"J.T."

21-15-9

Handstand Push Ups

Ring Dips

Pushups

Memorial Days hours: Morning 9 a.m. Evening 4 p.m.

NEW SITE UP! http://www.crossfitsandysprings.com/. Check out the new hotness!

 Last Blogger past for now.

THERE WILL BE NO SUNDAY CLASS

A hearty welcome to Scott who just finished his on-ramp!

(some of)The women of Crossfit Sandy Springs

4 rounds for time of:

400m run

50 Squats

This is a duplicate post. We're currently working on getting http://www.crossfitsandysprings.com/up and running for you blog needs from now on.

In discussing Level III, our watch word here is consistency.  We expect by this point that everyone will have solid mechanics and that the movements will no longer feel foreign. We feel that the vast majority of people will fall into  this category, or be very close to getting into it or out of it. For this level ever task must be completed.

Gymnastics

All reps to be completed without stopping

Squats: 50

Pushups:Male 20

              Female 15 (no knees)

Knees to Elbows: Male 10 (or 20 sec. L-sit)

                             Female 5 (or 10 sec. L-sit)

Pullups: Male 7 strict or 15 kipping

              Female 3 strict or 8 kipping

Dips (Static): Male 10 

                     Female 5

Box Jumps: Male 30"x1

                    Female 24"x1

Speed

400m run 1:30

800m run 3:24

5k run 30:00

500m row: Male 1:45

                  Female 1:55

Strength

Deadlift 1 1/2 Bodyweight

Press 1/2 Bodyweight

Squat Bodyweight

Powerclean 3/4 Bodyweight

Work

"Helen" sub 13:30

For time

185 lbs. Shoulders to Overhead 20 reps

40 Burpees

partition as necessary

I mentioned the Skill Tests yesterday, we'll start by looking at the second level, Level II. The first level (Level I) is for those immediately out of the on-ramp.  What we're looking for here is consistency in mechanics, sloppy reps or lifts are grounds for a miss. This level is primarily for those who have just started group classes and become acclimatized to the intensity and types of work we do in Crossfit. You must complete 8 out of the 10 tasks to become a level II.

Gymnastics 

All Reps to be completed without stopping

Squats: 30

Pushups: Male 10 

              Female 15 (Knees)

Situps: 30 with abmat, butterfly

Pullups: Improvement from band to band (i.e. green to blue) or 1 strict pullup no band

Speed Work

400m Run: 2:04

500m Row: Male 2:10

                    Female 2:25

Strength

Deadlift 3/4 Bodyweight

Press 1/4 Bodyweight

Squat 1/2 Bodyweight

         

Workout

5 rounds of "Cherry"

Once we've unveiled all of the levels and answered any questions, you all will have the chance to test for each level.  We recommend that you tackle each task on oneday, instead of trying to do all of them at once. Because of this it may take a few weeks or months to advance through a level.

3 rounds for time of:

500m Row

1 legged Deadlift (10 R/10 L) 95/65

10 Strict Pullups

A few things to keep an eye out for in the coming days: 

Our new website will go live, hopefully Friday. We've condensed the blog and the gym website under one heading, not to mention streamlining the user experience. We're going to do our best to ensure a smooth transfer and appreciate your understanding if problems arise. The new website will be here: http://www.crossfitsandysprings.com/

We've developed skill levels assessments. What is that, you ask? The assesmments include proficiency with body weight movements, minimum times for runs and rows and basic strength levels as percentage of body weight. We'll be explaining each of the 4 levels in the coming week and what is expected from you to attain each level.  

What is the point of Skill Levels? Well, ultimately it serves two primary purposes: One is to simplify scalings for coaches. If we know someone is at a certain level than that represents a certain amount of ability and capacity in our eyes.  And if we know that you are right on the cusp of moving up a level we can help direct your training toward that end. The second purpose is that it allows you all to see how you compare within the gym. Say a Level 3 from 6 p.m. was looking for a comparable time, they would look at a Level 3 from 6 a.m.  At the very top levels (in our case Level IV and V) they represent a person that we feel can compete nationally in Crossfit events. Everyone will be tested into a level, whether you choose to advance through the levels is a personally choice, one which we will encourage.

Double Unders from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

"Annie"

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders 

Situps

You can hand sane normal people a jump rope and they lose all composure. Brow's wrinkle, teeth are gritted and movements become stiff. They take on a crazed wild look in the eyes, as if they'd rather be anywhere else right now than trying to do a double under.  Some of the best double unders you'll see look completely relaxed, they expend no more energy than they have too. It is an even metered relaxed jump just high enough to clear, with a quick snap of the wrists.  And ultimately this is not one of those movements that you can push through with brute force, it requires poise, control and technique. Also practice, lots and lots of practice.

