CROSSFIT MILPITAS

Sub 3

Although no benchmark workout is more important than any other, Fran is special. It's the workout that's done at every single CrossFit level one seminar. It's a classic that is talked about throughout the community regularly.

An elite time for Fran is sub 3 minutes. It takes some seriously mental fortitude and fitness capacity to hit this mark. Of the millions of CrossFitters in the world, there's a very small percentage who have hit the sub 3 mark. I'm still 14 seconds away from getting it after more than 6 years of doing CrossFit.

On Dec 31 before the 11am class one of coaches, Steven, got 2:54! Congrats Steven! Great job.

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**December PR Board**

Congrats to all who hit a PR in December! Let's get this thing loaded to edges in January. If you witness a PR, make sure you get your workout-mate to put it on the board. Some are pretty humble and see it as bragging. But it's really not! It's a board I see many people go to for motivation, including myself. The "FILL IT UP IN JAN" campaign has begun!

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**New Year's Day Tradition**

We hope to see you for our New Year's day workout. It may look intimidating, but you can do it! Murph is a great way to start the year. See you in the 12pm class.

WOD 01/01/13

"Murph"

For time:

Run 1 mile
100 Pull ups
200 Push ups
300 Squats
Run 1 mile

The pull ups, push ups, and squats can be broken up in any manner. Originally written wearing a 20# weight vest.  

What The....

I walked in the gym Saturday morning to this!?! I immediately pulled out my camera and asked what the heck was going on. If you're as curious as I was... this, everyone, it The Butt Test. If your butt stops the bar from rolling, you pass. Oh the things we come up. I passed by the way.

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**Nutrition Challenge Reminder**

Get involved and informed! I talk to a ton of people about food. I hear, "I eat healthy" a ton. That's a good thing but there's one problem. The understanding of "healthy" changes by large degree from person to person. When hear "I eat healthy", I ask for example of a healty breakfast. I usually get something like steel cut oatmeal with banana slices, 9 grain whole wheat toast, and a glass of organic orange juice. This is not what I would classify as a healthy breakfast.

Knowledge about the food you put in body is a powerful thing. Sign up for the challenge to expand your knowledge. If you're happy with your healthy diet and it's not what we teach, sign up anyway. The way I see it is you've probably had the same eating habits for years. Change for a month and see what happens. If you're not happy you can go right back to what you're used to.

The way you fine tune your nutrition for perfomance and health is by trying things out. There are some general guidelines but everyone responds in different ways to food. You have test things out and tweak stuff over years to find your "optimal diet". Nutrition is the most impactful change you can make for performance and health.

Email OG Jenn at [email protected] to sign up.  DO IT!!!

Here are the details again:

 

1. What is Paleo? It’s short for Paleolithic Diet. It’s based on what our caveman ancestors would eat, not the processed junk food crap that we all love so much.
2. How long is the challenge? It starts January 7^th (Monday) and continues until February 3^rd.
3. Is there a point system? Of course there is! But it’s different this time.
4. What about a food log? Yup! That didn’t change.
5. How much? $30

We will have two informational meetings. Thursday January 3^rd at 6:30 pm, or Saturday January 5^th at 11:00 am (after Community class). There we will take your measurements, go through the challenge, and give you any more details that you need.

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**Schedule Reminder**

There is only 1 class per day on the 31st and 1st.

Dec 31 - 11am

Jan 1 - 12pm

WOD 12/31/12

"Fran"

21-15-9 reps for time of:

Thrusters(m95#/65#)
Pull ups 

Sprint For Health

The girls doing shuttle sprints. Sprinting short distances on intervals packs a potent punch. It has been proven to improve many areas of your fitness.

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**New Classes for the New Year**

We are adding a few classes and changing a few classes on our schedule as of Jan 1, 2013.

Additions:

Friday

12pm

3:30pm

5:30pm
6:30pm

Thursday

9am

Changes:

Sunday
9am - Coached WOD
10am Kids Class 

Friday
No longer a 6pm(see above)

WOD 12/29/12

Teams of 3, 1 person working at a time, for time of:

Row 1500m
100 toes 2 bar
100 Squat Cleans(m135#/w95#)
100 Ring Dips
Row 1500m

Competitors

Lori and her cousin Katie spending some time training together for the upcoming games season.

WOD 12/28/12

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

Deadlifts(m225#/w165#)
V ups 

Handstand Practice

Have you been upside down recently?

WOD 12/27/12

20 mins to find 1RM clean

then...

max muscle ups in 7 mins

The Challenge Is On!

Did you know that getting fit is one of the top ten New Year’s resolutions? Is it one of yours? You’ve already made the start by staying consistent with exercise. Let us help you get there faster with a newly reformed Paleo challenge!

