CrossFit Northwest Tucson

Buddy WOD

Today we are opening up the gym for your friends and family, and we look forward to meeting all who come in for the Buddy WOD.  We will possibly have an overflowing gym and hope to provide a great sample of what it is like to participate in a WOD.  All that we ask is that you watch your buddy.  You will know them better than us, and if it looks like they are pushing too hard, their form or range of motion looks as if they may hurt themselves, please slow them down or grab a coach to help foster better movement.  This WOD is supposed to be a fun experience for all and we want everyone to leave exhausted and at the same time happy they got to experience that which you experience everyday at CrossFit Northwest Tucson.

Buddy WOD

Two person teams, split up work as needed

400m Buddy carry

50 Pull-ups, or Jumping pull-ups

75 Push-ups

400m Farmers walk

100 Squats

125 Sit up Medicine ball toss

200m Walking lunge

100 Burpees

75 Box jumps

Both members run 800m

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Function/Fitness

Function - an activity or purpose natural to or intended for a person or thing.

Fitness - an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment

Just a couple definitions to think about the next time you hear the claim Functional Fitness.  Especially if they are doing a "core exercise" (crunches) on the exercise ball.

WOD

Five rounds for time of:

Row 500 meters

135 pound thruster, 7 reps

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Own it, Love it, Bring it!

Ever since Chrystal posted the above words two weeks ago, I have been thinking about how simple yet complex that statement is.  Seriously, three actions can really sum up a whole movement.  CrossFit is that movement.  A bare bones, no beating around the bush assault on fitness, nutrition, and those who a long time ago thought they had it all figured out.  It is really a simple progression.  I don't know if this is what she had in mind, but this is my take on the statement.  First, own up to the fact that there is something missing, an inherent calling rooted deep down in our genetic workings.  The milling around crowded Globo-gym without direction, like cattle, doesn't satiate the innate need to be fit.  Own the fact that something is wrong with the way we are told to eat.  Something is making us sick and fat, could it be the recommended, out of balance, USDA food pyramid?  Or could it be the highly processed, quick fix foods that are conveniently cheaper to purchase, and store in your cupboard, or find in a drive through?  I won't even go into detail about how our meat is raised, killed and butchered, or even touch on what they are fed and we eventually eat.  Once we own up to the fact that there is a smarter way to become fit, and safer/smarter ways to eat, we find ourselves walking into a CrossFit gym or using our garage for a gym.  We read the Journal and learn about the Zone, Paleo diets, we gain a better understanding of health, functional movements, and intensity.  Ultimately we fall in love with CrossFit.  In fact, the desire to keep that love burning pushes us to achieve PRs and PRs push our body, our genes, our hormones to change.  We start to look fit, feel fit and we want to tell the world about our achievements.  We live it, we love it.  Lastly, we Bring it.  Like CrossFit, sharing this movement free of charge for the world, we bring our friends or at least tell them about it.  We bring out the repressed intensity needed to PR from deep within.  Our diet cleans up, our body wouldn't perform as well on an inferior diet.  Soon, we are human beings living like our ancestors did a million years ago.  We are pushing the limits of our survival, stressing the boundaries of our potential. all inside a box with a clan of fellow CrossFitters who, like yourself, have the same desires.  We compete, we urge our friend for one more rep, MOVE we yell, Rest later!  After the battle, we convene and talk about the days accomplishment and yearn for what tomorrow brings.  And all we have to say about the next WOD is BRING IT! 

Sarah Brings it as she presses her previous 3 rep max 5 times!

WOD

3 rounds for time

7 Skin the Cats with a fully inverted pause before feet hit ground, both directions.

15 L Pull-ups

20 Parallette Pass through with push-up and dip

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To PR or not to PR, that is the question.

As many of you may have noticed, we had a few people do "Nancy" yesterday and they didn’t pr.  Jennifer for example, used the men’s prescribed weight at 95 pounds yet fell off her old Nancy time by 4 minutes (Congrats).  Michael, rowed a pr 2000m prior to Nancy, and was unable to meet his old Nancy time.  Obviously, obtaining a pr is proof of improvement, however once you have gained a level of mastery in the WOD’s movements, changing it will offer a different set of challenges.  Likewise, pushing yourself prior to the WOD will stress your ability to perform at an optimal performance level.  Both instances will improve your capacity to do work.  If you find yourself looking at a WOD and it is full of your strengths, talk to your coach to see if there is a way to challenge those strengths by tweaking the weights or increasing your intensity during the warm-up.  Of course if you believe you have a chance to get on the leader board or set a pr, by all means don’t change the WOD, hitting that level of intensity will definitely help increase your work capacity.

