Some of my most valuable life lessons were learned as a young boy. I took Kenpo karate from ages 6 to 11 and felt like I got pretty good at it. My first competition was when I was 10 and I got my ass kicked. Then I started playing football and was naturally good at it. I played pop warner for three years and got MVP and made the all-stars. Then I went to high school and got moved up to JV as a freshman and got flattened by a bunch of juniors who somehow had facial hair (which I still don’t have as a 31 year old man). I was in honors classes in high school and never had to study and then went to college and got my first F in calculus, which was my strongest subject. I’ve been served my fair share of humble pie in my life and I I know there is plenty more to come.

Remy and I attended the CrossFit gymnastics cert last weekend and we both realized that we weren’t as fit as we thought we were. Remy apparently has a sucky “strength prowess” (don’t ask her about it, it’s a touchy subject) and I apparently have no control over my own body. We left the cert a little more humble, but more importantly, motivated to get better.

Getting outside of your comfort zone isn’t easy, but it’s something we all need to do to get better. In CrossFit, we get comfortable with a certain weight, a certain kettlebell or a certain pull-up bar. Build upon your successes in workouts and begin to push yourself outside your comfort zone and to the next level. Begin holding yourself to a higher standard in form and technique. The humility isn’t going to taste very nice, but it will make you a better person. I’ve noticed a lot of you starting to really mature as CrossFitters and start to up the weights while keeping the full range of motion. You’ve started to get sets done unbroken and string multiple double unders together and hit those pull-ups and overhead squat more weight. We coaches are extremely proud of all of you. Keep up the good work and keep pushing yourselves outside of your comfort zones.

Welcome On-Ramp

Welcome the On-Rampers when you see them. They just started last night and have a damn good class. This group is going to give the rest of us a run for our money. The classes are starting to sell out a month in advance so if you have people who want to sign up, make sure they do it soon.

LA Rugby Fundraiser

There will be a special fundraiser tonight for the LA Rugby club at Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach at 8:30PM. One of their teammates was playing volleyball this weekend and had a stroke and is critical condition. He is part of our CFSB family and we need to support him. For more information contact Gabe.

Coaches Prep & Town Hall

Last week was a very successful coaches’ prep meeting. We had a little over 13 people show up and got great feedback. We will do it again this Thursday at 6PM and cover an Oly lift, the role of a coach and scaling. We are planning on having the town hall meeting this Saturday after the morning WOD, unless most people can’t make it. We will take as long as you want to cover any topics you may have questions on.

WOD 6/8/2010

A. Back Squat 10-20-30

Perform each set unbroken and rest between rounds as needed. Pick weights for each round that will be relatively heavy. You may rest with the bar on your back, but if you have to rack it or dump the weight, mark it as a fail and move on to the next round. An example weight scheme may be 225, 185, 135. 15 minutes to complete.

B. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
Thrusters (95/65)
Knees to Elbows
Burpees

In CrossFit, this means "Thank you coach for a great workout". Trust me, I get it all the time.

A lot of you have expressed interest in getting your CrossFit level 1 certification and starting the path to becoming a coach. The level 1 takes you through some of the basic CrossFit movements and shows you different methods to teach them. The instructors teach you some of the philosophies of CrossFit and how to properly convey the teachings to your athletes. I would recommend getting the certification to anyone who is serious about becoming a coach, partly because it creates consistency in coaching and partly because you will see how committed you are to getting it (cost is about $1000).

Shira helps Donna how to use the meat tenderizer on her arm

Fortunately the path to becoming a coach can start way before the level 1 cert and can be much cheaper. First you need to subscribe to the CrossFit Journal which has boatloads of information on anything from correcting a squat to becoming an affiliate owner to coaching the elderly. If you find that information boring and mundane, then coaching probably isn’t for you. Becoming a good coach means you have to posses the desire to constantly learn.

Chris winning the biggest man muscle up contest

Today at 6PM we will be holding an informal intro to coaching where we will be answering questions and discussing the role of the coach at CFSB. If there is an interest, we will continue the classes every Thursday at 6PM to cover topics like programming, coaching techniques, prehab, safety, common challenges, motivation and expectations as coaches in more detail. Anyone is welcome to attend. Our intent is to educate our athletes and potential coaches to help better the overall quality of coaching at CFSB. If you’re not interested in becoming a coach, but are curious about why we do the things we do, you should come and listen in.

