RAINSTORM XIX: A Fight In the Park

Our last RAINSTORM was especially awesome because:

A.) we met at our old Greenlake spot on a beautiful day and took a lot of pictures!
B.) we had awesome guests: newcomers, members, and other seasoned CrossFitters!
C.) it was a heavily modified "Fight Gone Bad"
D.) the ones who hung out after the workout were treated to a sprinkler from an off-duty firetruck!

smiling and sweating in the sun

We had 20 people show up for a workout so we had to run multiple heats! Some heats had 6 stations instead of the normal five. Oops!

Wonderful jobs to Adrian 363, Andrea 393, Andrew 317, Christina 234, Craig 284, Dorian 229, Dwinson 285, Emilie 264, Gilles 320, Grant 336, Jason 282, Janice 341, Jeralee 417, Joe 420, John 381, Marc 279, Nick 270, PJ 285, Theresa 303, Tiff 390 and Travis 262.

every cooldown should be like this

You can view more pictures of this amazing event here by clicking here.

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NEXT RAINSTORM: Sunday, July 20th @ Alki Beach. Noon. RSVP Here. Be there.

Sunday Night Sound Session

Big thanks to DJ Hyphen for the shouts!

Foundation CrossFit is a gym on Lake City Way. We're a little "out of the box" with our workout methods- usually highly varied, short duration and high intensity. We take old school exercises (squats, deadlifts, pullups, dips) and use them in a new way. We also use kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, rowing machines, gymnastics rings, etc.

We have free workout every Saturday. Email us at info@foundationcrossfit.com

Stay tuned and bookmark this page for updates.

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Pictures and results from yesterday's workout at Greenlake will be posted by tomorrow morning! Thanks for the patience!

Saturday's Workout

... is also a picnic!


Bring something to share on Saturday. I'll be bringing a big cooler to put stuff in.

RAINSTORM XIX: A FIGHT IN THE PARK
Saturday July 12th, 2008
12:00 pm
North end of Greenlake (west of the kid's pool)

Questions/comments/concerns?
email info@foundationcrossfit.com!

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"The Non-Negotiability of Perfection"
by Jon Gibson of Again Faster

is this a proper squat?

CrossFit is the pursuit of athletic perfection—performing difficult workouts with technical mastery under conditions of duress. We’re looking for flawless form with a jackhammering heart, bursting lungs, and battery acid-filled veins.

When this is accomplished with unyielding intensity, the result is nothing short of beautiful. When we fall short of the mark, the result is horrifying at best.

Athletes often set up a false dichotomy between perfect form and intensity, assuming that as one increases the other must necessarily fall. This idea is a thinly disguised excuse for athletic complacency. Rather than revisit proper technique through low-intensity, low-excitement skill work, the athlete chooses to pursue personal records with diminished form. The unstated reason for this choice: it’s easy on the ego to put up “good” WOD times. Taking a hit to your “Fran” time in order to perform perfect thrusters is not going to move you up the records board—at least not right away—and the blow to the ego is too much to bear.

[CONTINUED...]

ANGIE

First off I'd like to welcome Ryan, Brady, Marco, Heather and Linda to Foundation CrossFit. You all are amazing athletes and all did very well on your first CrossFit workouts!

RAINSTORM XIX this Saturday @ 12pm at the north end of Greenlake Park. BE THERE!

"ANGIE"
for time:
100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps
100 squats

complete all reps of each exercise before moving to the next.

pullups suck: Adrian, Marc and Brady

Adrian 30:14 (PR!)
Andrew 14:29 (PR!)
Brady 35:18
Marc 19:48 (PR!)
Mike 28:57*
Sammee 27:09
Sheena 28:15

* Ripped two VERY deep calluses in the early stages of the pullups and finished with a bloodied hand

Eww.

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Preorders for t-shirts are being taken now! Prepay ($20!) and choose your size (adult S, M, L, and XL!) and color (black, red, green!) by the 18th!

The Jedi Gym

props to DJ Hyphen via KanYe

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A huge congratulations to Jordan Holland of Xplore CrossFit and Jesse Ward of Local's Gym. Both competed in the 2nd Annual CrossFit Games down in Aromas, CA. Great job representing Washington State. Who else is going to come down and compete with us (yes, I'll be there!) next year?!