Welcome back Kurt, it doesn't look like you lost a thing during your time off!

WOD

Shoulder Press 5-5-5-5-5

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Recovery/Nancy Challenge Preliminaries

As CrossFit athletes we've become intimately familiar with the term and the feeling of performing at intensity.  Conversely, as athletes searching for an elite level of fitness, we must be equally familiar with the other end of the spectrum: Recovery!

Whether out of guilt for taking a day off or not wanting to miss the next WOD, many of us fail to effectively use rest and recovery as part of our training plan.  Rest and recovery are essential to reaching our fitness goals, as our bodies need time to recover, repair tissues, get stronger and prepare itself for the next WOD.  Scheduling rest and recovery also provides for a better balance between home, work, and fitness goals.

Here are a few methods to make the most of your rest and recovery:

At the box:

Post WOD cool-down and stretching. Adding 5-10 min of low intensity movements will help remove lactic acid from your muscles and assist in reducing muscle stiffness. Use this time to work on your goats (weaknesses)!

Try foam-rolling, self myofascial release/triggerpoint, or massage

Avoid over training. Plan for days off and enjoy them with family and friends.  Use the time to try new sports and activities.  Use rest days to prepare your nutrition for the week to come.

At home:

Refuel by eating right and replace fluids - Try to include a high-quality protein and complex carbohydrate within 20 mins of the end of your WOD to best replenish the energy stores depleted during exercise and fuel your muscles for productive recovery.

Put on some compression clothing to assist in reducing the build-up of lactic acid and minimize delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

Alternate hot and cold baths or showers.  While taking your post exercise shower, alternate 2 mins of hot water with 30 secs of cold.  Repeat 4 times with a min of moderate temperatures between each hot-cold interval.

Get optimal sleep - sometimes the most productive thing to do is to do nothing.  During sleep your body produces the necessary growth hormones that are largely responsible for tissue growth and repair.

Nancy Challenge starts today!  Lets see how much we can inprove our Nancy time in 6 weeks.

WOD

"Nancy"

5 rounds for time:

Run 400m

15 Overhead squats, 95/65 pounds

Post time to comments.

Winter Open

Congratulations to TJ who took second place at the Winter Open this weekend.  However, everyone did awesome this weekend.  Jennifer, Greg, Wayne, Kare, and Chez all performed their best and did great.  I am very proud of all of you.  I also want to thank all of you who came out to root our guys and girls on.  We had a huge crowd of CF NWT supporters and I know your support really helped our competitors get through two very difficult WODs.  

WOD

7 rounds for time of:

95/65 pound Sumo-deadlift high-pull, 10 reps,
10 Ring dips.

Post time to comments.

It has begun!

We look forward to meeting and reacquainting with Tucson Crossfitters today.  CrossFit Northwest Tucson wants to send a shout out to CrossFit Works for putting on Tucson's first CrossFit competition sponsored by one of its affiliates.  We hope this is the first of many to come.  This is a great opportunity not only to compete, but to meet people with the same desires and goals as you.  As we all know from the experience in our gym, CrossFit people, no matter what shape or size, Firebreather or newbie, are fantastic people.  If you have the time to come out to Works to root on our members who are competing, you will also have the opportunity see the sport of CrossFit.  I know everyone there whether competitor, judge, volunteer, or spectator will make this event a complete success.  Again, Thank You CrossFit Works, you have forged a path, and amassed a special group of people.  Let's hope word gets out that Fitness is more than rows and rows of machines, it is the gathering of like minded people laying in a puddle of sweat after giving all that they have to give once that last rep is counted.

Good Luck to all today!

WOD

"Diane"

21-15-9 reps of

225/135 pound Deadlift

Handstand Push-ups

Compare to 090907

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Challenges

Challenge number one:  Jennifer, Greg, Wayne, Kare, TJ, and Chez are challenging themselves tomorrow in the Winter Open at CrossFit Works.  This will be a difficult and new experience for all of out athletes especially the women, who have to Deadlift more than they are used to for 32 reps.  We are asking you all if you are available to come out and support our crew as they put it all on the line for two WODs.  The event starts at 0800 and the second WOD sometime around 1100.  We will see you down there.  Directions at the above link.