It’s all new. Different. Better. Or worse- depending on how you look at it.

So here are some FAQs-

 

1. What is Paleo? It’s short for Paleolithic Diet. It’s based on what our caveman ancestors would eat, not the processed junk food crap that we all love so much.
2. How long is the challenge? It starts January 7^th (Monday) and continues until February 3^rd.
3. Is there a point system? Of course there is! But it’s different this time.
4. What about a food log? Yup! That didn’t change.
5. How much? $30

 

We will have two informational meetings. Thursday January 3^rd at 6:30 pm, or Saturday January 5^th at 11:00 am (after Community class). There we will take your measurements, go through the challenge, and give you any more details that you need.

 

Any more questions? Interested? Contact OG Jenn at [email protected] to RSVP to the meetings. 

WOD 12/26/12

"Angie"

For Time:

100 Pull ups
100 Push ups
100 Sit ups
100 Squats 

Big CONGRATS to the latest 3 to join the muscle up club. Jonathon got his after being a member for less than a month. Both Rob and Vish got theirs on Saturday.

The biggest mistake I see when training to get the muscle up is not spending enough time practicing transition drills. Once you have a chest to bar pull up and a ring dip, you have the strength needed for a muscle up. At that point you need to practice transistion drills daily. Just trying to get muscle ups by "going for it" is not effective. All you're doing is building bad movement patterns. Instead practice the dills daily for a week, then attempt one or two. If you don't get it, repeat the process. If you need help with transition drills ask a coach.

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**Schedule Reminder**

Dec 24 - 10am
Dec 25 - Closed
Dec 26 - 11am

Dec 31 - 11am 

Jan 1 - 12pm

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**Nutrition Challenge 2013 Coming Soon**

I will be posting the details this week of our nutrition challenge to get the new year started right! Keep an eye out..

WOD 12/24/12

"12 Days of Christmas"

It's done like the song but starting at 12 Squats. Come to class at 10a to share this workout experience with your CrossFit-mates!

Ultimate CrossFit Game

Today before the BBQ "Who's Your Daddy" was played. It's old CrossFit game that I think originated out of CF Oakland. First you lay out a bunch of barbells with different weights. Next you pick a time. 2-4 minutes is good. Then someone is the Daddy and the other person is the... fill in the blank.

At 3-2-1 go, the Daddy calls out movements and the other person has to go all out until another movement is called. An all out effort is a must or the crowd watching can call a restart. You don't want a restart. Nothing movement wise is off limits. If the person moving can't do the movement they have to just keep trying. Give it a go with a few of your CrossFit friends. Switch off being Daddy. It's fun, and a good workout.

WOD 12/22/12

 

9am - Partner Workout, 1 person works at a time:

"Nancy" & "Amanda"

10am - Community Class

Reminder: If you are bringing someone to the 10am community class, please have them fill out the online waiver in advance.

EOTW BBQ Tomorrow

Workout at 11a, End of the World BBQ at noonish. We tossed this together last minute so don't expect an extravegant party. Just food and friends. I'll be bringing some meat, and utensils. If you have a BBQ dish, might as well bring it being it's the last day to use it.

Good news is it's 12/21/12 - 4:30pm in Australia. The Mayan calander says their world ends at 10:11pm. So we will know in advance.

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**A Programming Rant**

Disclaimer: This rant started as a simple post to educate the difference between biasing and targeting and 30 minutes later somehow went down a path of...well you'll see...

Biasing and targeting your programming are different. Biasing your programming is when you put extra emphasis on one fitness area at any cost. For example, a strength bias program could give you great strength gains while other areas (endurance, gymnastics, or anything else) suffer and your overall capabilities decline. Or an endurance bias program could give you improvements in your longer workouts and endurance capacity, but many other areas drop resulting in less overall capacity.

Targeting your programming is when you focus on an area of your fitness that is weak in comparison to all other areas. If your weakness is strength and you add extra strength work in, you can improve it while maintaining or even improving all other areas of your fitness. The simple fact that it's a true weakness makes it an area possible of targeting. If your goal is that of CrossFit's, which is general physical prepardness you want to target, not bias. If your goal is focusing on one area and sacrifice others, that would be biasing. Many athletes bias and make a ton of money doing so. Powerlifter's, Oly lifter's, Tri-athletes, Marathon runners, and the list goes on. I'm not saying that one way is smarter or better than the other, just to realize your goals and know what you're after.

Targeting is only for the experienced. To target a GPP program is to first have years (at least two, and many people 3-4) under your belt of solid varied programming. The reason is when you start CrossFit, you have a ton of room in all areas for improvement and you need to train in many areas to get better in many areas. As the time passes, you start to slow down in terms of overall improvements but you have a ton of data and know your physical capabilities well enough to make a short list of "weaknesses".

