Day 12: Friday the first.

May this be the first day that you stop running the WRONG way!

You should've read this article I posted a while back. The short version:


Plenty of stuff online to view and practice. See "POSE Running", "Barefoot Running" or "Chi Running".

WOD:

for time:
Run 5k/3.2miles

Do you best to stay off of your heels. Get this done over the weekend and/or make up a WOD you missed.

Day 11: Thursday

What have you learned so far?

If you come by the workout today I am going to have a sit down with each of you individually to talk about your goals. If you do not know where you want to go, how will we know what steps we have to take to get you there?

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SOD: the Sumo-Deadlift High Pull. [video]

This is wide-stance ("Sumo") deadlift, with a relative close grip combined with a high pull- what others may call an upright row.

After stepping out to a proper outside-of-shoulder-width stance and a close grip with either pvc, a dowel, broomstick, barbell or kettlebell assume the bottom of a deadlift position. Your hands should be somewhere in the middle of your shin from a frontal view. Keeping a flat back and big chest, stand up:


Yay! Part one complete. When you are completely standing with a tall body, hips open and legs straight then and only then do you pull the apparatus up to chest level with elbows high and outside:

Notice that the elbows form a "V"! HIGH AND OUTSIDE! Not parallel with the ground.

Got it? Good.

WOD:

20-19-18-17-16-15-...-3-2-1 reps for time:
Sumo-Deadlift High Pull
Situps

Use an appropriate weight if possible.

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Ever put orange juice in your car's gas tank? No? What about Pepsi or Coca-Cola? Of course not, you put the proper fuel into it right?

If you want your body working to the best you must fuel your body properly! If you'd rather enjoy your bread and rice and other startchy crap, then your goal of better performance or a change in body composition (don't want to be fluffy forever, do you?) will never happen. Because your priorities are screwed up. Eat meat and vegetables, seed and nuts, some fruit, little startch, no sugar!

better than the one you know, the Paleo Pyramid

It's easy. READ THIS NOW. You need to download this PDF (right-click, "save as") and print it out. Live by it for two weeks and tell me

• You feel more energetic.
• You're not as hungry.
• You sleep better.
• Your body composition (body fat% vs. lean muscle mass) has changed for the better
• Food tastes better.
• Things like headaches are no more.
• You aren't as lazy.
• CrossFit does a body good.
• You feel the best you've ever felt in your life.

After the above happens I'll pat you on the back and congratulate you that you're going to live a longer, healthier life.

Day 10

Whooo! TEN! Nice.

Today's agenda... Tabata Intervals! What exactly are tabata intervals? From the official CrossFit FAQ that you should have already read:

• For twenty seconds do as many reps of the assigned exercise as you can - then rest 10 seconds.
• Repeat this seven more times for a total of 8 intervals, 4 minutes total exercise.
• The score is the least number of reps for any of the eight intervals.

WATCH some "Bottom-to-Bottom Tabata Squats":



WOD:

record your reps and your "scores"!

beginners: tabata squats, situps and pushups

intermediate: tabata squats, pullups, pushups and situps

advanced: "Tabata This!" (if at home, sub Row w/ Sumo-Deadlift High Pull)

You can find plenty of timers online. If you click this, it'll take you to some tabata labeled things we've done in the past, as well as music downloads of songs I've edited to Tabata intervals: 20 seconds of music, 10 seconds of silence repeated eight times with an extra "rest" minute of music at the end. Enjoy!

FOD:

STRETCH! I don't care how- World's Greatest Stretch, Samson Stretch, Yoga stuff, dynamic movements, etc... Stretch to the point of "uncomfort", but not pain.

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I AM reading your blogs. I've linked everyone that I know on the right-hand side of the page. DO WORK!

Balance Challenge 2009 x King CrossFit

Our buddies down in the South end are running a cool event this coming Saturday from 11am to 4pm.

King CrossFit is excited to join forces with RoadRunner Sports Retail, Inc. for the BALANCE CHALLENGE 2009. Event kick-off to be held at Kent Station on May 2nd, 2009 from 11am to 4pm. Please click on the picture below for more information about the event. Register by emailing kingcrossfit@gmail.com and providing us with your name and email address.

We'll be there. REGISTER!

Yay ... Day 9

Today you'll be learning the greatest exercise ever done on this planet...