That's right... ALL OF US!

Jordan doing a perfect rep in the thruster/pullup workout (with Coach Dave in the background)

Jesse performing some isometric chest work

Results for the 2nd Annual CrossFit Game can be found here.

Can you believe it?!

We've been in business for 6 months now!

our blank box.

look how white the walls were!

THANK YOU: Adrian, Andrew, Tammy, John, Boo Boo, Holly, Andrea, Joshua, Kristie, Grant, Mikey, Nate, Elizabeth, Dave, Jessie, Kwesi, Coach Dave, Nancy, Scott, Sean, Fran, Tom C., Tom, Jesse, John, Jordan, Derrick, Teddy, Pavel, Coach Burgener, Tony, Pat, Dave, Nicole, Tosh, Lisa, EC, Mike, Jimi, Mallee, Freddy, The Boz, Hanh, John, Dennis, Joe, Dom, Kathy, Kristina, Steve, Dan, Justin, JoAnn, Nick, Adrian, Marc, Dwinson, Sammee, Tiff, Sheena, Janelle, John, Dorian, Jed, Gabriel, Amy, Charlotte, Daniel, Maria, Marijo, Megan, Michael, William, Ann Marie, Stacie, Jason, Darcy, Laura, Melissa, Rachel, Jason, Tony, Dave, Mike, Shane, Dylan, Bridget, Gary, John, Marlon, Shelle, Laura, Gilles, Daria, PJ, Gemma, Ryan, Eric, Zach & ProBody/ECS, Feng, David, Danielle, Tony, David, Conor, Coy, Heather, Amber, Neha, Jason, David, Lauren, Brady, Marco, Ryan, Shane, Sam, Michelle, Timothy, Nathan, Amy, Megan, Mario, Michael, Buffi, Ken & Branded Solutions, ActivSpace N. Seattle, Ashmead College, our fellow WA State CrossFit affiliates and everyone else that I may have missed!!!

Thank you for your continued support and business!

Love,
FCF

RAINSTORM XVII, Street Scramble

FINALLY! We've got good enjoyable weather to workout in!

the warmup: tabata squats

5 rds for time:
200m run
15 swings
15 burpees

Coy 20:14, 24kg
David 17:25, 25lbs
Dorian 18:39, 25lbs
Grant 16:18, 20kg
Heather 21:20, 15lbs
Jason 16:44, 16kg
Joe 17:43, 16kg
Lauren 17:31, 25lbs
Marc 18:00, 16kg
Tony 16:36, 30lbs


We also captured some footage during the workout, so hopefully we'll have that posted up on our YouTube channel sooner than later.

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On the Fouth of July, Nate started a team for the Wallingford Street Scramble.

Jason, Nate, John, Elizabeth and Andrew

Jason mapped out where we went during our three-hour scavenger hunt! We'd better have a bigger team for next year!

Regarding This Saturday...

We will actually start our RAINSTORM at high noon instead of our normal 11:00am time. Sorry for any inconvenience- if there is any, feel free to come by Friday's workout at 6pm on me.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

- The Foundation CrossFit Family

ps
Congratulations to Coy! Today he got his first muscle-up!

The 2008 CrossFit Games

CrossFit has just released the 2008 Games Format and Rules.


They will be doing 3 workouts on Day 1 and one unannounced workout on Day 2. Participants are able to choose the order of the workouts as they please.

WORKOUT A
21-15-9 reps for time:
thrusters, 95 lbs men/ 65 women
pullups

Yes, it is Fran, but they are KNOCKING HARD on standards during the game, therefore, they are not calling it "Fran". From the Format for the 2008 CrossFit Games [PDF]:

"Each rep of the thruster will count only when full range of motion is achieved. The bottom limit is when your hip travels clearly below the top of your knee while the barbell is below the height of your chin. The top limit is when your hips and legs are fully extended with your arms fully locked out overhead. The barbell will be considered overhead when some portion of the ear is visible in front of the arm (when viewed from the side).


Each rep of the pull-up will count only when full range of motion is achieved. The bottom limit is your arms fully extended. The top limit will be when any part of your chest (from the clavicle down) physically touches the bar. Again, the rep will be considered complete only when your chest contacts the bar."


