Posts Tagged ‘CrossFit’

I couldn’t think of a name to give this post, so I think since I try to always get in some CrossFit training when I “leave town”, I’m going to start this series called: “On The Road”

Most of you know I am spending two weeks in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, visiting my family. While I was walking along Ipanema Beach last night, I stopped by the rock at the end called Arpoador. While sitting down and watching the surfers who are always out there, I looked to my left and noticed something for the first time ever…

There was a gym just off the beach, complete with pull-up bars, parallel bars, benches, etc. Here’s the kicker, though… the weights that they had there were barbells with ROCKS as the weights!! I can’t even put it into words how awesome it was, so I told myself I would go back the next day, camera in hand (of course!), and get in a workout to capture this place.

Gym Rules: Translated into English. Amazing.

It’s 100% free, and people are working out there all the time. Check out the pictures!

The Outdoor Rock Gym at the Arpoador in Rio de Janeiro!

This gym may or may not have been started by Fred Flintsone

CrossFitters: We like lifting heavy things

*FYI*
The workout I did was:
3 Rounds for time of-
3 Squat Cleans (80kg or 176lb bar) / 6 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups / 9 Burpees / 12 Double-Unders

This was the first workout I did in 9 days after “vacation eating” for the last week and a half! I should have been staying more paleo down here 🙂

This was the coolest outdoor workout I've ever done!

The Numbers: 11/21/10

Posted: November 24, 2010 in Training
Tags: , , ,

Yesterday was a big day for us, as Clayton and I competed in the “Earn Your Turkey Challenge” at MBS CrossFit. You should see the posts on the event below, as there were a lot of pictures taken and posted!

Today for Clayton, he just came into the gym to do some active recovery. Brian MacKenzie, of CrossFit Endurance, stresses that in order for the body to recover faster, an active warm-down following a big event, or the day after, will aid the muscles faster than taking the next day off. So he came in and just went through the prescribed workout at his own pace. It seemed he was more recovered the following day, which was great!

CrossFit Lakewood, Smashby Training, CrossFit in Denver, Clayton doing pull-ups

Clayton getting through some pull-ups to help recover

For Kristin, even though she was there all day to cheer on the CrossFit Lakewood team yesterday, she was ready to lift at speed. We started off with some Deadlifts, working up to a 5 Rep Max. Kristin made her way up to 115lbs for 5 reps, which is only 10lbs shy of her 1 Rep Max. Great job, Kristin!

CrossFit Lakewood, Smashby Training, CrossFit in Denver, Kristin Deadlifting

Strong lift, Kristin. Especially for 5 reps!

For her main workout, Kristin completed a 10-minute WOD, where the time left-over each minute was used as rest before going into the next round.

Workout of the Day:
Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes-
4 Squat Cleans / 6 Wall-Ball Tosses

Athlete Results:
Kristin- 45lb Squat Cleans, 10lb Wall Ball

Brain Power: 11/21/10

Posted: November 21, 2010 in CrossFit
Tags: ,

Quick post today:

Checking one of my favorite CrossFit Blogs over at CrossFit Lisbeth’s page, I came read one of her more recent posts, entitled: “Where Are Your Feet?”

Click here to read the entry

As humans, we tend to over-complicate things. At the end of the day we’re strong enough to handle practically anything and we continually to prove our own strength and resilience to ourselves. So why do most of us keep over-thinking and worrying about things that may not warrant that much attention?

Try to improve that habit in order to simplify your thought process. This frees up more time to be positive, constructive and creative:

What is something you over-stress about in your life?

Post your answer in the comments section, and let the discussion begin!

I can’t even put into words how awesome of a day it was yesterday!

There were 6 athletes from CrossFit Lakewood who competed in the “Earn Your Turkey Challenge” at MBS CrossFit, and it was a full house all day long!

The event began with an outdoor 5k (~3.1 Mile) Hill run through the industrial park by the gym. The run wouldn’t have been as bad if the entire 1st half wasn’t downhill, and then the entire 2nd half uphill! All said, though, the weather being on the cooler side made this run much more tolerable. Many runners were out of the gate fast, and by the end, there was quite a spread of finishers. I think it ended with 100% of CrossFit Lakewood athletes setting 5k PR’s, some by MINUTES. How awesome is that!?

