North Scottsdale CrossFit

Triggers

How are your goals going?  If you aren't making the progress you should on your goals (especially if your goals are in the gymnastics realm-pushups, HSPU's, the like) you may need a little help.  I've found that when I can do something ANYTIME, it means I procrastinate it to never.  There's always a reason not to do my pushups NOW, and plenty of time LATER when I can do them.  After all, I can do them ANYTIME.

So, you need a trigger.  You need a rule that will help you get your practice and your work in.  For me, this might be: Everytime I eat, I do max pushups.  Or everytime I get in the car, max pushups.  Or check email.  Or twitter.  Or Facebook!

So, what should your trigger be?  Here's how to select a trigger:

• Find out how often you want to do your work.  Then find something that lines up with that frequency. Could be:

• Eating
• Brushing teeth
• Email
• talking on the phone
• smoke break
• FB
• Etc
• Then, make a resolution to yourself, I will (insert work here) everytime I do my trigger.   Could be 25 pushups, Handstand work, whatever.

Workout of the Day

Five sets of:
Press x 3 reps
Rest 90 seconds
Unilateral Hip Bridge x 12 reps (each leg)
(Check out the fabulous Sage B. demonstrating how to perform a unilateral hip bridge.)
Rest 90 seconds;
and then,
Three sets of 4-minute “Cindy” sprints (5 Pull-Ups, 10 Push-Ups, 15 Squats) – Perform as many rounds as possible in 4 minutes, then rest 90 seconds between rounds and pick up where you left off to start the next round.  Score total number of rounds completed.

Growth

From Gretchen Rubin's book, "The Happiness Project,"

"Happiness," wrote Yeats, "is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that, but simply growth.  We are happy when we are growing."

Of course.  Growth.  Growth explains the happiness brought by training for a marathon, learning a new language, collecting stamps; by helping children learn to talk; by cooking your way through every recipe in a Julia Child cookbook.  My father was a great tennis player and played a lot when I was growing up.  At some point, he started playing golf and, over time, gave up tennis.  I asked him why. "My tennis game," he explained, "was gradually getting worse, but my golf game is improving."

Isn't that true?  To know if you are growing, you have to record your efforts.  Dust off that workout journal.  Recommit to your goals, and strive forward to achieve them.  You'll be happier.  In the striving, and eventually in the achieving.

Kevin Snatches PR 215# from North Scottsdale Crossfit on Vimeo.

Workout of the Day

Three sets of:
Front Squat x 4-6 reps
Rest 90 seconds
Knees to Elbows x 8-12 reps
Rest 2 minutes;
and then,
Three rounds for time of:
Hang Power Cleans (155/105 lbs.) x 6 reps
Box Jumps (24″/18″) x 12 reps
400 Meter Run

Paleo Potluck tomorrow!

From Cash at CF Arrowhead:

For your foods, don't feel pressured to bring anything fancy or elaborate. You could bring a bag of chicharrones (fried pork rinds) and it would be fine. Any food you bring, however, should NOT contain any sugars such as sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, maltose, maltodextrin, dextrose, and your food should not contain wheat, potatoes, rice, flour, oats. 

So celery sticks with almond butter would be a great snack to bring.

I suggest bringing enough to feed 3-5 people. 

There are no juices you can bring unless it's a pure vegetable juice without any fruit juice added.

I think bringing a chicken broth or meat broth would be fantastic. Bringing a plate of bacon or sausage is also a great idea. Feel free to use any of these ideas, I am not using them, I'm taking some squash lasagna or soup.

Feel free to pass this email to anyone I missed.

Tribal CrossFit: http://www.tribalcrossfit.com/ 

Link to the Arrowhead CrossFit event post on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=316828092631&index=1

As a reminder, there will be NO REGULAR CROSSFIT tomorrow.  On Ramp will be at 9am.  Everyone else, please join us down at Tribal for a WOD and a great Paleo meal.

We will have class today at 4:30 and 5:30pm to make up for tomorrow's lack of CrossFit.   So drop on by.

BONUS:  29 Paleo Breakfast Recipes!!

 

Workout of the Day

Six sets of:
Snatch x 2 reps (use 75-85% of 1-RM and focus on technique)
Rest as needed between sets;
and then,

Four rounds for max reps of:
30 seconds of Press
60 seconds of Rest
30 seconds of Dynamic Push-Ups
60 seconds of Rest
30 seconds of Pull-Ups
60 seconds of Rest

The importance of cooking

A very large part of what we do at North Scottsdale CrossFit centers around education.  Physical education.  Increasingly, nutritional education.  I know, this isn't what you do.  I know it is difficult to change habits, and spend time learning to cook, and learning to plan and prepare meals ahead of time for you to be successful.   That's why you are here.  Because we will help you stay on track and take the steps to be successful.  Check this video from Jamie Oliver.  It's true. Check out how CJ at CF Invictus preps himself to eat well.  Part one.  Part two.  It can be done.  But it will take some time to make the transition before it becomes natural.  Commit to getting through that transition.

Workout of the Day

Four sets of:
Squat x 4-6 reps
Rest 90 seconds
Ring Rows x 12 reps
Rest 2 minutes;
and then,
Five rounds for time of:
Box Jumps x 12 reps (30″/24″ or taller)
100 Meter Farmer’s Carry (as heavy as possible)

Standup!

This NYT article makes some great points about how making small decisions implemented daily can make HUGE differences in our long term health and body composition.   When I had my office job, I was the weird one.  Ask Chad. 

