CFHQ Rest Day

or

"A Light Meal"

1000m Row

50 Box Jumps 24"

40 Pullups

30 Kettlebell Swings 55 lbs/ 40 lbs.

20 Burpees

Sign up for the Bodpod here. Body fat testing is happening this Saturday. To be eligible for the competition you must have done both Bodpod tests. We will be closed for working out this weekend and performance testing will start on Monday the 15th.

Poppin a squat

Face of concentration

Shoulder Press*

3-3-3-3-3-3-3

Sign up for the Bodpod here. Body fat testing is happening this Saturday. To be eligible for the competition you must have done both Bodpod tests. We will be closed for working out this weekend and performance testing will start on Monday the 15th.

Chad just before he left 150' of burnout in his '69 Camaro. And smoked out the smokers.

Kelly knocking out "War Frank"

Laura throwing down a 7:44 "Cherry".

8 rounds of:

Run 400m

Rest 90 seconds

Score is total time not including last rest.

Sign up for the Bodpod here. Body fat testing is happening this Saturday. To be eligible for the competition you must have done both Bodpod tests. We will be closed for working out this weekend and performance testing will start on Monday the 15th.

"War Frank"

3 rounds for time of:

25 Muscle Ups

100 Squats

35 GHD Situps

 Sign up for your Bodpod assessment Saturday using this site.  You can also find it on the menu at right. We will be doing testing this Saturday the 13th. 

Marine Captain Warren A. Franks of Cinnicanti, Ohio, died Novemeber  25, 2008 while supporting combat operations in Ninewa province, Iraq. He was assigned to the 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaision Company, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan. He is survived by his wife Allison and his daughters Sophia Lynn and Isabella Grace.

We've talked about setting goals before but I've struggled to guide and quantify those goals.  But Hyperfit USA, a Crossfit Gym out of Detriot, MI has an excellent overview which I've posted below. I look how they've divided them by time frame.  It pays to look ahead with fitness especically for bigger events like Iron man's and so on.  But notice as the time goes from 1 year to 3 year the goals become more nebulous and harder to concretely define.  We'd like all of you to keep these time and goals in mind. We're in the process of creating programs that'll challenge you guys to improve on everything and help you to keep challenging yourselves.

Examples of Life-Long Goals (typically 3-5 year goals) 

1.    Slow down the ravages of time. 

2.    Maintain quality of life.

3.    Keep all health markers in the "fitness" range of the CrossFit Health/Wellness/Fitness model. 

 Examples of Intermediate-Term Goals (Typically 1-3 year goals)

1.    Significant Strength Goals - i.e. Deadlift 

2.    Train for special sports specific goal - i.e. Weightlifting meet, Triathlon, or bike event or similar. 

3.    General improvements in all performance metrics. 

4.    Specific body composition goal based on daily eating goals.

 Examples of Short-Term Goals

1.    Specific events or challenges

2.    Daily performance tracking - WOD performance and food intake. 

3.    Near terms sport specific goals - Benchmarks or races. 

4.    Training Volume - Number of times per week to achieve goal. 

-Paul Siegel

Rounds of 25, 50 and 75 for time of:

Squat 

Pushup

Pullup

Sit-ups.

How are you sleeping?  Sleep is right up there with good nutrition as an important aspect of recover.  Mark's Daily Apple's recently posted an excellent article about the effect of light on sleep.  A study recently showed that a small blue light on the back of the knee effected sleep enough to be detrimental.  The study then postulated that blue light in particular effects sleep more than any other part of the spectrum. And blue light emanates from almost all electronics. From your lap top to the computer your reading this on all of them can effect your sleep.

The authors of "Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival" have postulated that the blue light simulates day time and thus the body keeps you awake to feed and mate.  The opposite of this is that the color red has no effect on sleep, because of the need for fire to keep warm.  So blue keeps you awake and alert which doesn't seem that bad, however where this becomes a problem is at night.  Using your computer or watching T.V. and the associated blue light effects your sleep.  Mark's Daily Apple has some great solutions to this, including an application that cuts down on blue light from your computer. Make sure your sleeping in an entirely dark room, cover up any LED's in the room especially. You can wear orange colored glasses at night if you want to totally avoid blue light.

-Paul Siegel

We will be closed Sunday, enjoy your rest day.  

Overhead Squats 1-1-1-1-1 reps

Front Squats 1-1-1-1-1 reps

Back Squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps

Try to increase weight on each rep.

