Wall ball and row

Push and pull

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WOD

March 2010's Monthly Affiliate WOD courtesy of Local's Gym aka Lynnwood CrossFit.

tabata deadlift (50% of 1RM)
rest two minutes
tabata sumo-deadlift high pull, 48kg/32kg
rest two minutes
tabata row (calories)

Total Score = (total deadlift reps - 50) + total sdhp reps + total cal rowed.

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AOD

"NBA Back in Seattle?" - Sports Illustrated

The End of Food

Heather Gibbons has been a personal trainer for 9 years and has been with Crossfit since WAY back when. She's also wicked smart and super knowledgeable about nutrition. We all will have the opportunity to tap into her extensive knowledge on April 10th when she is giving a nutrition seminar at Foundation Crossfit (stay tuned for details!).

I was chatting with her the other day and she suggested I watch Paul Roberts speak to the Commonwealth Club about the book The End of Food. I'm glad I did. He's a great speaker and seems to really have a grasp on "the big picture" of how food production and consumption has digressed to it's sickly state. If you enjoy food documentaries like Food, Inc., Fat Head or Super Size Me then this might interest you.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from his presentation:

"the average household spends 1/2 an hour a day preparing food" (What the what?)

"This sounds very Martha Stewart and I'm sorry, but cooking is a way to re-empower yourself when it comes to food"

"If we are going to give food the priority it deserves we are going to have to stop watching other people cook."

Watching this has re-inspired me to plant the balcony garden I've been thinking about starting for years.

Extra classes this week!

We will have a 6pm class everday this week! We are making this slot available since the next Foundations program doesn't start until next Monday. For this week only, we will be expanding your evening Foundation CrossFit options to 5pm, 6pm, and 7pm!

Elbows high & outside.

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WOD

"GRACE"

for time:
30 clean & jerks, 60kg/45kg

Cleans are power cleans.

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QOD

Which do you like better? The clean, the snatch or the jerk?

Another Video

Thanks Paolo!


The Ladies of Foundation CrossFit from Pao Sanchez on Vimeo.

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WOD

back squat 5-5-5

for time:
100 pushups

for time:
100 pullups

You may choose to start with either the pullups or pushups. Attempt your max consecutive pullups!

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QOD

Which exercise do you like least- the pullup or the pushup? Why?

Sunday Studies

For all those who have some free time today, watch these classic videos of Polish Olympic Lifting:



Click here for the rest of the 10 videos!

(SOURCE)

Congrats!

Congratulations to our Foundations class for graduating!

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WOD

"KELLY"
5 rds for time:
400m run
30 box jumps, 24"/20"
30 wall ball shots, 20#/14#

compare to 22JAN2010.

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PALEO IN THE NEWS!

'Caveman Diet' Growing Followers - ESPN.com

John Welbourne runs SoCal S&C as well as CrossFit Football.

Our little hill

How are the runs, sprints, farmer's walks, waiter's walks, sled drags up our lovely little hill? Fun, aren't they?!

Notice, along with all the new equipment we just purchased, how many tire sleds I've been making?  There's going to be a lot of dragging, and I'm fine with that as long as you're not dragging ass!

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WOD

handstand practice for 10 minutes - wall-assisted, free standing, handstand walking, handstand pushups, etc.

deadlift 5-5-5

4 rds for time:
10 knees-to-elbows
15 ab-mat situps

Moving on up

The March Foundations class is graduating at the end of the week. Amazing work y'all!

Who's up for the April group?

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WOD
for time:
100 double unders
50 db snatches, 45#/25#
100 double unders

compare to 22FEB2010.

How are your double-unders? If you have them, what tires out the quickest- your shoulders, arms, abs, legs, breath? Have you tried a triple-under?

Speed Walking

With heavy sh!t

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WOD

4 individually-timed rds of:
400m run

then

"Death By Pullups"

With a continuously running clock, do one pullup the first minute, two pullups on the second, three pullups on the third... continue this pattern as long as you can.

Real Food Movement

Did anybody catch Jamie Oliver's show this past Sunday? I'll probably have to see if I can catch it online since I missed it, but curious to know what ya'll thought if you saw it. Post to comments!

More on real food movement. The Fat Head movie came out a couple years ago where comedian Tom Naughton basically says, and demonstrates, that everything we've been told about eating healthy and obesity is a bunch of "balogna." He also responds to the documentary Super Size Me and brings in his opinion on what the goverment classifies people who are 'overweight.' I have seen both movies and recommend both (along with Food Inc. but that's another story), it will definitely give you something to think about.

Fat Head trailer:


Clip from the movie:


Adding on to Marge's blog last Tasty Tuesday, yes - make sure your cheat foods are worth it and it's okay to have one once or twice a week, but make sure to avoid the food 'itis'. With that said here is a guide from Fuel As Rx to help you choose "wisely" if/when you find yourself cramped for time with no lunch and somehow end up at a drive-thru window. Or if you're just out with some friends for some happy hour. Hitting the Restaurant: Caveman Style.