... THE BURPEE! ("Yay burpees!")



and here are the standards that we hold here at Foundation:



This evil combination of a sprawl/pushup/squat-jump is one of the best exercises to get better at.

WOD

burpees, for time.

beginners: 50
intermediate: 100
advanced: 150

Day 8

Warm-up with some sort of metabolic conditioning (aka "cardio): run, row, bike, swim, jump rope, step, whatever! Get a good pace going and go until you're slightly out of breath. This should take anywhere from 1-3 minutes. Then 10-15 reps of squats, situps, back extensions/supermans, pushups or dips, pullups each. Follow that with a 15 second stretch called the Samson Stretch. Repeat this sequence sans "cardio" three times.

Congrats, you've just done the Official CrossFit Warmup. Read about it here and read WHY we do it here.

If you're used to this, have you tried Greg Amundson's warmup?

Onward!

SOD: the Deadlift

In a nutshell, what we're looking for:

• in a hip-width stance, have the bar over the middle of the foot.
• grab the bar just outside the body
• push your knees forward until shins touch the bar
• straighten your back as best as possible by lifting your chest, eyes fixed about 5-6 feet in front of you
  
• from profile view, your shoulder blades (scapulas) should be in front of the bar
• "feel the steel" - the bar should touch the body as you stand to full hip extension
• repeat!

WOD:

"CINDY"
as many rounds as possible in 20 min of:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

This WOD requires just a place to do pullups or bodyweight rows. In 20 minutes, how many times can you go through 5 pullups, 10 (honest) pushups, and 15 squats? Beginners should try amrap in 10 or 15 min, leaving the 20 min challenge to Intermediate and Advanced. A round per minute is pretty good!

FOD:

3 sets of hanging L-sits or tuck sits + 1 minute rest, for time


L-Sits and Tuck Sits in the park from ABueno on Vimeo.

Week 1 Wrap-Up

How's everything going? The first week is down, five more to go. If you've never been active or done anything like CrossFit before, you probably found yourself sore in places you've never been before for quite a long time.

We've had great turnouts last week for our Greenlake WODs. Our new 2000 sq ft. location is scheduled to open in mid-May so get ready. More info about that will be posted this week!

Anywho, time to get familiar with something I'm sure I'll go overboard with!

SOD = Skill of the Day. A skill or exercise that will be explained and you will focus on.

WOD = Workout of the Day. The workout or task to be completed for that given day.

FOD = Finisher of the Day. If you're up for the challenge it's an extra little challenge to be done a moment or two after the WOD. Usually works on a skill.

AOD = Article of the Day. We provide a product and it isn't exercise- it's education. You need to be learning something everyday. There's plenty to learn from CrossFit.com as well as this site. I try to provide as many links to other things as possible.

Day 5, 6, and 7

Late post, but it's here now. First weekend of the GRFS Challenge and so your homework is to complete the follow WOD with what you've learned this past week for this weekend. Make up any of the workouts you missed if you want more.

WOD

4 rds for time:
400m run
50 squats

Complete a 400m run/jog/walk and then do 50 honest squats. Repeat four times and stop the timer. This is a great one to do at home if you don't have access to a field or a treadmill, although we prefer not running in place. Use Google Pedometer to measure out a 400m (1/4 of a mile).

Today was the 4th Annual Literacy laps and I took on some first-time CrossFitters who amazingly are all great squatters!

Mary 15:03
PJ 15:10
Marc D. 12:45
Justin 14:05
Andrew B. 11:30
Isabel 15:30
Marc A. 16:49
Ann Marie 13:13
Sharla 15:13
Jason 15:30
Jans 16:51

Nice job again! And a big thanks to Albert who was our timer and picture taker:



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What are your goals? What are you really trying to accomplish for these 6 weeks? What are you trying to accomplish for 2009? Be as detailed as possible because you're going to share with me this coming week!

Greenlake workouts at the north end across the street from Duke's Chowderhouse every evening at 6pm Monday through Thursday until we open our new box! RSVP by email, call or text.

Noon weekday workouts around UW in the works...

Day 4

The SOD (Skill of the Day) is the pullup. Depending on if you have the proper equipment to do this, this might be a rest day for you. I want to you to understand our pullup concept.

