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 excell.

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

Bridges: Nice light stretching for some...for others...not so much.

Volkswhat?!  Here’s Baker with some great news about one of the hardest events that I’ve ever taken part in:

Those of you who were at the Warrior Dash back in April, remember what an amazing time it was and how CPC continued to find new applications for the word ‘awesomeness’.  Well we have yet another opportunity for fun in the mud, it’s called the Volkslauf, and yes it’s as serious as its German name implies.  The Volkslauf is a 10K run through some of the most hellish obstacles former Marines could conjure up and plant in the middle of Bakersfield –  all for the sake of a good time.  Eric, Traver, A-Train and I all want a bunch of us to go down and show ‘em what a determined group of superfit individuals are capable of.  Traver and A-Train did this run a few years ago and said it was a brutal test of their mental and physical endurance, on top of being a great time.

The race is on Saturday October 2^nd and like the Warrior Dash we’re thinking about camping.  The race starts at 9:00am and is broken down into individuals and teams.  The teams, groups of four, are further broken down into all male, all female and Co-ed.  The Co-ed teams have to have at least one member of the opposite sex to qualify.  There will be food and drinks provided, all racers get lunch and two drinks with there cost of entry and additional food may be purchased or you can bring your own.  Unfortunately they don’t allow any dogs to be on the race site, except guide dogs, so either the pups have to stay home or wait in the car until you leave the race.

The deadline to register is September 20^th and the cost is $240 per team or $60 for each team member.  Like I mentioned earlier we’re strongly considering camping because it’s a 3 hour drive from here to Bakersfield and with a 9:00am start time we want to be there early.  If your interested let us know as soon as possible so we can arrange for camp sites and get teams together.  Here is the link to register for the race, http://www.volkslauf.com/, all registering must be done online at this site, there will be no registration on the day of the race so if you miss this your out of luck.  Who’s in?!

TODAY’S WORKOUT:
100 Pull Ups For Time*
* Every minute on the minute perform 10 double unders

ALL HAIL THE DEADLIFT KING OF CPC: 531LBS

Those of you who have been at our gym more than a few weeks will know that “Deadlift Day” is like Christmas morning around these parts.  Why is the deadlift such a key component to our CrossFit programming?  As the good prophet Mark Rippetoe states:

“The deadlift is more functional in that it’s very hard to imagine a more useful application of strength than picking heavy shit up off the ground.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.  Thanks Rip.

~Malzone

Today’s Workout:

5 Rounds For Time:

5 Press (95#/65#)

10 Push Press (95#/65#)

15 Push Jerk (95#/65#)

CrossFitters' Interpretation of the classic "Tea Party"

On Saturday afternoon, a brave group of CrossFitters threw caution to the wind and jumped into the deep blue abyss known as Los Banos pool in Santa Barbara, CA.  Our first H20 Seminar was a blast!  We worked on the basics of flotation and treading water as well as the finer points of swim stroke technique.  I witnessed some drastic improvements over a short period of time and provided numerous drills that will lead to efficient and fast swimming. 

So the big question here is…can Zombies swim? Well, my research has been inconclusive thus far.  But, what we do know is that A-Train, Keala, Lauren, Phil, Fielding, Jason, Justin, Zeb, Sean, and Diso can now feel that much more confident while anticipating the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse!

~Malzone

Today’s Workout:

 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 reps for time of:

Power Snatch (115#/75#)

Overhead Squat (115#/75#)

(10 PS, 10 OHS, 9 PS, 9 OHS, etc.)

Cabbage Rolls from the Cheeks!

Santa Barbara has some new cheeks and squeeks!  After a long day of moving and week of transition, our very own Alyssa ”A-Train” Dazet is finally here and getting settled in the Central Coast.  Although she’s recently had her whole world turned upside down, we’re confident that we CPC’ers will help Alyssa feel welcome here in Santa Barbara.  If you see A-Train, give her a big hug and welcome her to the family please.  Feel free to ask her any questions about Paleo friendly cooking and deadlifting – her two favorite topics.  Fresh from the Sweet Cheeks kitchen, enjoy some Cabbage Rolls.

Cabbage Rolls

1 bunch of large cabbage leaves
2 lbs ground beef
2 onions, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1 – 14 ounce can sauerkraut, drained
1 – 6 ounce can tomato paste
3 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil cabbage leaves for 3-5 minutes, just until soft enough to roll without ripping. Place 3-4 leaves in the bottom of a 9″ X 13″ baking pan. I used the smaller ones for this and left the bigger ones for rolling.

Brown the ground beef, onion, salt and pepper. Then roll a small amount of beef mixture into each cabbage leaf. You roll this the same way you roll a wrap sandwich or kinda like how you wrap up a present. I put a spoonful-ish of the beef mixture on one end of the leaf, fold over each side and then rolllllll it up!

Place the rolls on top of the cabbage leaves in the pan. Then sprinkle garlic over the top, cover with sauerkraut and cover everything with any remaining cabbage leaves. Mix the tomato paste with water and pour over the entire dish.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until tender when pricked with a fork.

Enjoy!

Today’s Workout:
“Fight Gone Tabata”
1 Full Tabata Set (8 x 20 seconds of work/ 10 seconds of rest) of:
Box Jumps (20″/18″)
Push Press (75#/55#)
Row for Calories
Wall Balls (20″/14″)
Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (75#/55#)
1 Minute rest between movements.

The Hook Grip.

Who likes the hook grip?  When I first learned this grip a few years ago I swore that I’d never use it since it all that it seemed to do was hurt my poor little thumb.  However, after talking to more and more serious lifters and reading about the benefits of using it I converted.  Yes, the first few weeks weren’t that much fun and my thumb hurt a lot!  Now though, I can’t think of a better grip to use, especially when taking weight from the floor and when doing cleans – where in the past I’d have the bar fly right out of my hand when my grip got tired.  We can’t recommend this tool highly enough.  The hook grip – use it. 

Check out this quote from Jim Schmitz of www.ironmind.com on the hook grip and a little bit of the history of its use. 

“The hook grip is where you push the palm of your hand tight against the bar, grab the bar by wrapping your thumb around it, and then grasp your thumb and the bar tightly with your fingers.  Most people can grab the thumb with the first two fingers while their other two fingers directly grab the bar.  This technique really helps you lift more weight off the platform, especially when you accelerate for the second pull.  The hook grip is the best grip you can have without using straps.

I don’t know who first used the hook grip, but I asked Tommy Kono—Olympic weightlifting champion in 1952 and 1956 and silver medalist in 1960—when he learned about the hook grip, and he said he used it in 1948 when he took up weightlifting.  He said he read about it in a book or magazine.  I’ve asked many other weightlifters who have been around for a long time, and they all said they don’t know who was the first person to use it, but that someone showed them and they usually can’t remember who it was.  I know I learned it in 1966 from Walt Gioseffi, many-time California state champion and record holder in the 1960s.” 

Today’s Workout:
”Karen”
150 Wallball Shots for time.  (20#/14#)