Recipe of the day: Halibut Cheeks and Asparagus, courtesy of Paleo Girls.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. fresh Halibut Cheeks
• Market Spice Seafood Seasoning Rub (or any seasoning of your choice)
• Olive Oil
• 2 Bunches Fresh Organic Asparagus
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• Sea Salt (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 415.
• Prep Asparagus by breaking off the tough ends (they'll snap in a natural spot about 1"-2" from the bottom). Wash and dry asparagus, and spread them on a baking pan.
• Sprinkle with Olive Oil, Fresh Ground Black Pepper, and Sea Salt. In lieu of Sea Salt, you could also use a sprinkling of lemon juice.
• Put the Asparagus in the oven, and set the time for 12 minutes. (12 minutes is good for medium-sized spears - if yours are extra fat give them an extra minute or two and vice versa for the petite ones).
• Heat a skillet a little above medium heat - at about a level 6.
• Coat the Halibut Cheeks with your seasoning of choice on both sides. Put a little Olive Oil in the skillet to heat, to keep the Halibut from sticking to the pan.
• When the Asparagus have 6 minutes left, put the Halibut Cheeks in the skillet.
• They only take 2-3 minutes per side. If you happen to have a big one in there, it might take just a minute longer. These cook quickly, so keep your eye on them!
• When done, they should be flaky and break apart easily with your fork.
• Plate up, and enjoy!

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to try this one out! Have a great week! :)

R&R

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WOD

"FIGHT GONE BAD"
3 rds of 1 min stations for max reps:
- wall ball shots, 20#/14#
- sumo deadlift high pull, 35kg/25kg
- box jump, 20"/18"
- push press, 35kg/25kg
- row (calories)

compare to 08FEB2010.

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Make sure you have all your PRs on the boards that just went up above the shelves!

• 1RM back squat, press, deadlift, clean, snatch
• max consecutive pullups, double unders
• 500m row
• "CINDY"
• "FRAN"
• "TABATA THIS!"
• "FIGHT GONE BAD"

Be strong.

You may have noticed a "change of course" back towards strength training in the programing starting this week, as Andrew is fresh out of his Rippetoe Barbell Seminar/Certification. We are VERY excited about this.

When some of us think about fitness and working towards improving it, often times we are disillusioned by the misinformation that's been circulating around for so long. We automatically wonder, "What about the met-con?" or "Don't I need to finish my workout with cardio?"

It should be understood that lighter-weight, longer-duration efforts simply use a smaller percentage of your absolute strength repeated over and over. If you have a strong back squat, then performing a bodyweight air squat multiple times will be easy! This is true for all of our movements, whether pushing, pulling, squatting, opening the body, or closing it -- our ability to perform a huge volume of movements at lighter weight is dependent on our total (or absolute) strength.

With strength, one can more easily attain metabolic conditioning. This does NOT work reverse. Wanna perform better? Get stronger! Wanna smash your WOD times and PR? Get stronger! So.....

Let's all get stronger! We all have a lot of potential that we have not unlocked yet. That's why we are adding this to our training focus. And if you're doing these strength days with the correctly scaled weight and with all your effort, trust me you won't be asking for any additional "cardio" afterwards!

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WOD

find your 5RM deadlift

then

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

compare to 08JAN2010.

Back squats, burpees and beer!

Alliteration is fun. Yesterday's shenanigans included these folk:

WOD

for time:
5k row or 5k run

compare to 04FEB2010.

At the start of class we'll find your max standing vertical jump and a trouble spot or two for you to roll out.

Happy St. Paddy's!

Our obligatory irishman picture:

With his ridiculously high elbows. It's okay though. He's learned the proper way.

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WOD

back squat 5-5-5

amrap in 15 min:
10 burpees
15 kb swings, 24kg/16kg

After your warm-up attempt your best 500m row.

Savoring your Slips

Sugar.  It is difficult to find a processed item in the grocery store that doesn't have it in one form or another.  It's in everything.  And there's a reason for it.  It makes things taste good and it's addicting.  Unfortunately it's also horrible for us.  When you eat excess sugar (and excess really isn't that much, people!) and your glycogen storage space gets filled up, that left over sugar quickly converts to fat.  On top of that, it wreaks havoc on your digestive system. 

That being said - I've tried my darndest to steer clear of sugar for the past few years, but quite seriously over that past few months.  So, when my work place asked people to bring in treats for the annual bake sale fundraiser - my mind starting thinking about "healthy" options I could bring in or "paleo cookies" I could make.  And then I took a step back, shook my head and said, "Marge!  It's a freakin' bake sale!  People don't want your healthy food at a bake sale."

