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Posted by michael stanwyck :
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Bethany and Julia on their way to their Whole Life Challenge victory!
I feel like I've already said so much to wrap the last 8 weeks of our collective lives up, however there is one final thing as you all look over the results of Saturday's Whole Life Challenge finals.
Each and every one of you did something extraordinary for the last 2 months. This challenge was a lot of things to a lot of people, and each person in this challenge faced up to demons they had no idea they had and stared them down. There were times when you felt like you won the battle and times when you felt like you lost. But no matter what took place over those 8 weeks, on Saturday you walked in and you won the war. You all created an amazing event just with your energy, your excitement, your heart, and your presence. There was laughter and there were tears, but in the midst of it all there was triumph and accomplishment. You walked out of the fire on Saturday and into the rest of your life, more prepared for the challenges that stand in front of you than you have ever been before.
You may have referred countless times to "the challenge" in your conversations over the last 8 weeks and been excited, overwhelmed, confronted, angry, or inspired. Just know that now the word "challenge" is interchangeable with anything you take on next. Just remember what you learned here with your community. Whatever you did during the Whole Life Challenge can be repeated with anything else in your life; "the challenge" now refers to whatever you choose next.
Thank you all and congratulations to everyone who played!
For some stats on the winners and a link to the video we showed on finals day, click here.
We will have all of your prelims and finals scorecards available for pick-up by the end of the week. You can get your final measurements by picking up your scorecards in the office on Friday.
Today's Workout
“CrossFit Old Town’s Fittest Class Challenge”
Which class is the fittest of the day?
Score as many points as you can for your class in 30 minutes.
Everyone on the team starts the workout with an 800m Run (2 points).
Each athlete will earn 1 POINT for each of the following movements:
- 25 push ups or
- 25 box jumps (20”) or
- 25 KB highpull (32kg/20kg) or
- 25 Overhead lunge (45/25) or
- 25 KB swings (24/16)
- 15 pull ups or
- 15 dips or
- 15 Wallball (20/14) or
- 15 Burpees or
- 5 handstand pushups or
- 5 muscle-ups or
- 400m run.
Final Score is total of all points accumulated divided by the number of people in class.
Posted by Andy Petranek :
Monday, May 23, 2011
The CrossFit Games Open is over... so what's next? REGIONALS! CFLA qualified a slot for the team competition, and are sending 8 athletes... Logan, Zach, Sam, Andy, Shirley, Annita, Cathy, and Lauren! Congratulations, Team CFLA!
By the way, our qualifying was truly a team effort. Each week, the top three men's and women's scores counted toward the team total. 14 of our athletes contributed to this total... and over 50 of you participated in the Open workouts, providing the always important energetic platform upon which our team could perform it's best. It did... and we qualified!
So mark your calendars for the weekend of June 16, 17, 18. The venue is set at Cal Sate Long Beach, and like last year, will be quite the athletic spectacle. Many of the best CrossFitters in the world come from Southern California, so it will be pretty amazing. On top of that, our TEAM could really use your support! We're having a special jersey made for the team that will be available for pre-order to all CFLA members... and we'd love to see a "Sea of CFLAers" at the event. Look for details to follow in the upcoming three weeks!
"Stick 'em up" -or- "Hang it up"
Today's Workout
Inversion Practice
- 20 minutes
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Complete as many rounds/reps as possible in 20 minutes of:
10 Front Squats - 155/105
20 Pull up
Posted by Andy Petranek :
Friday, May 20, 2011
As the end of the Whole Life Challenge nears, many of us will go back to some of the things that we've gone without for the past 8 weeks... for me, those things include ice cream, bacon, pizza, Naz' cream puffs, cake, chips, pasta, bread. One of the things not on my list is soda... I'm OFF of that, hopefully, for good, thanks in part to my sparkling water maker (www.sodastreamusa.com). I don't anticipate slipping back to eating grains and dairy in the quantities I used to, but without the structure of the challenge to hold me accountable, I will definitely not be as rigorous to these eating rules.
I'm curious... what are some of the things you look forward to eating again? What are you NOT going to eat again in spite of the end of the challenge?
Rowing class meets every Tuesday night at 7:00pm with Emily. Check it out!
Today's Workout
Quickness Drills
- 20 minutes
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Strict Press 5-5-5+
Wendler C4/W1
65%, 75%, 85%
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3 rounds
Pull-Ups, dead hang max reps
- take as much time between rounds as necessary
Posted by michael stanwyck :
Thursday, May 19, 2011
This Saturday the sun will rise like any other day. But it will not be just any other day. This Saturday, May 21st is the Finals Day for The Whole Life Challenge! This is the moment that you've all been waiting for. You are about to see the results of 8 solid weeks of training, learning, and sacrifice. How many times did you want to quit for good? Well, you made it! How do you feel?
Prepare yourself for Saturday. You should be tapering by now, getting in some light active recovery workouts and mobility. Make sure you are fresh and ready to rock-and-roll on Saturday morning with over 100 of your fellow challenge participants. This is the week to make sure you take the best care of yourself possible. Remember the water and sleep challenges? This would be a good week to re-implement those if you didn't keep them up. If you have any questions about finals day, make sure to ask them today or tomorrow so you are perfectly clear by Saturday when you show up. Friday is the last day that you must follow the challenge rules and you MUST have your Friday score reported by 10:45am on Saturday, so make sure to check in before you come to the gym.
Here is Saturday's schedule:
9:45-10:00 - Participant arrive
10:00-10:45 - Participants are measured
10:45-11:45 - Finals workout
11:45-12:15 - Food, Raffle, and Entertainment
12:15-1:00 - Winners announced and Whole Life Challenge Celebration.
