Class Updates We are adding a WOD on Monday nights at 7:00 PM. Note, this is ONLY for Monday nights. In addition, we are adding a rowing class on Tuesday nights at 7:00 PM. This is an instructed class that will go for at least the next couple of months. The workouts will be designed for some of our athletes preparing for the CrossFit Open qualifiers, but anyone is welcome to join. There will be 15-30 minutes of instruction along with plenty of working out.
Nutrition Challenge Finals
Due to some last-minute scores being turned it, we don't quite have everything put together. We can tell you that there were some very impressive gains made in the benchmarks and we will try to put something together to highlight those successes. Will hope to have the finals before the end of the week.
Turkey Challenge
I can't believe we are just 3 weeks out from our second annual Turkey Challenge. I've been pulling my hair out the past week making sure we can pack all the fun into a single day. I want to say thanks to all the sponsors that stepped up to help make this an even better event:
Honestly, I don't know what I would do without youtube. Everytime that I think I'm progressing a little further in my journey of “living my life the the fullest”, I look on youtube and see people doing things that I never would've thought possible. Kudos to these guys for making me feel like a pullup weenie today!
Nutrition Challenge
Today is the last day to turn in benchmarks scores, logbooks, and get your pictures taken for the Nutrition Challenge. This weekend we will be putting together the scores and hopefully getting our challenge winners by Monday night. There was good deal on the line for this, so help your team and get your stuff in!
Bike Workout Tomorrow
We planned on having a bike workout tomorrow. There will be one or two bikes available if you don't have your own. Otherwise, its BYOB. The workout is:
AMRAP in 30 minutes of:
Ride 1200 or Run 400
10 L-Pullups
15 Back extensions
20 Situps
Winter is upon us now and we want to remind you that we DO occasionally cancel classes due to weather. It is important that you check the blog prior to coming to class when the weather is bad. We will always do our best to keep classes running, but there are times when it is in everyone's best interest to close shop.
Keeping You Safe
With winter coming in quickly, we want to remind everyone that you are responsible for any mess you leave behind after a workout. Whether it be sweat, blood, or skin, you are the one to clean it up. Just like the days at globo-gym, we have anti-bacterial wipes at the gym to wipe your bars, kb's, or whatever equipment you use down after the workout. I shouldn't have to say it, but if you are sick, you should NOT be coming to the gym to workout. You're better off getting rest than working out, plus we don't want your sickness. Thanks for playing nice!
TC 2011 T-shirts Please email ashley@mbscrossfit.com your T-Shirt size no later than Thursday, October 27th @ midnight. The T-Shirts will come in mens and womens sizes. If you are a team captain, please email you and your teammate's shirt sizes.
I have had the opportunity to work with several fighters from Zingano BJJ over the past few months. The team over there really is top-notch and have a great thing going. If I had the time and willingness to get in a ring, I would definately train with these guys!
From Keven:
Hey Pat,
First of all, thanks for coming to my fight the other night. It wasn't the way I expected to win, but a win nonetheless! Second, I just wanted to say thanks for introducing me and the other fighters at Zingano BJJ to CrossFit. It's hard to believe the results I have seen in just 4 months of training with you guys. After using CrossFit for my second MMA fight I really started to notice the difference in my strength and speed. Most importantly, my cardio was through the roof! I felt I had the lungs and energy to go for hours! In this last fight, I was stuck in a very bad position and my opponent had me in a choke. I not only had the lungs/cardio to fight through it, but I had the mental strength to continue and win the fight. Working with you guys has been amazing and has taken my game to the next level. I think the difference between CrossFit and a lot of the other workouts out there is that CrossFit gives you physical AND mental toughness – necessary tools for battle! Thanks again. I will see you at my next fight camp!
TC 2011 T-shirts Please email ashley@mbscrossfit.com your T-Shirt size no later than Thursday, October 27th @ midnight. The T-Shirts will come in mens and womens sizes. If you are a team captain, please email you and your teammate's shirt sizes.
