Gettin' down to it

For your WOD today it is prescribed to do hip extension, if you don't have a glute/ham machine you have a few options. You can lay on the floor on your stomach and do supermans (a big scale down) lift your chest off the floor, or holding an iron plate to your chest and standing with your feet in a the same width as the squat bend forward at the waist, contract the glutes and hams and come back up to standing. Try a few before the workout and make sure your posterior chain is nice and warm before you get into this one.

WOD:
3 rounds
21 squats
15 burpees
9 hip extensions

Take a day off

That's right, todays a rest day. Remember on your rest day you don't have to just sit around. Get out and play your sports of your choice, enjoy some family outdoor activity, and if you just can't stand to be away from the CrossFit movements, get in some form work or technique work on something of your choice (NOT A WORKOUT) this time is play time, enjoy it, you shouldn't be sweating or weezing when your done, you should just feel more confident in that movement.

Running fun

For your dips you can use a chair or a box if you have one, rings would be best. For your weights on the deadlift, you can use traditional bar and plates, dumbbells, anything, just remember to keep that weight on your midline, skin/shave your legs all the way up and down.

FOr time
WOD:
400 M run
25 dips
400 M run
25 deadlifts 135/95
400 M run
25 push ups
400 M run

Our good Friend Fran

Thrusters: holding the bar at your chest, squat stance with your feet, full front squat to a fully extended press. Remember, keep your elbows out in front of the bar all the way down, get your butt below your knees, jump that weight off the floor through your hips, and push the head through at the top.

WOD:
"Fran"
21-15-9
Thrusters 95/65
pull ups

Don't forget to post your times, comments, thoughts, hey we'll even take complaints, well maybe not those.

Get outside

For todays WOD get out in the summer air (I suggest early in the morning or closer to sundown, it's getting hot out there).

WOD:
Hike a mountain for time

Pick one, estimate or actual measure as you hike and post your times and distance. This is not a leisure hike, get up that hill quick!

Programming

As we promised Toby and I will maintain the programming on this blog until we are able to start up our new site (we will make sure to connect a link from this site to that one as soon as that happens). We have decided to do a 3 day workout set with a 1 day off. If you choose to stay on the 5 day on 2 day off just adjust accordingly. Please remember, if you need any help, ideas on what equipment to use for the specific WOD or how to find it, or just want to log in your times, click on the bottom of the post where is says "comments". Write your comments and then post. Easy.

Toby and I will be out of town from July 31st to August 6th. The WOD's will still post daily and we will try to check the comments when we can to get back to anyone who needs help.
Keep it up, we'll talk to you all soon
Jenn

Saturday morning class

When you do the burpees sequence in this WOD do 1 burpee, from the jump off that burpee grab the bar and do one knees to elbow. These are not seperate movements, as the reps get higher the format stays the same, so if you have 3 reps it would be 1 burpee, 1 knees to elbow, 1 burpee, 1 knees to elbow, 1 burpee, 1 knees to elbow.


WOD:
10 cleans 115/65
1 burpee knees to elbows
9 cleans
2 burpees knees to elbows
8 cleans
3 burpees knees to elbows
9 cleans
4 burpees knees to elbows...
all the way down to
1 clean
10 burpee knees to elbows

Fight gone Bad

I will be posting more pics later (when my computer and I are getting along better).
Tonight was our last group class. Everyone came in and did FIght Gone Bad. We had some good numbers, some hard pushing, and some newbies. Eric (Jenn's husband made it in tonight), and Tim (Tammy's husband) gave us a try. Check out the times in the comments.
WOD:
3 rounds (Without rest between the movements)
1 min rowing
1 min wall ball
1 min push press
1 min box jumps
1 min sumo deadlift high pull
1 min rest

The baseline

Today was the baseline, and WOD, similiar to a benchmark to help you gag or track your preformance. Taking an easy day before tomorrow. This is a sprint, get it done as soon as possible

WOD:
500 M row
40 squats
30 sit ups
20 push ups
10 pull ups

Look, laura's going so fast she's on fire!!!