-Paul Siegel

CFSS's newest firebreather, Andrew.

The "Super Moms" of CFSS

"Tommy V"

115 lb. Thruster, 21 reps

15 ft. Rope Ascent, 12 ascents

115 lb. Thruster, 15 reps

15 ft. Rope Ascent, 9 ascents

115 lb. Thruster, 9 reps

15 ft. Rope Ascent 6 ascents.

For all of you at the Warrior Dash: Send in your pictures! Email them to Nate. 

On the same topic I'm going to introduce an event that is scheduled for sometime in 2011, that some of you may not have ever heard of. But I'd wager that if you liked the Warrior Dash, you'd probably love the Tough Mudder. The Tough Mudder bills itself as "the TOUGHEST one day event on the planet. This is not your average mud run or boring, spirit-crushing road race. Our 7-12 mile obstacle courses are designed by British Special Forces to test all around toughness, strength, stamina, fitness, camaraderie, and mental grit. Forget about your finish time. Simply completing the event is a badge of honor. Not everyone will finish, but those who do make it to our post-event party will have truly earned the right to call themselves a Tough Mudder." It is a different sort of race where your placing and time are almost irrelevant, all you have to do is cross the finish line. There are also complementary permanent tattoos of the Tough Mudder logo for all participants. If you want to get an idea of a course they have a few walk through's set-up for different courses.

They will be scheduling a race for 2011 within two hours of the Atlanta area. For details see this page. I'll keep you all informed when I have more information.

-Paul Siegel 

Make Up Day

-or-

CFSS WOD

Never underestimate the power of ice. Aches and pain are quite normal for any crossfitter, do this long enough and something will hurt in an unexpected way.  Before throwing in the towel, or putting up with an injury, try following an ice regimen.  Some of the best suspects for icing are muscle bellies and joints.

Our prescription for icing is 5 times a day at minium, 5 times a day gets you a C+.   Leave it on 10-20 minutes and make sure the skin returns to normal temperature before icing again. But be warned some musculature (particular the inner muscles of the hip: psoas, piriformis, etc.) are hard to ice without  immersion.

Sunday's class will be at 11:00

"Eva"

5 rounds for time of:

800m Run

30 Dumbbell Swings 55/70 lbs.

30 Pullups

Good Luck to everyone doing the Warrior Dash!

It's all in the hips.  In sport, and especially crossfit, power is generated by some of the largest muscles in the body open and closing the hip joint.  Take Eva for example.  A dumbbell swing is almost pure hip strength, you won't get 70 lbs. over your head 150 times with pure shoulder strength.  We move the weight by opening the hip aggressively, the arms are merely there to make sure the weight doesn't go shooting through a window. A kipping pullup is less of an upper body strength movement than it is an example of efficiently open and closing the hip to generate elevation on the pullup bar.  Just cause you can do a kipping pullup doesn't indicate that you can do a deadhang pullup. 

-Paul Siegel

Karen

It was a pleasure having you here John, good luck next season and hope to see you again soon.

The Fly'n Jamacain
"Karen"

150 Wallball Shots for time

20 lbs/14 lbs.

Taking care of your hands is a vital but small part of crossfit.  Simple maintenance once a day will keep 'em healthy and tear free.  First off immediately post workout wash your hands of any chalk. Chalk is a dissecant, it dries up the sweat on your hand during a workout, but after it strips moisture from your hands. And supple is what we are after with calluses.

 Sometime during the day, usually after showering is best, use a pumice stone to grind down your calluses. You want to leave a layer of callus but not one so thick that it can't fold or move easily.  After grinding down moisturize with your favorite moisturizer, I'm partial to Burt's Bees Hand Salve but really almost anything will work.  

If your prone to tears, it's best to work harden your hands.  This involves wearing tape or some other covering for half a workout and nothing for the last half, this way you can slowly develop calluses.

-Paul Siegel

Congrats to:
         Jason on your first muscle-up.

Welcome to:
         Glissel, Valarie, Caren, and Angela. Were so excited to have you guys here.

Welcome Angela, she's got 1 more day of onramp!

Five rounds for time of:

5 Muscle-Ups

135 Power Clean, 10 reps

Run 220 meters

Why 220 meters? I don't know but there it is.

