A Great Day

Billy (155 pounds), on his way to a 440# deadlift. The CFLG trainers led the Los Gatos charge, proving they walk the walk, not just talk the talk.Sunday's King of the Hill affiliate throwdown between CF Los Gatos and CF West Santa Cruz showcased the ability and character of the two CrossFit affiliates.  It was certainly a battle, a very close one, and the camaraderie, support, heart, and sheer athletic fitness exhibited made it a great one.

There were three WODs: a clean and jerk/sprint AMRAP, a max effort deadlift, and a classic gymnastic/weightlifting snatch/pullup couplet.  The two affiliates mustered a total of ten teams, with two RX'd teams per box.  The scoring was dual meet style where points are accumulated by all the RX'd teams from each affiliate, not just the single top team. The competition was very tight.  CF West won the AMRAP by one round, 68 to 67.  CFLG took the deadlift honors by 100 pounds.  And the final WOD, the couplet, was won by CF West by just 1 minute, and they took home the King of the Hill banner.

Both boxes showed tremendous heart and support.  The deadlift WOD in particular was exciting to watch.  Surrounded by cheering crowds, nearly everyone, literally just about everyone, PR'd; many by large jumps. Great work CF Los Gatos.

As everyone--competitors, spectators, children, and Mowgli--had a great time, we hope to have more affiliate dual meets with some of the other CF boxes around town.  A big thank you to the judges and to CF West for hosting.  And to all the competitors--congratulations and thank you for representing us so well.  Take care of yourselves (ice, stretch, roll, relax) and I will see you all in the Cage.

Workout:

Rest Day (you deserve it, but if there is no rest for the wicked, classes will be held as normal)

King of the Hill

The long awaited King of the Hill team throwdown with CrossFit West Santa Cruz is this Sunday.  We plan on making this an annual challenge and we want to be the inaugural champions.  The first WOD will kick off around 9am and we hope to have the whole thing wrapped up by 3PM or a little earlier.  The CF West box will open at 8 for warm ups and check in.  Please click here for directions.

There will be 3 WODs in all.  The first will be a clean and jerk/short sprint AMRAP.  The second will be a max lift, and the third will be a classic CrossFit weightlifting/gymnastics couplet, done team style of course.

There are still team openings; talk to Billy or Shaun if you want to compete. It is going to be fun, so come down to Santa Cruz and cheer CrossFit Los Gatos on.

See you there.

Workout:

15 Back Squats (bodyweight)

30 Box Jumps

400m Run

10 Back Squats

20 Box Jumps

200m Run

5 Back Squats

10 Box Jumps

100m Run

The Community

I used to train full contact karate.  A lot and really hard.  I trained in a lot of great dojo, and I also trained in some not so great dojo. What made these not so great dojo not so great?  Community.  That one word sums ups so much.

The dojo (a dojo is a martial arts box, so to speak) that weren’t great all certainly had hard training and they all had some good fighters with good technique, but they just lacked community.  They were the kind of places where no one cared if it was your birthday or knew what your job was.  I distinctly remember one place where I would never mention that I had an injury because the other trainees would purposely attack that spot. You would wrap a bad knee before you got to the dojo so no one would see you put on the brace.  If you had to say “hey, I have neck injury so don’t grab my neck”, then you just stayed home.

Sure, training at dojo, and with people like that sharpened my technique and honed my fighting spirit.  There was an excitement, a kind of edge, about going to those dojo.  But, it was not fun, and I never wanted to belong at these places, especially since martial arts, like CrossFit (and most things worth pursuing in life) should be about more than just physical ability.

It’s not that way at CrossFit Los Gatos, or most of the other CF boxes I have been to.  This is a place where everyone knows your name.  A place where achievements are applauded.  A place where birthdays, births, and other special occasions are celebrated. A place where one’s first pullup is as lauded as Greg or Billy's 50 something. It is a place where you are part of a community.

In my mind nothing exemplifies this community more than watching the last person to complete the last run on a WOD.  At CFLG that person never does that final run alone.  Never.  I have seen half a dozen people who have already finished the WOD run with that last warrior  Encouraging them, helping them finish hard, letting them know that they are doing great, letting them know that their community is with them.  I love seeing that.  It makes me prouder and happier than any of the smoking times CFLG has produced.

