Thursday, July 9

CrossFit Rocks!





Incredible recent video of Mr. Mike hitting 16, yes 16 OHS's at BW...with great depth! Way to set the bar bro!!!! Look closely at the last few at the bottom to really see that midline stabilization controlling the balance of the bar overhead....AWESOME!


Well, it's been a little while since I have posted any blogs, so I will start making up for it today. I have been acquiring a good amount of photos and have been thinking of many subjects that I would like to share with y'all at the gym. Following this post, over the next couple weeks, here are some of the subjects I will be covering (not to mention the good stuff Mike will be posting):

-Great recipe for Almond Cookies that are flour/oat/refined sugar free (finally got it right:)
-CrossFit Game WODs that will actually be posted tomorrow on the HQ Games site
-The importance of proper warm-up and some suggestions to add to your current one
-More means less : Why all women should be trying to gain as much muscle as possible
-Some thoughts on ROM: How the stopwatch can hinder your progress
-Some thoughts on the prescribed weight: Are you really improving by just taking seconds off?
-Hitting the "motivational wall" and getting through it: Setting goals rather than "just exercising"

So, before the photos, I would like to give you notice to something that will periodically be added to our programming soon. Sprints. (I am now wondering how many of you just cursed?)

I was chatting with my long time friend, XF CDA owner, and great trainer, Derek, the other day about various CrossFit training subjects and we eventually started talking about the importance of short, hard, and multiple sprints and how they can greatly benefit your performance and fitness. He has started throwing them into his programming every so often and has noticed great results. So, just like everything else in CrossFit, if it works, we'll do it:) That is why CrossFit is the most superior fitness program in the world.

Now I know that we occasionally conduct "longer distance" sprints here at the gym mixed in with the WOD, but what I am talking about are WODs that might be nothing but sprints, allowing you to not hold back for anything. Trust me, an all out effort in a sprint style WOD can leave you begging to do 5 Fran's in a row or 400 Burpees for time. As a former cross country runner (I know, hard to imagine a 220 pound dude running distance, I was smaller back then:) and having helped coached a high school XC team, I can attest to how great the benefit is at running multiple hard sprints with little rest between. Will we be doing these all the time? Of course not, but when they do come up, there is one area that requires immediate attention....the proper warm-up for working into your max effort sprint speed.

There are few movements out there that can increase the chance for injury more than hitting sprints without a proper warm-up into it. Remember this.....don't think that your normal crossfit warm-up alone is adequate to prepare you for an all out effort sprint!!!!! I can't stress this enough. The two most common injuries that can result from this are pulled muscles or shin splints (which usually comes from several exposures to "pounding the pavement" too hard, too soon.) And it's because of this that we'll introduce hard sprinting in short doses in the beginning. Don't worry, we'll instruct you and make sure you get the proper warm-ups when these days come up, but make sure to follow them! Hmmmmm...my week for programming is next week....I wonder what one of the days will be?....hmmmmmm?:)

A notice for Sunday's Titan Class: I will tell you now that it is going to be covering the Bench Press. There are many things that I would like to go over before even starting the WOD on Sunday that can greatly increase your skill at the Bench Press. I had the privilege to attend Ripptoe's Barbell Certification several months ago over by Seattle. Of all the lifts covered, I thought that the Bench Press would be the one that I would learn the least on (I have always done it and have had a strong bench)....by the time the cert had ended, with the exception of the Back Squat, I had learned more about that lift than any of the others. None of the specifics were too big, just lots of little things to help improve that lift. If any of you felt weak while doing Lynne this past Tues, try to stop by!


"Strong people are harder to kill than weak people; and more useful in general." -Ripptoe


Our own Nick Grant (on loan to CrossFit Montana for the summer), Kelly, and Alex. Root for these guys in the Affiliate Cup this Friday! It was great meeting all of you and I'll stop by CrossFit Montana next time I head that way. Thanks for stopping by! Good Luck!

These are our tools. All you need for Elite Fitness...actually, you can get it with even less than this!!!!!! Don't let the Globo Gyms fool you with all that expensive equipment!!!

Eddie (fighter on the left) will soon be spending a few days a week with us training for a fight this September! We love the diversity of the people in this gym! He'll be training right along side doctors, lawyers, students, hockey players, grandmas, beauticians, military, etc, etc,.

Great full extension at the top Janelle!

Teams of two: Misery loves company:)

Mike has HOPS! On the way up to nose-height tire jumps!

Controlled Chaos and Mayhem in action:)

Hitting the streets....CrossFit norm.

And again:)

Pregnant style Plank Holds....watch out ladies, she'll be back to "normal" soon and will be setting the bar again in no time....time to step it up! That's right, Angela will be back to 100% soon, tremble with fear ladies...and men:)

Matt's secret to success...PurePro (nasty tasting) Protein Drink. It does require you to go shirtless afterwards to take full affect!

Having some skill-based warm-up fun with mother-daughter duo, Cheryl and Mari, they have great form; expect some great things to come from them in the future!

Is that Superwoman? Nope, just your normal CrossFitter doing something abnormal:)

Working smarter, not harder...as a team; actually they are working smarter AND harder...go figure:)

Doing it right and getting some summer sun!

Kristen!, you forgot your jump rope! Oh wait, that's just some high tuck jumps:)


My son Ben; nothing specific to say here, I just thought this was a badass picture:) He looks tough, but we all know he is a little wussy lover dog:) Make sure to pet him for good luck!

-Brandon


4 comments:

CrossFit Spokane said...

Great post Brandon. Love it.
Mike

Spokane Razorbacks said...

Fabian,
I'm stoked for the sprints. I keep wanting to do sprints at the end of my workout but when I get to the gym I always forget. For a guy like me sprints are a great way of building explosive power. Bring it on.

Pat W said...

Good post B! I like all the pics. Sprints??? Alright!!!

Good luck NG, I know you read this thing. The game WODs look AWESOME! 8 of them? Lead off w/ a 7.1 km multi-terrain run? Get some...

Unknown said...

Nice OHS's pipsqueak.