I wonder if someone took pictures on the 500 M Row day...

Who’s heard the notion that it takes 21 days to turn an action into a habit or that it takes 21 days to turn around a bad habit?  I believe it to be true and recently got turned on to this website: www.habitforge.com.  Check it out!  It’s a great resource to keep you honest with any commitment that you’re sticking to.  Every day, Habit Forge will send you an email asking if you’re made your commitment for the day.  If you click the “Yes” button, it logs it in.  If you don’t follow through and have to click “No” – then it starts your 21-day clock from the beginning (the 21 days have to be consecutive).  We may or may not be using this with some upcoming dietary challenges that we’re going to be having, so you may or may not want to get used to using it. 

Today’s Workout:
Weighted Pull Ups
2-2-2-2-2

Followed by:
AMRAP 10:
15 Box Jumps (20″/18″)
10 Clapping Push Ups
5 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95#/65#)

The face of commitment!

Do you have “what it takes” to make it onto the O.G. board?  What it takes is a variety of different attributes.  What it starts with, in my opinion, is a commitment.  Not a commitment to CPC, nor a commitment to CrossFit but more importantly than that, it takes a commitment to yourself, your health and your well-being.  When I was first thinking about enrolling in acupuncture school, I was really torn about the commitment level of it. Why?  Because that program is 4 years long and at the time I was 26.  I told a friend that I would be 30 by the time that I got through and (I didn’t even know Colin Jenkins at that point so I had no idea that I only had 6 more years of useful life before becoming a massive drain on society) that was “old”.  My buddy, who is a big motivational CD junky asked me a very important question, “How old will you be in 4 years if you don’t go through school?”  The answer was pretty clear. 
Why did I write this today?  Simple.  We have listened to virtually hundreds of reasons of why people “can’t” do CrossFit since we opened.  I wonder where those people are today. I wonder how many pull ups they can do. I wonder what misconceptions they still have about what is and what is not possible in their lives.  Then I wander passed our whiteboards, filled with daily success stories, to the O.G. board and see people that probably never imagined that their lives would be the way that they are today – and I smile.  One commitment can change your life forever, I know because I see it every day. 

Today’s Workout:
5-5-5-5-5 Deadlifts
Followed by 1 Mile Run for Time

Bower showing great overhead form!

I woke up this morning and thought that it must be really early as it was still dark out.  Immediately after having this groundbreaking thought, my alarm went off, as it was a quarter to six.  The two facts of the given hour plus the fact that it was still dark out confused me as all summer it’s been light by about 5:15.  Fascinating.  So either the clocks in my house are off, or it’s getting light out later – meaning that the seasons are changing.  Some of you may have noticed a slight bite in the air in the a.m’s and have also noticed that more and more of the clothing being left in the lost and found pile is sweatshirts and hoodies.  This is a long-winded way of saying, “it’s going to be getting colder early and later and seasonal transitions are usually rife with colds”.  This would be a great time (probably for the next month or so as well) to bump up on the Vitamin C, get to bed a half an hour earlier and make sure that you have something warm to cover yourselves up with at the end of the workout (if you need something warm, feel free to take something from the ever growing pile in the locker room).  Be extra vigilant with your health now folks, the brutal Santa Barbara winter is a comin! 

Today’s Workout:
100 Overhead Squats for Time (95#/65#)

Zach’s 1:50 Grace from last week was a truly impressive time.  Kudos to the napping big man from Alaska.  This got me curious as to what some of the fastest Grace times out there were.  Check out this video of from Austin Texas of a CrossFitter doing Grace in under a minute and a half.  Pretty darn awesome.

Today’s Workout:
3 Rounds of Max Muscle Ups
Sub chest to bar pull ups for athletes that can’t do muscle ups.
3 Minutes rest between rounds

Followed by 7 Rounds for time of:
1 Round of Cindy
1 Round Bear Complex (95#/65#)

Bryan Rice knocking out some pushups!

Take a look at the New People Board folks!  We’ve got a lot of new faces on there and want to makes sure that all of our new people feel welcome.  If you’re in class this coming week and see someone that you don’t know, please do introduce yourselves.  Remember your first day?  You were probably not as calm, cool and collected as you are now when you walk in (with the exception of KJ who’s still just as nervous as day 1!).  We’ve got a big week of training coming up and Fight Gone Bad is right around the corner, so keep up the great work. 