IMPORTANT: THERE WILL BE NO REGULARLY SCHEDULED CLASSES ON SATURDAY, MAY 21st. IF YOU ARE NOT PARTICIPATING IN THE CHALLENGE FINALS YOU ARE INVITED AND ENCOURAGED TO COME AND CHEER ON YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS, HOWEVER THERE WILL BE NO WORKOUT FOR NON-CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS..
Remember the first time you saw this? What went through your head?
Today's Workout
The 5k Interval Workout
4 x 1,250m run
3 min rest intervals between efforts
Posted by Becca Borawski :
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Recently the CFLA coaching staff received this email from long-time student, Ross G. Many of you have probably seen Ross before or after class, in the tall room, practicing his handstands. You probably don't know his full story, though. Ross has been on an amazing journey...and he can tell it far better than me, so please read his letter (and so you know, "Leon" is what he named the weight around his waist!):
Coaches,
One year ago today I started the "RossG Challenge 2010!" on Facebook with the naive proposal I'd get myself in shape in 3 months. I learned through regular attendance that I could get in shape much slower and much more effective over a year, and beyond. My habits needed changing. A quick fix was not going to work.
EVERYTHING about my health and fitness has changed in the last year. I've learned it's a "marathon and not a sprint" and that the scale doesn't matter. It's about your daily habits with food and training and letting the process work. That took the pressure off and made it effective. My met-con is not great but has gone WAY up. My strength is more than I could have thought possible (a 365 lb deadlift? a 95lb Turkish get up? I can walk on my hands??? (Thanks to regular gymnastics classes at DogTown)). Wow, when you follow the "recipe," it works!
Regarding "Leon": I know I've cut 21 lbs on the scale, but I gained around 10 lbs muscle, so that's around 30 lbs fat alone, just in the last year.
The Sweet Cheeks No Grains & No Sugar challenges, the "Santa Monica Smoker" challenge (I won that one!), Fight Gone Bad, Upside Down challenge, Michael's brilliant Whole Life Challenge (I've finally learned to put all the elements of CF together and to have fun), eating Paleo -- these were the catalysts within CFLA that told me "I can do this." Of course, I now hang out after class and voluntarily do my Handstand training and other gymnastics! LOL. I'm an obnoxious show-off at work with what I can now do with my body.
Andy, Becca and Michael know why I'm so happy with all this. I started CrossFit at Petranek Fitness in FALL OF 2006! That's the same time as Michael and before the rest of you. I fought it. I struggled. It was too hard. I had too much drama in my life and too many food overeating issues. I'd show up for awhile, then I'd vanish. Becca would call every Thursday, email every Thursday, "When are we gonna see you?" and I'd hand her a random day, knowing I wouldn't be there (couldn't bear the pain, and I was fight training and kickboxing in that period of time!) or I would intend to show up, but would not. I kept paying my membership (yikes) but I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING TO THIS THAT I WANTED (after all, there's a "ROSS" in "cROSSfit". LOL) I just wasn't ready.
At the end of a 9 month absence, where Becca wrote or called me weekly (no Globo gym would do that), she strung all my excuses together in one email and sent them to me. I was so PISSED at her that I returned. I vanished again, however, after 3 months. When I came back once more, Andy said to me, like teaching a kindergartner, "Just show up 3 times a week for 6 months. I don't care if you do the whole WOD, I don't care about weights or intensity, I just want you to show up." I lasted 2 months. I still couldn't do it! So, I kept struggling with coming and going, getting used to it and getting sore, for a total of 3.5 years. My health actually got worse. I gained 40 lbs in the first 3.5 years of CrossFit.
Then in Oct 2009, at 248 lbs, I hit "rock bottom" and got my motivation when I couldn't stand up for 3 minutes to brush my teeth without back pain, like a pregnant chick. I started back at CFLA slowly and inconsistently, did the two Sweet Cheeks challenges, then at 233 lbs, I put it all out to the world with the "RossG Challenge 2010!" on Facebook and became a consistent attendee. I did whatever was in the CrossFit and CFLA recipe, like the challenges and seminars. That caused a lot of change in my body, but the daily food habits came much later, in the last two months. Slowly but surely.
So, thanks for having such a complete and great CF program. Now my goal is to keep up the habit change.
Much love
Ross G
Today's Workout
Ring Practice - 20 minutes
(muscle ups, handstands, iron cross, levers, skin the cats, etc.)
---------------------------
3 rounds for max reps:
1 min Power Clean (155/105)
1 min Pull Ups
Posted by Andy Petranek :
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Are we destined to be fat? Biologically wired to be hopelessly addicted to carbohydrates and sugar? If this "News" from almost 200 years ago is correct, this is obviously something we know, and one could argue, hopelessly unable to do anything about. Post your thoughts in comments.
"Now, an antifat diet is based on the commonest and most active cause of obesity, since, as it has already been clearly shown, it is only because of grains and starches that fatty congestion can occur, as much in a man as in the animals; this effect . . . plays a large part in the commerce of fattened beasts for our markets, and it can be deduced, as an exact consequence, that a more or less rigid abstinence from everything that is starchy or floury will lead to a lessening of weight."
--Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, from "Preventative or Curative Treatment of Obesity" (published in 1825)
Enjoying being done!
Today's Workout
Speed Sit Ups - :15, :30, :45, :60, :60, :45, :30, :15
- alternate intervals with partner
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3 rounds for max reps:
1 min Push Press (135/85)
1 min Push Ups