Wednesday's Paleo Recipe:

"Slipper" Burgers

Chapli Kebab

1 lb, Ground beef or lamb*

1/2 medium onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 to 2 serrano peppers, seeded and minced (for more spice leave seeds in)

1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon fresh ginger (1/2 tablespoon dried ginger)

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground  black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

*The  meat needs to be around 20% fat or higher. Most ground beef is nowhere near this fatty, I generally achieve this by mixing in bacon or pancetta. Lardo is also an option. General 3 to 4 slices for one pound of meat. It lends a nice smoky flavor too.

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl or food processor. Combine for 3 to 4 minutes. Mixture should be well processed and highly seasoned. To test cook small portion in skillet, taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

2. To cook, pat out into patties approximately 1/2" thick and 4-5" oval, kinda like a small slipper. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Cook in a very hot pan or over on a hot grill.  no more than 4 to 5 minutes a side.

3. Serve with Tzatziki sauce and steamed fresh vegetables or a nice chopped salad.

I mentioned this before, maybe even featured this recipe (I can't remember too many blog posts), and want to feature it again.  It's an easy way to spice up ground beef as well as pretty quick to prepare and cook. Try it out! 

Wednesday recipe feature is a new thing I'm trying out. Each week I'm going to put a recipe that is paleo and tasty plus pretty easy to prepare. If you've got a paleo recipe you think should be featured send it in!

-Paul Siegel

CFHQ Rest Day

or

Make Up Day

or

CFSS WOD

Thanks to all y'all who brought your families out to play!

We have always maintained that you can run in minimal shoes and although we never exceed 5k, you could ostensible run a marathon in them with proper training and form.  Well, a man did just that. People have completed marathons in Vibram Five Fingers before, but very few have won in them.  He won the Palos Verde Marathon in 2:37.14, he's pictured Here. 

Seven rounds for time of:

10 Handstand Pushups

45 Dumbbell Squat Cleans, 10 reps

10 L-pullups

This past Saturday Pops, Mom and I spread 5 cubic yards of mulch around the family homestead, and are planning to do 5 yards more sometime in the coming week.  To some of you this may not sound impressive, however we had tried this same thing 5-6 years ago and it had taken us approximately 8 weekends to complete.  What's changed? Well both of us Crossfit regularly and try and eat right. To our minds (Roger and myself) the only thing that has changed for us is doing Crossfit.  I chalk this up to increased work capacity in often suprising domains. It makes every day things easier and the uncommon less challenging.

Has Crossfit made things easier for you, made every day tasks harder? What has it helped you to do?

5/15 Total

"Crossfit Total"

Back Squat, 1 RM

Press, 1 RM

Deadlift, 1 RM

There often seems to be a correlation between the intensity and length of a workout and it's inherent value for a certain aim.  We see this in the mixture of fear and admiration with which Murph and Barbara are completed, and often looked forward to.  But this correlation is inherently misleading. Staying too long with this intense, long workouts and things start to fall apart. Cortisol builds up as the body is stressed to a breaking point and all those health markers (body fat, sleep, energy, health) backslide.  Long intense workouts done often is not the path to being healthy. 

We program heavy days and shorter met cons, as well as longer workout, because they stress different metabolic pathways and allow you all to recover. These heavy days or short metcons are not toss away efforts, days lost to achieve a perfect body or higher performance. Everything we have you all do in here serves a purpose. And that purpose is to get you closer to your goals. You just have to trust the process.

-Paul Siegel

Sunday's class will be at 12:00

CFHQ Rest Day

-or-

Make Up Day

-or-

CFSS WOD

My father has been doing Crossfit for almost a year and a half. In the beginning his gains came quickly, moving from scaling to scaling. But now he has stalled out.  Maybe some of you have experienced this.  There comes a point in most peoples Crossfitting were the gains no longer come as easily, due to a host of factors. 

So what do you do about? One of the best things to do is a little extracurricular work, come early or stay after and work on what you want to work, within reason of course. We're always here to help out with what you work on. Another option is maybe take a week off, if you find yourself sick, injured or otherwise worn out it wouldn't hurt to take some time. Now of those two options, neither seems that appealing but its important to recognize that you are past the point of "easy" gains. But a little bit of extra work in addition to what you're already down should provide results.
-Paul Siegel

7 minute AMRAP

95 lb. Power Clean, 10 reps

20 Anchored Sit ups

Normally I try and write something cogent and profound on some aspect of fitness. But "Barbara" has robbed me of any intelligent thought for today, I'm sure you guys understand.

Friendly reminder for the Family FunFest this Saturday at 11 a.m.
Family Dinner at Teela Taqueria at 7:15 p.m.