Remember that the squat is perhaps the most fundamental movement we do in here. Our dream would be for everyone of you to have a perfect, ankles to ass squat. The thing we see wrong most often in a squat is not enough depth, poor posture and poor knee tracking.

 Today is an excellent day to work on establishing that bottom depth.  Ideally you would know exactly where the bottom of the squat is for you, if you can't do this in an air squat, when you get 135 lbs. over your head and try to squat things will go haywire. The best way to establish this depth is to make sure to  get deep enough ( literally as deep as you can which should have your gluts resting on your calves). And practice practice practice. 

When moving to the barbell move as slowly and as deeply as possible.  No getting to this maximum depth is where a lot of you will run into problems primarily with flexibility which indicates to me that y'all probably haven't been stretching enough.  If we tell you that you have flexibility problems (or you know that you do) you need to be working daily on opening up that range of motion, trust me it will come in handy and there is no reason not to work on it. I would love for today if no one had to have their depth checked or missed a rep because they weren't deep enough. 

-Paul Siegel

That's just how we roll.

Nate RX'ing "Garrett"

Alicia, let us know how you really feel.

Five rounds for reps of:

1 min Wallball Shots, 20 lbs.

1 min 15 foot rope climbs

Run 400m

Rest

Start each round exactly six minute apart. The rest is whatever time is left after the run.

We obviously don't have enough rope or enough height to ensure everyone gets to do a 15 ft. rope climbs.  But we have searched our collective minds and come up with a sub that approximates most of the movements.  Towel pullups or in our case rope pullups approximate the hand overhand motion and the tremendous grip strength required. And really it is the grip strength that we are after for rope climbs.  This provide an interesting stimulus and a motion we don't often do in here.  The carryover is immense, we cannot lift what we cannot hold.

-Paul Siegel

Return of "THE SHERI"!!!!!!!! Welcome back, we sure have missed ya'.

Welcome to the grind Megan. Great form on the backsquat.

CFHQ Rest Day

or

Partner WOD
400m. Sprint
40 Hang Power Clean, 135/95lbs.
80 Box Jumps
120 Hip Extensions
160 Sit-ups
200 double Unders

or 

Make-up Day

 As we look towards the end of the GCC, we need to start moving towards a diet that is sustainable ad infinitum. One of the best ways I've found is to go to an 80/20 system were 80 percent of the time you eat strict zone-paleo-primal-whatever, and the other 20 percent is given over for moderate indulgences outside of paleo.  The 20 percent is not license to go wild with carbs and grains, but certainly they are allowable in reasonable quantities. Ultimately we want to find a system that gives us the best health and performance while still letting enjoy some things in life.  What are you going to do to keep your diet in order after the GCC?

-Paul Siegel

A No No No squat has No knee wrap, No belt and No other equipment.
"Total"

1 RM Back Squat

1 RM Press

1RM Deadlift

3 attempts at each lift for max weight.

There has been some questions as to the value of doing Total a mere two weeks before our performance testing. I would argue that there is plenty of value to doing Total. 2 weeks is more than enough time to recover fully from any fatigue accrued from this Total.   We also want to emphasize that Total is meant to be only 9 heavy lifts (3 Squats, 3 press, 3 deadlifts) which in the general scheme of thing is rather low level of stressor..  We don't expect everyone to PR every time we do Total. Think of it as just another heavy day rather than this do or die must perform event.

The reason most people PR for Total is that  beginners , and Crossfitters in general, are subject to what is called the Beginner effect.  Mark Rippetoe first noted this effect in training novices.  Novices are so far below their genetic potential when it comes to these lifts that it is reasonable to expect a new PR every time they lift. For Rippetoe's program, which is purely powerlifting, it is within 48 hours, for our purposes that extend from 72 hours-7 days depending of course on the what other workouts your doing and your ability to recover. So For rippetoe's program a beginner can squat 225x5 on Monday then she can squat 230x5 on Wednesday.  It is more complicated than that for Crossfitter's but can be much the same advances over a longer time frame.

What does not PR'ing on Total indicate? Merely that your ability to recover from the stresses of lifting (and the rest of our workouts) exceed a given time frame for that recover. If you're seeing significant falls off from any of your PR's (be they weightlifting or otherwise) it's a good indication to step back and take a look at: your recovery, your nutrition and your measured intensity.

Run or Row 5k

We are getting towards the end of the Gut Check Challenge.  From today you have less than two weeks left.  Watch this space for information concerning body fat sign ups, performance testing and other tid-bits.