After that was the CrossFit Total Event. That meant each athlete had 35 minutes to complete 3 attempts at their 1 Rep Max for three different exercises. In order, they were the Back Squat, the Shoulder Press, and the Deadlift. The way they broke down the event was with 9 platforms, and 4 athletes at each one. While one was lifting, another two were spotting (if necessary) while the 4th athlete prepared to lift next. Setting up and changing weights was a team effort, and you instantly bonded with the other competitors there with you. It was one of the coolest things I’ve been a part of, for sure. For the CrossFit Lakewood athletes, almost every single lift ended up being a PR. That is unheard of, and awesome!

After the Totals were completed, they opened the huge airplane hangar door, and rolled in huge wooden boards. Well, it turns out that they BUILT A WALL right in the middle of the gym, and also lowered 10 15-foot ropes from the ceiling. Yeah, the last workout was going to be nuts! CrossFit prepares us for the unknown and unknowable, and while some people may have guessed that rope climbs would have been a part of the workout, I don’t think anyone would have guessed that we would have had to climb a 5-ft wall 22 times with a burpee on either side!

Earn Your Turkey Challenge 2010, MBS CrossFit, Wall Construction, Smashby Training, CrossFit, CrossFit Lakewood, CrossFit in Denver

Yeah. They just built a wall!

Once the wall was built, Pat Burke (owner of MBS CrossFit) gathered all of the athletes together and announced the Final Workout. It was called the “Deep Fried Turkey.” For the Elite Group it was 15 Ground-To-Overheads with 115lbs. That meant just to get the weight overhead with arms locked out however you could; clean and jerk, snatch, didn’t matter. Next came 10 Burpee Wall-Jumps – Drop to the ground for the burpee part, jump over the wall, that’s one rep. After that was the game changer… 5 ascents up a 15-foot rope. Once those are done, it’s back to 10 more burpee wall-jumps, and then another 15 ground-to-overheads. For the other classes of competitors there were only a few modifications made, but it was basically the same thing. Quite the workout. Here’s the kicker…. there was a 10 minute cap on it. That meant if you didn’t complete all of that stuff in 10 minutes, your total score would just be the total number of reps you did complete.

Earn Your Turkey Challenge 2010, MBS CrossFit, Deep Fried Turkey, Smashby Training, CrossFit, CrossFit Lakewood, CrossFit in Denver

The Final Workout!

At the end of the day, we spent about 10 full hours at MBS CrossFit, and even though it got really cold at the end of the night, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

It was so amazing to be part of the CrossFit Lakewood family, and seeing what we were all capable of was so much fun! On top of that, the spirit of camaraderie that all of the competitors showed towards one another was so incredible.

GREAT JOB to everyone who competed, and THANK YOU for everyone who was there to support us!

Onto the next competition!…. you’ll know when that is as soon as I do!

“I don’t have time to cook…”
“Healthy food is so expensive…”

Those are just two of the reasons we give ourselves to delay trying to adjust our way of eating in order to improve our fitness, and quite frankly, our overall quality of life.

I have not met a single person who feels worse in their day-to-day functioning when their nutrition is cleaned up, even a little bit. One of the things I’ve been trying to say to you guys is to start small…. but start.. and start now.

Does that mean eating one less meal at a fast-food place per week? Does that mean replacing pastas with veggies once per week? It doesn’t matter how big the change, but you can start the change now.

My usual breakfast when I make something at home will be eggs and a few other things. Ideally, I’ll pair 3-4 eggs with 1/2 of an avocado and maybe some veggies cooked in with them, but that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, for my fat source I’ll throw in some walnuts or mixed nuts. Others, I’ll have some fruit instead of veggies for my carbs. Today I didn’t have fruits or veggies, but I did still have a jar of Rosa Mexicano Kitchen Salsa from a sample pack that my friend who works for them sent me (thanks, Maddy!). Magically, I was able to sub that in for my carbs! Crisis averted.

Check this out, though… a jar of salsa costs what, $3-4? A dozen eggs, let’s guess high and say $3. A single avocado, $2 for a nice one, I’ll guess. So for a single meal, it’s going to cost me less than $2. You know what else? 4 eggs, some big spoonfuls of salsa, and a cut up avocado will fill me up a lot more than a $3-5 breakfast burrito or a $5+ “Value Meal” at a drive-through place.

