Brian not letting the early hour slow him down!

Many of you have been following the drama that seems to have encompassed the CrossFit community at large as of late.  Once touted as the ultimate “open source” CrossFit HQ seems to be going through it’s own growing pains with regards to the rapid expansion of the sport and the information that it is comfortable having disseminated to it’s followers.  One thing is for sure here at CPC – WE WILL REMAIN AN OPEN SOURCE GYM.  If Eric and I learn something new, we’ll pass it on to you immediately.  If the new information flies in the face of the old information that we were teaching, we’ll be the first to admit it.  Many of you remember the week after Rippetoe’s seminar when all of our lifting positions changed, immediately. The only thing that we care about here is what works – so when we know it, you’ll know it. 
The same level of openness with regards to information is highly encouraged (required) among you, our members.  If you go to another box (which is also highly encouraged) and pick up a tip or two, please come back and share them with us!  I’ve seen the open source attitude work and work well in jiujitsu gyms throughout the country but seen even more instances where organizations have tried to monopolize and manipulate information streams, only to have it end up being their downfall.  In the age of the internet, there are no more secrets.  The zombies will be here, Ninja Assassin will win an Oscar and we will continue to be an open source of information.  Facts.

Today’s Drama Free Workout:
100 Deadlifts for Time (185#/115)
Every minute on the minute perform 5 Pull Ups.

River, post turkey and ready for Saturday's big game in Carp!

Anyone wonder why they were so sleepy yesterday?  We’ve been conditioned to falsely accuse an innocent amino acid called L-tryptophan. Not so much.  Here’s why: Turkey meat contains a lot of an amino acid called L-tryptophan.  Amino acids are the “building blocks” for the proteins that make up our muscles and other important parts of our bodies. (L-tryptophan is just one kind of amino acid — there are many different kinds of amino acids in the foods we eat.)
When we eat foods that contain L-tryptophan, this amino acid travels in the blood from the digestive system and later enters the brain. The brain then changes the L-tryptophan into another chemical called serotonin. Serotonin calms us down and helps us sleep.  Scientists now know that L-tryptophan can really only make a person tired right away if it is eaten or taken by itself without any amino acids. And the protein in turkey contains plenty of other amino acids!
Blame It On Blood Flow:
Most scientists think that there’s a different reason why eating a special meal might make you drowsy. Eating a big Thanksgiving dinner causes increased blood flow to the stomach (needed to help digest the meal) and less blood flow to the brain.  Not to mention the champagne and the portion size that is probably a little more than you’re used to eating!  Enjoy your nap.

Today’s Workout:
REST FOR ANOTHER DAY!

Eat, drink and be merry today! Do it now.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Please take the next two days and enjoy being with your family and friends.  Let your bodies heal up, recover and be stress free.  We’ll be back on Saturday morning at 10am for some sweet football to help you work off some of that turkey filled goodness!! 

Today’s Workout:
Shove as much food into your face as physically possible.
120 minute rest (preferrably while watching football and drinking beer)
Repeat.
Please feel free to also take photos of yourselves doing handstands at your respective Thanksgiving gatherings and we’ll post them!

^^^More awesome than Ninja Assassin is going to be!!

All of our members who are reading this have most likely seen the whiteboard already, but for those of you that follow along from a distance, we want to do a little bit of bragging.  Before one of our members can join CrossFit Pacific Coast they have to do a baseline workout.  It’s a 500 Meter Row, 40 Squats, 30 Sit ups, 20 Push ups and 10 Pull ups – for time.  We recently had our people redo this workout to see how much they’ve improved since joining.  WOW!!  The time drops were incredible!!  What’s missing from just the actual time drop though, is the performance increase.   Members who couldn’t do a single pull up without assistance 2 months ago are now doing 10 straight, members who needed to stop and rest during their first Baseline went straight through without a break, push ups that were once a struggle from the knees were replaced with rep after rep of push ups done from the toes!  In summary, our people did an awesome job.  Congratulations everyone!! 

Today’s Workout:
3 Rounds for Time:
30 Overhead Squats
100 Double Unders

Evan and Laurie - Mom and Son with two tickets to the gun show baby!