So, I made cookies.  Like, real honest to goodness butter + flour + sugar cookies.  And I made my favorite kind.  Snickerdoodle and molasses.  And I ate some of them too.  And damn!  The girl can bake!  They were really really good.

Okay - so what's the lesson here?  When making a healthful lifestyle change, you are going to have times when you don't adhere to your higher health standards.  There are going to be times when you "slip" and eat that cookie or eat that plate of fries or that pizza or that fill-in-the-blank-tasty-food.  And that is OKAY.  Just make it count - make it something awesome.  Don't blow your "cheats" on food you don't really love.  When they have birthday parties at work with store bought sheet cake and every one else is chowing down, I pass it up - cause I'd rather "slip" on something that actually tastes good.

Further reading:
To learn more about how sugar is processed in your body read this!
The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar & Type II Diabetes (and you'll understand it)

Because she says it better than me, read this!
The Whole9 Guide to Eating Dirty

And just so this isn't all about sugar slips - here's what I ate for dinner tonight.

Lettuce wrapped chicken burger:
  ~1/2 lb ground chicken (got this from the farmers market, you could use any ground meat)
  1 egg
  2 tbsp (roughly) almond flour
  shake shake shake of chili powder
  shake shake shake of cumin
  grind grind pepper
  shake shake red pepper flakes
  tiny bit of trader joe's crushed garlic (1/16 tsp? a little goes a long way)

Sorry - I don't measure spices very well!  Mix it all up good, make a patty or two, throw it on a skillet or foreman grill for a couple minutes.  Cut up some tomato, put some natural salsa on top - wrap it up in lettuce and you have a lettuce wrapped chicken burger!  I chopped up some asparagus and broccoli, had it steaming simultaneously and I had a meal in about 15 or 20 minutes.  Healthy cooking isn't complicated cooking!

Happy Birthday Adam!

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WOD

for time:

2 muscle-ups

9 handstand pushups
29 deadlifts, BW
29 box jumps, 30"
29 weighted knees-to-elbows
2 muscle-ups
9 handstand pushups

It's Adam's birthday workout! Can you guess how old he is?

Bonus! Let's start with a new thing. This week's Moment of Motivation:

Restarting Strength

This past weekend I attended the Starting Strength Seminar with Mark Rippetoe at CrossFit Eastside and what an amazing weekend it was. Rip and his amazing crew of coaches defined and reviewed coaching, strength, some basic anatomy, physiology and physics. We also learned from both lecture and practical breakout sessions how to squat, press, deadlift, bench press and power clean using their method.



This definitely opened my eyes as to what I should be doing as your coach. Expect to see more strength training! Like today...

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WOD

back squat 5-5-5
press 5-5-5
deadlift 5RM

Look in your journals to see where you're at. Let's drive hard on technique today (and from now on). Great job this weekend to all those who Totaled.

2 Girls, 1 Session (Part Deux!)

Quick twist of the wrists make a double under.

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WOD

"KAREN"
for time:
150 wall ball shots, 20#/14#

then

"ANNIE"
50-40-30-20-10 reps for time:
double-unders
situps

compare and contrast to 19FEB2010.

How did you perform- better or worse? Why?

Getting out of the hole

When rising out from the bottom of the squat, keep your back angle the same the entire time. This requires you to raise the hips AND the chest at the same pace. This is essential to properly executing the movement and squatting heavier.

If your hips rise too quickly we visually see two things:

• your butt goes up fast
• and your back angle becomes more parallel.

I refer to this as "stripper dance". Keep that chest up.

From Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore's STARTING STRENGTH:

(source)

Let's squat right!

ps
CrossFit Total this Saturday at 11am.

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WOD

back squat 5-5-5

using your 1RM, press every minute on the minute for 15 minutes.

finisher:
470m waiter's walk w/ bumper

Go Upside Down

Going upside down (inverted) is not only fun, it's actually really good for you.

Gravity is always pulling everything in our body down (stupid gravity!). The heart has to pump blood, our lifeline, around the body and up to your brain. When you're upside down, you give your heart a break and fully oxygenated blood goes right to your brain. Blood also saturates the lower lungs while air naturally enters the upper lungs. Flip it around and the blood saturates the upper lungs giving you healthier tissue and better blood-oxygen exchange.

The lymphatic system's job is waste removal and immune system response. It is basically the dump truck of the body, collecting and removing the toxins throughout the body.  It works using muscle movement and gravity. Going upside down every so often stimulates waste removal and strengthens your immune system.

Another plus is that it will greatly improve your balance, coordination and concentration. Yogis use handstands to strengthen and stretch the upper body (torso, shoulders, arms, and wrists). Learning the wall-assisted handstand will allow you to progress to freestanding handstands, handstand walking and, of course, handstand pushups.

If nothing else, they might just make you feel like a kid again! So go ahead and play around - go upside down...

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WOD

470 farmer's walk

10 minutes to find your max handstand hold

as many reps as possible in 10 min:
kettlebell swing