I would like to congratulate Chris and Scarlett for signing up for their level 1 certification at the end of July. We are all excited to get them coaching classes and potentially starting up new programs. Remy and I will also be attending a gymnastics certification this weekend and should come back with all kinds of fun new stuff for you guys to do.

WOD 6/3/2010

A. Overhead Squat 3-3-3

B. AMRAP
3 minutes of wall ball
3 minutes of power cleans
2 minute rest
2 minutes of wall ball
2 minutes of power cleans
1 minute rest
1 minute of wall ball
1 minute of power cleans

*Score is cumulative amount of reps. Record your reps at each rest. Pick a weight for the cleans where you can average about 1 clean for every 3 to 4 seconds.

Remy plays hide the kettlebell

This Memorial Day we will only have two classes from 10AM-11AM and 11AM-Noon. We will be doing the Lumberjack 20 to honor our fallen soldiers.

We will also have more t-shirts early next week with the same design as our red shirts, but this time they will be printed on the American Apparel tri-blend black and the women’s will be tri-blend racer back tank tops. There is also a new design in the works for a summer tank top. It’s a retro design to mimic the old school Pee-Chee folders. It’s kind of an homage to late 70′s early 80′s fitness done CrossFit style. Let me know what you guys think and we can decide how we want to move forward with the design.

CrossFit South Bay has experienced unbelievable growth in the past few months. Mariessa and I are dedicated to providing our athletes with the best possible facility and coaching available. In order to do that, we need to voice to you what our goals are as an affiliate and hear what your feedback is. I think the best way to convey the message and open up discussion is in a town hall style meeting. We will cover topics like:

• Goals and milestones for the gym
• 1, 3 and 5 year growth and expansion plan
• Programming
• MindBody Online
• Becoming a coach
• Coach feedback. What can we do better?
• Coach expectations. What we expect of you.
• How to get involved
• CrossFit South Bay culture

Jon and his minime team up for a Saturday WOD.

I have the best job in the world. Every day I think of how lucky I am to be in a position to help our athletes achieve their goals. In return, you provide valuable feedback that helps improve the experience for everyone. The town hall meeting will give you complete transparency behind the scenes of CFSB and what our plans are. Think of it as an annual shareholders meeting where you’re able to tell us anything that’s on your mind. Remember, we’re not 24 Hour Fitness or Equinox, we’re CrossFit South Bay and your input actually matters.

I was thinking we could either plan to have the meeting on a Friday afternoon or Saturday after the morning WOD. What do you think? Will this benefit you and/or the athletes as a whole?

WOD 5/27/2010

A. Max L-Sit Hold x 3

B.
40 Box Jumps (24′/30′)
20 Snatch (55/95)
30 Box Jumps
15 Snatch
20 Box Jumps
10 Snatch
10 Box Jumps
5 Snatch

*The snatches are full squat snatches from the floor. You can power snatch it up and overhead squat it as long as you get your hips below parallel.

Image from www.crossfitwatertown.com. Thanks Lisbeth!

1. Have fun – Whether it be in CrossFit or your favorite sport or shopping with grandma, make sure you try and have fun. Honestly, you can do CrossFit just about anywhere with anyone or by yourself. You choose to come to CFSB for a reason. You work hard all day, make the time at CrossFit be the one hour a day where you can be yourself and let loose.

2. Show up on time – Actually show up early and leave late. Foam roll, stretch and get rid of all that junk in your lower back and shoulders. Showing up late will only cheat you out of a sufficient warm-up. Without a good warm-up, your chance of injury increases exponentially. If you show up early you have two options, cheer on the class that is finishing or start warming up.