Challenge number two:  This challenge starts on Monday, I am challenging you to push yourself a little bit more this week.  Try to push yourself harder than usual, don't just go through the motions of the WOD, hit it hard, challenge yourself with the weight, run faster than usual.  On top of pushing yourself more this next week, clean up your diet.  Challenge yourself to eat better foods, with more nutrition and stay away from cheap empty calories.  I will ask you how you did next Friday, think about how this little change this week has affected you.  Did you notice any improvements, conquer something you thought you never could?  Will you be able to continue this effort in the next week or longer?

Challenge number three:  Nancy challenge begins Tuesday.  We will have all classes on Tuesday take on Nancy and then the next six weeks we will prepare to beat her again on a Saturday as long as we have enough people sign up for the event.  If not we will take on Nancy again the next Tuesday.

WOD

3 Rounds for time

30 Wall ball shots, 20/14 pounds

50 Sit-ups

Row 500m

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Compare to 091223

Pantry Raid!

So I threw out a challenge on Facebook the other day.  The one about letting me come in and raid your kitchen.  Surprisingly, no one took me up on it.  Now, that is totally fine, but my question is why?  Is your house a mess?  Is your fridge, freezer, and pantry filled up perfectly with Paleo foods, or containers of Zone blocked meals ready to eat every 4-6 hours?  FYI…this is a joke.  Raiding kitchen’s, truthfully is not high on my life list of things to do.  However, if this is what it will take for some of you to get face to face with what you have available to eat in your home, then I seriously, am willing to help you out with a kitchen raid.  The purpose of bringing this idea to light is to remind you to think about which foods could potentially inhibit your progress to the “Fit You.”  If you are able to refrain from the bag of Oreo cookies or Cheetos, or whatever your poison is that can be grabbed at a moment of weakness, then you are way stronger than me.  Temptations will get you when you are weak, tired, stressed, emotional, or angry.  Get rid of temptations and only allow for it to come in to your world when YOU have invited it in.  Take “health care” into the care of your own hands.  Diet and exercise are it people!  Not only for 2010, but also when we are in our golden years. 

 

For those of you who miss cereal, here are a couple websites to make “no-atmeal”

 

And by the way, if you haven’t read this article yet, How Strong Women Will Save Civilization…PLEASE read it.  It is really inspiring for women.  If you have read go ahead and read it again.

Posted by Jennifer

WOD

With a continuously running clock do one 135/95 pound Clean and Jerk the first minute, two 135/95 pound Clean and Jerks the second minute, three 135/95 pound Clean and Jerks the third minute… continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed

Post minutes completed to comments.

Intensity part two

I want to expand a bit on Wayne's post from yesterday.  Intensity as Crossfit defines it and Wayne nicely stated last night, Intensity is the independent variable commonly associated with the maximum rate of return on favorable adaptation.  I want to Highlight the Favorable Adaptation in that definition.  A few of you have approached Jennifer and/or I about how you feel your body isn't changing as much as you wanted it to, in the amount of time you have been crossfitting.  So I want to pose this question to all of you, even if you think Crossfit is changing you the way you want.  Are you working out with intensity?  I know all of you will say yes, and we see you go hard everyday.  To clarify that question, when you work out, do you go as hard as you can possibly go?  One way to determine this is to reflect back on the WOD and look at places in the WOD where you possibly could have gone faster, or rested less.  When we push through that uncomfortable spot we not only get stronger, we force adaptation.  This adaptation will hasten fat loss and muscle growth.  Also, if you note in the quote above, intensity gets you maximum rate of return on adaptation.  Basically, independent of all other variables, intensity alone will cause your body to change.  Obviously, with proper nutrition and Intensity, We believe you will achieve your goals a little quicker that you have.  So next time you finish the WOD, ask yourself if you could have pushed a little harder, or lifted a little more.  If the answer is yes, go harder or heavier next time.  There will come a time during your workouts where you will know that you went as fast as you could. 

WOD

Front Squat 3-3-3-3-3 reps

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