If you want to continue to improve your GPP, this is when it's time to target your programming and you do so one weakness at a time until it's par, or close to, with your overall fitness. I've seen many people over the years become very well rounded crossfitters and even elite games athletes following this model. The problem is, it's a process that takes time and most want it NOW. You have to respect the process. What I believe is a big mistake is having a goal of GPP, but thinking endurance or strength or flexibilty, or power, or fill in the blank is more important than the other. Over the years I've also seen many people have the goal of being a competitive crossfitter start to focus on one area way too soon. It's common with strength. Thinking that adding barbell strength in the one rep max realm is a shorter path to a better helen or fran or angie time is wrong. 

I've been involved in the CrossFit community for quite a while now and have been fortunate enough to work with many athletes and talk with many athletes. I've also seen a few different spins on GPP programming to be hailed as the secret. For a year or so after Jason won the games, I was deemed the secret holder. Usually these programs, including what I did then and what I do now are simply sound CrossFit programming with a few twists (most of the time it's added volume).

Jason would have won the games with a ton of different coach's programming. There also could have been a few coaches that could have screwed it up. For every elite athlete who has won the games it's been a recipe of sound programming that is varied using the CrossFit model, sound coaching of their movement, athlete detication, hard work, and GENETICS. Bottom line is when a coach progams someone from office desk jockey to CrossFit Games champion in a year, then there might be a super special programming secret. Haven't seen it yet and doubt I will.

WOD 12/21/12

10 rounds for time of:

10 deadlifts(135/95)
10 push ups

Keeping Rowers Clean

David is a CrossFitter I met at a level one seminar some time back. He recently started a service where completely cleans every part of a rower and also tightens any loose screws. He spends about an hour and a half on each rower. I had him come in and work on all of ours. He did great and the rowers function is close to brand new. If you're a gym owner or just have a rower David is available to hire. Email me if you want his info.

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**End of the World BBQ**

Join us Friday for an 11am workout and EOTW BBQ. Let's go out eating some good food!

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**Just WOW**

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WOD 12/20/12

Make up Day

425#

Donovan hitting 425# for 3 reps on his final set!

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**A Detailed Write-up from Kenya Competition**

We had 4 CFM athletes compete individually at the Norcal Crossfit for Kenya Fundraiser on Saturday.  It was Shantil's first time competing as an individual and she had a great showing placing 6th in the women's division, hitting a PR in the snatch at 90#.  During the brutal 3rd wod she kept moving through the front squat, push-up, box jump triplet and scored more reps than any of the male CFM athletes.  Vito had a strong showing narrowly missing a 220# snatch (too many cookies during the week) which would have been a 10# PR.  Steven aka "The Ant" stayed consistent through all the events making it to the final wod with the top 6 competitors.  Dal showed his yoga skills by doing some awesome downward dog poses in the butt up push-up wod.  He hit a 170# snatch which was a 15# PR (he credits it to the It's It's and pumpkin pie that he ate all week that was left over from the holiday party).  He went in to the finals ranked 6th.  The last WOD was an elimination style with one competitor being eliminated after each 3 minute round.  Dal made it to the 4th round but the 225# deadlifts in the end held him back.  He finished 5th overall for the weekend.

Sunday was the team competition where Stacey, Zander, Jess, and a last minute substitution of our good friend Riley started the day off well by blazing through the OHS and speeding through the partner carry.  The next event was a row, max thruster combo where in the final 10 seconds Zander mustered up the energy for a 2nd attempt to increase his score to a 245# thruster by unleashing "The Hulk".   The third wod required precision and communication as Stacey repped through 75# snatches like a PVC pipe and everyone pounded through the plate burpees earning them a 2nd place ranking going into the final.  The final WOD equally weighted on all teammates as they had to burn through 15 cleans, 20 push press, 25 box jumps, and 40 double unders each.  With the final time remaining in the 8 min workout the first 4 teams to finish had to rep out as many muscle-ups as possible.  Zander and Riley contributed more than their fair share of the 31 completed MUs while Jess added a few.  To the shock of Team Ermahgerd, their consistency and teamwork paid off in a 1st place finish.

WOD 12/19/12

5 rounds for time of:

Run 150m
12 hang squat snatches(m75#/w55#)
6 HSPU

Kenya Winners

Big ups to the team, Jess, Zander, Stacey, and Riley for taking first place in the team competition! I'd also like congratulate Dalbir for finishing 5th and all the other CFM competitiors. I'm very proud of all our members who competed and sent money to build schools in Kenya. Great job!