Today’s Workout:
3 Rounds of Max Push Press in 60 Seconds (75#/55#)
(3 minutes rest between rounds)
3 x 500 M Row for time
(4 Minutes rest between rounds)

Saw this yesterday and found it pretty inspiring.  It doesn’t matter where you’re at or where you’re coming from, you can always push the limits of your situation and excel.

Today’s Workout:
Front Squat 5-5-5 (60%, 70%, 80%)
Followed by 30-20-10 of wallballs, box jumps and KB swings

And what do you think of today's WOD, Hogans?!

A.J. Jacobs is an interesting dude.  He’s a great writer of such books as the one that I recently read entitled, My Experimental Life.  In it Jacobs spends a number of months doing life experiments on himself such as – speaking brutal honesty with everyone that he encounters for a month, outsourcing his entire life (including apologies to his wife) for a month, and posing as a woman for a month etc.  Read it if you get a chance, it’s a quick and entertaining book.

This got me to thinking…what kind of experiment would living as a CrossFitter be for a month, if you weren’t one already?  Imagine taking a regular mortal right off of their comfortable couches, brushing the powdered sugar off of their t-shirts, wiping the mediocrity off of their faces and throwing them into CrossFit.  Would it be an experiment in pain management?  An experiment in optimal health (if we were able to tweak their nutrition)? An experiment in team bonding?  Post thoughts to comments. 

Today’s Workout:
5-5-5 Weighted Push Ups
Followed by:
”Grace”
30 Clean and Jerks for Time (135#/95#)

The Box Jump Crew!

What’s the hardest workout that you’ve ever done?  We get this question from time to time.  For me it was a Dawn Forrester Master’s Class creation called “Murph Gone Bad”.  It was the following for time: 1 Mile Run, 100 Calories on the Rower, 100 Wall Balls, 100 Kettle Bell Sumo Deadlift High Pulls, 100 Box Jumps, 100 Push Presses (65#) and 1 Mile Run.  It took me 57:42 and when I came back into the gym Andy asked me if a car had hit me during the last mile.  A car had most certainly not made contact with me, but I’m pretty damn sure someone had dropped a grand piano on my back somewhere during the wall balls.  The kicker – I had my first triathalon the very next day (intelligence is highly over rated).  Post your hardest WOD to comments.

Today’s Workout:
Hang Power Snatch
2-2-2-2-2

Followed by 3 Sweet Rounds of:
400 M Run
50 Double Unders
20 Paralette Burpees

Phil O.G giving Angie a shoutout.

Tomorrow marks the 3-week countdown to Fight Gone Bad 5 here at CPC as well as the finals of our challenge!  By now everyone should have a fundraising page up at www.fgb5.org and be bugging everyone that you know to donate.  If you can’t attend the event, there are plenty of people here that you can donate to yourselves.  All of the FGB’s that I’ve attended in the past have been awesome with amazing energy and camaraderie between fellow CrossFitters.  Let’s make Santa Barbara’s Fight Gone Bad on the 25^th a day to remember! 

(Also, this Saturday morning’s specialty class is going to be on the Clean and Jerk, so if you want to master putting heavy weight over your head – show up.) 

Today’s Workout:
AMRAP 20 Min:
400 M Run
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95#/65#)
10 Toes to Bar

Your Bladder (mine is much smaller).

What’s the most popular area of a CrossFit gym during a competition?  For me, it’s still, even after 30 years of athletics – the bathroom.  Anyone wonder why?  Here you go: 

Anxiety and stress activates your autonomic sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight).  This sympathetic response causes skin vasoconstriction – taking blood away from your gut and skin and moving it into the muscles where it’s needed (your hands ever get cold before an event or speech?) for you to either run or kick some ass.  This blood supply represents a large portion of your body’s blood volume, so when it suddenly gets constricted into a much smaller space, the fluid that was already there has to be flushed out. This fluid is funnelled into your bladder and as it accumulates it activates bladder stretch receptors stimulating the contraction of the bladder muscles – and thus – you have to go pee pee. There you have it.  

Today’s Workout:
Back Squat
10-5-3-2-2-1-1