Paleo, CrossFit, Smashby Training, Eggs, Pursuit of Pale, CrossFit Lakewood

Delicious AND Nutritious! (and easy to make)

What about time? How long did it take me to make this delicious meal pictured above?
Let’s figure it out:
Getting pan and spraying with Pam- 7 seconds
Grabbing 4 eggs, cracking them in pan, throwing away shells- 15 seconds
Cutting avocado in half, scooping out 1/2 onto plate- 20 seconds
Check on eggs 2-3 times while cooking- 15 seconds
Moving cooked eggs onto plate- 10 seconds
Placing a few scoops of salsa on the eggs- 20 seconds

So what am I saying? For less than $2 and less than 2 minutes of your time, you can have a delicious and healthy breakfast in the comfort of your own home.

Obviously that’s just one example of one possible meal, but doing that for lunches and dinners can be just as easy to break down. Eating better food just takes a little bit better planning at the beginning, and then just like anything else, it becomes habit!

Check out this video that was posted on the CrossFit Journal a few days ago. It’s less than 7 minutes long, but it shows about what one woman was able to do in 8 weeks, just by cleaning up her diet, and CrossFitting 3-4 times per week. Eight weeks. Yet another inspiring story of someone who decided it was time to change their life for the better. I love stuff like this.

Click here to watch the video

The “Earn Your Turkey Challenge” is only three days away, so today was Clayton’s last workout before his first ever CrossFit event! He wasn’t alone, though, since Jamie came back for his second CrossFit workout as promised!

As I’ve been saying for the last few weeks, we’re putting a much stronger emphasis on stretching and mobility nowadays, so the first 10/15 minutes of class were spent stretching and foam rolling. I’m hoping in the coming weeks that athletes start to notice significant improvements in their performances due to our increased range of motion!

We finished stretching and then worked on Back Squats for sets of 5. Clayton kept the weight light because of the event this weekend, and Jamie was working on form since it was his first time doing Back Squats with us. Both went to full depth and kept their weight on their heels with their chest high on every rep. Full range of motion every rep….
That attention to detail gets a BOOOOOOM from me!

Clayton and Jamie, CrossFit, CrossFit in Denver, Smashby Training, CrossFit Lakewood

Awesome job tonight, guys!

Workout of the Day:
5 Rounds for time of-
200 meter row / 15 Knuckles to Toes / 10 Squat Jumps / 15 KB Swings

Check out Jamie crushing his last set of Kettlebell Swings. Awesome hip extension, even when he was tired!

Athlete Results:
Clayton (Damper on 3 / 5 Jump Squats / 12kg KB / 3 Rounds)- 9:24
Jamie (Damper on 10 / 10 Jump Squats / 12kg KB / 5 Rounds)- 19:26

After a group warm-up and about 15 minutes of Mobility Work with Foam Rollers and Baseballs, (thanks for the motivation, K-Starr!), we had Clayton and Kristin complete a 500 meter row, as fast as possible.

The trend continued today with having a Classic Main-Site WOD, and with the original work-out rep count to be 150. Yesterday Kristin tackled “Annie“, today, the two of them took on “Karen“. Karen is 150 Wall-Balls for time.

There is nothing easy about this workout, as it does quite a number on your lower back. But as a precaution to ensure they were going all the way down to full squat depth on each rep, we had both of them squat back to touch their butt to a med-ball each time. Clayton did the workout as prescribed, using a 20 pound med-ball, and throwing to a 10-foot target. Kristin threw a 10 pound ball to an 8-foot target.

Kristin and Clayton Wall-Balls, Smashby Training, CrossFit Lakewood, CrossFit in Denver, CrossFit, Karen

Full hip extension makes the movement more efficient!

Athlete Results:
500 meter row~
Clayton- 1:45.0
Kristin- 2:07.0

Karen~
Clayton (20# Ball/10′ Target)- 16:18
Kristin (10# Ball/8′ Target)- 9:48

Reading some other CrossFit Blogs is a really fun way for me to feel more “connected” to this community of people from around the world. Every once and a while, there are blog posts that stick out more than others.

