CrossFit Marina - Huntington Beach, CA

Thank Gosh It's FRIDAY!!!

Time for an R 'n R WOD.  Here's the HQ choice for Friday:

Five rounds for time of:
Row 500 meters
35 pound Dumbbell thruster, 15 reps 
15 pull-ups

We'll have a couple different versions for your sweat filled selection.  See you early!

Thursday

Thursday already?  And such an "easy Snatch day".  Here's another classic folks.  Check your ego at the door and go light on the weight; forcing yourself to use good form.

Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps.

Make sure and do a really thorough warm up and stretch well when you're finished!

Another place where CrossFit works...

Wednesday

And on the fourth day... they rested.  So; stretch, do some handstands, go for an easy row or run, stretch again.

Psych up for tomorrow!

Tuesday

Five rounds for time of:
Push-jerk 95 lbs, 15 reps
15 L pull-ups.  Get some!

Monday! Wake Up!

What a Monday morning crew!

Here's the HQ WOD:
Overhead squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Front squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Back squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Try to increase the load on each of the fifteen sets.

We'll have some fun WODs for our folks.  Something for everyone, see you here!

Sunday - Fun Day?!

Look at this!
Run 400 meters
50 Wall-ball shots
30 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters
30 Pull-ups
50 Wall-ball shots
Run 400 meters
Get as deep as you can on the Wall Ball shots, break the Pull Ups into numbers that let you kip well.  Make sure and hit the "Exercises" page at CF HQ if you have any questions.  Tear it up!

I'll have to do this one later; got called in to work!

Saturday - Rest

Stretch; don't forget to stretch!  Most of us don't do it enough after the WODs.  Take it easy, do some easy stretching throughout the day.  Maybe do some gymnastic practice on handstands, or some grease-the-groove pull ups.  Have fun.

Angie, Angie, Angie

"Angie"
For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

Hmmmm,  just look at her.  OK, now think about how to break it up.  You should do this one exercise at a time; don't mix them up.  Other WODs are set up in a way that has this effort broken into groups.  5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats, etc.  This WOD is meant to challenge you one area at a time.  You'll see how those who can kip well really smoke through the pull ups on this; saving major time.

If you're about 100 years old like me, this can smoke your shoulders a bit so... "take your time" (relative term... smooth is steady, steady is fast, eh?) to avoid straining any muscle groups or joints.  Break it into submaximal sets.  Do jumping pull ups if you're still working on them.  If you start really straining at 12 or so, try 20 sets of 5 pull ups, but really think about keeping the breaks short.  Same goes for push ups if they smoke your shoulders.

Form, form...  have fun!

Helen of Thursday

Ah Helen; the face that launched a thousand Pukies:

Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
1 1/2 pood Kettlebell X 21 swings (or 55 pound dumbbell swing)
12 Pull-ups

What can you do if you can't lift that actual weight in one KB swing, or if you don't have that size dumbell?  It's important for you to develop power. You want to end up pushing or lifting the same amount of weigth in the same amount of time, or more quickly than you have before.  One concept that works is to take the total weight to be lifted (21 kettlebell swings x 55# = 1,155#) then divide that by a weight that you can lift or that you have (1,155# / 45# = 26 swings).

So if I want to compare my "Helen" time to someone that is doing it "as prescribed", I do the runs and pull-ups as written, and instead of doing 21 KB swings at 55# (of a weight I don't have or can't lift) I do 26 dumbell swings with a 45# DB.  When all the work is done we have pushed the same weight.  The greater power source simply does it faster.  Make sense?  Write us if you have any questions.

Now get to work sweet pea!

Wednesday - What A Jerk

So here you have it, the Push Jerk.  Make sure and watch the video before you do this one.  Using your hips to "create momentum and elevation" on the bar will have you pushing up a lot more than you can if you just try and muscle it up with your shoulders.  Remember, dip, push, dip!

CF Warm Up, then:
Push Jerk 3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1 reps

Tuesday Make Up Day

Ahhhh, Rest Day.  Not.

We did a little make up for yesterday.  A nice pull-up WOD of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.  Kipping is your friend.  Learn to kip.  Uncle Sam wants you to kip.  A kip a day is all we ask...  You get the idea.  It's the difference between 117 pull ups and 180 pull ups.

Volumes and volumes of kipping insight await you at the www.CrossFit.com site and message board.

Now, go rest.

What Can You Get Out of This Program?

“If your goal is optimum physical competence then all ten general physical skills must be considered:

1. Cardio/Respiratory Endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process, deliver, oxygen.

2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store and utilize energy.

3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit or a combination of muscular units to apply force.

4. Flexibility - The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.

5. Power - The ability of muscular unit or a combination of muscular units to apply maximum force in minimum time.

6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.

7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.

8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.

9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relations to its support base.