3. Don’t whine – It’s okay to cry, just make sure that we can’t see or hear you and remember to clean up your tears when you’re done. Maybe the song that comes on isn’t your favorite, in the immortal words of Josh Everett “If you need music to motivate you, go find something else to do”. Be careful of asking me to change the song, I might just put on Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA on repeat. I’m your coach, not Mix Master Mike. You have a task to accomplish, so do it. Yes I know that every workout is hard and I know that you hate running and I know that the bar hurts your delicate hands, but there comes a time when we have to nut up or shut up…or both. CrossFit is constantly varied, so the odds are that you will see some workouts you hate. That’s why it’s CrossFit and not alltheshityoulikeFit. When you come to CrossFit, be ready to work. Come prepared to face all those pains and things you hate head on. Accept the suck.

4. Give it all – More than strength, speed, flexibility or endurance, effort is what matters most. I don’t care if you’re Joe Thruster with a sub 3 minute Fran, if you half-ass a workout, you’re a pussy. Grandma doing jumping pull-ups and thrusters with a PVC kicked your ass because she gave everything she had just short of a stroke. Times and weights matter, but they fail in comparison to effort. Keep pushing yourself to your most extreme limits. I don’t care if you have a 500 lbs or 50 lbs deadlift as long as you put forth the effort and don’t sandbag.

5. Listen to your coach – We are here to help you get more fit and accomplish your goals. When we say things like “you’re lifting with your back, use more hips” don’t act surprised when your lower back is sore. When we tell you that the foam roll and lacrosse ball works, we aren’t just being sadistic. We tell you to rest because you need rest, just as we tell you to get in the gym more because you need to be in the gym more. If you want to get better at something, you have to practice it. Plain and simple. Yes there are some of you who are naturally good at some things, but why not get better? Why not be the best? Our goal is for you to accomplish your goals.

6.Fail sometimes – The unique thing about CrossFit is that the only way to achieve excellence is through failure. The strength portion of our workouts are designed to where you may fail at a set. If you don’t fail you aren’t trying hard enough (see #4). CrossFit is an environment where no one will laugh at you or put a permanent letter in your file for dumping an overhead squat. Don’t be afraid to fail, there’s always next time. Pushing yourself to fail is more of a mental thing than it is a physical thing. We have conditioned ourselves to think that failing is bad and therefore don’t push ourselves in fear of failure. Take that fear away and see what you can accomplish.

7. Eat good food – The short answer is eat Paleo. If you don’t want to eat Paleo, just eat meat, some fruit, vegetables, little startch, no sugar, no grains no dairy. If you’re low on energy, then you’re not eating enough. I remember a lot of people starting off on Paleo complain of low energy then proceed to tell me that they didn’t eat anything all day because they didn’t know what to eat. Is it that hard to eat meat and vegetables these days? I ate ice cream every day and pizza every other day. If I can do it, you can too.

8. Count it – Tracking your workouts matters. That’s why we printed the log books for you. When you don’t count the reps on your workout, you lose valuable information that will keep you accountable for your progress. Make sure to record as much information as you can. Write down what you ate for the day. Everyone has those days where they ate like crap and had a crappy workout. Those are the hardest days to write down, but those will provide you with the best motivation to get better.

9. Be nice – CrossFitters are notorious for making fun of people who go to globo gyms (present company included). People achieve their personal fitness goals in their own ways. Some may like the pace of a spin or pilates class and some may like the intensity of CrossFit. Instead of pointing out their propensity for douchiness on the elliptical, try introducing them to CrossFit. You’ll get a better reaction and won’t come off like a jerk. You were once that guy on the hacksquat machine or that girl on the eliptical. If someone made fun of you and then said CrossFit was the way to superior fitness, you would tell them to go F themselves.

10. Get involved – CrossFit is more than just an hour of working out. We are a family and you can get as involved as you like. Just like anything else, you get out what you put in (TWSS). CFSB holds monthly social events (thanks Nicole) and does quarterly charitable events. Other events like our Redondo 5K team and our CrossFit affiliate team will compete this Spring. During the summer we are planning on having a co-ed flag football team, volleyball team, kickball team and 6-man team. There are many opportunities for you to get involved and if you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them!

WOD 1/21/2010

Push Press 2-2-2 90%

4 Rounds for Max Reps of:
60 Seconds Handstand Pushups
30 Seconds Rest
60 Seconds Sit-Ups
30 Seconds Rest
60 Seconds SDHP (75/45)
30 Seconds Rest

Optional:
Jerk 4-4-4-4 70%
Hang Snatch 5-5-5 50%
Hang Clean 5-5-550%

CFSB is teaming up with CrossFit Thrive in Hermosa Beach to do Fight Gone Bad. The WOD will be during our regularly scheduled Saturday morning class at 9am. There will be no class at CFSB on Saturday September 26th. We will all be at CF Thrive tearing up FGB.