WORKOUT B
5 rds for time:
5 deadlifts, 275 lbs men/185 women
10 burpees

Again from the "Format" PDF:

"Each rep of the deadlift will only count when full range of motion is achieved. The bottom limit is when the barbell touches the ground with your hands in contact with the bar. The rep will not count if the barbell is dropped from any height. The top limit is when your hips and legs are fully extended with the front of your shoulder behind the barbell.


Each rep of the burpee will only count when full range of motion is achieved. The bottom limit is when your chest and thighs touch the ground. The top limit is when your hands clap overhead with your feet off the ground and your hips and legs fully extended. There is no height requirement on the jump, but the clap must occur while airborne. The clap is considered overhead when the arm crosses the plane of the ear (when viewed from the side). If the timing is missed, you may repeat the jump to complete the rep."


We're going to implement those standards now! After this weekend, we'll know the results of the Games as well! Stay posted to CrossFit.com for details!

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Great article from Pamela MacElree - "How Many Times Do I Have To Say It?"

The 4th of July

If you're free during the day, a bunch of FCF heads are participating in The Wallingford Street Scramble. Come by and have some fun getting lost in Wallingford while getting some gnarly tan lines.


And for the month of July, We'll be offering a 6pm Friday Class starting this Friday the 4th!

RAINSTORM THIS SATURDAY!!!

Clear Your Calendars!

DATE CHANGE!!!

07.01.08 - We will meet July 20th @ 11am at ALKI BEACH.

06.30.08 - We are changing the date to Sunday the 20th of July. Also we'd like to hear from you all about the location - Alki or Golden Gardens...get your vote in now we're picking one either way tonight @ 11:59pm!

Foundation CrossFit presents RAINSTORM XIX: Hot BBQ!

Come join us for a beach-themed workout followed by games like Hooverball, Ultimate Frisbee and the like... We're BBQ'ing as well so bring some food to share!

contact: INFO@FoundationCrossFit.com

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Today we did FIGHTSTORM 3!

FIGHT GONE BAD
3 rds, 1 min stations for max reps:

wall ball
sumo deadlift high pull
box jump
push press
row (calories) *(/strokes)

Souls who braved it today: Nate, Elizabeth, Tony, John, Adrian, Andrea and Jason

the only way to look this good is by meeting Pukie.

Great job to everyone who came out today. You blasted your old scores to smithereens! A big welcome back to Tony and Andrea- always good to see your faces.

*Our rower went out of commission during the second go-around!

Read please

Drop That Spoon!
Is breakfast cereal the best way to start your day?
>> RossTraining.com

Remember these?

Nutrition 102: Furthering "Eat Real Food"
Scott dives deeper into the statement and catagorizes foods to make it easier.
>> ModernForager.com

Support your local farmer's market.

Sleep! More Important Than...
If you were to list the importance of various things and how fast we would die without them, where you place sleep?
>> RobbWolf.com

Homer sleeps a lot, therefore he's obviously healthy.

RIDICULUS*

DJ Hyphen sent me this video:

LL Cool J working out with DJ Envy



His trainer has some nice tricks up his sleeve (figuratively speaking as he rocks the bodybuilder tank): KB sumo deadlift high pulls (NO SWINGS?!), "ring" pushups, sledgehammer situps, bungie sprints..

Methinks Mr. Ross Enamait would have a fun time with Mr. Todd Smith and give his current trainer a run for his money.

It's good to see more people leaning towards the HIIT philosophies of exercise. The bodybuilder physique is one society came to idolize because how big and defined someone's muscle could grow. You could watch that person squat huge amounts of weight and bicep curl dumbbells weighing as much as a junior high student. Is that functional? How hard did one have to train and look that way? What does one have to eat? How would I stay looking that way? How long?

Mmm.. fake tans and veins!

If that's your goal, go for it! But if you're a regular joe you might want to think twice about trying THAT route. Long workouts. Strict dieting. Too many supplements. What are your goals? You want to be built bigger? Harder? Better? Faster? Stronger? (c) Daft Punk

If we were robots, we'd never have to workout. But then where's the fun in that?!

