Here’s Rob Orlando doing Grace at 275#. Usually Grace is done at 135# and takes a man about Zach’s size under 2 minutes. Going heavy like this changes the workout dynamic for sure. Thinking outside of the box with our standard workouts can make for some interesting challenges – imagine Angie with deadhang pull ups instead of kips, imagine Fran with 185# and a 45# weighted pull up, imagine Helen with a 2 pood kettlebell and clapping pull ups…

The variations are endless, anyone have an interesting twist on a classic CrossFit workout? Do tell.

Today’s Workout:
Power Cleans 3-3-3-3-3
Followed by:
800 M Time Trial

I wish group programming was a simple as pulling lottery balls from a hopper, but it actually takes a good amount of planning and (unfortunately for you guys) some trial and error.  Traver asked me to make some key points regarding how I program for CPC every month to give you some insight into what it entails.

Programming for a CrossFit affiliate community is a fun and challenging puzzle game that’s distinctly different than programming for an individual.  For the individual, part of the goal is to first identify and isolate their weaknesses.  The programming is then targeted, systematically and with periodization, to improve those areas while ensuring that the athlete’s strengths and intermediate skills don’t suffer during the process.

Programming for an entire community is a whole different ballgame. I could talk for hours on this, so I thought it best I make this a two part series to avoid those of you out there passing out onto your keyboards.  I hope you guys find this somewhat interesting, because I certainly do.

First and foremost, our job here is to put your safety and health first.  Let me repeat that, OUR JOB HERE IS TO PUT YOUR SAFETY AND HEALTH FIRST.  More often times then not, we are saving our athletes from themselves.  An athlete that’s too sore to train for days or injured doesn’t serve anybody’s bigger goals.  In that line of thought, we need to strike a balance between volume, intensity, and technicality.  The goal is to walk the line of maximizing stimulus but also keeping the athlete in a state that allows them to continue with training.

If you’ve been doing CrossFit for more then 2 weeks, you most likely realize intensity is a key component to our methodology.  In order to maintain a high level of intensity in certain WODs, we need to keep you moving.  Always keep in mind the formula of Power = (Force*Distance)/Time.  If the WOD is designed so that the athletes begin to slow down by the end and take large chunks of rest as time continues to tick, what happens to that equation?  Time increases and power output decreases.  Ever wonder why Fran is 21-15-9 and not 9-15-21?  Mentally, it keeps you moving as sets get smaller towards the finish line.  Then again, if we’re not pushing you to extend max efforts of a single movement, then we’re not doing our jobs either.  Starting to see the challenges here?

Another consideration to keep in mind is making sure not to overload specific parts of the body.  The lifts can be broken down, most simply, into upper body, pulls/hinge, and lower body.  Common sense comes into play here as it would be a bad idea to program a week with dead lifts, snatches, cleans, good mornings, and kettlebell swings.  It may very well also be a bad idea to pack a week with back squats, split squats, overhead squats, front squats and weighted lunges.

Next we can talk about the pieces we play around with.  At the CF L1 certification, they’ll brief you on basic programming by explaining that we divide movements into gymnastics, weightlifting, and metabolic conditioning (metcon).  In shorthand, we’ll refer to them as simply G, W, and M.  Then you start looking at repetition schemes.  We have time priority (“AMRAP” ex: Cindy), task priority (“for time” ex: Helen), chippers (ex: Filthy Fifty), singlets (one movement), couplets (2 movements), triplets, etc.

For an example, we’ll use Fran again.  Fran is a task priority couplet of a G (pullups) and W (thrusters).  If you’re lost by now, it’s only going to get worse in next episode.

We’re always interested in hearing new ideas and thoughts on programming.  It’s fun and actually quite addicting.  Next time you’re bored at work or on a flight somewhere, get out a piece of paper and start scribbling some ideas.  If you travel for work, take a look at the hotel gym and see if you can come up with something creative given what you have.  Don’t be afraid to fuck up because everybody does…including the founder of CrossFit.  One of the great things about CrossFit is that it’s an open source methodology.  If we find something that works better then what we’re currently doing, we’ll take it and run with it.  If you came up with something cool and want to share, I’d love to hear it:eric@crossfitpacificcoast.com

Today’s Workout:
3 Rounds for Time

7 Ring Dips
14 Pistols
21 Sit Ups

George contemplating life, liberty, and why he's awake at 6am.

Any time that you get a group of CrossFitters together, you’re going to come up with a very unique talent pool. Listening to story after story about people’s adventures, pasts, lives, and talents is one of the true benefits of both our job and your connection to your community.