Who's planning on coming to Family Funfest?

Five rounds of:

5 Dumbbell Deadlift

 5 Dumbbell Hang Squat Cleans

5 Dumbbell Push Press

5 Dumbbell Squats

Increase load each round, rest as needed between rounds.

Pullups are sexy.  If anything the unassisted kipping pullup is what everyone aims for in their first few months of crossfit.  But is it really the most valuable upper body movement? It certainly indicates upper body strength, as does a proficient push-up.  I however would make the case for the dip as the king of upper body strength exercises, or at least as important as a pull-up or pushup. 

Full dips contribute to overall shoulder stability and strength, it mimics the movement of the pushup and increases shoulder flexibility.  Not to mention its the important second part of the muscle-up.   I imagine nothing can be as frustrating as getting on top of the rings and not being able to dip out of it. If your casting around for something to work on, go ahead and try some dips out. If you don't have a dip yet, work the negative.

"Barbara"

5 rounds with 3 minutes rest between each round:

20 Pullups

30 Pushup

40 Situps

50 Squats

Score is total time less rest.  

According to some this is one of the toughest Crossfit workouts. But be not afraid! All you have to do is finish one rep at a time and you'll get there.

This Saturday at 11 a.m. we're having a family fun day. Bring the kids for a great time and a great workout.

CFHQ Rest Day

-or-

Make Up Day

-or-

Press
3-3-3-3-3

Saturday May 15th  at 11 a.m. we are planning on having a Family Fun Day/Workout.  We'll have a fun workout that kids and their mama/daddy can do together.  

For those of you heading up to the Warrior Dash would there be any interest in going up Saturday, hiking around and staying at a campground saturday night? It's about a two hour drive to Mountain Rest and there are several nice campgrounds within 15-30 minutes of the area.   We could go as rustic ( or as civilized) as y'all want. Post to comments if you're interested or let any of us know.

-Paul Siegel

Run 5k

We will be @ Columns Drive Today! Normal class times 8-9-10am!

Directions from the Gym:

Turn right on Roswell road.

Turn left at Johnson's Ferry

Stay on Johnson's Ferry till you cross over the Chattahoochie

Columns Drive is immediately on your left and will dead end at gravel parking lot. Bring $3 for parking.

if you get lost on the way there give Chace a call at 678-662-8208.

Sunday's class is bumped up to 10:00. See you guys there.

Once through for time:

70 Burpees

60 Sit-ups

50 Kettlebell swings, 55/ 40 lbs.

40 Pullups

30 Hand Stand Pushups

I was ruminating tonight over a tumbler of (non-paleo) scotch why we encourage our female clients to use 40 lbs. as the RX for kettlebell swings when 1 pood is 35.6 lbs. It's a small matter of 5 lbs. and it's a standard that we really like and won't be changing anytime soon. But the english lit. major part of my brain started to ask "What does it say about our gym?"  Some Crossfit boxes have a women's wall ball line at 8 feet rather than our universal standard at 10 feet.  Where does that 2 extra feet factor in, what does it ultimately signify? Those of you who came from other boxes may find that we focus more on form and correct movement than super impressive times.  It may sounds elitist but these are simply programming choices, that were made when the gym was first affiliated and have since become law.  What else motivates these standards?

I think it stems from another point that may not be universal recognized: that your successes and failures are our successes and failures. We trainers invest so much of ourselves into training you guys that it can be just as exciting watching a client get a muscle-up as getting one yourself.  We ask for perfect form in challenging situations because it means you'll be safer. We ask more from our female clients because we know you all are capable of moving that weight and hitting that height, if not now in your training then very soon. 

We challenge all of you because we think you are able. And every day you rise to that challenge and sometimes you don't. And so it's our job to keep pushing you, to ask more, to make sure you aren't too comfortable. Admittedly it is a delicate balancing act between asking too much and not asking enough of you all. But that is our challenge as trainers.  And one we gladly accept. Because it is only through challenge yourself that improvements come.

Unless you don't want to improve, than ignore all of the above.

-Paul Siegel

Tommorrow's 5k WOD will be @ Columns Drive normal class times 8-9-10am!

Guys don't forget about the Saturday trail run down at Sope Creek. We will start running at 4:30. If you need directions post a comment to the blog or send Nate an e-mail. Also, if you get lost on the way there give me a call at 678-662-8208.

-Chace

Welcome To:

              Josh and Glissel, were so excited to have you guys at CFSS.

Congratulations To:

             Jeremy, nice job today on graduating the On-Ramp. We look forward to seeing what the future has for you at CFSS.