Community.  It really is what separates the merely good from the great.

Please post thoughts to Comments.

Workout:

Split Jerk 7×1

Then:

10, 8, 6, 4, 2

Deadlift 275/185#

Chest Slap Pushup

100m Sprint after each couplet.

Post WOD and score to Comments.

The Paleo Challenge

The real food pyramid!

CrossFit Los Gatos is excited to announce the start of the Paleo Challenge. The winner, voted on by the Challenge participants, is the person who shows the greatest gains in both body composition and performance.  Prizes include an outfit from lululemon athletica as well as 2 months free training at CFLG and 1/2 off Elements classes for a friend.

Paleo Challenge participants must eat Paleo and CrossFit regularly for 3 months.  In addition, they will be required to keep a food and training journal and write a testimonial at the end of the Challenge.  The Paleo Challenge will dramatically improve participants health, fitness and energy levels, and quality of life. CFLG's sister affiliate CrossFit West Santa Cruz recently held a Paleo Challenge of their own and the results were astounding.  You can read the participants' testimonials at the CF West blog.  It is pretty inspiring. 

The Paleo diet is the way humans are meant to eat.  It is the way we were evolved to eat.  Basically, if Paleolithic man didn't eat it, neither should you. This rules out grains, glutens, cereals, legumes, and processed sugars.  If it needs more than open flame to process, don't eat it.  Coupled with regular CrossFit, the Paleo diet will rapidly lean you out, increase energy levels, and your performance will skyrocket.  More info about the diet can be found here, here, and here.

Anyone who is interested should come to CFLG at 10 or 11AM this Saturday, the 10th, in order to sign up and complete the baseline workouts.  These workouts will be repeated in early January to assess progress. We will have a Paleo potluck afterwards.  Everyone is invited.  Chicken and burgers will be provided, so please bring a salad or something to share--Paleo of course.

Come give it a try, you will never regret it.  I hope to see everyone on Saturday.

Interested, or if you have any questions, please post to Comments.

Workout:

Deadlift 7x3

Then:

21, 15, 9

Thruster 105/65#

Kettlebell Swing 53/35#

Run 400m, 200m, 100m after each couplet.

You can choose to go heavier than the rx'd weight on one of the movements for a rep scheme of 12, 19, 6.

The Thruster

CFLG coach Greg L teaches the Monday Wednesday 7:30pm class. Greg brings years of CF experience and high quality coaching to CFLG. Check out his late evening class!

Barbell training is, of course, nothing new, and resistance training is very old, but outside of CrossFit, the barbell is rarely used for non strength purposes (or bodybuilding).  Something like the WOD Grace was pretty unheard of before CrossFit.  In CrossFit, the barbell wears many hats, not just a strength building one.

The thruster, a CrossFit staple, possibly the most dreaded movement in its broad repertoire, is pretty emblematic for the way in which CrossFit uses the barbell. The thruster seems to be fairly unique to CrossFit.  Although the movement is probably not a CrossFit invention, I am sure that it must have been seen at times in collegiate strength and conditioning weight rooms before the widespread proliferation of CrossFit, it was never assigned the importance that CrossFit has given it.

The thruster is rarely used with truly heavy weight, even “Heavy” Fran is only 135#, but the demands it places on the body are huge.  Somehow it is so much more than just the sum of its parts, a front squat and a push press.  The range-of-motion with a thruster is just about as big as any barbell movement, and the forward inclination of the torso as the barbell is driven out of the hole and overhead adds greatly to its difficulty. In fact, the aforementioned 135 pounds for repetitions will seriously tax people for whom 135 pounds is usually a light warm up weight. Done fast for time will put most people on the floor.

And that is unique to Crossfit.

Thoughts?  Please post to Comments.

Workout:

Thruster 7×3

Then:

Tabata triplet (20 seconds on/10 seconds off for 8 rounds)

Kettlebell Swing 73/53#

Box Jump 24″

Plate Situp 35/25#

Post WOD completed and score to Comments.