Our two performance test winners. Congrats Chad and Kiersten.

CFHQ Rest Day

-or-

Make Up Day

-or-

CFSS WOD

Congratulations to Chad for winning the performance challenge for those athletes that  have been doing Crossfit for 6 months and over.  Congratulations to Kiersten for winning the 6 months and under performance challenge.

Carol Davis won our fat loss challenge with 5.7% lost, Eric Taylor came in second with 5.2% lost. 

We have records for the individual workouts and we'll add those today some time. Y'all leave them a little love in comments if you'd like.

We want to acknowledge everyone who competed and tried the Gut Check Challenge. You all did great and we know that you'll continue to see great results in the gym. For those of you who didn't get a chance to compete talk to us about what we did and how you can do the same thing.

-Paul Siegel

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Chest To Bar Pullup

30" box Jumps

GHD Sit-ups

People often assume that any shoes are fine for working out. What worked before at LA fitness will certainly work here.  But than again your might not have done anything like what we do in here. Therefore it might be time to update your kicks.

We are enamored with minimal shoes, Chuck Taylor's to be specific.  We find that for an all around shoe they simply cannot be beat.  During weight lifting they don't suffer as much from compression as running shoes and they are much cheaper than olympic lifting shoes.  We want a very stable base for lifting and in running shoes we can watch your foot move around trying to find a level platform. Something that doesn't happen in Chuck's or lifting shoes.

And you can run in them. I wouldn't recommend you go run a half marathon in them but they'll work for the short distances we do.  If your not quite willing to give up padding in your shoes look for racing flats or the like, something with a minimal of amount of non-compressible padding.  There has been a lot of research lately in regards to barefoot running and the misuse of shoes.  You might just find your times will be faster with a more minimal shoe. The idea is that with minimal padding it will force (or allow) you to run on your forefoot rather than heel strike which causes a whole host of problems in the foot and up the leg.  Many of the best runners naturally emulate this stride and before Nike convinced the world it needed air pockets and foam runners wore little to nothing on the feet. We might be well advised to emulate them as well.

-Paul Siegel

3 rounds for time of:

275 Deadlifts 10 reps

50 Double Unders

 Thanks to everyone who came to Gut Check Challenge conclusion, we had a great turnout. Congratulations to all of our winners.  I don't have a list at home right now but we'll get the results posted up today.

If you missed Jonathan's goodbye dinner on Thursday, we'll be doing a special workout with him at 6 p.m. Tuesday.  How do adult beverages and Crossfit mix? Who knows?! come find out and see one of our own off. 

If you've struggled with consecutive double unders here are two things to think about: first, quick hands. It's the speed of the hands not the height of the jump.  Second, toes up. This is a newer cue but something to think about.  When you jump if your toes are down there's a tendency to catch the rope.  Think about keeping your toes up and it might help.

-Paul Siegel

1000m Row

40/30lb. DB Snatch, 50 reps

750m. Row

40/30lb. DB Snatch, 35 reps

500m. Row

40/30lb. Db Snatch, 20 reps

DB Snatches are one- armed.

Laura finishing up the On-Ramp, ya'll make sure to welcome our newest member.

That's a whole lot o' kip. Getting close to that horizantel pull.

Three rounds of four minutes in which you must complete:

200m Partner Carry

Medicine Ball Squat Clean for Reps

Dumbbell Push Press For Reps

Score is combined reps in all rounds.

A round always starts with the partner carry. After the partner carry you have whatever time remains in the four minutes to accrue as many reps as possible in the squat clean and push press.

Just a reminder that tonight is the announcement of the Gut Check Challenge winners.  It will be at 6 p.m.  at the Taco Mac off of Perimeter Center West.  If you've not received the Evite or have no idea what I'm talking about don't be afraid to ask anyone of us or post on here.

Sunday's class will be at 10:30

Need some help for a caption on this one. Post suggestions to comments.