As we near the completion of the Nutrition Challenge, take some time to reflect on the process. How have you changed? What have been the highs and lows? How has your lifestyle changed, if at all? And the biggest question, how will you move forward? It's easy to run past the finish line, straight back to convenience food or being owned by your former vices. While this challenge probably had its difficulties, you've given yourself a clean slate. You are poised to grow your journey into an even bigger experience…more PRs, looking awesome, feeling great, and being your most optimal self, in and out. Check out what Emily Donaldson had to say about her experience:
“I know that I feel great. I didn't really have any expectations going into this diet as I felt like I already ate well and stayed fit. However, my whole body is more toned and my thighs have actually gotten smaller. I wasn't looking to lose weight but I have lost 4 lbs which is a big deal for me because I've been the same weight since high school and my weight rarely fluctuates. I have even more self-confidence and love my body even more than I did before. My face and skin looks better too. There aren't any puffy eyes or swelling look anymore. I have to say that I am super excited about the results and honestly see myself doing the diet going forward because I feel so great and now it would feel weird to eat the other things I used to eat before like grains and dairy. I know that this diet has been super hard, especially in the beginning. You really have to just buckle down and deal with it. It would be easier if we all didn't have to work at the same time!”
Next Week:
Make sure you have turned in:
1) all of your benchmark WOD scores from the beginning of the challenge.
2) Your before and after photos
3) Your points for weeks 1-5. You don't have to log from here on out. Get ready to blow your old scores out of the water next week! And get your money back and then some if you're on the winning team!
As a reminder, teams are judged based on food points and benchmark scores. Overall male and female winners will be judged based on before and after photos.
Sean going for a heavy press in the CrossFit Total.
The 2011 Turkey Challenge is just 29 days away! We are busy making final preparations before game-day and will be posting details in the coming weeks. One detail we want to give you as a heads up is that Athlete registration will be happening Friday, November 18th from 5-8pm. It would help us get off to a clean start on Saturday morning if you could take advantage of registration on Friday evening. Don't worry, if you can't make it Friday, you can still register early Saturday morning between 7-8am. Both teams and individuals can register at those times.
We are still looking for volunteers and judges for the TC. Events like this are not possible without the dedication of CrossFit judges and volunteers. Don't have experience as a CrossFit judge? No worries, we are planning a couple practice judging sessions in the coming weeks. We will give you everything you need to judge a workout. Contact Jeff King volunteer@mbscrossfit.com for volunteer opportunities.
How do you guys like following CrossFit.com's programming? We've been following it since mid-July and have followed it pretty consistently with the exception of adding a our own workouts on .com rest days. Personally, I have really enjoyed it. I feel like I am exposed more often - the L-pullup and DB squat snatch workout was a perfect example!
“CrossFit is in large part derived from several simple observations garnered through hanging out with athletes for thirty years and willingness, if not eagerness, to experiment coupled with a total disregard for conventional wisdom. Let me share some of the more formative of these observations:
1. Gymnasts learn new sports faster than other athletes.
2. Olympic lifters can apply more useful power to more activities than other athletes.
3. Powerlifters are stronger than other athletes.
4. Sprinters can match the cardiovascular performance of endurance athletes, even at extended efforts.
5. Endurance athletes are woefully lacking in total physical capacity.
6. With high carb diets you either get fat or weak.
7. Bodybuilders can't punch, jump, run, or throw like athletes can.
8. Segmenting training efforts delivers a segmented capacity.
9. Optimizing physical capacity requires training at unsustainable intensities.
10. The world's most successful athletes and coaches rely on exercise science the way deer hunters rely on the accordion.” (courtesy www.CrossFit.com)
C.J. taking full advantage of his teammates rooting him on through a tough workout.