Dear CrossFitters

I know that this has been long awaited and I am sincerely sorry that it has taken this long to lock down what is going on. With our pending move we have tried our hardest to be able to find someone to take over our facility for us. We had made arrangements for Ben Larkin to take over our gym and facility, however he has just recently informed us that he has chosen not to take over the lease for the current facility, therefore leaving us in a bit of a pickle. With that news Toby and I scrambled, in vain, to find a replacement. We realize this is beyond inconvenient for all of you who have been waiting with breaths held, wondering if you were going to have a place to continue CrossFitting. I am sorry to say we will be forced to close our doors July 25th after our 9:00 AM class.

For those of you that have equipment available to you, through a home gym or work gym, Toby and I will continue to post on our blog, daily workouts, pointers, reminders and suggestions. If you have the option, I recommend you workout with other CrossFitters, this will give you the ability to have a spotter, a motivator, and a technical observer.

Trevor White, one of our members, is in the process of working on the logistics and financials of taking over our current gym. If he is able to go ahead with that transfer I will inform you all through email as soon as possible. Ben has decided to open his own gym, as far as I am aware it is in the Kennewick area off of Columbia Park Trail. He has not informed me on his opening date, or specific address, however I believe he will be opening sometime in early September. I am also under the beleive that he is advertising on the radio with all of that information. I have been told that Smitty’s gym has all the equipment needed to perform CrossFit WODs, I believe they are a pretty cheap cost. I have also heard that Club 24 has several pieces of equipment available for WOD’s as well, if you go through Costco I have heard the tuition costs are very low.

I cannot express in words how sorry I am that this did not work out the way we had hoped, for anyone. We will miss you all and hope that you will be able to find a workout home. If you find that you need any nutritional help, workout guidance, or stretching/flexibility issues please contact us through the blog and we will do our best to provide what you need.

Sincerely and with deepest apologies,
Jennifer Shell

A quickie

HOLY BLISTERING HEAT BATMAN!! It's hot out there. Not stopping you dedicated CrossFitters. Thank goodness it's a quick one today.



WOD:

3 rounds

100 jump ropes (single jumps speed rope)

10 burpees

15 deadlifts 85/135

Presses

WOD:
ME Push Press

RAP'ing

Today was really hot, but we had some good efforts. Nice work all.

WOD:
AMRAP in 20 minutes
10 push ups
10 box jumps
10 med ball cleans

Happy 1 year anniversary!!!

Last night was a lot of funny. We had some good food and nice little slide show, some drinking and some serious smack talk. Toby, Matt K, Ben, Matt P and I all started out on the path of the CrossFit One World Century (on the minute every minute for a 100 minutes do a pull up and take a shot of beer). Tammy joined us for the first 10, but had to leave early and Melanie couldn't just sit back and watch, seeing everyone do all the pull ups made her anxious so she had to get a few out herself. Matt P made it to half way, but we give him a little more than that because he was drinking a higher alcohol content, and I made it half way with full shots but had to finish off the century with 3/4 to 1/2 (I know, what a light weight!) To finish off the night we all took a 400 Meter barefoot run, why? 'Cause we could. Thanks to everyone who came.

Andrea did a few pull ups too. She did more than she had intended to do because it took us so long to get a picture

This is after the 400 meter barefoot run. Who's idea what that anyway, oh yeah Matt's, the only one who wore shoes

Toby and Ben thought the pull ups were too easy so they moved onto muscle ups somewhere around 85, I think.

Hamburguesa

This workout is courtesy of CrossFit Verve. It is all the best parts of Cindy, Helen and Karen wrapped into one. We had a great day today, despite the heat, we finally got a pic of the depth of Tracey's squat YEAH (on the new obtained depth and the pic)!!! We also have a good push for the evening class, Laura is such a motivator. After she finished her WOD, she finished Ben's push ups with him, and Cammi's last run and push ups with her! WOW what a great friend!

WOD:
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats
200 M run
21 swings
12 pull ups
400 M run
75 wall balls
400 M run
12 pull ups
21 swings
200 M run
15 squats
10 push ups
5 pull ups

Maximum what???