• Start with a comfortable grip outside shoulder-width, hanging so that your arms are completely straight, "active shoulder"
• End with your chin above hand or bar level. Depending on standards this might change to chin over bar or chest to bar. Just get as high as you can.
  

Ways to accomplish this:

• Jumping Pullup [Windows Media Player]

• Kipping Pullup
  

or this one

• Strict Pullup - the good old fashioned "hang & pull". Good back strength is required to do it.
  

Choose one. This is obviously easier explained and said than done, but that's why you want to get into any of the Washington State (or wherever you are) CrossFit affiliates to get some of the highest-quality training you could ever find.

WOD:

beginning, intermediate, & advanced: 100 pullups for time.

Choose any version you can, but do you best to stick to one type.

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TOMORROW 9am-12pm and then again from 3pm-6pm I'll be at the new box to take three BEFORE pictures taken: frontal, profile (facing right) and rear view. Men are in shorts and Women are in shorts and sports bra/bikini top.

PLEASE EMAIL/TEXT ME TO SCHEDULE YOUR APPOINTMENT. It'll take a matter of a minute, literally.

Our new address:
1417 10th Ave, #B
Seattle, WA 98122
(360) 908.9862

Click here for a Googlemap

There's free parking in front of the building along 10th, but if you can't find anything there's plenty of metered street parking around the block.

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The case against running shoes continues!

GRFS Day 3

and today you will learn how to properly lunge:


CrossFit HQ: Walking Lunges from ABueno on Vimeo.

... and sit-up:

Damn these Brass Ring Fitness videos are good for beginners. What up WA?!

Lunge review:

• Imagine you have two tracks in front of you- one for your left leg, one for your right. They move in and only in these tracks.
• Chest & eyes up
• Step far forward and place the weight in the heel of the front foot, toe in the back.
  
• Back knee gently "kisses" the ground as you move your body downward.
• Come straight back up and then move forward.
• Do not move forward and down. You will hurt your knee either by the shearing force or the impact on the ground. Don't be dumb.
  

Situp Review:

• Sit on the ground in the butterfly position. Sit as tall as possible and keep your back straight!
  
• Place something under your lower back (rolled-up towel, shirt, pillow, ab-mat)
• Lay down until your shoulder blades and head are gently resting on the ground.
• Flex your abdominals (and/or throw your hands forward for momentum) and sit all the way back up as in the first bullet.

Home WOD:

beginner & intermediate*:
50-40-30-20-10 reps for time
walking lunges
situps

advanced:
7 rds for time:
100 ft. walking lunge,
15 pushups
30 situps

Finisher:

3 planks (top of the pushup position) for time
rest the exact amount of time you are up

* Remember you are going against the clock with the best form possible. This means you start the clock and then do 50 lunges, 50 situps, 40 lunges, 40 situps, etc until 10 lunges and 10 situps then you stop the clock. Record your time!

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The format will change after this week. We will accommodate newbies no more- you'll have to come and see me in person for any more!

(;

GRFS Day 2

Great job to everyone who showed up yesterday! You can find the workout results here. Email me if you want to be invited to the blog.

Today's skill is the pushup. Ooooooh.



When he says "all the way down" I look for chest and quads (the front of the thigh) to be touching the floor. No exceptions! When he says "all the way up" I want to see arms fully extended and the body still in the plank position.

PUSH UP HOMEWORK. Download and read this PDF.

REVIEW!

1. Place your hands on the ground about shoulder width apart.
2. Lay with your chest and quads both flat on the ground.
3. Push all the way up until your arms lock out completely and your chest is as far away from the ground as possible. The plank (a straight line formed by your ear, shoulder, crest of the hip, knee and heel) should be maintained.
4. (If the described above is too difficult, your knee will be the last part of that line)
5. Repeat until your chest, shoulder and triceps are strong enough to push down a linebacker.

bottom

top

WOD:

1 minute of max pushups
1 minute of rest

beginners: 3 rds
intermediate: 7 rds
advanced: Tabata Something Else w/ top-to-top pushups, bottom-to-bottom squats

Note the amount of pushups in each round. I want honest pushups. Do not count the rep if it does not meet the criteria stated.

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What the heck is the "Primal Blueprint" aka the Paleo diet?



Video snatched from King CrossFit

GRFS Day 1

GET RIGHT FOR SUMMER CHALLENGERS!

