Evan Lee ready to press!

Big weekend coming up folks!  For those of you that missed the “Everybody Love Everybody” post and the comments that followed – there will be a party this Sunday at Ledbetter Beach hosted by your very own KJ Morris and almost your very own A-Train Dazet (if she’s not at some random gym between LA and SB deadlifting and giggling).  The festivities will begin at noon and all are welcome!  This is going to be a great opportunity for everyone to get to spend some time together outside of the gym.
We also are extremely fortunate to have Coach Takano coming up to CPC to give an Olympic Lifting Seminar on Saturday!  The regular Saturday morning classes are still happening, so if you aren’t in the seminar, we’ll see you for a workout.
This was a great week of training with lots of outstanding efforts.  Great job everyone! 

Today’s Workout:
“Chief”
AMRAP 20 – 3 Minutes of Work, 1 Minute Rest
3 Cleans (135#/95#)
6 Push Ups
9 Air Squats

Good grief Charlie Brown!

 This post is dedicated to my good friend Colin Jenkins of CrossFit Ventura –   Colin you have taught me much and I hope to make you proud in my last year and a half as a non-worthless human.  This is for you.

How many people have ripped hands today?  How many of you used chalk yesterday for the workout?  How many of you used way too much chalk for the workout?  It’s ok, chalk happens.
For many of you this may be your first experience with using chalk during workouts so we’ll chat for a minute.
The purpose of using chalk during workouts like ours is for the times when your hands have become too sweaty to create an adequate grip on the pull up bar or barbell.  Chalk helps create that grip.  That being said, you only need a tiny little bit of chalk, applied once at the beginning of your workout.  That’s it.  No more than a tiny little bit, applied to your hands before you clap them together gently inside of the bucket.  If there’s chalk outside of the bucket, then there also must have been a momentary bend in the laws of physics – as it is physically impossible to have chalk all over the place if the above directions have been followed.
Why not coat your hands in chalk you ask?  One, its unnecessary and will actually lead to your hands ripping.  To quote Colin’s brilliant post of July 27th 2009, “When you start to abuse it (chalk) and your hands look like Mickey Mouse’s gloves, not only does it create a mess for us, but it creates problems for you. It won’t help your grip…however it will make your hands easier to rip (think doing pull-ups with sand in your hand) It also creates a mental dependency, which causes you to do ridiculous things like chalk up every single time you fall from the pull-up bar.”
There you have it folks, chalk in a nutshell.  Use it wisely, use it sparingly and use it correctly.  As Rip says, “The line of chalk dust leads to the amature.” or something like that.

(That all being said, you all completely kicked ass last night!  There were so many of you that fought and fought all the way through to the very last pull up, it was really awesome to see!)

Today’s Workout:
Jerks 1-1-1-1-1-1
Followed by:
1 x 500 M Row for Time

Jaclyn, Kate, Eric, Lisa and Riv - Got Mud?

CrossFitters are health freaks, this much is clear (unless they’re camping).  Not only are we health freaks, but oddly enough, where our food comes from and what it goes through before landing on our plates is actually of importance to us.  Eric and I are currently working with the good people at CrossFit Ventura as well as our very own Amber Anderson towards getting a weekly delivery of grass-fed beef for anyone that is interested.
Considering that we are also huge consumers of all things vegetable, my question to you all is whether anyone knows of and/or would be interested in having a weekly delivery of vegetables as well.  Zeb’s box, Paradiso CrossFit gets a weekly set of shipments of organic vegetables that they love.  They never know what’s going to be in the box until it arrives adding a little bit of excitement to their weekly cooking plans.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  Please post to comments. 

Today’s Workout:
Back Squat – Find Your 20 Rep Max
Followed by either:
100 Pull Ups for Time
or
30 Muscle Ups for Time

Ninja Assassin = The Greatest Movie Ever Made.  This is a fact.  Deadlifting is awesome.  This is also a fact.  That’s 2 facts in one post.  I weep for a world without this kind of knowledge.  That is all.

Today’s Workout:
4 Rounds For Time:
40 Double Unders
2 Minutes of Accumulated L-Sits
(Every time that your feet hit the ground please enjoy 5 Burpees)

Victory is ours!!!!!

Eric and I hope that, like us, you all had a very quiet, serene weekend. Nothing big happened this past weekend, nothing really of note. Maybe a short jog through some sand, maybe jumping over some wrecked cars. Possibly watching Kate do a 360 over a bed of leaping flames. Perhaps wading through a foot of cow manure/mud, perhaps the incitement of a chicken fight.

Today’s Workout:
10 Rounds for Time:
15 Deadlifts (135#/95#)
15 V Med Ball V Twists

Chris with a creative rest position during "100 Up"!

Zombie Survival tip for the week:  AVOID LARGE GROUPS.

