Something new

The new On-Ramp class happy after their first night of CrossFit.

I was 7 years old when I first learned how to ride a skateboard. My parents bought me a Santa Cruz Tony Hawk Eagle board and I was so excited. I was going to be just like Christian Slater in Gleaming the Cube. I stepped on the board for the first time, gave it one kick and my legs shot out from under me as if Bugs Bunny left a banana peel for Elmer Fudd. I immediately realized that i wasn’t going to be gleaming any sort of cube anytime soon. I lay there on the ground with bloody hands and a broken ego with a new found love for skateboarding.

Matt D. working on gymnastics. He doesn't want a sucky strength prowess.

As we get older it becomes more difficult to learn new things, therefore we become less apt to try new things. We get set in our ways and start to be stubborn like our parents. We become comfortable with what we are good at and avoid the all the things we are bad at. As adults we are taught that failure is unacceptable or we will permanently injur ourselves or we look ridiculous trying something new. We forget how to get up from falling down and how to stumble gracefully. Those dreams of being great are replaced with voices of doubt. We do things that aren’t even fun for us anymore because we have pigeon holed ourselves into a rat race of monotonous type-A antagonism.

Dane and I showing just how special we really are

Do something new, but have fun doing it. I’ll use Dane as an example. Dane played linebacker for the University of Arizona and is a stud at CrossFit. He is one of the best all around athletes we have at CFSB. Dane recently started playing beach volleyball. Now for those of you who have had the pleasure of watching him play, you know it’s nothing short of entertaining. Bless his little soul, he is out there flopping around the sand while having a grand ol’ time swatting at the ball like Godzilla trying to knock down airplanes. Granted, 3/4 of the time he’s playing it’s a game of ace (4-on-4 jungle ball which includes beer chugging), but at least he’s out there having fun. He doesn’t have to play AVP or even look that cool playing, but he’s as happy as a shortbus kid on free ice cream day.

If you’ve been doing CrossFit for a while now and haven’t done anything else, I challenge you to take yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new. Enter yourself in a half Iron Man or organize a team to play in one of Hermosa’s intramural sports leagues. We can have a CFSB sponsored team if you decide to organize it. Or maybe sports aren’t your thing, so sign up to become an after school tutor for at-risk children. I’ve done it and it’s awesome. We train hard just about every day, don’t you want to test how you have changed both mentally and physically?

Weekly Updates

Paradiso Box Jump was a huge success. I want to personally thank David and Martina Paradiso for arranging such an awesome event. We had a fun day of volleyball and playing on the beach. Hopefully we can do it again soon. Anyone have any ideas who to invite to CFSB next?

Our Coaches’ Prep series will continue this Wednesday instead of Thursday at 6PM. We’ve had an amazing turnout and really great feedback. We will cover scaling and relative intensity, teaching the squat and “what is CrossFit?”.

We have a graduating class of On-Rampers entering in to the regular classes this week so be sure to greet them or pay your toll. We also want to welcome in the new On-Ramp class of 14 strong.

This Friday we will have another happy hour and the email will go out this week. I remember our first happy hour had 5 of us there, now they are starting to get pretty darn big. Nicole has done a great job as social chair. Also, do we want to do another day at the beach this weekend?

Our first CFSB quarterly challenge is in the works. We will hold an internal competition in an intermediate and advanced division. The challenge will be announced within the next few weeks and everyone is encouraged to enter. It will most likely consist of 2 or 3 workouts in one day and utilize our surrounding area (i.e. the trails in PV, the beach, ocean). Let me know if you’re interested.

Workout of the Day 6/22/2010

A. Power clean 2-2-2-2

You may drop at the top and regrip at the bottom as long as you begin the second rep immediately.

B. “The Chief”
5 Rounds
AMRAP 3 min on / 1 min off
3 Power Cleans (135/85)
6 Push-Ups
9 Squats

Record how many rounds and reps for each 3 minute round. Start from power cleans on each round and try to stay consistent with the number of rounds.

Compare to 1/20/2010 or 4/27/2010