Pullup and HSPU Ladder

On the first minute perform one pullup and one handstand pushup (HSPU). In the next minute perform two pullups and two handstand pushups.  When you cannot complete the required number of reps for an exercise continue with the other.  The score is the sum of the total minutes completed for each exercise. Say I failed in the tenth minute of the HSPU and the twentieth on the Pullups my score would be 30.

There has been suggested a correlation between overhead pressing strength and the strength required to do a handstand pushup. In my experience, and drawing from various anecdotal evidence, this is not the case.  There is very little correlated strength from a strength movement to a bodyweight movement. What this means is that trying to improve a bodyweight movement by increasing the strength movement is very ineffective.  In our example it is overhead strength, in another example it could be bench press and pushups.  

Where this rule doesn't hold true is with lower body movements.  We see a pretty strong correlation between air squats and weighted squats, which means that the more you can squat the more air squats you can do.

What can we do to improve these movements (pushups and pullups specifically but more broadly anything involving the upper body)?  One of the best things is to increase your exposure to said movement. Do them more often, every day if possible.  This constant exposure produces great results towards any desired goal, especially with pushups and pullup.

This blog was inspired by an article from Eat. Move. Improve.  They are much more focused on gymnastics and parkour but grew out of a Crossfit ethos. An interesting read.

-Paul Siegel

Jonathan

How do you rest doing mucho pushups?

Deadlift

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Farewell to a Friend

         As many of you may already know, one of our closest family members at CFSS is moving on. He has been an instrumental part of our staff in the level of knowledge, motivation, and pure friendship he brings with him. He has helped many of us through our toughest challenges and has been around to offer a word of encouragement whenever needed. His dedication to the improvement of himself and all of our family here at CFSS, has been unwavering. His presence will be greatly missed, but the spirit he has envoked in all of us will not be lost. From the bottom of our heart and the depths of our soul we thank you, Jonathon, on behalf of all of your family here at CFSS for everything you have done. You have touched lives and changed peoples futures for the better, a debt which can never be fully repaid. We will all miss dearly, but wish you much luck and great success in everything you choose to do in life.

      Come and join us on Thursday night at Teela Taqueria  to say farewell to Jonathon. We will be meeting there at 7:30 and hanging out till about 10. So, come have a drink and toast to good freind. 

"Murph"

1 Mile run

100 Pullups

200 Pushups

300 Squats

1 Mile Run

Partition as necessary. Please note that for our record boards you must go unpartitioned. If you have a 20 lb. vest or body armor wear that (this is optional).  Plan to come in early and maybe stay a little late. Anyway you slice this one up or scale it can take a good bit of time.

If you didn't receive the Evite yesterday for the  Gut Check Challenge Wrap-up Let us know in comments or send Nate an email. We'll get an invite out to you real quick.

-Pau Siegel

Farewell to a Friend

         As many of you may already know, one of our closest family members at CFSS is moving on. He has been an instrumental part of our staff in the level of knowledge, motivation, and pure friendship he brings with him. He has helped many of us through our toughest challenges and has been around to offer a word of encouragement whenever needed. His dedication to the improvement of himself and all of our family here at CFSS, has been unwavering. His presence will be greatly missed, but the spirit he has envoked in all of us will not be lost. From the bottom of our heart and the depths of our soul we thank you, Jonathon, on behalf of all of your family here at CFSS for everything you have done. You have touched lives and changed peoples futures for the better, a debt which can never be fully repaid. We will all miss dearly, but wish you much luck and great success in everything you choose to do in life.

      Come and join us on Thursday night at Teela Taqueria  to say farewell to Jonathon. We will be meeting there at 7:30 and hanging out till about 10. So, come have a drink and toast to good freind. 

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 SDLHP

3-6-9-12-15-18-21 Sit-ups

First round is 21 SDLHP, 3 Sit-ups, next is 18 SDLHP, 6 Situps and so on.