If you want to look more athletic (see 10 General Physical Skills) then become more athletic. How? By improving EACH and EVERY one of those skills: strength, endurance, flexibility, stamina, power, speed, agility, coordination, balance and accuracy. That's a lot, I know, but we can tie it together. We improve work capacity over broad and modal domains by using highly varied, if not random, functional movements performed at high intensity. The end result is you being harder, better, faster and stronger. And once you clean up your nutritional habits, you'll look good too. Form follows function, so to look more athletic become more athletic.

* brownie points for those who get it

Kettlebell Hell

I believe today was XVIII

5 minutes max kb swings
waiter's walk to stoplight and back (approx. 400m)
2 minutes max kb swings
waiter's walk to stoplight and back

Dorian 172/74, 16kg
Gilles 163/44, 16kg
Jason 145/51, 16kg
Andrew 122/53, 24kg

Huge welcome to Jason! Hope you enjoyed your first little taste of CrossFit!

Here's Foundation CrossFit's new workout log on the official CrossFit boards. Start posting!

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from last week's Donkey Kong workout @ Harbor Steps

Killgrip

5 rds for max reps:

deadlift, 185lbs or 95lbs

pullups

Nick 72/31, 185lbs
Adrian 69/24, 185lbs
Andrew 97/75, 185lbs
Gilles 109/107, 95lbs
Sammee 52/113, 95lbs
Sheena 67/114, 95lbs

Coverage

Coach Dave Werner of CrossFit Seattle has a cool little article with Erin Covey of KIRO 710

READ IT HERE!

The Firecracker 5k Run/Walk

Click here for more info.

The Butterfly Kip

A tutorial video by the awesome folk over at CrossFit Evolution

Danny Are You Okay?

Dan came by for his first workout today and did:

• Tabata Squats along with Coy (Welcome dude!)
  
• a 10k Row
• "Cindy" alongside Sheena and Elizabeth (Awesome ladies!)
  

He also ripped a callus in his 2nd round. Great job man. I have video of him putting New Skin on his open wound. Classic footage.

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Saturday we'll have another free workout at the Harbor Steps in downtown Seattle @ 11am.
We'll be meeting here. The Harbor Steps are right next to Ipanema Brazilian Grill on 1st which will also be the joint we'll have lunch at afterwards. We're gonna do The Donkey Kong workout.

Glisten

Warming up is essential to any physical activity.

Movement pattern warmups

Dynamic movements

You know the official CrossFit Warmup as this:

3 rounds, 10-15 repetitions of

1. Overhead Squat
2. Situp
3. Back Extension
4. Pullup
5. Dip
6. Samson Stretch

I was influenced to post because of Rainier CrossFit's wonderful and in-depth Warm-Up article. They confirm the suspicion to do some some short-range cardio first (400m run, 500m row, 150 rope skips) and THEN go into the warm up. The motions go like this: squat, bend, straighten, pull, push, stretch.

• CARDIO - run/sprint, row, bike, jump rope, swim, airdyne, jumps, movement patterns
  
• SQUAT - air squat, front squat, overhead squat, sumo squat, lunge, pistol
• BEND - situp, crunches, v-up, knees-to-elbows, ghd situp
• STRAIGHTEN - back extension, supermans, good mornings, stiff-leg deadlifts, kb swings
• PULL - pullup, ring row, bent-over row, rope climb, rope pull, the Burgener warmup, clean, snatch
  
• PUSH - pushup, dip, ring pushups, press, pushpress, push jerk, benchpress, handstand pushup
• STRETCH - anything that stretches major muscle groups

Usually the athlete is considered warmed-up when they've got a light sweat (or "glisten") going.

GlistenED.

So there, you can now create your own warm-up. Congrats! I hope some light was shined on something we all do without any thought to why. Here's mine (when I feel like going all the way through):

10 or 12 reps of each:
ROUND 1 - broomstick ohs, situps, back ext, strict pullups, dips, samson stretch
ROUND 2 - ohs w/ 45lbs, knees-to-elbows, kettlebell swings (Russian style), gymnastics kip pullups, strict ring dips, samson stretch, upfacing dog, prayer pose
ROUND 3 - alternating pistols, straight leg raises, kettlebell swings (American style), rotary/butterfly kip pullups, kipping ring dips, samson stretch, dynamic stretches

POST YOUR OWN TO COMMENTS!

