BAKER ON THE LEVEL 1 CERT

Cill with her chin over the bar and soon to be a lot lighter!

Here’s Jeff and some thoughts on the experience of taking the CrossFit Level 1 Cert:

“When I started doing Crossfit it changed my life and how I perceived fitness and nutrition.  Seven and a half months later, I have been reinvigorated in both my passion and discipline for what we do.  Last weekend I went down to Crossfit Marina in Huntington Beach with some of our friends from CFV:  Faith Reynado, Matt Major and Jaala Thibault, for a Crossfit Level 1 Certification.  I went in not fully knowing what to expect, only that there were going to be people there who knew a hell of a lot more then I did about Crossfit and they were going to tell it to me in the span of two whole days.  Sounds kind of daunting, doesn’t it?
Well I’ve got to say that it was an amazing experience.  As soon as I walked in the door on day one and saw faces I had only seen on the Crossfit Main site:  Jason Khalipa, Pat Barber, Jolie Gentry, Josh Everett, Todd Widman and Stephane Rochet who were now standing there in the flesh, well you just knew something interesting was going to happen. The whole weekend was filled with good information and lots of laughs, everything from Stephane Rochet teaching me more about programming and structuring a WOD to Jason Khalipa telling me “Jeff you have got get your pecker back when you Push Jerk”.  Sounds helpful doesn’t it?
Along with all this new information came lots of valuable pointers about stuff I thought I was pretty familiar with, like the air squat, I know that since I joined up I feel as if I’ve done a billion air squats but I learned that I wasn’t perfect in my form and that translated into not being perfect in all the other movements too:  Push Jerk, Medicine Ball Clean, Overhead Squat, Snatch and all the others.  The one thing I’ll always remember Todd Widman saying is that these are movements that you’ll never achieve perfection in and that’s what makes them a challenge and worth doing.  Those words of wisdom along with many others will stay with me forever and drive me to the very edge in every WOD to achieve the unattainable.  It was an amazing weekend filled with cherished memories and amazing people.  I hope everyone at that cert took away from it the same lessons I did, because to be coached by the best of the best is a rare and privileged opportunity.”

Today’s Workout:
5 Rounds For Time:
30 Jump Squats
15 Pull ups
10 Ring Dips