Monthly Archives: November 2009

Hope your holiday weekend was fun. This guy has some crazy stuff in mind to help work the pumpkin pie off.

Hello CrossFit Redmond!

Just a quick note to let you know what I am thankful for as we take a day to celebrate the great many blessings that we have in our lives. We will get together for a holiday workout tomorrow and it will be the highlight of my day. That so many of you will come and get a good sweat with me before we head to whatever event we have planned for the day is a blessing in ways you don’t even realize.

You showing up at the gym with a great attitude, ready to attack whatever WOD we have planned makes what I do everyday exciting.
The great support, thoughtful gifts, donations and enthusiasm for the new facility overwhelmed me.
People referring CrossFit to their friends is humbling and I am so grateful for this.

I am thankful for the increased health the Paleo diet has brought people who have adopted it.

A supportive wife who lets me chase a crazy dream makes this doable.

I’m thankful that the skin on your hands grows back again and again.

There is a great deal of expectant hope that the next year will be even better!

Now go eat some extra turkey and remember, the dark meat has way too much fat in it so leave it for me. If you don’t know why that is funny we need to talk.

-Dan

Thanksgiving WOD
With a partner complete for time:
50 Deadlifts, 125kg
100 Box Jumps, 24” box
50 Clean & Jerks, 60kg
50 Pull-ups
50 KBS, 32kg

Run 400m (together)

Each team will be given 1 barbell, 1 box and 1 KB.
All reps of one exercise must be completed before moving to the next.
Reps can be split anyway you like you just have to work together.

We have a couple benchmark WODs coming this week. Benchmarks are one of the ways we measure our fitness and prove that we are increasing our capacity to do work. If you can do the WOD at the written standard, go for it! Being able to complete a benchmark WOD in itself is impressive and give you an easy comparison in the future and to the rest of the CrossFit world.

Soon I will be putting up our Top-5 Board listing the best performances in numerous benchmark WODs and feats of strength. What does it take to get a score on the board?

1. Weights used must be as written.
2. Range of Motion must be complete and exacting meaning:
a. Squats are below parallel
b. Overhead lifts are LOCKED OUT and over the back of your head
c. Chin is on top of the bar
d. Chest touches the ground
e. You get the drill
3. Reps should be counted for efficacy
4. No bad reps will be counted

Benchmarks are an important part of the CF Community and the must be done to perfection so that they have meaning.

If you ever want to perform a benchmark WOD please let me know. Many are shorter in duration and can be done before or after regular WOD. This will give you a cheering section and allow for optimal setup in the gym to help you in your efforts.

Some of the benchmarks I think many people can perform as written:
· Max lifts in back squat, deadlift, shoulder press, clean & jerk, Overhead Squat x 5 and 15
· Row 5k, 1000m and 500m
· Run a mile and 400m
· Cindy, Helen, Fran, Grace, Jackie, Nancy, Annie, Michael, Murph, Randy, Mr. Joshua
· Any number of in-house benchmarks

5 Rounds for time
-15 Jerks (push or split)
-15 Pull-ups

Take extra care when using the pull-ups bands, as Carisa will tell you, they can give you quite a snap in the backside. The good news is that a number of you are about to lose the bands because I don’t think you need them anymore.

Pushing…

…and pulling

We ran outside a few weekends ago. It was a beautiful rainy day…

21-15-9
-Hang Power Cleans – 60kg
-Burpees

You have all noticed that with the change in location I also bought new weights. We are now a “kilo gym” meaning that the bumper plates (and eventually all the change) are measured in kilograms. This change has seemingly brought some of you to your knees, a situation that frankly amuses me. I know you have a life outside CrossFit (something I find interesting if not odd) so let me give you a few helpful tips on using weights that have “kg” instead of “lbs”.

The first and best thing you can do is load you bar at the beginning of the workout. Notice that the smaller bars are 10kg and the bigger bars are 20kg. Loading and unloading you bar will gives you an opportunity to get more acquainted with the weight of each individual plate and the different bars. If we have a workout where you will share a bar, work together to load the bar, don’t hog all the load duties to yourself.

Another good way to acclimate to the kilos is to total the weight you put on the barbell. This is the quickest way to know how much it is.

Because the conversion is difficult I have made some fancy cheatsheets for you to use. DON’T use these to avoid learning the kilogram amounts you use in your workouts. I will post workouts (with the exception of mainsite benchmarks) and will only answer questions in kilograms. I am such a jerk. (And remember, I prefer push jerks to split jerks)

With a little practice you too will drive past 132nd ave and think to yourself, “Hey. That’s 60 kilos!”

I told you. I don’t understand this life outside of CrossFit thing.

Complete as many rounds as possible in three minutes of:
5 front squats, 40kg
5 push press, 40kg
5 pull-ups

Rest three minutes and repeat for a total of four cycles

The Filthy 50’s getting under way…