Save the date folks!  Saturday December 5^th our very own Phil “The Vanilla Gorilla” will be throwing down on some local law enforcement in a great charity boxing event!  We’d love to have as many CPC’ers down there at the event to cheer him on and lend some support – anyone who has stepped into a ring will tell you that it helps to have a few friendly faces in the crowd!
Here’s a link to the event flyer event flyer, we will be having a caravan head down to Port Hueneme at about 4pm that afternoon, leaving from the gym.  Get your tickets now and support a great cause! 

3-3-3-3-3 Deadlifts
Followed by 1 Round of Tabata Plank Push ups.

So good to have Cill deadlifting at CPC!!

A few of you know about my friend Glen Cordoza because I’ve probably talked about him during your Intros.  Glen and I met in Thailand where we were both training in Muay Thai and became fast friends.  Glen was about my same weight but was much faster, stronger and had better cardio than I did.  This was perplexing to me since I was coming off, what I thought at the time, a serious training regimen.  I asked Glen what he did for his conditioning and he gave me the one-word answer that obviously has drastically altered the course of my life – CrossFit.  Who was the first person to tell you about CrossFit?  More importantly, have you thanked them recently?!  Do tell. 

Today’s Workout:
“Nasty Girls”
3 Rounds For Time of:
50 Squats
7 Muscle Ups
10 Hang Power Cleans (135#/95#)

Lisa, Fielding and The Claw flutter kicking the heck out of our lunchtime workout!

You cannot move forward from some idealized point in the future that has not yet arrived.
If you are to move forward, you must do it from where you are now.
Though it may not be perfect, it is plenty to get you going.
Wishing for more, or feeling resentment because you don’t have more, will only waste your precious time.
Although there is no guarantee that your actions will be effective, one thing that is certain is that nothing will happen if you take no action at all.

-OPT

Today’s Workout:
3-3-3-3-3 Push Presses
Followed by 3 Rounds for Time of:
30 Burpee Pull ups
30 Double Unders

Welcome Nat and Gigi!! Mother and daughter stepping up!

For Eric it’s skiing and playing water polo.  Personally, I’m never happier than when I’m paddling out on a surfboard or trying to submit my opponent on a jiu-jitsu mat.  Gratefully, for the both of us, CrossFit has made our personal sports all the more enjoyable.  It’s made our balance better, our strength take massive leaps, our endurance befuddle people and we’ve developed a serious case of confidence.  I love CrossFit, that’s a fact.  That being said, even though I enjoy the amazing feeling that comes from completing a CrossFit workout, I love how they affect my other sports even more.   We’d like to hear from all of you about what it is, outside of our particular gym that you love to do?  If it’s not a sport, but an activity that is all your own, that’s more than ok too.  Please share!  (Non-CPC’ers, feel free to chime in as well) 

Today’s Workout:
5 Rounds of:
1 Minute of Sumo Deadlift High Pulls
1 Minute of Ring Push Ups
1 Minute of sweet rest

Kate and Dawn enjoying an afternoon with Karen!

Something funny is going on in our little gym.  How many of you have noticed that the overall performance level of the group has gone way up in the past few weeks?  People are putting up better numbers with their lifts, faster times on the met-cons and a whole host of folks are stringing kipping pull-ups and double-unders together like they’ve been CrossFitting for years!  My first thought was that this was simply a Roger Bannister (4-minute mile guy) like shift and that once that first set of kipping pull-ups was performed it set into motion the domino of performance increases.  That honestly was my thought on this for a week or two.  Then I started thinking that these changes all began to come about towards the end of our Paleo Challenge.  Is our collectively improved diet the answer?  Even those of you that didn’t commit to a strict Paleo month still reported that you were eating better.  Is it perhaps the combination of both brilliant coaching and programming? (crosses fingers) Or is it just a natural shift in the evolution of the performance level of all of our members?  Thoughts? Please post to comments.

 Today’s Workout:
5-5-5 Back Squats
Followed by:
100 Pull ups for time.

Ethan coming out of a fronts squat with elbows high!

When was the last time that you took a look at your picture on our New Student Board?  Eric and I did a little bit of housekeeping on the board this week to make some room for some new additions and WOW, were we shocked at the changes in you all!  We could hardly recognize a few of the faces, arms and bodies on there!  Take a moment the next time that you’re in and have a peek at the “you” that walked into our gym just a short time ago – we have a feeling that you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Keep up the great work and the results will continue to come! 

Today’s Workout:
3 Rounds for Time:
400 M Run
12 Deadlifts (225#/135#)
15 Pull ups