Welcome to Day Numero Uno of better health. This is going to be an amazing month and a half and your going go through some nice changes. If you haven't emailed me to "register", then you aren't recognized as a participant. Stay updated with the site and check on it daily. Plenty of infomation ahead of you. Hungry? Get some.

Here's your first Home WOD (Workout of the Day):

beginners: 100 squats for time!
intermediate: as many squats as possible in 10 minutes.
advanced: 100 pistols, alternating, for time.


Squat criteria:

1. Start with the feet about shoulder width apart and slightly toed out. (Standing as tall as possible)
   
2. Keep your head up looking slightly above parallel.
3. Don’t look down at all; ground is in peripheral vision only.
4. Accentuate the normal arch of the lumbar curve and then pull the excess arch out with the abs.
5. Keep the midsection very tight. (Abs, low back and butt!)
   
6. Send your butt back and down.
7. Your knees track over the line of the foot.
8. Don’t let the knees roll inside the foot. (Think about pushing your knees out)
   
9. Keep as much pressure on the heels as possible. (Heavy in the heels)
   
10. Stay off of the balls of the feet. (HEELS!)
    
11. Delay the knees forward travel as much as possible. (Remember: butt goes back)
    
12. Lift your arms out and up as you descend. (Superman that ...)
    
13. Keep your torso elongated.
14. Send hands as far away from your butt as possible.
15. In profile (view from the side), the ear does not move forward during the squat, it travels straight down.
16. Don’t let the squat just sink, but pull yourself down with your hip flexors.
17. Don’t let the lumbar curve surrender as you settle in to the bottom.
18. Stop when the fold of the hip is below the knee – break parallel with the thigh. (GET LOW )
    
19. Squeeze glutes and hamstrings and rise without any leaning forward or shifting of balance. (Pinch the penny! aka Squeeze your asscheeks!)
    
20. Return on the exact same path as you descended.
21. Use every bit of musculature you can; there is no part of the body uninvolved.
22. On rising, without moving the feet, exert pressure to the outside of your feet as though you were trying to separate the ground beneath you.
23. At the top of the stroke stand as tall as you possibly can.

Post time to comments, your blog or the FCF thread.

The new box's first WOD

Our unofficial first workout with Teddy, Rob, Colin, Paolo and Tony. Great job not making too much noise! Thanks be to Tita and Sheena for being our media-takers/cheerleaders while I "coached".

It's coming y'all.

GET RIGHT FOR SUMMER STARTS TOMORROW! Stay tuned..

Spinning Class

Or at least Foundation CrossFit's Spinning Class


Spinning from ABueno on Vimeo.

To be done after a WOD, for time.

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You're obviously online right now. Are you "following" the blog? If not, you need to do so! Look to the right and "follow" the blog!

If you're on Twitter, add us already! @FoundationCF

Review us if you're on Yelp!

Push, Jump, Push!

Foundation CrossFit: Dip/Broad Jump/Mountain Pushups WOD from ABueno on Vimeo.

Nice jumps.

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Need info on the 6-week GET RIGHT FOR THE SUMMER Challenge?

4th Annual Literacy Laps

Hey CrossFitters here's a great little event to support!

Saturday, April 25, 2009
Time:	1:00pm - 4:00pm
Location:	Cleveland High School Playfield
Street:	S Lucile St. & 13th Ave. S
City/Town:	Seattle, WA

From the Sisterhood of PNI:

More than any other skill, the ability to read --- and read well --- allows children to succeed in school, learn about the world, and make a positive impact on themselves and society. Your support gives them hope.

Literacy Laps is the Sisterhood of Pi Nu Iota’s annual WALK-A-THON fundraiser for local children’s literacy programs.

The registration fee is only $3 (registration available at the event), and participants are encouraged to collect monetary and BOOK DONATIONS to turn in at the event.

All proceeds and books acquired will benefit local CHILDREN'S LITERACY programs, including Friends of the Children (FOTC) of King County and the Filipino Community of Seattle's FilStar Youth Program.

Light refreshments will be served. There will be a face painting booth, lawn games, and a relay race!

ALL ARE WECOME, so please bring your friends & family!

FOR A REGISTRATION FORM, DONATION COLLECTION FORM, OR MORE INFO:
http://www.pinuiota.com/

We'll be there!