What do we not know though? I speak Japanese and once spent 6 months working on a 250-foot private yacht in the Caribbean. Eric was a Mathlete on his eight-grade math team and has climbed Mount Ranier. River used to run a mortgage company in Bakersfield before ditching his corporate life and traveling with the Grateful Dead for two years.

What is a fun fact about yourself that you don’t think many CPC’ers know? Please share, the more the merrier!

Today’s Workout:
Every minute on the minute for 30 minutes, each athlete will perform 1 squat snatch and 20 double unders. (1 attempt at the snatch per minute)

Modified:
3 Overhead Squats and 20 double unders per minute for 20 minutes.

Big thanks to www.paleomama.com for letting us steal these! Please check her site for more recipes!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cubed

5 large green olives, diced

4 sundried tomatoes, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs capers

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

3 tbs olive oil

Directions:

1.  Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and brown chicken pieces.

2.  Add in spices and veggies and cook for another 10 – 15 minutes.

OH SNAP!!!

Today’s Workout:
In teams of two complete the following for time:

4×400 M Run Relay (each team member runs twice)
200 Wall Balls (preferably one ball per team)
* Each time that the ball touches the ground it’s a 5 rep penalty. Mid air switch is acceptable.(Zeb doesn’t mess around)

Amen.

Truth be told, I’m actually ignoring most academic advice and reading two books the same time. Big Rob has been on me for months, ever since I gave him a copy of the Gift of Fear, to read Thinking, Fast and Slow. It’s another book that I highly recommend.

The quotes in this book that are listed below really got my Spidey senses tingling because of the implications it has on anyone starting a program like ours, or undergoing a dietary challenge like our Paleo Challenge.

“The conclusion is straightforward: self-control requires attention and effort.”

“Baumeister’s group has repeatedly found that an effort of will or self-control is tiring; if you had to force yourself to do something, you are less willing or less able to exert self-control when the next challenge comes around. The phenomenon has been named ego depletion.”

“In another experiment, people are first depleted by a task in which they eat virtuous foods such as radishes and celery while resisting the temptation to indulge in chocolate and rich cookies. Later, these people will give up earlier than normal when faced with difficult cognitive tasks.”

Pretty interested huh? What struck me is how many people give up either an exercise program or a diet in the first two or three weeks. How many of these people could benefit from supplementation, either in the form of herbs, caffeine, or increased rest in the early part of a life change? Maybe if they literally had more energy to keep the temptations at bay, they’d make it over the threshold!

This also adds weight to our suggestion of cleaning out your house and avoiding the Brewhouse and all you can eat pasta joints during the first 3 weeks of a challenge!

Thoughts? Please post to comments.

Today’s Workout:

1 Time for Time
Rx:
20 Backsquats (225#/155#)
20 Muscle Ups
1K Run

Modified:
20 Backsquats
20 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
20 Ring Dips
Run 800 Meters

Our fearless programmer - Zeb.

I’m in the middle of a great book called, “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, and highly recommend it. It’s not about creating better habits or time management, but looks at habits, their cues, and their outcomes from a very scientific approach.

One of the more interesting concepts the book purveys is that of the Keystone Habit. It’s less about crappy beer line from Coors (sorry JJ) and more about a singular habit that brings about multiple changes in people lives.

Here’s a quote from the book for some food for thought:

”They had assembled a group of sixteen hundred obese people and asked them to concentrate on writing down everything they ate at least one day per week.

It was hard at first. The subjects forgot to carry their food journals, or would snack and not note it. Slowly, however, people started recording their meals once a week – and some times, more often. Many participants started keeping a daily food log. Eventually, it became a habit.

Then something unexpected happened. The participants starting looking at their entries and finding patterns they didn’t know existed. Some noticed they always seemed to snack at 10am, so they began keeping an apple or banana on their desks for midmorning munchies.

Others started using their journals to plan future menus, and when diner rolled around, they ate the healthy meal that they had written down, rather than junk food from the fridge.

The researchers hadn’t suggested any of these behaviors. They had simply asked everyone to write down what they ate once a week. But this keystone habit – food journaling – created a structure that helped other habits to flourish.

Six months into the study, people who kept daily food records had lost twice as much weight as everyone else.”

The book lists exercise as one of the most important keystone habits that human beings can undertake as the offshoot habits that exercise leads to extend all the way into nutrition (rather obvious) and personal finance!

What do you all think are some other keystone habits? Post to comments.

Today’s Workout:

Skill – Handstand Practice

Workout:
100 Kettlebell Swings for Time (1.5/1pd)
Every minute on the minute, perform 5 burpees.

When I used to tell people about the 7am class and how we’ve labeled in Level 1, I’d have to explain that the workout was the same for all of the classes but it was the environment that was different. I’d say that there were more people scaling down than scaling up, and that things were a little bit mellower at the 7 o’clock hour.