WOD 12/18/12

Deadlift 3-3-10-3-3

Reebok

I spent the weekend in Canton, MA at Reebok CrossFit One. It has to be the least expensive CF gym in the world. It's $20/month for employees and their spouses. Pretty cool the corporation takes care of their employees with a full CF facility. 

I was talking to one of the trainers there and he said there about 1,200 employees on site and 500 of them go to CrossFit classes. He said all the employees have talked about what an impact it has made on the company. One story was about two employees that worked about 4 cubes away for over 5 years and barely communicated. After taking CrossFit they started talking about their shared pain experience and are not only friends but work much better together on projects. It's an ongoing theme at Reebok HQ... Better communication, more production, happier, and healthier employees. CrossFit has made an unparalleled positive impact on the company. The had a fitness center with trainers for years, but it was missing the community CrossFit brings. 

It made me think of all the companies around us. They could see the same community and teamwork benefits seen at Reebok HQ and thousands of affiliates around the world. It's not the first time I've thought about this, but being in the Reebok gym and seeing it made the model even more possible in my mind. I guess reebok was lucky their leader started doing CrossFit and understood it. Everytime I've tried to talk to a nearby corporate boss, I either get shuffled off to someone who doesn't have the position to decide or they think I'm selling another gym in which case "we already have a fitness center, there's no difference. Working out is working out."

I'll keep trying and my hope is to one day help a local company get more fit!

WOD 12/17/12

For time:

20 Wall ball shots(m20#/w14#)
20 Sit-ups
20 Box jumps(m24"/w20")
20 Push-ups
20 Cleans(m135#/w95#)
20 Double unders
20 Thrusters, dumbbells(m35#/w20#)
20 Pull-ups
20 Overhead squats(m95#/w65#)
20 Kettlebell swings(53#/w35#)
20 Push presses(m95#/w65#)
20 Dips
20 Sumo deadlift high pull(m95#/w65#) 
20 Burpees
20 Back squats(m135#/w95#)
20 GHD sit-ups
20 Walking lunge steps
20 Deadlifts(m135#/w95#)
20 Knees to elbows
20 Front squats(m135#/w95#)

Waiter Walks

The coaches come up with some interesting workouts on Thursday's. It's our Make up Day, but if you've made it all week it's still okay to come in Thursday and rest Friday or Saturday. This week we had some waiter walking going on. Mama Luk shows a pretty solid overhead position. 

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**Workout Video Surprise Ending**

Watch the first 35 seconds, guess what could happen, and see how close you come.

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**Saturday/Sunday Schedule Reminder**

There are no classes this weekend. There is an open gym with a few level one trainers available for help on both days from 10a - 11:30a.

WOD 12/15/12

5 rounds for time of:

7 Pull ups
14 KB Swings(m53#/w35#)
21 Double unders

Push Press

Coach B explains the push press while his daughter demos.

WOD 12/14/12

Push Press 3-3-10-3-3

3 - 1 min rounds of:

max burpees, rest 1 min between rounds

Med Ball Push Up

Everyone loved the med ball push up. 

A couple reminders... The sign up sheet to schedule a time to meet with me is up in the gym next to the whiteboard. This weekend there will be open gym 10a - 11:30a both Sat and Sun. There will be no team or community class.

Putting a new meaning in the term workout partner. The gang is getting ready for the Kenya competition.

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WOD 12/13/12

Make Up Day

Schedule & Member Meetings

With the end of the year coming soon, we will be closing the gym and limiting the class schedule on a few dates. Below are the schedule changes. If the day is not listed, it means the schedule is regular for that day.

Dec 24 - 10am
Dec 25 - Closed
Dec 26 - 11am

Dec 31 - 11am 

Jan 1 - 12pm

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**Meeting With Me**

Heading into the new year the coaches have been meeting on a weekly basis. We have ben planning some good changes for the gym. I would like to personally meet with every member of our gym to talk about what we have planned. I also want to hear your personal fitness goals and any ideas you have for the gym to help you reach those goals.

I will be putting up a sign up sheet next to the white board. It will have 15 minute blocks for dates ranging from Dec 17 - Dec 31. I would like to sit down with everyone. Please find a spot that fits your schedule and fill in your name and number.

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**Upcoming Weekend Schedule Change**

All of coaches are either competing at the NorCal competition for Kenya or out of town. But we have a couple level 1 trainers and some of our experienced members holding an open gym on both days from 10a - 11:30a. They will be able to help you facilitate your workout by helping you scale properly and keep an eye on your movement There will be a posted workout on Saturday. Sunday will be a make up/practice day.

Dec 15 - Open Gym - 10a-11:30a

Dec 16 - Open Gym - 10a-11:30a