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GET RIGHT FOR SUMMER Challenge!

Six Weeks

UPDATED!

Starting April 20th a bunch of folk with FCF are going on a 6-week "Get Right For Summer" exercise and nutrition challenge. Want to lose weight? Gain? "Tighten up"? Get that all right here. If you're an athlete, we can break plateaus and get you better in your sport. If you're not an athlete, want to become one? It's approximately 30 days of work, with some breaks in between. You can do this with us, with your friends or by yourself. Who's in?


The guidelines:

• Participants must log info into a journal either on paper or online - Blogger, the FCF log on the CrossFit Message Boards, the wall for this event, etc. giving Andrew access so he can check up on it (c) Beyonce.
• Participants must exercise (workout) 4-6 times a week. CrossFit workouts. If you have no prior experience make sure you attend one of the four meetings (see below)
• Participants must eat well (Zone and/or Paleo) 4-6 times a week. You will be given tools to understand these nutritional guidelines/plans.
• Participants must limit sugar, alcohol, grain intake to weekends only. Weekends = Saturday and Sunday. WE SEE YOU! This is Facebook, after all. And y'all share too much.
• Participants must start with a "Before" picture and some other info, that will not be shared with anyone. "After" pictures will be taken June 1st. This information will be shared with and ONLY WITH your permission.
• You must "signup" with Andrew to be recognized as a participant. Participants who stay on throughout the entire challenge will be able to take advantage of special offers for our new location in Capitol Hill.
• If you are participating "with us" you will have access to classes with certified CrossFit trainers. Being able to have eyes on you when you workout makes the biggest difference.
• You can still participate on your own. Follow our blog http://foundationcrossfit.com/ for the WOD (workout of the day) along with some instruction, either in picture or video form.

the future location

To sign up, please leave a comment here with your name and then send an email with the subject line "GET RIGHT FOR SUMMER" to andrew@foundationcrossfit.com.


We'll have four meetings for the challengers:

1. Saturday the 18th - 12pm, location TBD
2. Sunday the 19th - 3pm, location TBD
3. Monday the 20th - north end of Greenlake, 6pm
4. Tuesday the 21st - north end of Greenlake, 6pm

If you cannot make any of these, make arrangements with Andrew to get the information.

Summer's coming ...

Yay Burpees!

Rule of response is now in effect everytime the word is said.

Starting from a standing position chest and thighs hit the ground, do a pushup, move the feet towards the hands, jump and clap overhead. Rinse, wash and repeat for 150 reps.

You can tear up the ground like Max if you'd like, too!

"Cindy"

It's Friday and Fridays are Ladies Night (or day)!

tree warm-ups

best. movement. ever.

We gathered at the normal joint and walked/jogged down to the stadium area with the rings, ran through movement patterns, some movement-breakdown and met "CINDY": as many rounds as possible in twenty minutes. Each rounds consists of

5 pullups

Dustin

10 pushups

Max

and 15 squats.

Tita aka Andrew T.

Big welcome to first-timers Nathan (all the way from New Zealand), Dustin and Tone!

If you didn't know by now, there's a WOD (Workout of the Day) Blog with all the workout results, but it's only accessible to those who have permission. Please let me know if you need to see it!

Once we move into the new box

We're definitely doing these!



and I'm bringing back the Alligator crawl (for anyone who was working out with me when I was training at Gold's)

Classtimes

Hey Y'all! I just wanted to run by some class times to see what would be popular. These classes occur Monday through Friday.

• 7am CrossFit Class
• 9am CrossFit Class
• 12pm Express CrossFit Class
• 5:30pm CrossFit Class
• 6:30pm CrossFit Class

Some Fridays we would hold events around 7pm. We'll also have Saturday morning classes at 11am. Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing me andrew@foundationcrossfit.com

Word!

Turkish Get-Up

Andrew (Foundation CF) & Jesse (Local's Gym/Lynnwood CF)

This movement, usually done with a normal gym weight like a kettlebell, barbell or dumbbell, requires the entire body to stay tight throughout the range of motion: laying flat on the ground to completely standing up.

We're on Twitter!

Follow us! @FoundationCF

http://twitter.com/FoundationCF

I'll get a widget on the toolbar so our tweets will show up here!

Squat Theory 101

Take notes!