The one I want to share with you today will probably mean more to CrossFitters than other athletes, but it’s still something we can all relate to on a personal level. The article is from the CrossFit Lisbeth blog. What is this blog? Here’s a quote straight from the page:
“CrossFit Lisbeth is a repository for the CrossFit writings of Lisbeth Darsh, Director of Social Media for CrossFit, Inc.”

Yeah. CrossFit, Inc. has a Director of Social Media. And she has a blog. She writes about whatever she thinks might strike a chord with CrossFitters to make this “fitness program” register as more than just a daily workout with us. I would LOVE to work with Lisbeth at some point!
~ “Hey, what do you do for a living?”
~ “I try to help people put more meaning behind the impact that their dedication to physical and mental fitness has on every aspect of their life. I help people see how much they’re helping themselves on a level far more important than just being able to lift more weight, faster and more efficiently.”
As a coach, that’s my dream every day, and Lisbeth is writing some great stuff to help people visual that.

The post from today is entitled: “What If the Whiteboard Was Blank?”

Click here to read it.

 

After you read the post, I want you to think about the “Whiteboards” in your life. What outside forces or expectations of others are you using as measuring sticks to your own life, merit and success?

My message for you:
Start setting some goals and expectations for yourself… that were made by YOU. That’s why I am getting so much into “Goal Setting” with you guys. I want your success to be based primarily on the expectations you have set for yourself. Put less importance on what other people do, what they have, etc. Life should be about achieving goals that mean something to you. Worry less about conforming to someone else’s standards, and be comfortable in your own skin.

A video from the CrossFit Main Site that was posted yesterday hit that same chord for me. This video, featuring some of the most elite CrossFitters in the world, shares their perspective of how they view working out, the balance between CF and their personal lives and how they try to manage the expectations of others. It’s a fascinating video, and something that hits me for sure.

Put things in perspective, and do what it takes to get where you want to go, and do more things in life for you.

Post your thoughts on this post in the Comments. I want to know what you guys think.

Here’s the video.

Kristin was the lone ranger tonight, so after warming up, we spent some time working on pull-ups. Her goal is to be able to do unassisted pull-ups, and we’re going to get her there. When that skill work was done, it was onto the Workout of the Day!

Most of the time the workouts we do are original, however, I love finding great workouts from other affiliates from time to time and throwing in a Main-Site Classic every once and a while is key! Tonight I wanted Kristin to work on her ever-improving double-unders, so her workout was a slightly modified “Annie“. The prescribed “Annie” is 50-40-30-20-10 of Double-Unders and Sit-Ups. That means you do 50 Double-Unders (jump rope where the rope passes under your feet twice per jump) and then 50 sit-ups. After that, 40 Doubles and 40 sit-ups, and so on.

The only modification I made was to eliminate the round of 50. 150 Double-Unders is a lot, so making sure that Kristin only counted her successful doubles as jumps was more important than her doing a full 150.

Either way, look for yourself, and tell if you think she’s getting better at them. Amazing job, Kristin!

Athlete Results: (Modified Annie- 40-30-20-10 – Double-Unders, Unachored Abmat Sit-Ups)
Kristin- 13:27

The Numbers: 11/10/10

Posted: November 15, 2010 in Training
Tags: , , ,

Tonight brought another newcomer through the doors of CrossFit Lakewood. Jamie and I had been talking about getting him in for a while, and tonight was finally the night!

We started today with some basic form on squats and really focusing on keeping our weight back on our heels, and Jamie picked it up almost immediately! Once that work was done, we got into the workout.

Workout of the Day:
4 Rounds for time~
15 Box Jumps / 15 Wall Balls / 15 Push Press / 15 Weighted Sit-Ups

Athlete Results:
Kristin (20″ Box / 14lb Wall Ball / 45lb Bar / 10lb Plate for Sit-Up)- 15:26
Jamie (20″ Box / 14lb Wall Ball / 45lb Bar / 10lb Plate for Sit-Up)- 18:43

Looking good, you two!

For a first-time CrossFit workout, Jamie did better than most people I have ever seen. It was so great to watch how he broke down his reps in order to maintain form when he was tired. Great job, Jamie! Hope to see you again soon!