We watched athletes reach incredible heights immortalizing their names within the CrossFit community. But today is another Monday and we are back on the grind.
The most important part of competition is learning. You can learn from victory, and you can learn even more from defeat. What did you take away from the CrossFit Games this year and how you can learn to continuously improve?
4 Lessons From the CrossFit Games
1. You must perform your best at all times.
The Games winners, Rich Froning and Samantha Briggs, took the wins with a bit of room, but as we look at the competitors who just missed the podium there was a very small point difference that amounted to only a matter of seconds or pounds. During workouts we learn to game them and push during our strengths while surviving during weaknesses. This is a short-term strategy to win only that day, but to improve and ever have a chance at your true potential you need to push the entire workout. To become a champion you must be well rounded and excel in all areas, which means tackling your weaknesses.
2. Live in the moment.
CrossFit and competition in your sport requires mental focus that puts you in the zone. It is one of the few times in life where everything else can fade away. You become so enthralled in the event that the noise quiets and no one else is there. There is a special place that exists for athletes when you are truly in the moment - it all fades away, you get tunnel vision, and your performance skyrockets. This is what most athletes are in search of and it only comes as a reward of consistent hard work over a long time, allowing you the conditioning to dig deep.
3. Recovery is king.
During the games athletes endure an incredible workload that would take most of us a month to complete. The sheer number of workouts, the number of reps, and the amount of weight is astronomical - everything from maximal effort lifts to rowing a half marathon. Most of your average runners who complete a half marathon take the usual day per mile raced off. Instead of having thirteen days to recover, these CrossFit Games athletes are given just a few hours. Making sure to get nutrition right, hydrating immediately, and any and all other recovery activities are the difference between not only a CrossFit championship, but also your ability to complete a workout effectively the next day.
4. The stage drives you to greater performance.
Competing and putting yourself on the line and in the spotlight allows you to do more than you thought possible. The energy and pressure drive people to dig deeper. As an individual who can’t make it all the way through the CrossFit Games to the finals, how can you use this same tool? Pick days in your box to compete in workouts with friends and have your own games. Call someone out in a competition and put the pressure on to succeed.
This idea of continuous improvement is becoming more accessible to athletes everywhere as we have a greater ability to record our workouts and progress. Computer programs allow us to track distance, heart rate, total weight lifted, percentage changes, and much more. Continuous improvement is well established in the business and engineering world for a good reason, it is the only way to stay on top and relevant. Essentially you constantly evaluate your process (training), look for way to improve it, and then measure your results. Too many people want to compete simply show up to workouts and do what everyone else does.
The training of humans is a unique problem because we are all build differently. Everyone reacts differently to exercises, strength training, and endurance training. So, if you want to maximize your performance you are truly an experiment of one. This requires constant evaluation of your program and seeing what results are gained from the current plan. You must set the overall goals of your program, and make sure the training is leading you in the right direction.
So what now? Take a view of where you are and where you want to be. Set
a plan, perform at all times, live in the moment, compete on the stage,
and recover hard. Become who you want to be today there will never be a
better time.
CrossFit WOD
"Book Ends" For Time:
1k Row
100 Situps
Rest 10 Minutes
100 Air Squats
1K Row
Strength Focus
Wendler Deload Phase - Back Squat and Bench Press
The idea of any deload is to give the body a rest so it can recover and then move forward. You can't step on the gas all the time.
90% of 1RM is baseline to calculate other percentages off of. Don't go up in weight any further than that! Be very proficient to form and perfect bar path.
40% x5 Reps
50% x5 Reps
60% x5 Reps
NO max reps on last set, only 5.
Rowing. Against the wind.
CrossFit WOD:
"Bubbles"
As Many Rounds as Possible in 12 min:
CrossFit WOD
Snatch
7 x 1 OTM @ 90%
Clean & Jerk
7x1 OTM @ 90%
Strength WOD
Wendler Phase 3 - Shoulder Press
75% of training weight x5
85% of training weight x3
95% of training weight x1+
Makeup What You Missed
CrossFit WOD
Start the clock on the first sprint and complete a 40 yard sprint every 30 seconds. If you run the sprint in 5 seconds you have 25 seconds to recover. If it takes you 10 seconds then you have 20 seconds to recover. Keep the clock running until finished.
Strength Focus
Wendler Phase 3 - Deadlift
75% of training weight x5
85% of training weight x3
95% of training weight x1+
CrossFit WOD:
Complete 8 rounds for time:
*For walking lunges, 6 total lunge steps (3 RT/3 LT)
Welcome to CrossFit Flagstaff, Kristen.
Great squats, Jonas!
“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress
and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.”
–
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Highland Games 2013!!
Great showing by CrossFit Flagstaff "Throwing Club" at the Highland Games! Molly took 2nd in 2 events and 3rd in another! Lindsay placed 1st in 7 of the events and 3rd in another, for her weight class, and proceeded to place 6th overall! Eric took home a couple of 2nd place finishes, and Steve went home with a 4th place award in the Masters! Everyone had a great time and learned a LOT about how to throw heavy objects!
Coach Burgener - June 29-30