When on the defense, the advantage lies in numbers.  But when traveling through zombie territory, the opposite holds true.  Large groups increase the chances of detection.  Even with strict discipline, accidents happen.  Larger groups also impede mobility, because the slowest members have to struggle to keep pace with the fastest and vice versa.  Of course, traveling solo has its problems as well.  Security, reconnaissance, and, naturally, sleep would all be hampered if someone tried to “go it alone”.  For ideal performance, keep your team at three members (Team 1 = Traver, Eric and Su….sorry Migs).  Four to ten is still manageable.  Anything above that is asking for trouble.  Three members allow mutual protection in hand-to-hand fighting, dispersion of guard duty at night, and the ability of two members to carry an injured third for short periods of time.

SWEET CHEEKS RECIPE OF THE WEEK:

Today’s Workout:
Thrusters
1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Followd by AMRAP 8
3 Handstand Push Ups
6 Pistols
9 Situps

Zach getting things moving on his baseline!

You’ve all probably experienced walking into the gym as of late and seeing a new face or two.  2010 has seen a tremendous growth in our little community here at CPC and Eric and I couldn’t be happier that the vast majority of people joining us are referrals from all of you, our existing members.  Keeping in the spirit of one of our main motto’s here at CPC “Everybody love everybody, especially Justin” – please make a point of introducing yourself to anyone that you may not recognize.  For you seasoned CPC’ers, please also take the time to lend a hand if someone doesn’t know where a piece of equipment lives or is having difficulty spelling the word a-w-e-s-o-m-e in their journals. 
I remember well what it was like to be a nervous new student at CFLA and how good it felt when people took the time to show me the ropes.  Let’s all make sure that our new members feel welcome. 

Today’s Workout:
For Time:
1000 M Row
30 Ring Dips
30 Burpees
30 Pullups

Phil A - calm, cool and collected!

On Monday I had the chance to sit down with Huff, one of the owners of CrossFit Ventura and chat for a bit.  One of the items that came up was just how much he got out taking the Olympic Lifting Cert last year.  Due to the fact that so much of what we do in CrossFit in general and here at CPC in particular is focused around lifting – I can’t stress highly enough the value of attending the Olympic Lifting Seminar right around the corner on April 17^th and 18^th.  Coach Takano is one of the main instructors at the Olympic Lifting Cert and we are so very fortunate to have him headed up to Santa Barbara to spend a few days with us.  I have been counting down the days to take this myself ever since we first contacted Coach Takano and found out that he was willing to come up!  If you are on the fence about whether or not to do this seminar, come to talk to either Eric or myself (feel free to bring your gloves) and we’ll straighten you right out.  Those of you who are in, post to comments! 

Today’s Workout:
Push Press
3-3-3-3-3

 Unbreakable Chipper: (all movements must be performed unbroken)
20 Double unders
20 Pullups
20 Pushups
20 DB push press
20 KB swings
20 Knees to Elbows

Enzo Adams - CPC's First CrossFit baby!! Congrats Cill!!!

I’m not a big fan of moral victories.  If the Giants lose but Peyton’s crappy brother Eli somehow managed not to get sacked – the Giants still lost (how many days until football season anyway?).  That being said, some days are like that.  CrossFit is a sport that demands 100% of your effort every time that you walk through the door.  This means that some days your 100% is going to be radically different than it was a week ago, a month ago or yesterday – in either direction.  I’ve ripped through workouts after a night of ice cream and debauchery and fallen flat on my face during ones that came at the end of a week of perfect eating and lots of rest. 
It happens and it happens to all of us.  What does it mean though?  All that it means is that on that given day your body responded to the prescribed set of stimuli in the way that it did.  Nothing more, nothing less.  It doesn’t mean that you are now “bad” at a movement or that you won’t return to get P.R after P.R on the same movement 48 hours later.  Due to the extreme demand that we place on our bodies as CrossFitters, it is only fitting that on some days you won’t perform at your best.  Moderation is easy to achieve day in and day out – peak performance is not. 
So on those days when you feel like you just got your ass handed to you by the workout (more so than usual) and are walking out with your head hung a little bit low, pick your chin up, dust yourself off and realize that you just performed a harder workout than 99% of the planet can or will undertake and that tomorrow is a brand new day.   There is always something that can be learned from every workout – even if it’s as simple as, “some days are harder than others”.  Go get some.

 Today’s Workout:
“Randy”
75 X 75# Power Snatches for Time

Aaron caught levitating between rounds. Show off.

We hope that everyone had a Happy Easter and got to spend some time with your respective families. We would also love to hear from those of you on the No Grain Challenge what are the pro’s and con’s so far? Are you feeling like you have more energy? Was it especially challenging over the Easter Holiday? Do tell.

Today’s Workout:
Overhead Squats
3-3-3-3-3
Then 3 Rounds For Time of:
20 wallballs
20 kb swings (1.5pd/1pd)