  Without getting too technical what we in the Crossfit world are looking for is more work, done faster.  We'll explore these two terms and understand what they mean.  More work can come in a variety of ways whether it is more weight lifted, or a lighter band used, this represents an increase in work.  Another example would be more rounds of Cindy more work done.  Conversely as some you saw in the performance testing when the work parameters stay the same but the work gets done faster, we see a rise in power production.  And ultimately we look for either in our advances in crossfit. Especially in the beginning more work can be just as rewarding as it being done faster. Stepping up from ring rows to band pullups and then from band to band is a huge accomplishment. And it also represents an increase in work.  Try to view your accomplishments in these terms.  Perhaps you did a workout slower than you did it before but used a lighter band, or a heavier weight. This represents an increase in work.

-Paul Siegel

Perfect squats make me happy.

More perfect squats make me ecstatic.

As Many Round As Possible in 20 minutes of:

15 Back Extensions

15 Knees to Elbows (K2E)

95 lbs. Overhead Squat 15 reps.

Score is rounds and fraction of rounds. So every rep counts.

  The assumption with any timed Crossfit workout is that the faster you go through the movements (with good form and correct range of motion of course) you will finish in less time and with a higher power output.  With a fixed time domain however, Like the 20 minute AMRAP, the sprinting is counterproductive.  You'll see more rounds in the beginning but less in the end.  Conversely a steady rate of work will have a relatively high rate of work in the beginning and in the end.  Which should allow more work to be done in the same amount of time. 

-Paul Siegel

Newb Cassandra wreckin' some wall-balls.

LB finishing up the On-Ramp.

Weighted pull-ups

1-1-1-1-1-1-1

The cindy grenade.

Jiu-Jitsu badass, Laura, making Front Squats look easy.

Jeff and Craig laying down on the job.

20 minute AMRAP of:

400m Run

40 Wall Ball, 20 lbs.

We will no longer be offering 10 a.m. classes during the week. We will still have 10 a.m. classes on Saturday.

Share your PR's from this week! Where have you improved, where have you fallen off? We'd like to know now that were done with the Gut Check Challenge what you guys have learned and how you felt about the whole thing.  

In the spirit of summation we're planning on having a party early afternoon next Saturday March 27th. Who would be interested in coming together and over-indulging? We'd like to get a rough number of how many people would be interested in coming. Let us know in the comments or in the gym. 

Also if you'd like to recommend any restaurants close to the gym that can handle 20-30 people, we're all ears.

-Paul Siegel

Sunday class will be at 11:00

Pat working through his first "Helen".

Everyone, this Christine. Christine, everyone.

"CINDY"

5 Pull-ups

10 Push-ups

15 Squats

Last day of the performance testing/Gut Check Challenge! You guys have been doing incredible with all of your workouts. Everyday were seeing new P.R.'s. Keep up the great work.

Thursday

3rd Test workout

Run 5k.

We're posting this early so everyone knows where to go.

For day 4 of testing, tomorrow, we will be down at columns drive all day. We will be there from 6am to 11am and 4pm to 8pm. The gym will not be open, we will all be meeting at columns drive.

Directions from the gym to columns drive are, take Roswell rd. north and turn left on to Johnsferry drive. As soon as you cross over the river, turn left on to Columns dr. Go to the end of the street and park in the gravel parking lot, we will wait for you at the beginning of the trail. Also make sure to bring $3 for parking.

If that's not clear look here for directions

For sake of effiency, if you are not ready to go 15min in to the hour, you will have to wait untilthe next hour.

If you have any questions, e-mail nate, nate@crossfitsandysprings.comcall the gym, 404-250-9993, or contact Chace directly at 678-662-8208.

We will be at Columns dr., rain sleet, or shine. So, dress accordingly. Those of you who are running at 6 a.m. may want to bring lights.

Family dinner tonight at Teela Taquiera!!!

Craig, Tim and Lucy after setting some new P.R.'s on "Helen."

Tyler and Carl on their way to some huge new P.R.'s on "Helen." 

CFSS

Rest Day

!Attention Everyone!

Do not forget that we are meeting down at Columns dr. tomorrow for the 5K run. We will be down there during all normal gym hours, rain, sleet, or shine.