Please RSVP to max@crossfitthrive.com (310-819-2933) or mariessa@crossfitsouthbay.com (714-452-7121) by Thursday September 24th. If possible bring a donation to help the Wounded Warrior Project and the fight against prostate cancer.

WOD – 9.25.09

Grace

30 Clean & Jerk

c/o heavy get ups x 20 (10ea)

Speaking of fun in the sun, take a look at Dr. Michael Eades recent take on the Vitamin D-bate.

WOD – 8.28.09

5 Rounds

20 KBS
20 Sit-ups
15 Pullups
15 Pushups
10 Bodyweight Rows

There are always bound to be questions regarding approved foods. Marcus compiled this handy list of links to get you started:

Paleo Resources

• Paleo Food List
• Paleo Recipes
• More Paleo Recipes
• Mostly Paleo Recipes with Zone block portions (made for CrossFitters)

Still have some questions? We’ll be holding an impromptu Paleo Overview following this Saturday morning’s WOD to help address any questions or concerns. If you can’t make it, feel free to grab any one of your trainers during the week and we’ll be happy to help you get on your way.

If you feel like your progress has hit a bit of a lull, this may be the extra push you need to reach the next level. All of those who have adopted the Paleo diet have raved about the improvements to their performance and wellness. But, don’t take their word for it – buy into the 6-Week Paleo Challenge and see for yourself!

WOD – 8.21.09

Front Squat 7×1, 1×15-20

7×1 100m sprints, rest 1 min between attempts

Cash Out: 3 x Max reps L-sit pullups. If you don’t have L-sit pullups, work on 3 x max L-sit holds on either rings or hanging from bar.

Last month we mentioned that Dutch Lowy was hosting an online challenge among affiliates. Unfortunately, we didn’t really press the issue and change programming around to work towards the goal. Likewise, we neglected to talk it up in the gym and get everyone on board.

Well this month the challenge looks even more fun! Who’s on board for this? (see description and video below)

The challenge this month will be to take your bodyweight from the ground to overhead enough times to total 3000 lbs for men and 2000 lbs for women.
Scaling will be allowed on an individual level based on the coaches prescription however if the weight is scaled the participant must do 3000 lbs regardless of gender.
Here is an example:
I weigh 158 lbs.
3000/158 = 18.xxxx
You will round up regardless of the decimal point. I must perform 19 reps at 158 lbs as fast as possible (see video).
Example 2:
Michele weighs 145lbs
2000/145= 13.xxx
Michele must do 14 reps at 145 lbs as fast as possible.

Scores will be counted in seconds and divided by the number of participants.
Michele and My score would be:
117+223=340
340/2= 170

WOD – 7.2.09

Front Squat 5×3 (@ 80% of 1RM), then

5 rounds:

• 15 Box Jump
• 15 Kettlebell Swings

Scale it for yourself — but go heavy and go high. Make it a challenge.

CrossFit Chicks Rock

Dutch Lowy recently threw down the gauntlet amongst CrossFit affiliates and challenged us all to a monthly competition.  Here’s the June WOD:

Max Thrusters at your Fran weight

(i.e.  if you scale Fran to 45#, it’s your max thrusters at 45#)

Rule:  If bar drops below your shoulder rack position at any time, your set ends.  Scoring is based on the total reps divided by number of competitors.  

Who’s in?

Rest Day 06.07.09

(except for the ladies who showed up for an impromptu WOD this morning!!)

We’ll be holding our FREE beach workout tomorrow morning at 11am at 9th Street in Hermosa Beach. Come on down and enjoy some CFSB fun in the sun!

After you’re done getting your Saturday workouts on, get over to The Crest in Torrance and support Tori’s band, EOIQ! First bands start at 9pm but EOIQ will probably go on around 11pm.

WOD – 3.27.09

10 rounds for time of:
10 Pull-ups
10 Ring dips