In your honor

Happy Memorial Day!

What better way to celebrate than by doing a CrossFit Hero workout?


"MURPH"
for time:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run

Partition the pullups, pushups and squats as needed. If you have a weighted vest WEAR IT!

The AM crew: Elizabeth, Nate, Feng, Grant and Gilles

Andrea 52:40
Andrew 63:03 w/ 25lbs body armor
Dorian 55:07
Elizabeth 64:17
Feng 36:46
Gilles 71:19
Grant 46:21
John 65:30 w/ 20lbs backpack
Nate 56:23

*plenty of notes in comments

The body armor and the backpack wearers

Ripped early!

Great job everyone, especially Feng our visitor from Michigan! The PM crew went to the Ram afterward for twenty pints of beer! Just kidding- we were waay to tired to drink.

See you all during the week and for our RAINSTORM XV: Wet T-Shirt Contest this weekend!

Dopplewalk!

Today's RAINSTORM was run by John, our one and only "Trainer-at-Large"! He came up with this fun little ditty:

2 teams with one person working at a time, for time:

200 pullups
250 pushups
250 box jumps
125 med ball "thrust & throw", 20 lbs
800m run where one person must be carried the entire duration

Team Awesome (Adrian, Dorian, Elizabeth, Marc and Mike)
23:45

Team Badass (Andrea, Andrew, Gilles, Nate and Nick)
23:52

Team Awesome won by 7 seconds and tore themselves up in the process. Every one of them was injured (3 falls, 3 rips and plenty of skin ripped off) by the end of the event! That's giving 100%, folks.

Pictures of the aftermath coming soon...

Machines are cheap and easy.

Figuratively speaking.


"Machine training is often hyped as the thing to do for beginners because free weights are harder to control. The novice beginner must be taught from a base of mobility to progress to stability, just as an infant learns to stand by moving, staggering and exploring the environment"

FIGHTSTORM 2

Boo Boo said we're doing Fight Gone Bad!

From the CrossFit FAQ:

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. We've used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)


2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)


3. Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)


4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)


5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Andrew 283
Dorian 253
Gemma 198
Justin 280
Marc 216
PJ 194
Ryan 320

We finished up with sandbag carry sprints around the building. Awesome jobs to both first-time CrossFitters Gemma and Ryan! Welcome to the family!

Check the previous FGB/Fightstorm results here.

Here's a hint!

Find as many WA state CrossFitters as possible in this video. There are six.

Drive!

"You’ve got to drive the body to the last inch of energy then go on! You gain nothing by just going up to where your body says you’re tired. The body will build and grow only to fit the demands the mind makes upon the lazy body. If all you do is exercise until the body is tired, the body will get lazy and stop a bit shorter every time. You must go to the point of exhaustion, then go on. That way the body figures out, “We’ve got to build up more strength if that crazy mind is going to drive this hard!” If you always quit when you are merely tired, you will never gain. Once you let the body tell the mind when to quit, you are whipped for sure. You can not gain by listening to the body. We can become much stronger if we drive the body. We use about one-tenth of the available strength of our bodies and less than that of our minds."

- General George Patton

RIPPED!

chalk and tape don't do enough

30 muscle-ups for time:

Marc 10:00
Dwinson 9:58
Andrew 5:52

RAINSTORM XII: ¡Mucho Fuerte!

Bottom-to-bottom Tabata squats

THEN

as far as you can get in 20 minutes:

100m sprint
25 burpees
30 pullups
40 situps
50 kb swings - choose weight
60 sec L-sit
70 pushups (MV, NS, DB)
800m run (NA, MD)
90 sec active hang (DN, PB)
100 box jumps (DC, JN)
Waiter's walk uphill - use kb weight

our 800m is awesome because it's uphill

Warm welcome to newcomers Darcy and PJ! Hope you ladies had a lot of fun. We'll see both of you more often, yes? Great job to all the other dudes!

la gente

If you didn't come out this week TRY IT ON YOUR OWN!