OK so some things we do in CrossFit we just say do because we say so and sometimes forget that it’s important for you to know why. I notices on the Maximum Efforts yesterday that a lot of people don’t know where to start, or (just as important) where to end and why. Here’s some info on the topic that should help everyone understand why we do M.E’s the way we do
1) How do I find my starting weight?
Good question. I know that you have probably heard this already, and if you haven’t you should have. Here’s the routine. You do your basic warm up to make sure all joints, muscles and connective tissues are warm and ready to do the work (DROM, 5-10 min. run/jump/row, myofasical, and so on). This also protects against injury and has been proven to increase performance (but that’s a whole different article). Now, pick up the bar, yes, just the bar. Work your form and your placement, this should be a few set of 5-10. This is to further your specialized warm up, prepare the muscles for the specific movement and work, and prevent injury. Now if you have done a M.E. on this exercise before than you should have a good starting point. Put about ½ the amount of you last M.E. on the bar. Yes, this is still warm up and preparation. Do a few reps. Add some more, do a few rep, add some more do a few reps This is all preparing for your workout (no, it hasn’t started yet). You do not need to take M.E. rests between these sets, they are just helping you find your starting point, not part of your effort. You continue this process until you reach the set that you have form faults. Remove the last addition, shake it out, stomp for power if you need to and NOW you can start your M.E. workout.
2) Why do we only do 4 sets of 3? Why can’t/shouldn’t I do more?
First of all, if you did your M.E. right you shouldn’t want to or be able to do more. There is a reason why it is called a MAXIMUM EFFORT. You are putting out the MAXIMUM amount of EFFORT your body possible can to do EVERY SINGLE REP!!You should be just as tired from the M.E. workout as you are from any other WOD. If you’re not you didn’t do it right. You shouldn’t have energy and/or strength to do any more than 4-6 sets, you should be sweating, screaming and blacking out a little in that last set as is it. So how to do it right, refer to question 1. Second, well, I’ll let coach Bill Starr cover this one. A quote for his CrossFit Journal article “The holy trinity of strength training”
.
“The main problem with routines that consist of numerous exercises is only so much energy is available... therefore we do not get stronger.” “Less is more in strength training.”

Through the trial and error of Bill Starr (who had been training world class Olympic lifters since the 1960’s) and Tommy Suggs, they had discovered they got the best results for athletes by using the 3-7 reps in a 4-6 set plan. Any less was not producing the fatigue or muscle stress necessary for muscle tissues to tear down and heal to become stronger and any more was causing to much damage to the muscle to get the full effects of the point of the M.E., and (if you're doing it right) athletes couldn't complete the workout.
So, next time you walk in and see that big M.E. on the board remember the process, listen to your body and your trainers and stay within the perimeters of the workout. There really is a method to this CrossFit madness.

Here's that missing ME

OK, so today I got that ME in that I've been talking about. We had some nice P.R.'s tonight, check out the scores in the "comments" link at the bottom of the page. (Please be aware the scoring of this WOD only includes the 4th attempt any attempts afterward were not prescribed)

WOD:
ME Dead Lift 3-3-3-3

Sprints

I had originally planned a M.E. today but it sounded like everyones hands and grips were pretty worn out from the week so we spent some time outside working on our interval sprints. Some of us decided to do a Tabata of planks too, (Jesse, Ben, Matt K, Matt P., Kristen, and Lamont). I got some nice pics but they'll have to wait until tomorrow, dead battery, eventually I'll get all my camera ducks in a row, I swear!

WOD:
Tabata Sprints (it's only 4 minutes)
8 set for a total of 4 minutes.
20 secs of an all out sprint
10 secs rest

As they say "There's nothing like a good snatch"

Well it was nice to finally add the snatch into everyones workout program (really sorry it took so long). Toby thought it would be great for everyone to experience the 2009 CrossFit Games so he's pick the #5 workout, I think we all enjoyed it. There was some good looking snatches in the gym today, hmm... maybe I should word that differently, oh whatever.
Good work all!

WOD:
3 rounds
30 wall balls 20/12
30 snatches 75/55

Swinging around

Another fullfilling day at the CrossFit Fusion gym. Jesse brought in a friend, Kristen, who gave us a try and did great on the workout, and one of Joey's friends, Omar, stopped in a joined the workout. We're glad to have you both and we hope to see you again soon.

WOD:
21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3
Swings
pull ups

Saturday's class

We had a good turn out this saturday. Tracey, Trevor, Melanie and Laura all showed up for the 9:00 class and worked their butt off 3 rounds of 40 push press (65/45), 30 box jumps, 20 wall balls, 10 knees to elbow. Than at 10:00 Matt P, dropped in and Isaac brought his other brother Chris and their friend Robert (nice to have you all) and they competed in a team workout of 3 rounds of 50 of each of the above exercises split between them and their partner. Nice work all!!!