I was the guy who:

• Parked all the way across the parking lot
• Took the stairs instead of the elevator to my second floor office
• Adjusted my desk up so I could stand during the afternoons
• Exercised in my cubicle
• Packed my own lunch in tupperware

I was (and am) definitely different.  Some might say weird.  One of the ways in which I was different was I was not overweight, unlike many of my co-workers.  This article makes great points, and I think if you look around your office, they will probably be validated.

So, try out being weird.  Because these days, fat is normal, broke is normal.  I'd rather be weird (and fit!).

Freddy at the transition point for one of his first muscle ups.

Workout of the Day

Six sets of:
Power Clean x 2 reps
Rest 90 seconds
Strict Pull-Ups x 8-12 reps
Rest 3 minutes;
and then,
Three rounds for time of:
15 Knees to Elbows
30 Sit-Ups

Paleo Potluck BBQ This Saturday at Tribal!

Tribal CrossFit (One of three gyms in our Paleo Challenge) is hosting a Paleo BBQ at their place THIS Saturday at 10am.  Because of this, there will be NO REGULAR CROSSFIT CLASS this Saturday AM!  We are moving On Ramp to 9am so I can make it down there at a decent hour. 

There will be a workout at Tribal, so cook up some Paleo dishes, come down to Tribal for Brunch and a WOD, and meet some sweet CrossFitters!  Check the events page for more info.

 

Tough to tell if Chad is going up from a tripod position, or coming down from a handstand pushup, but it looks cool!

Workout of the Day

Five sets of:
Push Press x 6-8 reps (as heavy as possible)
Rest 60 seconds
Kettlebell Swings (24/16 kg) x 20 reps
Rest 60 seconds (sorry for earlier typo);
and then,
In three minutes, complete a 400 meter run and as many box jumps (24/20) as possible in the remaining time.
Rest three minutes and repeat for a total of five cycles.
Post number of box jumps completed each round.

New Classes!

We are pleased to announce that with our new On Ramp class starting tomorrow, March 2nd at 6:30pm, we will be opening a 6:30pm class Mondays and Wednesdays! 

We are also adding a women's only class at 3:30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays!  If you qualify, and have been thinking about CrossFit, drop in for a complimentary class!

 

Workout of the Day

Five sets of:
Squats x 5 reps
Rest 2 minutes
Ring Dips x AMRAP
Rest 2-3 minutes;
and then,
In 60 seconds, complete the following:
One Suicide Sprint, followed immediately by
As many burpees as possible in the remainder of the 60 seconds.
Repeat for a total of 5 sets, resting 3 minutes between each set.
Record total number of burpees performed in each round.

Add 5 lbs from the squat weight you used on 21010

Sleep

How many hours of sleep did you get last night?  Try an experiment, and go to bed early for a week.  Get at least 8-9 (yeah, I said 9!) hours of sleep for a week, journal the time you lay down, and the time you wake up, and how you feel through the week.  Inadequate sleep can inhibit fat loss, performance, and make us grouchy.  Time to think about how you sleep. 

 

John nailed "Fran" prescribed in full turnouts in just a shade over 10 minutes.  Great job John, it was incredible to watch you nail those pullups!

Workout of the Day

On the minute, every minute, for 10 minutes, perform:
Thrusters x 2 reps (as heavy as possible – goal is max weight lifted in 20 reps)
(Thrusters must be taken from the floor.)
and then,
For time:
15 Thrusters (115/75 lbs.)
200 Meter Run
10 Thrusters
200 Meter Run
5 Thrusters
200 Meter Run

Rituals

In her book, The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp writes:

I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30am, put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat.  I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours.  The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab.  The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.

It's a simple act, but doing it the same way each morning habitualizes it-makes it repeatable, easy to do.  It reduces the chance that I would skip it or do it differently.  It is one more item in my arsenal of routines, and one less thing to think about.

Some people might say that simply stumbling out of bed and getting into a taxicab hardly rates the honorific "ritual." It glorifies a mundane act that anyone can perform.

I disagree.  First steps are hard; it's no one's idea of fun to wake up in the dark every day and haul one's tired body to the gym.  Like everyone, I have days when I wake up, stare at the ceiling, and ask myself, Gee, do I feel like working out today?  But the quasi-religious power I attach to this ritual keeps me from rolling over and going back to sleep.

It's vital to establish some rituals-automatic but decisive patterns of behavior-at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way.

...

Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, Why am I doing this?  By the time I give the taxi driver directions, it's too late to wonder why I'm going to the gym and not snoozing under the warm covers of my bed.  The cab is moving.  I'm committed.  Like it or not, I'm going to the gym.

What a great picture of the habits we make to prepare ourselves, physically, mentally, spiritually for our best life.  Do you have any rituals which work for you?  Newspaper and coffee in the morning?  Meditation?  Speeding to work (late?).  Are there rituals you should have, or could have?  Is our warm up a ritual?

Workout of the Day

Five sets of:

Deadlift 2-3 reps with perfect mechanics and posture

Then,

Three rounds for time of:

10 x Power Snatch (115/75)

15 box jumps (24"/20")

Secrets of Adulthood

From Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project, an incomplete list applicable to fitness:

• It's okay to ask for help
• It's important to be nice to everyone
• By doing a little bit every day, you can get a lot accomplished
• What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while
• You don't have to be good at everything
• If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough
• Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good

Workout of the Day

Shoulder Press

5-5-5

Add 5 lbs from last time

and then

Air Force WOD

For time:

20 Thrusters

20 Sumo-high pulls

20 Push Jerks

20 Overhead squats

20 front squats

~For every minute on the minute you have to perform 4 burpees.

Coach's Note:  Rx weight for males is 95lbs and 65lbs for females.  This WOD sucked!....the fastest time by a male at sections was done at a blazing 3:53....good luck!  Video From the Event!