Directions from 285

• 
  
  Take exit 24, Riverside Drive
• 
  
  Left for 2.3 miles to Johnson Ferry Road
• 
  
  Go left, cross the Chattahoochee and take an immediate right onto Columns Drive.
• 
  
  Stay on Columns Drive for about 2.6 miles, which will end at the unit.

Directions from the gym

• 
  
  From carpenter dr., turn right on to Roswell rd.
• 
  
  Turn left on to Johnsons Ferry rd.
• 
  
  Immediatley after crossing over the river, turn left on to Columns dr.
• 
  
  Go to the gravel parking lot at the end of the street.

Make sure to bring $3 for parking

If you become lost or have a question call

Chace 678-662-8208

Nate 404-556-5885

We'd like to remind everyone that it's possible to get $15 off of your membership for every person you bring who signs up for a membership.  There is nothing better than sharing fitness with the people you care about.  Crossfit is fun, different and enlightening.  Many people when the first heard about Crossfit thought they couldn't do it, I was certainly in that demographic.  But then they try it and some come to love it. Challenge your friends, colleagues and family to try it just once, the first workout is always free.

-Paul Siegel

Lucy comforts MackMo after a WOD.

Nirjari, Kathrine and Megan after meeting with Helen. Strong women throwing down at 6 a.m.

"Helen"

Three rounds for time of:

400m Run

21 1.5 pood* Kettlbell  Swings

12 Pullups

We will be returning your Bodpod results throughout the week as Chace get's a chance to put them on your tracking sheets. We'd like to say two things about the Gut Check Challenge, First we'd like to congratulate all of you on buckling down and getting through 6 weeks of healthy food. All of you have, in our eyes, changed for the better. You all look better and the numbers have kept going down (or up respectively).  Second, we recognize that some of you may be dissatisfied with your Bodpod results. 

If that's the case we want you to recognize that it is not a failure on your part. You all, most of all, will know the effort you put in. If you didn't see the results you wanted I'd like to ask if you feel better mentally and physically; if your seeing the results you want in how you look and how you're doing in the gym.  If you are seeing these results, than regardless of what the Bodpod says the Gutcheck challenge was a success. It is after all just a number and you are much more than number.

-Paul Siegel

*Russian measure used for kettlebells; common ones: 1 pood =35.6 lbs; 1.5 pood = 53.2 lbs; 2 pood = 72 lbs. Approx db equivalents are 35, 55, 70

Crossfit Total

1 Rep Max Back Squat

1 Rep Max Press

1 RM Deadlift

A maximum of 3 attempts at attaining a the highest weight in each exercise. 

For those of you just coming off the on-ramp Total is what we use as our metric for heavy lifting and charting improvements.  For each lift you get three attempts to get the most weight you can possibly do.  Your score is the heaviest weight lifted in each lift added together.  Total does take some time to get through so come early if possible, warm-up efficiently and lift steadily but with plenty of rest.  

This week of testing is all about the standard workouts we feel represent the full spectrum of Crossfit.  It will challenge, and assess, all of your energy systems and strengths as well as exposing weaknesses.  You'll see this particularly series of workouts again in a few months to test how far you've come. Remember Crossfit is about quantifiable results, an increase in Total or a faster 5k is exactly what we're are looking for. Tomorrow we'll talk about what exactly 10 lbs. on your Total or 10 seconds off your 5k means to you and why we want to see it.

-Paul Siegel

Bod Pod for time

Post change in Body fat percentage to comments.

We are closed  for working out Saturday and Sunday. Don't even let us see or hear about you working out.  Sorry for the poorly edited post yesterday, they all can't be winners.  Performance testing is next week please let us know if you're going to have an difficulty doing the workouts Monday/ Tuesday/ Thursday/ Friday next week.

-Paul Siegel

Newb, Max after the chipper.

Say hello to our latest "Cherry", Neeley.

Reps of 21-15-9:

225 lbs. Deadlift

135 lbs.  Overhead Squat

Today is the absolute last day to sign up for Bodpod sessions.  We will be closed Saturday and Sunday unless it .  We would also strongly advise you to take this weekend as a rest weekend in preparation for performance testing next week.  

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.