Then Danette started showing up to the 7am classes and all hell broke loose. “Mellower” isn’t really a word that I use now to describe any class that she’s in and for good reason.

Often times in CrossFit we misguidedly look to leader boards, the Games results, and who’s gracing the photo section of the main site for our inspiration. One of the reasons that Eric and I feel so blessed tucked away up here in SB is that we are an island. No one really cares what we do up here and we don’t get sucked into the drama that seems to paralyze and destroy gyms down south.

What this does is keep our focus away from the genetic freaks of the CrossFit world and locks it right where it should be – on the amazing people in very our community.

For those of you that haven’t taken a class with Danette, I highly recommend it. If you don’t who she is, she’s the one in the corner that is silently outworking you. She’s the one that is in here during Open Gym hours putting the extra time in needed to get her first unassisted pull up. She’s the one that could care less if anyone is watching, or if she’s got the coolest gear on, or what the radio is playing, or anything other than whether she’s giving 110% at that moment. (If you can’t find Danette in a workout, it’s most likely because she’s busy being awesome somewhere else…like running a marathon, or a half marathon, or a 5k, or paddling across the Pacific….to rescue some sherpas who got stranded in Nepal.)

One of my favorite memories of Danette comes from the old Anacapa spot. The workout called for a dumpload of double under. Danette told me that she was going to do all of them, even though she was still at the point where each double under was an individual accomplishment with a 50/50 success ratio. The option of doing singles was not even a consideration and was probably an insult to her sensibilities.

My honest thought was, “Ok, go for it…but it’s probably going to take all morning.” Danette looked at me and if reading my thoughts said, “I’ll be outside, I don’t care if this takes me all morning.”

And there she stayed. Outside, alone, cranking out single double unders, one at a time, over and over. There might have been some cursing (which is encouraged), but on that morning, and to date I have yet to hear Danette complain. About anything. Not a damn thing. Ever. (Not even our crappy music)

Don’t tell Danette she’s almost done if she’s not and be ready to get your butt handed to you in a contest of wills. However, if you want an example of how to get better – and better, and better – watch Danette like a hawk. Watch her work ethic and you’ll see that she understands the only secret to success in CrossFit – work harder today than you did yesterday.

Danette – it has been a true pleasure to coach you over the last few years, but nothing has brought more joy to me personally and inspiration for our whole gym than your gutsy performance two weeks ago on 12.3. Getting 3 PR’s in one workout is insane, but what’s even more impressive was the intestinal fortitude shown to achieve them.

(For those of you that don’t know, Danette had never put 75 pounds over her head before that day. She’d never made it up onto an 20 inch box before and had never touched her toes to the bar before. It was AWESOME to see.)

Thank you for always showing up with a smile, for always pushing the pace and doing so with grace and kind words for everyone around you. We are extremely lucky that you consider yourself a CPC’er and look forward to being witness to your continued success for many years to come.

Tonight we raise our glasses to you – cheers!

tb

Today’s Workout:
Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5
Followed by:
In a team of 2, row a 2k for time.
Each team will get one rower and can tag in and out at each 500 M mark. Transition time is key here, get yourselves in and out of the rower as fast as possible!

Our Bring A Friend Day Teams!

Huge thank you’s to everyone above that showed up Saturday for our Bring A Friend Day! Our community grows everyday and it is all of you and your immense contributions that make it something special. We hope that your friends walked away with a better understanding of what it is that you do every day and a tangible experience of what makes CPC something special.

We want to also let you know that we’ve reached out to our most knowledgeable resource on all things CrossFit, video game, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, life, women, nutrition, evolution, zombies, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and of course programming  - Sir Zeb Pascual (honorary knighthood bestowed by Eric, River, and myself). Zeb has graciously programmed the next two weeks of workouts for us here at CPC and we’re eternally grateful for his input.

Why a guest programmer? Eric is the most talented programmer that I know, but even he looks outside of his own creativity for inspiration and ideas. Every great programmer knows that they have biases towards certain movements, certain patterns, likes and dislikes. We thought for the next two weeks we’d give you a taste of something a little bit different and will continue reaching out to some more of the incredible talent that we’re lucky enough to be know.

Enjoy, train hard for the next two weeks and make sure that if you see Zeb on TV or in magazines you let people know that you’ve done his workouts.

Many thanks Sir Zeb!

Today’s Workout:
1 Clean and Jerk (135#/95#)
1 Round of Cindy (5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats)
2 Clean and Jerks
1 Round of Cindy
3 Clean and Jerks
1 Round of Cindy
All the way up to 10 Clean and Jerks, finish with one last round of Cindy.