10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

Improvement in this range of general physical skills requires both physical training and general movement practice.”TRAINING” refers to activities that improve performance capacity through measurable organic changes in the body. “PRACTICE” refers to activity that improves performance capacity through adaptive changes in the nervous system without other perceptible organic changes.

Both training and practice are needed to improve any physical performance; however, the general physical skills detailed above respond in differing degrees to each. Of the ten general physical skills, the first four, endurance, stamina, strength and flexibility, are those most affected by training activities. The last four, coordination, agility, balance and accuracy are most affected by practice. Power and speed have equal requirements for training and practice.”

The Well-Rounded Workout, by Jim Cawley & Bruce Evans

Monday Moms

Man what a leftover soreness day.  Our heroines were tearing it up though as they did a modified Filthy Fifty.  We saved it for 'em.  They were great!

  They all did 25 of each exercise.  Good times were posted and they were all in the upright position when they finished...  Good job ladies!!!

Was That a Bus That Hit Me?!

And it was written:
20 seconds on/ 10 second off/ 65-pound thrusters for 15 intervals.
Scored as the least number of reps in any of the 15 intervals. Bar must stay racked for duration of each interval.

Funny this comes a couple days after such a serious post.  We thought we were sore this morning, we had no clue...  This is the beauty of CrossFit though.  Some of us are sore, some feel fine.  It's up to each person to listen to their body's aches and pains to figure how hard they're going to go out on the next day's WOD; or not.

This was a good one.  A seven and a half minute session that not only challenged you to work hard at keeping your form, but also put a surprising strain on both your cardio-respiratory system and your phosphagen and glycogenic pathways.  I am toast.

The "Filthy Fifty"

They say "fear this, fear it" when the Filthy Fifty show up as a WOD.  This is best as a weekend butt kicker, taken with no lack of sleep or dehydration.  This type of WOD is a good one to test your all around fitness since it incorporates many of the exercises fundamental to CrossFit.

A "chipper" is a term used to describe this type of WOD (workout of the day).  It takes your anaerobic limits and just keeps stringing them out, forcing you to adapt not only to the power generating explosive movements but getting the aerobic benefit as well.  Some of the best times turned in are under 30 minutes.  The best I've seen to date is a 21 minute time by a guy who is only part human.  Some of you are incredible.

If you have a spare minute read some of the posts to Comments for this on today's WOD at the CFHQ site.  What awesome comedy.

Dangerous?!

Can you "overdo it" when working out?  Of course you can, and at some point we all do to a certain extent.  You want to make sure that plain old soreness, not pain, is all you get.  There is a reason people ease into these workouts.  Because of the fact that CrossFit produces a strong adaptation from your body, there is a potential to get a negative systemic response if you go too hard when starting out.

A condition called rhabdomyolysis can occur with extremely hard efforts or workouts.  This is a body wide condition that starts in the cells of your muscles while you work out.  When the muscle cells get overloaded with oxygen debt, they start relying on other means of energy production.  When that energy runs out, the muscle cells enter into a dysfunctional state and some start dying (like you're probably feeling during that workout).

Potassium and calcium inside the cell shift to levels that cause certain functions inside the cell to completely shut down.  All scientific terms aside, that's when it truly sucks to be you.  Your body can handle a certain amount of muscle damage from workouts, that's how we "grow" our muscles, by taxing them.  Once you pass a certain point with this muscle tissue loss there is a potential for very significant problems.

CrossFit workouts demand power from your muscles, (that's force times distance over time; for more power - a shorter time).  If you overdo it you can cause so much muscle damage that the waste materials end up in your kidneys, where normally those wastes go, but in much smaller amounts.  If you have trashed your muscles tissue by exerting too hard, you can have serious kidney problems.  In some rare cases this has led to death.  You can avoid this by using common sense and following one of the most basic rules of CrossFit: Leave your ego at the door.

How do you avoid Rhabdo?  Stay hydrated (not 20 minutes before a workout, more like 12 hours), drink alot of water every day whether working out or not.  Practice good nutrition habits.  Don't starve yourself or eat trash.  You need natural minerals and vitamins.  They don't all come from a designer shake and you need the fiber from a normal vegetable intake as well.  And chiefly, ease into this.  CrossFit will be here for the rest of your life, enjoy it.  There will be plenty of time to get your butt kicked by fun/hard workouts!

Friday Fun

Our beginner ladies tried a new lift, working on the Deadlift, as it was included in the modified WOD from Wednesday, with 4 rounds of:

135 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
Run 400 meters
15 GHD Sit-ups.  If it was as fun for them as it was for us when we did it, they'll be remembering us tomorrow!  Good job ladies.

Day Numero Uno

Happy Birthday to us!  This is the first of many, folks.  Get ready for an outstanding ride. Nothing but good CF related reading and support from us.  We want you to have the least diluted product and we challenge you to keep us on track, so that we can bring you the best levels of fitness and health possible for you and your families.  Let's get some, and go again!