Over the past several months, our class sizes have been getting so large that we felt it would be best to slow down our incoming athletes. As a result, we are putting our On-Ramp program on hold until the beginning of 2012. Our October class will be the final graduates of 2011. We will still be accepting people into our Elements (one-on-ones) programs, so we aren't entirely closed off.
To me, this is sort of bittersweet news because I love meeting new people and introducing them to CrossFit. But, at the same time I know we are going to be able to devote more attention to our current athletes. On that note, we would love your feedback on whether or not we should add our 7:00 PM classes back to the schedule? We took them off early in the summer due to low attendance, but are thinking of bringing them back to help disperse the evening crowd. Post your interest to comments.
Paleo Chicken Enchiladas
1 medium onion
2 TB coconut oil
2 cups tomato puree
4 cloves garlic
2 TB chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tst dried oregano
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 lb chicken
(I Added one bell pepper & enchilada sauce)
Saute onions & bell pepper with coconut oil in one pan
Cook meat in a pan as desired & drain residuals
Mix it all together with spices and sauce
~ you can do the oven approach, but it just takes longer!
Bender teaching the Boulder Valley Hockey League how fun CrossFit can be.
Masters Championships
Workouts #1 and #2 have been posted at www.Frontrangecrossfit.com for our masters competitors today. Here are our athlete's heat times:
Athlete/s - Workout 1, Workout 2
Lynn Gordon - 9:00, 2:45
Jon Tucker & Bill King - 11:00, 3:36
John Skram - 11:20, 3:42
Chris Lohmuller & Chris Sciora - 12:20, 4:00
Tony Scott - 12:40, 4:06
Come out and cheer these guys on - they will be glad you did! If you've never seen a CrossFit competition, this would be a great opportunity to see some experienced athletes in action.
So, yesterday we played with the barbell snatch. Our focus was to “finish the pull”, or open the hips entirely before pulling under the bar. Today we are going to work snatches again, but with a dumbbell. The same principles apply to the dumbbell, so finishing the pull will still be just as important. Now, let's put another item on the table - recieving the weight. We get a ton of questions about where one should recieve the bar/load when doing a full squat snatch or clean. The basic idea is that you will catch the bar/load lower as the weight gets heavier, but beginners should be cautious of trying to catch too low, for they run the risk of not fully opening the hips.
Check out this article from Greg Everett, owner of Catalyst Athletics and the Performance Menu, as he explains the differences between catching high, (power) versus low (squat).
(courtesy Greg Everett)
Power vs. Squat
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the differences in executing a power snatch or clean vs the full squat variation of the lift. Here's the good news - There's really no difference. The mechanics of the lifts are identical - the only difference is the height at which the lifter receives the bar and arrests downward movement. For a lift to qualify as power, the athlete must stop with the thighs above horizontal. It doesn't matter how high the bar is turned over and either fixed overhead or racked on the shoulders; if the athlete continues into a squat or any depth below horizontal thighs, it is not a power snatch or clean.
Now here's the important part: Every snatch and clean should be turned over and secured overhead or on the shoulders as quickly and as high as possible (with warm-up weights, this will obviously have to be controlled somewhat because the weights are light enough to muscle snatch or muscle clean). This idea can be best illustrated by thinking of a lifter's progression when warming up a lift. At 50 kg, the bar will be pulled and received quite high, and the lifter will immediately continue down into a squat. At 70 kg, the bar will not travel quite as high, but it will still be received well above horizontal, and the lifter will ride it down to the bottom of the squat. At 90 kg, the height will again decrease, and the distance the lifter sits into the squat will be reduced even more. As maximal weights are approached, the bar may be secured overhead or on the shoulders with the thighs right at horizontal (and rarely lower).
In all cases, however, it's critical to understand that the bar is received above the bottom position and the athlete squats with the weight to some degree. One of the most common mistakes beginners make is trying to “catch low”. This creates problems like incomplete pulls, the bar crashing on the lifter, disconnection between the lifter and the bar, reduced ability to absorb the downward force, less opportunity to correct instability, and more difficult recoveries.
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